USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 60
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Mr. Sweatt has voted the republican ticket since there was such a party, but does not allow his name to be used in political conventions.
On the 17th of January, 1865, Miss Cornelia E. Lyons, a native of New York, and then living in West Mitchell, became his wife, and they have one child.
Mr. Sweatt has gray hazel eyes, a fair complexion, and a symmetrical form, is five feet ten inches tall,
In 1863 Mr. Sweatt resumed mercantile business, by buying out his brother, continuing alone until 1870, when he sold out to two younger brothers, W. S. and F. Sweatt, and started a bank in company with Calvin S. Prime. It is still in operation under the firm name of Sweatt and Prime. Mr. Prime was for several years clerk of the court for Mitchell | and weighs one hundred and eighty-five pounds.
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He is social, cordial and gentlemanly, shrewd and keen, and well calculated to make friends and to succeed in life.
John Sweatt, who came with his brother to Iowa
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in 1855, still lives in West Mitchell, dealing in real estate, and loaning money. Like his brother Charles, he has been an eminent success. He has a wife and one child, and is among the sterling men of the place.
EDGINGTON BROTHERS,
ELDOR.1.
T' "HE pioneer merchants of Eldora, Iowa, were Edgington Brothers, a firm which for more than twenty years was a household word in Hardin county. Samuel R. and Jonathan Edgington reached the present site of Eldora on the Ist of January, 1853, when there was not a building of any kind to be seen. Six miles north, on the Iowa river, was a saw-mill, and there they obtained the lumber for the first frame structure of any kind erected in Hardin county. They built it for a store, on the southwest corner of what is now the public square, part of it being used by Jonathan Edgington two or three years as a dwelling-house. This first building in the place was followed, the coming spring and summer, by four or five log houses, all the improvements made that year. Hardin county was organized in February of that year, and Alexander Smith, the first county judge, received twenty-eight votes.
It was in the latter part of the same month, seven weeks after they reached their future home, that Edgington Brothers opened their store, putting in a stock of goods costing between two hundred and three hundred dollars. It was drawn from Iowa City, distant one hundred and ten miles, by one team.
Trade increased as settlers came in, and the stock of merchandise was enlarged from month to month. Before the close of the first year Jesse J. Edgington, a younger brother, was taken into the firm, and in 1856 Joseph Edgington, the eldest of the four, joined the firm. With each additional member the capital was enlarged, and business expanded with the town For several years the four brothers, operating to- gether, filled all the places of salesman, book-keeper, teamster and porter. Their stock slowly worked its way up from less than three hundred dollars to more than twenty thousand dollars. For several years they did from thirty thousand dollars to forty thou- sand dollars annually, being the leading merchants in the town and county.
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In 1869, on the completion of the railroad from
Ackley to Eldora, Joseph and Jonathan went out of the firm and engaged in other business. Samuel and Jesse remained until January, 1875, when the firm was dissolved and the mercantile business dis- continued.
These brothers were sons of Jesse and Hannah Edgington, of Springfield township, Richland county, Ohio, originally a family of twelve children, only seven of whom are living. The four brothers were reared on a farm. All had only a common-school education.
Joseph was born on the 28th of January, 1820; was married in 1844, and has no children. He was two years in the Union army, enlisting a company for the 32d regiment Infantry, and going out and returning as captain of company F. Failing health compelled him to resign. He served eighteen months as justice of the peace in Eldora, to fill a vacancy, and has been postmaster between four and five years. He has a beautiful home, with vineyard and other pleasant surroundings.
Jonathan, born on the 30th of September, 1824, went from the mercantile directly into the grain trade, which he still follows, being one of the lead- ing men in that line in Eldora. He was deputy sheriff six years, and justice of the peace four. He has a wife and four children.
Samuel, better known as Colonel Edgington, was born on the 12th of March, 1827. Was a soldier in the war with Mexico, going out in the 3d Ohio Infantry, and serving one year. Raised a company for the 12th regiment Iowa Infantry in September, 1861, and went out as captain of company A, and returned as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. He resigned at the end of two years, because of the illness of his wife. He was the first school-fund commissioner of Hardin county, and is now chairman of the board of supervisors. He was married in 1849, and has a family of three boys. The eldest, Melvin, is a partner of his father in the Commercial Hotel, which stands on the original site of the Edgington
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store. It was opened in September, 1875, and is the best hotel building in Eldora.
Jesse, born on the 23d of February, 1831, like the other three brothers, continues to reside in Eldora, delighted, as they all are, with the elevated location and beauty and healthfulness of the city. For two years he has been in no especial business. Has a wife and four children.
The four brothers are members of the Masonic order. and the three younger are also Odd-Fellows. Jesse has been grand master of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows of the state.
Jonathan is a Universalist in sentiment ; the others Methodist in their preferences. None are members of a church.
All are republican in political faith.
Identified as their interests are with Eldora, being among its " nursing fathers," they have always been public-spirited, and promptly lent a hand in every enterprise that would build up the place. During the rebellion those of them who were not able to give their time to aid in crushing it cheerfully gave of their substance. They are a patriotic band of brothers.
OLIVER McMAHAN, LYONS.
O LIVER MCMAHAN, banker and capitalist, was born in Ohio in 1819. His father, Joseph Mc Mahan, served as a soldier during the entire pe- riod of the American revolution, and was highly esteemed for his patriotism and sterling integrity. He was killed on the ill-fated steamer Moselle, at Cincinnati, in 1838. His ancestry reaches back to the first settlers of Pennsylvania, and is thence traced to the Protestant section of the north of Ireland. His mother, a worthy and estimable lady, was likewise a native of the same state.
After pursuing his studies in the common school of the vicinity during his early childhood, the ne- cessities of his family compelled him to provide for himself. At the early age of twelve or thirteen years, with a very delicate and slender body, weigh- ing only sixty pounds, he sought and obtained, at length, employment on a farm at four dollars per month ; and during the following six years labored in a stone-quarry without adequate compensation. These years of severe toil and trial tended ultimately to develop the latent sterling qualities in the boy, and bring them forth into active manhood.
It is worthy of remark that although the parentage of the subject of this sketch was humble, yet it was honorable and justly respectable. The resources of the country immediately subsequent to the war of independence, having necessarily been neglected and undeveloped, left the people extremely impor- erished. Many families were compelled to endure poverty and destitution. The heroes of many a well-fought field found it difficult to keep the wolf from the door of their humble dwelling; hence
" many worthy youths, thrown upon their own re- sources, were forced to seek and obtain their own livelihood. In 1837 he was induced to seek a home in the west. Having taken his farewell look of Cin- cinnati, and of all in it that was near and dear, with the world all before him, he set his face westward. "The child is father of the man," says the poet, an aphorism happily illustrated on this occasion. Ar- riving in due time at his destination with very limited resources, and without means to grapple successfully with the obstacles that opposed him in his new and rugged sphere in which he was called to labor, he spent years struggling with the adverse circumstances that surrounded and hedged him in on every side. Fortune at last seemed to change in his favor. His brother, unitedly with himself, entered into a profitable and successful enterprise of steam- boating on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In this employment they continued several years work- ing hard and faithfully, and advancing step by step. showing what indomitable energy and intelligence can accomplish.
He married in 1840, and settled in Illinois.
In 1842 the connection with his brother having been mutually dissolved, he embarked in the lumber business, and during the eight following years was widely known as a very successful lumber merchant. At this period of life every enterprise on which he entered was crowned with success. In 1863 he united with other capitalists and organized the First National Bank in Clinton county. As a banker, he has been highly successful, and is greatly esteemed by the business community for his integrity and
Eny By Bh Ball & Sens IsBarrig StNY
Oliven Mc Mahan
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thoroughness. In the various transactions of busi- ness in which he has been engaged during the past quarter of a century he had acquired such a reputa- tion for financial ability and thorough acquaintance with monetary affairs, that when the panic of 1857 occurred he carried all the public interests intrusted to him successfully and triumphantly through that financial crisis.
Mr. McMahan is likewise, at this time, heavily in- terested in the well known house of Stiles, Goldy and McMahan, a firm that justly enjoys the con- fidence of the business community in which it is located. The extent and variety of his business relations, and his reputation for financial ability, is so extensive that he is made the custodian of im- portant trusts, not only in his own, but in neighbor- ing communities. His entire business and financial career has been characterized by eminent success.
Educational topics have always had for him a very strong attraction, and he has in the education of his children always patronized the best institu- tions in the country.
Although generally eschewing politics, he is a de- cided republican in principle and sentiment, yet has no sympathy with the party hacks who make politics a trade.
In religion, he has been a worthy and prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church more than twenty years, contributing liberally to its sup- port, and working zealously for its interests and welfare.
He has always manifested public spirit, and has contributed materially to the improvement of his immediate vicinity and county. Though of slender and delicate organism, he has led since his early childhood an eminently busy life; and the honorable position to which he has attained has been won by his own unaided and indefatigable efforts. He ground his wealth out of poverty, by never exceed- ing his means, and by always laying up some portion of his earnings for capital. Whatever spoils he took, he won, and became what he is by the development of his faculties and resources. He is widely esteemed for his intrinsic worth and social qualities.
JAMES S. KELSO, M. D., ACKLEY.
O NE of the best read physicians of Hardin county is James Seaton Kelso, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is a na- tive of Ireland, and was born in Lisburn, county of Antrim, on the 25th of December, 1820. His father, Rev. Joseph Kelso, was a Presbyterian clergyman of some eminence, and pastor of the United parishes of Ballinderry and Maghragal. His mother, Rebecca Johnstone, before her marriage, was distantly con- nected with the Johnstone family of Annandale, Scotland.
Dr. Kelso obtained his preliminary education at an ordinary parish school, and was prepared for college by a private tutor, completing his classical education at the Royal Academical Institution, Bel- fast. After being examined at Apothecary's Hall, in Dublin, he was articled to an apothecary, and learned carefully the art and mystery of that busi- ness, in connection with hospital practice, at Belfast. He commenced the study of medicine at the Uni- versity of Glasgow in the winter session of 1838-39, and completed his course at the session of 1841-42, obtaining not only a degree from the University of
Glasgow, but a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. He was thus qualified to enter the civil service of the East India Company, which step he had in view, and after waiting a short time for his commission he concluded to visit the United States before going to the Indies. He came over in the autumn of 1844, and soon afterward his commission followed him; but he liked this country too well to exchange it for any other, and has never left it.
In the spring of 1845 Dr. Kelso opened an office in La Fayette county, Wisconsin, and there remained steadily in practice until 1860, when he made a short trip by the overland route to California, to attend to some business. Not completing it as soon as he expected, he took charge of the "Shasta Courier," changing it from a democratic to a repub- lican paper, and conducting it during the campaign which ended in the election of Leland S. Sandford for governor.
On the breaking out of the rebellion, in 1861, Dr. Kelso returned to Wisconsin, and the same year was commissioned as one of the surgeons of the
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2d Wisconsin Cavalry, continuing in that position until the close of the war.
On returning to the north he located at Ackley, Iowa. then a new town on the Iowa branch of the Illinois Central railroad, and here we still find him devoted to the practice of medicine. He has long been the leading physician of the place, and here, as he was in Wisconsin, is popular and influential. One of the early settlers in Ackley, he has constant- ly labored for its welfare. He projected the Sabula, Ackley and Dakota railroad, the first division of which, from Sabula on the Mississippi to Marion, Linn county, is completed. He was at one time a director of the Central Railroad of lowa, which runs north and south through Ackley. He is president of the Ackley Agricultural Works.
Dr. Kelso is a ready writer on various subjects, and has been a contributor to the London " Lan- cet " and different American medical journals.
In politics, he was a whig, then a free-soiler, then a republican of the strictest sect.
He is a member of the Presbyterian church.
In December, 1847, Dr. Kelso married Mrs. Ann Washburn, widow of Frank Washburn, of Raynham, Massachusetts. She died in 1867, leaving no chil- dren by this union. In September, 1873. he married Miss Emma Ogden, of Ackley.
Dr. Kelso originated the Union Agricultural So- ciety, which for several years has held an annual fair at Ackley, and has done much to cultivate a spirit of emulation among farmers, stock-raisers and manufacturers.
JAMES BARR, M. D.,
ALGONA.
D R. BARR is a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, the son of John Barr, a stone-cutter, and Janet Shearer, and was born on the 25th of July, 1836. Both families from whom he sprung were Cove- nanters, and some of the Barrs were in the battle of Drumclog.
At nine years of age James was apprenticed to the weavers' trade. His health failing at the end of four years, he was placed on a farm; at seventeen came to this country with the family; worked in a coal mine near Sharon, Pennsylvania, a short time; removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1854, and worked on a large dairy farm until the spring of 1856, when he removed to Iowa, locating at Fayette, Fayette county. After spending one season on a farm, at twenty one he entered a district school, up to that date not having had, in the aggregate, more than one year's schooling. In a short time he en- tered the Upper Iowa University, then recently lo- cated at Fayette, and diligently pursued his studies until the civil war commenced. During this time he had no means of support except the earnings of his own hand. Every dollar he ever possessed came in the same way.
In September, 1861, Dr. Barr enlisted as a private in the 12th lowa Infantry, and soon after the battle of Shiloh was appointed hospital steward, serving in that capacity for three years. During the year 1865 the surgeons of the 12th were absent most of the
time on detached duty, when he had charge of the regiment, and in September of that year was ap- pointed assistant surgeon. In that capacity he served until mustered out in February, 1866.
Returning to Fayette, he read medicine with Dr. C. C. Parker, surgeon of the 12th Infantry ; attend- ed lectures at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and there graduated in February, 1868.
After spending a short time in Mindoro, Wiscon- sin, Dr. Barr located at Clermont, Iowa, practiced there until May, 1869, when he settled in Algona, and where he now has probably the most extensive practice of any physician in Kossuth county, though such information could not be obtained from him. The doctor is a modest, quiet, unassuming gentle- man, attending to the duties of his profession with the utmost assiduity.
In 1871 Dr. Barr was appointed United States examining surgeon for pensions, and still holds that office.
In February, 1876, he became a volunteer weather- reporter for this immediate section of the state, and makes his daily observations, reporting to Professor Hinrichs, of Iowa City.
Dr. Barr has always voted with the republican party, is firm in his political views, but not very active in a political canvass. His profession has the first claims on his time.
He is a Master Mason.
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On the 15th of June, 1871, Miss Selina M. Brad- shaw, of Davenport, Iowa, became his wife, and they have three children.
Mrs. Barr is a graduate of the high school and training school in Davenport ; was a teacher there several years, and is a woman of no small degree of intellectual polish. She and her husband are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church; both are active in the sunday school, and the doctor is its superintendent, and has been most of the time since he settled in Algona.
Dr. Barr's experience in the army hospitals, as steward and assistant surgeon, was an excellent school to him, and aided him in laying a good foun- dation on which to build in medical science, of which he is a very close student. When he entered the army he took some of his books with him, and at first pursued his literary studies when not busy in the hospital. He fitted himself, finally, for a sur- geon's duties, often studying two hours or more be- fore any one else was astir. Industry in so noble a direction has been amply rewarded.
JOSEPH J. HUTCHINGS,
WINTERSET.
JOSEPH J. HUTCHINGS, son of Francis and Elizabeth Turner Hutchings, is a native of In- diana, and was born in Clark county, on the 29th of November, 1825. His ancestors on his father's side were from England; settled first in Maryland, and spread thence into Virginia and the southern and western states. Francis Hutchings moved with his family from Clark into Hendricks county when Jo- seph was ten years old, where he was reared on a farm, attending, during three or four months each year, an excellent Quaker school. By dint of hard study in that school he fitted himself to instruct, and after teaching one term he moved to Iowa, spending one year in Davis county. In the sum- mer of 1851 Mr. Hutchings taught in Jasper coun- ty; came into Madison county, and taught in the country two winters, moving into Winterset, in the interim, in the spring of 1852. Here he com- menced trading in land, and success attended him from the start. He took unwearied pains to show new-comers and home-seekers the rich and beauti- ful lands, the " unshorn prairies " of Madison coun- ty, and aided hundreds to locate here, many of whom are now among the most thrifty farmers in this vicinity. Probably no man in Madison coun- ty has done more to settle it with this class than Mr. Hutchings.
In the autumn of 1872 he was one of the fore- most men in organizing the Citizens' National Bank, of which he has since been president. It is a pros- perous institution. Indeed, almost everything the hand of Mr. Hutchings touches is sure to thrive. He is a shrewd business manager, strictly honest and reliable, and has the full confidence of the
people. He keeps a land office separate from the bank.
Mr. Hutchings was originally a whig, and for twenty years has been a zealous, untiring worker in the republican ranks. He helps his friends into offices which he refuses to accept himself. His heart is in the cause, and no man rejoices more than he in the success of the republican candi- dates.
Mr. Hutchings is a Chapter Mason, and here, as in politics, he keeps out of office as much as possible. He is a member of no church, but has a partiality for the Quakers.
The wife of Mr. Hutchings was Miss Mary Bell, of Winterset ; married on the 28th of January, 1856. They have one child, Flora, who was educated in the female seminary at Mount Pleasant, Henry county.
Mr. Hutchings has a dark complexion, a keen hazel eye, is six feet tall, and weighs one hundred and sixty-five pounds. He is quick on the feet, alert for a bargain, and has a business education and business tact second to no man in Winterset. There is a good lesson in his life. He came to Iowa a poor young man, bringing, it is said, his worldly effects in a carpet-bag. When he came into Madison county he walked from Newton, Jas- per county, reaching Winterset, a distance of sev- enty miles, in three days, through trackless prairies and across bridgeless streams. He had to "rough it " at times, in fare as well as travels, but took things cheerfully as they came, had a hand willing and ready for any work, and by his industry, pluck, energy and good business capacities has become
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one of the most independent and wealthy men in Madison county.
It is men like him who have made Iowa what it is -one of the best states in the great northwest.
It was through his influence and that of a few other men that Winterset has an outlet by rail via Des Moines. A few such enterprising men in a place are a guarantee of a thriving city.
HON. CARL W. VON COELLN, DES MOINES.
C ARL WILHELN VON COELLN, state su- perintendent of public instruction, is a Ger- man by birth, and was born near Minden, West- phalia, on the 31st of August, 1830. His parents were Theodore Von Coelln, a clergyman, and Char- lotta Evers.
He received his education at a Prussian gymna- sium, and in the Universities of Bonn and Berlin, serving one year as a volunteer in the artillery ser- vice in the army.
He came to this country in 1855; soon mastered our language ; taught in academies in Ashtabula, Trumbull and Summit counties, Ohio, for five years, and in 1861 became a resident of Iowa, still pur- suing the vocation of a teacher. At first he was in the public schools of Des Moines; then at the head of the graded school in Cascade, Dubuque county ; and a little later he took the chair of mathematics in Iowa College, Grinnell, occupying that chair for nearly seven years, serving also part of the time as deputy county superintendent of schools of Powe- shiek county.
In 1872 he became principal of Westside Schools in Waterloo, Black Hawk county, occupying that position, with great acceptance, until September, 1876, when he was appointed state superintendent
of public instruction, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Colonel Alonzo Absonathy, now presi- dent of the University of Chicago. In November of the same year Mr. Von Coelln was elected to that office by one hundred and fifty-three thousand ma- jority, and reelected in October, 1877. He is filling the office with marked ability.
He seems to be a born educator, and has the happy faculty of infusing into others the mental life and enthusiasm which he possesses in a large meas- ure. His executive abilities are also good, and the people of lowa would seem to indicate by their vote that he is admirably adapted to his position. His manners, as well as mind, are polished, and, in the noblest sense of the term, he is a gentleman. As a scholar, he has few superiors in the state.
Mr. Von Coelln came to this country just as the great "party of freedom " were being formed, and has uniformly acted with that party.
On the 19th of November, 1857, Miss Celia A. Goodrich, of Ashtabula county, Ohio, became his wife, and they have five children.
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