USA > Iowa > Shelby County > Past and present of Shelby County, Iowa, Vol. 2 > Part 15
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Mr. Fisher has not only taught these people and their children in the Sunday school and preached to them in their rude church, but he plans for the future a small shop in which they can construct their own furniture and where men and boys may be taught the use of tools whereby they may make things for their homes: a brass band will be organized and instruction pro- vided in domestic science, sewing, etc. Mr. Fisher has done a very helpful and creditable work and he and his wife have suffered privations of which the people in Shelby county know but little.
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HON. H. W. BYERS.
One of the former residents of Shelby county, who through native ability and hard work has achieved great distinction and brought honor upon the county, is Hon. H. W. Byers, present corporation counsel for the city of Des Moines. Mr. Byers was born at Woodstock. Richland county. Wis- consin. December 25. 1856. His father. Andrew Clinton Byers, was a country doctor. His mother was Mary R. Byers.
After some years' residence in Hancock county. Iowa, Mr. Byers. in the fall of 1877. came to visit a friend of his named Heath, then residing at the town of Shelby. Soon after his arrival there Mr. Byers was taken sick with typhoid fever for some weeks. He was so well treated by the people of Shelby that he decided to remain in the county: He taught the Mort Keeney country school. afterwards teaching other country schools, one or two of which were in Westphalia township. While teaching in Westphalia. Mr. Byers became acquainted with S. H. Watters. now practicing medicine at Irwin, and then running a little drug store on the north side of the square. Mr. Byers used to come in from Westphalia on Friday night and help in the drug store on Saturday, thus becoming acquainted with the Harlan business men. He also was clerk in the Bechtel hardware store. which was then where the Hansen & Hansen hardware store now is. He was clerk for Blotcky Brothers on Market street also, and later for French & True. in the store known as the "Golden Opportunity." located where the Shelby County Bank now stands. For some years Mr. Byers was in business in Earling. and while at Earling determined to study law. which he did later, in the law office of Macy & Gammon at Harlan. He was admitted to the bar in May. 1888.
In his early days of practice Mr. Byers had charge of the defense in several very important and interesting criminal cases, including defense of a young Norwegian who was indicted for burning the barn of George Eokars: the defense of Cumberland, who murdered the Robertsons: and also the defense of Elmer Terrell. The young Norwegian was acquitted: Cumber- land was. after several years, finally hanged. and Terrell was finally found insane and is still confined in one of the state hospitals for the insane. In the first trial of the Terrell case this defendant was found guilty of murder. but when the district judge came to pass sentence Mr. Byers objected to the sentence on the ground that Terrell was then insane, even if he was not at the time the jury found him guilty. It is likely that this is the first time that
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this question had ever been raised, and the district judge held it a proper objection and called a jury to try again the question of Terrell's sanity. On the second trial the jury found Terrell insane.
The first political experience of Mr. Byers was to run for justice of the peace in Westphalia township. He ran as a Republican and was probably the first as well as the last Republican ever elected to a township office in that township. He also served as the first Republican delegate from that town- ship ever sent to a county convention. Mr. Byers was a candidate for the lower house of the twenty-fourth General Assembly, but was defeated by Hon. J. H. Louis. Running again for the twenty-fifth General Assembly, he was elected and had the honor in the organization of this assembly to be chosen speaker pro tem by the unanimous vote of both the Democratic and Republican members of the house, by virtue of which election Mr. Byers frequently presided during the absence of Speaker Stone. He was re-elected to the twenty-sixth General Assembly, at the opening of which he was elected speaker by the unanimous vote of both the Republicans and Democrats, this being the first time in the history of the state that a speaker was chosen by a unanimous vote.
So fair and impartial was Mr. Byers in his rulings during that session of the Legislature that both the Democrats and Republicans, not only, as is the usual courtesy, voted him the gavel and chair used during the session, but also presented him with a magnificent gold watch as a token of their appreciation. In both sessions of the Legislature in which Mr. Byers served he introduced and pressed for passage many bills which became law and protected the best interests of the people in many ways, including anti-trust legislation : protecting consumers against the sale of impure meats ; protect- ing the public against bad banking, and providing for the inspection of pri- vate banks, etc.
As attorney-general of Iowa, Mr. Byers made a most enviable record as a leader of law enforcement. For instance. he put an end to the Sunday saloon, the all-night saloon, and sturdily fought the open gambling house. For the first time in the history of the state he appeared for the state in be- half of Iowa shippers before the inter-state commerce commission. He de- fended in the courts assaults made on the pure food law, the pure drug act. the stock food law. the hotel inspection law. the anti-pass law, and the in- determinate sentence act, the constitutionality of all of which was questioned. He forced payment to the state of approximately one hundred and fifty
. thousand dollars of fees due it. more than had been collected by the office in all the previous years of its existence. He achieved much fame by his
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rigorous prosecution of the Mabray gang. the greatest "bunco gang" that ever existed.
In 1908 Mr. Byers was chosen temporary chairman of the Republican state convention, held March 1, at Des Moines.
Since leaving the attorney-general's office, Mr. Byers has devoted his time to the important legal business of the city of Des Moines. as corpora- tion counsel, and to the general practice of law in Des Moines. Upon his appointment he assisted in presenting to the supreme court the case involving the question as to whether the Des Moines Street Railway Company had a perpetual right to operate its system in the city. The supreme court finally rendered a decision in favor of the city, thus ending a controversy that had been on for nearly sixteen years.
Next to the Consolidated Gas case of New York City, the gas case of Des Moines was probably the most important rate case tried in the United States, in which Mr. Byers represented the city of Des Moines. The city council of Des Moines reduced the price of gas from one dollar to ninety cents, whereupon the gas company sought to enjoin the enforcement of the ordinance. The hearing before Judge Sloan, as master of chancery, covered a period of nearly eight months. The gas company was represented in the trial by Judge Carr. William Reed and by Mr. Doughirt, of Philadelphia, and Mr. N. T. Guernsey, of Des Moines, Iowa. Mr. Guernsey is now general counsel for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The trial resulted in a complete victory for the city of Des Moines. It was twice be- fore the supreme court of the United States. both times decided for the city, and for a third time is now finally pending there.
Mr. Byers also had charge of the condemnation of the local water plant. It was tried by three district judges, the trial covering a period of several months, the company having first tried, through the federal courts, to enjoin the city from proceeding. The case in the federal court was first heard by three federal judges sitting at Council Bluffs, and later was heard by the circuit court of appeals sitting at St. Paul, the result in each instance being favorable to the city. The case is still pending, however, awaiting favorable vote of the people on the purchase of the water plant.
An exciting case arose soon after Mr. Byers became corporation coun- sel, when the street railway company engaged in a controversy with its em- ployes over the discharge of a conductor. The fight became very bitter, ending in a strike that completely tied up the street railway. Mobs were surging through the streets and riot and bloodshed were imminent. Mr.
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Byers became convinced that a court of equity had jurisdiction and power to deal with this situation and to compel the operation of the street railway. Petition was accordingly prepared and filed and presented to Judge DeGraff, . who signed a writ carrying out the idea of Mr. Byers. Within thirty inn- utes after the writ was signed and extra papers were on the streets an- nouncing the injunction order of the court. the mob had dispersed, the streets were clear and everything was quiet. The injunction order directed obeyance and compliance by a certain hour the following day. Promptly at that time the street cars began running all over Des Moines and no trouble has since occurred. Mr. Byers regards this as probably the most important service he ever rendered the city. The proceedings were entirely unusual and a great many good lawyers concluded that the court was entirely without jurisdiction. Mr. Byers, however, sustained his contention that at such times the city and public is an interested party, and that the business of the public may be protected by a court of equity.
During the term of Mr. Byers as corporation counsel. he prepared the bill enacted into law having for its purpose the abatement of the smoke nuisance. He also prepared and is enforcing an ordinance requiring the telephone and telegraph companies to pay rental to the city for the space used by their poles and wires.
For nearly twenty years the people of Des Moines living south of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers have been asking for a safe way over the tracks of the railroads to the business part of the city. In order to reach the business portion of the city, ten thousand to fifteen thousand people must cross fifteen or twenty railroad tracks, over which travel is very dangerous. Nearly twenty years ago proceedings were brought to compel the railroads to build viaducts over their tracks, but for some reason the railroad com- mission of the state could never be brought to see the necessity of such via- ducts, except as to four or five of the new tracks. Shortly after the ap- pointment of Mr. Byers this viaduct matter was turned over to him, fol- lowing which several hearings were had before the railroad commission. Two members of the board. Ketchum and Palmer, decided against the city, and Clifford Thorne in favor of the city. This dissenting opinion by Thorne gave Mr. Byers courage to apply for a rehearing. Pending this rehearing. he was able to secure a compromise with the railroads, and the viaducts are now in course of construction. This is likely regarded by the people of Des Moines as a large accomplishment.
Mr. Byers has found time to ally himself with the several commercial and civic leagues, and prepared petitions and ordinances providing for rest-
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rooms, and, in a general way, has been devoting much time and energy to those things that tend to make Des Moines a better place in which to live.
REV. ALVA W. TAYLOR.
Rev. Alva W. Taylor is a son of Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Taylor, pioneer residents of Lincoln township, but now residing in Harlan. After attending the country schools of Lincoln township and teaching one or two terms of country school in Shelby county, he entered Drake University in 1896, from which he was graduated later. He took the degree of Master of Arts from the University of Chicago. He took part in the political campaign of 1896, espousing the cause of "free silver." While in college he was es- pecially active in the work of the literary societies. To him belongs the honor of having, in conjunction with Prof. J. Amherst Ott and others, or- ganized the Midland Lyceum Bureau of Des Moines, which has become one of the great lecture course and chautauqua organizations of the country.
Mr. Taylor hell pastorates of the Church of Christ, commonly known as the Christian church, in two different suburbs of Chicago. Later he was pastor of the Christian church at Norwood. Cincinnati, Ohio, and subse- quently at Eureka, Illinois. While pastor at Cincinnati he organized a school for boot-blacks and newsboys, and while at Eureka, Illinois, he helped to organize the first chautauqua held there, and also assisted in estab- lishing there a camp for poor children from Chicago, and brought out there and helped care for many of them during a period of two weeks. Mr. Tay- lor. together with another worker named Sharp, raised an endowment for a Bible college in the State University of Missouri at Columbia, Missouri, in which Bible college Mr. Taylor has been teaching ever since its organization. He conducts a department in a religious journal known as The Christian Evangelist, of St. Louis, to which he contributes articles on the general topic of "Social Service." He also furnishes social service applications of the Sunday school lesson for The Front Rank, the Sunday school paper of the Christian church. Mr. Taylor has also found time at intervals of his very busy life to bring out a book entitled. "Social Side of Christian Mis- sions," which has been adopted as one of the standard works by the Christ- ian Foreign Missionary Society. Mr. Taylor is an unusually ready and elo- quent speaker and frequently appears on chautauqua programs in various parts of the country.
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C. M. CIIRISTENSEN.
C. M. Christensen is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Christensen, of Har- lan, Iowa. Mr. Christensen served two terms as county recorder of Shelby county, after which he removed to Wayne, Nebraska, where he continued a real estate business, which he had developed, and also took charge of a dis- trict management for the Northwestern Life Insurance Company of Mil- waukee. covering a large number of counties in northeastern Nebraska, where he had charge of a large number of sub-agents. Mr. Christensen all of the time kept investing in land in Nebraska and in Minnesota. He has now relinquished the management of the insurance company business, owing to the fact that his other interests demanded his time. He now owns in the state of Minnesota eleven quarter sections of land. He has the land all leased and it is farmed according to his directions, which he executes through a graduate of the State Agricultural College of the University of Nebraska. This director receives one hundred and fifty dollars per month and, in addi- tion, ten per cent. of the income from the farm.
S. B. MORRISSEY.
S. B. Morrissey, who is now a resident of Audubon. Iowa, spent his early life in Polk township. Shelby county, in what was then known as "Irish Ridge." He served as deputy clerk under O. P. Wyland and subse- quently was elected clerk, which office he filled for two terms. He has al- ways been active and prominent in the Democratic politics of the state and, previously, of Shelby county. In 1904 he was elected chairman of the Demo- cratic state central committee.
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MISS BESSIE BROWN.
Miss Bessie Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. B. Brown, of Harlan, is performing a very useful service in the deaconess work of the Methodist Episcopal church. She lectures extensively and is a pleasing speaker. Miss Brown, for some years, taught in the Navajo Indian schools of New Mexico.
MRS. GUY W. SÁRVIS.
Mrs. Guy W. Sarvis, formerly Miss Pearle Taylor, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Taylor, of Harlan, is now at Nankin, China, engaged, to- :
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gether with her husband, in the work of missions. Her husband, by the way, who preached for some time in the Christian church at Harlan, had an in- teresting article in The Outlook, the well-known magazine, of some months ago, on a topic treating of conditions in China. Miss Grace Taylor has also begun missionary work in China. She is also a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Taylor.
REV. P. C. NELSON.
Rev. P. C. Nelson, linguist and evangelist, was born at Ellits Hoi. Den- mark, January 28, 1868, and arrived with his parents at Avoca, Iowa, on August 2, 1872. The family first made their home in a cave in Cuppy's Grove just south of the place owned by Peter Hansen. Later the family removed to another cave in a hill just west of the place of Peter Jensen. Many a night were they awakened by the howling of wolves digging into the roof of the cave. They next lived in a little house built just west of Cuppy's bridge over the Nishnabotna river. This house was afterwards moved across that stream and later enlarged and became the permanent home of this fam- ily, which suffered much from poverty and adversity, the father dying by accident July 16, 1879, and other misfortunes following in quick succession. This was the home of T. K. Nelson. an inventive genius of whom Harlan has reason to be proud, organizer and president of the Nelson Gas Engine and Automobile Company : of Mrs. W. H. Adkins, of Minneapolis, wife of a noted violin maker and mother of a family gifted as professional musi- cians, and of Rev. P. C. Nelson (Christopher). now known all over this country as a linguist and evangelist.
Mr. Nelson, in the summer of 1882, herded cattle for "Bill" Moore on a ranch eight miles west of Audubon. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to Cass & McArthur, of Harlan, to learn carriage and sign painting, the firmn at that time doing a large business as manufacturers of buggies, carriages, wagons and all kinds of farm machinery. It was during this apprenticeship that Mr. Nelson became interested in education, in telegraphy, and later in religious matters. He went rapidly through the grades of the Harlan. schools and then taught a term of school in the school house known as the Brown school, fourteen miles southeast of Harlan. In June, 1889. he preached his first sermon in the Trotter school house, five miles southeast of . Harlan, and in the same summer preached several times in Cuppy's Grove, Bowman's Grove and Harlan, then going to the Baptist Seminary at Chicago. From Chicago in 1890 he went to Denison University, Granville, Ohio, re- ceiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Philosophy in 1897.
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In 1902 he graduated from the Rochester Theological Seminary at Roches- ter, New York. As a student he especially distinguished himself in the lan- guages, acquiring a good knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian. Portuguese, Japanese. Hebrew, Aramaic, the Scan- dinavian languages, and others. He has a reading knowledge of twenty- five languages and can conduet religious services in several of them. While at Rochester he was translator for the Vick Seed Company, which all pio- neers of Shelby county will remember and which at that time did a large business necessitating the use of fifteen foreign languages .. He was tutor in Latin and Greek at Denison University and conducted a school of modern languages in one of the New York universities. For a number of years he took regularly more than a dozen foreign perodicals, receiving these in ex- change for a paper in which he conducted the department of missions.
June 16, 1895. Mr. Nelson married Miss Myrtle Emina Garmong, a classmate, who afterwards attended Shepardson College at Granville, Ohio. Their daughter. May, has traveled with her father and is assistant as pianist in some of their big union meetings. Their eldest son, Merrill, is a student for the ministry.
Mr. Nelson has been pastor of Baptist churches in Iowa. Ohio and Pennsylvania. He has given nearly eleven years to evangelistic work, in which he has been conspicuously successful in many of the widely separated states of the Union. During the summer he uses a large chautauqua tent with a seating capacity of one thousand five hundred. In the colder months he uses specially constructed tabernacles, opera houses and other large build- ings. His sermons are published far and wide, and he enjoys intimate ac- quaintance with thousands of the leading men in different walks of life all over the United States. He ascribes his remarkable achievements to the grace of God and the grace of hard, incessant toil.
It seems almost outside the realm of possibility that two Shelby county boys, at one time classmates in the Harlan public schools and for years making their homes within a block of each other, should become joined in a great life work, such as spreading the gospel to the multitudes by preaching and singing. And yet this has come to pass in the remarkable careers of Evangelist P. C. Nelson and Professor Garmong.
J. P. GARMONG.
J. P. Garmong, singer, traveler and lecturer, was born near Port Royal, Virginia, July 27, 1875, the son of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Garmong, of Des
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Moines, Iowa. He was educated in the Harlan schools, graduating from the Harlan high school June 2, 1893. The family moved to Des Moines the same year. There young Garmong ran a candy shop, was clerk in a grocery. also in a hardware store. He then worked at the carpenter trade with his father, who was a contractor and builder. In 1894-5 he taught school in Dallas and Madison counties. He entered Drake University in 1898 and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in June, 1902. In the fall of 1902 he entered, as a sophomore, the Denison and Gross Medi- cal College. He was converted while yet a boy and united with the First Baptist church of Harlan, later identifying himself with the Des Moines churches. In music he was a pupil of Dean Howard, of Drake University, and of noted teachers in Chicago. Being a natural singer and reader, he was in great demand not only during his college days but afterwards as an evangelistie singer. As an organizer and inspirational leader of song he has few superiors and for more than twelve years he has labored as a singing evangelist from coast to coast and from the lakes to the gulf. With a noted evangelist he made, in 1906-1908, a tour around the world. One of his experiences was the great San Francisco earthquake. He went by way of Hawaii, the Philippines, and the Fiji islands. Of this time he spent one year in New Zealand: six months in Australia, and two months in India. visiting. enroute. Java. Singapore and Burmah, touring Egypt, Palestine. Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France and the British Isles. He had thrilling experiences in New Zealand. Australia and Java. He was robbed at Jerusalem. He swam in the Dead Sea. in the sea of Galilee and in the Jordan. In Constantinople he was taken for a spy and arrested. Recently he has taken a course in the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. and since September 1, 1914, has labored with his brother-in-law. Evangelist P. C. Nelson. a Cuppy's Grove boy. as director of music in evan- gelistic campaigns.
CAPT. GEORGE SABIN GIBBS.
Many citizens of Harlan will recall how many a time they saw a bright active boy marching a crowd of his fellows up and down the streets of Har- lan, putting them through various military evolutions. It is no wonder that this boy subsequently achieved much distinction as a soldier. Captain Gibbs was born December 14. 1875. at Harlan and is a son of Mr. and Mrs. George S. Gibbs, who were both very early residents of Harlan. Mr. Gibbs being one of the best known pioneer merchants, also serving at one time as a mem- ber of the board of supervisors of Shelby county. Graduating from the
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Harlan high school in the class of 1892, Captain Gibbs entered the State Uni- versity of Iowa, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1897. This university gave him the degree of Master of Science in 1901. He became an associate of the American Institute of Elec- trical Engineers, and is a graduate of the Army Signal School of 1912. His first real military experience was in the cadet battalion at the State Uni- versity of Iowa, where he was a private, corporal, first sergeant and first lieutenant.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Captain Gibbs left Shelby county, May 3, 1898, for Camp Mckinley, Des Moines, Iowa, in com- mand of a draft of recruits from Shelby county to join the Iowa volunteers. He, himself, enlisted as a private in Company C. Fifty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, being mustered May 30, 1898. He was promoted quartermaster sergeant on same date, and on June 3, 1898, as a first-class sergeant and ordered to San Francisco, California. On June 26, 1898, he sailed for the Philippines as first sergeant United States Volunteer Signal Corps on the steamship "Indiana" as a member of General MacArthur's expedition, land- ing at Cavite, Philippine islands, July 31. He participated in the campaign against the Spanish forces at the battle of Manila, and was commended for "especially gallant and meritorious conduct in action." January 13. 1899, he was promoted second lieutenant of volunteers and on June 8. 1900, as first lieutenant. He participated in twenty-nine battles and skirmishes of the Philippine insurrection, while engaged in building and operating military telegraph and cable lines. He had the honor of serving on the staffs of Brig .- Gen. Charles King, Major-Gen. Arthur MacArthur and Major-Gen. Henry W. Lawton.
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