The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 108

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

USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 108

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Dr. Gruwell is a man of ordinary physique, being five feet ten inches in height, well-proportioned, and

weighing one hundred and sixty-five pounds. He has bluish-gray, penetrating eyes, dark brown hair slightly streaked with gray, a sharp voice, and steps with promptness and energy. His success in life is attributable to his early domestic training in virtuous and industrious habits, under the watchful care of a firm but kind mother. During his twenty-first year, in meditating on the ways of life, he covenanted with himself that he would not do as he saw many doing, wasting their substance in riotous living; that he would never indulge in profanity, in the use of tobacco in any form, or of intoxicating liquors - and has never broken his vow.

On the 24th of May, 1834, he was married accord- ing to the Friends' ceremony, to Miss Sarah Miller, the fourth child of Levi Miller and Deborah née Morris, the latter being a descendant of the West family ; Benjamin West, the distinguished artist, being her great-grandmother's brother. Mrs. Gruwell was born on the 15th of January, 18r1, and has always been a woman of delicate health. They have three daughters and one son : Alice P., born on the 9th of June, 1838; Ann Eliza, born on the 18th of Decem- ber, 1840; Charles B., born on the 16th of July, 1843, and Ella, born on the 30th of August, 1850.

WILLIAM N. MESERVEY,

FORT DODGE.

W ILLIAM NELSON MESERVEY, a promi- nent journalist of Fort Dodge, Iowa, first saw the light of this world in Dearborn county, Indiana, on the 16th of November, 1820. His father, William Meservey, served five years in the war for independ- ence. The maiden name of his mother was Cot- tingham, she being the widow Beacham when she married Mr. Meservey.

At ten years of age William went to Cincinnati with an uncle, attended the graded schools of that city a few years, then clerked in a wholesale dry- goods store in the same city until twenty. He read law with Amos Lane, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, with his son James, of Kansas notoriety, for a fel- low student; was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati in 1843; practiced five years in New Orleans ; in 1848 removed to Clinton, Illinois, and merchandized there until 1853, when he settled in Webster county, Iowa. That was before Fort Dodge was surveyed and laid out, and clients were "few and far between "

in Webster county, then embracing two or three times its present territory. Nevertheless he had some practice from the start, and his legal business continued to increase until 1862, when he went into the United States treasury department, with location at Monroe, Louisiana, remaining in that position four years.

In 1866 Mr. Meservey returned to Fort Dodge; took charge of a newspaper which has had various names, and is now known as the "Webster County Gazette," a radical republican paper, whose edito- rial columns indicate strong brain work. He is a sharp and able writer.

Mr. Meservey was a democrat until the old flag was insulted at Fort Sumter, and has since been ultra republican. His convictions of duty are strong, and he is frank and outspoken, taking no pains to conceal his sentiments, political or any other.

At an early day Mr. Meservey served as judge of Webster county two terms ; all the civil office of any

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consequence that he would accept since he became a resident of Iowa.

He passed all the chairs in Odd-Fellowship many years ago, and belongs to the encampment in the Masonic order. In religious sentiment, he is a Uni- versalist, but there is no church of that order in Fort Dodge with which he can connect himself.

Mr. Meservey was first married in 1840, to. Miss Elizabeth Nelson, of Indiana. She died in 1844, leaving one daughter, Jane, who is now the wife of George Green, of Denver, Colorado. His present

wife was Miss Amanda C. Robbins, of Clinton, Illi- nois. She has had six children, of whom only four are living. Stillman T. is a druggist in Fort Dodge; Adolphus F. is a lawyer in the same city; Alice is the wife of Oliver M. Welch, of Fort Dodge, and William is at home attending the graded school.

Mr. Meservey is five feet six and a half inches tall, rather stout built, and weighs two hundred pounds. He is a well-read man, not only in law and politics, but on general subjects, a good converser, and very genial in the social circle.

HON. JOHN MEYER,

NEWTON.

JOHN MEYER, the present state senator from Jasper county, is a native of Clinton county, Pennsylvania, and was born on the 26th of February, 1824. His parents were Valentine and Elizabeth Hoy Meyer, members of the agricultural class. The Meyers were originally from Switzerland or Ger- many, and settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, two hundred years ago. The subject of this notice was educated at Mifflinburgh Academy, Union county, Pennsylvania, and Oberlin College, Ohio, going to Oberlin in 1847 and graduating in 1853. He com- menced teaching school in his twenty-first year and taught while fitting himself for and passing through college, thus defraying most of his expenses at that period. During the last two years at Oberlin he taught under classes in the college.

On graduating, he married Miss Cornelia Beebee, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, on the 25th of August, 1853, and for two or three years was in partnership with his father-in-law, Ward W. Beebee, a prominent and successful horticulturist, who afterward settled in Dubuque, Iowa, where he died in December, 1868.

In April, 1857, Mr. Meyer immigrated to Iowa, and settled in Newton, which place has since been his home. Twenty years ago an effort was made to establish a college at Wittemburg, four miles north of Newton, under the patronage of the Free Presby- terians, and Mr. Meyer was engaged as teacher dur- ing one season.

In 1859 Mr. Meyer commenced business on the corner of McDonald and Spring streets, and has never moved.

In August, 1862, Mr. Meyer went into the army as captain of company K, 28th Iowa Infantry, and

served three years. He was promoted to major in 1863, after the battle of Champion Hills, holding that commission, together with those of lieutenant-colonel and colonel, at the close of the war. Besides Cham- pion Hills he was in the siege of Vicksburg, the bat- tles of Jackson, Mississippi, and Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek under General Sheridan in 1864, and several other battles. At the battle of Cedar Creek, out of eight field officers of his brigade four were killed, two wounded, he having his sword struck with a musket ball, and only one of the eight was untouched.

Major Meyer was elected to the Iowa general assembly in 1861, and served in the regular and ex- tra sessions of 1862 ; was a member of the state sen- ate in 1866 and 1868, and was elected to the same body in October, 1877, for another term of four years. He is very attentive to his duties and makes a judi- cious legislator.

Colonel Meyer has been a member of the school board of Newton city several years, and its president most of the time, some of his best work for the pub- lic having been done in that connection. In many respects he is a very useful citizen. He has been con- nected with the Congregational church for twenty- five years, and most of the time has held some office in that body, being deacon at this time. He has lived a very pure life.

In politics, Colonel Meyer was originally a free-soil whig, and has acted heartily with the republican party since its formation. He cherishes his political sentiments with the same sincerity that he does his religious. While in Ohio in 1856 he took the stump for Colonel Fremont for the Presidency ; was district

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elector in 1868, and spoke in every county in the district, and usually does more or less canvassing when an important election, like that of governor or President, is to take place.

The history of his family is truly sad. Of eight

children, the fruit of the union formed in 1853, only one child, Cornelia, is living. She is a teacher in the public schools of Newton, aged twenty. Mrs. Meyer, like her husband, is an active christian, and one of the leaders in all benevolent enterprises.

HON. ROBERT SLOAN,

KEOSAUQUA.

R OBERT SLOAN, for the last ten years a cir- cuit judge, is a son of Robert and Elizabeth Stapleton Sloan, and was born in Wayne township, Columbiana county, Ohio, on the 21st of October, 1835. The Sloans are of Scotch-Irish descent. The great-grandfather of Robert Sloan was an officer with General Braddock, and was a captain in the revolu- tionary army. His son, the grandfather of our sub- ject, was born in the old country; he emigrated to this country and settled near Philadelphia. Robert Sloan, senior, was born in the county of Antrim, Ire- land, and came to this country when seven years old.

The subject of this notice was employed in farm- ing until about seventeen years of age, receiving a common-school education during this time, with one year's attendance at a high school in New Lisbon, under Professor Reuben McMillen.

In the spring of 1853 Robert Sloan, senior, im- migrated with his family from Ohio to Iowa, settling near Iowaville, Davis county ; and for the next seven- teen years teaching was the occupation of his son, mainly in Davis county.

In 1860 he entered the law office of Judge George G. Wright, of Keosauqua; was admitted to the bar at this place, the seat of justice of Van Buren coun- ty, in March, 1861, and was in practice here from

that date until he went on the bench. In the autumn of 1866 he was elected judge of the first circuit, second judicial district ; went on the bench in Janu- ary following; four years later was elected circuit judge of the second judicial district ; was reelected in 1876, and his term will not expire until the 31st of December, 1880. As a lawyer, Judge Sloan is thoroughly wedded to the profession, and is a studi- ous, growing man. As a jurist, he is self-possessed and dignified, full and clear in his charge to a jury. His popularity on the bench is seen in his repeated reëlections.

Judge Sloan was made a Freemason a short time after he became of age; has been master of the Keosauqua Lodge, and is a Knight Templar. He has paid, however, of late years, but little atten- tion to the order, letting nothing interfere with his studies pertaining to the office of a jurist.

He has acted with the republican party since 1856 ; has very decided views as to his duty in politics, but is not an office seeker. In all respects he is high- minded and a man of many fine qualities. He is a communicant in the Congregational church.

On the 15th of July, 1863, Miss Mary Brown, of Keosauqua, became the wife of Judge Sloan, and they have six children, five girls and one boy.

ENOCH D. WOODBRIDGE,

VASIIUA.

E NOCH DAY WOODBRIDGE, the first settler in Nashua, and a son of Timothy Woodbridge, a farmer of Vermont, was born in that state at Mid- dlebury on the 3d of March, 1806. His mother was Lydia Chipman, daughter of Judge Chipman, of the same place. Enoch farmed in his native town until eleven years old, when the family moved to Ohio and settled on land twenty miles west of Cleveland.

In 1835 Enoch removed to Southport, now Keno- sha, Wisconsin, and bought and sold land there for several years; spent some time on a farm in Rock county, Wisconsin, and in 1854 pushed westward in- to Iowa, dealing in merchandise a year or two at Mc- Gregor, and in July, 1855, settling where Nashua now stands. At that time Bradford, then the seat of justice of Chickasaw county, had quite a cluster of dwelling

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houses, stores and hotels, but not a cellar had been dug or a sod turned on the site of Nashua, at first called Woodbridge. In company with Mr. Andrew Sample he purchased the water-power; soon after- ward built a saw-mill and grist-mill, and sold out the next year to E. P. Greeley. He then became a speculator in land, following the business for many years, most of the time with fair success. In business transactions he was an honest dealer. Mr. Wood- bridge was one of the supervisors of the county for a long time, and mayor of the city one year, when, his health declining, he refused to serve any longer.

He was a hater of oppression, and a true friend of his race ; a strong abolitionist in political sentiment, acting heartily with the republican party during the last fifteen years of his life, he dying on the 8th of April, 1874. The cause of his demise was some dis- ease of the brain.

He had been a member of a Baptist church nearly forty years, and lived a steadfast christian life. He was remarkably conscientious, and cherished his re- ligion and his politics with equal sincerity and un-

selfishness. A kinder-hearted man never lived in Nashua. If anybody was ever " generous to a fault," it was Mr. Woodbridge. In him the poor had a true and liberal friend.

His widow was Miss Abijail Nichols, of Kenosha, Wisconsin. They were joined in wedlock on the 20th of October, 1836, and have no children. Pecuniarily, Mrs. Woodbridge is left in very comfortable circum- stances. She holds her church connection with the Baptist society at Charles City, eighteen miles away, there being no Baptist church in Nashua. Her late husband was connected with the same body. Mrs. Woodbridge is the oldest living settler in Nashua, a woman of rare christian virtues, who is held in the warmest esteem by her neighbors. Many years ago a brother of Deacon Woodbridge died, leaving four children, and he kindly took charge of the whole of them, rearing and educating them; three of them teaching, more or less, in their younger years. One of them died in 1861, aged eighteen years, a chris- tian young man. The other three had a good start in life, and are doing well.

HON. EDWARD H. STILES,

OTTUMWA.

E DWARD H. STILES was born at Granby, Hartford county, Connecticut, on the 8th of October, 1836. He received an academic educa- tion, and in 1856 began the study of law. In De- cember of the latter year he came to Wapello coun- ty, Iowa, where, during the ensuing winter, he taught school.

In the spring of 1857 he resumed the study of law in the office of Colonel S. W. Summers, then a leading attorney of Ottumwa, with whom he formed a copartnership on his admission to the bar in De- cember following.

In 1858 Mr. Stiles was elected a member of the city council of Ottumwa. In 1859 he was elected city solicitor. During the memorable Presidential campaign of 1860 he heartily espoused the cause of the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, and advocated his claims to the Presidency in many forcible speeches. At the Presidential election, in the same year, Mr. Stiles voted for the last time with the democratic party, he allying himself, on the breaking out of the great rebellion, with the republican party, and has ever since been an avowed and earnest republican.

In January, 1861, at the first session of the first board of supervisors of the county, Mr. Stiles was elected attorney of the board; a year later he was reelected. In January, 1864, he took his seat in the lower house of the state legislature as a republican representative from Wapello county, serving during the session on the important standing committees on judiciary and finance, and on a notable special committee on a prohibitory liquor law.

In 1865 Mr. Stiles was elected over his former law partner, Colonel Summers, who was his democratic opponent on this occasion, to the state senate. Here, likewise, he was prominent as a member of the judi- ciary and finance committees, and of a joint com- mittee of the legislature appointed to investigate the facts respecting a certain large deficit in the swamp- land fund of the state. As chairman, on the part of the state senate, of the latter committee, Mr. Stiles formally conducted the examination of all the wit- nesses, took all the testimony and wrote the report, the investigation consuming the greater part of the session. At the same session, in 1866, the office of reporter of the decisions of the supreme court, the

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incumbents of which were previously appointed by- the judges of the court, was made elective. This unwise innovation was stenuously opposed by Mr. Stiles, who was, rather remarkably, considering this fact, nominated by the republican state convention, held during the succeeding summer, as a candidate for the office, and elected at the ensuing fall election. Thereupon he resigned his position of state senator, three years of the term of which were unexpired.

In October, 1870, Mr. Stiles was reëlected to the office of reporter. Four years later, upon the ex- piration of his second term, he positively declined to be further a candidate, and accordingly retired.

As reporter of the decisions of the supreme court, Mr. Stiles prepared the head-notes and published sixteen volumes (numbers 22 to 37 inclusive) of the Iowa reports, which rank high among the law re- ports of the country. During 1873-4 he likewise

prepared and published a new Iowa digest in two volumes.

This work was projected by T. F. Withrow, Esq., last predecessor of Mr. Stiles in the office of reporter, who was early compelled to relinquish its prepara- tion in consequence of an important professional engagement in another state. Indubitable evidence of great care and excessive labor expended upon the work appear on every page.

Mr. Stiles is associated in professional practice with E. L. Burton, Esq., a gentleman of high personal character and eminent legal attainments. Messrs. Stiles and Burton number among their very respect- able clients the corporations of all the four railroads centering at Ottumwa.

On the 19th of September, 1861, in the city of Phil- adelphia, Mr. Stiles was united in marriage with Miss Emma Vernon, of Chester county, Pennsylvania.

E. H. WILSON, M. D.,

OSCEOLA.

E. H. WILSON was born on the 13th of Febru- ary, 1834, in the State of Massachusetts, in a town then called North Wrentham, now known as Norfolk. His father was born in the same place in the year 1788. He owned a large tract of land which he was engaged in selling, making this his chief business, together with the purchase and sale of live stock. His mother, whose maiden name was Abigal Richardson, was born in Portland, Maine. She seems to have been a remarkable person, both physically and mentally. She is now seventy-eight years of age, and during the last year undertook what would be a long and tiresome journey for a younger person, going to Massachusetts with one of her sons and returning home to Osceola alone, arriv- ing there in excellent health and spirits.

Like the majority of boys of that time, young Wilson attended a district school until fourteen years of age; then entered Day's famous academy at Wren- tham, continuing to study there until he was twenty. During this period he taught school, and after leav- ing the academy was similarly employed. At the same time he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Ambrose Eames, of Wrentham. For about two years he continued to study with Dr. Eames, and at the end of this time was united in marriage with Miss Eliza J. Townsend, of Walpole, 76

Massachusetts. After marriage he employed his time and energy in teaching school and studying medicine, practicing at times after the spring of 1866. He afterward attended the Hahnemann College, in Chicago, where he graduated in February, 1871. He then came to Osceola and commenced the practice of medicine, which he still continues, having built up a large and profitable business throughout the city and the adjoining towns.

Dr. Wilson possesses to a large extent the elements of success as a physician. Added to a well stored mind in his profession he has an exceedingly pleas- ant and winsome manner, and yet is firm in his con- victions and rapid and skillful in his treatment of patients.

Dr. Wilson is, in religious belief, a Baptist, being very prominent in Sunday-school work, in which he takes a great and untiring interest. He is president of the county Sunday-school organization, and per- sonally superintends the school whenever his profes- sional duties will permit.

In politics, he is an ardent republican.

His father had married twice. By his first mar- riage he had five boys born to him; of those, two are still living. By his second marriage he had nine children born to him, five boys and four girls; two of the latter are dead. Judge C. C. Wilson, late chief

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justice of Utah, was the eldest of these boys by the second marriage. Of the other boys, one is a lawyer and two are physicians.

For seven years the doctor has practiced in his

present home, and in that time has gained hosts of friends and a reputation for honesty, uprightness and skill in his profession, marking him as one of the leading physicians of the place.

ANDREW J. WILLEY, M. D.,

MOUNT AYR.

NDREW JACKSON WILLEY, a native of Som- A

erfield, Somerset county, l'ennsylvania, and a son of William S. and Elizabeth Tidy Willey, was born on the 15th of May, 1830. The Willeys were of French descent, and originally spelled the name Wille; the Tidys were from England. The grand- father of Andrew J. was a Baptist preacher and a manufacturer of brass musical instruments, and his father was a shoe and leather dealer.

At fifteen Andrew was sent to Winchester, Vir- ginia, where he received an academic education and read medicine, graduating from a medical college in that place in 1853.

After practicing two years at Albany, Illinois, in 1856, Dr. Willey removed to Iowa and practiced at Peoria, Mahaska county, and Nevada, Story county, until the civil war broke out.

In 1861 he went into the army as assistant-surgeon Toth Iowa Infantry; in 1863 was promoted to sur- geon of the 7th Iowa Cavalry, and when mustered out, eighteen months after the rebellion had closed, he was breveted lieutenant-colonel "for gallant and meritorious services." During the service the 7th Cavalry was operating against the Indians on the plains and in the Rocky Mountains.

Soon after returning from the western frontier Dr. Willey attended a course of lectures at Keokuk, and graduated there in 1869; practiced at Osceola until 1873, and then removed to Mount Ayr, where

he has built up a very lucrative business. His gen- eral practice is quite extensive, and he is employed in the surgical cases in Ringgold county, and not unfrequently in adjoining counties. His reputation, both as a physician and surgeon, is excellent, and he attends to his business with the greatest promptness.

In politics, Dr. Willey has always affiliated with the democracy, being known, while in the army, as a "war democrat."

He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity. He is liberal in his religious belief, with a partial- ity for the Methodist church.

The doctor has a second wife. His first was Miss Mary Coe, of Virginia; married on the 9th of No- vember, 1849. She had three children, and died in November, 1855. Only one of her children, James J., a physician, is now living. The present wife of Dr. Willey was Mrs. Sarah Jane Finarty, daughter of Dr. James L. Warren, of Mahaska county, Iowa; married on the ist of July, 1857. She has had three children by her present husband, only two of them, Marie Juniatta and Orpha Loyola, now living.

Dr. Willey has gray eyes, a ruddy complexion, a sanguine temperament ; is five feet and ten inches tall, and weighs two hundred pounds. He is polished in manners as well as conversation, very social and companionable. He is a member of the Society of Physicians and Surgeons of Southwestern Iowa, and stands high, professionally, in his section of the state.

DANIEL M. HARRIS,

MISSOURI VALLEY.

D ANIEL MATTINAS HARRIS, a Buckeye by birth, was born at Dayton on the 21st of July, 1821. his parents being John Harris, a cabinet-maker, and Rebecca Booher. Ilis father was a native of Massachusetts, his mother of Pennsylvania. Both died in the same month when he was in his ninth

year, leaving him thus early to take care of himself. He lived in different families in Dayton until fifteen years of age; then went to Williamsport, Murray county, Tennessec, and sold goods until 1851, when he commenced the study of law and read for three years, and was admitted to the bar at Exira, Audu-

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bon county, Iowa, in 1854. He practiced first in Panola, Guthrie county, where he commenced in 1862 the publication of the Guthrie county "Led- ger," a democratic paper, conducting it in connection with his law practice until June, 1868, when he dis- posed of the paper and removed to Missouri Valley. Here he started the " Harrisonian"; in 1871 sold out, went to Independence, Kansas, and published the Kansas " Democrat "; disposed of it the next year and returned to Iowa; located at Exira, the town which he had founded sixteen years before, and started the "Audubon County Defender"; disposed of his in- terest in this journal in 1873, and established the "Cap-Sheaf" at Atlantic, Cass county ; published it until 1874, when he returned to Missouri Valley, took charge of the " Times," the democratic organ of Har- rison county, and is still conducting it successfully. Since 1870 journalism has been his main business. He is an able writer, and very influential in his party. He is a self-taught man, very intelligent, very com- municative, and a good converser.

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 108

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