USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 27
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On the 28th of June, 1865, he married Miss Frances L., daughter of William F. Coan, Esq., president of the Clinton National Bank, Iowa. They have no children.
HENRY S. GRANGER,
ELKADER.
H TENRY S. GRANGER, the first journalist of Clayton county, is a native of Geauga county, Ohio, and was born on the 23d of April, 1821. His mother was Lorana Smith, and her father was a drummer in the revolutionary army. Ransler Granger, the father of Henry, was a farmer in mod- erate circumstances, and the son remained at home, aiding to clear and improve the homestead, until he was twenty years of age, having, meanwhile, quite limited educational privileges. In order to enlarge them, he split rails and thus raised funds, by which means he was enabled to spend one year at a select school in his native county. About this time his health declined, and after a year or two of partial
rest he went into a store in Portage county, and there and in other places sold goods for five years.
In the spring of 1850 he came to Garaville, Iowa, then the seat of justice. Before leaving Ohio he had paid some attention to law, and here resumed its study with Hon. Samuel Murdock, and was ad- mitted to the bar in October, 1851. In January, 1853, Mr. Granger started the "Clayton County Herald," a large sheet of neat typography, the first newspaper published in the state north of Dubuque. In about eighteen months he sold out, and formed a law partnership with Reuben Noble, now judge of the tenth judicial district.
In 1856 Mr. Granger removed to McGregor, and
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engaged, with others, in banking and the real-estate business, which, on account of the great crisis in money affairs, was discontinued the following year. Early in 1860 he went to Colorado in search of the precious metals, and returned in a few months not overburdened with bullion. In December of that year he located at Elkader in the same county, and has here continued the practice of law when not performing the duties of some office.
From 1852 to 1855 Mr. Granger was school fund commissioner of Clayton county ; and in 1860, while in Colorado, was nominated for clerk of the district court, and elected three days after his return, hold- ing the office twelve years. During the first eight years of this period he served also as county clerk, and the last four as clerk of both district and circuit courts. He made an efficient and popular officer.
Mr. Granger belongs to the Masonic order, and at the time of writing is high priest of the chapter.
His politics were democratic until 1854; a year later he helped to organize the republican party, and still adheres to it. .
On the 21st of October, 1852, he was married to Miss Mary J. Sanford, of Portage county, Ohio, a woman of rare excellence and a leader, at sundry times, in various noble enterprises. She has had five children, and four of them are living. They are excellent young people, and hence a source of com- fort to their parents.
Mr. Granger is active in more than one enterprise, and especially so in school matters. While one of the directors he has seen the graded school of El- kader gain a prominent position in the county, and he takes pride in witnessing such advancement.
THOMAS HEDGE,
BURLINGTON.
T' HOMAS HEDGE, senior, was born in Yar- mouth, Massachusetts, on the 14th of Febru- ary, 1815, and is the eldest son of James and Han- nah Hedge née Bray, natives of Massachusetts. His paternal ancestor in America, Captain William Hedge, was commander of a vessel which he sailed from London to Boston, the latter then only a small village of a few hundred inhabitants. He was among the first settlers of Yarmouth in 1639, when the town was founded. James Hedge, Thomas's father, was also a sea captain and farmer.
The boyhood of the subject of our sketch was spent on a farm in his native town, where he en- joyed the advantages of both private and public schools. At the age of seventeen he went to Boston and engaged as clerk in a commission house, where he remained two years, when he entered the count- ing-room of Burgess and Sons, a heavy firm en- gaged extensively in the West India trade. Here he was bookkeeper, and also went to Cuba in the interest of the firm, remaining eight months, and returned to Boston. In the fall of 1836 he came to Burlington, in company with two other young men, where he spent about three years in the mer- cantile business, and then returned to Boston and resumed business with his old firm, Burgess and Son, who engaged him as their agent to take charge of their large business at Cienfuegos, Cuba, where
he remained four years, enjoying the confidence and trust of the house.
In 1843 he again came west and went into mer- cantile business at Burlington ; in this he continued till 1861 successfully, and went into the banking house of Lauman, Hedge and Co. In March, 1866, he became associated with the firm of Gilbert, Hedge and Co. in the lumber business, which he has con- tinued till the present time.
In politics, he is a republican, though formerly a whig, but in no way can he be called a politician, though he has filled several offices of responsibility and trust with much credit and honor to himself. He is a member of the board of supervisors, and chairman for four years, ending in 1874, and was two years trustee of the State Insane Asylum. He is at present a director in the First National Bank and of the German-American Savings Bank.
He is a member of the Congregational church, of which he is a liberal supporter.
He was married on the 27th of September, 1843, to Miss Eliza B. Eldridge, of Yarmouth, Massachu- setts, who died in May, 1869, leaving one son and one daughter. The former, Thomas Hedge, junior, is engaged in the practice of law in Burlington. He is a graduate of Yale College and of the law school at New York. While in the midst of his studies at college he volunteered in a New York regiment as
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second lieutenant. He made an exellent record, and now bids fair to become one of the most prominent members of the bar in Iowa. His daughter, Anna B. Hedge, presides over the affairs of the household.
Socially, Mr. Hedge is genial, cordial and always agreeable. Much given to hospitality, his elegant home is the center of a most refined and cultivated circle of warmly attached friends.
JOHN W. H. BAKER, M.D., DAVENPORT.
D R. JOHN WATERMAN HARRIS BAKER was born in Chesterfield, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, on the 21st of August, 1821. His father's name was Oliver Baker, junior, and the mother's name was Sally Ticknor. The father was a physician, having studied under Dr. Nathan Smith, the founder of the medical department of Dart- mouth College, and practicing his profession in Chesterfield for more than thirty years. He re- moved to Verinont in 1840, and during the last few years of his professional life practiced medicine in Windsor, Vermont. The grandfather's name was Oliver .Baker, and was likewise a physician. He practiced medicine in the town of Plainfield, Sulli- van county, New Hampshire. The grandfather's generation was previous to the establishment of medical schools in New England, he having been born in Tolland, Connecticut, in the year 1755. The subject of this record could hardly do other- wise than become the devotee of the medical sci- ence with such antecedents, associated with the desire of his father that he should succeed him in transmitting the professional name to the next gene- ration. This family of Bakers has a clear genealo- gical record running back to the year 1678, and an indefinite record to about the time of the landing of the Pilgrims. The regular descent, of which the record is perfect, is from Joseph Baker, born in 1678; then Heman Baker, born in 1719; then Oliver Baker, born in 1755 ; then Oliver Baker, ju- nior, born in 1788; then J. W. H. Baker, born in 1821.
There were three persons by the name of Baker who were among the proprietors of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1635, and from one of these probably this branch of the Baker family traces its origin to the landing of the Pilgrims.
Doctor John, as the subject of this record was familiarly known, in distinction from the name of his father, was from youth kept at school; first in the public school so common all over New Eng-
land, and then in the academy of his native village. He can well remember when quite a small boy of frequently wearing home from the common school the prize medal, consisting of a silver dime with a hole drilled in it, and a string put through it that it might be worn about the neck. The pupil who was at the head of the class when the school closed at night was the privileged possessor of the prize until he returned to school the next day.
When fourteen years of age he was sent to the Kimball Union Academy, one of the best and most popular schools of New England, where he re- mained about two years. In this school he com- pleted his classical studies. After this he com- menced the business of teaching school during the winter, and in the meantime began the study of medicine with his father. In 1840 he became a student under the teaching of Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, New Hampshire, one of the best and cer- tainly the most famous surgeon of New England during his day.
From the pupilage of Dr. Twitchell he attended the first of his courses of medical lectures at the New Hampshire Medical College in 1840, and con- tinued his studies under the professors of this school, taking a private course of dissections after the close of the regular course. He attended the two suc- cessive courses of lectures in the same institution, and received his diploma in October, 1842. In the spring of 1843 he located in the village of Newport, New Hampshire, and remained there until June 1844, when a favorable opening occurring at the vil- lage of Meriden, New Hampshire, he removed to that place, and there we may say he commenced a most successful career in the practice of medicine, soon obtaining the confidence and patronage of the surrounding community.
He married on the Ist of January, 1845, Julia Ann Richardson, the daughter of Orlo and Nancy (Wilde) Richardson, of Chesterfield, New Hampshire. By this marriage they have six living children, the
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eldest a son, named John Frederick Baker, who has been educated to the profession of medicine, this making the fourth generation in succession engaged in the practice of medicine.
He remained in Meriden, doing a fair business, until August 1853, when he left for California, and in October of that year he located at Moquelumne Hill, Calaveras county. He continued in practice there until May 1855, when he returned to New England, and after a visit west concluded to locate in Davenport, Iowa, where he arrived in November 1855.
Since his location in Davenport he has been thor- oughly engaged in the practice of his profession. He has never made himself a noted military surgeon or an eminent politician. He believes that a physi- cian, in order to be successful in his mission, should give his whole efforts to his profession. During the late civil war he received the appointment from the government of assistant surgeon, and was ordered to duty in the military hospital at Camp Mcclellan, near the city of Davenport. He performed the duties of the hospital there for several months, but finding the hospital duties interfering with his regu- lar practice he resigned the position.
In 1856 he took an active interest in the organi- zation of the Scott County Medical Society, being present at the preliminary meeting and at the first meeting for choice of officers. Among the first offi- cers of the society he held the position of censor,
and afterward was honored with every position from that to the presidency of the society.
He joined the Iowa State Medical Society in 1857, of which he was chosen as recording secre- tary in 1858. He remained an active worker in that society, and was chosen vice-president in 1864, re- cording secretary for a second time in 1865, and in 1866 he received the choice of the members as presi- dent, and served in that position for one term.
He is a member of the American Medical Associ- ation, having maintained an unbroken membership since 1860.
Although enjoying the well-established reputation of a general practitioner, his professional brethren and the community in which he lives give special prominence to his ability as an obstetrician, and he enjoys an extensive practice in this branch of medi- cine. In his profession, his constant study, wide experience and mature judgment place him in the front ranks.
Whether in his profession or as a neighbor he is not hasty in forming conclusions, but willing to wait and investigate. He is slow to make acquaint- ances, or to accept the views of others without in- quiry. As a citizen, he is public-spirited, ever identified with the best interests and substantial progress of the city. A man of upright character and excellent example, liberal in political and reli- gious views ; tolerant, sympathetic and honest as the solid old granite hills of the state of his nativity.
HON. LYMAN COOK,
BURLINGTON ..
YMAN COOK, president of the First National Bank, Burlington, Iowa, was born in Ben- nington, Licking county, Ohio, on the 6th of June, 1820. His parents were Jacob and Abigail Cook née Scott, who were early settlers of Ohio, coming from Massachusetts at an early date and settling in Licking county. Here the subject of our sketch commenced life as a farm boy, being reared to hab- its of economy and industry, which greatly assisted him in after life. His early education was gained at the common schools of the country, and later at Granville University, till the age of seventeen, when he engaged as bookkeeper in the ironworks at Zoar, Ohio, where he remained two years.
In March, 1840, he came to Burlington, traveling
the entire distance on horseback, being twenty-three days in performing the journey. For a short time he was engaged in the commission and produce busi- ness, and then formed a partnership under the style of Prugh and Cook, in tin and hardware. In 1854 he sold his interest and entered the banking busi- ness as White, Cook and Co., until 1858, when he formed the banking house of Cook and Baxter, con- tinuing till 1861, when the firm dissolved, when he succeeded W. F. Coolbaugh as president of the Bur- lington branch of the State Bank of Iowa. At the or- ganization of the First National Bank of Burlington in January, 1864, he was elected president, which position he still holds. Mr. Cook has made his financial operations successful by his own ability,
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enterprise and business energy. He is a director in the Iowa State Savings Bank, as also a director of the Burlington and Missouri Railway Company, and takes an active interest in all enterprises for the de- velopment of the city and country. He was one of the commissioners to organize the Union Pacific railway, in convention in Chicago in 1862, of which General S. R. Curtis was president.
He was very active during the war in caring and assisting the soldiers' rendevous at Burlington. In 185 1 he was elected mayor of the city, and by three consecutive elections held the office for three years.
In 1856 he was elected to the state senate and served four years. He was also commissioner of the school fund. As an officer, he was very popular, discharg- ing his public duties with satisfaction to his constit- uents and for the welfare of the state.
He was married on the 12th of October, 1846, to Miss Octavia W. Lorain, who died in 1856. His second marriage was to Mrs. Lucia G. St. John, of Burlington, on the 4th of March, 1861. In person he is of commanding carriage, pleasant address, of social and friendly disposition, and is much respected by his friends and fellow-citizens.
JOHN W. GREEN,
DAVENPORT.
JOHN WALKER GREEN was born at Vernon, Indiana, on the 24th of August, 1841, and is the son of Adam and Emeline (Ledgerwood) Green, natives of the same place. His ancestors on the paternal side emigrated from England previous to the revolution, and settled in Pennsylvania, from whence their descendants have since scattered throughout the northwest. His mother is of Irish descent.
The subject of this sketch removed with his parents to Davenport, Iowa, in 1854, where he at- tended the preparatory department of the Iowa (now Greswold) College, and in 1862 graduated from Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. The rebel- lion being then at its height, his first step after leaving college was to enlist as a private soldier in the 83d regiment Illinois Infantry, which was re- cruited in Monmouth, and in which he served with distinction till the close of the war, participating in the campaigns of the army of the Cumberland un- der General A. A. Smith, and promoted to the rank of adjutant of his regiment.
Upon leaving the army he entered the Albany (New York) Law School, from which he graduated in 1866, and soon after commenced the practice of law in the city of Davenport, which he has since made his home.
In politics, he has always been a staunch repub- lican, and an uncompromising advocate of equal rights of all men before the law. He represented his county with distinction in the thirteenth and fourteenth general assemblies of the State of Iowa, serving as chairman of the committee on constitu-
tional amendments, and also a member of the judi- ciary committee. He has been an active politician since the close of the war, and has served as chair- man of the republican committees, both county and congressional.
He is a distinguished Mason, and occupies the prominent position of grand chancellor of Knights of Pythias for the State of Iowa.
Mr. Green is regarded as one of the most promis- ing young men of the country; of fine personal appearance, courtly bearing and manners, soundly educated, and endowed with large natural gifts, among which is a retentive memory, by means of which, through his extensive reading, his intellectual and mental capital are being constantly augmented. Upon this accumulation he draws with excellent judgment and taste whenever he is called upon to address his fellow-citizens. Hence he is quite popu- lar as a public speaker, and on all days of national import and local public celebration he is frequently called upon to exercise his gifts, and always with the most happy results. Thus he has been gradually drawn into prominence, and has become active on the rostrum, and influential in the councils of his party. As an orator, he is graceful, pleasing, clear and logical; his rhetoric being frequently inter- spersed with passages of rare poetic beauty and metaphorical richness, as well as abounding in bril- liant sallies of wit, humor and sarcasm. He is governed by high moral principles, and is true to his convictions as the needle to the pole, so that his friends always know where to find him. Nor is he less steadfast and unchangeable in his personal
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friendships. With him there is no variableness neither shadow of turning. When he espouses the cause of a friend he is constant and true. As a lawyer, while he has attained an enviable standing in the domain of civil jurisprudence, yet as a crim- inal practitioner he has been especially successful. He is a genial companion, a brilliant and spirited
conversationalist, and a gentleman in the widest sense of the term.
On the 18th of August, 1862, he married Miss E. C. Denman, daughter of D. T. Denman, Esq., of Monmouth, Illinois, an accomplished lady, a con- genial companion and a wise counselor. They have two children, Arthur L. and Lucia A.
HON. AMBROSE. C. FULTON,
DAVENPORT.
MBROSE C. FULTON is a descendant of one A of the three Fulton brothers who settled in this country about the year 1747, one of whom was the father of Robert Fulton, who was born in Ful- ton township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1765, and who invented and set afloat on the Hudson river, in 1807, the steamboat Clermont, the first steamboat ever launched.
The subject of our sketch was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, of Quaker parents, in 1811, when schools were in their infancy, and were kept three or four months out of the twelve by peda- gogues possessed of very limited knowledge. He worked on the farm of his parents until 1827, when he grew tired of a farmer's life and went to Phila- delphia and acted as errand boy and assistant for an extensive builder, and employed his time even- ings working in a store, and later cut cordwood in New Jersey, one winter, at forty cents per cord. In 1831, with a capital of twenty-five dollars, he sailed for a cruise on the coast of the Atlantic and adja- cent West-India islands, and in the same year set- tled in New Orleans.
During the winter of 1831 he made a trading voy- age up the Yazoo river into the State of Mississippi, landing where Yazoo city now stands. At that time the improvements consisted of three small houses and a cotton shed. Returning to New Orleans, he embarked in the commerce of Jamaica, Sicily and Cuba for two years, in which he was very success- ful. After this he embarked in the building busi- ness, and erected, as superintendent, contractor and owner, a large number of the public and private edifices now in New Orleans. A portion of said buildings were erected on lands purchased by Mr. Fulton (as the deed before us recites) from George Louis Gilbert Dumottier La Fayette, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, residing in the city of
Paris, in the kingdom of France, which tract of land was originally granted to his father, the late Major- General La Fayette, in pursuance of the fourth sec- tion of an act of congress passed on the 3d of March, 1803.
He prospered in all his undertakings, and was able to purchase and pay eleven thousand dollars for city property in 1836, which at that time was considered a large sum of money.
During 1835, Santa Anna, Dictator of Mexico, imprisoned within the dungeons of the capital the representatives of the then Mexican State of Texas, and issued his pronunciamento requiring all Ameri- cans to leave Texas, under pain of death. He in- creased his army and marched forth to carry out his design.
Mr. Fulton, though quite a young man at the time, called upon the friends of oppressed Texas, through the press, to join him and march to the res- cue. The immediate result was, a volunteer corps of over three hundred young men was formed and put under drill. The merchants and wealthy citizens of New Orleans furnished arms and ammunition, a vessel was chartered, and within ten days of the call to arms the band of patriots were on the bosom of the Gulf speeding their way to the battle-field. They were known throughout the campaign as the New Orleans Grays, and distinguished them- selves at the storming of the Alamo under Colonel Milam, and its final capture under Colonel Burle- son after the death of Milam on the field. A large number of those volunteers fell at the massacre of the Alamo, on the 6th of March, 1836, in which General Travis and his one hundred and seventy men were put to the sword, and also the far-famed Colonel David Crockett, who was at the fort as a guest of Colonel Travis. Then followed, on the 21st of April, 1836, the capture of Santa Anna, and the
9%6 glutton
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final triumph of the Lone Star of Liberty at San Jacinto, and Mr. Fulton's undertaking was crowned with success, and soon thereafter one more state was added to our Union.
In 1839 the city of New Orleans instituted a suit against him, growing out of the condemning of pri- vate property for public purposes. He felt that an unjust burden was sought to be placed upon him, that equity and a proper interpretation of the laws would support his views of the case. Under the purchase of Louisiana from France it was stipulated by the treaty that all laws then in force were to remain unchanged until after 1833, consequently the code Napoleon was virtually in force. The laws favoring the empire or the state, not the people and individual rights and interests, were ignored by the courts. He applied to several eminent attorneys to engage them to enter on his defense; they, after fully investigating the subject at issue in all its bearings, unanimously declared it would be but time and money thrown away, that they would de- fend, but were satisfied from experience that no re- lief could be obtained. Mr. Fulton resolved to per- sonally enter the courts and test his rights. He filed his answer to the suit, hunted up all decisions that supported or bore on the case, compiled his documentary evidence, and to the astonishment of the bar, and especially of his opponent, one of the most eminent attorneys of the state, obtained a de- cree in his favor as prayed for. And the published reports of the upper courts exhibit the fact that he continues to possess the ability of defending him- self at the bar.
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