USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 13
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died in her seventh year. Mrs. Hildreth is a well educated woman, with sterling good sense and fine business talents ; is an excellent manager of house- hold affairs, and her husband's best counselor.
CHARLES H. WARD,
DES MOINES.
C' HARLES HORATIO WARD, a native of Sheldon, Wyoming county, New York, was born on the 9th of November, 1843, the son of Horatio Gates Ward and Mary née Ladd. His paternal grandfather, a farmer by occupation, was a native of New York; and his grandfather Ladd, a native of Ohio. His father, in 1851, had charge of a pastorate at Strykersville, but at that time left that place and removed with his family to Lyndon, Whiteside county, Illinois, where he died in 1852.
Charles remained at home until he was fifteen years old. He first attended school in his native place, but his mother being in very moderate cir- cumstances, he was early thrown apon his own re- sources and earned his own support after his ninth year.
From his fifteenth to his seventeenth year he was studying with a view to preparing for college, but, upon the opening of the civil war in 1861, in- stead of entering college, enlisted as a private in company A, 9th regiment Illinois Cavalry. After about five months he was commissioned hospital steward in the regular army and assigned to duty at Columbus, Kentucky, being placed in charge of the medical stores of the army in the medical pur- veyor's department. He was admitted to this posi- tion upon examination and was the youngest person in the regular army holding the same. At the time of General Forest's raid the goods of the purveyor's, commissary's and quartermaster's departments were conveyed to Memphis, Tennessee, and there Mr. Ward made his headquarters until the close of the war. After performing the regular duties of his office about one year, at the request of General Grant he opened a small-pox hospital in the sub- urbs of Memphis, and being unable to obtain other assistance than that of a negro servant, was him- self compelled to remain in charge about one year. He opened the hospital with about one hundred patients, but before it closed the number had in- creased to eighteen hundred. During the whole
time he was engaged, daily, preparing prescriptions from six o'clock in the morning till twelve o'clock at night. He was afterward sent back to the city to organize the Washington Hospital, for the accom- modation of the sick and wounded. Prior to this time he went on board the Red River, a hospital steamer, to the siege of Vicksburg. The steamer was lying above the city, and one day going on shore, he was captured by bushwhackers. Fortu- nately he made his escape after being taken about five miles, and returned to the boat with his clothes riddled, and a scar on his forehead, which he re- ceived in the skirmish. In August, 1863, he ob- tained a furlough of thirty days, and returned in September with twelve others, armed with revolvers, on a boat heavily laden with cattle. Just below Madrid Island No. 10, in the Mississippi river, they struck a sand-bar, and while driving the cattle on shore were attacked by about twenty-five guerrillas ; he at once organized his men and completely routed them. While in Washington Hospital the steamer Sultana, chartered by General Canby to return ex- changed prisoners, exploded, ten miles above Mem- phis, with twenty-five hundred men on board. Hurry- ing to the scene, Mr. Ward worked vigorously for forty-eight hours saving lives ; about seventeen hun- dred were lost. These are a few of his experiences during the war, and serve to show something of the services which he rendered. For six months after the close of the war he was engaged examining and correcting stewards' reports, adjusting accounts and turning goods over to the government.
In the spring of 1866 he returned to his home at Geneseo, Illinois, but soon afterward, with a capital of three hundred dollars, opened a drug and book store at Altona, Knox county, Illinois. During his five years' residence there he was variously em- ployed: he had all the insurance agencies of the place, was express agent, had charge of the bible depository, was town clerk, librarian of the Sunday school, and president and captain of a base-ball
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nine. Removing to Des Moines, Iowa, in February, 1871, he there resumed the drug trade. His busi- ness rapidly increased from the first, and in the summer of 1875 he erected an elegant store build- ing one hundred and fifty by twenty feet with six- teen feet ceiling. His store occupies this building, and is one of the finest drug stores in the state. He still owns his store in Illinois, and also owns one at Carlisle, Iowa.
As a business man, he has been eminently suc- cessful, his three hundred dollars having in ten years increased to forty thousand. His success is the result of peculiar business tact, and a strict adherence to a line of trade for which his abilities and tastes eminently fit him.
In political sentiment he has always been a thorough republican. He has never desired polit- ical distinction, and has never held an office except that of town clerk, to which he was elected without his knowledge.
He is a consistent member of the congregational church, of which denomination both his father and father-in-law were ministers.
Mr. Ward was married in May, 1866, to Miss Isabelle C. Miles, a daughter of Rev. M. M. Miles and Mary née Keyes. Of the four children that have been born to them, the first died unnamed ; the second, Guy, died at three years of age; the third, Percy, died when one year old ; Minnie, born on the 20th of December, 1873, is now living.
HON. BYRON RICE,
DES MOINES.
T HE subject of this brief biography is counted among Des Moines' most honored citizens. A native of Madison county, New York, he was born on the 24th of May, 1826, the son of Dr. John Rice.
Mr. Rice comes of a very long-lived family. His paternal great-grandfather, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, was a farmer by occupation, and fought at the battle of Bennington under General Stark, having removed thither long previous to the revolutionary war. His wife's maiden name was Dunbar. They had three sons: Charles and Ste- phen, both of whom were army officers in the war of 1812, and John Rice, the grandfather of our sub- ject, who died in Allegany county, New York, at the age of ninety-three years. His maternal grand- father, Harmanus Van Bleck, was a native of Albany county, New York, and at an early day settled at Fenner, in Madison county. He was a prominent and influential man in his community, and at one time a member of the state legislature. His family were among the early immigrants from Holland. His wife, whose maiden name was Bettis, belonged to a wealthy family who were tories during the revo- lution, and removed to Canada.
Dr. John Rice, the father of our subject, was born at Lansingburg, New York, in 1794. During his early manhood he was engaged in teaching, but later turned his attention to the study of medicine, and practiced that profession for many years, and is still living (1877).
Byron received a good common-school and aca- demical education, and in 1840, being then six- teen years of age, began teaching, devoting the winters to this vocation and the summers to the study of law. Five years later he entered the New York State Normal School at Albany, and graduated from the same in 1847. After closing his literary studies he entered the office of Denison Robinson, district attorney of the county, and there continued his legal studies until August, 1849, when he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court then in session at Ithaca.
Immediately removing to the west, he settled at Des Moines, Iowa, and forming a partnership with Mr. J. E. Jewett, established himself in the practice of his profession. In August, 1850, he was elected prosecuting attorney, and in the following year was elected county judge, and administered the duties of that office for four years.
Resigning that position in the spring of 1855, he then, in company with Judge Greene, of the supreme court, and Mr. John Weaver, of Cedar Rapids, turned his attention to banking, and continued in that business until 1859. During that year he was the democratic candidate for the lower house of the legislature, but his party being in a hopeless minor- ity, he was defeated by a small majority.
Judge Rice next formed a partnership with Hon. D. O. Finch and Mr. George Clark, and again took up the practice of his profession, and continued the
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same with reasonable success until the fall of 1876, since which time he has not been actively employed in any regular business.
Although Judge Rice has always acted with the democratic party, he is conservative in his views, and during the civil war zealously supported the Union cause.
His religious training was under Episcopalian influences, and although he was never a communi- cant he assisted in organizing St. Paul's church in Des Moines, and was one of the original vestry. In 1862 he was received into the Roman Catholic church.
He was married on the 19th of September, 1854, to Miss Cornelia Calder, a daughter of Joseph Cal-
der, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Of the seven children who have been born to them, four are now living, namely, Spencer M., Elizabeth, John E. and Will- iam B.
Mr. Rice has had four brothers and two sisters, namely, Rev. Dr. S. M. Rice, of Grace Episcopal Church, Jersey City; Rev. Delancey G. Rice, of Providence, Rhode Island ; Dr. Wm. B. Rice, M.D., of Niagara Falls, and Charles H. Rice, of the same place. His sister, Mrs. Rev. D. A. Bonnar, of St. Clements, Rochester, New York, has been twice married, her first husband having been Rev. J. S. Townsend, who is buried in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia. His other sister, Mrs. Dr. E. B. Morse, died in Monroe county, Michigan, in 1843.
THEODORE W. BARHYDT,
BURLINGTON.
T HEODORE WELLS BARHYDT was born on the roth of April, 1835, at Newark, New Jersey, and is the son of Nicholas Barhydt and Phobe H. née Gardner. His paternal ancestors were of Holland-Dutch descent and among the first settlers of New York state, having immigrated from Europe about 1679. His grandfather, Jerome Bar- hydt, was a soldier in the revolutionary war and an officer in the war of 1812. During the former, when the tories and Indians under Johnson were commit- ting depredations upon the frontier settlers, his grandmother (then a child of thirteen years) gave material aid to the soldiers in molding bullets used in defense of their homes and lives, being at the time in Schoharie fort, where all the women and children were placed. They were of the old Knick- erbocker families, whose early history was one of devotion to the cause of liberty. Soon after the birth of Theodore his family removed to Schenec- tady, New York (the former home of his father), where he enjoyed the advantages of a good com- mon-school education, and two years at the Schenec- tady Academy. Afterward he assisted his father in his store, but being ambitious and anxious to be in- dependent, he secured a situation in a larger store with a friend of his father, and there continued clerking and partially learned a trade.
Wishing, however, for a wider field in which to gratify his ambition than that offered in a dull town in central New York, he resolved to try his fortunes
in the west, and to that end came to Iowa in 1855, being scarcely twenty years of age, and began his act- ive business career. In 1856 he received an appoint- ment as deputy postmaster at Burlington, Iowa, and also engaged in the book and periodical business. The enterprise proved a marked success, and in it he laid the foundation of the competence he enjoys to- day. In 1859 he resigned his position and engaged in the boot and shoe business, establishing the firm of Tizzard and Barhydt, which continued till 1860. At that time he took the business in his own hands, and by perseverance and great business energy has pushed it forward until the firm of T. W. Barhydt and Co. have done the largest business in its line of any house in the state. In 1870, in connection with friends, he organized the Merchants' National Bank of Burlington, of which he was elected president, a position which he still holds. The bank has a capital and surplus of over two hundred thousand dollars, and has been one of the most successful banks ever organized in the west. Mr. Barhydt was also an incor- porator of the Burlington Mutual Loan Association and Mutual Benefit Loan and Building Society, and director in both, as also director of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota railway. He is con- nected with a number of financial, commercial and local enterprises.
In politics, he was originally a democrat, and still continues an adherent of that party, though he is not so much of a politician as to support unworthy
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candidates merely for party's sake. He has never taken an active part in politics, and though repeat- edly urged to accept nominations for city and legis- lative offices, his many other duties have forced him to decline.
He was reared under Presbyterian influences, and although he adheres to the principles of that denom- ination, he is liberal in his views respecting the creed and faith of others.
He owns some of the best business property in Burlington, the result of his foresight in business ; and his elegant home commands a delightful view up and down the Mississippi river.
Mr. Barhydt stands prominent among the eminent self-made men of Iowa. He possesses the love and respect of his fellow-citizens, and is well and favor- ably known throughout the country. As a foresee- ing financier, he stands among the first bankers of the west.
He married, when quite young, Miss Eleanor C. Christiancy, of Schenectady, New York, and much of his success is due to the good counsels he re- ceived from his wife. With untiring industry and energy, aided by good habits and health, has made him one of the most prominent of the business men of Iowa and the west.
DANIEL D. CHASE,
WEBSTER CITY.
D ANIEL DARROW CHASE was born in Can- ajoharie, New York, on the 4th of July, 1830. His father, Oliver C. Chase, was a farmer. His mother's maiden name was Ruth Darrow. Until he attained the age of seventeen the subject of this notice remained at the old homestead, attending the district school in the winter season and laboring like other lads in rural communities on the farm during the spring, summer and autumn. The four ensuing years he passed at the Ames Academy and the Cazenovia Seminary, where he acquired a good academic education, and taught in the meantime to procure the necessary funds to pursue his studies. After he ceased attending the seminary he became the principal of the public school at Cazenovia, at the same time commencing the study of the law with H. G. Paddock, Esq., of that town. He was afterward called to the charge of the New Wood- stock Academy, successfully discharging the ardu- ous duties of a teacher while pursuing his legal studies. He completed his course of legal instruc- tion with his great-uncle, the distinguished Daniel Cady, who was one of the most eminent lawyers and statesmen of his day, and was admitted to the bar of the State of New York at the general term of the supreme court, in Saratoga county, on the Ist of January, 1856. He entered at once upon the prac- tice of his profession as the partner of Hon. William Wait, the well-known author of "Wait's New York Digest "-Mr. Chase opening an office in Broad- albin, Fulton county, and Mr. Wait remaining at Johnstown.
In August, 1858, Mr. Chase removed to Iowa, settling at Webster City, the shire town of the new county of Hamilton, where he has since continuous- ly resided. Like tens of thousands of other young men who have their own way to make in the world, he came with no capital save that which was stored up in his brain, and an earnest determination to deserve success. Upon his arrival in the then little frontier town which he had selected for his home, and which then contained scarcely four hundred people, and the county not over sixteen hundred, he found the small legal practice in the hands of two older lawyers, who had settled there some time previously. It was many months before he secured his first retainer,- a discouraging fact to a man of limited means, when the times were hard and grow- ing worse with every ensuing week. But he patient- ly bided his time, and finally the temperance people were forced to employ him in the prosecution of sundry violations of the liquor law, both of his com- petitors, fortunately for him, being engaged on the other side. The fight was a prolonged and bitter one, and it served to bring prominently to the notice of the people the fine legal ability and great force of character of the hitherto reserved and rather reti- cent and neglected young lawyer. This rough and tumble contest completely " westernized " him, and from this time forward he was the favored attorney in all the region around. In the following winter he visited quite a number of the northern counties of the old eleventh judicial district, becoming ac- quainted with the people in that sparsely settled
AL Chase
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section, and securing quite an appreciable addition to his slender legal practice at home. The spring of 1864 found him with as much and as profitable employment as active young lawyers are able to secure in a new country. And he was now ac- corded the leading position in his profession in that portion of northwestern Iowa. Noted for his purity of character, dealing fairly with his clients, and never encouraging litigation, except in cases where its ne- cessity and justice rendered it imperative, -- thus making him always the safest of counselors,-he rapidly won his way to a high place in the popular estimation. This measure of respect and confi- dence has only increased as the years have passed away.
In the autumn of 1859 his name was prominently mentioned in connection with the position of county judge, a position in those days of great local power, for that officer had control of all disbursements of county funds, audited all accounts and bills against the county, and was within the scope of his duties, very nearly "monarch of all he surveyed." When the convention met, every delegate favored his nomi- nation, and the county had a heavy republican ma- jority ; but he declined the proffered honor and re- mained a private citizen. But in the ensuing year, at the republican judicial convention, he was unani- mously tendered the nomination for member of the board of education, to which he was, in October fol- lowing, chosen by a very large majority. Before his term of service expired a supposed vacancy occurred in the office of district attorney for the eleventh ju- dicial district, and while he lay in bed sick with fever his friends brought him out for the office, and he was chosen by more than the party majority. To remove all doubt the legislature at the next session passed an act declaring the vacancy to have existed and confirming his election. In 1862 he had no opposition in the republican convention, and very little at the polls, and was reelected for the full term of four years. In the year 1865, a vacancy having occurred in the office of judge of the district court, he was appointed to fill the place by Governor Will- iam M. Stone. He was twice nominated by accla- mation and twice elected to this distinguished posi- tion, and at the close of nine years' continuous service on the bench he declined a third nomination and retired to private life. His district comprised some eight counties, in each of which his last court was distinguished by manifestations of the profound- est respect for the retiring judge. The bar held
meetings and passed resolutions in the highest de- gree complimentary of the ability and impartiality with which he had discharged the delicate and re- sponsible duties which had devolved upon him for so many years. In the course of such a long career upon the bench, where the judge can, if he chooses, to a large degree, make an autocrat of himself- when counsel, in their eagerness for success, occa- sionally overstep the bounds of prudence and must be kept in their own proper place, asperities often arise which men carry with them through life. But in this instance nothing of the kind appeared. The gentlemen of the bar in each county seemed to vie with each other in their expressions of deep and heartfelt respect. In his own county, among his old rivals at the bar and among whom he was to return as a rival practitioner, only the kindest feeling pre- vailed, as was evidenced by the adoption of the following resolution, penned by Colonel Charles A. Clark, a lawyer of the opposite party, who has risen to a distinguished position in central and north- western Iowa:
Resolved, That by his ability, efficiency and integrity in the discharge of every official duty, Judge Chase has won, and is worthy of, not only the commendation and plaudits of the bar, but of the entire people who have received the benefits of his labor.
The bar of the entire district, on the last day of his court, united in presenting him with a magnifi- cent gold watch and chain, to purchase which they contributed the sum of five hundred dollars. A proud testimonial anywhere and under any circum- stances.
As we are writing these lines, we are in receipt of a letter from an eminent lawyer, long a practitioner in the eleventh judicial district, who bears the fol- lowing testimony to the distinguished merits of the subject of our sketch :
Judge Chase, as a jurist, is possessed of many strong qualifications. Patient, yet vigorous in the investigation of causes; clear, forcible and terse in his enunciation of legal principles, he was a model judge. The judicial cast of his mind is marked. A thorough knowledge of human nature, large perceptive faculties, with judgment and reasoning powers to match, combined with generous culture and patient research, indicate a type of man fitted to adorn the bench of a court of last resort.
Aside from these more substantial political honors conferred upon Judge Chase, he was made a dele- gate-at-large to the republican national convention in 1864, when President Lincoln was nominated for his second term, and was chairman of the Iowa delegation in that body.
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A whig in his early days, he has acted with the republican party for the past twenty years.
Judge Chase is not a member of any church or- ganization, but is a regular attendant upon public worship and a liberal supporter of religious effort. Better than anything the public at large know of him, however, is the fact that his hand and purse are ever open to help the needy and distressed. In all the acquaintance of the writer hereof, there is no man who gives more freely in proportion to his means to objects of deserving charity, and this with- out ostentation or display.
Judge Chase married his wife, whose maiden name was Hattie E. Bell, at New Woodstock, Madi-
son county, New York, on the 10th of August, 1858. They have only one child, a son of much promise, now a student in the Iowa State University. From the time he located in Webster City Judge Chase has taken a lively interest in the public schools, and in every institution and enterprise tending to elevate and improve the people, and enhance the wealth and character of his adopted home.
In conclusion, we may say that Judge Chase is a man whose marked ability, rich and varied culture, candor and impartiality on the bench, unquestioned purity of character, praiseworthy aims and great public usefulness, have assigned him a distinguished place among the first men of Iowa.
HON. PHILIP VIELE,
FORT MADISON.
I N collecting the life histories of Iowa's influential,
honored and leading men, we should be remiss in our duty should we omit that of him whose name heads this sketch. Fully realizing the difficulty of avoiding on the one hand the not doing justice to our subject, and on the other the presenting of a one-sided sketch, we present his biography impar- tially and with a true regard for the truth,-charac- teristics which alone add grace and dignity to the work of the historian.
Philip Viele was born at the Valley (now Valley Falls), in the town of Pittstown, Rensselaer county, New York, on the 10th of September, 1799. His paternal great-grandfather, Arnaud Cornelius Viele, was a Frenchman by descent and a Hollander by birth, who immigrated to America in the latter part of the seventeenth century and settled in Schenectady, New York, on the Mohawk river. He is honorably mentioned in the colonial history of New York for important services rendered the government in the negotiations with the Indian nations. The parents of our subject were Abraham L. Viele and Hannah née Douglass, a daughter of Major Samuel Douglass, of Pittstown, New York. They had nine children : Philip; Lodewic, died in 1840; Patience, widow of Daniel T. Newcomb, of Davenport, Iowa; Eve Eliza, died in 1848; Delia Maria, wife of Hon. David Rover, of Burlington, Iowa; William Douglass, died in 1866; Samuel Douglass, died in 1867; Harriet, widow of the late Dr. George W. Fitch, of Musca- tine, Iowa; Charles Viele, of Evansville, Indiana.
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