USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 107
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Pleasant, Iowa. Here, in company with other parties, he started a branch of the State Bank in 1858, he being its cashier, and representative of the bank on the state board of directors during the time that it was in operation.
In May, 1865, this institution was changed into the National State Bank, one of the solid institutions of Iowa, and he has held from the start the office of president.
Mr. Whiting has held none but bank and church offices since coming to the state, except one year's service as director in the Asylum for the Insane, at Mount Pleasant. He has never been a very strong partisan, and has peremptorily refused to accept po- litical offices. He was a democrat at an early day, a whig a little later, and of late years has usually acted with the republicans.
Mr. Whiting has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1831, and an official in the Mount Pleasant body since first locating here. The character of no man in the city stands better. He is liberal-hearted, kind to the poor, and ready to help the needy and distressed at all times.
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In December, 1833, Mr. Whiting and Miss Sarah A. McCall, of Painted Post, New York, were joined in wedlock, and they have had eleven children. Seven of them are living, and all married but the youngest child, Frank H., who is in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Com . pany, at Burlington, in the civil engineer depart- ment.
John H., the eldest son, is cashier of the National State Bank, Mount Pleasant ; Henry is master me- chanic of the Saint Louis, Rock Island and Rock- ford Railroad Company, living at Beardstown, Illi- nois ; Charles H. is a music dealer in Burlington, Iowa, and Samuel S. is the business agent in Mis- souri of a Mount Pleasant firm. Ann E., the eld-
est daughter living, is the wife of Professor J. H. Hopkins, vice-president of the Albion, Michigan, College, with his home at Ypsilanti, and Sophia E. is the wife of R. S. Gillis, assistant cashier of the National State Bank.
Few men of his age have worked more hours than Mr. Whiting. He has had remarkable health, not having had forty sick days in forty years. Hav- ing always been prudent and economical ; having attended assiduously to his own matters, and not only minded his own business but put mind in his business, he has made his life one of marked suc- cess. His accumulations are the work of his own hands, toil hardened by fifty years' industry, and still ready for any honorable service.
WILLIAM B. MAYES,
JEFFERSON.
T HE subject of this brief sketch, one of the most successful business men of Jefferson, is of Scotch descent, his ancestors on both sides being from the old country. His parents were Joseph and Rebecca (Work) Mayes, residing near Cadiz, Harri- son county, Ohio, when the son was born, on the 11th of August, 1837. His father was in the war of 1812. His paternal grandfather, on coming from Scotland, settled in Pennsylvania. The Works settled in Wash- ington county, in the same state, where many of them still reside.
William B. lived in Harrison county until after he became of age, farming, attending a common school and teaching.
In April, 1860, he came to De Witt, Clinton county, Iowa, still farming in harvest time, teaching in the winters, and studying the rest of the time, finishing his school education with a full year in Lenox Col- legiate Institute, Hopkinton, Delaware county, where he had previously attended one or two terms.
On finishing his academic course of studies he read law with Captain D. S. Lee, of Independence, Iowa ; was admitted to the bar at DeWitt, in September, 1867, and settled in Jefferson on the 16th of the same month. Here, to legal practice he has added real estate, making the latter a specialty, and managing it with eminent success.
When Mr. Mayes located in Jefferson, he had spent his funds in securing an education, and was not worth a dollar; was, in fact, owing something less than one
hundred dollars of borrowed money. Since going into business here, he has been economical, has been prudent and careful in his investments and specula- tions, and, what is remarkable, has in no instance been a loser. He now owns the Revere House, in Jefferson, a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres at the depot, four hundred acres of wild land in various parts of Greene county, a cozy home in the city, and perhaps other property of which the writer has no knowledge. In company with Mr. G. G. Lawrence, county auditor, he is in the abstract busi- ness, and they have probably the most perfect thing of the kind in the state.
In the month of Angust, 1862, Mr. Mayes enlisted as a private in company K, 11th Iowa Infantry, and served nearly three years. He was with his regiment in every battle except one, and was hit twice, but not seriously wounded. During the latter part of this period he was a clerk in the provost-marshal's office, seventeenth army corps.
Mr. Mayes is a republican in politics, but has held no office outside the municipality of his adopted home. He has passed all the chairs in Odd-Fellow- ship, and is a Master Mason.
He inherited from his parents a warm regard for the Presbyterian tenets and order of church govern- ment, and is an elder in the Jefferson body. For probity and consistency of christian character, no man in the city has a better standing. He is a zeal- ous worker in the cause of divine truth.
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His wife, becoming such on the 14th of May, 1868, | it when reading law at Independence. At that place was Miss Sarah J. Cowan, of Mount Vernon, Linn county, Iowa, and was educated there in Cornell College ; she is a very active and influential christian.
Circumstances rendered it a necessity that Mr. Mayes should make a slow start in his academic course, and consequently in his legal and independ- ent career ; but he seems to have been determined not to enter on a profession without a fair degree of mental culture ; so far as we can learn, he struggled on, full of hope, with an elastic spirit, and a safe amount of energy and perseverance. While in the army he studied the German language, and acquired a knowledge of it sufficient to enable him to teach
| he also taught a select school to aid in defraying his expenses while pursuing his legal studies. His plan seems to have been to convert his money, early earned, into mental resources, so that if successful in later years he might have the means by which he could the better enjoy his financial success. He is now devoting one hundred dollars a year to the enlargement of his private library. From the career of such men, who can doubt that the aspirations for knowledge, culture and refinement which led them to struggle upward are to be infinitely preferred to inherited wealth, which not infrequently proves itself to be other than a blessing ?
MAJOR RACINE D. KELLOGG,
GARDEN GROVE.
T HE most enterprising man and leading spirit in Decatur county, Iowa, is Major Racine D. Kellogg, one of the town builders of the common- wealth. He is a native of Onondaga county, New York, and was born at Fayetteville, on the 9th of March, 1828. His parents were Pearl and Lucy M. (Northrup) Kellogg. Both of his grandparents were Kelloggs, and sprung, on the father's side, from the branch of the family which early settled in Massa- chusetts ; on the mother's side, in Connecticut. His grandfather moved to Oneida county, New York, swimming the Mohawk river with his teams, when there was but one dwelling house, a log hut, in Utica.
Pearl Kellogg was in the war of 1812-15, though in what capacity we cannot learn. Hon. W. P. Kel- logg, congressman from Illinois; W. W. Kellogg, late congressman from Massachusetts, and Senator Kel- logg of Louisiana, are distantly related to the subject of this sketch.
Racine received an academic education in his na- tive village. At twenty-one years of age he started for the west, spending four years in farming and teaching in Erie county, Ohio.
In 1854 he crossed the Mississippi river; located at Garden Grove; merchandised a short time, and has since been engaged in handling real estate, being one of the most extensive operators in this part of the state. He is improving many farms, and has wild lands and coal lands in Wayne, Decatur, Clark, Mar- ion, Polk and Greene counties; and in the first two counties alone he has built no less than thirty-seven
miles of fencing. In connection with other parties he laid out the towns of Dallas Center and Grand Junction, and the impress of his enterprising hand is seen in scores of places in different sections of the state.
In 1859 Mr. Kellogg was elected to the general assembly, and was in the regular sessions of 1860, and the extra session of 1861 ; was reelected and served in the regular and extra sessions of 1862. In that year he was selected by Governor Kirkwood as one of his staff to accompany him to the battle-field of Fort Donelson, where the battle flag of the gal- lant 2d Iowa Infantry was put into his hands to be brought back and placed in the archives of the state.
At the opening of the regular session of 1862 Mr. Kellogg was elected speaker pro tem.
Prior to this time, in the extra session of 1861, Mr. Kellogg offered the following resolution, which was extensively copied and commented on at the time :
WHEREAS, The President of the United States has appealed to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid the effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of the National Union, and suppress treason and rebellion against the federal government; therefore be it
Resolved, By the House of Representatives, the senate con - curring herein, that the faith, credit and resources of the State of Iowa, both in men and money, are hereby irrevoc- ably pledged to any amount and to every extent which the federal government may demand, to suppress treason, sub- due rebellion, enforce the laws, protect the lives and prop- erty of loyal citizens, and maintain inviolate the constitution and sovereignty of the nation.
In 1862 he went into the army as major of the 34th Iowa Infanty, and before he had served a year
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was compelled, on account of ill-health, to resign and leave the service. He was at the battle and surren- der of Arkansas Post, and the rebel general Church- ill, together with his staff and other officers, to the number of one hundred and fifty men and thirteen hundred privates, was placed in charge of Major Kellogg, and delivered by him to General Curtis at Saint Louis. On his leaving the army the officers of the 34th regiment held a meeting at Benton Barracks, Saint Louis, on the 20th of April, 1863, and passed the following complimentary and well-merited reso- lutions :
WHEREAS, Our worthy Major, R. D. Kellogg, has been compelled to resign his position in this regiment on account of ill-health; therefore
Resolved, That we deplore the circumstances which render the step necessary, and in parting with Major Kellogg bear cheerful testimony to his merit as an officer, and his uniform kindness and urbanity as a gentleman.
Resolved, That in his resignation the service loses a most valuable officer, and the members of this regiment a genial and most pleasant companion.
Resolved, That in view of a just appreciation of the gal- lant military career as well as high social endowments of Major Kellogg, we do without hesitancy say that he has left the image of himself imprinted in the heart of every mem- ber oft he 34th Iowa; and although compelled to retire from the service, our esteem, friendship and admiration for him is growing, expansive and quenchless as time and human memory.
Resolved, That the foregoing be published in the " Iowa State Register," " Leon Pioneer," " Chariton Patriot," " In- dianola Visitor," and " South Tier Democrat."
A gentleman who has long been intimately ac- quainted with Major Kellogg states that "as a repre- sentative, as a business man, as a good citizen, as a brave soldier, and as one of the useful and tireless members of our state assembly for several sessions, he is without a blemish. He will never stoop to
shield himself from responsibility, and will never shrink from duty. In social and political circles his name is a synonym for power and honor." Every position of public trust in which the major has been placed he has filled with credit to himself and hon- or to the people whom he represented.
Major Kellogg was known as a war democrat when rebellion broke out at the south; during Mr. Lin- coln's administration his affiliations were with the republican party, and latterly he has been an inde- pendent politician, voting as he thought the best interests of his country required him to do. Of late years his name has repeatedly been mentioned as a suitable man to represent his district in congress, but he has not allowed his name to be used in political conventions.
Major Kellogg is a member of the Presbyterian church, and a man of the highest christian integrity.
On the 2d of November, 1864, Miss Elizabeth A. Burns, daughter of Hon. John D. Burns, a member of the Michigan constitutional convention, became the wife of Major Kellogg, and they have two chil- -
dren living and have lost three.
At home the major is held in the highest esteem. Here his public spirit and enterprise are most fully felt and thoroughly appreciated. He was chairman of the railroad committee when the Leon branch of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad came through Garden Grove; was chairman of the build- ing committee when the large and finely arranged school-house was built, and in every movement for the improvement of the place he is a foremost man. He is benevolent and kind to the poor.
JOHN C. BUCHANAN,
LEMARS.
OHN CALDER BUCHANAN, son of William J and Jane Calder Buchanan, was born near Glas- gow, Scotland, on the 12th of September, 1831. He is descended from a very old family which started in Sterlingshire, his great-grandfather speaking the pure Gaelic only. William Buchanan emigrated with his family from Scotland to the province of Ontario, Canada, in 1842, and settled in Dumfries, near Galt, where he bought a farm, on which the son, John C., worked until sixteen years of age, fitting himself, in the meantime, in the common school and by private study, for a teacher; that vocation he followed, with
occasional interruptions, for twenty years, teaching sometimes in Canada, and at other times in different parts of the United States. At one time during this period he spent a few months in New York city, in the old museum of P. T. Barnum, often taking a mi- nor part on the stage. At another time we find him in Texas, alternating between teaching school and acting as a ranger, hunting mustangs and Indians. In 1854 he became a pupil in the Illinois Liberal In- stitute, now Lombard University, Galesburg, Illinois. Two years later, during the Presidential campaign, he conducted a daily paper in Decatur, Illinois; a
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year or two later he spent six months as a pupil in the Provincial Normal School, Toronto, Canada, and then taught steadily from 1859 to 1867, most of the time in Preston, near Galt, he being principal of the graded school.
Since 1867 Mr. Buchanan has been a journalist, commencing, in company with his younger brother Robert, on the Appleton, Wisconsin, "Post," conduct- ing it two years, then purchasing the Marquette, Michigan, " Plaindealer," the office of which paper they lost by fire in about six months.
In July, 1870, Mr. Buchanan came to Lemars and founded the "Sentinel," issuing the first number in February, 1871. This large weekly paper he still conducts, having built up a powerful republican organ. Mr. Buchanan has a fine education, classical withal, an immense fund of general as well as scien- tific knowledge, and is a very strong, vigorous and graceful writer.
He is an unwavering republican, well read in the politics of the country, and during an exciting cam- paign can and does do effective work on the stump, being an eloquent as well as logical speaker.
During the year 187 r, while editing the " Sentinel," he also printed the Rock Rapids, Lyon county, "Re- view." Though a warm partisan, and ready to help friends to office, Mr. Buchanan rarely asks for any- thing of the kind for himself. He was elected county superintendent of schools a few years ago, but im- mediately resigned.
The wife of Mr. Buchanan was Miss Catherine Bergy, of Pennsylvania ; married in February, 1861. They have eight children and have lost two.
Mr. Buchanan has been quite successful during his residence in Iowa. Besides the printing office, he owns and lives in one of the best houses in Le- mars, has other property in the city, and owns two farms in Plymouth county.
HENRY H. MAYNARD, M. D.,
TIPTON.
H ENRY HOBART MAYNARD is a native of Ohio, and was born near Columbus, on the 6th of September, 1835. He is a son of Stephen Maynard, a farmer, and Lurenda Humphrey. His grandfather, Stephen Maynard, senior, was a musi- cian in the continental army. Hon. Horace May- nard, of Tennessee, belongs to a branch of the same family.
When Henry Hobart was nine years of age his father removed the family to Johnson county, Iowa, settling on a farm near Iowa city. There the son gave himself to hard work until of age, with educa- tional privileges limited to the winter months, as is usual with farmer boys.
After attending the normal department of the State University, at Iowa city, one year, at the age of twenty-two he commenced reading medicine, at first with Dr. E. J. B. Statler, and subsequently with Dr. Frederic Lloyd, both of Iowa city. He then attend- ed lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago; grad- uated in March, 186r ; came directly to Tipton, and has here been in steady practice, except when in the service of his country.
On the 12th of August, 1862, Dr. Maynard went into the army as assistant-surgeon of the 18th Iowa Infantry ; was in the service three years, and during
the first half of that period was, most of the time, surgeon in charge of the general hospital at Spring- field, Missouri. He was then appointed surgeon of the 2d Arkansas Cavalry, and remained nominally in that position, serving, however, nearly all of the time as medical director of the district of southwest Mis- souri until near the close of the war. The value of his services as medical director will be readily in- ferred from the following letter from the medical in- spector-general United States army :
MEDICAL INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D.C., February 8, 1865. DR. H. H. MAYNARD, Surgeon 2d Arkansas Cavalry :
SIR,-Your letter of 29th January has but this moment reached me. It affords me great pleasure to state that you have served under me, and that important duties have been devolved on you, all of which you have performed to my entire satisfaction ; and I take this occasion to thank you for your very efficient aid in the discharge of my duties as medical director of the department of Missouri. As med- ical director of southwest Missouri you rendered important service to the country, and managed the affairs of that dis- trict with great credit to yourself.
I feel confident that you will fill creditably any position in the line of your profession you may be appointed to.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
MADISON MILLS, Medical Inspector-General United States Army.
Dr. Maynard was mustered out with his regiment on the 20th of August, 1865, and resumed practice at Tipton. He attended a full course of lectures at
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the Bellevue Hospital Medical College from Octo- ber, 1874, to February, 1875, and took the degree of ad eundem.
Dr. Maynard is a Royal Arch Mason, and belongs to the subordinate lodge of Odd-Fellows. To pol- itics he pays but little attention, usually voting with the republicans. He studies medical and surgical
science rather than politics, and is constantly increas- ing in skill as well as reputation. He is a rapidly rising man in his profession.
On the 5th of September, 1865, Miss Susan H. Edwards, daughter of Hon. John Edwards, of Chari- ton, Iowa, became his wife, and they have three children.
DR. JOHN P. GRUWELL,
OSKALOOSA.
JOHN P. GRUWELL was born in Stark county, Ohio, on the 19th of May, 1810, and is the son of Timothy Gruwell. Being unable to trace the gene- alogy of his father's family, little is known definite- ly of its history in America. It seems probable that the grandfather of our subject, Peter Gronelle, (the name was originally spelled Gronelle,) emigrated from the eastern part of France. He died soon after reaching the shores of Delaware Bay, leaving a wid- ow and three little boys, John, Isaac and Timothy ; and upon the death of the widow, which occurred soon afterward, the three children were left without means upon the charity of strangers. Timothy be- came a man of good mind without high cultivation, plain but substantial ; was of square build, with large head, black hair, blue-gray eyes, and stood five feet eight inches in height; erect in form and of quick, firm step. He had a strong constitution, and died in his seventy-eighth year, with unimpaired mental faculties. When twenty-five years of age he became a member of the Society of Friends.
The mother of our subject descended from an ancient English family, by the name of Pennock or Pinnock. Christopher Pennock, a Quaker, came to America either as a member of William Penn's colony, or about that time, in quest of religious liberty, and settled near the present site of Philadelphia, His descendants became numerous, and as a class were distinguished for moral and religious worth, honest integrity, enterprise and success. William Pennock, being of the third generation from Christopher Pen- nock, and Alice née Mendenhall, were the great- grandparents of our subject. His grandfather, also named William, was the fifth of nine children, the most of whom lived to be more than ninety years of age. He married Mary Martin, by whom he had eight children, of whom the mother of our subject was the second. She reared a family of thirteen
children, of whom John is the fifth, and died at the age of ninety-two years, of pneumonia, having up to the time of her death enjoyed good health, and being in the full possession of her mental powers. She was a woman refined in manner, and kind and affection- ate, and was in every sense a conscientious, christian mother.
About the year 1800 the father of our subject en- tered a quarter-section of land in, and moved his family to, Stark county, Ohio. The country was then an almost unbroken wilderness. Under his father's instructions John learned to read and write, and when ten years of age, attended a three months' term of school, it being the first school in that section ; there- after he attended school each winter, and employed his evenings in study at home. At the age of sev- enteen he went to live with a married sister, and for two years had access to a good library, and was under refined and cultivating influences. Upon returning to his home he induced his young associates to meet on Sabbath afternoons to receive instruction in the common branches of study, and afterward taught a winter school with success. He continued to teach during several years, meantime studying the higher branches of algebra, geometry, and other sciences, under an aged Philadelphia teacher, who had settled near his home.
Having decided to enter the medical profession, he attended an academy for a time, and later was un- der medical instruction for several years, meanwhile defraying his expenses by teaching; and still later attended lectures at the University of Pennsylva- nia. graduating with the degree of M.I). Settling at once at Columbus, Ohio, he began the practice of his profession, and soon became known as a successful and skillful physician and surgeon.
Dr. Gruwell early became identified with public interests, and took an active part in many matters of
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reform. Having gained a reputation as a speaker while teaching, he was engaged by the County As- sociation for the Promotion of Education to lecture in every school-house in the county on different sys- tems of education. During early life he was an ear- nest advocate of the temperance cause, often lectur- ing on the subject, and became actively engaged in the cause of abolition when Thompson visited this country in the interests of that work, and addressed the public on that subject in the face of mobocracy. A man of close investigation, he has always been alive to new truths, and made it his aim to keep pace with the advance of progress. A close student, he has, at the same time, practical benevolence, active sympathy, positiveness, ambition and enterprise. Pos- sessed of rare social qualities, he is fond of genial society, and is the center of a large circle of warm friends. As a physician, he is recognized as able and cultured, and was at one time engaged as lecturer on "Anatomy and Physiology of Man," in an insti- tution of learning. He also gave a course of lectures on physiology, hygiene, and kindred subjects, in Penn College, at Oskaloosa, Iowa.
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