USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 14
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Philip passed his early life on his father's farm, and at the age of fifteen was sent to an academy in Salem, Washington county, New York, where he remained three years. In 1817 he entered Union College, at Schenectady, and for several years pur- sued his studies with zeal under the celebrated Dr. Nott. Hon. William H. Seward was then a student at Union College, and between him and Mr. Viele there grew up a friendship which continued for many years afterward.
In October, 1821, Mr. Viele commenced studying for the legal profession in the office of John L. Viele, Esq., at Waterford, Saratoga county, New York, and completed his studies in the office of John Paine, Esq., of Troy, New York, and in 1824 was admitted to the bar by the supreme court. Possessed of a ready wit, quick at repartee, having strong mental perceptions and a ready flow of language, polished by literary attainments and deliberate reflection, and fearless in the advocacy of what he believed to be right, he must necessarily have attained to a high position as a jurist and advocate had he confined himself to the practice of his profession. Here, however, he permitted himself to be allured by the excitement of politics, and leaving his Black- stone and Coke, turned his attention toward po- litical matters,-addressing the populace from the hustings.
During the Presidential campaign of 1824 four candidates appeared, soliciting the suffrages of the people. William H. Crawford was the democratic
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nominee, while John Q. Adams, General Jackson and Henry Clay each presented himself as an inde- pendent candidate for the Presidency. The historic name of Adams, the military reputation of Jackson, and the oratorical abilities and statesmanship of Clay, all combined to create an excited political feeling throughout the country. All these had been distinguished leaders, and each had personal friends and admirers in all sections, who supported their respective favorite with all imaginable zeal. Catch- ing the enthusiasm of the hour, Mr. Viele took the stump in support of "Old Hickory," and from his youth, and fluent speech, soon became widely known as the " Boy Orator." A former citizen of Keokuk, Iowa, who knew him at the time, says of him: " No other speaker, old or young, in eastern New York, could draw together such large crowds and rouse them to the same pitch of excitement as Judge Viele." Such were his services to his party, and so highly was he esteemed, that DeWitt Clinton, then governor of New York, tendered him the office of surrogate of Rensselaer county, New York, a posi- tion which he accepted in 1827 and held until 1831, when he was re-appointed by Governor Throop and held it until 1835. The office was one to be de- sired, since it paid a salary of two thousand dollars a year, which, at that time, was worth three times that amount to-day. His duties during the eight years while he held this office were so exacting that he found no time for legal study, except so far as the same related to probate matters, and saw the mistake which he made in abandoning his profes- sion only when he had retired from business, and looked back over his life career. While a resident of New York Mr. Viele became surety for a relative for a large amount of money, and, the relative fail- ing in business, he was called upon to meet the obligation; and feeling the moral force of the claim, yielded up his property, even to his homestead, to liquidate the demands which his generosity had in- curred, and with his wife started westward to begin anew the struggle of life. After a tedious journey of more than a month by stages and steamboats (there were then no railroads west of New York), they, on the 2d of June, 1837, pitched their tent on the present site of the thriving city of Fort Madison, then in the territory of Wisconsin. The then little village comprised about twenty cabins set among the bushes and trees, but it being the county seat of Lee county, Mr. Viele hung out his "shingle " and once more resumed his
profession. Madison soon became an important business town, and during the next eight years he continued at the bar with a growing prac- tice. But his love for the excitement of the po- litical arena had not left him, but revived again with all the vigor with which it had lured him from his profession in his early manhood. Before leaving New York he had become estranged from the demo- cratic party, by reason of the corruptions which be- came manifest in its workings. There was in the state a clique known as the "Albany Regency," of which Van Buren and Marcy were the leaders, and whose principles Mr. Viele greatly disliked. He belonged to the Clinton wing of the democracy, between which and the "Regency " there was an old feud. Upon the death of Clinton this clique gained possession not only of New York but also of the democratic party throughout the United States. Mr. Viele regarded the "Regency " in much the same light as honest men during recent years have. looked upon the " Tammany " and Washington gov- ernment rings, and united his political fortunes with Henry Clay and the whig party. As a matter of fact, the controversy between the honest portion of the whig and democratic parties in those days was more of personal preferences than of principles, at least as between the whigs and the northern democ- racy. Did whigs favor internal improvements by the general government, so did the northern demo- crats; were whigs in favor of a protective tariff, the democracy were willing to have a revenne tariff which should discriminate so as to give incidental protection ; did whigs repudiate nullification and secession, General Jackson swore "by the Eternal " that the Union should be maintained at all hazards, and the democracy throughout the nation, aside from that of South Carolina, rallied to the support of the old hero; did whigs insist that safety required that the Presidency be limited to one term in the same person, the democracy at once proclaimed "rotation in office," but claimed that the exigencies of the times were such that the rule should not apply to President Jackson, but did apply to his successors Van Buren, Polk and Buchanan. The Presidential campaign of 1840, in which General Harrison and Martin Van Buren were candidates, was quite as exciting as that of 1824 between Craw- ford and others. Mr. Viele took the stump in sup- port of Harrison, against his old associate Van Buren. Several speeches which he made in Iowa during that campaign elicited great applause, and
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the whigs of that state, apparently by common con- sent, named him as their candidate for congress, and it is believed by leading men of both parties that had he been allowed to become the whig candi- date he would have secured an election. But certain persons in his party fearing his influence conspired against him in the convention, and he having no desire to enter into such a conflict, believing that a strict party nomination, in a democratic territory as Iowa then was, would be most hazardous, yielded to the opposition. In 1846 he became identified with a local political movement which again drew him from his profession, and he never again resumed it. A political ring under the guise of a democratic name had got possession of the county offices, and was levying taxes and disbursing the public monies in a most lavish manner ; county orders had depreci- ated to about fifty cents on the dollar. The whigs being unsuccessful in every attempt to remedy the -evil complained of, Mr. Viele, with others, conceived the idea of dropping the party name, and calling on 'the honest men of all parties to unite under the name of the "Union Retrenchment and Reform Party of Lee County." The masses, irrespective of party, gladly responded to the call, and at a meeting for the nomination of county officers in 1846 the friends of reform, against his will, insisted on putting forward the name of Mr. Viele for the office of judge of probate; and he, fearing that his refusal might weaken the cause he had aided in starting, finally gave his consent. The whole ticket was elected by an overwhelming majority; as a result of the reform movement, the credit of the county soon revived and county orders became par. Judge Viele was elected judge of probate for three success- ive terms, and gave universal satisfaction. In 1852 he permitted his friends to trammel him with a party nomination as whig candidate for congress, from the first congressional district of Iowa. Running thus under a party guise, he lost the support of many personal democratic friends, and, although he received the full vote of his party, was defeated. During the Kansas-Nebraska imbroglio he threw his whole influence on the side of anti-slavery, and was enthusiastically chosen president of the first re- publican convention of Iowa, held at Iowa City in 1856.
In 1859 he was elected a member of the State Board of Education for one term. The esteem in which he is held by his immediate fellow-citizens is well attested by the fact that, notwithstanding
Fort Madison has been strongly democratic, he has on four different occasions been elected mayor of the city.
In local enterprises he has been somewhat active. Upon the organization of the Madison branch of the State Bank of Iowa, in 1859, he was chosen its president, and held that office five years.
Early in 1870 a meeting of the stockholders and other citizens of Madison was called in the interest of a railroad project, for which they had labored hard but which seemed likely to fail. The speeches of the leaders were desponding, and it was conceded to be a "lost cause," when Judge Viele, inspired by the necessities of the occasion, arose and addressed the meeting with all the authority of age, mingled with the fire and eloquence of youth, and so roused the pride and energy of the citizens that the enter- prise at once passed from doubt to certainty. He accepted the position of treasurer and financial agent of the railroad, and in less than one year the Fort Madison, Farmington and Western railroad became an accomplished fact, and the cars were running over twenty-five miles of road west from the city. The first stopping place west of Fort Madison was, .by the directors of the railroad and without the Judge's knowledge, named in honor of him, "Viele Station."
In June, 1828, Judge Viele was married to Miss Catherine Gertrude Brinckerhoff, a daughter of Isaac Brinckerhoff, of Troy, New York. Mrs. Viele, a most estimable lady, possessed a sound and discriminat- ing mind, united with sweetness of temper and ele- gance of manners; she was fervid in her religious principles, and her love of the beautiful in nature and art were surpassed only by her veneration of God; she was admired by all, and her death, which occurred on the 4th of August, 1869, was mourned as a public loss.
The judge has no children to cheer his declining years, but, since the death of his wife, he has adopted for a niece Miss Maria C. Newton, whose parents, Enos and Lucy Ann Newton, reside in his house.
On the 11th of August, 1872, Judge Viele was stricken with paralysis of the right side of his body, which for a time threatened serious consequences. However, he soon began to improve, and although he has never fully regained his bodily vigor, he is able to walk about and attend to his business, and visit his neighbors, who always greet him with a hearty welcome. Judge Viele has a competency of
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" worldly estate " and all that is necessary to render his days upon earth happy, except the companion- ship of her who for forty years cheerfully shared his joys and alleviated his sorrows.
He is a firm believer in christianity and the im- mortality of the soul, and doubts not that he shall meet her, and others whom he has loved on earth, in a purer and more perfect home.
REV. ALLAN CURR, DUBUQUE.
T HE subject of this brief memoir is a native of Scotland, and was born near Dundee, on the 2Ist of February, 1843. His parents were William Curr, a well-known liberal leader, an able speaker, and county magistrate, and Mary Heron Stormont, a granddaughter of the Earl of Stormont, who was proscribed by the English government for taking an active part in the Scottish Rebellion of 1745. The Currs were originally from Denmark, and date their ancestry back to A.D. 1400. The Stormont family is Celtic or Gaelic, and suffered much in behalf of the Stuart dynasty and Scottish Rebellion.
Allan spent all his younger years in literary insti- tutions : in the high school at Arbroath until fifteen, at Chorlton College, Manchester, England, until nineteen, and graduated at Regent's Park College, London University, his studies being classical, gen- eral and theological.
He early developed decided artistic tastes; ex- hibited pictures in water-color and oil in various Scotch and English galleries, receiving prizes, once a gold medal, for the same; he played on the vio- lin in early boyhood, is fond of the organ, and has composed the music and words of several popular airs, and also some sacred music, which has been printed in Scotch collections.
Like Bayard Taylor and Henry D. Thoreau, Mr. Curr, in early life, thought the finest views could be had afoot, and while a student took sketching-tours through the best of scenery in northern Europe, thus spending some of his vacations. He has traveled over most of middle and northern Europe, the Dominion of Canada and the United States, and makes good use of the fruits of his extensive observations in enriching his conversation and em- bellishing his lectures and other public efforts.
Mr. Curr was reared a Presbyterian, but was converted by reading Spurgeon's sermons, and be- coming a Baptist; studied for the ministry of that denomination while at Regent's Park College. He chose the ministerial work because he regards it as
the noblest in which man can engage. After leav- ing college he became pastor of a Baptist church in London, and while acting in that capacity he served as private secretary of the Lord Mayor of London for three years. Before leaving the old country Mr. Curr lectured in more than five hundred places, and on a great variety of subjects - literary, scien- tific, temperance and sanitary. He was a Reformer in England, and during our civil war warmly es- poused and openly advocated by tongue and pen the cause of the Union through the London "News" and "Star."
Mr. Curr is a fellow of the Geological Society and of the Royal Society of Literature, London. In England he was a member of the 26th regiment Volunteers. While a minister in London in 1865-67, he was superintendent of custom-house, West India Docks, and prior to that date, while a student, was committee reporter in the House of Commons for several years. He was vice-president of the United Kingdom Alliance for the suppression of the liquor traffic, and president of the East London Temper- ance Association. During one year he was lecturer in the tropical department of the Crystal Palace, London.
Between four and five years ago Mr. Curr was invited to come to the United States and lecture. He complied with the invitation, and proposes to remain in this country. He has lectured in most of the northern and a few of the southern states, and has everywhere received the warmest commenda- tions of the press. He could easily keep in the lecture field nine months in the year, but he feels that his chief work is in the pastorate, and two years ago he took charge of the Main-street Baptist Church, Dubuque, a body which has rapidly grown under his pastoral care, and which, through his indomitable energy and almost superhuman efforts, has erected one of the finest Protestant houses of worship in the city. It is doubtful if there is another man in the northwest who, similarly situ-
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ated, could have accomplished the work of church building which he has done. In politics he is a republican and free trader.
The wife of Mr. Curr was Catherine Frances An- drews, of an old Kentish family, and an only child. They were married in 1867, and have three children, all boys. They have a beautiful residence on the Twelfth-street bluff, overlooking the business part of the city and presenting a grand view of the "Father of Waters." It should be called the Poet's Retreat, for Mr. Curr has great skill in versifying, and published two or three volumes of poems before coming to this country. He is also the author of two novels, one of them, "The Last of the Stor- monts," a historical romance, has had a very large sale. He has published a number of miscellaneous works, and has been, and is, a liberal contributor to newspapers and periodicals.
Mr. Curr began to preach when only fifteen or sixteen years old, and was known as the "Scotch boy preacher," beginning such work, like Chalmers,
before he was converted. As a preacher, since he completed his college course, we give the opinion of one who knew him in the old country, and who is now a member of his church in Dubuque :
As a preacher, he is less emotional than intellectual. His sermons, as a rule, are logical in arrangement, positive in statement, sententious in style, abound in passages of beauty and eloquence, and are delivered with great force and emphasis, and albeit his voice is not one of the clearest, nor his manner remarkable for its ease, he can hold the attention of his audience from first to last. He has great facility of illustration. Striking scenes, startling incidents, natural and artificial wonders, important events, past and passing, and remarkable anecdotes, are freely used to ex- plain the doctrines and enforce the duties of evangelical religion. In a sentence, his sermons are pointed, pithy and practical.
Mr. Curr has gray hazel eyes, a sanguine, bilious temperament, and a short body which makes very quick motions. He has not seen a sick day since boyhood. His flesh is very solid. Though only five feet and seven and a half inches tall, he weighs one hundred and sixty-five pounds. Rhetorically, or with the fist, he can strike a very hard blow, and would be classed with the "muscular christians."
HON. GEORGE GREENE,
CEDAR RAPIDS.
O NE of the early settlers in Linn county, Iowa, the man who built the first frame house in Marion, and the first brick house in Cedar Rapids, one of the original proprietors of the latter city, and the man who gave it its name, is George Greene, one of God's noblemen. No town in Iowa, we think it is safe to say, owes more to any one man than Cedar Rapids owes to Judge Greene, and the citizens of the place are fully sensible of their indebtedness to him. He has found prompt, hearty and whole- souled co- workers, and between them all they have built up a city of which they may well be proud.
George Greene, a native of England, was born at Alton, in Staffordshire, on the 15th of April, 1817. His father, Robert Greene, emigrated to this country in 1819. The mother of George, a Woodward, and also a native of Staffordshire, was a considerate, pious woman, who early instilled into the hearts of her chil- dren the principles of rectitude and truth. The fam- ily settled in western New York, where the father died when the son was about eight years old. The boy had a strong thirst for knowledge, but had to de- pend upon his own resources to procure an educa- tion. He was willing to do any kind of respectable
work and forego some of the amusements of youth, if, by so doing, he could defray expenses and continue his studies. He attended school one year at the Carysville Collegiate Seminary, Genesee county ; one years at the Aurora Academy, Erie county, and two years at French's Collegiate Institute, Geneva, leav- ing at the end of the sophomore year. During the time he was in the last named institution the means were furnished by his friend and school-mate, Seth Grosvenor Heacock, brother of Rev. Dr. Heacock, of Buffalo. Years afterward Mr. Heacock studied law with Mr. Greene in Iowa. The latter cherishes very tenderly the memory of his boyhood's helper.
Mr. Greene spent some time in the family of Dr. Chapin, of Buffalo, reading medicine without intend- ing to practice it, and collecting the doctor's bills and otherwise assisting him, in order to defray ex- penses. At the same time he began to read law with Hon. George P. Barker, forty years ago one of the most brilliant lawyers at the Erie county bar, but immigrated to Iowa, then a territory, in 1838, before being admitted to the bar. Reaching Daven- port, he made the acquaintance of David J. Owen, an spent six delightful months with him in making
Geo Greene
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geological surveys, mainly in the territory. At the close of this scientific research, during which he aided Mr. Owen, made some money and made con- siderable progress in knowledge, he went to Ivanhoe, Linn county, and taught school in the winter.
Mr. Greene was admitted to the bar of Johnson county in 1840, Judge Williams presiding at the time of his examination. Soon afterward he went to Marion, Linn county, and there practiced law about five years. He had not been there a year be- fore he was sent to the territorial council, and he attended two sessions, the last one held at Burling- ton and the first one at Iowa City, representing Cedar, Linn and Jones counties. Though a very young member, he took quite an active part in the debates, and especially in the work of committees.
Soon after settling in Marion Mr. Greene was sent as a special delegate to Washington to secure the removal of the United States Land Office from Du- buque to Marion, that it might be more convenient for parties wishing to enter lands. At the end of one year the office was again located at Dubuque.
In 1845 Mr. Greene removed to Dubuque, and while in the active practice of his profession took charge of the " Miner's Express," editing and pub- lishing it for two or three years. Meantime he formed a partnership with J. J. Dyer, Esq., and the old and highly reputable law firm of Greene and Dyer is still remembered by the earlier settlers in northern Iowa. Mr. Dyer afterward became judge of the United States district court, and the talents and legal acumen of Mr. Greene were soon discov- ered, fully appreciated and partially honored by his being appointed judge of the supreme court of the state. That office he held a little more than eight years, and rarely has a man of his age so dignified the ermine. Here the industry of Judge Greene began to fully develop itself; while on the bench he reported the opinions of the supreme court and pub- lished them in four volumes, known far and wide as "G. Greene's Reports."
Judge Greene had long had a partiality for Cedar Rapids, and removed thither in 1851. The town was then small, but he saw its promise, and his expecta- tions in regard to it have been realized. Something like ten years before settling here, in connection with N. B. Brown, Alexander L. Ely, Addison Dan- iels and others, he had purchased claims, perfected titles to lands, and made slight improvements on the site of this town. A portion of it was surveyed and subdivided by some of these parties as early as 1849.
Very soon after settling here Mr. Greene went into the banking business a short time, in the firm of Weare, Finch and Co., and a long time in the firms of Greene and Weare and Greene, Merritt and Co., and he has operated more or less in this busi- ness up to the present time. He is now president of the Union Bank of Cedar Rapids; he is also president of the Star Wagon Company ; of the Farm- ers' Manufacturing Company, and the Cedar Rapids Oil Works, and has a large interest in all of them. He has been president of the Coe Collegiate Insti- tute since its origin under another name.
Judge Greene was one of the foremost men in the efforts which resulted in bringing the Chicago and Northwestern and Burlington and Cedar Rapids railroads to this city, and which brought the latter to Plymouth and originated its several divisions. He gave freely of his time, energies and means to secure these roads for Cedar Rapids, fully realizing, as he then did, their great benefit to the city. He and his brother William built the so-called Mc- Gregor Western road to Conover, and the Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis road. They had some part also in the Central Railroad of Iowa.
Judge Greene is an Odd-Fellow and has been a Master Mason for several years. He is a communi- cant in the Protestant Episcopal church, and has held the office of warden more than twenty years.
He was a democrat until 1872, and now votes with the republican party. Since he left the bench he has sedulously refused to accept political office. .
On the 30th of May, 1838, he married Miss Harriet Merritt, daughter of Dr. Jesse Merritt, of Buffalo, New York. She had four children, two surviving; one of them, Edward M. Greene, is an extensive lumber dealer in Cedar Rapids; the other, Susan H., is the wife of Hon. A. S. Belt, a prominent lawyer in Cedar Rapids. Mrs. Greene died in Dubuque, on the 25th of April, 1850. In February, 1855, Judge Greene married Miss Frances R. Graves, daughter of Calvin Graves, Esq., of Cooperstown, New York. She has seven children living, having lost one. The older ones are being very carefully and thoroughly educated. Judge Greene has been very fortunate and happy in his married relations, both his wives being women largely endowed with the accomplishments and virtues which charm the family circle and have a healthful social influence.
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