USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time biographical sketches; portraits of some of the early settlers, prominent men, etc. > Part 53
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BIOGRAPHICAL:
second campaign of 1849 as Quartermaster of the army, and the youngest on record. After the battle at Colding he was among the 2,000 men whom the main body of the army left behind as a garrison at Fort Frede- ricia. In ten weeks it was terrifically bom- barded day and night, but defended with cour- age and tenacity against the 20,000 enemies which surrounded it. A re-enforcement of 16,000 men arrived by sea, and July 6, 1849, the battle of Fredericia was fought, leaving 6,000 dead and wounded on the field, but the German Army was entirely defeated, the entire siege artillery, two hundred pieces of field artillery, and two thousand prisoners were taken. The soldiers came to Copenhagen as the victorious army, and held the entry under a rain of flowers and the most deafening enthusiasm of the nation. According to his father's express wish, he resigned a few months later from active service in the army, and studied the two following years at the univer- sity at Copenhagen. In the summer of 1852, he entered the Royal Jonstrup College, where he remained three years and graduated in 1855. He commenced again his study at the university, devoted especial care to medicine, and was appointed one of the Professors at St. Anna's Citizens' School. At the same time, he pushed on his studies at the Royal Military High School, which he graduated from in 1860, and attained the rank as First Lieutenant of Artillery. During the same year, he entered the Royal Common Hospital as Volunteer Sur- geon, and retained that position for three years till 1863, when he concluded to emigrate to the United States, and received his professional testimonials from the hospital and the univer- sity. The King granted him a permit of absence for two years from military duty, and bid him good-by. In June, 1863, he landed at New York, and was cordially received by the medical profession. July 3, he finished an eight days' rigid examination before the New
York Academy of Medicine, and the New York County Medical Society of Homoeopathy awarded him their diploma and right hand of fellowship. He started then for the West. with intention to locate at Kansas City, but it was during the war, and arriving at St. Joseph, he embarked on a steamer for Council Bluffs, Iowa. Before leaving New York, the Doctor had some idea of going to practice in Charles- ton and enter the Southern Army as a Surgeon or officer, but his medical friends got him to abstain from such an intention, and on his journey through Missouri Quantrell's band make a raid on the Hannibal & St. Joe Rail- road, and killed a large number of Union sol- diers not armed and on a visit home. This horror of civil war disgusted him much with the Confederate warfare, and he consoled him- self later with the study of the Council Bluff's Bugle. On his arrival in this city July 21, 1863, Mr. Burke was the editor of the Nonpa- reil, and he became soon the Doctor's friend, patient and patron, and made him a good. black Republican, and a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln. Very soon a large practice greeted him, and he built a residence on Upper Broadway, but, in 1865, his health was shaken by too much work, and he concluded to leave, and was too exhausted to undertake a sca voyage for home. He sent a petition to the King of Denmark for resignation, which was granted him with royal grace as First Lieu- tenant of the artillery, and with rank as Cap- tain of Infantry and the royal war medal for services rendered the country was later con- ferred on him. On his arrival in New York, he was about dying from nervous prostration, but being relieved from practice he studied and recuperated slowly, and in March, 1866. he graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College. Wishing for a more congenial climate, he went to sea to Aspinwall and across the Isthmus to Panama, and sailed for San Francisco, Cal.
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During his voyage from Council Bluffs, he had the misfortune to suffer shipwreck twice. First, on the Missouri River, fifteen miles below St. Joseph, where the steamer Deer Lodge struck a snag and sunk; the passengers were saved, bnt all his books brought along from Europe, a sixteen years' careful collection, were lost, and a value of more than $5,000 consigned, not insured to the depths. The passengers happened to come ashore on the Missouri side, and spent a night among bushwackers, and all that saved them was probably that the bandits were ashamed to rob and kill shipwrecked people; next day they got teams hired for St. Joseph; the second shipwreck happened on board the Panama mail steamer Constitution, when in a terrific gale she ran ashore in the Gulfof Tehuantepec, off the coast of Gautemala, and, in a sinking condition, she arrived at San Francisco several weeks too late. In the Golden City, health and strength was regained, and aside from the dreary sea fogs, he had no reason to dislike San Francisco. During 1869, the over- land railway was finished, and he went on a visit to Council Bluff's partly of curiosity of see- ing the new scenery, and to visit his brother at that place. When he entered Council Bluffs in August, epidemies of diphtheria and dysentery prevailed, and very soon he was busy in a large practice, in which he remained to 1874, when an accident was the cause of his second exodus to California. At a curve near the Union Pacific depot, street cars were frequently thrown from the track. One morning in Jan- nary, after a hard night's frost, the car rushed down hill with a lightning speed, and the horses approached the curve in a gallop; the passen- gers were screaming, and he jumped the car, knocking his knee against the rail and inflict- ing a very severe wound. The cold weather and want of rest made the wound very painful, and he left on the Union Pacific Railroad for Salt Lake City. There he was laid up for weeks, and recovered slowly, and left June 24
for San Francisco. In Utah as well as in Cali- fornia, he did some practice, but left again for Iowa during 1875. During the winter of 1876 and 1877, he practiced at San Francisco, and returned in the spring to Council Bluffs, where he has been in practice since. In 1866, at a meeting held at St. Louis, Mo., the National Medical Convention of the United States, the American Institute of Homeopathy, showed him the honor of electing him a member of that body. A few weeks after his arrival at Council Blutf's in 1869, he bought the Kirkwood Bam- ford farm, Willow Creek, one mile east of Crescent City. There he has built a new addi- tion to the house. and planted twelve acres of a now bearing orchard. The Iowa State Medical Society of Homeopathy elected him, 1870, a member and also censor of the society. Dur- ing 1873, he bought 120 acres new land ad- joining his farm, and had it fenced and culti- vated and built a new home in it, and created a new farm by the name of Timberdale. On a central plateau between the two farms, it is the Doctor's intention very soon to raise his long projected Sanitarium, called Petershof, which will be open for patients from May to October every year. Several years in succession, he has been a State Delegate to the National Medi- cal Convention, and at that Convention, held at New York in 1881, he was elected a delegate from the United States to the International Medical Convention of Homeopathy held at London that year. Only a severe illness pre- vented him from sailing for England, and he missed a pleasant and interesting journey to Europe. During his young days, he studied at the æsthetic department at the University of Copenhagen, the ancient and modern classic literature, and wrote, at the age of eighteen, his first dramatic work called " Magnus the Good. King of Norway." His next work is "A Night in the North," an epic poem of 100 pages. Next, he issued a volume of poems. In 1860. he published a translation from German to
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Danish of Dr. Arthur Lutree, "The Chronic Diseases." During his years in America, he published, in 1869, a pamphlet, " The Duchies and the Policy of Germany." This political brochure was written in Danish and published at Copenhagen. It was followed in 1870 with another, which caused the greatest sensation at home, and a newspaper discussion for months, and was called, " The Diplomacy of Germany and Scandinavia and Russia." Even the Gov- ernment organ, the Berlin Times, had its col- ums open in defense of its diplomacy, and the editor of the People's Times called attention to the pamphlet in the loudest terms as a national necessity. During his visit to California in 1876, he wrote a new dramatical work of 226 pages of print, called " Kay Lyrre," printed at San Francisco. Besides general newspaper ar- ticles, he has published numerous essays on medical and surgical topics, which the readers of the Chicago Medieal Investigator are familiar with. During the winter of 1881-82, he trans- lated and wrote many new additions, translated from Danish to English the " Great Drama of Henry Hertz, called Svend During's House." with intention to have it played during the coming winter on the American stage. At present, he is working on three different books. A new original drama, " Olaf Tryggason, King of Norway," is about written. A medical do- mestic hand-book is he going on with, and a work on the philosophy of the Ethics of Mes- siah is also ready for print. Prof. Dr. Carsten Hauch was his teacher in Esthetics at the Uni- versity of Copenhagen. In eight years, he was a pupil of that distinguished dramatist. When he had finished his manuscript for Kay Lyrre, at San Francisco, he sent it for Prof. Hauch's perusal, and several hints of value were given. Dr. Hauch praised especially the scene where the Queen thinks she is betrayed, in these words : " That scene is written with a master's pen." Prof. Dr. Heiberg, known as an emi- nent critic of dramatic literature, read his
drama " Magnus the Good," and gave especial scenical and technical points, and said, " Keep up good courage to sing with as to fight by." In June, 1879, he graduated from the Ameri- can Health College at Cincinnati, Ohio, and is now only anxious to get means sufficient to disposition, by which his great hospital and sanitarium can be built and completed in the neighborhood of Crescent City. It will be a national institution, treating only nervons and chronic diseases, and open only during the summer months, and receiving its patients mostly from the Atlantic States of the Union. J. M. PHILLIPS, boot and shoe dealer. Council Bluff's, was born in Essex County, Mass., March 15, 1820, and resided there nearly thirty-nine years. In the fall of 1858, he re- moved so Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and took charge of a boot and shoe business, which had been started in the fall of 1856. Mr. Phillips served six months' apprenticeship to the tanner's trade, and also learned the shoe- maker's trade in Essex County, Mass., where he carried on the manufacture of boots and shoes, previous to his coming to this county. He first started business in Council Bluffs, in a log storehouse, located back of where Rob- ison & Bro.'s jewelry store now stands, but late in the fall of 1856, he moved to his pres- ent business stand. Mr. Phillips had then the only exclusive boot and shoe store in the city, but all the merchants carried a small stock in that line. There was a two-story frame build- ing on the lot when he first moved in, in the fall of 1867. He was burned out in 1868, and then built the brick building that he now oecu- pies. He is a leading boot and shoe dealer of Council Bluffs, and does a wholesale and retail business. He has established a fine trade through Iowa and Nebraska, and his business is steadily increasing. His retail business during the months of July and August, 1882, amounted to three times as much as the sales for those two months the previous year. In the early
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years of his business in Council Bluffs, he always purchased his goods six months ahead, owing to the fact that boats could not get up this far at all months of the year, and he was therefore obliged to lay in his stock six months ahead. Mr. Phillips was first elected Alder- man for 1863 and 1864, and served in that office for six successive terms, and then posi- tively declined to serve any longer. He is one of the prime movers in the organization of the Savings Bank of Council Bluffs ; was Vice President of that bank for a number of years ; was one of the first stockholders and direc- tors, and is still a director of the bank. He was elected a member of the Board of Super- visors in 1880, and still holds that office. He moved his family to Council Bluffs from St. Joseph, Mo. He has had seven children, six of whom are living-Milton David (deceased), Nathan C., Mary O., J. M., Emma C., Russ M. and Grenville Dodge. Mr. Phillips is one of the oldest business men in Western Iowa ; his business has increased from $4,000 to $20,- 000 a year.
GEORGE T. PHELPS, Ogden House, Coun- cil Bluffs, Iowa. The gentlemanly proprietor of the large and popular hotel, the Ogden House, took charge of that hotel in 1876. His genial disposition and happy faculty of under- standing the needs of the inner man, most thoroughly render him that hard-to-be-found mortal-an efficient and universally-liked land- lord. Mr. Phelps was born in Chatham, N. Y., in 1842. His father was a railroad contractor and moved to Massachusetts when our subject was one year old, to fulfill a contract there. In 1860, his business took him to Illinois, from whence he returned to Massachusetts on the breaking-out of the war. Here George T. en- listed as a private in the Twenty-sixth Massa- chusetts Volunteers, and was discharged June 21, 1865. He entered the service as a private, and came out as Quartermaster Sergeant. After this, he was engaged for one year in the whole-
sale feed and grain business. He followed in the footsteps of his father, and came to Conn- cil Bluffs in 1866, as a contractor on the Chi- eago, Burlington & St. Joe Railroad ; and, on its completion assumed the general manage- ment of this division of the road, in which capacity he continued until the spring of 1869, when he went East as a contractor on different roads in New York, Massachusetts and Con- neetieut. He returned to Oakland, Pottawat- tamie Co., Iowa, in 1873, staying there three years, when he assumed the proprietorship of the Ogden House, which had but shortly before been rebuilt after the fire of 1875. The Ogden House averages sixty arrivals per day, and has, besides, many regular boarders. Mr. Phelps was married in the spring of 1869, to Miss Anna Baldwin, daughter of John T. Baldwin, of this city.
DR. W. L. PATTON, physician, Council Bluffs, is a native of Virginia. He moved to Missouri in 1853, and resided in that State nine years, during eight of which he practiced in Kirksville, Adair County, of that State. He came to Council Bluffs in 1865, and followed his profession as a physician and oculist. He went into the drug business in 1867. After two years, he sold out and opened up in the same business a second time, in connection with Mr. M. Beardsley. They carried nearly $7,000 in stock, and continued in this business for two years, when they sold out, after which our subject attended strictly to his practice. During the last two years, he has treated 352 cases of eye and ear difficulties. He owns a fine livery stable on North Main street. IIe opened an undertaking establishment Septem- ber 1, 1882. He has 106 feet front on North Main street, valned at 820,000. The Doctor was married in Virginia, in March, 1852, to Miss Elizabeth C. Rogers, daughter of John Rogers, who died in Harrison County, this State, in November, 1880, aged eighty-two. Mr. and Mrs. Patton have seven children, four
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sons and three daughters. His oldest boy- A. B. Patton, is at present a telegraph operator in Pueblo, Colo. Douglas S. is in Omaha, in the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad Com- pany. The next boy-William, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Council Bluff's in 1880, and is now in Kokomo, Summit Co., Col. His three daughters-Jennie, Effie and Lulu, are all at home. His youngest boy- D. D., is also at home, and is a fine musician.
R. V. PHILLIPS, proprietor handle factory, County Bluffs, was born at Crown Point, Essex Co., N. Y. He came to this State in 1849, and settled in Jackson County. For five years, he was with Mr. P. Mitchell, of Maquoketa, who is called the pioneer merchant of the West. He (subject) came to Council Bluffs in 1859, and established a handle factory. He manu- factures all kinds of wooden handles, and splits all his timber, instead of sawing it, there- by making a more durable and otherwise superior article. He supplies many different railroads with his goods, having furnished the I'nion Pacific Railroad with handles for eleven years. He was married in Clinton County, this State, in 1854, to Miss Anna L. Smith. They have four boys, all of whom assist their father in the factory. Frank, aged twenty-six; Don, aged twenty-two; Edward, aged twenty; and Charles, who is eighteen years old. They also have two daughters, one living in Creston (the wife of T. S. Douglas), and the other, Belle, living at home.
J. W. PALMER, dentist, Council Bluffs, was born in Vinton, Benton Co., Iowa. September 2, 1861; lived there four years, then moved to lowa City. After residing in Iowa City for six years, he moved to Harrison County, Iowa where he lived until the fall of 1879, when he came to Council Bluffs. Mr. Palmer began the study of dentistry under Drs. Swinton & West on Pearl street, Council Bluffs, in the spring of 1882, and purposes completing the study of his profession at the Iowa City Dental College.
Ile is a son of Capt. J. E. Palmer, of Company A. Twenty-eighth Iowa Volunteers, who was born in Ohio in 1821, and, who was killed September 19, 1864, at the battle of Winchester, his remains being brought back to Vinton, Iowa, for interment. Subject's mother was born in Essex County, N. Y., in 1822, was married at Vinton, lowa, in 1856, and resided there nntil 1862.
C. H. PINNEY, physician and surgeon, Coun- cil Bluff's, was born in Elyria, Ohio, August 30, 1842, son of H. H. and M. Abbey Pinney, who now reside at East Saginaw, Mich. H. H. Pinny is a farmer by occupation, was born at Farmington. Conn., in 1806; his wife was born in Syracuse, N. Y .. in 1810. Subject received his preliminary education at Clarkson, Ohio; took an academic course and finished his pro- fessional studies at the University at Ann Arbor, Mich. At Council Bluffs, September 30, 1870, he married Ella O., daughter of W. HI. M. Pusey of that city. By this union, they have been blessed with four children-William H., Hulburt H, Lucilla K. and Frank. The Doetor was elected Coroner of Douglas County, Neb., for a term of four years. During the late war, he entered Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cav- alry as Surgeon. and served in that capacity for three years. He graduated from the Uni- versity of Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1862. and, after the war, spent eight months in the Medical De- partment of the University of Pennsylvania. from which he also graduated. From Phila- delphia, Penn., he came to Omaha, Neb., where he practiced medicine for eight years, and in 1874. moved to Council Bluffs, where he has since held the position of one of the most prom- inent physicians and surgeons of that city. He was examining physician for applicants for cadetships. The Doctor is a member of the Masonie fraternity in Omaha, Neb., and in polities is Republican.
J. M. PALMER, real estate, Council Bluffs. He came to Council Bluffs in 1854, and en-
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gaged in real estate business He built the block in which the Nonpareil is now located in 1856. In 1860, he was elected Assessor, and in 1861 was elected Mayor of Council Bluffs; re-elected to the latter office in 1862. and in 1870 was again elected Mayor. During this time he was engaged in real estate and tax pay- ing business. In 1871, he built the Transfer House at the Union Pacifie Transfer; kept that house five years, and then sold out to Markel. Since that time he has been engaged in the real estate business, and in building tenement houses; his office is at 503 First avenue. Mr. Palmer was born March 10, 1827, in Chester County, Penn., and was reared and educated there. At the age of twenty-one years, he en- gaged in the butchering business in Chester County, Penn., near Coatesville, and until he came to Conneil Bluff's was engaged in buying and selling cattle for the Philadelphia market. When he arrived in Council Bluffs, there were but four houses in Omaha. His ancestors eame to America a great many generations ago.
N. M. PUSEY, Council Bluffs, became a resi- dent of Council Bluff's May 17, 1877; he was born in Washington County, Penn., June 21, 1841; removed to Baltimore, Md., in the fall of 1849, where he was educated, and continued to reside till his removal to Council Bluffs. Ile read law under the tuition of Messrs. Cochran & Stockbridge, and practiced at the Baltimore bar from 1864 till his removal West. He was married in May, 1865, to Miss Gertrude A. Mor- gan, the daughter of Rev. N. J. B. Morgan, a celebrated Methodist divine. He has been a continuous practitioner of law since his admis- sion to the bar in 1864.
HENRY PASCHIEL, real estate, Council Bluffs, was born in Poland October 14, 1825, where he lived until 1845, and after traveling all over Europe came to America in 1853, for the purpose of seeing the country. He traveled over a great part of the United States, and finally settled in Sioux City, Iowa, where he
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built one of the first houses in that place. In 1856, he married Miss Anna Kasberg, and from this union seven children have been born- Mary, the eldest, was born in Ponea, Neb .: The- resa, who married Mr. H. Swing, of St. Helena, Neb., was born in St. Joseph, Mo .; and the re- mainder of the family were all born in Council Bluffs. The third daughter, Anna, is at pres- ent in the convent at Dubuque, while the other two girls are at home. The two boys (twins), aged sixteen years, are both employed in Coun- cil Blutf's, one with Empkie & McDoel, the other with Erb & Duquette. Mr. Pasehel first came to Council Bluffs in 1854,, but did not settle permanently till 1860, when he moved here from Sioux City. He had begun the bus- iness of life as a brick-layer, and when he came here he engaged as a brick-laying contractor. In 1868, he abandoned brick-laying, and engaged in the real estate business, which he had for- merly followed in Sioux City, Iowa, and has met with gratifying success. He is not an agent for anybody, but handles his own property; he owns fourteen buildings iu Council Bluffs, and handles from $5,000 to $10.000 worth of prop- erty.
JUDGE JOSEPH R. REED, Council Bluffs, is a native of Ashland County, Ohio, born March 12, 1835. Ilis father. William Reed. was a native of Washington County, Penn., a farmer by occupation, and was of Scotch ances- try. He married Miss Rosauah Lyle, daugh- ter of Robert Lyle, also a farmer of Washing- ton County, Penn., and came West and located in Ohio in 1829. They raised a family of six children, all of whom are still living-James O., a resident planter and railroad contractor of Louisiana since 1864; Sarah J., a maiden still living in Ashland County; Elizabeth, wife of Rev. D. A. Newell, a Presbyterian clergyman of Mercer County, Penn .; William, a merchant of Loudonville, in Ashland County; Rosanah. wife of Jesse Hessen, a lawyer of the same town, and our subject, who is the third of the
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family. Judge Reed secured bis rudimental schooling in the common schools of his native town, and closed his school days in an acade- my. He left Ohio and came to Iowa in 1857, and first located in the town of Adel, in Dallas County. There he engaged in teaching, devot- ing a portion of his time to the study of law; was admitted to the bar of the State in March, 1859, and trom that time practiced his pro- fession in Dallas County until 1861. At the breaking-out of the rebellion, he entered the army as Lieutenant in the Second Iowa Battery, from Dallas County; he served as Lieutenant about three years, and in September, 1864, was promoted to the rank of Captain, which com- mission he held until July, 1865, when he re- turned home. His battery figured in the entire campaign before Vicksburg, also at the battle of Nashville, later at Mobile, and was in many other minor engagements, the most important of which was the battle of Tupelo, in July, 1864. Judge Reed's personal tastes inclined him to the study of law, which he prosecuted without the aid of a tutor, and entered upon its practice alone. He came to Council Bluffs in 1869. In 1870, he formed a law partnership with B. F. Montgomery and Judge James, un- der' the firm style of Montgomery, Reed & James. In 1871, Mr. Montgomery retired from the firm, and Messrs. Reed & James continued the business until September, 1872, when Mr. Reed was appointed Judge of the Third Judicial District of Iowa, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the election of Judge McDill to Congress. Judge Reed, after completing the nnexpired term, was duly elected to fill the place which he now occupies. When a practitioner, Judge Reed was known as a thorough, industrious and painstaking attorney. He is now known as a prompt and impartial Judge of the law, dis- posing of his judicial business with dispatch, and to the general satisfaction of the bar. He was married, November 1, 1865, to Miss Jen- ette E. Densmore, daughter of James E.
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