USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Past and present of Fayette County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 23
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ROBERT J. YOUNG.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
After the death of his mother, Robert J. Young lived with an uncle until twelve years old, when he started out to make his own way in the world. In the meantime, when twelve years old, he accompanied his relative to Buchanan county, Iowa, and when a youth of nineteen tendered his services to the gov- ernment, enlisting at Independence in 1863, for three years' service and being assigned to Company F, First Iowa Cavalry. This regiment was mustered at Dubuque and immediately thereafter joined the Army of the West, with which it took part in a number of campaigns and battles, including the actions at Princeton, Camden, Spoonville, Little Rock, Elkins Ford, Moreau River, Jenkins' Ferry and many others. He was also in the ill-fated Red River ex- pedition and at the close of the war went with General Custer to Alexandria, Louisiana, thence to Houston, Texas, and in March, 1866, was mustered out at Austin, that state. Taking passage on a steamer for New Orleans, the same month, he reached his destination in due time and from there proceeded north of Davenport, Iowa, where he received his discharge a few days later. Mr. Young devoted three strenuous years to the service of his adopted country, shared with his comrades the dangers and vicissitudes of war in many trying situations, and retired from the ranks with a record for bravery and gallantry of which he feels deservedly proud. At the expiration of his period of service he returned to Iowa and engaged in farming in Fayette county, which honor- able calling he followed with marked success until his removal in 1893 to Oelwein, since which time he has been connected with various business enter- prises, devoting especial attention for some years to real-estate and insurance and building up an extensive and lucrative patronage in both lines.
Mr. Young is enterprising in all the term implies, manifests a deep and abiding interest in everything pertaining to the progress of his city and county and the prominent position to which he has attained in business, political and social circles mark him as a natural leader of men. Politically, he is a stanch supporter of the Republican party and as such exercises a strong influence in behalf of its principles and candidates, both as a worker in the ranks and an adviser in its councils. From time to time he has been elected to various local offices, including those of justice of the peace, township clerk, and for a period of fourteen years he rendered effective service to the cause of educa- tion as a member of the school board.
As a business man, Mr. Young is energetic, progressive, honorable in all of his dealings and no suspicion of wrong doing has ever attached to his name or character. At the present time he represents twelve insurance companies, fire, lightning and tornado. He was the treasurer of the Iowa State Mutual ยท Windstorm Association, besides serving twenty years as a director of the
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same; was also secretary of the County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Des Moines; a director of the Town Mutual Fire Insurance Association of Des Moines for seventeen years, and adjuster of the Iowa Mutual Windstorm Company, also of the Fayette County Association. In addition to his large insurance interests, which are steadily growing in magnitude and importance, he commands, as already indicated, an extensive real estate business in Fayette and other counties, his success in all of his enterprises being commensurate with the ability and energy which he has ever displayed, being at the present time in independent circumstances and one of the financially strong and solid men of the county.
Mr. Young is an active member of Griffith Post No. 134, Grand Army of the Republic, which he has served two terms as commander and since the year 1892 he has held the position of adjutant in the same. He was formerly a member of Fairbank Lodge No. 148, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, but on moving to Oelwein took his dimit to Hebron Lodge No. 374, at the latter place, in which for a period of seven years he has held the office of secretary. He is also identified with several of the higher branches of Masonry, belonging to Langridge Commandery No. 47, Knights Templar, at West Union, Chapter No. 130. Royal Arch Masons at Oelwein, Iowa Con- sistory No. 2, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, El Kadir Temple, Mystic Shrine, at the latter city, and Eastern Star Chapter No. 45 at Oelwein. He was elected delegate to the meeting of the Imperial Shrine at New Orleans which met in April, 1910, besides being honored at various times with important trusts by the different organizations mentioned above. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows, belonging to Oelwein Lodge No. 284, in which he has passed all the chairs, and for some years he has been an influential worker in the Modern Woodmen of America.
The domestic chapter in the life of Mr. Young bears date of 1873, at which time he was happily married to Belle Ross, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Samuel A. K. and Angeline (Malott) Ross, the former born December 27, 1820, in New York, the latter on May 7th of the same year. The marriage of these parents was celebrated in Ripley county, Indiana, whence they migrated in 1867 to Fayette county, Iowa, settling in Oran town- ship. Mr. and Mrs. Young set up their first domestic establishment in that township and there lived and prospered until their removal to their present home in Oelwein, as stated in a preceding paragraph. Their children are four in number, the oldest being Amelia E., who was born December 21, 1874 ; on September 4, 1895, she became the wife of James Willson, a contractor of Oelwein, the union being blessed with four sons, Donald, Athol, James and
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Calvin, aged respectively eleven, nine, six and four years. George W. Young was born May 12, 1878, and is now a clerk; he married, on March 2, 1904, Carrie Elzy, by whom he has one child, a daughter, Rachel E., whose birth occurred in the year 1908. Clarence B. Young, born January 9, 1880, is a registered pharmacist of Des Moines and a young man of fine professional and business ability. Robert L., the youngest of the family, is associated in the business with his father at Oelwein and still a member of the home circle; he was born July 24, 1888.
Mr. Young is a man of domestic tastes, a great lover of family and home, and has spared neither pains nor expense in providing for the comfort of his wife and children. The fine dwelling which the family now occupy is one of the most beautiful and attractive in Oelwein, being commodious, pro- vided with all the fixtures and conveniences calculated to render home pleasant and agreeable and pervaded by a spirit of hospitality which sweetens the welcome and lingers as long as possible the departure of the visitor or guest. Mrs. Young is a lady of gracious presence and beautiful Christian character, one whose example at home and in society is always for high ideals and right living and the number of warm friendships she enjoys indicate the wide esteem in which she is held. She belongs to the Order of the Eastern Star, which she has served five years as chaplain, and is a devout Christian and active in all lines of religious work under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church of Oelwein, with which she holds membership.
DAVID HENRY TALMADGE.
Examples that impress force of character on all who study them are worthy of record. By a few general observations may be conveyed some idea of the high standing of David Henry Talmadge, familiarly known as "Harry" Talmadge, proprietor and editor of the Gazette at West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, until the consolidation of that paper with the West Union Argo in May, 1910, being an editor of unusual felicity of expression and good man- agement, or as a wide-awake business man and public benefactor. United in his makeup are so many elements of a solid and practical nature, which during a series of years have brought him into prominent notice and earned for him a conspicuous place among the enterprising men of the county of his residence, where other members of his family have also wrought to good purpose, that it is but just recognition of his and their worth to write, at some length, of their lives and achievements.
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Mr. Talmadge was born in the city of Providence, Rhode Island, Septem- ber 24, 1867, being the eldest son of Charles H. and Lucy H. (Whittemore) Talmadge. The father was the late editor and proprietor of the West Union Gasette, and was born in Girard, Erie county, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1842, and was the son of Henry O. and Lydia ( Miller) Talmadge. His father was born in Westfield, Connecticut, and was descended from an old New England family of Welsh origin. He settled in Chautauqua county, New York, with his parents, in his youth, and married Lydia Miller, in Erie county, Penn- sylvania, of which place she was a native, and to this union six children, five sons and a daughter, were born, of whom the daughter and three sons are de- ceased. The family moved to Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1850, where they lived until the spring of 1856, when they fitted out a "prairie schooner" and migrated to Iowa, locating about midway between Osage and Mitchell.
The following year Charles H. Talmadge entered the printing office of Talcott & Parker, proprietors of the Mitchell Republican, in which office he remained two years. He attended school at remote intervals during the succeeding three years, and in 1860 he worked with Noyes & Brainard on the Clear Lake Independent, with a little time on the Mason City Democrat and North Lowcan, of Osage, the latter a journalistic venture of Stilson Hutchins. In the spring of 1861 he returned to the home of his parents near Mitchell. and while there decided to cast his fate with the national Union in its struggle with the Confederacy, a number of patriotic citizens having gathered at a meeting in Mitchell soon after the fall of Fort Sumter. An address was made by M. M. Trumbull, of Clarksville, at the close of which volunteers were called for to form a company which Mr. Trumbull proposed to organize, and Mr. Talmadge was one of the first to inscribe his name on the roll. A few days later the little band of Mitchell county boys journeyed by teams to Clarksville, and thence to Charles City, Waterloo and Dubuque. Between the two latter cities Mr. Talmadge experienced his first sensation of riding on the rail. In Dubuque the organization of the company was completed, and in rendezvous at Keokuk became Company I, of the Third Iowa Infantry. He was in Hurlbut's division at the battle of Shiloh, and his regiment helped to make up the "hornet's nest" where the Confederate general, Albert Sidney Johnston, met his death. He also took part in some minor engagements. During the last part of his service he was on detached duty, under special orders from General Curtis. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, Mr. Tal- madge was appointed to the pay department, continuing in this important and responsible service until the close of the war and the last Iowa regiment was mustered out and paid off.
CHARLES H. TALMADGE.
This portrait is placed in this work as a mark of re- spect and love by ten of his admiring friends and busi- ness associates in West Union.
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After his army career, Mr. Talmadge came to West Union, Iowa, and became assistant to James Stewart, county treasurer. On November 25, 1867, in company with J. W. Shannon, he purchased the material of the edefunct Clermont Leader, and removed the outfit to West Union for the purpose of establishing a Republican paper, which they named the Republican Gazette and Clermont Leader. The venture proved a decided success. In December, 1868, Mr. Shannon was compelled to withdraw on account of failing health. In 1885 the form of the paper was changed from an old folio to that of a neat quarto of eight pages. Under the management of its founder the Gazette became a consistent Republican paper, ably edited and neatly printed. During the more than forty years of its existence it was always abreast of the times in politics, news and local enterprises, and won a strong hold on the esteem of its patrons. The office was equipped with modern machinery, the facilities for doing all kinds of job work being complete, the presses operated by steam and the plant clean and well lighted, the business being generally conceded to be in a prosperous condition.
Charles H. Talmadge was appointed postmaster of West Union in the spring of 1879, and so faithfully did he discharge the duties of the same that he was reappointed in 1883, but retired under President Cleveland's admin- istration in 1887, then, after a lapse of three years, he was again appointed April 7, 1890. His administration of the office was efficient, faithful and prompt, and very much to the satisfaction of all concerned.
On October 23, 1866, Mr. Talmadge married, in Mitchell county, Iowa, Lucy H. Whittemore, who was born in Providence, Rhode Island, September 4, 1843, the daughter of Rev. David R. Whittemore, a prominent Baptist clergyman of Providence. This union resulted in the birth of two children, David Henry, of this review, and John, the latter born in West Union, Iowa, October 12, 1874, and who is at this writing connected with the daily Chronicle of Abilene, Kansas. The mother of these children, who was a woman of edu- cation and culture and an earnest member of the Presbyterian church, a mem- ber of the Ladies' Tourist Club and the West Union Art Club, in which she took an active part, and a leader in all the charitable and philanthropic work in the city, passed to her rest in January, 1904, at the age of sixty-one years.
Charles H. Talmadge was appointed deputy oil inspector for this sec- tion of the state,. under Governor Cummins, in June, 1905, to serve two years, but his death occurred while in office, May 2, 1907. He was a member of West Union Lodge No. 69, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and of Cler- mont Chapter No. 62, Royal Arch Masons; also belonged to West Union Lodge No. 42, Knights of Pythias, of which he was the first chancellor com-
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mander. He belonged to Abernathey Post No. 48, Grand Army o_ the Re- public, of West Union, of which he was once post commander and was adju- tant for many years. He twice served on the governor's staff, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, first with Governor Kirkwood, and later with Gov- ernor C. C. Carpenter. He was also aid-de-camp to Commander M. P. Mills, of the Iowa department, Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Talmadge was always an earnest worker in the ranks of the Republican party, and served as chairman of his home county, and congressional committees.
David H. Talmadge, the immediate subject of this review, accompanied his parents to Fayette county, Iowa, when yet a mere boy. He had the ad- vantages of a good high school education, graduating from the same, and sub- sequently took a business college course. He learned the printer's trade when a youth, becoming well grounded in the art preservative at a very early age, and he has made this his chief life work in connection with the newspaper business. When but a lad he stood at his father's type-cases and was drilled in the labors of properly setting up patent medicine notices, including many well known remedies which have been advertised weekly for decades. He rose rapidly to be a first-class printer, and accepted a position in Providence, Rhode Island, and his employment continued there during 1889, after which he returned to West Union, and was again associated with his father on the Gazette. At one time the business was conducted under the firm name of C. H. Talmadge & Son. Upon his return from New England, in January, 1900, he became foreman and had general charge of this newspaper, having continued with his father until 1905. He spent the next year in the state of Washington, where he was proprietor of the Newport Miner, a local jour- nal which still flourishes. After this experience in the far West, he returned to West Union and was again associated with his father, upon whose death he succeeded to the business and was, as already stated, editor and proprietor of this paper, The West Union Gasette, until May, 1910. He is now a resi- dent of Salem, Oregon.
With the passing years Mr. Talmadge has been press correspondent for numerous papers in this country, and at one time wrote many short sto- ries and other literary productions for the popular magazines of the East, in all of this work showing his capacity as an interesting writer of much more than ordinary ability.
Politically, Mr. Talmadge has always been loyal to the principles of the Republican party, but he has never been a political office seeker or holder ; being of a retiring nature he has preferred to work for the upbuilding of the party of his choice, assisting others to fill the offices while he attended strictly
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to his individual affairs and he continued to edit the pioneer journal which was so many years the idol of his worthy father's life, and the policy of which he dictated so long as he lived.
David H. Talmadge is a member of the Knights of Pythias, West Union Lodge No. 142, of which he became keeper of records and seals ; he also holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America, Camp No. 792 of West Union, of which he was a charter member. During the existence of the Sons of Veterans camp at West Union he continued an active member of the same.
Mr. Talmadge was united in marriage, in 1894, with Harriet M. Tal- madge (a third cousin), who is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Talmadge, of West Union; the children born to this union are as follows : David H., born in April, 1895; William E., born June, 1896; Mary Elizabeth, born May 30, 1901 ; Charles W., born in June, 1905, died in infancy.
Walter E. Talmadge, father-in-law of David H., of this review, was born at Rockton, Winnebago county, Illinois, August, 1841. He accompanied his parents to Iowa in 1856. During the Civil war he was a member of Company B, Seventh Iowa Infantry. He began railroading in 1868, and when the Volga branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad reached West Union in 1882 he came here as station agent and continued as such until his death, August 22, 1892. His wife, who was Aylia T. Thayer, is a native of the same place as her husband. They were married in Howard county, Iowa, January 1, 1863, and four children were born to them, the two sons, Warren E. and Charles M., being prominent business men on the Pacific coast. A daughter, Edna, died at the age of three. Mrs. Talmadge makes her home among her children, though for the most part with her only daughter, in West Union. Walter Talmadge was a man highly esteemed for his many excellent traits of character. " He was quiet and unassuming, al- though endowed with superior business capabilities.
J. A. BARNHART.
J. A. Barnhart was born in Center county, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1862, and is a son of P. A. and Mary Elizabeth (Antes) Barnhart, the former a native of Center county, Pennsylvania, the latter of Lycoming county, the same state. In 1865 they came to Fayette county, Iowa, and rented a farm one-half mile east of the present home. About three years
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later they bought the present home, which was then wild land. Here P. A. Barnhart and wife died.
On December 30, 1886, J. A. Barnhart was united in marriage to Elizabeth E. Shaw, a daughter of Abram R. and Matilda F. Shaw. To this union were born three children, Lawrence Phillip, Alta Etta and Loranie Josephine.
HON. WILLIAM E. FULLER.
An honored and prominent citizen of West Union, Iowa, is William E. Fuller, the only son of Dr. Levi and Jemima E. (Tipton) Fuller, born in Howard, Center county, Pennsylvania, March 30, 1846. After a residence of about six years in Stephenson county, Illinois, and one year in Green county, Wisconsin, the family came to West Union, Iowa, in April, 1853. Through his father he is a lineal descendant (tenth) from Edward Fuller and Governor William Bradford, who settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. Mr. Fuller received his literary education in the Upper Iowa University and State University of Iowa. He held a position in the interior department, Washing- ton, D. C., in 1866-7. In the fall of 1869, after preliminary reading, he entered the law department of the State University, where he graduated with honors, as the valedictorian, in June, 1870. He immediately commenced the practice of his profession in West Union, continuing it with success, when not in official position, until June 1, 1907. Since this date his practice has been largely as a counsellor and he has given much of his time to general business.
During his active manhood Mr. Fuller has spent about sixteen years in official service. He has been chairman of the Republican county committee . and a member of the district and state committees. In 1875 he was elected to the sixteenth General Assembly. He declined a renomination. He was elected in 1884 to the forty-ninth Congress, in a district which had been car- ried by the Democrats at a previous election by more than seven hundred majority. The district was regarded as a forlorn hope from the Republican standpoint, but energy and organization, which included fifty speeches by Mr. Fuller, overcame the odds and L. H. Weller, Democrat, was defeated. Mr. Fuller was an industrious and influential member of Congress, being a mem- ber of the committee on coinage, weights and measures and revision of the laws, taking an active part in the consideration of the silver question. He was re-elected to Congress in 1886 by one thousand nine hundred and thirty-one majority and served on the judiciary committee. He favored free lumber and
mie heller
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free sugar in the tariff discussion and made speeches on the Fitz John Porter, silver, lumber, sugar, interstate commerce, pension bills and the Nicaragua canal bill. Mr. Fuller remained in Washington during the long session of the fiftieth Congress, the longest in the history of the country, and declined to return to Iowa and canvass for a third term. He has been in constant de- mand as a speaker and is often called upon to deliver Fourth of July addresses and to speak on Memorial days, county fairs and soldiers' reunions. After his return from Congress he devoted himself to his professional duties, but has often given his services to his party (Republican) on the stump.
In 1897 Mr. Fuller's home friends presented his name to the Republican state convention as a candidate for governor. There were nine candidates and the contest was a spirited one. Mr. Fuller's candidacy was well received and he had the solid support of his congressional district besides material strength from different parts of the state. After a good natured contest, last- ing several days, Hon. L. M. Shaw was nominated.
President William McKinley, with whom Mr. Fuller had served four years in Congress, on March 9, 1901, nominated William E. Fuller assistant attorney-general of the United States for the Spanish treaty claims commis- sion, and he was confirmed the same day by the Senate and immediately enter- ed upon his duties. The Spanish treaty claims commission (the president of which was ex-senator William Chandler of New Hampshire) was one of the results of the treaty of Paris, following the Spanish-American war. In Article VII it was provided that "the United States will adjudicate and settle the claims of its citizens against Spain." This was a new field for Mr. Fuller. He was obliged to immediately acquaint himself with international law in- volved in the cases. A bureau had to be formed, assistant attorneys employed for the home office and to send to Cuba to take testimony, also clerks, inter- preters, stenographers, etc. Mr. Fuller looked upon the cases with suspicion. In more than three-fourths of the cases the plaintiffs were originally Cubans. who had come to the United States to attend school or other purposes and while here were naturalized. They returned to Cuba, married, reared their children and never owned a dollar's worth of property in the United States or paid taxes. He also believed that there was such a condition of war in Cuba that there was no liability, under international law, on the part of Spain for damages growing out of military operations. There were many other inter- esting questions involved. Mr. Fuller believing that in a majority of the cases the plaintiffs were not bona fide citizens and believing that most of the dam- ages incurred were not the result of military operations, conceded nothing and fought the cases with great determination. He was repeatedly told by at-
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torneys for plaintiffs that he was making an uncalled-for fight for the govern- ment. There were five hundred forty-two cases filed before the court, the claims amounting to sixty-two million six hundred and seventy-two thousand seventy-seven dollars and seventy-eight cents; many of them over one million each and in one there was over four millions involved. Testimony had to be taken in United States, Cuba and Spain, and most of it taken in the Spanish language and translated into English. The work continued much longer than Mr. Fuller anticipated when he entered the service. When he resigned, June I, 1907, over two-thirds of the cases had been determined and judgments al- lowed considerably less than three per cent. of the amount involved. Mr. Fuller was very anxious to continue the work to the end, but delays occurred beyond his control. His private business had been neglected and after serv- ing from March 9, 1901, to June 1, 1907, he resigned and returned to West Union, and has since given his attention to his private affairs and general business.
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