USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 2
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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Gear for the speaker's chair, would reach it this | ing to save the life of his child, at the risk of his time without opposition ; and when the legislators convened, and the republican caucus was held, Mr. Stone was nominated by acclamation, and when the final voting came, only two or three members of any party in the house failed to vote for him, a de- gree of unanimity in electing a speaker rarely wit- nessed in any legislative body. The wisdom of this choice is seen in the promptness, accuracy and facil- ity with which speaker Stone discharges his duties.
He has been actively and notably connected with the discussion of almost all the important questions in the legislature for the last ten years, and has ta- ken a prominent and influential part in moulding the legislation of the state during that time. In 1872, while in the senate, he was chairman of the committee on congressional districts, and drafted the present law dividing the state into such districts.
He has always been a consistent, unwavering re- publican, and in 1876 was a delegate-at-large to the national republican convention which met in Cin- cinnati and nominated Rutherford B. Hayes. He was selected by that convention as the Iowa member of the national republican committee, which position he now holds.
The wife of speaker Stone was Miss Harriet Sol- omon, of Glenwood, Iowa; married on the 8th of January, 1868. They have one child, Clarence. In the latter part of August, 1876, Mr. Stone and his little boy Clarence, then five years old, were violent- ly thrown from a carriage in the streets of Glen- wood. Unable to save both, the father, with a promptness inspired by affection, disregarding his own safety, held the child up with both hands, and received the whole shock himself. In thus attempt-
own, his left limb was broken just below the knee; but he had the great happiness of seeing his darling escape unhurt. This was done at the opening of the political campaign of that year; and so neces- sary was it deemed that Mr. Stone should be on the stump, that long before the splints were taken off, and contrary to the orders of his surgeon, he was" seen in different parts of his district making speeches sitting on the side of a table or bench ; and here it may be added that he is one of the most effective canvassers in the state. His last contest for elec- tion was one of the most exciting and hard fought ever made in a county canvass. It attracted atten- tion throughout the state. Concerning this notable engagement, a political writer of the time remarked :
His last triumph, in a series of victories, that of succeed- ing over a most unholy combination of elements in his own county to defeat his reelection to the house, was notable and brilliant. lle had to meet the meanest, and the most determined, and the best organized fight ever made against a candidate in a county contest in this state. With the mettle and the genius of leadership, he met the combined opposition and routed them completely.
Speaker Stone has bluish-gray eyes, brown hair, a florid complexion, a nervous-bilious yet rather even temperament ; is five feet and nine inches tall, and weighs one hundred and seventy-five pounds. His build is very solid, and his general appearance that of health in the efflorescence of early summer-time.
Socially, his qualities are of the finest order. He has great magnetism, and was made for a leader; he has intellectual powers of a high order, with re- served forces yet to be developed, and ambition enough to draw them out whenever occasion calls for it. The favorite of his party, with prudence on his part he may yet have higher steps to take.
HON. JOSHUA G. NEWBOLD, MOUNT PLEASANT.
OSHUA G. NEWBOLD, at the time of writing J (October, 1877,) in the executive chair of the state, is a native of Pennsylvania, and his ancestors in this country were among the very early settlers in New Jersey. They were Quakers, and consequently none of them figured in the struggle for the inde- pendence of the colonies. Governor Newbold is the son of Barzilla and Catherine Houseman Newbold ; was born in Fayette county, on the 12th of May, 1830, and reared as a farmer. When he was eight
years of age the family moved to Westmoreland coun- ty, where he was educated in the common school, and also in a select school or academy, the latter taught by Dr. John Lewis, now of Grinnell, Iowa. At sixteen he returned with the family to Fayette county, where he remained eight years, assisting his father in running a flouring mill, when not teaching. When about nineteen he commenced the study of medicine, reading a year or more while teaching, and then abandoning the notion of being a physician.
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In the month of March, 1854, Mr. Newbold re- moved to Iowa, locating on a farm, now partly in the corporation of Mount Pleasant, Henry county. At the end of one year he removed to Cedar town- ship, Van Buren county, there merchandising and farming till about 1860, when he removed to Hills- boro, Henry county, and pursued the same callings.
In 1862, when the call was made for six hundred ' thousand men to finish the work of crushing the re- bellion, Mr. Newbold left his farm in the hands of - his family, and his store in the charge of his partner, and went into the army as captain of company C, 25th regiment, Iowa Infantry. He served nearly three years, resigning just before the war closed, on account of disability. During the last two or three months at the south he served as judge advocate, with headquarters at Woodville, Alabama.
On returning to Iowa he continued in the mer- cantile trade at Hillsboro for three or four years, and then sold out, giving thereafter his whole atten- tion to agriculture, stock raising and stock dealing, making the stock department an important factor in his business for several years.
Mr. Newbold was a member of the thirteenth, four- teenth and fifteenth general assemblies, from Henry county, and was chairman of the school committee in
the fourteenth, and of the committee on appropria- tions in the fifteenth general assembly. In the fif- teenth he was temporary speaker (1874) during the dead-lock in organizing the house. In 1875 he was elected lieutenant-governor, serving as president of the senate in the session of 1876. Governor Kirk- wood being elected United States senator during that session, Mr. Newbold became governor, taking the chair on the ist of February, 1877. He will va- cate it in January, 1878, Hon. John H. Gear having been elected. The home of Governor Newbold is at Mount Pleasant.
He has always affiliated with the republican party, and holds to its great cardinal doctrines having once embraced them, with the same sincerity and honesty that he cherishes his religious sentiments. He has been a member of the christian church for something like twenty-five years, his connection being with the Free Baptists.
Governor Newbold found his wife, Miss Rachel Farquhar, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, their union taking place on the 2d of May, 1850. They have had five children, and lost two. Mary Allene, the eldest daughter living, is the wife of Benjamin F. Isaman, of Aurora, Hamilton county, Nebraska. Emma Irene and George G. are single.
GOVERNOR JOHN H. GEAR,
BURLINGTON.
JOHN H. GEAR was born in Ithaca, New York, on the 7th of April, 1825. His father was Rev. E. G. Gear, a clergyman of the Protestant Episco- pal church, who was born in New London, Connec- ticut, in 1792. . At early age his family removed to Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts; in 1816, after being ordained, he immigrated to New York and settled at Onondaga Hill, near what is known now as the thriving city of Syracuse. Soon after his locating there he was married to Miss Miranda E. Cook, and was engaged in the ministry in various places in western New York until 1836, when he re- moved to Galena, Illinois, where he remained un- til 1838, when he was appointed chaplain in the United States army at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and died in 1874, at the age of eighty-two years.
John H., his only son, in 1843 came to Burling- ton, where he has since continued to reside. On his arrival he commenced his mercantile career
by engaging as clerk with the firm of Bridgeman and Bros. After being with this firm for a little over a year he entered the employment of W. F. Coolbaugh, (late president of the Union National Bank, of Chicago,) who was even at that early date the leading merchant of eastern Iowa; he was clerk for Mr. Coolbaugh for about five years, when he was taken into partnership. The firm (W. F. Coolbaugh and Co.) continued in business for nearly five years, at which time he succeeded to the business by pur- chase and has ever since carried it on, being now the oldest wholesale grocer in the state.
Mr. Gear has been honored by his fellow-citizens with many positions of trust. In 1852 he was elected alderman; in 1863 was elected mayor over A. W. Carpenter, being the first republican up to that time who had been elected in Burlington on a party issue. In 1867 the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minne- sota Railroad Company was organized, and he was
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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
chosen as its president. His efforts highly contrib- uted to the success of the enterprise, which has done much for the city. He was also active in promoting the Burlington and Southwestern railway as well as the Burlington and Northwestern narrow-gauge road. He has taken great interest in this new system of railroads, and has written a pamphlet entitled " Five Reasons why the people of lowa should en- courage the Building of Narrow-gauge Railroads." It was ably written and had a large circulation in the west, and has done much toward stimulating the building of this new system.
He has always acted with the republican party, and in 1871 was nominated and elected a member of the house of representatives of the fourteenth general assembly. In 1873 he was elected to the fifteenth assembly. The republican caucus of the house nominated him for speaker by acclamation, and after a contest of two weeks he was chosen over his opponent, J. W. Dixon. He filled the position of speaker very acceptably, and at the close of the session all the members of the house (independent of party) joined in signing their names to a resolu- tion of thanks, which was engraved and presented to him. In 1875 he was the third time nominated to
the assembly by the republican party, and while his county gave a large democratic vote he was again elected and again nominated by the republican cau- cus for speaker, and elected by a handsome majority over his competitor, Hon. John Y. Stone. He is the only man in the state who ever had the honor of being chosen to this high position the second time. He enjoys the reputation of being an able parliamen- tarian, his rulings never having been appealed from. At the close of the session he again received the unanimous thanks of the house for his courtesy and impartiality. He has been at all times a diligent and worthy representative, and has secured a high reputation for his fidelity to his constituents, for his liberality, for his unchanging firmness in the advo- cacy of his principles, and for the undiscriminating courtesy he extends to all who approach him. He was elected governor in October, 1877, and now oc- cupies the executive chair of the state.
He was married in 1852 to Harriett S. Foot, for- merly of Middlebury, Vermont, by whom he has had four children, two of whom are living.
Mr. Gear is now in the fifty-second year of his age, and is in the full vigor of both his mental and physical faculties.
HON. CHESTER C. COLE,
DES MOINES.
C HESTER CICERO COLE, late chief justice of the supreme court of Iowa, and a man with few peers in the legal profession in the state, sprang from a very early New England family. Its progeni- tor in this country was one of the little company of men who accompanied Roger Williams when he was banished from the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and founded a colony at Providence, Rhode Island. From that point the family has spread over most of the states in the Union.
Chester C. was the son of Samuel Cole, a farmer, and Alice (Pullman | Cole, and was born in Oxford, Chenango county, New York, on the 4th of June, 1824. He fitted for college at the Oxford Academy, and at eighteen was prepared to enter the junior class of Union College; but protracted ill health prevented, and at twenty-two he entered the law school of Harvard University, where he received a thorough training under the best legal instructors in the country, and graduated in about two years.
Mr. Cole went immediately to Frankfort, Ken- tucky, and took charge for a short time of the legis- lative department of the "Commonwealth," a daily paper of that place; he then located at Marion, Crit- tenden county, Kentucky, where he was admitted to the bar, and commenced what has proved to be a very brilliant career in the legal profession. It was brilliant from the start. Success marked his first case at the bar and gave him such a notoriety that at the ensuing term of the circuit court he was en- gaged in more than thirty cases, and at the following term of the court he was retained in every case.
Mr. Cole remained in Marion nine years, and the success which attended him was almost marvelous. We have it from perfectly reliable authority that during these years he was engaged in every impor- tant contested trial; that in criminal practice he cleared every client whom he defended, and that he prosecuted but two men, one of whom was hung for murder, and the other sent to the penitentiary for
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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHIICAL DICTIONARY.
passing counterfeit money. His uniform success was all the more remarkable from the fact that he had to contend at the bar with the ablest lawyers in Ken- tucky; in those days among them were L. W. Pow- ell, Archibald Dixon, Samuel A. Kingman, Robert A. Patterson, George W. Barber and H. C. Burnett, all of whom have since held high positions in the states or the federal congress. During the same period his practice extended into other states, where he had the best and ablest legal talent to contend against.
In May, 1857, Mr. Cole settled in Des Moines, which has since been his home, and where his suc- cess as an attorney has been second to that of none at the capital of the state or probably in Iowa.
In 1859 he was the democratic candidate for judge of the supreme court, and was defeated. In 1860 he ran for congress on the same ticket against General Curtiss, making a brilliant canvass, but the district was republican and he was again defeated.
When, in the spring of 1861, the American flag was stricken down at Fort Sumter, he was among the first to protest against the infamous deed, and to raise his voice for the marshaling of Union troops. With an eloquence rarely surpassed he appealed to his democratic brethren at sundry times to support the federal government in its efforts to crush the re- bellion, but failing to secure their cooperation as a party organization, in his disgust and mortification he shook the democratic dust off his feet, and in 1862 came out boldly for the great Union party. Since that date his affiliations have been uniformly with the republicans. At one time in 1863, a most critical period in our history, he dropped his press- ing legal business, and almost incessantly for thirty days and thirty nights delivered able speeches to rouse the people for home defense, raids from the Missouri border being threatened. His frantic ap- peals were attended with striking success.
In February, 1864, Mr. Cole was appointed one of the judges of the supreme court; the next autumn he was elected to the same office by the unprec- edented majority of forty thousand votes, and re- elected in 1870 by an equally flattering vote. He was one of the foremost men in organizing the sol- diers' Orphans' Home; was made a trustee of the same, and subsequently its president. In 1865 he was associated with Judge G. G. Wright in organiz- ing a law school at Des Moines, since made a part of the State University at Iowa city.
In 1869 Judge Cole became chief justice, and served in that capacity until the expiration of that
term. He was reelected chief justice, but resigned the office on the Ist of January, 1876, and returned to the practice of his profession.
For an account of his career on the bench, and his qualifications as a jurist, we cannot do better than copy a paragraph or two from a sketch of him which we find in " Andrews' Historical Atlas," pub- lished two years ago. It was written by a gentle- man who had the most favorable opportunities for judging of his character.
Associated during his judicial experience with the ablest minds which the state has produced - with Wright and Dillon and Lowe; with Beck and Miller and Day ; called to the consideration of legal questions, a large part of which were without precedent in the reports of the state, partic- ularly those relating to the taxing power, and to the rela- tion of corporations to the whole body corporate, Judge Cole has been the peer of the ablest of his judicial associ- ates. With respect to the subjects to which we have ad- verted, and which, during this period, have been matters of absorbing public interest, the decisions of the court have been plainly and indelibly impressed with the stamp of his conviction. The positions which he assumed in the early history of this time, particularly with reference to corporate rights, have come to be the settled faith of the public mind.
His judicial work ha's been distinguished for a display of the highest qualities which are demanded by the bench. Of remarkable quickness and correctness of apprehension, he always deals directly with the point at issue; of great discrimination in the selection of analogies, he illustrates his opinions with few but apt citations of authorities; for- tunate in his early legal training, and still more fortunate in the possession of an untiring industry, which has never given him respite from study, he has infused into his de- cisions, and thus into the local monuments of the state, the spirit with which he has been imbued from a life-long in- tercourse with the highest sources of the law. To these qualities he has brought a singleness of intellectual purpose, which has always kept him from discursive argument and reasoning, and a courage of conviction by which he has an- nounced the law boldly and fearlessly, regardless of per- sonal consequences or present approval.
As a judicial writer, he has eloquence, clearness and force. Some of his opinions, while always reaching to the very point in issue, have the characteristics of scholarly es- says upon legal topics. At the same time, while his ele- gance of diction and. readiness of expression might expose him to the danger of intellectual display, his opinions al- ways bear the evident purpose of" casting upon the mind of the reader the same light which is shining in his own. This paramount and single object is always in view, to illustrate clearly and logically his own earnest and honest convictions.
To one other characteristic, his reputation stands not a little indebted ; while always a lawyer and jurist, his inspira- tion has not been drawn alone from the study of authorities, or guided by the formula of the books. Of large sympa- thies and a thorough practical knowledge, he has never lost sight of the human and ethical side of the law in his devo- tion to the maxims of the past. With him a decision must always, indeed, have been grounded in the law; but that could not be law which did violence to equity, or resulted in inconvenience or wrong to great masses of the community.
Judge Cole has been for several years the editor of the "Western Jurist," a periodical published at Des Moines, and conducted with marked ability. He is also the editor of the new edition of the "Iowa Law Reports," which he has liberally annotated, and
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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
which exhibit his great legal acumen and exhaustive research.
The wife of Judge Cole was Miss Amanda M. Bennett, an associate of his youth. They were mar- ried on the 24th of June, 1848, and have had seven children, four sons and three daughters, five of
whom are still living, two sons dying in childhood. His eldest son, William W., graduated at the law department of the Iowa State University, and is now engaged in his profession in Des Moines. His eldest daughter was married to A. C. Atherton, in December, 1874.
HON. SAMUEL MERRILL,
DES MOINES.
A MONG the men in the west who have been called from private life to places of trust on account of their peculiar fitness for office, is Colonel Samuel Merrill, ex-governor of lowa. He was born in the town of Turner, Oxford county, Maine, on the 7th of August, 1822. He is of English ancestry, being a descendant, on his mother's side, of Peter Hill, who came from the west of England and settled in Saco, Maine (now known as Biddeford), in 1653. From this ancestry have sprung the most of the Hills of America. On his father's side he is a de- scendant of Nathaniel Merrill, who, with his brother John, came from Salisbury, England, and settled in Newburg, Massachusetts, in 1636.
Abel Merrill married Abigail Hill, on the 25th of June, 1809, in Buxton, Maine. They soon moved to Turner, where they became the parents of eight children ; Samuel, the subject of this sketch, being next to the youngest, the fourth and youngest son in the family, and in the eighth generation from his pilgrim fathers.
Samuel was married to Catherine Thoms, who died in 1847, but fourteen months after their mar- riage. In January, 1851, he was again married, his second wife being a Miss Hill, of Buxton, Maine. To this union there has been four children, three of whom died young, the eldest living only to be two and a half years old. Little Hattie is now seven years of age, full of life, and buoyant with the hope of coming usefulness in the approaching years of womanhood.
At the age of sixteen he moved with his parents to Buxton, where his time was mostly engaged in turns at teaching and in attending school until he attained his majority. Having determined to make teaching a profession, he set out for that purpose toward the sunny south, but, as he says, he was "born too far north " for his political comfort. Sus- picion having been raised as to his abolitionist pro-
clivities, and finding the elements not altogether con- genial, he soon abandoned the land of the palm and palmetto for the old Granite State, where he en- gaged for several years in farming.
In 1847 he moved to Tamworth, New Hampshire, where he embarked in the mercantile business in company with a brother. In this, as in all his in- dustrial enterprises, he was quite successful. Not being satisfied with the limited resources of north- ern New England, he determined to try his good fortune on the broad prairies of the new and more fertile west. Accordingly, in 1856, he turned his face toward the setting sun. He made a final set- tlement at McGregor, Iowa, where he established a branch house of the old firm.
During all these years of business Mr. Merrill took an active but not a noisy part in politics. In 1854 he was elected as an abolitionist to the New Hampshire legislature, at the same time General N. B. Baker, ex-adjutant-general of Iowa, was governor of the state. In 1855 he was returned a second term to the legislature.
In Iowa he was equally fortunate in securing the good-will of those who knew him. His neighbors, and those who had dealings with him, found a man, honest in business, fair in his dealings, social in his relations, and benevolent in his disposition. He took an active interest in the prosperity of the town and ever held an open hand to all needed charities. These traits of character had drawn around him, but not realized or intended by himself, a host of personal admirers. This good-will resulted in his being nominated for a seat in the state legislature, and the only one elected on his ticket.
The legislature met in extra session in 1861 to provide for the exigencies of the rebellion, in which Governor Merrill rendered effective and unselfish service in providing for the defense and perpetuity of our nation against the hand of treason.
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THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
He continued in business at McGregor until the summer of 1862, when he was commissioned as col- onel of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry, proceed- ing immediately to Missouri, where active service awaited him. Marmaduke was menacing the Union forces in central Missouri, which called for prompt action on the part of Union generals. Colonel Mer- rill was placed in command of a detachment of the 2Ist Iowa, a detachment of the 99th Illinois, a por- tion of the 3d Iowa Cavalry and two pieces of artil- lery, with orders to make a forced march to Spring- field, he being at Houston, eighty miles distant. On the morning of the 11th of January, 1863, they hav- ing come across a body of rebels, found them ad- vancing in heavy force. Colonel Merrill immedi- ately made disposition for battle, and brisk firing was kept up for an hour, when the enemy fell back. Colonel Merrill now moved in the direction of Harts- ville, where he found the rebels in force under Mar- maduke, and from six to eight thousand strong, with six pieces of artillery, while Colonel Merrill had but eight hundred men and two pieces of artillery. This was the first time the 21st had been under fire, and considering the number engaged was one of the most remarkable engagements of the war. Says Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap in his report, "I make mention of no one as having distinguished himself above another. Every man was brave, cool, active and a hero. Too much praise cannot be accorded them." In this engagement the rebels lost several officers and not less than three hundred men in killed and wounded. The Union loss was seven killed and sixty-four wounded, five captured and two missing. The conduct of the officers and men engaged elicited the highest praise of General War- ren. The regiment performed severe marches and suffered much in sickness during the winter. At the proper time it moved to take part in the campaign of Vicksburg. It is sufficient here to say that it was assigned to the thirteenth corps, General John A. McClernand; that it fought gallantly at the battle of Port Gibson ; that while the impetuous charge of Black River Bridge was being made Colonel Merrill was severely, and reported fatally, wounded. The battle of Black River Bridge, the last of the series of engagements during the campaign of Vicksburg in which the rebels fought without their fortifica- tions, was a short but bloody combat of the 17th of May. The rebels were posted in a strong position. The west bank of the river here consists of bluffs rising abruptly from the water's edge. On the east
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