USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 34
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His religious views are in accordance with the Protestant Episcopal church, of which he has been a member for over thirty years, being confirmed in 1855 ; he has served as vestryman and secretary and treasurer, and is treasurer at present time, but his views having gone beyond the old landmarks, he respects the religious convictions of all.
In politics, he has been a whig, and is now a re- publican, though never an active partisan, and was formerly a great admirer of Henry Clay. He served his ward as alderman two years in the city council, and has been secretary of the Aspen Grove Ceme- tery Association for over ten years.
He was married on the 9th of May, 1848, to Miss Martha Rorer. eldest daughter of the Hon. David Rorer, of Burlington, and they have had nine chil- dren, five sons and four daughters, of which seven are now living, four sons and three daughters. The eldest son is book-keeper in the Merchants National Bank, is married, and resides in the city; the others still remain at home with their parents. His mother resides with him at the advanced age of seventy- two years.
As a business man and financier, he is eminently conservative and safe, and in private life much re- spected and beloved by his friends and associates. William Garrett has earned a reputation and a name by patient industry and honesty, and he well deserves his place among the self-made men of our country.
HON. JOHN HALL,
ELDORA.
T HE first mayor of Eldora was not taken from the older class of residents. Comparatively a new comer was selected, probably because of his eminent practical business abilities, such as a young city requires at the head of its municipal affairs. John Hall, on whom this honor was conferred, is a native of Massachusetts, he having been born in Ashburnham, Worcester county, September 19, 1827. He took the full name of his father. His mother was of the Shepherd family, of Vermont. His grandfather, though a lad when the revolu- tionary war broke out, served in some capacity.
John Hall, senior, moved with his family to Ver- mont, when the son was about nine years old, there, as in Massachusetts, cultivating a farm. In 1846 the whole family immigrated to Fond du Lac, Wis- consin. While in New England, the son had only the educational privileges afforded by the common school. At twenty years of age he went into a cabinet and chair shop with an older brother, at Sheboygan Falls, and worked at that trade until 1860, most of the time in Waushara county. Four years afterward Mr. Hall went into the Wisconsin pinery, manufacturing lumber for two years. On the
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11th of July, 1866, he removed to Eldora, where he has successfully prosecuted the lumber trade. He is one of that class of men who, whatever the traffic in which they engage, oversee all the details of their business, and do not hesitate to put their hands to the work when the occasion demands; hence his prosperity.
In 1860 he was elected treasurer of Waushara county, Wisconsin, and filled the office two years. He was elected county judge two years later, and resigned that office when he went into the pinery. At the same time he vacated the editorial chair of the Wanshara county " Argus," which he had filled two years, disposing of the paper to A. P. Lockerby. He was chosen mayor of Eldora in August, 1869,
and served one year. In 1875 Mr. Hall was elected to the lower house of the general assembly, and the office of representative he now holds. In the ses- sion of 1876 he was on the committees on claims, highways and bridges, fish and game, appropriations and reform school, and did good service on them all. His industrious habits and practical good sense made him a valuable member of that body.
Mr. Hall has been a republican since there was such a party. He is not a member of any church.
He belongs to the Masonic order, and is high priest of Evergreen Chapter, No. 55.
On the 14th of April, 1854, he married Miss Mary E. Maxson, of Waushara county, Wisconsin, and has five children.
CHARLES HENDRIE,
COUNCIL BLUFFS.
T HE subject of this sketch was born on the 3d of February, 1814, at Stamford, Fairfield county, Connecticut.
He received a good common-school education, and while yet a boy manifested quite a mechanical genius. He was employed for two years as clerk in the post-office at Stamford, it being the distribut- ing office for the western part of the state, and at the age of fifteen went to Danbury, Connecticut, with a view to learning the trade of pattern making and of becoming a machinist.
In 1837 he removed to Marietta, Ohio, and was there employed in a foundry until 1842, when he settled at Burlington, Iowa. There he built the first foundry that was established in the territory. The capacity of this was afterward largely increased by the extension of the building and the addition of a large amount of machinery.
In 1855 he took a contract for building the Bur- lington and Missouri railroad from Burlington to the Skunk river, a distance of thirty-four miles, and finished his contract in July, 1857, it being the first section of the road that was completed.
In 1858 and 1859 he erected the custom-house and marine hospital at Galena, Illinois, and during the last-named year removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and built the Council Bluffs Ironworks.
In 1860 he took a contract for building the Council Bluffs and Saint Joseph railroad from Council Bluffs to the state line, about fifty miles. After grading
a considerable distance, and supplying a large quan- tity of ties and other material, the enterprise was abandoned by reason of the civil war, which had already opened, and he sold his interest to the city, which afterward sold the same to a Mr. Phillips, of New York, who completed and extended the road.
In 1862 Mr. Hendrie opened trade between Coun- cil Bluffs and the mountain regions of Colorado, by establishing lines of transportation ; and during the first year transported to the mines three hun- dred thousand dollars' worth of mills for crushing quartz, the principal part of which was taken to Central City and the adjacent country. The enter- prise was at that time extremely hazardous by reason of the depredations which were constantly occur- ring at the hands of the Cheyenne, the Sionx and the Arrapahoe Indians, and many thrilling adventures were encountered ; a single instance will suffice to indicate something of the dangers. Mr. Hendrie had dispatched a train of seventy wagons with three hundred and fifty mules, and about one hundred men, from Plattsmouth to Denver, Colorado. When the train reached the junction of the Nebraska City and Atchison wagon road the men, hearing of the ravages of the Indians in burning ranches, plundering trains, massacring the teamsters, etc., refused to proceed further. Mr. Hendrie, learning from his wagon-master of the state of affairs, deter- mined to go out to the plains. Arriving at the place of rendezvous, he found besides his own train
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another belonging to Mr. John Langley. The men had all refused to advance further ; but when Mr. Hendrie decided that he would take the train through, they agreed to accompany him. Starting out, they experienced no difficulty till they reached Julesburg, but there were surrounded by about three thousand Indians, and for three days were obliged to fortify their position, and keep the savages at bay until the arrival of United States troops under Colonel Livingston, of Plattsmouth. In 1862, seeing the need of a foundry and machine shop at Central City, Mr. Hendrie proceeded thither and erected such an establishment, operating it chiefly for repairing machinery which was taken to the mines from Iowa. The business was first conducted under the firm name of Hendrie and Butler ; later the name changed to Hendrie and Brother, and at the present time, 1877, is known as Hendrie, Brother and Bolthoff. As indicating something of the extent of his operations in this line, it may be stated that after the establishment of his foundry he took a train with quartz mills from Council Bluffs by the way of Fort Laramie and Fort Phil Kearney, and thence by the way of the Powder River route, by the base of the Big Horn Mountains, and by the Yel- lowstone and Boseman, down the Gallatin Valley to Virginia City, Montana Territory. He has also transported large quantities of other machinery by the way of Fort Benton, on the Missouri river, and hauled overland thence to Helena, the freight bill amounting to twelve thousand dollars. At one time
on his return from Denver to Council Bluffs laden with passengers, men, women and children, his train was snowed in, and he was obliged to pay eighty dollars for firewood to cook breakfast.
In 1874 Mr. Hendrie, together with other citizens, built the Council Bluffs paper-mill. This establish- ment was soon afterward destroyed by fire, but rebuilt in 1875, and is now in successful operation.
Such is an imperfect outline of the business ca- reer of one who in the face of every difficulty has steadily persevered in his work, and by the force of his own native energy, enterprise and ability attained to an honorable position among his fellow-citizens. His course throughout has been marked by fair and generous dealing, and he now enjoys the respect and confidence of all who know him.
In political sentiment he was formerly a whig. He afterward took an active part in organizing the republican party in Iowa, and has since been iden- tified with that body. He took an active interest in the Kansas struggle, and contributed toward it a considerable amount of money. He is associated with the Congregational church.
Of his three sons, one of them is engaged in busi- ness in Colorado and the two youngest in California. Charles F. is a graduate of Phillips Academy, And- over, Massachusetts, as is also the second son, William C. The youngest, Edward B., is a graduate of the Philadelphia Polytechnic College. He also has one daughter, who is a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary.
HARRISON S. HOWELL,
KEOKUK.
H ARRISON SCOTT HOWELL was born in Cleves, Ohio, near Cincinnati, on the 30th of April, 1830, and is son of Daniel G. Howell and Jean E. Howell nee Lyall. His mother was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and a descendant of an old Huguenot family. His father was born in a block-house in North Bend, Ohio, and was the first white male child born between the two Miamis. He died a short time since. His mother is still living, and to her loving counsel and pious life he is much indebted.
His early education was acquired in the common schools of the country, helping on the farm sum- mers, and attending school in the winters till his
sixteenth year, when he entered Farmers College, an institution of learning of much prominence at College Hill, Ohio, graduating second in the class, and taking the honors. He then returned to the farm, where he remained about a year, part of which he traveled. But becoming dissatisfied with farm- ing, and having a decided taste for law, he determined to make it his profession. But being without means, and his father having a large family could give him no aid, he resolved, therefore, to maintain himself while engaged in studying. To this end he came to Cincinnati, and entered the office of Pugh and Pendleton, working in the clerk's office day-time and studying nights, but finished his studies with
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Adam N. Riddle, being admitted to the bar in 1854. He practiced at the Cincinnati bar for nearly two years, when he removed to Keokuk, Iowa. Of in- dustrious habits, resolute and ambitious in spirit, he was successful from the start, and soon built up a large practice. In 1864, when city and county were repudiating their railroad bonds, he was employed by eastern capitalists, who had their money invested, for their collection, and obtained the first judgments in Iowa, in their interests, in the United States courts of Iowa, and also in the supreme court of the United States. He was attorney and collector of assessment for the Republic Insurance Company of Chicago (for four states, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska), and was particularly successful. Mr. Howell has been very prominent as a temperance man, working in its cause against the liquor traffic.
He is a member and elder in the Presbyterian church, and for over twenty years continuously superintendent of the Sunday-schools.
In politics, before coming to Iowa, he was a strong democrat, but since has voted according to his judgment for the best men on either ticket. His practice is large in United States courts, extending from Chicago, Illinois, to Topeka, Kansas.
He married in 1854 Miss Annie E. Redman, of Cin- cinnati, who died in 1863. In 1867 he married Miss Lucy S. Taylor, daughter of Colonel William H. H. Taylor, formerly postmaster at Cincinnati, and grand- daughter of William Henry Harrison, President of the United States. The faculty of Mr. Howell for making. and holding friends is one of his remark- able characteristics. This is shown by the friendship of the people for him, notwithstanding the litiga- tions involving their interests in which he has so long and often engaged.
As a speaker and writer, he is clear and argu- mentative, arranging his subjects systematically, and clothing his ideas in appropriate words, of which he seems to have a ready command.
ELBRIDGE D. RAND,
BURLINGTON.
E LBRIDGE D. RAND, lumber dealer, Burling- ton, Iowa, was born in Watertown, Massachu- setts, on the 22d of July, 1814, and is the eldest son of Samuel and Mary Rand nee Carter. His father died when he was quite young, leaving him to care for himself, and he worked out for a living till the age of fifteen years, when he went to Providence, Rhode Island, and served an apprenticeship in the soap and candle business. Meanwhile he acquired a little education irregularly at the common schools of the country, working nights and mornings for his board. In 1835 he was employed by J. and N. Fisher to superintend their pork-packing business at Hamilton, Ohio. Here he remained two years, and started west to engage with a brother of the Fishers in the pork-packing business, but was deterred. He then engaged at Quincy, Illinois, in farming, stock raising and pork packing, but finding it a losing op- eration, removed to what was then called the " New Purchase," in Iowa. Not being contented here, he decided to accept Mr. Fisher's proposition to en- gage with him in pork packing at Lacon.
He started for that place, but owing to the lame- ness of one of his horses he was detained for some weeks, and not having the means to go on, nor
to meet his expenses should he stay, decided to look for employment, which he found with Bridge- man and Parridge, in their pork-house at Burlington. In the winter, it being very dull in the pork busi- ness, he with the help of a friend purchased a dray, and being nearly the only one in town, it was in great demand. He hired a man to run it during the days, when he was otherwise engaged, and drove it nights himself. This gave him a start, as he made money at it, and putting his savings in real estate, it proved a winning speculation. He re- mained with this firm till 1843, when he went into partnership with Peasley and Brooks in the lumber, provision and packing business, and continued with them three years, when he met with a heavy loss, occasioned by following the advice of the senior partner, which stripped him of everything but his real estate. He then borrowed money and built a packing house of his own, which he conducted with marked success financially, and which was the foun- dation of his present fortune. He carried on this and the lumber business till 1850, when he went into the lumber business exclusively, and now has the largest trade of the kind in the state. Besides the mammoth yards of E. D. Rand and Co., at
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Burlington, they have branches in twelve different : places in the west, and handle annually twenty mill- ion feet of lumber, besides immense quantities of lath, shingles, etc., and employ an average force of over a hundred persons, at an expense of over a thousand dollars a week. They usually carry ten million feet of lumber in stock, and their shipments reach throughout the entire western country.
He is a director in the First National Bank, and of National State Bank, of which he formerly was president.
He was married on the 6th of April, 1837, to Miss Sarah A. Proud, of Centerville, Ohio, who died in
1850, and he was again married on the 13th of June, 1852, to Mrs. C. A. Roberts, of Burlington.
Mr. Rand is a firm believer in republican princi- ples, though not a politician. In 1856 he was elected to the legislature, and served one term, and also several times as alderman.
He is a member of the Congregational church. It will be seen from this brief record that he has had a remarkable career. Impelled by worthy am- bition he has made his way in the world, and achieved, mainly by his own exertions, an enviable position among the self-made and successful business men of the day.
JAMES HAGERMAN,
KEOKUK.
J
AMES HAGERMAN was born in Clark county,
Missouri, on the 26th of November, 1848. His father, B. F. Hagerman, was born in Virginia, and is of German descent, and immigrated to Missouri when a boy. His mother was Ann S. Hagerman née Cowgil, of Kentucky. James was educated at the Christian Brothers' College, at St. Louis, Mis- souri. As a student, he acquired a taste for mathe- matics and literature, and by close application to his studies he gained the prizes in every depart- ment, numbering some fifteen or sixteen, and was the acknowledged leader of all the games and sports of the college. From his earliest youth he took a lively interest in political and legal discus- sions, and, fostered by his father and mother, who had brothers that were lawyers and politicians, and by meeting with members of the bar, who visited his home on their circuit travels, he imbibed an early taste for law, and took much pleasure in listening to a political speech or learned plea. At college, in the debating societies and at the exercises of the college, he showed an aptitude as a declaimer and debater, as well as a writer. These, taken together with his desire for the legal profession and the wishes of his parents, decided his course. He left college in 1864, and removed with his parents to Keokuk, lowa, where he began reading law in the office of Rankin and McCrary, and was admitted by Chief Justice Wagner, of the supreme court of Mis- souri, in December, 1866, to practice law in all the courts of that state. He not being twenty-one years of age, could not be admitted to the courts of Iowa,
but, there being no restriction by the laws of Mis- souri on account of age, he was admitted there. He remained with Rankin and Mccrary till 1869, when he removed to Palmyra, Missouri, and formed a partnership with Colonel H. S. Lipscomb, a prom- inent lawyer of that place. He remained at Pal- myra only a year, but while there had a useful experience in witnessing, and to a limited extent taking part in, what is known as a circuit practice, that is, going from county to county and trying cases. Believing that the field was not large enough at Palmyra, he determined to leave it, and being persuaded by friends was prevailed upon to return to Keokuk, which he did in September, 1870, and formed a copartnership with Hon. John N. Irwin, present member of legislature from Lee county, and later formed the law firm of McCrary, Hagerman and Mccrary. He has been constantly and actively engaged in the practice of his profession, and espe- cially in the adjoining counties of Missouri, where he had cases involving large amounts. He has shown great aptitude in trial cases, displaying more than ordinary ability.
In religion, he is liberal, the member of no sect, yet having great faith in the vital truth and power of the christian religion.
He was married on the 26th of October, 1871, to Miss Maggie M. Walker, of Palmyra, Missouri, who, on her mother's side, is a direct descendant of the Lees, of Virginia.
He has always taken an active interest in politics, yet has firmly resisted the numerous requests of his
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friends to become a candidate. He is a liberal democrat, and, although not of age, stumped part of Missouri in 1868 for Seymour and Blair, and later was an ardent supporter of Greeley and Brown, and during the campaign made a number of speeches.
Mr. Hagerman is one of the most promising young members of the bar in Iowa; he is a gentle- man of decided ability, and bids fair in the not far distant future to stand at the head of his profession in the state.
JOSEPH C. HUGHES, M. D.,
KEOKUK.
JOSEPH C. HUGHES, ex-surgeon-general of the State of Iowa, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the Ist of April, 1821, and is a son of John and Eliza Hughes. He completed his col- legiate course at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, from which institution, after entering his profession, he received the degree of A.M. He was a member of the Franklin Literary Society, and one of her contestants for the honors which he received. Was a graduate in medicine of the Uni- versity of Maryland at Baltimore in 1845; was the student of Joseph Perkins, M.D., of that city. His tastes and early ambitions were for the profession of medicine and surgery, and to this end he applied himself. In the spring of 1845, after his gradua- tion, he located at Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio. Here he remained five years, enjoying a lucrative practice, during which he devoted much of his time to the study of anatomy and surgery, and the preparation of anatomical and surgical appliances. In the fall of 1850 he was invited to the demonstratorship of anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, then the medical department of the Iowa State Univer- sity, which he accepted, moving to the state in 1850, and settling at Keokuk, where he commenced prac- tice, attending also to his duties in the college. The professor of anatomy, N. Hard, M.D., of Aurora, Illinois, having been called home on account of sickness in his family, he delivered nearly half of the course on anatomy during the sessions of 1850- 51. In the winter of 1851 he was elected to fill the chair of anatomy, which he occupied for two years. During the winter of 1852 he was elected dean of the faculty, and in the spring of 1853 he was elected to the chair of surgery, which posi- tion, with that of dean of the institute, he has held ever since. For three sessions, when the institute was struggling into maturity and prominence, Dr. Hughes performed double duty, lecturing twice and
often three times a day, filling the department of anatomy as well as surgery; and to him, more than any other individual, belongs the honor of having built up and maintained one of the most flourishing medical institutes of the west. The college build- ing, which is one of the most substantial edifices in the state, with its valuable museum and appliances for teaching, is owned by him, and his efforts for more than a quarter of a century have been devoted to its success. The College of Physicians and Sur- geons occupies a prominent position among the institutions of learning in the west, being patron- ized by students from all sections of the country. Hughes' Medical and Surgical Infirmary, and Eye and Ear Institute, connected with the college, is an enterprise of his own and under his entire manage- ment, and is largely instrumental as one of the elements of success in the growth of the college, offering to the student from its numerous clinics every advantage for observation and the study of his profession.
At the outbreak of the rebellion Dr. Hughes was appointed by Governor Kirkwood surgeon-general of the state, which position he filled during the war. He organized and had professional charge of the army hospitals at Keokuk for several months. These hospitals were among the largest in the west, having as many as two thousand patients within the wards at one time. He was also president of the board of medical examiners of the state during the war. In 1866 he was elected by the American Medical Association as one of her vice-presidents, also a delegate of the association as its representa- tive to the British Association for the Promotion of Science, the Provincial Medical Association of Great Britain, the American Medical Society of Paris, and such other scientific bodies in Europe as may affiliate with said association; and, accom- panied by his wife, daughter and eldest son, spent the summer of that year in an extended trip on the
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continent of Europe. He has been twice president of the State Medical Society, and for a time editor of the Iowa " Medical Journal," and has written a number of articles upon medical and surgical sub- jects for publication. He is the author of the new mode of operating upon bones, by which straight- ness as well as length may be secured. He has operated by the bilateral method forty-six times for lithotomy (stone in the bladder), with but four deaths, and on one patient performed the operation four times successfully, which is the only case on record in this country.
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