The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 19

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 19

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for themselves. Homer C. and Willie K. are mer- chants in Lyons, and Charles D. graduated from the Chicago Medical College in March, 1877; is prac- ticing at Monticello, Iowa. Mr. Boardman's third wife was Miss Sarah M Knight, of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and they were married in February, 1858; she is a model step-mother, and in every respect an excellent woman.

Though not partial to secret societies, Mr. Board- man aided in organizing at Lyons the first Union League in the state, and he assisted in forming many other leagues in eastern Iowa. He is intensely patriotic, and gave much of his time, during the civil war, to promoting the cause of the Union.

· JACOB M. ELDRIDGE,

DAVENPORT.

I N the records of the world's history there are eras which produce remarkable men; some- times great poets, at others great warriors. Then, again, we have great writers, great preachers, great statesmen or great inventors, or they may be great in some other way that makes them remarkable. In his time and in his community none are more remarkable than Jacob Mull Eldridge, president of the Iowa Board of Real-Estate Agents, and one of the largest real-estate dealers in the west. He was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey, on the 20th of November, 1824, and is the son of Duncan C. and Rachel Eldridge, both natives of New Jersey. His father was one of the pioneer settlers of Davenport, locating there in 1836. He was postmaster for six- teen years, and built the third frame and second brick house in the state.

The subject of our sketch received his education at the common school, working during the summer and attending school two or three months in the year. In his early youth, owing to the death of his mother, he was placed in charge of his grandparents, his father emigrating west. When he was thirteen years old, at the death of his grandfather, he con- cluded to "branch out " for himself, and went to work for six dollars per month, driving team and at times attending school. At seventeen he purchased a team and went into business for himself, and at nineteen sold out and commenced as clerk in a store in Camden, New Jersey. In one year he pur- chased the stock and conducted the business. This

he carried on about a year, and disposing of it started for the great west. He stopped in Cincin- nati a short time, as also in Indianapolis. While at the latter place he was in the capitol when the bill passed granting a charter to build a railroad from Indianapolis to Madison, on the Ohio river, which was the first railroad built in Indiana. Taking the stage again, he was told it would be impossible to travel, as the snow on the great prairies prevented. Pressing on, he arrived at Rock Island on the 23d of December, 1845, crossing to Davenport the next day, being two months on his journey from Phila- delphia.

Pleased with the country, he concluded to make Davenport his home, and entered a farm within three miles of Davenport, most of which he still owns. Returning east the next year, he settled his business, and returning to Davenport made it his residence since. From first to last Mr. Eldridge has been eminently successful in his business, rely- ing solely on himself, and by his unaided energy and perseverance has placed himself at the head of real-estate dealers in the west. Within the last year he has sold over one hundred thousand acres of land in Iowa and Nebraska. He is a builder of towns and cities, as well as a dealer in broad acres. He laid out the town of Eldridge, ten miles from Davenport, and on the Davenport and St. Paul rail- road, which bids fair to become one of the finest towns in Scott county. He was elected president of the Iowa Board of Real-Estate Agents in 1871; is

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a stockholder in the Davenport and St. Paul railway, and a director in the Davenport Central Street Rail- way Company.

Mr. Eldridge was raised in the republican school of politics, but is liberal in his views, and votes for the best man in his judgment, irrespective of party. He is an ardent advocate of temperance.

He was married on the 23d of June, 1851, to Miss Mary Williams, of Davenport.

He is a member of the Christian church, having joined in 1845.

He is a prominent member of the Sons of Tem-

perance, and the only delegate from Iowa to the national division of the Sons of Temperance at Philadelphia, June, 1876.

Mr. Eldridge is emphatically a self-made man ; commencing life without a penny, he has, by his own unaided energy, industry and perseverance, made for himself a fortune. But few men have a better record, or have achieved more grand results from a small and discouraging beginning. He is known as a man of sterling integrity, decided char- acter and untiring energy, and receives and merits the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens.

PHINEAS C. WILCOX,

INDEPENDENCE.

T HE ancestors of him whose history is outlined in this sketch were among the early settlers of New England. His maternal great-grandfather, An- drew Lord, was born in 1697. His grandfather, Mar- tin Lord, was born in 1742, and settled in North Kil- lingworth, Connecticut. A man of great force and dignity of character, patriotic and energetic, he was truly one of "nature's noblemen." He married the daughter of Rev. William Seward, of North Kil- lingworth. They reared a large family of children, of whom Huldah, the fifth, born in 1776, was the mother of our subject.

His paternal grandfather, Abel Wilcox, was of good Puritan stock, and for thirty-three years held the office of deacon in the Congregational church at Killingworth. Of his eight children the two youngest, born in 1771, were twins. Their history is very remarkable. Their resemblance was so striking that it was with difficulty that their nearest friends could distinguish them. They were of fine personal appearance and dignified manners. They married sisters ; were merchants by occupation and at one time very wealthy, owning vessels engaged in the West India trade, woolen factories and stores. They were pious men, rigidly orthodox in their be- lief, and reared their large families in strict Puritan style. They were named Moses and Aaron. Moses, the father of our subject, was a fine reader, and in the absence of the minister was called upon to read the sermon. He was once a member of the Con- necticut legislature. Meeting with many reverses of fortune, the twins, in 1824, removed to Summit county, Ohio, where they had taken up a tract of

four thousand acres of land. Arriving at their des- tination, after a wearisome journey of forty days by canal and Lake Erie, and thence through the wil- derness by marked trees, they called the place where they settled "Twinsburg." They lived, how- ever, but two years after reaching their new home, both dying upon the same day of the same disease, after a few hours' illness. Each left a widow and large family, with small means but brave hearts, to face the hardships of life in a new country.

Our subject, the youngest of nine children, was born on the 6th of December, 1820, his mother's forty-fourth birthday. He was the darling of her heart, and remarkable for his filial devotion and love. He was seven years old when his father died. He had very limited educational advantages at the village academy, and when not in school was em- ployed upon the farm, and when old enough en- gaged in teaching during the winter months. His youth was marked by energy and enterprise, and being of an inquisitive mind, fond of investigation, he often perplexed his pious mother with questions upon what she considered sound theology, which she could not answer. She said to his wife in her old age, " I never could coax Phineas to join church, but I do believe he is the best christian in the family."

Finding farm-life ill suited to his tastes, he, at the age of fifteen, went to Painesville and engaged as clerk for Mr. Henry Williams, his brother-in-law. In 1841 he became a partner of Mr. Williams, and carried on a successful mercantile trade. In 1845 he was married to Miss Augusta C. Smith, of New

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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

London, Connecticut. Hearing of the excellent business chances offered in the west, he became im- bued with a spirit of speculation, and in 1856 re- moved to Independence, Iowa.

During the financial crisis of 1857 his business was greatly interrupted, but his native energy, his patience, perseverance and financial ability carried him through. He began a mercantile trade entirely upon his credit, saying that the "earnings of his former life were safely invested in mother earth ; that he should live to pay all his debts, and the lands would be left for his children." His prophecy was fulfilled ; he paid his debts, and by strict atten- tion to business accumulated a handsome property.

His fellow-citizens finding his abilities such as eminently fitted him for official positions, in the fall of 1865 elected him to the general assembly of Iowa, and reelected him in 1867. His ability was soon recognized, and he was made chairman of the com- mittee on ways and means. Acting with Messrs. Donnan and Weart, he was largely instrumental in locating the insane asylum at Independence.

He was very active in public enterprises, and had just begun carrying out a long-cherished plan of improving the business localities of his adopted city when his life and plans were suddenly cut off. He died of apoplexy on the 6th of December, 1868, and was buried on his forty-eighth birthday. His death was to his family, a wife and four children, a blow, crushing and terrible, and brought sorrow to

the hearts of hundreds who had known him person- ally and enjoyed his friendship.

Mr. Wilcox was a man of large stature, strong muscular frame, with dark hair, large dark eyes and a massive head, and weighed over two hundred pounds. He was a man of very few words, but with his immediate friends was exceedingly social and friendly. He was a man of intense likes and dislikes, loving his friends devotedly and never pre- tending to be saintly enough to love his enemies. He hated shams, and utterly despised hypocrisy and deception. A thorough reader of human nature, generous hearted, of sound judgment and invincible courage, he fought life's battles successfully. Few men have passed through the varied walks of life with less of ostentation or more satisfactory results.

" His life was a grand success, and at every step reflected the grandeur, the honor and the dignity of labor; through all the intermediate garden of hope and doubt, embarrass- ment and success, he finally gained the prize and the golden wedge lay at his feet. His life was no speculation ; it was a life of trial, a stern and determined battle for desired results. The battle was long and severe, but he more than won - he conquered. In all his intercourse with the world he never violated the laws of truth, and duty and manhood. While others professed with their lips, he practiced in his daily life, the most sacred requirements of the gospel."

In religion, he chose to make his profession of faith silently before God, and we are content to leave him in silence before the great Creator.

A noble and true man, his work lives after him, and the influence of his example has left its impress upon the lives of all who knew him.

HON. SHUBAEL P. ADAMS,

DUBUQUE.

S HUBAEL PRATT ADAMS, a native of Med- field, Norfolk county, Massachusetts, was born on the 5th of February, 1817, the son of Nehemiah Adams and Mary (Clark) Adams. His great-grand- father, John Adams, was born in Crediton, Devon- shire, England, in 1685, and while a lad was seized by a press-gang, and forced to serve as cabin-boy on board a ship of war. When the ship came into Salem, Massachusetts, he deserted; was afterward captured for a reward, and while on his way back to the ship escaped and fled to what is now Frank- lin, in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, becoming one of its first settlers. He subsequently purchased a farm, which he occupied during his life and left to one of his descendants, who still lives upon it. Two

of his grandchildren were revolutionary soldiers, and one of them, Nathaniel Adams, fought at Bunker Hill.

Peter Adams, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, succeeded to the ancestral estate, shared in the public duties of the town, represented it on one occasion in the legislature, and died at the age of eighty years. When but two years old Shubael P. removed with his parents to a farm in Union, Lincoln county, Maine, where his mother died two years later. In accordance with her dying request, the boy went the next year to live with a relative in Winthrop, Kennebeck county, where he remained ten years. In 1835, when eighteen years old, he went to Waltham, Massachusetts, to learn the ma-

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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

chinists' trade, at which he worked, with the excep- tion of about two years spent at school and in the study of medicine, until 1842, when he went to Low- ell, Massachusetts. There he worked at his trade and studied medicine alternately, and later attended medical lectures in Boston, Brunswick, Maine, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, receiving at the last-named place, in 1845, the degree of M.D. Having turned his attention from the medical profession, he began the study of law in Lowell, and was admitted to the bar in Middlesex county in 1849.

Mr. Adams represented Lowell in the legislature in 1845; was a member of the constitutional con- vention of 1853, and of the legislature in 1857. In the early part of that year he resigned the office of representative, and removing to the west, settled at Dubuque, Iowa, and continued the practice of the law until he was appointed provost-marshal for the third congressional district of the state, with the rank of captain of cavalry. He held this position till the close of the war, discharging its duties with marked promptness and fidelity. In 1866 he was

appointed on a commission to lay out a reservation for a band of Chippewa Indians, two hundred and fifteen miles north of St. Paul, Minnesota, and spent the summer, autumn and early part of the winter of that year in that country. Since that time he has been engaged in his profession in Dubuque with the usual assiduity, during the last six years as attorney of the Chicago, Dubuque and Minnesota and Chi- cago, Clinton and Dubuque railroads.

Mr. Adams has been a member of the Congrega- tional church sixteen years.

Until recently he was a republican in politics, but at present is not fully identified with any political party. He was very active in the free-soil move- ment in Massachusetts in 1848, and during that year was an influential canvasser, speaking in most of the large towns in eastern Massachusetts. At times he has done good service for his party on the stump in Iowa and other western states.

He has been twice married : in 1844 to Miss L. E. Stetson, of Scituate, Massachusetts, and in 1853 to Miss D. R. Taylor, of Lowell, Massachusetts.

BENJAMIN W. THOMPSON, M.D.,

MUSCATINE.

B ENJAMIN WOODRUFF THOMPSON, son of Robert Thompson and Susan née Johnston, was born at Goshen, Orange county, New York, on the 26th of April, 1820.

This branch of the Thompson family is descended from William Thompson, a native of Edgeworths- town, County Longford, Ireland, of Scotch lineage, who was born about the year 1695, married Ann Jenkins in the year 1717, emigrated to America and settled in Goshen, Orange county, New York, in the year 1737. The following is a copy of their certifi- cate from the church of which they were members when in Ireland, the original of which is still pre- served in the family archives :

William Thompson and his wife Ann have lived many years in this neighborhood, and all along have behaved as it becometb Christians; have been orderly members of the Protestant dissenting congregation, and may be received into Christian communion wherever Providence may cast their lot; and their children have behaved soberly and inoffensively.

Certified at Cork Bay, County Longford, Ireland, May 12, 1737. JAMES BOND.

William Thompson was the father of George Thompson, born in Ireland in the year 1719, emi-

grated to America with his parents, and settled in Orange county, New York, where, in the year 1753, he married Elizabeth Wells, and raised a family of four sons and one daughter. He died in the year 1782, in the sixty-third year of his age. William Thompson (grandfather of our subject), eldest son of George and Elizabeth Thompson, was born in Goshen, New York, on the 29th of July, 1756; married Mitty Hudson (daughter of John Hudson and Hannah Coleman) on the 20th of March, 1783, and had four sons and two daugh -. ters. He died on the 29th of February, 1836, in the eightieth year of his age. Robert Thompson, second son of William and Mitty, and father of our subject, was born on the 24th of March, 1787. Married Susan H. Johnston, of Blooming Grove, Orange county, New York, on the 2d of June, 1810; had two sons and four daughters, of whom Benjamin W. is the eldest son. He died in November, 1872, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. His widow (mother of our subject) is living in Middletown, New York, in the eighty-eighth year of her age, and can see to darn stockings without the aid of glasses.

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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

The family, which is still largely represented in that celebrated pastoral region (Orange county, New York), have been all tillers of the soil in time past,- men of substance and high character. The grandfather of our subject (William Thompson) was a captain of light dragoons under General Wash- ington during the revolutionary war. His sword and suit of captain's uniform, together with a grape shot fired from the enemy at the battle of Fort Montgomery, which plowed up the ground under the captain's feet, are now heirlooms in the family of our subject. Robert (the father of the doctor) was a soldier in the war of 1812, and a member of Captain Denton's company. He was a plain, plodding farmer, dealt largely in stock, was a good, honest business man, very highly esteemed in the community, but of a retiring disposition, and rarely went into company. His wife was a most energetic and industrious woman, who in her early days was accustomed to manufacture fabrics from flax and wool, and afterward make them up into garments for her family, first spinning the flax and wool into yarn, then weaving it into cloth, and afterward manufacturing it into garments- all with her own hands. She was, moreover, a most exemplary chris- tian woman, and lives in the love and veneration of her children and a large circle of devoted friends.

Benjamin W. Thompson was raised on his father's farm and received his preliminary education at the Farmer's Hall Academy, Orange county, then under the charge of Nathaniel Webb and James McMas- ter, the latter being now editor of the "Freeman's Journal," New York. Here he studied the usual English branches, the higher mathematics, and the Latin language.

At an early age he conceived a desire to become a physician, but his father demurred, preferring that his son should follow in his steps. Finding, how- ever, that the youth was bent on a profession, on the latter's agreeing to defray the expenses of his education he yielded his consent. Accordingly, at the age of twenty years, he entered the office of Dr. James Horton (now of Muscatine), at Goshen, as a student, where he remained till 1844. Mean- time he attended the usual courses of lectures at the medical department of the University of New York, being under the special direction of Dr. John H. Whitaker, then demonstrator of anatomy in the University, being himself a graduate of the Edin- burgh, Scotland, Medical College. The other mem- bers of the faculty at that time were Dr. Valentine

Mott, professor of surgery and clinical surgery; John H. Revere, professor of theory and practice of med- icine and clinical medicine; Granville S. Patterson (also a graduate of Edinburgh Medical College), professor of anatomy; Martin Pain, professor of ma- teria medica and institutes of medicine; G. S. Bed- ford, professor of obstetrics, etc .; John W. Draper, professor of chemistry, etc. From this institution our subject was graduated in 1844, and immediately commenced the practice of his profession in his own home, being then some twelve hundred dollars in debt for his education. He soon after purchased the office and practice of his preceptor, Dr. Horton, retaining the latter in partnership for one year, at the end of which time Dr. Horton removed to Mus- catine, Iowa. Dr. Thompson at once took charge of the large practice of his predecessor, which ex- tended over a radius of twelve miles from the vil- lage, employing four horses in the discharge of his duties. This he continued for ten years without intermission. In 1854 he sold out his practice to his cousin, Dr. John H. Thompson, who had studied in his office, and followed his old friend, Dr. Horton, to Muscatine, Iowa, where he has since resided, be- ing now one of the oldest practicing physicians in the city. His contemporaries in the practice some twenty-three years ago were Drs. Reeder, Schok, Waters and Johnson - the two former since de- ceased - Dr. Horton having relinquished the prac- tice on moving to the west.

Dr. Thompson soon built up a large and lucrative practice, established himself in the confidence and esteem of the people, and was always prompt in responding to the calls of duty, whether the patient was able to pay for professional services or not, being anxious only to relieve suffering; hence he was called "the poor man's doctor," a title that speaks more in his behalf than pages of fulsome adulation could do.

His specialty, if he has any, in the practice is surgery, at which from the incipiency he developed a remarkable talent, his preceptor, Dr. Horton, be- ing accustomed to hand him the knife and look on while his pupil performed . some of the most critical operations with a dexterity rarely surpassed by the most experienced surgeons.

In politics, the doctor has always adhered to the Jefferson school, but has meddled little in political affairs, nor held office, except that of Alderman of the city of Muscatine. During the years 1856, 1857 and 1858 he held the position of surgeon to

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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

the Orange county poor-house, small-pox, cholera and fever hospitals, and lunatic asylum.

He was raised in the communion of the Pres- byterian church, and attended Sunday school till the age of twenty, but never united with the church.

On the 29th of October, 1846, he married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Stephen St. John, of Port Jervis, New York, one of the best and noblest of her sex, an exemplary member of the Episcopal church, and a promoter of every good and excel- lent work within the sphere of her influence. She died quite unexpectedly on the 12th of September, 1877, in the fifty-fourth year of her age.

They have had two children, sons. The eldest, Stephen St. John, is captain of a river steamboat, and the youngest, Robert Edwin, has adopted the profession of his father, and is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York city, and is a gentleman of considerable promise, especially in the line of surgery, in which he rivals his father.

They have had no daughters, but raised an or- phan girl named Annie Mautchè, whose parents died of cholera in the year 1857, and educated her as their own daughter. She is now the wife of Clarke Sheckelford, Esq., of Des Moines, Iowa.

JOHN D. WALKER,

WILTON.

JOHN DOUGAN WALKER, attorney and coun- selor-at-law, was born in Wayne county, near Richmond, Indiana, on the 14th of October, 1818, and is the son of Samuel Walker and Rebecca née Dougan. His ancestors on both sides were of Scotch origin, of Covenanter faith, and were driven out of their native country to the north of Ireland by the persecution of the Stuart dynasty in the sixteenth century, from whence the great-grandfather of our subject immigrated to the colony of Virginia pre- vious to the revolution. Both his grandfathers fought through the revolutionary war, and after- ward settled in Kentucky. In the year 1795 his grandfather Walker made a trip with General Clark, in pursuit of the Pottawatomie Indians, as far north as Lafayette, Indiana. His report of the country explored in this expedition induced his son-the father of our subject-to immigrate from Kentucky to Wayne county, Indiana, in the year 1808. The country was then an unbroken wilderness, inhabited only by the aborigines and a few straggling, advent- urous pioneers. He served through the war of 1811 and 1812 on the immediate frontier, and afterward settled down to the occupation of farming.

J. D. Walker received but a limited education in the primitive schools of his native place, which were then in the most crude condition and barely toler- ated by the Virginia and Kentucky settlers, who carried with them the strong prejudices against popular education which to a great extent still con- trol the masses of the southern people. But young Walker was ambitious, obtained books where he

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 19

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