USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 57
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until August following, resigning to accept the ap- pointment of district judge, left vacant by resigna- tion of Judge Brayton. In 1874 he was elected by a large majority, irrespective of party distinction, to the office of district judge, which he still fills.
Mr. Wilson is a popular judge and a hard worker. Whatever he undertakes he throws into it his whole energy, and this may be the ground-work of his success. He is prominently spoken of by his friends as candidate for congress in the coming convention.
He was married in 1850 to Miss Henerettia E. Sanford, of Erie, Pennsylvania.
In every position which in his eventful life he has been called upon to fill, Judge Wilson has been suc- cessful in the highest sense. He has left an un- tarnished record and unspotted reputation. As a business man, he has been upright, reliable and honorable; as a soldier, brave and chivalrous ; as a public official, attentive and obliging, but inflexible and unswerving in the discharge of duty. In all places and under all circumstances he is loyal to truth, honor and right, justly valuing his own self- respect and the deserved esteem of his fellow-men as infinitely more valuable than wealth, fame or position. He is a man of fine personal appearance, courteous and friendly, and grows in esteem among his friends upon extended acquaintance. He may well be termed a self-made man, as he began the voyage of life with only his iron will to stem the current of the stream of life.
BENJAMIN McCLUER, M.D., DUBUQUE.
T WENTY years ago, when the subject of this sketch crossed the Mississippi river to locate 'and to practice medicine, he brought with him an ardent love of his profession, a mind richly stored with medical knowledge, and the experience of five years' diligent practice. It will be seen that he laid a broad foundation, sparing no pains or expense in his medical education, and building slowly and solidly on the foundation laid in early manhood.
Benjamin McCluer was born in Franklinville, Cattaraugus county, New York, on the 8th of May, 1824. He received the christian name of his father, who was a farmer, and who died when the son was hardly eight years old. His mother, Elizabeth Bar- ber McCluer, died when he was nineteen. At that
time, having received only a common-school educa- tion in his native town, he went to Moscow, Liv- ingston county, and spent six months in a graded school. He then attended two terms at the Perry Center Academy, Wyoming county, and two years at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, Livingston county. At the last mentioned institution he paid some attention to classics, but much more to mathe- matics and the natural sciences, for which he had a strong predilection.
From Lima he went to Moscow, and read law two years with William M. Older, Esq. He then turned his attention to medicine, and, remaining in the same town, studied in the office of Dr. William C. Dwight.
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In the winter of 1849-50 he attended a course of lectures in the medical department of Harvard College, in Boston, and the following year at Cleve- land, Ohio. Returning to Massachusetts in 1851, he took a special course in chemistry, under the instruction of Professor E. N. Hosford, at the Law- rence Scientific School, Cambridge. At its close he again entered the medical college, in Boston, beginning with the session in the autumn of 1851 and graduating the following March.
Thus thoroughly qualified for the practice of medicine, Dr. McCluer opened an office the same month in which he graduated, at Holliston, Massa- chusetts.
Five years later, tempted by the many promising fields presented at the west, he removed to Dubuque, Iowa. Here he continued the practice of medicine from the autumn of 1856 until August, 1861, when he accepted the post of surgeon of the 9th regiment Iowa Infantry, acting in that capacity until April,
1863. In the early part of the next year he re- ceived from the President a commission as assistant surgeon of United States Volunteers. He was pro- moted to the rank of surgeon in the following Sep- tember, and the next year, while on duty at Macon, Georgia, he received the commission of lieutenant- colonel by brevet.
Before returning to Dubuque to resume practice, during the winter of 1865-66, he attended lectures at Bellevue Hospital College, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city. Since 1866 he has continued to practice in Dubuque with a constantly increasing reputation.
So thoroughly is Dr. McCluer wedded to the science of medicine, that he has never otherwise wedded.
He has always acted with the republican party.
He has been a member of the Congregational church for twenty-five years, and is highly exem- plary in all his habits.
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HON. HENRY W. STARR,
BURLINGTON.
H ENRY W. STARR, lawyer, was born in Mid- dlebury, Vermont, on the 24th of July, 1815; son of Hon. Peter Starr and Eunice Starr née Ser- geant.
He was educated at Middlebury College, from which he was graduated in 1834.
He studied at the law school in Cincinnati for three years, occupying a desk in the office of his uncle, Henry Starr, a prominent lawyer at that time, and was there admitted to the bar in 1837. Chief Justice Chase was his examiner.
In June, 1837, he left Cincinnati, seeking a place in which to locate in profession, and, after visiting all the most prominent places in the west, decided to settle at Burlington, then the capital of Wisconsin Territory, General Dodge then being governor. After a short visit home he located here in Novem- ber, 1837.
After practicing a short time he formed a partner- ship with the late Senator Grimes, making a firm of much celebrity and prominence, which enjoyed a lucrative practice for seventeen years, and was per- haps the best known of any law firm in the state. It is hardly necessary to enter into the details of this practice.
The achievements of Mr. Starr as a distinguished advocate are well known to the community and state at large, and is a record in itself.
Noted from boyhood for his clear and active in- tellect, these faculties were highly cultured by a liberal course of education. He passed through college with credit, and his studies in the law school were a thorough preparation for the brilliant course of practice which followed.
Had he gone into politics he might have been distinguished in the halls of legislation, but neither his tastes nor his ambitions led him in that direc- tion.
He was twice elected mayor of Burlington ; be- yond this he never sought or held office, keeping entirely free from the political arena.
He was married in September, 1844, to Miss Marion S. Peasley, who died in 1855. In 1859 he was again married, to Miss Eliza M. Merrill, of Mid- dlebury, Vermont.
On account of feeble health he quit the practice of law about twelve years ago, and retired on a com- fortable competence.
Though retired from business and somewhat in- firm, his mental faculties are still vigorous. He has
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lived an active and useful life, and has merited the confidence and esteem given him by the community and state at large.
His only living son, Charles E. Starr, was born at Burlington, Iowa, on the 29th of September, 1845.
While fitting for college in 1862, he received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, which he accepted, remaining in the Academy un- til ordered into active service as midshipman in
1866. He resigned from the navy in 1867, after a little over a year's active service, and commenced the study of law, graduating from the law depart- ment of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1873; since which time he has practiced at the bar of his native city. With an increasing practice he bids fair to fill the place left vacant by his father's retirement, and place himself among the leading members of the Iowa bar.
HON. SAMUEL MURDOCK,
ELKADER.
F EW residents of Clayton county, Iowa, have made a more honorable record than Samuel Murdock. His talents, attainments and fitness for certain positions of trust and honor were early dis- covered. He has been called repeatedly to fill public offices, and has never disappointed the ex- pectation of his constituents.
He is of Scotch-Irish descent, and his father, whose full name the son bears, came to this country in 1812, and located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the subject of this sketch was born, on the 17th of March, 1817.
When he was eleven years old his father moved to Ohio, settling on a farm near Cleveland. There the son remained several years, aiding his father three- fourths of each year, attending a district school the' rest of the time, and completing his studies under a teacher, with a few terms at an academy in Cleve- land.
He taught school at different places in Ohio ; went to Kalamazoo county, Michigan, in 1838; taught there one season ; returned to Ohio and con- tinued teaching, and in 1841 emigrated to Iowa.
In the autumn of that year we find him in the law office of Hon. Gilman Folsom, of Iowa City, where he remained until he was admitted to the bar of John- son county, in the spring of 1843. He immediately removed to Garnavillo, Clayton county, and began practice, being the first lawyer in the county,
A year or two later Mr. Murdock entered some land a mile and a half south of the village, and in a few years had one of the best improved farms in that part of the county. It was his home nearly thirty years, and its evergreens, vineyards and or- chards showed the hand of taste and the skill of an experienced horticulturist.
With the exception of two winters in McGregor, passed there on account of school privileges, he lived at the little paradise, called " The Evergreens " until March, 1876, when he removed to Elkader.
He is of the firm of Murdock and Larkin, attor- neys-at-law, and is regarded by all as the father of the Clayton county bar. He has the reputation through- out the state of being an able lawyer and a sound jurist, and his acquaintance with the laws, statutes and constitution of Iowa is extensive.
This great commonwealth has grown from a wil- derness under his eye, and his knowledge of her public men, her improvements and her resources is equally as extensive.
As already intimated, during the thirty-seven years that he has been in the state he has been the recip- ient many times of official honors.
In 1845 Mr. Murdock was elected to represent Dubuque, Delaware and Clayton counties in the ter- ritorial legislature, and attended two sessions. He aided, at this time, in securing the northern boun- dary of the state.
He held the office of school-fund commissioner about four years, commencing in 1848, and during his administration most of the school lands of the county were sold by him. He had the sagacity to see that in all cases they fell into the hands of bona- fide settlers.
It is safe to say that no man ever looked after the interests of the county better than he, or guarded its funds intrusted to his hands with greater vigilance. Neither the county nor any man ever lost a dollar by him.
In April, 1854, Mr. Murdock was elected the first judge of the tenth judicial district, and he held the office until the new constitution, adopted in 1857,
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went into effect. During his term of office several counties were organized in his district, and he held the first court in them.
Judge Murdock was a member of the thirteenth general assembly, and during its session was among the most influential members from the northern part of the state.
He was for several years president of the Pioneers and Old Settlers' Association, of Clayton county, and has written a great deal of biographical history, not only of local early settlers, but of those in other parts of the state. Years ago he wrote a fine sketch ; of each of the three territorial governors of Iowa. His pen is still active. Scarcely a week passes in which something from it does not appear in some county paper.
Judge Murdock has always had a taste for scien- tific pursuits, and has taken up and pursued with diligence several branches of knowledge about which he knew nothing when he came to this state. He has carefully studied astronomy, geology and archæology, and has lectured on these subjects as well as others in many places in Iowa. He is famil- iar with the geology of the state, and has probably gone down as deep as any one into her fossiliferous strata to bring up the earlier representatives of life.
He has done much to bring to light the relics of prehistoric races that once swarmed along the Mis- sissippi river and its tributaries; and for these ser- vices scientific societies have conferred upon him distinguished honors. He is one of the vice-presi- dents of the American Anthropological Association.
In intellectual pursuits, he has the avidity and
activity of middle life ; his mental powers were never more vigorous, and he appears as if still in the prime of life.
Judge Murdock was a democrat until the organi- zation of the republican party, since which time he has acted with the latter. During the rebellion his voice and pen were active on the side of the Union. He spent some time in the southern states in 1862 and 1863. and his letters written at that time to different northern papers attracted considerable at- tention. In religious matters, Judge Murdock calls himself liberal.
On the 11th of September, 1845, he married Miss Louisa Patch, of Clayton county, a woman who had the good sense to be contented with frontier life when it was not convenient to have any other, and who can be domestic and happy with much or little society. She has had six children, four of them now dead. The eldest living daughter, Marion, is professor of elocution and mathematics in the State University, Madison, Wisconsin ; the other, Amelia, resides at home. Both inherit their father's love of knowledge, and, like their father, sometimes in- dulge in the "pleasure of poetic pains."
As the first lawyer of the county, the first judge of the tenth judicial district, and as a miscellaneous writer and scientist, the name of Judge Murdock will ever be associated with the history of Iowa in a manner honorable to his memory.
His good conversational powers, his kindly and 'humane disposition and other fine social traits, greatly endear him to his neighbors and his large circle of acquaintances.
HON. HARVEY LEONARD,
DAVENPORT.
MONG the earliest pioneer settlers, and one who has watched the growth of this populous city from a little hamlet of two or three houses to its present proportions, and has seen it take its place among the most important of Iowa's cities, is the name which heads this sketch. Hon. Harvey Leon- ard, ex-mayor of the city and sheriff of Scott county, lowa, was born at Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, on the 20th of November, 1812. His parents were James and Jane Leonard née Biggs. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother of Virginia. He had very little opportunity for edu-
cation in his early youth, all of which was gained at the common schools, he being at the same time engaged in learning his father's trade, that of brick- making, learning also the trade of brick-laying.
When sixteen years of age he left home and com- menced working for himself, and in 1829 came to St. Louis, living, however, on the Illinois side, oppo- site the city. Ilere he remained till 1837, when he removed to Iowa and located at Davenport. At that time there were but three or four houses and less than one hundred inhabitants. He commenced working at his trade, and to him belongs the honor
Macouard
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of making the first brick, and building the first brick house in Davenport.
He still worked at his trade after being elected county officer, and he has served as sheriff more consecutive terms, and been longer in office, than any other sheriff in the state. Being elected in 1847, he held the office by reëlections till 1860. In 1872, after a lapse of twelve years, he was again elected sheriff, which position he still occupies. He served as alderman several years, and in 1842 was elected mayor of the city. He has done much in aiding the enterprises of the city in its early day.
Mr. Leonard is not a member of any church, but holds liberal views on religion.
He was educated in the democratic school of politics, the principles of which party he still advo- cates.
He was married in 1835 to Miss Pelogie Bough- nou, of St. Louis.
In all the various changes of an active life Mr. Leonard has gained the respect of a large circle of friends, and the confidence of his constituents. He is a man of good sound understanding, of large practical experience, and of genial manners.
HON. ISAAC J. MITCHELL,
BOONESBORO.
JUDGE MITCHELL is a native of Ohio, and was born in Cincinnati on the 31st of May, 1827. His father, Henry Mitchell, was a farmer. His mother belonged to the Corbin family, of Ohio. His paternal grandfather was one of the militia men called out to defend Baltimore during the revolu- tionary war. While Isaac was an infant his father moved to a farm in Clermont county, Ohio, and there the son worked until he was nineteen, when he went to a high school at Laurel, Ohio, a few months to prepare himself for a teacher. He taught in Brazil, Indiana, and adjoining districts, for nearly three years. While preparing to teach he worked on a farm a while for two dollars a week, devoting the money thus earned to the purchase of text-books. He read law while teaching in Indiana, and com- pleted his school education by attending Asbury College, Greencastle, Indiana, one term, when, his health giving way, he had to leave the institution. He removed to Boonesboro, Iowa, in June, 1855, and there resumed his study of law, while engaged in the drug business. He finished reading law early in 1858; was admitted to the bar at Boonesboro in April, and opened an office there in that year. He has since been in constant practice, except when in office, building up a large business and an enviable reputation.
He served as justice of the peace in 1857, while reading law in Boonesboro, and the next year was elected a member of the state board of education, serving two years. In 1868 he was sent to the upper house of the general assembly for four years. He was chairman of the committees on enrolling and
agriculture, and acted on three or four other com- mittees. He took a prominent part in the movement to settle the title to the Des Moines river lands, and was a very useful and influential member of the leg- islative body.
While in the general assembly he was elected by that body a trustee of the Iowa State Agricultural College, and most of the time was a member of the executive committee of the same institution. While he was thus serving the state more than one hundred thousand dollars were expended on buildings and improvements on the farm. His responsibilities were great, and he never shirked them or failed to give satisfaction.
In 1874 he was elected judge of the eleventh judicial district, and now holds that office. He is a man of great purity of character; is well read in law; has good judgment, dignity, decision of character, and other qualities which make him an excellent judge. His reputation as a jurist is slowly yet steadily rising.
Judge Mitchell has been an Odd-Fellow for twenty years.
He aided in organizing the republican party in Iowa, and still belongs to that party.
He is a member of no church, but sympathizes with the Methodists in their general.doctrines. .
In July, 1860, he was married to Mrs. Amanda M. Denison, of Boonesboro. She had one child, and died on the 11th of May, 1873. The child is living.
Judge Mitchell had a hard struggle in getting the rudiments of knowledge and in mastering a few
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of the more advanced branches, for he had to rely wholly on his own resources and strength, and in his younger years was far from being robust and vigor- ous. By rigid economy and great industry and per-
severance he laid a good foundation of scientific and legal knowledge, and is still building on it. He has lost none of his studious habits, none of his ambi- tion, and is a reading, growing man.
WILLIAM R. SMITH, M.D., SIOUX CITY.
T' WENTY years ago the bluffs of the Missouri river around Sioux City, and the whole sur- rounding country, presented a very different appear- ance from what they present in this centennial year. In the autumn of 1856 there were not five hundred residents in Sioux City, and farm houses were far apart. In those days a physician of a fair reputa- tion had long, often tedious, and sometimes perilous, rides. The subject of this memoir, one of the best- read and most popular physicians that ever rode out of Sioux City on professional duties, sometimes went as far east as Cherokee, a distance of sixty miles ; frequently thirty or forty miles northwest, into what is now Dakota Territory, and twenty-five and thirty miles southwest, into the present state of Nebraska. It is not an enviable lot to be a frontier physician, and face the emergencies and responsibilities of his profession all alone; but a good man will endure much hardship for the sake of relieving suffering or prolonging life, even though the compensation, in dollars and cents, amounts to nothing. Such was the character, such were the professional rides, and such, sometimes, the pecuniary rewards of Will- iam R. Smith, M.D., fifteen and twenty-five years ago. He knew every family on either side of the river within forty miles of Sioux City, and nearly all of them received prescriptions at some period from his hands. The doctor's kindly disposition has not changed, but his business has. His saddle bags are seen no more. In other words, during the last few years he has made himself useful; and younger physicians are climbing the bluffs and spanning the prairies that surround Sioux City.
William Remsen Smith was born at Barnegat, Ocean county, New Jersey, on the 30th of December, 1828. His father, Daniel Smith, a wheelwright by trade, died when the son was seven years old, and the boy spent the next eight years of his life with his grandfather, alternating between labor on a farm and a little mental work in a school-house. llis mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Boude.
At sixteen William went to New York city, to learn the saddlery and harness-making trade; but before he had completed it he followed a venerated mother and his step-father, James Collins, a promi- nent member of the Society of Friends, to Macon, Michigan. There young Smith spent three years in working at his trade and teaching. About the time he was of age he returned to New York city, studied medicine under Dr. William Detmold ; attended three courses of lectures at the old college of physicians and surgeons, and then returned to Macon. There he practiced three years in partnership with Dr. Joseph Howell, an experienced physician and a most estimable man.
In 1856 Dr. Smith removed to Sioux City. Here he practiced medicine very diligently for eleven or twelve years, when not absent from home, building up a good reputation and a wide practice, often having more and longer rides than he desired. In those early days in the history of this frontier settle- ment, duty often called him to other than his pro- fessional labors. In the spring of 1861, when there were Indian troubles in this vicinity, Dr. Smith was appointed first lieutenant of a company of mounted riflemen, serving until relieved the following autumn by a company of United States soldiers. About this time he was appointed government surgeon, holding that position until 1863. When the Indian outbreak occurred in Minnesota, in August, 1862, sending a thrill of terror among the residents on the frontier, he was made chairman of the vigilance committee for protection, and gave whatever time necessity required to the duties of the emergency. The following winter he was sent by Governor Kirk- wood, in connection with the late Dr. Brooks, of Des Moines, on a sanitary tour of inspection among the lowa troops, in which mission he visited the army then lying in front of Vicksburg; and after- ward did his best to emphasize that general and strong appeal for vegetables, so indispensable for the relief of our suffering soldiers.
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In March, 1863, Dr. Smith was elected mayor of | Sioux City, and two months later was appointed surgeon of the board of enrollment of the sixth con- gressional district, serving in the latter position until December, 1864. For several years after the rebel- lion closed he acted as examining surgeon for the pension bureau.
On the 15th of July, 1865, Dr. Smith was ap- pointed receiver of public moneys of the United States land office at Sioux City, and, with the excep- tion of a short time during the administration of Andrew Johnson, he has held that position to the present time. No less than four times has his ap- pointment been renewed, showing the confidence of the government in his integrity, and his care in managing the business, in one year alone having nearly a million of dollars to pass through his hands. He is eminently trustworthy, and has peculiar fit- ness for this office. It is a pity that the government could not always be as fortunate in its appointments where great responsibilities are required.
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