USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 44
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During the following winter, which was spent in teaching, he was married to Margaret J. Fleck, of Sinking Valley, Blair county, Pennsylvania, and in April, 1861, they removed to Hollidaysburg, the county seat of Blair county, reaching there on the same day on which the news of the bombardment of Fort Sumter was received -the most gloomy period of the war. Arriving there without acquaint- ances or business, and almost without money, he determined to earn a living for himself and his little family by the practice of his profession. The out- look was very dark. The courts were closed, busi- ness was almost stagnant, and the chief occupation of the people was in the preparation for war. He, however, opened an office and did what he could until fall, when he became a half-owner in the "Blair County Whig," a newspaper published in Hollidays- burg, in the interests of the republican party and the administration of President Lincoln. It was uphill business to keep above water, but by frugal living he managed to do so without going in debt, and gradually made some headway in legal business ; but when, through the exigencies of the war, Presi- dent Lincoln called for more troops in the summer of 1862, he felt it his duty to enlist, and did so in the 125th regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. On the 28th of August, 1862, just two weeks after his
enlistment, he participated in the second battle of Bull Run, and on the 14th of September was with his regiment in the battle of South Mountain, where General Longstreet was driven from his strong posi- tion in the mountains and compelled to fall back toward Hagerstown. On the 17th of September he was in the battle of Antietam, and saw General Mans- field, of the twelfth corps, fall mortally wounded. All his company officers being disabled in this en- gagement, he, being then a sergeant, was left in command of the company. In December, 1862, he was in the fight at Ocqua river; was in the rear of the line at Stafford Court House, in February. 1863, and was with the twelfth corps in the battle of Chan- cellorsville, in May, 1863. During the Gettysburg campaign, in July, 1863, he was detached and sent to assist in the defense of the line of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company, by the erection of earth- works in the South Mountain region west of Cham- bersburg, and to defend the bridges over the Juniata river west of Harrisburg. At this time he was act- ing assistant adjutant-general with Colonel Jacob Higgins, who was in command of the troops assigned to this duty. This detachment repulsed an attempt of the rebel general Imboden to cut the railroad bridges, and at the same time assisted in covering the retreat of General Milroy's command from Win- chester. In the fall of 1863, while still in the ser- vice, he was elected district attorney of Blair county, Pennsylvania, the duties of the office being dis- charged, however, by D. J. Neff. He took part in the siege of Petersburg during the winter of 1864-5, led an attack on the works on the morning before the surrender of General Lee, after which he was sent with his command to Norfolk, Virginia. By special order of General Terry, of the department of Virginia, he was detailed to take charge of the bureau of negro affairs for southeastern Virginia, and to organize civil courts for five counties in that sec- tion, which he did. For six months after the sur- render of General Lee the only attempt to administer justice in the five counties of southeastern Virginia, including the city of Norfolk, was through the mili- tary court sitting in Norfolk, of which he acted as judge. He was present during the month of May, 1865, when the grand jury of the United States court, sitting at Norfolk, returned indictments against Jef- ferson Davis and Robert E. Lee for treason. In September, 1865, he was honorably discharged from the service, and upon his return to Blair county, Pennsylvania, resumed the practice of his profession
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and the discharge of his duties as district attorney. He was reëlected to the same office in 1866, on the republican ticket, and served until November, 1867, when he resigned for the purpose of removing to Iowa, locating at Cedar Falls, where he remained until. August, 1868, when he went to Council Bluffs and became local editor of the "Daily Nonpareil," of which he took entire editorial charge on the ist of April, 1869, and continued to do all editorial work until April, 1870, when he resigned. In May, 1870, he was appointed by Secretary Boutwell to the law department of the third auditor's office at Washing- ton, but declined to act, and resumed the practice of law at Council Bluffs, where he has since remained. In October, 1870, he was appointed assistant assess- or of internal revenue, and discharged the duties of that office until July, 1871. In the spring of 1872 he was elected chairman of the republican county committee of Pottawattamie county, but taking part
in the liberal republican movement of that year, promptly resigned this position, and at the liberal republican state convention held at Des Moines in August, 1872, was elected chairman of the state central committee. At the state convention held in August, 1874, he was nominated for attorney-general, and carried his county by seven hundred majority, while the balance of the ticket was defeated by two hundred majority .. In April, 1876, he was elected mayor of Council Bluffs, on an independent ticket, beating his competitor by three hundred and thirty- eight votes.
Colonel Keatley has four children : three daugh- ters, Mary Virginia, Emily Frances and Margaret Louisa; and one son, Thomas Francis Meagher.
He is a prominent Royal Arch Mason, a firm be- liever in the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and has always made the " golden rule " his guiding principle in life.
WILLIAM C. CHAMBERLAIN,
DUBUQUE.
W ILLIAM CLARK CHAMBERLAIN is of strictly New England pedigree. His father, John Chamberlain, a merchant, was of Puritan stock, and his mother, Amy Perkins Chamberlain, belonged to Rhode Island. The Chamberlains are a mercan- tile family, noted for their association with enter- prising and successful business.
William was born in Brookfield, Madison county, New York, on the 18th of February, 1834. When he was three years old his father moved to Virgil, Cortland county. The intention was to send the son to college, but owing to commercial revulsions, at fifteen he was placed in one of the leading stores in Utica. He began at the bottom, and in five years became the chief clerk. During this time he had access to the public library, and made good use of his opportunities for mental training. When bus- iness hours were over he usually remained in the store and read till bedtime. During the last two or three years that he was in Utica he was fortunate in being connected, by invitation, with a scientific and literary club, of which Governor Seymour, Dr. M. M. Bagg and others were leading members, and he finally became its secretary. He was a constant attendant, and appreciated to the fullest extent its literary privileges.
When abont twenty years of age Mr. Chamberlain was taken up by the westward floating tide of immi- gration, and made a landing in Chicago early one morning in March, 1854. He came well recom- mended, and though among strangers found no dif- ficulty in securing a situation the first day. He had not been in Chicago twenty-four hours before he commenced work as a salesman in one of the largest commercial houses in the city. A year later his attention was turned to Iowa, and in looking over the several points decided that Dubuque was the most important as a commercial center, and located there in November, 1855. In connection with F. A. Doolittle, he started the first store for the sale of agricultural implements exclusively west of the Mississippi and north of St. Louis. When this bus- iness was commenced, few, if any, of the improved implements and machines of this class now in gen- eral use, and which have revolutionized the methods of labor on the farm, had come into use, excepting the reapers of McCormick and Manny. It has been the mission of Mr. Chamberlain to search out new inventions of merit for farmers' use, and a large number of the now well-known and successful farming implements and machines have been made known to the public west of the Mississippi through
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his instrumentality, no other person having done so much in that way ; and it is a fact that nearly every new article that has received his indorsement has proved successful. Mr. Chamberlain's business has had a steady, healthy growth, and he is probably the leading merchant in his line in this section of the state. He has trade in nearly every town in north- ern Iowa, southern Minnesota and portions of Wis- consin. His business is unique, and partakes of his own characteristics. He has recently identified him- self with the manufacturing interests of Dubuque, by establishing in that city a plow factory in which he owns an important interest, and to which he is now giving his chief personal attention.
Mr. Chamberlain has quite a taste for inventing, and has taken out several patents. He has deemed it wise to restain in a measure the propensity in this direction, usually devoting his skill only to the modifying and improving of articles connected with his trade. One article of his manufacture has be- come a household word, and is sold literally from ocean to ocean, and even in foreign countries.
Mr. Chamberlain was united in marriage with Miss Harriet A. Palmer, a native of Utica, New
York, on the 27th of August, 1857. Her father was one of the early citizens and leading business men of that city. She has four children living, and has lost one child. Mrs. Chamberlain possesses many eminent social qualities, and is known among her acquaintances as a woman of rare attainments, and as a faithful wife and mother.
Mr. Chamberlain has taken great interest in the progress of the state and city, and was one of the foremost men in several important local enterprises. The present very efficient board of trade was sug- gested by him, and of which he is an officer and an energetic and influential member.
Mr. Chamberlain is one of the most active mem- bers of the Congregational church, and has been superintendent of its Sunday school for thirteen years. He is intimately associated with the relig- ious enterprises of the state, and a cordial, untiring worker in them. He has lived a faithful life accord- ing to his idea of man's mission, and while energeti- cally carrying on a business endless in its details and exacting in its requirements, he has paid much atten- tion to mental culture, and has never lost sight of the interests of his country and of his fellow-men.
JAMES H. REYNOLDS,
FORT MADISON.
T HE subject of this sketch, a native of Fair- field county, Connecticut, was born on the 9th of June, 1822, the son of Abel Reynolds and Anna née Mead.
He is descended from a sturdy, vigorous and long-lived family of Scotch origin ; his grandfather, Timothy Reynolds, was a native Scotchman, and at an early age became a soldier in the British army.
Being ordered to America, he took an active part in the French and Indian wars, and being captured by the Indians, was kept a prisoner for three years. Upon gaining his freedom he settled in Fairfield county, Connecticut. Here Abel Reynolds, the father of our subject, was born. He was married in the year 1800, and was a prominent man in his community, and three times elected to the general assembly of Connecticut.
James H. is the youngest of a family of six sons and six daughters, all of whom lived to be over fifty years of age.
He received a fair education in the public schools
of his native place, but by reason of ill health was prevented from fitting himself for a profession, as his parents had intended.
Going to New York city in 1843, he entered the wholesale flour house of Herrick Brothers, and for several years continued there, acting in the capacity of shipping clerk. By the practice of industry and economy, to which he had been trained in his early life, he accumulated a small capital, and in 1853, forming a copartnership with Mr. T. I .. Wing, opened and conducted an extensive flour and feed establish- ment in the upper part of New York.
Three years later he removed to the west and settled at Fort Madison, lowa, intending to turn his attention to farming. His plans, however, were changed; being offered the position of deputy war- den in the Iowa State Penitentiary, he accepted the same, and proved himself so peculiarly fitted for that position that he has been continuously reap- pointed, and has acted as deputy under four differ- ent wardens. He resigned in 1869, but was reap-
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pointed by S. H. Craig in 1872, and retains that position at the present time (1877). During the seventeen years in which he has filled this office he has performed his duties in a manner most creditable and satisfactory; and it is but due to him to say that as a criminal officer he has no superior.
Mr. Reynolds has always been interested in educa- tional matters, and as a member of the school board of Fort Madison, has labored earnestly and zeal- ously in the interests of the public schools.
In politics, he was formerly a whig, and cast his first ballot for Henry Clay in 1844. After the or- ganization of the republican party he became iden- tified with it, and although not a politician, he has firmly supported its principles.
Mr. Reynolds has taken a prominent stand as an Odd-Fellow, having been a member of that or-
der for a period of more than thirty years, and has been honored with many offices by the craft.
He was at one time noble-grand of Continental Lodge, New York, and has several times filled that office in Empire and Fort Madison Lodges. He is now an active member of the encampment, and a member of the Grand Lodge of Iowa.
In his religious views, he inclines strongly toward the belief of the Universalists, though he has never been identified with any religious organization.
He is a man of great energy and pleasing address, and is gifted with rare social qualities; upright and fair in his dealing, he enjoys universal confidence.
He was married on the 20th of April, 1848, to Miss Catharine T. Bates, a lady of fine talents and ac- complishments. Of the nine children who have been born to them, six daughters are now living.
REV. ZEPHANIAH D. SCOBEY,
FAYETTE.
Z' EPHANIAH DRAKE SCOBEY, the present postmaster at Fayette, is a native of New Jer- sey, and was born in Morris county, on the 15th of December, 1817, his parents being David and Con- tent (Wilkinson) Scobey. During the war of 1812 his father was an officer in the Troy "Invincibles." He died when Zephaniah was nine years old, and the orphan son lived with an uncle until he was of age, with but limited opportunities for education. He had, however, a strong desire for knowledge, especially after he was eighteen, at which time he was converted at a camp meeting. From twenty- one to twenty-seven years of age he taught just enough to supply him with the means for attending school, going, most of the time, to the Amenia Sem- inary, Dutchess county, New York, and devoting the last year to especial preparation for the ministry. Prior to this he had paid considerable attention to "the classics."
In 1845 he entered the New York conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, and preached reg- ularly for ten years, his appointments being West Point, Glenham, Durham, and one or two other places in New York, and Falls Village, Connecticut. He was a zealous advocate of his Master's cause, and perhaps too earnestly, for, at the end of this period, he had to leave the circuit on account of the heart disease, with which he has been troubled since 1855.
He still holds his connection with the New York conference. He taught school more or less until 1859, when he immigrated to Iowa, settling on a farm near Sand Spring, Delaware county, hoping to improve his health.
In 1860 Mr. Scobey was elected a member of the board of supervisors, and was made its chairman, and the next year was elected treasurer and recorder of the county. This office he held four years, and at the expiration of that time he was appointed assistant state agent of the American Bible Society; his field being thirty-five counties in the northwest- ern and least settled part of Iowa. His was largely frontier and truly hard work, but he loved it and prosecuted it faithfully, though the labors were some- what trying on his constitution. At the close of this agency, in 1869, he became the financial agent of the Upper Iowa University, located at Fayette, con- tinuing to hold this position for three years, and doing good service. For nine years he was a trus- tee of this institution.
During the four years that Mr. Scobey was treas- urer and recorder of Delaware county he read law, continuing his studies at intervals subsequently. In 1870 he was admitted to the bar, and has since had quite an extensive practice, mainly in cases of real- estate tax titles, in which he has been quite success- ful. He assumed the duties of postmaster on the
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IIth of January, 1873, and is prompt and careful in this, as he has been in every other office which he has accepted.
Prior to the organization of the republican party he was a whig, always holding his political, as he did his religious principles, with a strong conviction of their rectitude. Sincerity and candor mark his whole career.
On the roth of May, 1848, he married Miss Eleanor E. Anderson, of Glenham, New York, a most estimable woman, who died on the 19th of January, 1875. On her tomb-stone, placed there by order of her bereaved husband, is the truthful inscription : "Most loved where best known." She had five children, all of whom survive her. Three of them are graduates of the Upper Iowa Univer-
sity. The eldest daughter, Sarah B., is the wife of Mr. A. J. Duncan, a real-estate agent, in Fayette; the eldest son, George P., is a merchant here; the second son, John O'Brien, is editor of the Adams county "Union," Corning, Iowa; the third, Charles R. A., is route agent on the Davenport and North- western railroad; and Carrie, the youngest child, a faithful daughter, is living at home, assuming the household duties of her departed mother.
Considering the state of his health during the last twenty years or more, the amount of work which Mr. Scobey has done is astonishing. Idleness is no part of his composition. He likes the old adage : " Better to wear out than to rust out," and is never more happy than when at work in the plain line of duty.
JACOB M. ELDRIDGE,
DAVENPORT.
T HE subject of this biography, a native of Haddonfield, New Jersey, was born on the 20th of November, 1824, the son of D. C. Eldridge and Rachael née Brown. His great-grandfather was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. His great-grand- mother, a Quaker preacher, was born in Haddon- field. New Jersey, of which place his grandmother also was a native. His grandfather, Josiah Eldridge,
was born at Woodbury, New Jersey, in 1777, and there also his father was born in 18or. His father's family consisted of four children by his first wife, all of whom, except our subject, together with the mother, died before he was four years old. After the death of his mother Jacob was taken to live with his grandfather, Daniel Brown, who had been a sol- dier in the revolutionary war. and his father went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he married a second wife. His grandfather dying when he was thirteen years old, he soon afterward began life for himself by driving a team for six dollars per month. He fol- lowed this vocation during nine months of the year, and during the remaining three months attended school. At the age of seventeen he purchased a team of his own, and continued teaming about two years. He was next engaged in clerking in a store, which he soon afterward purchased, and conducted a successful trade until he attained his twenty-first year, when he sold out and removed to the west.
At that time there were very few railroads, and
after a long, tedious and somewhat perilous journey by stage he arrived safely in Davenport, Iowa, on the '23d of December, 1846. There were then about six hundred inhabitants in the town, and with that foresight which has characterized all his dealings, Mr. Eldridge decided to make it his home. Accord- ingly he entered a tract of land three miles north- east from the town, upon which he lived until 1868, when he moved into the city. In 1871 he sold his farm for one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, being one dollar for every cent of the original cost of the land. Having a natural propensity for trading, Mr. Eldridge, about 1853, established a land agency, and since that time has been actively and extensively engaged in real-estate operations. probably having been the largest dealer in the state. In 1871 he was elected president of the board of real-estate agents, and during that and the following year handled over one hundred thousand acres of land for himself and others.
Mr. Eldridge is a man of much public spirit, and at the building of the Davenport and St. Paul rail- road he purchased the Quinn farm, at the juncture of the Maquoketa branch and the main road, and laid out a town, naming it Eldridge. He at once had a post-office established there, and during the first year himself built twenty dwellings. The shops of the road were located there, and from the first the town has been a growing and thriving place,
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Mr. Eldridge has taken an active part in tem- perance movements. He was one of the charter members of Scott Division, No I, Sons of Temper- ance, established in October, 1847. He joined the division in the following November, and has never severed his connection or broken his pledge, and is now the oldest member of the Sons of Temper- ance except Hon. Hiram Price in the State of Iowa. He was a delegate to the National Division which met at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in 1876.
In January, 1846, he united with the Christian church, of Davenport, Iowa, and since that time has continued a worthy member of the same.
In political sentiments, Mr. Eldridge is a repub- lican. He voted for General Cass in 1848 for the presidency, and in 1855 was a delegate to the con- vention which met at Iowa City to organize the republican party. He is not, however, a politician, and seldom takes any part more than to perform his
duties as a citizen. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Cincinnati convention that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency.
Mr. Eldridge has been twice married: first, in 1848, to Miss Mary L. Woodward, who lived only eighteen months thereafter. His second marriage was in June, 1851, to Mary H. Williams. They have had eight children, six of whom are living and two married.
A leading characteristic of Mr. Eldridge has always been his propensity for trading. He has been known to go into a store, and in less than ten minutes trade the proprietor out of his entire stock. He is a man of wonderful self-control, and by his frankness, cordiality and fair dealing has made him- self universally esteemed and respected. He lives now in the enjoyment of a liberal competency, sur- rounded by the comforts of a happy home, and well deserves a place among Iowa's self-made men.
WILLIAM C. SWIGART,
MAQUOKETA.
T HE oldest journalist in Jackson county, Iowa, is William Christian Swigart, who has been for twenty-three years the conductor of the Maquoketa "Sentinel." He is a son of George Swigart, an Ohio farmer, and Mary Gantz, both parents being of German descent, and-was born at Newark, Lick- ing county, Ohio, on the 12th of December, 1824. William spent most of his early years in educational pursuits, supplementing common-school privileges with two or three years' discipline at Granville, graduating from the academic department of Gran- ville College, now Dennison University, in 1844. On leaving that institution, he spent a little more than a year in a store at Sandusky City, and then made up his mind to be a journalist. Returning to Newark, he entered the office of B. Briggs, publisher of the Newark "Advocate," a democratic paper, and began as a solicitor, after a short time writing more or less for the paper. Thence, about 1852, he re- paired to Bucyrus, in the same state, and assisted in editing the "Forum " until 1854, in April of which year he removed to Maquoketa, Iowa, where he is still found. A younger brother, Stephen H., a prac- tical printer, came with him, aided him in starting the "Sentinel," and remained with him until his demise in 1856. From that time Mr. Swigart was
alone in the publication of the paper until 1872, when James T. Sargent became his partner, the firm now being Swigart and Sargent. At first it was a seven-column folio, assuming the quarto, its present . form, in 1872. It is the official paper of the city and county, the organ of the democratic party, and is a neat looking, well conducted sheet.
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