The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 41

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 41

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In September, 1835, Mr. Hawley was married at Louisville, Kentucky, to Miss Martha J. Wilson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who died in September, 1850. Of this marriage there were issue seven chil- dren, five girls and two boys. Four of the daugh- ters survive, and are now the wives of the following named gentlemen : Ellen M. is the wife of Franklin E. Humphrys, Esq .; Theodosia I. is the wife of Frank L. Woodward, Esq .; Louisa Blanch is the wife of Captain W. E. Clarke, and Martha Jeffrey is the wife of Edward E. Homes, Esq. One of the sons died at the age of thirteen, and the other, William, entered the Union army at the outbreak of the late rebellion, and was killed at the battle of

Kenesaw Mountain on the 4th of July, 1864, at the age of seventeen years. He fills the grave of one of the youngest and noblest martyrs to the cause of freedom who fell during that sanguinary struggle.

In March, 1852, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Meteer, of Bluegrass, Scott county, Iowa, by whom he has had five children, two only of whom survive, Frances E. and Cyrus W.

Although brought up according to the strictest tenets of New England Congregationalism, and under the most pious and zealous teachers, yet it was not until 1851 that he made a profession of religion, and then he united with the Congregational church at Muscatine, not because he found in its creed a response to all his religious longings, but its high standards pleased him, and he had come to think more of the spirit of a religious profession than of its letter.

In politics, he delighted in the name of a Henry Clay whig, and cast his vote for that gentleman when a candidate for President. He subsequently voted for Taylor, Fremont, Lincoln, Grant, Greeley and Tilden. He now indorses the policy of Presi- dent Hayes. We do not know that he ever held an office. It is his distinction that he has remained in the ranks, satisfied with the editorials of the New York "Tribune," and the speeches of Henry Clay, and proud to be of the constituency of Sumner. . It will be a grand day for the American republic when her people shall, in military parlance, "dress " to the personal honor and christian patriotism of Cyrus Hawley.

Physically he is a man of slender and wiry framework, rather above middle height, of fair complexion, bright eye and pleasant expression ; benevolence and honesty beaming from every angle of his countenance. He has been a man of great endurance under many forms of exposure. His temperament was elastic, his will firm and perse- vering. Despising all hardships and dangers, he was willing to make any personal sacrifice to make an honest and an honorable record for hiniself and family.

In the foregoing brief outline we have done but little toward sketching a portrait of Cyrus Hawley, or measuring his influence upon his day and gener- ation. He died on the 23d of October, 1877, in the seventieth year of his age. Through life he was a close student of men and things, and in whatever circle he moved the influence of a liberal culture and of a cosmopolitan experience has been felt.

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His opinions have been sought after and received as the convictions of a catholic nature, thoroughly in sympathy with the best thoughts and the most desir- able works of his time.

And who that has passed an hour in his presence, so gentle and refined, will question his claim to the grand old title of gentleman, while they mourn the loss of an upright man ?

WASHINGTON F. PECK, M.D., DAVENPORT.

W ASHINGTON FREEMAN PECK, pro- fessor of surgery and clinical surgery in the medical department Iowa State University, and a practitioner of much prominence in the state, was born in the town of Galen, Wayne county, New York, on the 22d of January, 1841, and is the son of William H. and Alida (Hawes) Peck, natives of the same place; the former of Scotch descent, some three generations previously, while the latter is of Dutch lineage, the Hawes family having emigrated from Amsterdam to New York city previous to the revolution, where the maternal grandfather of our subject, Simon Hawes, served as a captain in the revolutionary army.

His father was a farmer in easy circumstances, and our subject received a good common-school education. He had from an early age manifested a decided taste and aptitude for that particular branch of learning which relates to the healing art, which determined him in the choice of a profession, and accordingly in 1859 he commenced the study of medicine and surgery, entering the Bellevue Hospi- tal Medical College, New York, where he graduated in the session of 1862-3 with the highest honors, and was the first student who matriculated in the first medical school in this country which success- fully achieved the experiment of combining inti- mately clinical with didactic teaching. His aptness as a student and his especial talents for the pro- fession which he had chosen may be inferred from the fact that after attending one course of lectures he was received as a cadidate by the board of ex- aminers for the position of house surgeon in Belle- vue and Blackwell's Island hospitals ; and notwith- standing the fact that the rules had hitherto re- stricted applications for this honorable and important place to such candidates as had already obtained the degree of M.D., yet after a searching compet- itive examination, in which a large number of much older men participated, Washington F. Peck, the first undergraduate, was awarded the position. In

this capacity he served with unflagging diligence and marked success for two years without com- pensation, except in the wealth of experience and the incalculably valuable discipline which the posi- tion afforded him - undoubtedly the most useful and practical lessons of his life, largely influencing him in selecting that branch of the profession in which he has become especially proficient. After leaving Bellevue Hospital he served as surgeon in the United States army for a period of eighteen months, prin- cipally at Lincoln General Hospital, District of Co- lumbia, where he was a prominent and very suc- cessful operator.

In 1864 he removed to the west, and located at Davenport, lowa, where he immediately entered upon a large and lucrative practice, his talents and attainments naturally placing him in the front ranks of the profession. In 1868 he was elected professor of surgery and clinical surgery in the medical depart- ment of the Iowa State University, which position he has since filled with the highest satisfaction and benefit to the institution, also filling the position of dean of the faculty during the same period. Has been visiting surgeon to the Mercy Hospital, Daven- port, since its organization, consulting surgeon of the Mercy Hospital, Iowa City, and for eight years surgeon of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home. On the Ist of January, 1875, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, in which capacity he has rendered excellent service. During the year 1874 he was president of the Scott County Medical Society, and is now (1876) president of the Iowa State Medical Society. He delivered the centennial address to the last-named organiza- tion at its annual meeting held at Des Moines on the 26th of January, 1876. The records of that society bear evidence of yearly papers from him con- nected with the art of surgery.

He has passed through the various orders of Masonry, and is a distinguished craftsman of that order.

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He is not an active politician, but is known to be in sympathy with the principles of the republican party.

On the 18th of September, 1865, he married Miss Maria Purdy, daughter of the late Merritt Purdy, of West Butler, Wayne county, New York, a most esti- mable and gifted lady. They have three children, Jessie Allen, Mary Alida, and Robertson Irish.

Dr. Peck is of Scotch ancestry on the male side, and in his qualities shows perhaps as noble a type of the Scottish ideal as has ever been seen. He brings to his profession a very high order of talents, giving him an almost intuitive correctness in diag- nosis, and a large fund of resource in treatment of diseases, and in many instances a rare originality, which would challenge a wide admiration did he possess leisure and disposition to write his views and experience in such cases. He is likewise character- ized by rare enthusiasm, wielding immense power over the minds and wills of others, while his singu- lar personal magnetism attracts to him friends of the most diverse character. He has an indomitable will, and an energy that never tires. In his vo- cabulary there is no such word as "fail." To all of which may be added a large fund of ready wit and native shrewdness, which makes him an apt judge

of human character. As a friend, he is staunch and unflinching, and as an opponent, uncompromising and inexorable. With him there is no neutral ground in any of the relations of life. His literary and professional works, when he does find time to ap- pear in print, are of the very highest order, always original and eminently practical. His address above alluded to was a complete résumé of the march of progress of the profession during the century just closed, and as a history of the various discoveries and triumphs of science for the benefit of the race, and its enumeration of the stale and mouldy theories that have been distanced and dropped altogether from the practice during the lifetime of the republic, it deserves to take a very high rank, and might be profitably read by every medical student and intelli- gent citizen in the land.

It is seldom that a man so young in the pro- fession attains to the same distinction. He has performed successfully some of the greatest opera- tions in surgery hundreds of times ; his reputation in this respect extending far beyond the limits of the commonwealth, and being justly high among his professional brethren.

Socially, there are few more generous, warmhearted and faithful friends than Dr. W. F. Peck.

SUEL FOSTER,

MUSCATINE.

S UEL FOSTER, horticulturist, was born in the town of Hillsboro, New Hampshire, on the 26th of August, 1811, being the eighth child of Aaron Foster and Mehetable nee Nichols. The family is of English origin, the great-grandfather of our subject, with two brothers, having emigrated to Massachusetts previous to the revolution, where a large colony of the descendants still remain. Sev- eral of them fought in the war for independence, and were subsequently conspicuous in the councils of the state and nation.

The mother of our subject was descended on the female side from Bancroft stock, and was a full cousin to the distinguished American historian and diplomatist, George Bancroft. His father was a farmer, and had eight sons and two daughters, all of whom were brought up in habits of industry and mo- rality. Like many New England farmers, with large families, his means were limited, and the education

of his children was confined mainly to the public schools, at that time greatly inferior to what they now are; yet notwithstanding the difficulties alluded to, three of the sons succeeded in obtaining educa- tions qualifying them for professions, one being a clergyman of the Congregational church, another a physician, and the third a West Point cadet.

When a boy Suel used to rejoice in a rainy day, in which he and his brothers were wont to go fish- ing for pike, trout, pickerel, horn-pout, and other members of the finny tribe, with which the moun- tain streams abounded, or go a bathing in the pure, limpid streams, or boating or rafting on the bosom of the crystal lake; or, during the long winter even- ings, when the ground was covered with snow, to participate in the sport of sliding down hill, or skating on the ponds, or competing for the prize in the village "spelling bee," or the "speaking " of pieces, etc. These are the days and the scenes

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which memory holds dear, and which our subject loves to talk about.

When Suel was ten years of age his father ex- changed his farm for one located some twenty-seven miles farther west, in the town of Unity, Sullivan county, New Hampshire. This was a sad and sor- rowful period in his history. The scenes and play- mates of his youth were unspeakably dear to him, and bitterly did he weep at parting with them; so deep was the impression made upon his youthful mind by this sad change, that he has since his ma- turity often counseled parents of families to fix upon a home for life in the outset if possible, and not part with their homestead on any consideration, but encourage in their children a love of home, with all the happy feelings and moral associations that be- long to that blessed place.

At the age of twenty years he bid farewell to the parental roof and removed to Rochester, New York, where he worked one year as a farm-hand at a sal- ary of eleven dollars per month. At the end of the year he took his surplus earnings and bought a small stock of goods, and peddled them in the sev- eral towns and counties west and south of Roch- ester, the country known as the "Genesee Valley." He followed this business for three years with re- markable success, nor was any period of his life more pleasantly and profitably spent ; for, although he did not accumulate money very fast, as the phrase is now understood, yet he was daily receiv- ing a practical and useful education, learning how people lived and how they ought to live. The peo- ple of the Genesee country, although humble, were nevertheless intelligent, faithful and well-to-do farm- ers. Many of the pioneers of that forest country were still dwelling in their log-cabins, but most of them had built good farm-houses and barns. With unflagging interest he heard the oft-repeated tale of the pioneer settler. Here he imbibed a love of agricultural pursuits, and conceived the idea of im- migrating to the west, and of making a new farm in the " Valley of the Mississippi." Accordingly, as a preparatory step, he resolved to spend a few months at the Middlebury Academy, that he might acquire a knowledge of bookkeeping and surveying, etc.

His older brother, Dr. John H. Foster, had been a few years in Illinois previous to this period, and had returned to the east on business in 1836, and on his return to his western home was accompanied by our subject, the journey being made in the early spring of that year, via New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,

the Ohio river and St. Louis, where the brothers parted, the doctor going to Chicago and our subject to Rock Island. In August of the same year the doctor made a visit to Rock Island, and the broth- ers proceeded down the river to Bloomington, now Muscatine, Iowa, where they jointly purchased an undivided one-sixth of the town site, as it then laid off, from Captain Benjamin Clark, of "Clark's Ferry," for which they paid the sum of five hundred dollars. This included a tract of land half a mile square. The town had been surveyed but a few weeks previously, and at that time consisted of but two log-cabins, though farmers were in that year making rapid settlements in the adjacent country. In February, 1837, he removed to Bloomington (Muscatine), where, in 1842, he engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business in partner- ship with Mr. J. W. Richman, since deceased, which continued until 1846.

On the 8th of October, 1847, he married Miss Sarah J., daughter of Robert Collins Hastings, of St. Lawrence county, New York, and sister of Hon. S. C. Hastings, elsewhere sketched in this volume, and continued his residence in Muscatine. Early in 1849, soon after the discovery of gold in California, Judge Hastings made the overland trip to the Pacific coast; and in the winter following, at his request, our subject accompanied the wife and three children of the judge, by way of the Isthmus, to the city of San Francisco, arriving there in April, 1850, after an arduous journey of three months.

Mr. Foster spent the summer of 1850 as clerk in the Sacramento post-office, and in the autumn of that year was appointed to take the census of the east half of Butte county, California, embracing all the mountainous country of Feather river to the top of the Sierra Nevada mountains. He num- bered some twenty-five hundred men engaged in "digging " for gold, all operating upon the sur- face and in the bed of the streams, no blasting of quartz rocks then being done. He found some of the miners realizing from twenty dollars to one hundred dollars per day, but the average of their earnings did not exceed one dollar and a half, and the cost of living was about one dollar per day, so that the labor of mining gold in California at that time did not pay as well as the same amount of labor in the farms of Iowa, nor did he consider the condition of the people of Califor- nia, or other prospects, as equal to those of the people of Iowa, and accordingly returned to the

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Valley of the Mississippi in the winter of 1850-1. The journey to and from and his seven months' stay in California was one of the most interesting periods of his life. The sea-voyage from New Or- leans to Chagres, on the steamer Georgia, com- manded by Commodore D. D. Porter; the horse- back ride across the isthmus with the women and children ; the four weeks' stay at Panama awaiting the steamer to come around the "Horn," and his experience with the miners on Feather river, were all thrilling and very instructive experiences.

On rejoining his family in the spring of 1851 he settled down to the business of farming, and soon drifted into the nursery business, horticulture and fruit raising, in which he has been engaged success- fully for the past twenty-five years. He has accom- plished much good by the promotion of tree-plant- ing, both shade and ornamental, orchards and small fruits of all kinds, and has been instrumental in in- troducing and disseminating many new and im- proved varieties of fruit trees. He is a member of the state and county horticultural societies, also of the Illinois Horticultural Society, and a frequent and very valuable contributor to the various pub- lications and periodicals of the country printed in the interest of horticulture and agriculture. He was the first in Iowa to move in the matter of estab- lishing and endowing an agricultural college for the state, and for a number of years fought the battle single-handed. In 1847 he became acquainted with some intelligent Germans, who had been educated at agricultural schools in their own country, and who were much surprised to learn that there were no similar institutions in America. He became favorably impressed with their account of these in- stitutions in Germany and other European coun- tries, and immediately commenced agitating the question of establishing an agricultural college for the State of Iowa, by articles in the public papers. He made it the subject of public addresses at agri- cultural meetings, and, in short, made it a hobby for years. At the outset he met with but little encour- agement ; on the contrary, his views were generally opposed as Utopian. About the year 1852, how- ever, some western writers, among whom were Pro- fessor J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Illinois, and Hon. Adna Williams, of Michigan, began to adopt similar views, and Judge Buel, editor of the Albany, New York, "Cultivator," had long been a strong advocate of agricultural education. In this way a gradual change of sentiment was wrought, and in

1856 he found friends enough in the legislature to introduce a bill providing for the establishment of an agricultural college for the State of Iowa, to be endowed and supported as other state institutions ; but there was not strength enough in that session to enact it. Early in the succeeding session of 1858, however, it became a law, Iowa being the second state in the Union to provide an institution of this kind, Michigan being about a year in advance of her. The main feature of the discipline of the institution contended for by Mr. Foster was a more thorough education in the sciences pertaining to agriculture, requirement of a certain amount of daily labor on the part of the students. The reasons urged being labor for health, for economy, for practical illustra- tion of the studies, and for the great moral prin- ciple of the dignity of labor. After seeing the successful realization of the travail of his soul for many years, he had the further satisfaction of serv- ing as a director of the institution for six years, five of which he was president of the board. The United States land grant for the support of the in- stitution was an after consideration, earnestly advo- cated and promoted by our subject.

It will thus be seen that Mr. Foster has been a large benefactor to his race, and when it is consid- ered that he has no children to reap the benefit of his efforts in the matter of education, he must stand prominently forward in the character of a philan- thropist. He is a plodding and industrious man, but enthusiastic in his business, in which he has acquired large practical knowledge, being recog- nized as an authority on subjects coming within the scope of his observation. He is a voluminous writer for agricultural and horticultural periodicals. He is also much interested in weather statistics, and makes regular records of the atmosphere and its various phenomena. He is very tenacious of his views and opinions, and pursues a matter to the end, regardless of the consequences to friend or foe, although he is by no means vindictive. He is also something of a reformer, and considering it his duty, some few years since, to endeavor to bring about a reform in the practice of the courts, he wrote several articles for the daily papers, showing that cases should be disposed of in some plain, sim- ple manner without the aid of "lawyers' papers," as he called them; and once he appeared in court and read a petition to the judge urging more prompti- tude and less delay in the disposition of cases, for all of which he was ridiculed by others, precisely as

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when he commenced agitating the agricultural col- lege innovation ; but, in nowise disconcerted, he con- tinues to advocate what he terms "law reform," and in consequence "lawyers' papers " have come to be a byword in Muscatine. We could fill pages with interesting reminiscences and anecdotes of the life and manners of our subject, but shall close our notice of him by copying the following maxims which his own career has aptly illustrated : " Let it not be said of us that the world is none the better for our having lived in it"; "All essential labor is equally honorable"; "To know how and where we obtain the necessaries of life is more important than all other earthly knowledge"; "There is nothing worth our attention which does not tend to improve our own condition, or that of others, in this life or the life to come."

His marriage with Miss Hastings was blessed with an increase of two children; the eldest, Charles, died in infancy, and the youngest, Miss Adele, a most amiable and accomplished young

lady, died in her seventeenth year, in December, 1870. The following lines, written by D. C. Rich- man, Esq., are a slight tribute to her worth and memory :

" Tenderly, lovingly lay her away, Beneath the cold earth, with the dead;

Trustfully, prayerfully leave there the clay From which the sweet spirit hath fled.

Ye loved her, and fondly ye cherished the gift, The dearest that heaven bestows,

To gladden and cheer the brief hour of life, Whate'er be its griefs and its woes.

Too frail was the bud to blossom and flower In earth's uneongenial clime;

But transplanted in heaven 'twill sweetly expand And bloom with a splendor sublime.

Removed from the evil and care of the world, Unfettered by weakness or pain,

The soul with its Savior, Redeemer and Guide, Will never know sorrow again!

Then tenderly, tearfully, lay her away In quiet beneath the cold sod;

Hopefully, prayerfully leave there the clay, And trust the sweet spirit with God! "

LUCIUS FRENCH, M.D.,

DAVENPORT.

AM MONG the many self-educated professional men of Iowa none has made a more honorable record, or in a short space of time attained to greater eminence in his profession than the subject of this sketch ; born at Chenango, Broome county, New York, on the 2d of February, 1832, his par- ents being Ebenezer S. and Anna (Seward) French, natives of New England, but among the earliest settlers in that section of New York. He is of English extraction (both parents being of that stock), and descended from some of the early colonists of Massachusetts. His mother was a connection of the Sewards of Auburn, New York, the late Hon. William H. Seward being related to her. His father was a farmer in moderate, but easy, circum- stances, who gave his children the benefit of the best schools which the country at that early day afforded.

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 41

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