USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 36
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Mr. Holmes is a Mason, having received the blue lodge, chapter and council degrees.
He was a whig until the dissolution of that party, and in 1850 was the whig candidate for treasurer of state. He has been a very active republican since the party was organized, and is an earnest worker in its interests at the present time.
On the 3d of October, 1849, he married Miss Eliza Keys, of Marion. They have had eight chil-
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dren, only four of whom are living. The eldest son is a book-keeper in the " Republican" office.
When Mr. Holmes settled in Linn county thirty- five years ago, Marion had about one hundred and fifty inhabitants, Cedar Rapids a single cabin, and
the county between three and four hundred voters. He has lived to see the population swell to more than thirty thousand souls, and a city of ten thou- sand inhabitants surround the site of the single log cabin of 1841.
HON. MATTHIAS J. ROHLFS,
DAVENPORT.
A MONG the men who have taken a high and leading part in the Iowa legislature, none deserves a more honorable mention than Hon. M. J. Rohlfs. He was born at Tondern, Germany, on the 19th of April, 1816, and is son of Augustus and Mary Rohlfs, both natives of the above place. His father was a professor in the University at Tondern, and was much noted for his learning and his excel- lence as a teacher.
Mr. Rohlfs received his education at the Univer- sity at Tondern (which institute was devoted to the training and culture of teachers), where he grad- uated and commenced teaching, following this oc- cupation for several years. In 1847 he immigrated to the United States, and, coming west, located at Davenport, Iowa, which has since been his home. On his arrival he at once rented a farm, and as- sumed the arduous duties of a farmer's life, until 1866, when he was elected to the state legislature on the republican ticket by a large majority. He was reëlected to this office three times, and during his last session was elected speaker, pro tempore, in which position his impartial rulings were to the
satisfaction of both sides of the house. He left the republican party and joined the liberals, and was a delegate to the Cincinnati convention which nomi- nated Greeley for President, and in the following campaign stumped part of the state. In 1872 he received the nomination for state treasurer, but was defeated. In 1873 he was elected treasurer of Scott county, to which position he was reelected in 1875.
He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows for the past twelve years. His travels have extended over much of northern Eu- rope, and parts of the United States.
He is liberal in his religious opinions, and al- though educated among very orthodox influences, has changed his views very much. In politics, he is a liberal, and earnestly advocates reform; as a speaker, he is earnest and eloquent.
He was married on the 29th of November, 1840, to Miss Eliza Rode, a lady of high attainments, and distinguished for her womanly virtues.
Mr. Rohlfs stands high in the community as a useful and respected citizen, and fully merits the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens.
HENRY P. BUTTON, M. D.,
IOWA CITY.
W HILE the lives of self-made men seldom abound in incidents of a sensational char- acter, there is yet an energy, a perseverance and an underflow of character that lends to them a charm,- an attractiveness and worth that merit admiration and careful thought. Henry P. But- ton began life a poor boy, and by his own efforts has risen to an honorable position, both in his profession and in social life. He was born in Lower Sandusky, Ohio, on the 24th of October, 1835, and is the son of Elijah Button and Mary N.
née Miner, both of whom were natives of New York and of Scotch-Irish descent. Both his pater- nal and maternal grandfathers were participants in the war of 1812. Henry's early life was that of a farmer-boy, and he was early taught those habits of economy and industry which have marked his sub- sequent life. His early education was gained at the common schools, but later, from 1854 to 1857, he 'attended an academy at Painesville, Ohio. He early developed a great fondness for the study of medicine, and having decided to enter the
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medical profession, to the accomplishment of this end he bent all of his energies. Being dependent upon himself, he went through that course of training so common to young doctors- teaching school,- in the meantime taking up the study of medicine, working on a farm in the summer to pay the expense of his medical schooling. Of such material are our sturdy American reformers made. In 1860 and 1861 he was engaged in hospital prac- tice at Louisville, Kentucky, under the auspices of the sanitary commission ; and the experience gained there was of constant service to him. He after- ward became the private pupil of Dr. Olmstead at Painesville, Ohio, and finally, in 1871, graduated from Hahnemann College, Chicago. He had, five years prior to this, removed to the west and settled for the practice of his profession at Mount Vernon, Iowa. After a short time of successful practice there, being desirous of a wider field for the em- ployment of his powers, he removed to Iowa City and there made a permanent settlement, and though meeting with great opposition from the old-school physicians, has, step by step, fought his way to a full vindication of the systems of Hahnemann, and to such success in practice as to be the leading phy- sician in his city and county.
His career has been remarkably eventful, and his struggles and success form an interesting chapter of his life history. Perhaps it is due to Dr. Button, more than any other man, that homœopathy was established in the medical department of the Iowa
State University. Certain it is that he determined, with the help of friends, to carry the project through, and was eminently successful, and to-day finds an equality of schools in that institution.
In his religious views, he is liberal, and holds the golden rule as his rule of action.
He was raised in the republican school of poli- tics, but has been so occupied in his profession as to have no time to devote to political matters.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and high priest of Iowa City Royal Arch Chapter, No. 2, for past two years.
He was married in September, 1869, to Mrs. Sarah L. Sill, of Mount Vernon, Iowa, an estimable lady, who has indeed proven a helpmeet to him in his great life work, and whose aid and encourage- ment has smoothed the rough paths he has been forced to tread. From this brief sketch it may be seen that Dr. Button is an enthusiastic devotee of homœopathy, and his success as a physician may be attributed to his earnest and exclusive devotion to his profession, which was always placed above every other consideration, he never allowing politics or speculations to interfere with his duties. He has by his exertions probably contributed as much, or more, to the spread and popularity of homœopathy in the west than any other physician.
He is possessed of refined tastes and feelings, of sterling integrity and fine social qualities, and is highly esteemed, both as a man and physician, by all who know him.
HON. SAMUEL L. ROSE,
ROSE GROVE.
O NE of the men of mark in Hamilton county is Samuel I .. Rose, whose beautiful home is at Rose Grove. He was born in Augusta, Oneida county, New York, on the 19th of December, 1818. His father was Dr. Nathaniel Rose, and one of the ancestors of his mother (whose maiden name was Abigail Knowles) came over in the Mayflower. The paternal grandfather of Samuel was a victim of the Indian massacre at Wyoming, Pennsylvania. The early years of young Rose were spent in school, he entering the Augusta Academy at an early age, and remaining in it until he was eighteen, excepting one winter, when, at the age of sixteen, he taught school at Kennett, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 25
Among his pupils that season were Bayard Taylor and Mr. Wickersham, since state superintendent of public instruction in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Rose began to study medicine before leav- ing the academy, but at nineteen abandoned it for the study of the law, reading at first with Judge Beardsley, of Utica, and then with Hon. Timothy Jenkins, of Oneida. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and practiced in his native town until 1850. During the last-named year he moved to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he rose to eminence as a lawyer, he giving, meanwhile, part of his time to railroad matters.
In December, 1857, he removed to Milwaukee,
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where he engaged more extensively in railroading, ' president of its board of trustees. For six years and was at one time president of the Milwaukee and Western Railway Company. he was one of the regents of the University of Wis- consin. Mr. Rose belongs to the Masonic and Odd- Fellows orders.
In 1862 he crossed the Mississippi, halting one year at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and then locating at Rose Grove, in the adjoining county of Hamilton, fifteen miles from the county seat, where he now has one of the loveliest homes in this part of the state. A farmer's life has long been his choice. He has six hundred acres under improvement, and raises a great deal of fruit.
Mr. Rose was elected judge of Dodge county, Wisconsin, before he was a voter in the state, and served until 1856, when he resigned. He was a member of the Wisconsin legislature four years, two in each house, and was one of the most prominent men in that body.
Mr. Rose was the first postmaster at Rose Grove, and held the office six years. He was judge of the circuit court in the eleventh district of Iowa four years, and made a dignified and impartial judicial officer. He has been chairman of the board of county supervisors six years. While a resident of Wisconsin he was part of the time very active in educational matters. He aided in founding Way- land University, at Beaver Dam, and was the first
He was a democrat of free-soil proclivities until 1856, since which date he has been a republican. He is a Congregationalist in religious sympathy, but a member of no church.
On the 5th of August, 1846, he was married to Miss Mary E. Norris, of Augusta, New York. She had one child, and both mother and child are dead. Mrs. Rose, who died on the 19th of August, 1872, was a woman of great goodness of heart, and a model christian mother :
" None knew her but to love her; None named her but to praise."
Few persons in Hamilton county have died more lamented. The daughter, Mary Emma Rose, leav- ing her earthly for her heavenly father at twenty-two, was a rare and radiant maiden whose companionship was sought by the angels all too early for the widowered father's comfort. The Rose-Grove home- stead, an Eden of rural charms, has lost its two lights, and most emphatically Mr. Rose's house is left unto him desolate. Death loves a shining mark, and sometimes one does not suffice.
REV. WILLIAM EMONDS,
IOWA CITY.
T HE career of Father Emonds presents a suc- cession of varied and interesting experiences; in many respects very like others, yet marked by a force of will and character well worthy of mention in the lists of prominent and successful men.
He was born in Bielefeld, Prussia, on the 13th of June, 1830, and is of French ancestry, they having removed to Prussia in the beginning of the nineteenth century. His father was an officer in the Prussian army, and his mother a native of West- phalia. His early education was gained at the gym- nasium at Munster, from which he graduated in 1849. From youth he had a desire to study for the church, which was prompted and fostered by the counsels of his mother.
During the year of his graduation he immigrated to America, and settled at Dubuque, Iowa, where he was ordained in 1852 a priest in the Catholic church, and for three years was pastor of the Ger-
man Catholic congregation. From 1855 until the fall of 1856 he traveled all over Iowa, under the direction of the bishop, in search of Catholics and the establishment of new missions. Near the close of 1856 he settled in Keokuk as pastor of Saint Peter's Church, the then largest church edifice in the city. At the close of the year he had the satisfaction of assisting in its dedication, and its consecration to the devotional and religious exercises peculiar to the Catholic faith. In 1857 he visited Europe and traveled extensively over the continent, gaining much useful information.
Regaining his health, which from excessive study was much impaired, he returned to America in 1858, and settled in Iowa City, where he has since resided. In 1869, through the efforts of Father Emonds, they completed a large and neatly constructed church edifice, being second in size in the state. The in- terior is magnificently furnished, being superior in
N: Emonds
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this respect to any church in Iowa. In 1861, under his administration, the Saint Agatha's Female Sem- inary was established. This has had a very success- ful career, and occupies a large three-story building nicely arranged for its present use. He established Saint Joseph's Institute, one of the best institutions of the kind in the west. The chemical laboratory and philosophical apparatus is large and costly, em- bracing a valuable foreign collection. In an adjoin- ing building there is a parish free school, under the directions of the Sisters of Charity. It was the de- termination of Father Emonds, and those in charge of these schools, to make them equal to the State University or any other educational institution in
the state, in which they have met with pleasing suc- cess. In September, 1875, a community of twenty- nine Franciscan sisters exiled by Bismark was re- ceived in Iowa City, whose mother's house numbers forty inmates ; an orphan asylum under their guid- ance for the diocese of Dubuque has been estab- lished at Mount Saint Mary's, formerly Mr. Gower's place, near the city.
Thus briefly have we written the sketch of a good man. Other lives are more sensational, but a life devoted to his people and the church over which he presides challenges emulation. He is popular with his congregation, possessing their love and esteem, and is respected and honored by the community.
GENERAL CALEB H. BOOTH, DUBUQUE.
MONG the names of the early settlers of Du- buque (1836), when upon the site of Iowa's largest city was only a hamlet of a few inhabitants, may be found that of C. H. Booth; and among the affluent citizens of Dubuque of the year 1876 he may still be found enjoying the memories of the past, as well as the substantial results of a success- ful life. If we shall seek the secret of his success we shall find it in a firm perseverance and patience, united with prudence, good management, quickness of perception and prompt action. Caleb H. Booth was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, Christ- mas eve, 1814. His early experiences were those of a farmer-boy, and he was early trained to habits of economy and industry, which have had their effect upon all his subsequent life.
At the age of twelve years he was sent to school at a fine classical institution in Burlington, New Jersey, where he studied mathematics, Latin and French, and made a specialty of preparing himself for an engineer. At the age of seventeen he had an offer of a position as engineer on the Camden and Amboy railroad, but, with regret, declined, and, in keeping with his father's wishes, began the study of law. He read in the office of Samuel Edwards, Esq., in Chester, Pennsylvania, and on the 3d of May, 1836, was admitted to the bar. He re- moved to the west and settled at Dubuque (then in Michigan Territory) on the 3d of July, 1836, one day before the act of congress establishing the new territory of Wisconsin took effect.
In 1838 he engaged in the mercantile business as a member of the firm of Booth, Townsend and Co., and in mining, under the firm name of Booth and Carter.
In 1839 he was elected to the legislature, and served during the first session at Iowa City. In 1841 he was elected first mayor of Dubuque, and has served in the council several times since. In February, 1849, he was appointed by President Polk surveyor-general of the land district embraced in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, having his office at Dubuque, an office for which he was eminently fitted by reason of his early education, and which he filled with honor and to the satisfaction of all concerned. So satisfactory was his administration of his duties, that he remained under President Taylor, his ap- posite in politics, during his term of office, and was superseded under Fillmore by General George B. Sargeant, of Davenport. In 1851 he engaged with William J. Barney in buying and selling land war- rants in various parts of the country, which grew to be an enormous business. In 1853 the firm was merged into Cook, Sargeant, Barney and Co., whose operations were the most extensive in the state until the financial crash of 1857, which ruined their pros- pects, as it did thousands of others in the west. In 1857 he was elected treasurer and one of the direct- ors of the Dubuque and Pacific railway, in which he owned a large amount of stock; and from that time to this he has been continuously engaged and connected with railroads in various ways. General
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Booth has been the pioneer of a number of the industries of Dubuque. He built the first flouring- mill in Dubuque in 1848. For a number of years he gave his personal attention exclusively to mining, and in 1843 struck one of the largest lodes ever opened in Dubuque, from which were taken seven million pounds of lead. In 1856 he was one of the state commissioners to establish the State Bank of Iowa, an institution which owed its origin and establishment to him and his associates.
He is a prominent member of the St. John's Epis- copal Church of Dubuque, and senior warden of the same.
Prior to the war of the rebellion General Booth
was a democrat in political sentiment, but since that time has been identified with the republican party ; and in the fall of 1872 was elected on the republican ticket to the fourteenth general assembly.
In the various changes of an active life General Booth has gained the respect of a large circle of friends, and the confidence of his business connec- tions. He is a man of good sound judgment, of large practical experience, and of genial courtesy.
He was married in 1838 to Miss Henrietta Eyre, a native of the same town where he was born in Pennsylvania ; she is a lady of high attainments, and distinguished for a marked excellence of wom- anly and christian virtues.
ALBERT BOOMER, M.D.,
DELHI.
T HE father of Albert Boomer, the subject of this sketch, was Allen Boomer ; he was a sailor in his early life, but at the time of Albert's birth, on the 3d of October, 1823, was in the employ of the United States government on the Grenadier Island in the St. Lawrence river, guarding the frontier from smugglers. He was of English descent ; his father participated in the revolutionary struggle, and he himself was engaged in the war of 1812. The mother of our subject was Paulina (Snow) Boomer, of German ancestry. Allen Boomer, with his family, left the island, and settled on a farm in Jefferson county, New York, when Albert was five years of age, and about 1839 immigrated to Boone county, Illinois, and settled on Garden Prairie, six miles east of Belvidere. Prior to his nineteenth year Albert received but little schooling, at no period more than four months in a year, at the ordinary common schools. He had, however, a great fond- ness for study, and finally obtained the consent of his father to attend an academy, if he would sup- port himself. Willing to make almost any sacrifice for the sake of gratifying his thirst for knowledge, in company with another young man of similar tastes and aspirations, he erected on the outskirts of Belvidere a rude hut six by twelve feet, with a fireplace in one end and a bed in the other, and boarded himself there and attended the academy nine months. He received some provisions from home, and with but little outlay, except for tuition and text-books, made very satisfactory progress.
He taught during the next winter, and attended school the summer following; then for about three years he worked on the farm in summer and at- tended the academy during the winters. While thus engaged he employed some of his spare moments in reading medical books, and, becoming interested in the medical science, about 1849 began to give the subject his chief attention. He read first in the office of Dr. D. H. Whitney, and afterward with Dr. Lake, both of Belvidere.
In the spring of 1853 he graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, and during that same year established himself in practice at Delhi, Del- aware county, Iowa. At first, in connection with his professional business, he conducted a drug store ; but in about five years traded this for land, a por- tion of which is now the large and beautiful farm on which he now resides, one and a quarter miles north of Delhi village.
In 1862 Dr. Boomer was appointed assistant sur- geon of the 27th regiment Iowa Infantry, under command of Colonel Gilbert, and served in that capacity with great faithfulness until near the close of the war. Part of the time he had the whole charge of the regiment, Surgeon Sanborn having medical charge of a brigade, and from exposure and over-work, became impaired in health, and was com- pelled to leave the army. He returned to Delhi, as he and his comrades supposed, to die. His greatest trouble was the chronic diarrhea, which clung to him for four years, and indeed has never fully left him.
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Since his return from the army Dr. Boomer has lived on his farm, and latterly has tried by degrees to retire from medical practice, but his old neigh- bors, whose family physician, in some cases, he has been for more than twenty years, are reluctant to dispense with his valuable services, when he is at home.
Aside from his professional duties, he has been honored with positions of honor and trust. He was for two years a member of the lower house of the state legislature, and for six years a member of the state senate. During his senatorial term in the fourteenth and fifteenth general assemblies he was a prominent member, and took a very decided stand on the temperance question, being a strong pro- hibitionist.
Dr. Boomer has been a republican since the party was organized, and a member of the Methodist church for more than thirty years.
On the 4th of July, 1846, he was married to Miss Charlotte A. Brownell, of Boone county, Illinois, and by her has had ten children, three of whom
are now living, and three having died in infancy and childhood of diphtheria, under peculiarly melan- choly circumstances. Dr. Boomer delayed joining his regiment in 1862 to bury two of these children, and the day after he left, obeying peremptory orders from military headquarters, the third, the youngest lamb of the fold, closed its eyes in death. Thrice smitten in three consecutive weeks, the mother went the third time to the cemetery, with no husband present on whom to lean, but with the Divine Spirit to comfort and strengthen her. It was a dark hour, but she bore her burden with heroic firmness and true christian resignation. The eldest living child of the family is the wife of Dr. George H. Fuller, surgeon by governmental appointment at the Indian agency, Ross Fork, Idaho Territory.
Dr. Boomer is a well-read man, of independent thought, and has very strong convictions of his re- sponsibility as a citizen, never wavering in the dis- charge of his duty in any of the relations of life. He despises a political schemer or a mere policy man of any class.
HON. EZEKIEL CUTLER,
DECORAH.
E ZEKIEL CUTLER comes of good New Eng- land stock, his parents belonging to the agri- cultural class, whence four-fifths of our best and most distinguished men have their origin. He was born in Waterford, Vermont, on the 26th of April, 1827, and took the full name of his father. His mother, who was an Atkins, and a woman of solid christian character, died when her son was seventeen years of age. Though working hard on the farm three-fourths of each year, and having only ordinary school privileges, yet, by close application to his books, both in and out of school, at the date of his orphanage he was prepared to teach a district school. This vocation he followed for several win- ters, at the same time fitting himself for college, by attending a few terms at different academies. In August, 1849, he entered the University of Vermont at Burlington, and graduated in August, 1853. While in college he taught three or four months each year, and kept up with his classes, having, however, to apply himself very closely to his studies.
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