The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 58

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 58

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Dr. Smith was one of the incorporators of the First National Bank of Sioux City, and of the Sioux City and St. Paul and Sioux City and Pembina rail- roads. He acted for years on the local school board; has been vice-president of the Sioux City Building Association since its organization, and a director of the State Horticultural Society. His quiet and rural tastes, and partiality for farm life, have led him to be quite active in agricultural, horti-

cultural and kindred pursuits. In most enterprises likely to promote the interests of Sioux City or his adopted state, Dr. Smith has been vigilant and un- tiring. He has been appointed, recently, by Gov- ernor Gear, as one of the honorary commissioners of the State of Iowa to the Paris exposition of 1878.

He votes the republican ticket, but is averse to unreasoning partisanship. Though a supporter of the gospel, and a regular attendant on divine wor- ship, he is connected with no church by membership.

On the 12th of July, 1859, he took to wife Miss Rebecca Osborne, of Macon, Michigan, a true help- meet and most estimable and exemplary lady. They have had six children, all boys, only one half of them now living.

The doctor lives on an eighty-acre farm within the corporate limits, well stocked with fruit and planted with forest trees, situated on a high tract of land overlooking the city, and affording a fine view of the singularly picturesque bluffs of the Missouri river. The doctor is also the owner of other farms in the adjoining county of Plymouth, which attests his success in life in a business point of view.

Dr. Smith is of medium height, very compactly built, and weights two hundred pounds. He is of dark complexion, and nervous-lymphatic and vital temperament ; of determined will, and a high sense of honor ; easy and affable, yet dignified in manners, and cheerful in disposition, contributing his full quota of sunshine in this "vale of tears."

GEORGE C. LAUMAN,

BURLINGTON.

G EORGE CHRISTOPHER LAUMAN, vice- president First National Bank, Burlington, Iowa, was born at York, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of November, 1814. His parents are George and Margret Lanman née Gardner. His parental an- cestors were of German origin, and were among the early settlers of Pennsylvania; his grandfather, on his father's side, was engaged in the Indian war under Braddock, and took an active part in the revolutionary war.

George's early education was received from the common schools of the country and the York County Academy, where he pursued the ordinary studies, but being in delicate health he left school and entered a law office. It was the desire of his

father that his sons should become merchants, and to that end, after remaining a year, he engaged in a store as a clerk, remaining several years.

In 1834 his father sent him west upon business, and he made the entire journey from York to Rich- mond, Indiana, and back, on horseback, though, in the meantime, remaining a year in Chillicothe, Ohio, as clerk. In 1835 he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and was engaged in the mercantile .busi- ness for four years, and gathering his savings he found he had a capital of seven hundred and fifty dollars, with which, with some borrowed capital, in 1840 he entered business in La Fayette, Indiana, or- ganizing the firm of Lanman and Bausemer, general merchandise, etc. In this he was very successful;

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this laid the foundation for the competence he now enjoys. His success is much due to his early dis- position to live within his income and never incur debts. In the winter of 1845 he sold his interest and in 1846 came to Burlington, and in 1847 went into partnership with his brother in general mer- chandise, as J. G. Lauman and Bro., in which he continued very successfully till 1858, selling out to W. H. Postlewait and J. G. Lauman. Thomas Hedge and G. C. Lauman formed the firm of Lau- man, Hedge and Co. in the banking business, in which they continued three years and dissolved. J. G. Lauman entering the army a colonel of the 7th Iowa Volunteers, and George C. Lauman and Thomas Hedge forming partnership as Hedge and Lauman in general produce business, in which he remained a year or two and withdrew, and gave his attention to settling up the old business of the late firms, and buying produce, etc. The First National Bank of Burlington organizing, elected

him cashier in February, 1864, remaining in that office till 1874. when he was elected vice-president, which office he holds to this date. The bank is doing a large and successful business, the result of good management of its officers. He is active in all enterprises for the development of the in- terests of the city and country.

He was formerly a whig and is now a republican, but is not a strong partisan or politician, never hold- ing office and always refusing any nomination. He has traveled much throughout the states and Can- ada, visiting all points of interest

He was born and raised a Lutheran, but for forty-five years has been a member of the Episco- pal church. He is a man of fine presence and pleasing features, a good conversationalist, and has a happy faculty of making and keeping friends.

He was married in April, 1858, to Miss Lucy J. Bascom, of Lansing, Michigan, formerly of Wy- oming, New York.

GENERAL J. G. LAUMAN, BURLINGTON.

JACOB GARDNER LAUMAN, late resident of Burlington, Iowa, was born at Taneytown, Mary- land, on the 20th of January, 1812. His parents were early settlers of Pennsylvania, and of German descent. He is the son of George and Margret Lauman née Gardner. His education was gained at the public schools and at York County Academy.

Immediately after leaving school he went to Bal- timore and was engaged in the hardware business, and afterward engaged as clerk in a dry-goods house for several years; at the end of which time he commenced business for himself at Dillsburg, a small village in York county, Pennsylvania, and afterward removed to York Springs, Adams county, where he remained successfully in business till 1844, when he moved west and located at Bur- lington, Iowa, in business of a general character. In the winter of 1848 he formed a partnership with his brother under the firm name of J. G. Lauman and Bro., continuing in business till 1838, when he sold out, and in connection with Thomas Hedge formed the banking house of Lauman, Hedge and Co., which they continued till the outbreak of the rebellion, when he was tendered the coloneley of the 7th Iowa Infantry, which he accepted on the 11th

of July. 1861. On the 6th of November they moved on the Belmont expedition, in which the battle was fought, and his conduct in the engagement, to- gether with that of his regiment, gave him his early popularity as a military leader. In this engagement he was severely wounded in the thigh, which dis- abled him for some time. Having recovered from his wound he rejoined his regiment, and at Fort Donelson he was placed in command of a bri- gade, and for gallantry and bravery was promoted to brigadier-general and assigned a command in General Hurlburt's division, which fought in the left wing of Grant's army at Shiloh. He continued in command through different engagements till July, 1863, when he was relieved by General Ord and ordered to report to General Grant at Vicksburg. This was the result of jealousy and ill-feeling of General Ord for him. He was sent by General Grant to an eastern department and assigned a command in northern Virginia, but before his ar- rival the command was given to another, and he was ordered to his home in Burlington to await further orders, which never came. He made fre- quent efforts to find the cause of his treatment, but without success,

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He was a sufferer from paralysis, which ultimately caused his death. In person, he was slender, had a nervous, excitable temperament, and a mild, intel- ligent countenance.

As a military leader, he was brave to a fault, and was very popular with officers and men. As a citizen, he was always held in the highest esteem, and was noted for his kind-heartedness and liberality.

ADAM OGILVIE,

MUSCATINE.

T HERE are but few of the old settlers of the counties of Muscatine, Scott, Cedar, Linn, John- ston and Louisa, who do not remember the kind and genial face of Adam Ogilvie. He was one of those whose heart and home were ever open to his friends, and who was ever ready to relieve the wants of the needy. He had the esteem and affection of all who knew him, and his praises were spoken by high and low. Many poor settlers did he aid with means to enter their quarter-sections, whose families are now living in affluence and comfort, while they mourn the loss of their great benefactor.

Mr. Ogilvie was the tenth son of William Ogilvie and Margaret née Anderson, who was born, lived and died on the beautiful farm in the parish of Keith, Banffshire, Scotland, known in Scottish history as the Mains (Manse) of Glengerrick. The same farm had been in possession of the forefathers of William from generation to generation, during a period to which neither history nor tradition run to the con- trary, and it is still in possession of the family.

Adam Ogilvie was born at the old Manse, in the month of January, 1804, where he remained till he was eighteen years of age, when he was apprenticed for three years to learn the mercantile business with John Ingraham, Esq., in the city of Keith. After the completion of his apprenticeship, which was both creditable to him and profitable to his employer, he was engaged as head man of the establishment, a position which he retained for three years, after which he commenced business for himself in the same line in Keith where he did a very prosperous trade for some eight years.

In the spring of 1836 he sold out his stock of mer- chandise, and in June of the same year emigrated to the United States, and one month later landed in the city of New York. where he remained a few days with relatives who had preceded him a short time, after which he started for the far west, and about the Ist of September, 1836, he touched the western shore of the "Father of Waters," at Bloom-

ington, now Muscatine, Iowa. After partaking for a few days of the hospitality of Colonel John Van- atta, one of the few pioneer settlers of the place, he determined to make Bloomington his future home, purchased a few town lots and made other arrange- ments, after which he set out on a tour of observa- tion. He visited all the principal points on the river as far north as Dubuque, then crossed the river and came down through Illinois to Galesburg, from whence he crossed the country to Burlington, Iowa, and from thence north again to the place of start- ing, walking on foot all the way, and most of the time in snow twelve inches deep. Soon after his re- turn he became one of the proprietors of the place, and during the remainder of his lifetime was one of the most influential men of the community.

His next step was to open a store in a log cabin on Water street, where he sold a general assortment of dry goods and groceries. He soon after built a larger house on the same street, the dimensions of which were 22 X 40, two stories high,-a very fine house for that day. To this he transferred his busi- ness, occupying the first story as a store and the second as a residence. This structure occupied the same site for thirteen years, when it was removed to make way for a brick edifice of much greater pre- tensions, which is still standing and owned by H. W. Monroe.

It may be of interest to those who settled in Bloomington after it had become the somewhat pre- tentious city of Muscatine, to learn that the timbers of which the old structure alluded to above was built were all felled, squared and framed on the lot where the house stood, so that no teams were re- quired to haul them. The joists, studding, rafters and weather-boarding were all split off the trees that stood in close proximity to the lot, while the floor- ing, which was of oak, was brought from Drury's mills in Illinois ; and the fine lumber for doors and finishing and all the shingles were brought from Cin- cinnati, Ohio, at great expense.

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His next enterprise of note was the building of his magnificent homestead in 1844, on a tract of about sixty acres adjoining the city of Muscatine, which, in fond remembrance of his happy boyhood days passed in "bony Scotland," he named " The Mains of Glengerrick," where he spent the balance of his days with his beloved family.

He made more improvements in the city and sub- urbs of Muscatine than any of his contemporaries.

He was liberal and generous to all charitable and religious objects, and was the largest contributor toward the erection of the beautiful Presbyterian Church of Muscatine, of which he lived and died a devoted member.

His natural traits were of the amiable and genial kind. The agreeable and useful were combined in him in an unusual degree. Courteous, affable, and anxious to do business, he was a model retail sales- man; this was his forte. He was always glad to be and do anything for his customers if he could only hold their good word and their patronage. Of this line of business he was a perfect master. But his ambition and desire for extending his business, and the improvement of the city, led him into the prod- uce and real-estate business, which was beyond his capacity fully to control or correctly to estimate. This led him somewhat beyond his depth, and later in life to some embarrassment.

In the early settlement of the city of Muscatine, the thirty-fifth section, located in the center, fell to the county for public purposes. The county com- missioners appointed Mr. Ogilvie as their agent to receive payment and deed to every one his separate lot. This was a most important trust, requiring

great financial ability with strict integrity of charac- ter to do justice to all parties interested. He dis- charged this important and very critical business to the entire satisfaction of all concerned,-a most nota- ble proof of his native honesty and sterling business qualities.

In his later years Mr. Ogilvie became a zealous, loving disciple of the Master, and took a warm in- terest in his church, and an active and leading part in all its exercises and duties, bearing a large propor- tion of its burdens in his habitually generous and kindly spirit. Thus this sociable, generous and hon- orable citizen lived universally loved and esteemed.

He was married in New York city, on the 7th of August, 1837, to Miss Isabella Milne, daughter of Peter and Isabella Milne, of Keith, Scotland, who, in June, 1837, with her father, emigrated to America, her mother having died in Scotland. Of this union there were born four sons and one daughter : Henry, William H., Charles B., Frank A. and Isabella.

Charles B., born on the 14th of January, 1845, is a graduate of Princeton (New Jersey) College of 1867 ; studied law at Columbia College, New York, was admitted to the bar in 1872, and is now en- gaged in the practice of his profession in Muscatine. Frank A. is a merchant in the same city, while Isa- bella is the wife of Colonel C. C. Horton, of the 2d Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, now a resident of Musca- tine. Charles Duff, the eldest, died when a child. William H. is devoting his attention to farming.

Mr. Ogilvie died on the 5th of February, 1865, in the sixty-first year of his age. His widow still lives in the enjoyment of good health, at the old home- stead near Muscatine.

THOMAS J. STONE, SIOUX CITY.

T HOMAS JEFFERSON STONE was born at Royalton, Niagara county, New York, on the 13th of August, 1825, his parents being Isaiah P. and Mercy (Sawyer) Stone. Thomas worked upon his father's farm until he was fifteen years of age. at- tending the district school three or four months each year; he then went to Oberlin College, intending to take a full course, but while in the freshman year his health failed and he abandoned his intention of further prosecuting his literary studies. He came farther west and spent some time in surveying in

Wisconsin and Iowa, pursuing this business at times until 1856. During this period he spent four years in the office of the treasurer of Linn county, Iowa, going into the field occasionally with chain and compass, doing considerable government surveying. For a short time before leaving Marion, the county seat, he was in the banking business with other parties, the firm being Smyth, Stone and Co.

In May, 1856, Mr. Stone removed to Sioux City, and engaged largely in the real-estate business, con- tinuing it up to four years ago. There have been,

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and still are, other active real-estate dealers in Sioux City, but none of them ever equaled Mr. Stone in the amount of work accomplished in this line. For many years he paid taxes for nearly one thousand persons. During the early part of his residence here he was a clerk in the county treasurer's office, and was very careful and efficient in this work, as in everything else to which he has put his hands.

In 1867 Mr. Stone opened a private bank in con- nection with his land operations, and continued it for three years ; then, in 1870, he organized the First National Bank, and has been its cashier and princi- pal manager ever since. For four or five years he has paid little attention to real estate, giving his undivided attention and energies to the bank, which is a very popular institution.

In 1861 Mr. Stone was elected treasurer and recorder of Woodbury county, holding that double office three years, and then the office of treasurer alone for the same length of time.

Mr. Stone was a whig, then a republican, and never anything else.

On the 12th of May, 1852, he married Miss Alice A. Heathcote, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, and has two children, a son and a daughter. The son is in the junior year. of Yale College, and stands high.

Mr. Stone is emphatically a business man. He has done clean, thorough and honorable work all his life, and his friends accumulate with his years. He has seen his fifty winters, but has taken the best of care of himself, and the burdens of life have not bent his tall and symmetrical form an iota.

GENERAL ANDREW J. BAKER,

CENTERVILLE.

A NDREW JACKSON BAKER, son of George Baker, was born on the 6th of June 1832, in Ohio county, Virginia, near Moundsville, now the seat of justice of Marshall county, West Virginia. His father was born on the 26th of April, 1796, in a block-house or fort, known as Baker's Station, near the mouth of Fish Creek, on what was then known as the Virginia Pan-handle; and his grand- father, George Baker, senior, was one of three broth- ers, Isaac, Henry and George, who immigrated from eastern Maryland, and built the fort in which his father was born, the fort being put up in 1788.

The mother of Andrew J. was margaret Reager, and her mother, whose maiden name was Hayes, was from Scotland.

The subject of our sketch was educated in the public schools of Butler county, Ohio, whither his father removed in 1833, at Furman's Academy in that county, and at the Wesleyan Seminary, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. From early youth his chief delight was in books, and he rarely went into the field on his father's farm to work without taking a book with him. If plowing, he always read while the team was resting ; sometimes forgot himself, let the team rest too long, and received a reprimand from his father. At sixteen years of age he obtained a situation in a store at Burlington, Iowa, but the next year his father took him back to his farm, then in that part of Iowa. The son was so dissatisfied with farming

that his father finally consented to give him his time, but not a cent of money. Andrew was satis- fied with the offer, and it was at this period that he went to Mount Pleasant to a school, now known as the Wesleyan University. He joined the first class ever formed in that institution, and paid his way by doing work of various kinds for his board, and sawing wood at the college for his tuition. Professor Alexander Nelson was principal, and his wife was sole assistant.

In 1851 and 1852 Mr. Baker taught school in Des Moines and Henry counties, and pursued his studies alone, except during the latter year, when he recited to Professor Gunnison of the Burlington Collegiate Institute. During the next two or three years - 1853 to 1855 - Mr. Baker read law with Hon. C. B. Darwin, of Burlington, teaching three or four months each year to meet expenses. He was admitted to practice in 1855, opening an office at Winterset, Madison county, his fortune at that time consist- ing of just fifty cents. In the winter following he became the partner of Hon. H. J. B. Cummings, now member of congress from the seventh Iowa district. In 1856 he was a candidate for prosecuting attorney on the democratic ticket, against Mr. Cum- mings, who was elected. For the next three or four years Mr. Baker took a very active part in politics. In 1861 he became disgusted with the action of the peace wing of the democratic party in the state con-

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vention, shook the dust off his feet and voted for Samuel J. Kirkwood, the republican nominee for governor.

In the winter of 1861-62 Mr. Baker raised part of a company for the 17th Iowa Infantry, and went into the service as first lieutenant, Company E, of that regiment, resigning on account of sickness in the spring of 1863.

In January, 1864, lieutenant Baker settled in Lan- caster, Schuyler county, Missouri; in 1868 was the republican elector in the eighth district of that state, and at the same time was elected representative to the legislature for the term of two years. During the adjourned session of that body he took an active part in submitting an amendment to the constitution repealing what was known as the "iron-clad " oath.

In 1870 the republican state convention split on the question of indorsing the submission of the res- olution of amendment, and nominated two tickets, headed respectively by Joseph McClurg and B. Gratz Brown, as candidates for governor. Lieu- tenant Baker was on the Gratz Brown ticket for at-

torney-general of the state, and was elected by more than forty thousand majority.

In May, 1875, he removed to Centerville, his pres- ent home, and formed a law partnership with Gen- eral Francis M. Drake, the firm name being Baker

- and Drake, and they have a very remunerative prac- tice. General Baker has been in the legal business constantly since 1855, except when in the army. His title of " general " is civic, being derived from his office held in Missouri. .

He has been a republican since the outbreak at the south.

He is past grand and past chief patriarch in the Odd-Fellows order, and is representative in the grand lodge of the state.

His parents were Methodists. He is a member of the Presbyterian church.

His wife, who was Miss Sophia Parker, and mar- ried on the 19th of August, 1858, is a daughter of Rev. Leonard Parker, a Methodist minister, and au- thor of a work on "Infant Baptism " and " Immer- sion not Bible Baptism." They have six children.

HON. HIRAM PRICE,

D.WVENPORT.

H IRAM PRICE was born in Washington coun- ty, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of January, 1814. He had very few of the advantages of edu- cation in his early youth, receiving instruction only in the common branches, and having few opportuni- ties for mental improvement. He early developed so strong a taste for reading, that everything read- able that could be borrowed was eagerly devoured. After leaving school he entered a retail dry goods store as clerk, was afterward chief clerk at an iron works, and still later was employed in a forwarding and commission house.

He removed to Iowa, in 1844, and located in Davenport, which place has been his residence ever since. On his arrival he went into the mercantile business, with a very small capital, not exceeding one hundred dollars, and by perseverance, energy and business tact, succeeded in acquiring a compe- tence, retiring from the business in 1848. In 1847 he was elected the first school fund commissioner of Scott county, which office he held for nine years. In 1848 he was elected recorder and treasurer of the county, holding them for eight years.

Mr. Price is entitled to an infinite deal of credit for the part he has taken in advancing the construc- tion of our railroads. He was one of the first men. west of the Mississippi, who agitated a railroad con- nection with the Atlantic, and it is owing to his efforts, as much or more than to those of any one else, that the people were induced to subscribe to this object. He accepted the position of secretary of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company, in which capacity he served seven years, and until his election to congress. He was president of the State Bank of Iowa during its entire existence after the first year, and closed the affairs of that institu- tion to the entire satisfaction of all concerned, hand- ling millions of dollars. He was elected to the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth and fortieth congresses, each time by largely increased majorities, and then declined being a candidate again; but was nomi- nated against his will for the forty-fifth congress, and was elected by nearly two thousand majority. During the war of the rebellion he was paymaster- general of the State of lowa

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume, Part 58

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