USA > Iowa > Poweshiek County > History of Poweshiek County, Iowa: a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. II > Part 38
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returning to him a gratifying annual income. His farm is well improved in every particular and in its neat and thrifty appearance gives evidence of the supervision of a practical and progressive owner. Mr. Showalter also has a substantial and attractive home in Carnforth and is widely recognized as one of the prosperous and esteemed residents of the community.
On the 20th of September, 1897. Mr. Showalter was united in marriage to Mrs. Emma Ratcliff Ringler, a native of Marengo, Iowa, and a daughter of Martamore and Mary Ann ( Griffen) Ratcliff, who were likewise born in this state and spent their entire lives within its borders. Mr. Ratcliff, who followed farming throughout his active business career, passed away at Marengo in 1002, while the demise of his wife occurred at Grinnell in 1908. Mrs. She's- alter had two sons by her first marriage, namely: Frank Ringler, who is em ployed by the Northwestern Railway as telegraph operator at Sonth lowa Junction. Iowa: and Harry Ringler, who lives on the home farm with his mother and stepfather.
Mr. Showalter is a Jeffersonian democrat politically and was a great ad- mirer of the late lamented President Cleveland. He is now serving his second term as township trustee of Warren township and previously held the office for six consecutive years. His wife is a devoted and consistent member of the Congregational church at Carnforth. He has won a circle of friends which is almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintances, and his salient char- acteristics are such as have gained for him the unqualified respect, esteem and good will of his fellowmen.
ABSALOM MILLER.
Absalom Miller, a well known farmer and stock-raiser of Poweshiek county, now deceased, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, on the 31st of January, 1835. He was one of a family of thirteen children, nine sons and four daugh- ters, born unto John and Rebecca (Shaw) Miller, both natives of the Old Dominion, where the mother passed away at the age of sixty-eight years. The father later came to lowa with one of his sons and here his death occurred when he had reached his seventy-fifth year.
Absalom Miller spent his early life on the old Virginia homestead, assist- ing his father in the work of the farm until he attained his majority, when he heeded the call of the west and removed to Indiana, locating in Delaware county. There he was married and remained until 1870, when he resolved to seek a home west of the Mississippi and consequently came to Poweshiek county, Iowa, pur- chasing a farm in Warren township, not far from Brooklyn. There he carried on general farming for a number of years and also engaged extensively in stock-raising, making a specialty of high grade horses, cattle and hogs. He was the owner of one hundred and sixty acres in his home place. all well developed and under a high state of cultivation. He also bought and sold a number of farms as a matter of investment and in the conduct of his various interests dis- played a keen business sagacity and wise management that found their logical
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reward in the acquirement of a substantial and enviable success. He continued to devote his time and energies to agricultural pursuits until about two years prior to his death, when he retired from the active work of the farm and sought a home in Brooklyn. Here he resided until his demise, which occurred July 29, 1895.
On the 26th of August, 1855, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Mary D. McKimmey, who was born in Delaware county, Indiana, on the 2d of October, 1837, and there resided until 1870, when she came to Iowa. She is a daughter of Jesse and Anna Eliza ( Tomlinson ) McKimmey, natives of North Carolina. Both passed away in Delaware county. Indiana, the mother when Mrs. Miller was but two years of age. The father later married again and lived to a ripe old age. Mrs. Miller was the youngest of three daughters born unto the first union, while by the second marriage of Mr. McKimmey there were two daughters.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Miller were born ten children, as follows: John L., of Carlisle, South Dakota ; Sarah Ann, who married John Warner and died when twenty-seven years of age, leaving two children : Margaret, the wife of William Polk, of Warren township: William Henry, who passed away in Indiana at the age of nine months; Rebecca C., the wife of Lon Forbes, of Hudson, lowa : Elizabeth, who married William Torrence, also of Warren township; Lydia May, the wife of A. W. Rhinehart, of that township : Jessie, who wedded James A. Childs, a farmer of Bear Creek township: Eliza, who married S. D. Sandy, of Jefferson township; and Charles, who died at the age of four months. All of the children were born in Delaware county, Indiana, with the exception of the three youngest, who were born in Poweshiek county, lowa.
The religious faith of Mr. Miller was that of the German Baptist Brethren church. He gave his political support to the Democratic party although he never aspired to public office, and at all times was found to be a loyal and public- spirited citizen. His life was an exemplary one in all respects and he enjoyed the respect, confidence and good will of all with whom he came in contact.
ROBERT MILLER HAINES.
The consensus of public opinion ever placed Robert Miller Haines in a fore- most position as a representative of the Poweshiek county bar, and indeed of the bar of Iowa, as a champion of education and a friend of moral progress. He was one of the thinking men of the age. The great problems bearing upon the sociological, political and economic conditions were to him matters of intense interest and along those lines he thought deeply and broadly. There was noth- ing limited, narrow or contracted in his nature, and while men may have dis- agreed with him in opinion or in matters of policy, they ever respected him for the honesty and vigor of his convictions and his fidelity to the right as he saw it. It is imperative, therefore, that his life record be given place in this history. A farm near Salem, Ohio, was his birthplace and his natal day was December 29, 1838. His youth was passed amid rural surroundings with the usual ex-
ROBERT M. HAINES
THE PUBL
ASTOR, SNC TILDEN FOU: 47
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periences of a country boy, his educational opportunities being those afforded by the district schools although after attaining his eighteenth year he spent a brief period in a school of higher grade in Richmond, Indiana. But his native intelligence sought a broader outlet and he eagerly availed himself of the oppor- tunity of pursuing a course in Iowa College, which he entered in 1860 and from which he was graduated in 1865 with the first class after the removal of the college to Grinnell. He was a very poor boy, working his way through school by teaching in college and working during vacations, but the life, though strenu- ous, developed in him a self-reliant spirit and strong manhood that constituted the foundation of his later success. His college course was interrupted in 1864 when almost every member of his class joined the Union army. Mr. Haines had been reared in the faith of the Society of Friends and as war was con- trary to the teachings of his religion he did not enlist but gave needed aid to the boys in blue by serving them as a nurse, and when their three months' term of enlistment had expired he became a member of the Christian commission, serving with that organization in St. Louis, Missouri, but returned to Grinnell in time to graduate with his class. He then spent four years in tutoring, teach- ing for two years in the Troy Academy of Davis county, Iowa, and afterward for two years in Iowa College. It was his desire, however, to become a mem- ber of the bar and, entering the law school of the State University of Iowa, he mastered the regular course and was graduated in 1874. In the meantime he had taught school for a period in Grinnell and had also entered upon the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar before finishing his law course. He began practice in partnership with 'Edward 'Pruyn; of Grinnell, the asso- ciation being maintained until June, 1871, when he was joined by Jacob P. Lyman in a partnership, under the name of Haines & Lyman, that was con- tinued until his death on the 22d of December, .1902. In the thirty years of his law practice, while devoted to his client's interests, he never forgot that there were certain things due to the court, to his own self-respect and above all to justice and the righteous administration of the law which neither the zeal of an advocate nor the pleasure of success would permit him to disregard. The firm was connected with the most important litigation tried in the courts of the district and Mr. Haines possessed in large measure all of the qualities that mark a strong and able lawyer. He possessed a wonderful memory and a great faculty for details, was an untiring worker and did thoroughly and well everything that he undertook. At the time of his death one of the local papers said: "No trust reposed in him, financial or otherwise, was ever betrayed. No poor widow ever paid him fees and many poor men, in sickness and in poverty, and many poor young men, struggling through college, have appreciated his kindly help. No lawyer ever asked Haines to put a stipulation in writing. None ever accused him of violating his word. When he was victorious in the higher courts he was delighted, and liked to talk about it, but it was because he felt that he had put the legal propositions in such a way that defeat was impossible. On the other hand, in defeat, he always met his opponent with a friendly hand and smiling face, without rancor or ill feeling. He never retaliated. Often, when complaining of unfair advantage, it has been suggested that he might get even, invariably he would reply: 'No, I do not practice law that way.' The
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philosophy of David Harum had no response in Haines' soul. During his long and busy professional career he has had charge of many important cases, not cases involving millions but cases involving intricate legal propositions and requiring profound study. Cases which, if advertised and heralded and talked about, as similar cases are that are tried in the great cities, would have made him a much talked of lawyer."
Mr. Haines was in no sense a political leader and yet there have been few men in lowa so thoroughly versed concerning the important questions and issues of the day. His reasoning was too deep and his research too wide in its scope to win the following of the artificial thinker who delves little below the surface of things. There were times, however, when his fellow townsmen gave expression of their faith in his political insight and integrity. In the fall of 1877 he was elected to the state senate and served his district with distinction during the sessions of 1878 and 1880. He took up the study of finance, taxation and tariff and manifested therein the same thoroughness and mastery of de- tails that marked his work in connection with the courts. He is said to have been one of the closest and most convincing talkers of the rostrum. He alienated some of his political supporters by his strenuous opposition to the amendment to the constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. He was himself a strong temperance man in principle and practice and a life- long prohibitionist, but maintained that the organic law of the land was no place for a police regulation and that it was futile. As a lawyer he could not tolerate such trifling with the constitution and as a law maker he knew that it would be absolutely unavailing. In the memorable tariff campaigns he fol- lowed the dictates of his conscience and judgment and was an active opponent of protection. He believed firmly in civil service reform. He cared little him- self for political honors but the majority of political leaders were men of too slight mental caliber to see the reach of his own thoughit and purpose.
Mr. Haines was married on the 19th of August, 1867, to Miss Joanna Hannah Harris, who had taught with him in Troy Academy and Iowa College. They became the parents of six children. The sons are: Dr. J. H. Haines, practicing medicine at Stillwater, Minnesota; R. M. Haines, Jr., a lawyer of Grinnell ; C. H. Haines, also an attorney ; and A. P. Haines. The daughters are: Mrs. F. I. Herriott, of Des Moines ; and Mrs. W. G. Ray, of Grinnell. All of these children are graduates of the college that conferred on their father his A. B. and A. M. degrees. Mr. Haines was most devoted in his attachment to his home and family and in relations of that character no man was happier. It has been said: "His life was orderly and upright and clean as it falls to the lot of man to be. He was opposed to men's clubs because they took men from home. He enjoyed social intercourse only when he could converse. Games and inno- cent fun that rest tired men did not appeal to him. This was his misfortune and his comparatively few years is due to the intense way in which he lived and worked. His early Puritan training and the necessary self-denial of his carly life made him somewhat intolerant of men whose lives were not ordered his way. He was a strong advocate of athletics but only because he believed it de- veloped the physical man. Outside of his home and family his great love was for lowa College, next the church and then the upbuilding of the town." His
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faithfulness and usefulness as a trustee of lowa College has been exceeded by no other. He was alumni trustee of the college from 1881 until 1887 inclui- sive and permanent trustee from that time until his death. He served as chair- man of the finance and a number of other committees of the college and was active in the management of the institution through the last twenty years of his life. The public schools of his home town found him an equally strong advocate and supporter and he gave of the best of his experience to the work of the school board of which he was a member, introducing clean, clear and direct business methods for the benefit of the schools. College students found in him a friend to whom they could go freely for advice, counsel or assistance and he was ever a champion of the interests of the boys and girls. His church relationship was with the Congregational denomination of which he and his wife were long faithful, active and helpful members, never missing an important church service and at all times upholding the hands of their pastor. His honesty was proverbial and he never incurred a debt that he did not pay promptly at maturity.
The death of Mr. Haines occurred on the 22d of December, 1902. He was at the time President of the Iowa State Bar Association, his election thereto being an honor which he greatly appreciated. At his demise the Poweshiek County bar called a meeting and prepared a memorial in which many of his professional brethren bore testimony to his life and work. Judge Lewis said : "Life to him was a serious business-too much so. I have no doubt if he could have gone more into lines and lanes beyond the sound and stress of business and wandered and played until the sore spots made by life's loads were rested numbers would have been added to the days of his life. But this seems to have been impossible for him and whilst he had a warm social side for all his friends and was not austere with others, not intentionally so, he was a serious man. When he did turn aside from what he regarded as the real duties of life he was as genial as light, indulging in pleasantries with his friends in the most delight- ful vein. His fault was that all this had, at once, to yield to business; even in his more playful moods he was prone to make it his business to learn or to teach. He had a pride in his ability to grasp, understand, make plain the problems in- volved in living; problems of state; problems of money ; and he was justified in this. Some of the most devoted, earnest, exhausting work he ever did was in his effort to solve some of these and to fit and furnish himself 'to make the solution plain to others. He may not in all these have been just right, but he was always ready to try to make you believe he was, not merely for the sake of the performance but for the sake of the right. He taught nothing but what he be- lieved. He was, again, proud that his word was as good as his bond; that those who had tested him so accepted it. The point in his life was not to promise unless he could perform, but if promise he did, to perform over and against every adversity. He always did this. He had ever so much delight in his achievements of good and success, with his ability to discharge any duty that came to him, to try his cause well, to hold his own in repartee and any con- test. He was an able, learned lawyer and a good practitioner."
Paul G. Norris said: "We all know that he was a kind and indulgent man and an acute lawyer, but I think the qualities of his character that appeal more
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strongly to us were his sincerity and the strength of his moral character. Even in a casual conversation anyone would at once remark the evident sincerity of the man in everything that he did or said. From even a casual acquaintance with him one must feel the strength of his moral character."
From these opinions there was no dissenting voice or thought. D. W. Norris said: "Mr. Haines was a man concerning whom we may say, I think, that it rather dishonors any of us not to respect him. That does not mean that we should agree with him; far from it. But I do not know that I have ever had dealings with a inan for whose moral integrity I have had a higher regard. I believe he meant to do absolutely right as he saw it. That he did not always see it as some of the rest of us did is neither here nor there. lle may have been right and we may have been right ; that matter is entirely irrelevant to the main issue which is whether a man is true to the light that is in him. Personally I do not believe that I had a more loyal friend in Grinnell or on the board of trustees of Iowa College than Mr. Haines. And this again was not because he agreed with me ; many times he sharply differed but he 'stood by' and that's the main thing. This is the keynote of Mr. Haines' character. He never flinched from any duty and never for a moment turned his back to a foe."
The bar of Poweshiek county has greatly missed Mr. Haines since he was called from this life. His was an example of high professional honor. "His was a strong personality-physically powerful and vigorous, mentally alert, his thought was characterized by clearness, his speech by incisiveness and forceful- ness." Such was the tribute which J. H. Patten paid to his colleague, adding : "He commanded respect not so much by his manner as his apparent candor and intellectual power. Right or wrong, he was invariably credited with believing he was right and his arguments to the court on law questions and marshaling a formidable array of facts before a jury commanded the undivided attention of bench and bar. Others have spoken of him as a husband, father, neighbor. scholar and christian gentleman, and in all these capacities he has been worthily assigned an exalted place." Another thus bore testimony to his generosity. "which was freely extended to all who came in contact with him, for he had ac- cumulated a vast wealth of diversified knowledge which he was ever ready and willing to impart to the most humble applicant. He had the faculty of present- ing his thoughts in such a clear and forceful manner that the dullest mind could fully comprehend them. He was continually called upon by the students of the college in the town in which he resided to furnish them facts and information upon different subjects, which it would be difficult or impossible for them to obtain elsewhere, and although his life was necessarily a very busy one. yet every appeal for assistance from these young men received the same attention and consideration that he would have given them if they had consulted him as clients in regard to an important case from which he could reasonably have ex- pected to receive a large fee, and I think I am warranted in saying that many hours of his life were devoted to this kind of benevolent work, which most men of his marked ability and abundant resources would have given to the pursuit of worldly gain. Such a man indeed is a useful citizen and rarely found in these days where selfishness is personified on every hand, and by his death the society in which he mingled has suffered an irreparable loss." Perhaps this
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brief history cannot better be closed than in the words of Judge Scott: "Robert Haines was a conscientious, truthful man, a conscientious, truthful, faithful at- torney, a true father, a kind, indulgent and loving husband, a consistent Chris- tian gentleman, and those who knew him best knew that he was ever ready to respond to calls of charity. He came very nearly reaching the topmost round of the ladder which leads to perfection, and yet to say of him that he was per- fect would be untrue, and being untrue, he himself would resent such praise if he were here. Perfection has never been attained in this world but by one man and that man Mr. Haines took as his example and his standard and came nearer following His teachings than the majority of us do. In fact he followed those teachings so consistently that he was marked among men. It might be truly said of him, and his epitaph might well be written in the words: 'Here lies a truthful man: a man who always spoke the truth, a man who ever lived the truth.' "
FRED C. WATSON.
Fred C. Watson, whose pleasant homestead in Sugar Creek township bespeaks capable supervision and skill, was born in the township where he now resides on the 28th of June, 1872, a son of Simon and Susan ( Beeler) Watson. The father was born in Greene county, Indiana, on the 10th of March, 1826, and the mother in Poweshick county, lowa. In his early manhood Simon Watson migrated to Iowa, locating in Sugar Creek township, Poweshiek county, where he bought a farm which he cultivated until his demise on the 4th of April. 1908. Mrs. Watson still survives and continues to make her home in Sugar Creek township. In matters politic Mr. Watson's views accorded with those of the democracy, for whose candidates he cast his ballot. Their family numbered seven, the order of birth being as follows: Annie, the wife of S. P. Tish, of Suga: Creek township: Belle, who married J. S. Rivers, of Washington town- ship. Poweshiek county: George, who is a resident of Marshalltown, lowa : Walter, who is deceased; Fred C., our subject ; Winslow, also deceased ; and Elmer, now living in Union township. Poweshiek county.
The district schools in the vicinity of his home provided Fred C. Watson with an education, while at the same time he was becoming acquainted with the best methods of tilling the fields by assisting his father with the work of the farm. He remained under the parental roof until he was twenty-four years of age, at which time he purchased his present place containing eighty acres of fine farm- ing land. During the period of his occupancy Mr. Watson has wrought exten- sive improvements in his property, having erected some fine buildings, while at the same time he has effected some minor changes which have greatly added to the general appearance of the place. Here he follows general and. stock farm- ing and under his intelligent and capable direction both are proving very satis- factory from a financial point of view.
On the 13th of December. 1896, Mr. Watson was united in marriage to Miss Martha Pratt. a daughter of AAlva and Mary ( Fisher) Pratt, whose birth oc- curred in Pleasant township on the 23d of July. 1875. Mr. Pratt is a native
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of Peacham, Vermont, his natal day being the 14th of July, 1844, while Mrs. Pratt was born in New York city on the 3d of August, 1849. He removed to Illinois with his parents during his childhood and there he was educated and resided until 1871. In the latter year he came to Poweshiek county, purchas- ing a farm in Pleasant township, which he cultivated until his retirement. He is now living retired in Searsboro, having acquired the means to enable him to spend life's evening in ease and comfort, free from the care and re- sponsibility of earlier years. He is a member of the Modern Brotherhood of America. Mrs. Pratt passed away June 22, 191I.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Watson have been born eight children, the order of their birth being as follows: Roy, who was born on the 8th of January, 1898; Ethel, born on the 3d of August, 1899: Leo, born on the 22d of March, 1901 ; Alvah, born on the 18th of February, 1903: Lewis, born on the 28th of February, 1905: Robey, born on the 17th of August, 1906; Joseph, born on the 9th of December, 1907; and Alice, born on the 12th of June, 1909.
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