The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 33

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 33

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In religious sentiment he favors Protestantism, but is a member of no church.

GIDEON GARDNER,

NEW HAMPTON.

D EACON GARDNER, as he is called through Chickasaw county, is a native of Massachu- setts, and was born in Plainfield, Hampshire county, on the 23d of February, 1807, his parents being Benjamin and Molly Tirrill Gardner. His father, the youngest of seven brothers, carried a musket during the strife for independence. The head of the Gardner family came over in the Mayflower, and Governor Gardner, of Massachusetts, was one of his descendants. William Gardner, an uncle of Gideon, was aid-de-camp to General Washington.

Benjamin Gardner was a farmer, and Gideon was raised in the calling, remaining in Massachusetts until 1831, working awhile in Pittsfield at the na- son's trade. In the year just mentioned he came as far west as Ohio, halting in the town of Chester, Geauga county, working at his trade and teaching music. Three years later he went to Medina county, laid brick in the summer and taught music schools in the winter, carrying on a farm, buying wool and dealing in stock also part of the time. He spent three years as merchant in Chatham, Medina

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county, and in 1854 immigrated to Grinnell, Iowa. There he aided in laying out the town, founding the college and organizing the Congregational Church, at which time he was chosen deacon. He remained there two years, tilling land part of the time, and managing a store for another man, and in the au- tumn of 1856 made a permanent location at New Hampton. He was the original proprietor of most of the present site of this little city, surveyed and platted it, there being less than half a dozen fami- lies here then. It is a beautiful spot for a prairie town, and is blooming like a rose as we write this sketch in the summer of 1877.

In July 1861 Mr. Gardner went into the army as captain of company B, 7th Iowa Infantry, and was dis- charged in September, 1862, on account of age and disability, serving as major when he left the regiment.

While in Medina county, Ohio, he was assessor of the county two years, and during his early residence at New Hampton was justice of the peace for some time ; was chairman of the county board of super- visors for a number of years, and has been mayor of the city one term.

Mr. Gardner was originally a whig, then a free- 1

soiler, and latterly has been a republican. He has been a member of the church forty-five years ; helped to organize the New Hampton Congrega- tional Church, and was its first deacon. His chris- tian character has never been questioned ; his life is a model of the purest religious type, and has been a power in keeping up the moral tone of the place.

In 1827 Miss Naomi Parker, of Plainfield, Mas- sachusetts, became his wife, and she is living still, a moderately healthy old lady, with treasures enough on earth to make her comfortable, and treasures enough in heaven to make her happy. They have had three children, none of whom are now living but one son, Weston D., who is married, his wife being Harriet Lyon, of Medina county, Ohio. They have four children. The son resides in New Hamp- ton ; kept the Gardner House several years, and is like his father, a much respected citizen.

Deacon Gardner has entered on his seventy-first year, yet never stood more erect. He is six feet and two inches tall, well-built, and a fine specimen of manhood. He has married grandchildren who ven- erate his name, as also do the citizens generally, for his unblemished and useful life.

HON. JOHN HILSINGER,

SABULA.

JOHN HILSINGER is a son of Barnabus and Polly Coonrod Hilsinger, and the fifth child in a family of thirteen children, twelve of them now liv- ing and having families. Both parents are of Hol- land descent. Barnabus Hilsinger was a farmer, and John, who was born at Marathon, Cortland county, New York, on the 4th of March, 1835, worked at the same business until about sixteen, at- tending school each winter. At the age mentioned he commenced learning the carpenter and joiner's trade, and worked at building houses, agricultural implements and saw-mills, at Marathon, until about at his majority, teaching school during the winters. He had a strong love for study, and from boyhood devoted his leisure to books. In 1856, after dip- ping into law books some in private, he commenced reading with Judge Lewis Kingsley, of Cortland village, finished the next year with Judge Hiram Crandall, of the same place, and was admitted to the bar at Ithaca at the general term of the su- preme court in the autumn of 1857. He remained

in Cortland until the next March, when he started for Floyd county, Iowa, and was admitted to the bar at Charles city in the May following. In July he settled in Sabula, Jackson county, here teach- ing the graded school two years, and practicing law during the vacations. Since 1860 he has been in the practice of his profession, and steadily growing in reputation as an attorney, he being a close stu- dent and an able counselor. No man at the Jack- son-city bar has a better standing.

In 1873 Mr. Hilsinger started a bank in com- pany with Ira B. Overholt, at first as a corporation called the National Savings Bank, which was dis- solved in 1875, and he has since conducted it as a private institution, the firm name being Hilsinger and Overholt.

Mr. Hilsinger was elected one of the supervisors of the county in 1860, and held that office nine or ten years ; was postmaster at Sabula during part of Mr. Lincoln's first presidential term; and has held the same office during the last four years ; was elected

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the second mayor of Sabula, and by reelections held that office three years, and was state senator from 1864 to 1868. In that body he was on the com- mittee on agriculture and commerce, and one or two other committees, and was assiduous in the discharge of his duties.

Mr. Hilsinger is attorney for the Sabula, Ackley and Dakota railroad, and active in all enterprises tending to benefit the city, the county or the state.

He cast his first vote for John C. Fremont in 1856, and has always voted the republican ticket. He was a delegate to the national convention which nominated General Grant in 1868.

Mr. Hilsinger is an Odd-Fellow and Freemason ;

has taken three degrees in Odd-Fellowship, is a Royal Arch Mason and Knight Templar, and has taken the thirty-second degree in the Scottish rite.

He is not a member of any church, but he has a partiality for the Methodist Episcopal creed.

In 1867 Miss Mary E. Scarborough, of Sabula, became his wife, and they have had four children, of whom they have lost two.

Mr. Hilsinger has a modest, unassuming appear- ance, and a stranger would not be likely to esti- mate him according to his ability and worth. He has been, and is, a very useful citizen of Jackson county, those who know him best having the highest esteem for him.

HON. JONATHAN C. HALL,

BURLINGTON.

JONATHAN CHAPIN HALL was born in Ba- tavia county, New York, on the 27th of Feb- ruary, 1808. He was the third child of Colonel Samuel Hall and Hannah Chapin Hall, who were pioneers of that county, having settled there in 1804.

Judge Hall was eminently a self-made man. His early life was that of a farm boy, his father having at an early day cleared a farm out of the heavy forests. His early culture was obtained at the common schools and Middlebury (now Wyoming) Academy. By his own exertions he received a good English education, having taught school for three years during the winter to defray the ex- penses of his summer tuition. After leaving school he joined a civil engineering corps, and surveyed into sections Genesee and adjoining counties.

In 1828 he began reading law at Albany, New - York, under the instruction of Abram Van Vecten, and continued until 1829, when he entered the law office of Coles and Andrews, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained until 1830. He removed to Zanesville, Ohio, and completed his legal studies under Judge Keith, of that place. In this year he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, and locat- ing at Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, at once commenced the practice of his profession. On the 12th of June, 1832, he was married to Miss Achsah F. Childs, at Bethany, New York. His practice increased and it was not long until he was engaged in nearly all the important litigation in that por-

tion of the state. But in 1839, induced in some degree by the unfortunate results of the financial troubles of 1836-7, but more especially in conse- quence of the death of a favorite child, whose loss rendered him dissatisfied with his surroundings, he removed to what was then the far west, and tem- porarily stopped at Burlington, Iowa territory. He concluded to locate at Mount Pleasant, Henry county, to which place he removed in January, 1840. During his first year he succeeded in es- tablishing himself in an extensive practice, attend- ing courts in eleven counties. He witnessed the organization and opening of the first courts in many counties, and for many years in the early history of Iowa was retained in important litiga- tion in all parts of the state and in Illinois. In 1845 he was elected a member of the first consti- tutional convention, and shortly after the close of the session he removed to Burlington, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1854 he was appointed associate justice of the supreme court of the state, to fill a vacancy caused by the resig- nation of Hon. J. F. Kinney. The opinions written by him appear in fourth G. Green's " Reports." In 1855 he was elected president of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Company, and it was largely owing to his indomitable energy and per- severance that that enterprise was organized upon a successful basis. In the Presidential campaign of 1856 he was again elected member of the consti- tutional convention that framed the present funda-

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mental law, under which the state government is organized. He was an active and influential mem- ber of the convention, and to his exertions and in- fluence is greatly due the superior educational sys- tem of Iowa. In the discussions to be found in the constitutional debates remains a perpetual monu- ment of his research, broad and liberal views, can- dor, unselfish and disinterested zeal for the public good. He was elected a member of the ninth general assembly of the state in 1859, and consented to forego his professional duties for that purpose at the solicitations of his professional brethren, who wished his influence and judgment in the prepara- tion of the revision of the laws, which it had been appointed for that assembly to frame and enact. He was a member of every constitutional con- vention, and was regarded as one of the founders of the state, and did more, perhaps, toward fram- ing the state government than any other single individual, and was always the uncompromising champion of the educational interests; his first act in the young territory being to assist in founding an academy, which has since developed into the Iowa Wesleyan University. The State University found in him a staunch supporter. To his liberal views i

the beneficent provisions of the homestead and other exemptions are due, while his practical judg- ment was largely influential in the adoption of a form of procedure which, for its justice and sim- plicity, its freedom from technicalities and evasions, has probably no superior. He was regarded as one of the prominent lawyers of the northwest, compre- hensive in his views, clear and perspicuous in argu- ment, and of great power as an advocate.

In politics, he was an unswerving democrat, a prominent, honored and influential member of that party. During the Buchanan campaign he made one hundred and seventeen speeches, which re- ceived the commendation of his friends and the respectful consideration of his political opponents.

Socially, he was a man of great heart; his charity and liberality were scarcely limited by his means. In kindness and tender consideration for all his fellows he was without many equals, and none could say of him that he ever intentionally did any man a wrong. He was an extraordinary man in all the elements of greatness, his presence was command- ing, and his supremacy was written in his person and features ; his fair fame will ever remain a proud legacy to the state he so greatly honored.

GEORGE M. REYNOLDS,

NEW HAMPTON.

T HE oldest journalist in Chickasaw county, Iowa, in age and in occupancy of the editorial chair, is George M. Reynolds, proprietor of the New Hampton "Courier." He left home just as he had entered on his teens ; received most of his edu- cation at the printer's case, and is to-day one of the best informed men in the county. Mr. Reynolds is the son of a cloth manufacturer, Joseph Reynolds, and was born in Rahway, New Jersey, on the 13th of November, 1814. His grandfather, John Rey- nolds, was a revolutionary soldier, and a pensioner until his death.

The maiden name of George's mother was Effie Marsh, and her grandfather, Christopher Marsh, was a captain of scouts for General Washington. He was caught by the tories and marched, in his drawers and stocking feet, to Trenton, New Jersey, whence he was subsequently released by General Washington during the battle at that place.

George attended a district school, and worked at

home until fourteen years old, and from that age to that of twenty-one, was in a printing office at Mont- rose, Pennsylvania. He then spent three years in New York city, mostly in the office of the "Courier and Enquirer," published by James Watson Webb ; was two years in the office of the Mobile, Alabama, " Advertiser," and the same period in the office of the Montgomery " Journal," edited by Hon. Henry W. Hilliard, then a state senator from Alabama, and afterward member of congress. He then went to Louisiana and published papers six years, and re- turned to the north in 1848. He established the "National Reformer," at Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and the next year removed the establishment to Carbondale and started the Lackawanna " Journal," which be conducted for nine years, and sold in May, 1858. He came to Dubuque, Iowa, the next month, and worked on the Dubuque "Daily Times," Jesse Clement, editor. In 1859 he removed into the interior of Iowa, and became one of the pub-

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lishers of the "Cedar Valley News," of Bradford, Chickasaw county, and in June, 1862, purchased a half interest in the New Hampton "Courier," and settled in this place.

In 1868 Mr. Reynolds became sole proprietor of the " Courier," and still owns and conducts it. It is a quarto six-column sheet, very neatly printed, and edited with much care and ability. Mr. Reynolds is one of the best printers in the Cedar Valley country, and takes great pleasure and, it is not un- likely, some pride, in publishing a model county paper. He has built himself a pleasant home at the county seat, and has probably cnded his pere- grinations as a newspaper publisher. At the head of the official paper of the county, in comfortable cir- cumstances, and surrounded by many friends who

appreciate his journalistic services, he seems to be contented and happy.

Mr. Reynolds is a well-read politician, is a repub- lican, with whig antecedents, and has a good deal of influence in the politics of the county. The same is true of his influence many years ago in Alabama, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. He is a member of the blue lodge in the Masonic fraternity.

Miss Harriet Clark, of Bradford county, Pennsyl- vania, became his wife in September, 1847, and they have one child, Dimock D., a printer in his father's office.

Mr. Reynolds is a man of great industry, good social qualities, and an interesting converser, espe- cially on the political history of the country for the last forty years.

CHARLES B. RICHARDS,

FORT DODGE.

SEVERAL of the early settlers in Fort Dodge, Iowa, have been eminently successful. They were men of intellectual, moral and physical stami- na, industrious, energetic and shrewd, and early laid a good foundation, and have built slowly yet safely and surely. Among these men is Charles Benedict Richards, a native of New York. He was born at Warrensburg, Warren county, on the 13th of August, 1833. His father, Pelatiah Richards, was a lumber dealer. His mother belonged to the Benedict fam- ily, noted for the great number of its clergymen, college teachers and jurists. The heads of both the Richards and Benedict families emigrated to this country only a few years after the Mayflower arrived, and have furnished their full share of the distinguished scholars, professional men and patriots of the land.

The grandfather of Charles Benedict Richards, and five of that ancestor's brothers, were soldiers in the revolutionary army.

From a very early age the subject of this sketch was kept at school at North Granville, Glen Falls and Kinderhook Academies, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, graduating from the last-named school in 1854. He studied law with Hon. Joshua A. Spencer, of Utica, and was ad- mitted to the bar in January, 1855. After practicing one year in his native town he immigrated to Iowa, and located at Fort Dodge in March, 1856. The

first eight or nine years in this state he devoted al- most exclusively to his profession, building up a business of which any young man might be proud. A few years ago he organized the First National Bank of Fort Dodge, and owned nearly half of its stock. Two or three years since he sold out, and went into the coal business, and in partnership with Hon. J. F. Duncombe owns four mines in Webster and Greene counties. He is treasurer of the Greene County Coal Company, which owns the celebrated Snake Creek coal mines. His great energy and business talent, now largely devoted to the develop- ment of the coal interest of the Des Moines valley, are reaping rich returns, the usual reward of indus- try wisely applied.

Mr. Richards has never sought political prefer- ment, and has uniformly given his professional and other business precedence over politics, help- ing others to offices which he would not take himself. Yet he had not been in Iowa a year before the office of prosecuting attorney was thrust upon him. At that time every county had such an officer, and Webster county was more than three times its pres- ent size. It included Humboldt and Hamilton coun- ties. He held the office until January. 1859.

In March, 1857, when forty-nine persons were massacred by the Sioux Indians at Spirit lake, Dick- inson county, Mr. Richards raised one of the three companies of volunteers that went out to bury the

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dead, and, if need be, protect the living. He was captain of company A, and ex-Governor Carpenter was one of the privates. They had to march through three feet of snow, and for seventeen days Captain Richards did not take off his overcoat. Mr. Burk- holder, one of his company, was frozen to death. On his return from the burial of the dead, he was ap- pointed commissary and quartermaster-general of the state, having charge of all the troops which, for two or three years, the state kept on the frontier.

In April, 1861, Mr. Richards was appointed regis- trar of the United States land office, for the district of lands subject to sale at Fort Dodge, holding that responsible position eight years, and discharging its duties with great executive ability.

He has long been a member of the encampment of Odd-Fellows.

He is a regular attendant on divine worship, but holds membership in no church. He has always been a firm republican.

On the 14th of June, 1857, he was married to Miss Mary J. Olcutt, of Fort Dodge, a refined and intelli- gent lady, by whom he has two sons.

Mr. Richards and his partner, Mr. Duncombe, have done most of the work on the first fifty-three miles of the Iowa and Pacific railway, eastward of Fort Dodge. They have also built railroads to two coal mines in this county, and are at this time (au- tumn of 1876) laying the track to a mine in Greene county. The enterprise of Mr. Richards crops out in new undertakings from year to year, and every bold push which he makes tends to improve the country as well as his own fortune. He is one of the nation's wealth-producers.

WILLIAM GARRETT,

BURLINGTON.

W ILLIAM GARRETT, cashier of the Iowa State Savings Bank, Burlington, Iowa, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on the 18th of June, 1823. His parents were William and Ann Garrett née McConathy, who were married in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1822. His father was born and brought up in Caroline county, Virginia, and died in Louis- ville, Kentucky, in June 1830. His mother, with four young children, was left in rather destitute circumstances, and removed soon after to Hunter's Bottom, Trimble county, Kentucky, fifty miles above Louisville. His mother was a daughter of Captain Jacob McConathy, who settled at Lexington in 1797, and erected and owned the first steam mill in the place, and supposed to be the first in Ken- tucky. While living at Hunter's Bottom he attended the common schools of the country four or five years. In 1834 his mother remarried, and in March, 1836, left Kentucky for the far west, and arrived at Flint Hills (now Burlington), then in Michigan Ter- ritory, on the 11th of April, 1836, where he has re- sided since. He attended a grammar and writing school and worked on a farm till October, 1837, when he engaged as a boy in the store of Webber and Remey, who kept a stock of general merchan- dise, for his board and clothes, remaining for three years, when he engaged as salesman in the store of Shepherd Leffler and Co. for a salary of one hun-

dred and fifty dollars per annum and board (Mr. Leffler was for some years a member of congress, and in 1875 the democrat candidate for governor) ; here he remained two years, as also one year with another house, and went to Wheeling, West Virginia, during the winter of 1843-44, and was engaged in the house of Lazier and Cox, of that place. On the Ist of March, 1844, he staged it over the moun- tains to Baltimore, and purchased a stock of goods, with which he returned to Burlington and opened his store on the Ist of April, 1844, before he was twenty-one years of age. He was assisted by Mr. M. B. Cox, who had formerly been a merchant at Burlington. He remained in business till 1853, when he was elected sheriff of the county as the whig candidate ; to this office he was reelected in 1855. In 1857 he was nominated as the republican can- didate for county judge, but was defeated, the dem- ocrats carrying the county. He then engaged with William H. Postlewait as book-keeper and salesman, remaining two years, when he formed a copartnership with Mr. Postlewait and John W. Rhodes, under the firm name of Garrett, Rhodes and Co., remaining in business until early in 1862, when the firm closed up their business, he retiring after being in mer- chandising for nearly twenty-one years, having con- ducted it with much success and accrued a com- petence. His old friend, Major Remey, was elected

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recorder and treasurer of the county, Mr. Garrett going with him as his deputy, remaining till the Ist of January, 1863, when he was elected by the republican party clerk of the district courts, and board of county supervisors in October, 1862, and afterward five times reëlected, serving as clerk until the Ist of September, 1874. Having been elected cashier of the Iowa State Savings Bank by the directors, he resigned as clerk and accepted that of cashier, having served the county eleven years and eight months as clerk.

Mr. Garrett has acquired a good name in the community, and is a public-spirited citizen, active in all progress, enterprising, and greatly esteemed. In October, 1844, he became a member of Washington Lodge No. 1, Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, then the only lodge in the state, and has remained a member until this date, and is now the oldest initiate in the lodge. He became associated with Eureka Encampment No. 2 in May, 1848 (being a charter member), in which he still remains, having passed the chairs in both lodge and encampment. He became a member of the grand lodge of the state in 1849, and in October, 1852, was elected grand sec- retary ; has been reëlected each year since, often by acclamation, and when he serves out his present term will have been in that office twenty-five years, and is now the senior grand secretary of the order. When he was initiated there were but sixteen mem- bers in the state, and now there are over eighteen thousand in good standing. He was representative of his encampment in 1852, when the grand en- campment was instituted, and was elected grand junior warden, and in 1855 was elected grand scribe,

and reëlected each year since by acclamation, and at the same session was elected as grand represent- ative to Grand Lodge of the United States, and served as such six sessions.

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 33

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