The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 10

Author: American biographical publishing company, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago, New York, American biographical publishing company
Number of Pages: 954

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Mr. Cooley, like his sons, is a student,- such, at least, he regards himself. He loves the practice of law much better than politics, and still pursues its study with the relish and eagerness of youthful man- hood. Though standing high at the bar, he has a loftier altitude simply as an attorney, to which he honorably aspires. Office has lost its charms for him, if it ever had any. Through his success at the bar he has obtained a competency, and has one of the most elegant and costly residences in Decorah.

HON. GEORGE W. BEMIS,

INDEPENDENCE.

G EORGE WASHINGTON BEMIS, a native J of Massachusetts, was born in Spencer, Wor- cester county, on the 13th of October, 1826, and is the son of Eleazer and Susan (Hartwell) Bemis. His great-grandfather, Edmund Bemis, commanded a company in the expedition against Crown Point, in 1755-56. His father moved with his family to Alabama, Genesee county, New York, in 1837, and there resumed his occupation of farming; George, an only son, remaining at home until he was of age. After closing his studies in the common school, he at- tended about four terms at the Carysville Collegiate

Seminary, in Oakfield, near Alabama. He after- ward taught school in the latter town and in Wis- consin four winters, employing the summers of that time on the farm.

In 1854 he removed to Independence, Iowa, where he has since resided. The first three or four years after his arrival he devoted mainly to surveying and to real-estate operations, and during most of the time for seventeen years he has acted in some capacity, either as a county, legislative or government officer.

The year after settling in Independence he was appointed surveyor of Buchanan county, and served

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in that capacity for two years. He was a member of the eighth general assembly in 1859-60, and of the extra war session of 1861. He acted in the capacity of postal clerk on the Dubuque and Sioux City railroad about seven years, and from 1871 to 1875 was a member of the state senate. He was a commissioner, and secretary and treasurer of the commissioners, of the Hospital for the Insane, at Independence, when elected senator, and resigned to fill the latter office. In April, 1872, he was reap- pointed a commissioner, and at present (1877) holds that position. Being the only resident commissioner, his responsibilities are very great, but he has never failed to discharge them with the utmost fidelity. In the summer of 1876 he was nominated on the

republican ticket for treasurer of state. He has always voted with that party.

In every position which Mr. Bemis has occupied he has discharged his duties faithfully and satis- factorily. As a legislator, he was a constant worker and wise counselor. He was chairman of more than one important committee, and at the close of every session stood higher in the esteem of the people, whose confidence in him is shown in their placing the treasury of the state in his hands. Every nomi- nation which he has received has been unsought.

On the 11th of April, 1855, he was married to Miss Narcissa T. Roszell, of Independence, a lady of fine accomplishments and of most excellent family They have three children.

GENERAL DAVID B. HILLIS, M.D.,

KEOKUK.

G ENERAL DAVID BURK HILLIS, second colonel 17th Iowa Infantry, is a native of Jef- ferson county, Indiana, and was born on the 24th of July, 1825. He is a son of David Hillis, who was quite a distinguished whig politician, and at one time lieutenant-governor of Indiana. His ancestors were from the north of Ireland, and of the Protest- ant faith. His grandfather Hillis was a soldier in the revolutionary war.

General Hillis was educated at the University of South Hanover, Indiana, and studied medicine at Madison, Indiana, with the then distinguished Dr. William Davidson, a graduate of Edinburgh, Scot- land. He graduated at St. Louis, Missouri, and at the age of twenty-one commenced the practice of his profession in Jackson county, Indiana. For eleven years he gave to his profession his undivided attention, and at the end of that time had attained a high standing among the members of his fraterni- ty. In 1858 he abandoned his profession to engage in mercantile pursuits. Moving west, he located in Bloomfield, Davis county, Iowa, where he continued in business till the summer of 1860, when he re- moved to Keokuk, Iowa, and there, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Oscar Kiser, established himself in the dry-goods trade. In August, 1861, he was appointed an aid-de-camp to Governor Kirk- wood. This position he held till the 14th of March, 1862, when he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 17th Infantry. Hon. John W. Rankin, a 7

distinguished lawyer, was the colonel. In August, 1862, Colonel Rankin tendered his resignation, and on its acceptance Lieutenant-Colonel Hillis was pro- moted to the colonelcy of his regiment. Having, with his regiment, been engaged in many skirmishes and severely contested battles under General Grant, in the campaign against Vicksburg, through central Mississippi, the Yazoo Pass, and afterward down the Mississippi river to the " flanking " of Vicksburg, and having particularly distinguished himself at the battles of Champion's Hill, Jackson, and the siege of Vicksburg, he was at last, by reason of business requirements, impelled to resign, leaving the service with much credit, carrying with him the love and regrets of his men, and for his gallantry a brevet- brigadier-general's commission, and an expensive and handsome sword, suitably inscribed, a testimo- nial from the officers of his regiment, with whom he had participated in so many pleasures and dangers.

In June, 1863, General M. M. Crocker, writing to President Lincoln, says : " I had the honor to com- mand Colonel Hillis in the late campaign of General Grant in Mississippi, from Port Gibson until after the battle of Champion Hills. In the march and on the battle field he exhibited all the highest qual- ities of a soldier, and an unusual capacity for com- mand. At Jackson his regiment held the position most exposed, and with undaunted courage drove everything before them. At Champion Hills, where the fight was most desperate and the situation of

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our left most critical, the 17th Iowa, led by Colonel Hillis, charged, through a storm of bullets, the ene- my's line, driving the rebels before them, capturing the regimental flag of the 31st Alabama and a four- gun battery."

General Quimby, writing about the same date, says : " It gives me great pleasure to state that Col- onel Hillis was under my command for nearly six months preceding his resignation, and that under all the various and trying circumstances under which he was placed, he proved himself a most zealous and efficient officer, and exhibited the true qualities of a commander."

Later, General Crocker writes: "From my per- sonal knowledge and observation in the laborious and brilliant campaign in the rear of Vicksburg, he won and demands a hero's laurels."

In May, 1848, he married Miss Laura Kiser, eldest daughter of Dr. Wm. P. Kiser, in Rockford, Indiana. To this good and amiable woman he at- tributes much of whatever success has attended him, such has been her admirable counsels and example.

In religion, General Hillis is an associate Presby- terian.

In politics, he was a whig until the demise of that party. Having always been anti-slavery, in 1856 he became an active republican, and took an earnest part in the Fremont campaign. In 1860 and in 1864 he engaged earnestly on the "stump " in favor of Mr. Lincoln's first and second election to the Presidency.

In 1868 he resumed the practice of his profession in Keokuk, Iowa, where he still continues. Occu- pying high rank among the first physicians of his state, having been honored for four years with the position of president of the board of health of Keo- kuk, and once as representative of the Iowa State Medical Association to the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, of which he is now a member. A writer in the "Iowa Colonels and Regiments " thus describes him : " In personal ap- pearance, Colonel Hillis is attractive. He is not a large man, but is strongly and compactly built, and steps promptly and firmly. His complexion and hair are dark; eyes blue, full and lustrous. On first acquaintance one would think him a little haughty and aristocratic, but his sociableness and congeniality soon remove this impression."

HON. ENOCH W. EASTMAN,

ELDORA.

M ORE than three-fourths of the men who have risen to distinction in Iowa were the sons of farmers, and acquired their habits of industry by cultivating the soil. Among this class is the subject of this sketch. His father owned a farm and a saw- mill, and in both the son had an opportunity early to develop his muscle, and those steady habits and sturdy virtues which have helped him on to emi- nence in the legal profession and in the state.

Enoch Worthen Eastman was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, on the 15th of April, 1810; his parents were John and Mary James Eastman. His father was a lieutenant in the war of 1812, and his grandfather was on his way to Boston with gun on his shoulder when the battle of Bunker Hill occurred. For some unknown reason he did not participate in the struggle for independence.

Enoch worked in the saw-mill and in farming for his father and the neighbors until he was of age, attending the district school usually a few of the colder weeks each year. One season he worked for

a farmer seven months at ten dollars a month, and at the end of the time handed his father sixty-seven dollars of the earnings. Ten dollars a month, among New England farmers, was regarded as good wages forty and fifty years ago.

Mr. Eastman was educated at Pembroke, New Hampton and Pittsfield academies, all flourishing institutions from 1830 to 1840, and some of them still showing no signs of decay. While pursuing his academic studies he supported himself by teaching district and singing schools, and working in a saw- mill in Massachusetts. At the age of twenty-eight he began to read law with Hon. Moses Norris, of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, afterward member of congress, and was admitted to the bar by the su- preme court of New Hampshire, after reading five years,-the customary time then allotted for reading to law students.

Mr. Eastman practiced in Pittsfield until 1844, when he immigrated to the territory of Iowa and settled in Burlington, practicing three years there :

E. W. Eastman

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then removing to Oskaloosa, Mahaska county, and practicing steadily for ten years. In 1857 we find him in Eldora, Hardin county, his present home. He has a wide practice, extending into a dozen counties.

In 1863 Mr. Eastman was elected lieutenant- governor of the state for two years, receiving the largest majority which, up to that time, had ever been given to a candidate for any state office. He made an able presiding officer. He took the gavel in hand while the rebellion was progressing, when the patriotism of the Union men of the north was at its heat ; and some idea of the boldness of the man and of the spirit of the times may be formed by short extracts from his speech made on taking the chair, and which we find on page sixty-five of the journal of the senate, January 15, 1844. He referred to the " perilous times " in which the people were then living, to the fact that there were disloyal men in Iowa, and of the possibility of there being some member of the state senate whose devotion to the Union had ceased to exist, and then added :

If, unfortunately, such a one is here, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that his tongue may be paralyzed and cleave to the roof of his mouth whenever he attempts to utter the intent of his heart. For the honor of the state I do hope that the patriotic men of Iowa, who have taken their lives in their hands and gone to the tented field, will not receive a shot in the rear from any member of this honorable senate.

In the same speech Mr. Eastman took advanced ground on the question of the right of speech. He declared that " no man has the legal, moral or polit- ical right to begin to do that which the law will punish him for consummating." He added :

Believing, therefore, as I do, that the ax should be laid at the root of the tree, I hold it unparliamentary for any one to talk treason, or advocate the cause of secession or any dismemberment of our Union, or in any way give aid and comfort to the rebellion, by pleading the cause of traitors, or denouncing or disparaging the government in this senate while I preside over it. The right of free speech in a leg- islative assembly does not extend beyond the bounds of loyalty.

Mr. Eastman was a Presidential elector on the

republican ticket in 1868, and made more than fifty speeches during the canvass. He is an effective platform orator, mixing with solid argument just enough of Yankee shrewdness and drollery to make his speeches spicy.

Mr. Eastman was a democrat until 1857, since which time he has been a strong republican. He has long aspired to be a statesman rather than a politician, and studies political economy more that politics.

Mr. Eastman joined the Masons in 1850. He has been a Master Mason and Royal Arch Mason; has taken the council degrees ; was Grand High Priest of the General Chapter of Royal Arch Masons two and a half years; has been president of the Order of High Priesthood, and is ex-officio member of the General Grand Chapter of the United States.

In religious sentiment, he is a Unitarian, but worships with the Congregationalists, there being no church of his faith in Eldora.

On the 8th of January, 1845, he married Miss Sarah C. Greenough, of Canterbury, New Hamp- shire ; she had seven children, only four now living. She died on the 17th of June, 1861. In 1865 he married Miss Amanda Hall, a highly educated lady, of Eldora, and by her has one son.

Governor Eastman is probably the best specimen of a "downeaster " that Iowa can exhibit. After a thirty years' residence among western people he retains, in some measure, the Yankee dialect, and in a large measure the Yankee tone ; can look as grave as an orthodox deacon of the last century ; can sing psalms like David Gamut ; is quick witted and can get up, in a political mass meeting, a laugh which, at a little distance, sounds like an infant earthquake; is tall, lank and thin, so that prairie winds can pass him easily ; is honesty personified ; is as guileless as a child, and has the agility of thirty-five. He has always taken good care of himself, and may yet attend the funeral escort of the nineteenth century.

HON. EDMUND JAEGER,

KEOKUK.

E DMUND JAEGER, banker, was born at Mau- dach, Rhenish Bavaria, on the 22d of Septem- ber, 1833. His early education was received from private tutors and the common schools till the age of fifteen, when he entered Speier College. Here he

remained but a year, for the revolution coming on, and he having joined the students for the common cause, and fearing to share their fate-a suspension from the college-did not return. In his sixteenth year he engaged to learn the mercantile business,

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remaining in it for three years, but being ambitious and anxious to build up his own fortune, he emi- grated to the United States in 1853, settling at Cincinnati, Ohio. He taught school at Lawrence- burg, Indiana, a short time, and there made the acquaintance of Hon. James Brown, a noted lawyer and celebrated jurist, and commenced the study of law under his instructions. During his studies he was appointed deputy recorder, and on the death of the recorder took his position. He attended the law college in the State University at Bloomington, Indiana, and received his diploma, and at the same time he pursued such classical studies as would be of use to him in his profession. He was admitted to the bar at Lawrenceburg, Judge Holmon, since member of congress, being the presiding officer of the board. In 1857 he commenced the practice of his profession in Keokuk, Iowa. He was clerk of the house of the Iowa legislature in 1861, and was appointed by the governor as commissioner to receive the votes of the soldiers. By special act of the legislature he was also made translator of the law for German publication. In 1864 he was elected vice-president of the school board, and was

unanimously elected alderman on an independent ticket. In the fall of 1864 he was elected and served two terms as county judge of Lee county; and on that office being abolished, he held the po- sition of county auditor, to which he was reelected. During this time he lived at Fort Madison, but in 1872 he removed to Keokuk and organized the Commercial Bank, of which he is cashier and direct- or. In 1872 he was nominated for congress on the democratic ticket, but was defeated. He has been tendered the nomination of superintendent of public instruction for the state, but declined. Was elected mayor of Keokuk in 1874, which office he yet (1876) holds.

He was married on the 15th of November, 1866, to Miss Addie G. Ayres. Through his industry and economy he has acquired an ample competency ; and when we consider that on his arrival in this country he was not only without means but utterly ignorant of the English language, his success is truly remark- able. His character for integrity and uprightness is unimpeachable, and he occupies in the community in which he lives a position that commands respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens.

HON. JOHN N. ROGERS,

DAVENPORT.

F OREMOST among the many eminent names that adorn the bar of Iowa stands that of John Newton Rogers, the subject of this sketch, who was born in the city of New York, on the 7th of Novem- ber, 1830, his parents being Edmund J. and Rebecca (Platt) Rogers. His father was a native of South- ampton, Long Island, and an active and successful merchant in New York city till his death, which oc- curred suddenly in the year 1835, at the age of forty- seven years. His mother was a daughter of Judge Ebenezer Platt, long a prominent citizen of Hunt- ington, Long Island. Mrs. Rogers survived her husband some eighteen years, and died in 1853 at Northampton, Massachusetts, where her home had been during the latter part of her life. She was a woman of rare symmetry and beauty of character, and to her influence and example much of what is excellent in the character of our subject is due. She had nine children, four of whom died in infancy, and five of whom survive. The eldest son, Rev. E. P. Rogers, D.D., is a prominent and successful

clergyman of the Reformed church in New York city. Our subject is the only other son.

The ancestors of the family were among the early colonists of New England, arriving about the year 1640, and claiming descent from Rev. John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom in England during the reign of " Bloody Mary."

The preparatory studies of our subject were pur- sued at Fairfield, Connecticut, and afterward at Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1844 he entered the university of the city of New York, from which he was graduated in 1848 with the first honors of his class. Soon after leaving college he went to Augusta, Georgia, where his elder brother then re- sided, and spent a year in teaching. Returning to the north in 1849 he commenced the study of law at Northampton, then the family home, in the office of the Hon. Osmyn Baker and Hon. Chas. Delano, then prominent members of the bar of Hampshire county, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in the month of February, 1852. He removed to

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New York city soon after, and in the autumn of 1853 accepted an invitation to become professor of pleading, practice and evidence in the State and National Law School, then located at Poughkeepsie, New York. He continued to occupy this chair for two years, after which he returned to New York city and commenced the practice of his profession.

In the autumn of 1856 he made a trip to the west and visited Davenport, Iowa, being induced to do so chiefly by the circumstance that his friend and former fellow-student, the late W. H. F. Gurley, who, during the administration of President Lincoln, was United States district attorney for Iowa, resided there. "The result was that in the following Febru- ary (1857) he removed to Davenport, where he has ever since resided. He formed a law partnership with his friend Gurley which lasted three years and was then dissolved, and in 1860 he formed his pres- ent partnership with Chas. E. Putnam, Esq., former- ly of Saratoga Springs, New York, under the firm name of Putnam and Rogers, which has long since taken a leading place at the bar of Iowa, having been connected with some of the heaviest suits and most important questions of law coming before the state and federal courts during the last seventeen years, with the most flattering results. The practice of Mr. Rogers has been confined to no special de- partment of the law, and he is equally powerful in all. He has been instrumental in settling points of underwriting and commercial law, as well as the more delicate and complicated questions of constitu- tional and statutory interpretation. One of the most notable recent instances of his power was exhibited in the case of the United States, on the relation of Hall and Morse against the Union Pacific Railroad Company, begun in the United States circuit court of Iowa and carried thence to the supreme court of the United States, in which Mr. Rogers, as attorney for the citizens of Council Bluffs, Iowa, succeeded in establishing, against very able lawyers and the strenuous opposition of the. railroad company, the fact that the eastern terminus of the line was at Council Bluffs, on the eastern side of the Missouri river, instead of at Omaha, and consequently that the bridge between the two cities was a part of the railroad and must be operated as such. The case involved several new and intricate questions, as well as the construction of several acts of congress. Judge Dillon, of the United States circuit court at Des Moines, and finally the supreme court of the United States, sustained Mr. Rogers throughout the

protracted and exciting struggle. Mr. Rogers has devoted himself almost constantly to his profession, evading all public offices, except one term (1866-7) which he served with great ability in the state legis- lature. In 1875 he was offered by the governor of Iowa the appointment of judge of the seventh ju- dicial district, but declined it. He has for two years past filled the chair of lecturer on constitutional law in the law department of the Iowa State University, a position on which he has reflected high distinction. His mental qualities are of a keen analytical and logical cast. His language is luminous and finely chosen to express his exact and clear-cut ideas. His statements are made with extreme accuracy of expression, and although he does not seek the aid of rhetorical embellishment to give charm to his argu- ment, yet he is always listened to by courts with the greatest pleasure, and he carries along his auditors by the resistless sweep of his logical force. He is stronger with the court than with the jury, for the reason that he seems to aim exclusively at strength and certainty, discarding the arts and embellishments of the popular advocate. Hence the trained mind of the jurist follows him with ever increasing inter- est. His arguments in the higher courts are not unfrequently reproduced phrase for phrase in the ruling of the judge delivering the opinion. Yet he has been eminently successful before juries, and his candor with them always commands respect and confidence.

In addition to his legal attainments he has a fine literary culture, possessing a memory that retains everything once read. He has the power of recall- ing at will large passages from his favorite authors, which in the company of congenial friends he does with great aptness and felicity.

The natural habitude of his mind is retiring, hence his circle of intimate acquaintances is limited. He has but few of the popular arts, and those who do not know him well misjudge his disposition and think him exclusive when he is only shy. To his friends he is warm-hearted and sincere, and those who know him best esteem him most highly. He is known chiefly as a lawyer, and his reputation in that capacity is the result of earnest and persistent efforts exerted in the interest of his clients, and not to make a display. His tastes and character of mind induce a love of legal study for its own sake.

In the summer of 1872 he visited Europe and spent four months in travel through that most dis- tinguished quarter of the globe.

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Mr. Rogers has been for many years a member of the Reformed church, but is not at all sectarian in his views, being in sympathy with all evangelical christians.

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 10

Author: American biographical publishing company, pub Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Chicago, New York, American biographical publishing company Number of Pages: 954

Author: American biographical publishing company, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago, New York, American biographical publishing company
Number of Pages: 954