USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 39
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In 1872 Mr. Dunham sold his interest in this in- stitution, and started a bank of his own, the Ex- change Bank of Maquoketa, of which he is vice- president, D. M. Hubbell president, and his son, L. H. Dunham, cashier. It is a prosperous institution.
While a resident of Pennsylvania in 1842 and 1843 Mr. Dunham was a member of the state legis- lature, representing Jefferson, Warren and Mckean counties. He was in the senate of Iowa in the ses- sions of 1868 and 1870, he being on the committees on banking and constitutional amendments. He is
a thoroughly practical business man, and his mature judgment and solid common sense made him a highly serviceable member of the Iowa general assembly.
Mr. Dunham was reared in the Jeffersonian school of politics ; was a Jackson boy and a Van Buren man, casting his first presidential vote in 1836, and never voting any but the democratic ticket.
He has a third wife : was first married in 1831 to Miss Mary Stewart, of Hartford, Connecticut, she dying in 1842. His second wife was Miss Techla Von Schrader, of Clearfield, Pennsylvania; married in 1844, and died in 1846. His present wife was Miss Mary B. Sloane, of Wooster, Ohio; they were married in 1856. Mr. Dunham has two sons now living, both by his first wife, both married and both first-class business men. Frederic Stewart, the elder, is a merchant in Monticello, Iowa, and Lewis Hamil- ton, as has already been intimated, is a banker.
Mr. Dunham has been a generous encourager of the railroads which connect Maquoketa with the metropolitan cities of the northwest ; lends a prompt and liberal hand in local enterprises generally, and takes great pride in the growth and prosperity of his adopted home.
GENERAL JAMES C. PARROTT,
KEOKUK.
JAMES C. PARROTT, a native of Easton, Talbot county, Maryland, was born on the 21st of May, 1811, and is the fifth child of Thomas Parrott and Elizabeth née Corner. His father was a commis- sioned officer under General Perry Benson during the war of 1812.
James attended the public schools of his native place till he was twelve years of age, and then pursued a course of study in Easton Academy. His fondness for study developed at an early age, and he always took the highest stand in his classes. He left school in his fourteenth year, and served an apprenticeship, learning the mercantile business, and at its expiration accepted a clerkship in the well- known shipping and commission house of James Corner and Sons, of Baltimore, where he remained till he attained his twentieth year. Having resolved to remove to the west, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the fall of 1831, but finding navigation closed, returned to Wheeling, Virginia, and spent a short time with an uncle. Soon after he enlisted as a
private in the ist regiment of United States Dra- goons ; was afterward made first sergeant, and in this capacity served during three years, declining several offers of commissions. His time of service was spent mostly on the frontier under Colonel Dodge and Stephen W. Keaney, afterward governor of Wisconsin. At the close of his term of enlistment, in the spring of 1837, he formed a partnership with Captain Jessie B. Brown, and engaged in the mercantile trade at Fort Madison, Iowa, then a promising town of one hundred and fifty inhabitants. He conducted a successful business there for six- teen years, and during that time served as county treasurer, and also as mayor of the city. In 1853 he removed to Keokuk, and engaged in business with the large firm of Wolcott and Co., and after two years formed a partnership with Arthur Wolcott, under the firm name of J. C. Parrott and Co. The financial crisis that swept over the country in 1857 caused them to suspend payment, but having native energy and a determination to succeed, Mr. Parrott
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bravely met his misfortune, and in 1859 was again doing a successful dry-goods business. At the opening of the war, under a commission from Gover- nor Kirkwood, he raised a company of volunteers for the 7th regiment Iowa Infantry, and entered the service. In November of that year he was pro- moted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of his regi- ment. At the battle of Belmont he was severely wounded, and while in the hospital at Cairo received the following special order :
HEADQUARTERS DIST. S. E. Mo. CAIRO, November 9, 1861.
SPECIAL ORDER No. - : Leave of absence is hereby granted Capt. J. C. Parrott, 7th Iowa Volunteers, to repair to his home until he has recovered from severe wounds received whilst gallantly leading his company in the engage- ment of the 7th at Belmont, Mo.
U. S. GRANT, Brig .- Gen. Com.
He recovered to participate in all of the noted battles of the army of the Tennessee, including Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Resaca, Shiloh and Corinth ; and although again severely wounded, he joined in General Sherman's "March to the Sea," and only after the grand review of the troops in Washington, at the close of the war, returning to his home rejoiced, in the face of all his hardships and trials, that it had been his lot to engage in the struggle for freedom and equal rights. In honor of his gallant service, by a special act of congress
Colonel Parrott was promoted to the rank of brig- adier-general.
In'early life he was a whig in his political views, but has been identified with the republican party since its organization.
Aside from his active business relations, General Parrott has been honored with many positions of public trust. In 1867 he was appointed postmaster by President Johnson, a position which he still (1876) holds. He was also at one time division commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.
He was married on the 4th of September, 1838, to Miss Henrietta Buchhalter, of Fort Madison, to whom much of his success is due, she being a lady of fine native endowments, a devoted wife and fond mother. They have three sons and two daughters, the eldest son being now a successful business man of Varner, Ark.
During his entire career General Parrott has been marked as a man of broad views, firm adherence to avowed principles, quick perception and sound judgment, which combined with his excellent busi- ness tact has given to him an influence and success well worthy of emulation. Generous and genial, prompt and energetic, possessed of a commanding presence and dignified bearing, he has endeared himself to a host of warm friends.
SMITH G. BLYTHE, M.D., VORA SPRINGS.
MITH GREEN BLYTHE, son of Rev. Joseph S W. and Ellen H. (Green) Blythe, was born in Middlesex county, New Jersey, on the 6th of No- vember, 1841. His father was a Presbyterian min- ister, and was a chaplain in the general hospitals at Jeffersonville and Madison, Indiana, during the late civil war. His mother was a sister of ex- Chancellor Green, of New Jersey, whose grand- father served in the revolutionary army, His pa- ternal grandfather, like his father, was a Presby- terian clergyman, and one of the pioneer ministers in Kentucky.
The subject of this sketch was educated at Lafay- ette College, Easton, Northampton county, Pennsyl- vania, graduating in 1860. He read medicine in New Jersey, and attended a course of lectures at Jefferson College, Philadelphia ; he was intending to pursue his medical studies without intermission, but, the
civil war breaking out, he threw aside his med- ical books and enlisted as a private in the 1st New Jersey regiment of Volunteers. He was appointed commissary sergeant before the regiment left the state, and in 1862 he was promoted to second lieu- tenant, then to first lieutenant in November of that year, and to captain during the same month. His regiment was in the army of the Potomac, and Captain Blythe was with the army from the first Bull Run battle to the battle of the Wilderness, in which he received a severe wound in the thigh, his fourth wound in the service. On the 23d of June, 1864, he was mustered out on account of dis thility from this wound; went to Hopewell, Indian: 1. . state his father had moved, and there tat sical school, resuming his medical studies :
time. He attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, in the winter of 1866-67. In
S.G. Bryche
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March, 1867, he settled in Vinton, Benton county, Iowa.
Dr. Blythe practiced in Vinton until December, 1869, when he removed to Rudd, in Floyd county, a new town on the Iowa and Dakota branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad. On the Ist of January, 1873, he settled in Nora Springs, where he has built up a large practice.
Dr. Blythe has four hundred acres of excellent land near the village of Nora Springs, and is intro- ducing fine grades of cattle and hogs, and making of it a first-class stock farm. He simply oversees it, letting nothing interfere with his growing medical practice. He is one of the school directors in his district, and his fine culture and literary tastes make his services in this direction of great value. He
is polished in his manners, as well as mind, and has a refining influence in more than one sense.
He isa Presbyterian in religious sentiment, though not, we believe, a member of the church.
In politics, he is republican, and strongly believes in the equality of all men before the law. He evi- dently inherits his love of justice, for his father was a strong abolitionist, and for many years a con- ductor on the underground railway.
Dr. Blythe is a member of the grand lodge of Odd- Fellows, and of the subordinate encampment.
His wife was Miss Emily Gill Sharpe, daughter of Judge William R. Sharpe of Warren county, New Jersey, and they were married on the 8th of July, 1863. They have three daughters and one son living, and have buried three children.
WILLIAM CHAMBERS AND SONS,
MUSCATINE.
P ROBABLY no life in this county had more of its country's history interwoven in its expe- riences than that of him whose name heads this sketch. It saw its dawn in North Carolina in the infancy of the nation. It was a part of Kentucky when that state won the reputation of "the dark and bloody ground." As a part of its web and woof there were the light and the dark threads - some stained scarlet, no doubt, of the war of 1812. There were twenty-two years of border life in Indi- ana, each year full of history, and then there was nearly half a century in Muscatine, Iowa, where he reared his log cabin in the solitudes of the unbroken prairies. He was one of nature's kings. The look of his eye betokened the master of nature and of men. And there is a well imprinted history to be read of this man's character in the struggles, the indomitable energy, perseverance and success which crowned his efforts, by those who live to perpetuate his name and his virtues. And when the history of the city of his adoption, and to whose prosperity the best years of his life were devoted, shall be written, no name will stand higher on the roll of honor than that of William Chambers, a brief sketch. of whose biography succeeds.
He was descended of Scottish ancestors, dating far back in the colonial history of our country, and was born in North Carolina on the 5th of June, 1793. Two years later he was removed to Kentucky, where
he grew to manhood, married Sarah Anderson, and resided until 1814, when he immigrated to Washing- ton county, Indiana, where he made his home for twenty-two years, and where all his children were born. He was the first to move in the organization of public schools in that section of Indiana, and en- countered the strenuous opposition of his neighbors, who all inherited the bitter prejudices of the south against popular education. For several years after the organization of the schools in this county not more than half the children of the districts would attend them, and those who did were the objects of scorn and persecution ; meantime the non-attend- ants were paying school taxes of which they received no benefit. In course of time, however, one after another began to cut their "eye teeth," and to see things in a different light, though many years elapsed before popular education became popularized.
In 1835 Mr. Chambers made a prospecting visit to Iowa, and on the 11th of May, 1836, he removed to the territory, having been preceded a few weeks by his eldest son Vincent. He bought a large tract of land some nine miles east of where the city of Muscatine now stands, on which he settled, and where he remained till 1866, when he removed to the city of Muscatine, where he resided until his death, which occurred the 26th of December, 1874. in the eighty-second year of his age.
He had been a soldier of the war of 1812, remark-
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able for his fine physical framework, and for his vigor of intellect even to old age ; up to the time of his last illness he had enjoyed remarkable immunity from sickness. A citizen of Muscatine for almost forty years, his cheery disposition and hearty greet- ing rendered him as popular as his person was well known. He was a consistent member of the Bap- tist church; beloved as a father, venerated as a patriarch, and esteemed as a citizen and neighbor.
His estimable wife, who preceded him to the hither shore some eleven months, was born on the 3d of May, 1795, in Madison county, Kentucky, of Scotch-Irish parents, and was a near relative of Colonel Anderson, of Washington's staff, and of General Anderson, of Fort Sumter celebrity. She was married on the 7th of February, 1814, and was the mother of five sons and three daughters. In early life she gave her heart to God, and was bap- tized into the communion of the Baptist church, and her whole after life was a beautiful illustration of the faith which she professed. She was a "mother in Israel " in the fullest sense of the term, universally esteemed, and the friend of all who knew her. She died on the 4th of January, 1874. Four generations, numbering over fifty relatives, comprising all of her descendants save five grand- children, were present at her funeral. How much they owe to God for such a mother! Faithful and true in every relation of life, her holy example is a legacy of priceless value to them.
CHAMBERS BROTHERS.
Having devoted so much space to the parents, we will now take up the history of the sons, "The Chambers Brothers," as they are popularly termed, who have perhaps contributed more to the material prosperity of Muscatine than any other family asso- ciated with its history.
VINCENT CHAMBERS, the eldest of the brothers. was born in Washington county, Indiana. on the 30th of November, 1816. His schooling was bounded by the log school-house which was built through his father's influence, and which he attended a few winters previous to the age of twenty, when he removed to Muscatine, Iowa, in company with his father, but soon after returned to Indiana, where he pursued the business of a carpenter and joiner for twenty years. On the 28th of November, 1854, he came a second time to Muscatine, and joined his father on the old homestead, where he remained till
1864, when he became associated with his brothers, W. and A. Chambers, in business, where he con- tinued till the spring of 1877, when he removed to Indianapolis, where he is now engaged in operating a stone saw-mill.
WILLIAM, the second of the brothers, was born on the 26th of November, 1818, in Washington county, Indiana; enjoyed the same school facilities as his brother; came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1836; farmed till 1849, when he formed a copartnership with his brothers, Anderson and Isaac Chambers, for the manufacture of lumber, which continues till this day.
ANDERSON, the third of the brothers, named after his mother's family, was born in Indiana on the 26th of November, 1820; received less than one year's log schooling all told ; came to Muscatine at the age of sixteen, on the 11th of May, 1836; farmed on the homestead for about ten years, and in 1847 united with his brothers, William and Isaac, in the lumber manufacturing trade. This was the first establish- ment of the kind in Muscatine, and its early history is well worth recording.
In the autumn of 1846 the brothers, accompanied by six men, ten yoke of cattle, six horses, provisions for six months, and a general outfit for logging, started from Muscatine for Black river, Wisconsin, and on arriving at their destination built a log cabin. organized a camp, made sleds, and provided all the appliances necessary for the forest campaign. They spent the winter in cutting down the timber and hauling it into the river, intending in the spring to drive the logs down stream and into the Mississippi river at La Crosse. But an unusual phenomenon occurred at this period, which not only carried the logs down stream, but came near extinguishing the entire winter's work. A huge waterspout fell at the head of Black river, which occasioned a rise in that stream of twenty-five feet in less than twenty-four hours, and carried everything before it. The broth- ers perceiving the danger which threatened them, mounted their horses and galloped at full speed in advance of the roaring torrent, threw a boom across the river at White Oak Springs, at the head of Black river lake, which was secured before the flood and the logs arrived. Had it not been for this timely and energetic measure their whole winter's work would have been carried into the Mississippi river, scattered and lost. The river abated gradually until the 19th of July, when the expedition left for
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Muscatine with the first two rafts of logs ever taken from the Black river country. The rafts, which contained nine hundred thousand feet, arrived at Muscatine on the 15th of August, 1849, the first ever brought to Muscatine or to the State of Iowa. The brothers rented two saw-mills which had been pre- viously erected by John G. Deshler and Messrs. Cadle and .Reiley, which they operated for several years; but in 1852 the business had so prospered and increased that they were compelled to build a mill of their own. In this year the firm was re- organized, Messrs. Cornelius Cadle and D. Duns- more being admitted as partners, the name of the firm being changed to that of Dunsmore and Cham- bers, under which title it carried on an extensive and prosperous trade till 1862, when the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent. In 1852 the brothers connected with their extensive lumber business a general mercantile house, which was also conducted with success till 1862, when it was dis- continned.
In 1862 the business was again reorganized, Mr. Vincent Chambers being admitted, and a large pork and grain establishment added, which increased with such rapidity as to render the building of an extensive packing house and grain elevator neces- sary. The former was completed in 1864, and the latter in 1866. In the last named year they also built an additional saw-mill on an improved plan. The grain elevator, with a capacity of one hundred thousand bushels, was the finest in the state, and among the most complete to be found in the coun- try, while the pork house had a capacity for the handling of five hundred hogs per day, and during the winter of 1864-5 disposed of twenty-seven thousand three hundred head; but the sudden ter- mination of the war in the latter year so reduced prices as to entail a loss on the firm of one hundred thousand dollars. In 1868 the elevator became a total loss by fire, involving a net loss of twelve thousand dollars. These reverses so discouraged the firm that it was not deemed advisable to rebuild.
In 1870 Mr. John Servis, of La Crosse, was ad- mitted to the firm, and the name varied to that of Chambers Brothers and Co. The pork business was discontinued in 1874, the saw-mill and pork house having burned, causing a loss of seventy-two thou- sand dollars. In 1875 Mr. Servis withdrew his in- terest, and the firm is now known by the title of Chambers Brothers.
But in the spring of 1876 a new and distinguish-
ing branch was added to the business of this emi- nent and enterprising firm, destined to overshadow their other enterprises, and to prove the most valu- able and important "innovation " of the age- a stone-sawing mill, the chief feature of which is a circular saw, some sixty-six inches in diameter, having some eighty-four diamonds inserted in its periphery, and not inappropriately named "The Stone Monarch," which rips up the hardest marble with as much ease and speed as the ordinary circu- lar saw will intersect an oak log. It is capable of cutting at the rate of fifteen hundred feet per day, or, to compare, it can do as much work at the same expense in three hours as the old hoop-iron and sand saw can do in thirty-six hours; and this being the first saw of the kind ever invented, and the principle still in its infancy, if it shall turn out to be capable of the same improvements which have been made in the rotary lumber saw, there is no esti- mating the value it will be to mankind, or the rev- olution it is destined to accomplish in mechanics. The facility which it affords for work enables the proprietors to receive a bill of stone sufficient for the water-tables, window-sills, caps, corbels, keys and corner blocks of an ordinary house, and return the same ready for setting on the following morning. During the short time in which the "Monarch " has been in operation it has sawed stones from the quarries of eight different states of the northwest, besides large quantities of marble from Vermont and Italy. This most wonderful invention is the work of Mr. J. W. Branch, of St. Louis, an English gentleman, and like all really valuable inventions and discoveries of the century, it had to encounter at the outset not only indifference and apathy, but actual opposition and hostility. It was laughed to scorn by the stone men of St. Louis, Chicago and other adjacent cities, not one of whom would even afford it a trial. At last, knowing something of the character of the Chambers Brothers, of Muscatine, Iowa, for enterprise and intelligence, the inventor applied to them to put its merits to the test, and although they were not in the stone business, and totally inexperienced in that line of industry, yet, becoming strongly impressed with the feasibility of the idea, they at once put the machine in operation, with the results above stated. An improved saw of the same pattern has since been put in operation by Mr. Vincent Chambers at Indianapolis, Indiana, with still greater results, every improvement seem- ing to add to the speed and economy of the opera-
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tion. John Chambers, the fifth of the brothers, born in 1829, is also a member of the fırın.
Vincent Chambers was married on the 5th of November, 1840, to Miss Nancy Peck, of Leesville, Indiana, who died in 1853, leaving two children, a son and a daughter, both since deceased. He was married again in 1854, to Miss Margaret K. Neely, by whom he has eight children, all living.
William Chambers was married in 1840 to Miss Cynthia Long, a native of Muscatine county, Iowa, by whom he has had thirteen children, only six of whom are now living.
Anderson Chambers was married in 1841 to Miss Susan Pace, also of Muscatine county, a Virginian by birth, by whom he has had seven children, all living ; she died on the 27th of February, 1874, and on the 28th of June, 1875, he was married to Miss Mary Prosser, of Muscatine.
John Chambers was married in 1854 to Miss Mary Lakin, also of Muscatine, by whom he has had three children, two sons and one daughter, all living; she died on the 26th of December, i874.
Of the sisters, two are still living; the third died at the age of sixteen by a fall from a horse.
Amanda, the eldest, is the wife of Mr. M. P. Pace, a farmer residing nine miles east of Muscatine.
Nancy Jane is the wife of Mr. Wm. Bagley, a farmer residing near Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa.
The brothers all belong to the Masonic fraternity. Anderson is a Knight Templar, William a Royal Arch Mason, and the others Master Masons.
William and Anderson are members of the Bap-
tist church, Vincent of the Methodist, while John, though a regular attendant, is not united to any denomination.
All were raised in the democratic faith, to which they have adhered through life.
We shall close the sketch of this remarkable fam- ily with a few words of more general import.
In every enterprise that has had a tendency to promote the interests of Muscatine they have always been foremost. Their energy and activity have passed into a proverb with their fellow-townsmen. Possessed as they all are of tempers under perfect control, no disaster or reverse has ever dismayed or dispirited them; but always looking forward with a hopeful eye on the future, they have never let their industry or zeal flag for a moment. Their spirit of public enterprise is only equaled by their quiet and unobtrusive private benevolence; their charities are innumerable; neither want nor distress has ever appealed to them in vain, and it is a matter of some notoriety that they have frequently kept in their employment, at their usual wages, men with families, for whom they had no work, rather than see their children suffer for want of bread.
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