The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 4

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 4

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While Mr. Aldrich was connected with the lowa press he commenced the agitation of the practica- bility of substituting the supervisor system of town- ship and county government for that of the county judge system, as the latter then existed throughout the state. By his pen, and by his personal persuasion with legislators, he was instrumental, far more than

any other influence in the state, in the passage of a law in 1860 for the proposed change. Subsequently the law was modified so as to provide for a dimin- ished number of supervisors in each county, but the principle of the system is substantially now as it was established under Mr. A.'s leadership, and has proved an incalculable improvement over the one-man plan of local government, with its almost inevitable accom- paniments of unjust favoritisms and jobberies, and often of peculation.

Mr. Aldrich, as an editor, also rendered most in- valuable service to his brethren of the Iowa press in the passage of laws calculated to encourage and build up rural newspaper establishments, without detriment to, but in aid of, the rights of all the peo- ple. He was also an early advocate of the idea of giving systematic school instruction to the convicts in our penitentiaries, contributing many elaborate arguments in this behalf to the press of the state, by which the misfortune and to some extent the vice of ignorance might be eliminated from this class of unfortunates. Our present statute for the protection of the harmless classes of birds (section 4063 of the code) was drafted and urged by him upon the legislature with such power of entreaty as to secure enactment. This humane measure has at- tracted the attention of naturalists as well as legis- lators in several of the European states as well as our own country.

One of his most recent labors, and one to which he and his friends recur with especial pride, is his successful effort in behalf of his friend, ex-Surgeon- General William A. Hammond, whose quarrel with Secretary Stanton resulted in his trial by court-mar- tial and dishonorable dismissal from the army in 1864. During an acquaintance of several years Mr. Aldrich became thoroughly convinced that Dr. Hammond had been grievously wronged, and that this most severe "continuing sentence " should be annulled and wiped out. But the personal hostility of a few men still in power prevented any special effort until the past winter (1877-8). It was then deemed best to appeal directly to congress for the necessary authority to allow the President to review the case and in his discretion to set aside the find- ings and sentence of the court-martial. At this stage of the proceedings General Hammond selected Mr. Aldrich as his representative and manager in securing the necessary legislation. He therefore went to Washington in December, 1877, where he remained until the middle of March following, during which

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time he had the satisfaction of seeing the bill pass both houses of congress, with only one dissenting vote, and duly approved by the President. As these pages are going through the press a board of general officers of the army are reviewing the case, for the more full and complete information of the President, and within a few weeks at farthest Dr. Hammond - who has risen to the very first rank in modern times as a medical author and practitioner, scientist and philanthropist - will without question be relieved from the odium of a most unjust sentence, under which he has patiently bided his time for fourteen years. The measure at first evoked some hostility in the minds of the more devoted friends of the late Secretary Stanton ; others feared to establish a pre- cedent of the kind; while others still believed that courtș-martial (though generally organized for an express purpose - either to convict or acquit ) were infallible and could not err; but as time wore on, and the merits of the case became more fully under- stood, the opposition gradually weakened and finally melted out of sight.

During the summer and autumn of last year (1877) Mr. Aldrich undertook to bring to the attention of the people and the coming legislature the justice and necessity of the repeal or essential modification of the cast-iron railroad law of Iowa, passed in 1874. He believed that the law of Massachusetts, which has been in most successful operation several years, presented the best example for imitation, and he therefore visited that state for the purpose of more fully acquainting himself with its operation. Return- ing, he succeeded in awakening public attention to the subject, so that it underwent general discussion and ventilation, and a law akin in its general features to that of the old Bay State was passed by the legis- lature and is now in operation.

In later years he has been a frequent and welcome contributor to the columns of some of the most noted metropolitan journals, on the topics of politics, biog- raphy, history and the natural sciences, and in the treatment of them has exhibited varied and compre- hensive intelligence possessed by few men in the country. From an early period in his experience as an editor he commenced the accumulation of a pri- vate library, and has steadily added to it until he possesses a collection of carefully selected volumes rarely found except in public libraries. His love of natural history and other kindred sciences has caused him to seek the retirement of rural life, where com- munion with nature is closer, though his interest in

the outside world is by no means abated. As a writer he has wonderful facility and perspicuity in composition. An old journalist, in speaking of Iowa editors; said of him years ago, that he "has first- class capabilities as a western editor. .. . He seems to know intuitively what to say at the right time, and the precise manner of saying it also, in order to accomplish a specific purpose. In this field of jour- nalistic sagacity, so admirable in itself, and so neces- sary to professional success, he is blessed beyond a vast majority, if not all, of his cotemporaries."

In religious belief, he is liberal.

Politically, he started out as a free-soil democrat, but since the organization of the republican party he has always acted with it, though in 1872, as a matter of personal choice, he voted for Horace Greeley, while supporting the remainder of the par- ty ticket.

He was married on the 29th of July, 1851, at Knowlesville, Orleans county, New York, to Miss Matilda Williams, daughter of Mr. Aaron Williams, a lady whose graces of mind and person, and whose active benevolence and kindly sympathies, have en- deared her to all who enjoy her acquaintance.

An eminent public man of this state, one of her favored sons, who has known Mr. Aldrich intimately and well for over twenty years, furnishes the writer with sundry memoranda concerning his friend, from which the following sentences are selected, at the risk of a little repetition :

Although the greater portion of Mr. Aldrich's active business life has been devoted to politics, yet it is doubtful whether, if circumstances had favored the natural bent of his mind, he would not have followed other and more con- genial pursuits. In every element of his character he is a perfect child of nature. His love of the works of Thoreau, and admiration for the character of their author, is an index to the bent of his genius. He, however, possessed an active mind and an ardent temperament, and circumstances of early life throwing him into the newspaper profession, he became a rapid, strong, sagacious writer and successful newspaper manager. That, in this profession, a man with a temperament which, in the exactions of busy life, would lead him to write articles for the press and personally be- siege legislators in behalf of a law to protect "our feathered friends," the birds, and in advocacy of night schools and libraries for the inmates of penitentiaries, should become an anti-slavery man and republican was natural and inevi- table. And it was just as natural for such a temperament to do its best work in the heated excitement of the anti- slavery agitation, when the Kansas imbroglio, the early years of the war, and the discussions preceding reconstruc- tion, presented political issues that touched the moral sensi- bilities and moved the sympathies of the heart. When this struggle was ended and political questions became largely material, or simply issues respecting administrative pre- rogatives, nothing was more natural than that a man of Mr. Aldrich's peculiar characteristics should turn to"pur- suits more in accord with the bent of his mind. Having a strong taste for agricultural pursuits, he moved to his

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farm near Webster City, where he has since lived. For a few months in 1875 he was enabled to gratify his taste for investigation in the natural sciences by becoming connected with the llayden expedition. During his connection with these explorations his letters to the " Chicago Inter-Ocean " and other journals were a mine of practical thought respect- ing the resources of the country he traversed, its inhabi- tants of bygone ages, as well as the roaming tribes that now incumber it, and its animal, vegetable and mineral productions. These letters, with the exhibition of his tastes in his home life on his farm, show that if his early educa- tion had thrown him in the line of natural history he would have excelled in it as discoverer and author, and that he would have stood among leading scientists in his chosen specialty.

.As a writer, his style is smooth, clear and vigorous. He never travels out of his way for ornamentation, and yet he never offends the taste by a harsh or awkward sentence. lle is especially happy and graphic in his descriptions of scenery, and in his estimates of men, and he expresses himself with clearness and force upon scientific principles. When editing a country newspaper, its local columns were noted for their raciness, and the interest and instruction of every item.

Socially, Mr. Aldrich is one of the most agreeable and interesting men the writer ever met. His kindly manners and sympathetic voice, in connection with a vast fund of information always at his command, tend to make him a most pleasing conversationist. His knowledge of books, his observations in the line of natural history, his acquaintance

with men, and especially those of scientific and literary tastes in accord with his own, all afford him topics of inter- esting conversation which he possesses the power to use in a most agreeable manner.

As a business man, he is prompt, accurate and responsible. Whilst in business he exacts an equivalent for what he gives, no man was ever more careful to give a full equivalent for what he receives. With all his employés, whether appren- tices and compositors, or laborers on the farm, he is not only just but generous. No worthy boy ever worked for Mr. Aldrich who has not been followed in all his subsequent life by the active interest and generous sympathy of his old em- ployer. More than one young man owes the results of successful life to the advice and instruction of Mr. Aldrich while in his employment.

He is one of the most versatile men the writer ever knew. A majority of men can do one thing well if they apply then- selves to a single purpose ; but few men, however, can turn their hands and minds in quick succession to different and widely diversified employments, and succeed in all of them. Mr. Aldrich was a very successful newspaper man. He has never been excelled in his duties as clerk of the house of representatives. When appointed commissioner to represent to congress the condition and hardships of the river land settlers, although the position required a knowledge of the principles of law and the power to analyze and unravel a vast confusion of facts, he soon mastered the situation. And later, as an agriculturist, he evinces a practical grasp of the subject which will no doubt bring him that reasonable measure of success to which he aspires.

HON. JOHN F. McJUNKIN,

WASHINGTON.

OHN FERGUSON McJUNKIN, attorney gen- J eral of Iowa, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of September, 1830. His parents were John McJunkin and Catherine née Sny- der, the former a native of the north of Ireland and the latter of German origin. His father came from Ireland in his infancy with his parents, who settled in eastern Pennsylvania, where he was brought up to agricultural pursuits, and in 1835 removed with his family to Richland county, Ohio, where he opened a farm in the woods and spent the remainder of his life. Ile died in 1856 in the seventieth year of his age. He was a quiet, plodding, unostentatious man, rather positive in his character, decided in his con- victions and resolute in carrying them out. He was an old-line abolitionist, an Old School Presbyterian, a man of probity and the sternest integrity. He never had but one lawsuit in his life, and that was quite an event in his history.

His mother was a meek, mild, gentle and amiable woman, who loved to dwell at home, and who had not a thought with reference to this world that was not centered in her husband and children. Her life was purely unselfish and devoted to others. She

died in early life, when our subject was but fifteen years of age.

John F. McJunkin was the youngest of a family of eight children, all of whom lived to maturity, and but two of whom, besides our subject, sisters, sur- vive. His eldest brother, Daniel, was a man of some note in Richland county, Ohio, where he held a magistrate's commission for over twenty years. His brother William was a prominent business man in Wyandot county, Ohio, being for many years con- nected with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company. He died at his home in Nevada, Ohio, in the spring of 1874, leaving surviving him one son, E. W. McJunkin, Esq., a prominent mem- ber of the bar of Iowa, now practicing at Sigourney. John F. was raised like the generality of country boys of that day, attending the log school-house a few weeks during winter months and working on the farm in summer. He was a bright, ambitious youth, fond of books and study, and early resolved to obtain an education if within the bounds of his power. In the winter of 1850-51 he taught a com- mon school at twelve dollars a month, and "hoarded 'round " with the pupils. With the money earned in

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this way he defrayed the expenses of a five months' tuition at the Hayesville Academy, Ashland county, Ohio. During the winter following, 1851-2, he taught again, at the rate of sixteen dollars per month, and spent the following summer at the Martinsburg Acad- emy, Knox county, Ohio. The next winter he taught the grammar school in Bucyrus, Ohio, and spent the following summer again at Martinsburg. The winter following he taught a public school in Martinsburg, and recited Latin with a class in the academy, under the direction of the president, Dr. Hervey. He con- tinued in this way until 1856, teaching public schools in winter and attending the academy in summer. In the last named year he was appointed to the chair of mathematics in the institution, which unexpectedly became vacant, and for six months taught a class of seventy-five students in algebra and the higher mathe- matics. In the spring following he returned to Rich- land county, Ohio, and commenced the study of law, receiving books and also some directions from the late Hon. William Johnston, of Mansfield, Ohio. He spent the following winter at the Martinsburg Acad- emy, partly as student and partly as teacher. This ended his academic studies, and in the summer of 1858 he entered, as student, the law office of Hon. R. C. Hurd, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and was ad- mitted to the bar in August of the same year. In the winter of 1859 he removed to Washington, Iowa, where he has since resided and practiced his profes- sion. He soon took a leading position in his western home, and had abundant patronage from the very outset.

In 1863 he was elected to represent his county in the senate of the state legislature, and served through the tenth and eleventh general assemblies, being chairman of the committee on constitutional amend- ments and of the committee on corporations and elections, and serving on the committee on federal relations, and others, and was one of the most active and useful members of that body.

Early in the tenth assembly Mr. McJunkin had the honor and privilege of introducing the following preamble and resolutions, which deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance, and which should trans- mit his name to posterity in the brightest characters :

WHEREAS, The constitution of the United States does not confer on congress the power to abolish and prohibit slavery in the States of the Union; and

WHEREAS, Slavery is incompatible with a republican government, and while it exists in any portion of our coun- try it must endanger her peace and prosperity and retard her progress; therefore, be it

Resolved, By the general assembly of the State of Iowa,

that our representatives in congress be requested, and our senators instructed, to use their utmost endeavors to pro- cure the adoption by congress of the initiatory measures whereby the constitution of the United States may be so amended as to forever prohibit slavery in the United States, or any portion of the same, and so as to authorize congress, by appropriate legislation, to carry into effect the provisions of such amendments.

In commenting upon the completed work, of which this was the initiatory step, the Washington (Iowa) "Press," in its issue of the 17th of January, 1866, employs the following language :

It will be remembered that our senator, J. F. MeJunkin, during the last session of the general assembly, introduced a joint resolution requesting our representatives and in- structing our senators in congress to use their influence for the passage of an amendment to the federal constitution for the entire abolition of slavery. Our general assembly was the first legislative body in the Union which passed such a resolution. . . . Although until now Iowa has had no op- portunity to record its indorsement of this great measure of national justice, the people of the state may pride them- selves in no small degree that their legislature was the first .to move in the matter; and the people of Washington county may also feel proud that it was their senator who first proposed this great measure which has made the na- tion free.

With the close of the eleventh general assembly the legislative services of our subject terminated, he refusing to be again a candidate, to the no small disappointment of his constituents. He did not, however, relinquish his interest in politics and in political questions, as he has stumped the county, and sometimes the surrounding counties, in every political campaign since.

In 1868 he was tendered in convention the nomi- nation of the judgeship of the sixth judicial district of Iowa, but declined.

In 1876 he was nominated by the state repub- lican convention for the position of attorney-gen- eral of the state, to which he was elected in the autumn of the same year by a majority of sixty thousand votes. He is now the incumbent of that office.

For the past sixteen years he has held the posi- tion of attorney for the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, at Washington. He was also the first attorney of the old Mississippi and Mis- souri Railroad Company, which in 1863 was merged into the Rock Island road.

He is a Mason and an Odd-Fellow, a distin- guished and prominent member of the Old School Presbyterian church, and has been a republican and an abolitionist all his lifetime.

Mr. McJunkin is a gentleman of very fine liter- ary attainments, a superior classical scholar and an elegant and effective public speaker, with pleasant

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and agreeable manners and address, very genial and friendly, and a general favorite among the people of his county and state. In the practice of his profession he is very zealous, as, indeed, he is in everything which he undertakes. As a jury lawyer, he has few, if any, equals in the county or district in which he resides; while, as a common-law prac- titioner, he is second to none in the state. In short, he has made the law his sole study for the last twenty years, and in criminal practice, being gen- erally employed on the defense, he is without a superior in the valley of the Mississippi, his prac- tice in this department extending not only over his own state, but into several of the states west of Iowa.

The secret of his success with juries is to be found in the courteous and gentlemanly manner in which he treats the opposing party and the wit- nesses, and impartiality with which he presents his case.

During his brief experience as attorney-general he has given the utmost satisfaction to the author- ities of the state, bringing to bear upon the ques- tions submitted for his opinion or decision a ripe

acquaintance with the law and equity governing the same, as well as a close familiarity with prece- dents drawn from former court decisions in analo- gous cases.

In his business transactions he is peculiarly trans- parent and honorable, and hence has the unlimited confidence of every one with whom he has any in- tercourse. For the last twelve years he has been associated in the practice of law with J. F. Hen- derson, Esq., and during that period there has never been the slightest disagreement or misunderstand- ing between them; and it is the testimony of Mr. Henderson that in all his acquaintance through life he has never met a man possessing more of the true instincts and characteristics of the gentleman than John F. McJunker.

He was married on the 25th of May, 1864, to Miss Eliza Jane, daughter of James M. Boland, Esq., of Martinsburg, Ohio, a lady of refined tastes and domestic habits, whose life is devoted to making home happy and attractive. They have three chil- dren living, Sarah, John Howard and Mary, all being trained for lives of honor and usefulness.

HON. JOSEPH C. KNAPP,

KEOSAUQU'.1.

AM MONG the older lawyers and eminent jurists of Iowa is Joseph Curtis Knapp, who settled here three years before the territory became a state. Through nearly all its history as a commonwealth he has been conspicuous in its politics, as well as its jurisprudence. His name is thoroughly woven into its annals, in all cases in a highly creditable manner.

Judge Knapp, a native of the Green Mountain State, and a son of Ebenezer and Irene (Curtis) Knapp, was born on the 27th of June, 1813, in Berlin, Washington county. The Knapps were early settlers in Massachusetts; the Curtises, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Ebenezer Knapp was a farmer, a hard working man himself, and reared his children in habits of industry.

Joseph received a good academic education in Montpelier; left his native state in 1833; came as far west as Racine, Wisconsin, then a part of Michi- gan territory; read law at first with Hon. Marshall M. Strong, and afterward with Hon. E. G. Ryan, late chief justice of Wisconsin ; practiced a few years in Racine, and in 1843 pushed westward across the

Mississippi river, locating permanently at Keosau- qua, Van Buren county, in the southeastern part of the state. He was for nearly a dozen years in the noted firm of Wright, Knapp and Coldwell, his part- ners being George G. Wright, late of the United States senate, and H. C. Coldwell, now judge of the United States district court, of Arkansas. Senator Wright is an uncle, by marriage, of Judge Knapp, and Judge Coldwell is a brother-in-law. It is not often that the three members of a law firm rise to such distinction; a more conspicuous example, how- ever, was found in Buffalo, New York, many years ago in the firm of Fillmore, Hall and Haven. Mr. Fillmore became President of the United States, Mr. Hall was his postmaster-general, and Mr. Haven went to congress.

Judge Knapp was appointed prosecuting attorney by Governor Clark, in 1846, and judge of the third judicial district by Governor Hempstead, in 1850. He was appointed by President Pierce United States attorney for the district of Iowa in 1853; reappointed by President Buchanan. and held the office eight con-

Joseph le trappe,

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secutive years. To the office of judge of the second judicial district, which he now holds, he was elected in the autumn of 1874, taking the bench on the Ist of January, 1875, the term extending four years. The judge has had long experience ; is very learned in the law ; has a naturally legal mind; is independent as a jurist, and with his innate knowledge of what the law is or ought to be, his rulings are usually correct and perfectly just. At an early day he was a circuit lawyer in extensive practice, attending the courts in Wapello, Jefferson, Keokuk, Mahaska, Marion, Mon- roe, Davis, Appanoose and other counties. But as his home business increased he gradually abandoned his circuit practice, except in special cases. He made criminal practice, to some extent, a specialty, and in that had great success. His arguments to jurors in defense of persons charged with crime were always eloquent and frequently of tremendous force, but deep pathos more than anything else made his. ap- peals to the jury remarkably effective.

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 4

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