USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 61
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Mr. Von Coelln has the broad German face and a very kindly look. If he ever had a bad habit, no traces of it are in his countenance, which beams not only with intelligence, but with the higher virtues.
HON. ELBRIDGE G. BOWDOIN,
ROCKFORD.
F LBRIDGE GRIDLEY BOWDOIN, of Floyd county, Iowa, was born at South Hadley Falls, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, on the 16th of February, 1820. His father, Hon. William Bowdoin, of Huguenot origin, and a descendant of the same ancestor as the Bowdoins of Boston, was for more than forty years a practicing attorney of the Massachusetts bar, and for several terms a mem- ber of the Massachusetts senate.
The subject of this sketch was educated at Am- herst College, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1840. After graduating he commenced the study of law, but subsequently, for some time, taught an academy at Spencertown, Columbia county, New York; and again, from 1842 to 1845, was similarly engaged at Milton, Caswell county, North Carolina. Returning to Massachusetts the latter year, he re- sumed his legal studies with Judge Henry Morris,
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at Springfield, where, in May, 1847, he was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Massachusetts. Immediately after he removed to Amherst, where he entered into partnership with the Hon. Edward Dickinson, with whom he continued in the practice of his profession until 1855, when, owing to ill- health, he made a journey to Iowa, which eventu- ated in his becoming interested in real estate in Floyd and the adjoining counties, and a resident of the town of Rockford, 'of which he was one of the original proprietors. In 1856 he was admitted to the bar of Floyd county, but he never practiced there. In 1859 he was elected a member of the Iowa house of representatives, which met in 1860, from the district then composed of the counties of Floyd, Cerro Gordo, Worth, Hancock and Winne- bago, in which session he was a member of the judiciary committee and chairman of the commit- tee on schools and state universities. He was re-
i elected to the assembly which met in 1862, in which session he was chairman of the committee on ways and means, and a member of the committee for apportioning the state into congressional districts. ! In 1860 he was a member of the Iowa delegation to the national republican convention at Chicago which nominated Mr. Lincoln. In December of 1863, going to Washington, he was made clerk of the judiciary committee of the house of represen- tatives, of which the Hon. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, was chairman, which position he retained for nearly ten years, six of them with Mr. Wilson - as chairman, and the remainder with Hon. John A. Bingham, of Ohio, as chairman. Since that time he has resided at Rockford, where he is the princi- pal proprietor of the unoccupied town property, and is engaged in farming and dealing in real es- tate. He is one of the most public-spirited men in the Shellrock valley.
WILLIAM H. REDMAN, MONTEZUMA.
W ILLIAM HENRY REDMAN, one of the youngest and most prosperous attorneys of Montezuma, was born in the town of Genesee Grove, Whiteside county, Illinois, on the 5th of March, 1840; his parents being Eli and Catherine Owen Redman. His father, born in western Vir- ginia, was a soldier in the war of 1812-15, receiving a land warrant in consideration of his services.
William H. completed his academical education at the Mount Carroll Seminary, Carroll county, Illi- nois, and from that town enlisted as a private in company C, 12th Illinois Cavalry, serving three years in the ranks, being promoted from sergeant to corporal, and thence through second and first lieutenants to captain of the company. He partici- pated in all the raids, skirmishes and battles of the gallant 12th. That regiment was in the battle of Bunker Hill, Virginia; siege of Harper's Ferry ; Williamsport, Maryland; Dumphries, Virginia (all in the autumn of 1862). At the last-mentioned place Captain Redman was a prisoner eighteen hours, and then made his escape. He was in the Stoneman raid; at Gettysburg; at Williamsport a second time ; at Falling Water; at Chester Gap and Culpepper Court House ; at Germany Ford and Raccoon Ford on the Rapidan; and at Stevens-
burg, Rappahannock Station and Brentsville. In November, 1863, the regiment was sent to Chicago; recruited to full strength the next month ; was sent to Saint Louis in February, 1864, and veteranized ; sent to New Orleans, and thence up the Red river, under General Banks; was subsequently in cavalry raids at Liberty, Mississippi, and in Louisiana, and still later in Arkansas. The regiment was reorgan- ized at Memphis, Tennessee, in March, 1865, the 4th Illinois Cavalry being consolidated with it, under the name of the 12th; and soon afterward was in the famous Ripley raid, going thence to Texas. There Captain Redman did provost-mar- shal duty for a few months, by order of General Mowry, and a little later commanded a post at Livingston, Polk county, Texas, holding that posi- tion from February, 1866, until he mustered out his company, at Houston, Texas, on the 29th of May, 1866; and a neater muster-roll than Captain Red- man still possesses the writer never saw.
During the time he was in the service he was never sick a day, never off duty, never failed to face the enemy, and never received a wound. His mili- tary record is as noble as his life is pure.
On leaving the service Captain Redman entered the law department of the State University at Iowa
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City, and there graduated in December, 1869; since practicing law with a growing business and rising reputation, at Montezuma, where he settled in April, 1870.
He is in company with Major Carr (elsewhere mentioned in this volume), and they are doing a thrifty business in the abstract line and real estate, as well as law.
Captain Redman has twice been mayor of Monte- zuma, and has a high standing in the community. In politics, he trains in the republican ranks. He is connected with the Odd-Fellows.
The wife of Captain Redman was Miss Sue P. Ferguson, of Jefferson, Harrison county, Ohio; mar- ried on the 3d of March, 1870. They have had three children, and lost two of them.
MOSES M. MOULTON,
MONTICELLO.
S OME early settlers in a town are purely selfish ; they identify themselves with no public enter- prises ; live wholly for themselves, and, dying, are soon forgotten. Others, from the start, make the interests of the place their own; promptly enlist in the movements likely to benefit the place, and are foremost in every good work. Of this class is Moses Montgomery Moulton, who settled in Monticello when it had only a postoffice, one very small store and a single mechanic shop. Here he has lived for twenty years; has seen the stores gradually increase to thirty, and banks, manufactories, churches, schools and library associations spring up around him ; and he now has two thousand neighbors who take pleas- ure in honoring him from time to time with different official positions.
Mr. Moulton was born in Sandwich, Carroll coun- ty, New Hampshire, on the 12th of January, 1832. His father, Jeremiah Moulton, occupies the home- stead, which has been in the hands of the Moulton family more than a century. Many of the apple trees standing on it are a hundred years old. The mother of Moses was a Rice, a family long settled in New Hampshire. She was a woman of excellent principles, and reared her children, like many New England mothers, in the ways of rectitude. Moses worked on his father's farm until he was sixteen years of age, attending the common school a few months each year; he then connected himself with the high school in his native town for a year or two, laying a good foundation on which he subsequently built as best he could alone. He learned the car- penter's trade, and worked at it until he was twenty- six years old, part of the time in New Hampshire, two years in Dixon, Illinois, and two years in Monti- cello. The last named place he reached on the 22d of September, 1856.
In 1858 he opened an insurance and collecting office, a business which he has steadily continued with marked success for eighteen years.
Mr. Moulton was elected township clerk in 1857, and held the office for ten years; has been notary public since 1858, and secretary of the board of education since the same date, except the year 1868, when he was president of the board.
The writer has known Mr. Moulton intimately during all the time of his connection with educa- tional matters, and has no hesitation in saying that a more efficient man in such a cause it would be difficult to find in Jones county. To him, with the assistance of a few good backers, is owing the ex- cellent system of instruction in Monticello. His efforts in this line have been untiring, and are thor- oughly appreciated by his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Moulton was appointed United States com- missioner in 1867, and still holds the office. He has been elected mayor twice, holding the office in 1869 and 1870.
Soon after coming to Iowa he began to read law, his studies being much interrupted by a press of business. He was admitted to the bar of Jones county on the 23d of June, 1869, but has never made a specialty of legal practice. He lets nothing interfere with the insurance and collecting agency, which is quite profitable. He is widely known and eminently trustworthy.
Mr. Moulton is an Odd-Fellow, and member of the grand lodge of the state; also a Knight Tem- plar, and member of Trinity Commandery, No. 16, of the Masonic fraternity.
He was a democrat until the rebellion broke out; has since voted the republican ticket.
On the 10th of December, 1858, he married Miss Amelia McDonald, of Monticello. She has five
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children, "and looks well to her household." She heartily sympathizes with her husband in his efforts to educate the children.
Mr. Moulton is compactly built and of the me- dium height, bordering on embonpoint, and weigh- ing two hundred and twenty-five pounds. His
habits are of a strictly temperate character, and he bears the image and superscription of good living and superb health. He is a well-read and well- posted man, talkative, lively and genial, and can enjoy a good joke, whether it be at his own expense or of his own originating.
ABRAHAM H. NEIDIG, A. M.,
MARSHALLTOWN.
A MONG the truly representative men of the northwest there is none who has exerted and obtained a more universal respect than the subject of this sketch. Colonel Abraham H. Nei- dig was born at Carlisle, Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, on the 5th of September, 1839, and is of Swiss origin. His ancestors came to America in 1615. His father, Johnathan Neidig, was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, in 1812; married Catherine Hershe in 1833; came west in 1850, and settled at Muscatine, Iowa. Being a man of con- siderable means, he contributed liberally to our pub- lic improvements. He was one of the founders of Western College, Linn county, Iowa, and moved to that place in the year 1857. He died there in 1871, leaving a wife, one son and two daughters to mourn his loss. He was a christian gentleman of the old school, possessing thorough qualities of mind and heart, that rendered him universally loved as well as revered. Abraham spent his early years, or until the age of seventeen, as most of the sons of the substantial and energetic men of the past generation were accustomed to spend them, namely, in attend- ance upon the public schools and in being useful in the store or on the farm as occasion seemed to re- quire. At this age he entered Cornell College, Iowa, and his name appears in the first printed catalogue of that flourishing institution. After completing the usual preparatory course of study he entered college proper at Western, and pursued the classical course until two terms prior to the graduating of his class, when he entered the army, enlisting in company D, 44th Iowa Infantry. Being so thoroughly prepared to graduate before leaving, the college faculty several years ago conferred on him the degree of B.A. and A.M.
In 1865 he took a thorough business course at the Iron City Commercial College, Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, to prepare himself for mercantile pursuits.
He purchased a dry-goods store at Western, which he managed for several years, then changing bought a drug store which he operated for almost five years, the last year of which he also had charge of the Western "Gazette." As an editor, his ability was soon widely acknowledged, and while yet dealing in drugs he was invited by the stockholders of the Cedar Rapids "Daily and Weekly Republican " to remove to Cedar Rapids and take editorial charge of that influential paper, which offer he accepted, although he knew that to do so would be at a finan- cial sacrifice, as he would be compelled to lock up his drug store and finally sell it out at a loss. He, however, had so strong a taste for editorial work that he determined to make it his life business and enter a wider field than the "Gazette " furnished. In 1873, the second year of his connection with the Cedar Rapids " Republican," he was elected chair- man of the republican state central committee, and had the management when the anti-monopoly move- ment was at its height, threatening a dissolution of the republican party. He threw great energy into the campaign, and had the credit of carrying one of the most difficult and successful campaigns in the state. In 1874 he purchased a three-fourths interest in the Marshalltown "Republican." In 1875 he in- augurated another edition to the paper, now issuing two papers per week, semi-weekly and weekly "Re- publican." It has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the fifth congressional district. At this writing Mr. Neidig is secretary of the Iowa Press Association, now serving a second term, also president of the Marshalltown Public Library As- sociation. In March, 1878, he was appointed a member of Governor Gear's staff, with rank of lieu- tenant-colonel of cavalry. He has a thorough ac- quaintance and an extensive correspondence with the leading politicians of the state, with whom he ex- changes information upon leading topics of the day.
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In politics, he is an enthusiastic, uncompromising republican, and has always been active in politics. Though a young man during the campaign of Lin- coln and Johnson, he took great interest in elec- tioneering and making political speeches. He was always foremost in public enterprises wherever he has lived. Has a natural taste for choice litera- ture, and enjoys perusing histories, both ancient and modern. Has traveled in most of the states and territories ; while traveling in the latter he visited Salt Lake City as a member of the Iowa Press As- sociation. Mr. Neidig is a man of thorough culture and noble and generous principles.
He is liberal in his views toward all denomina- tions, but attends the Presbyterian church, of which his wife is a member.
While at school at Western College he became acquainted with Miss Lou A. Davis, daughter of Rev. William Davis, at that time president of that growing institution. He married her on the 3d of January, 1867. She is a model wife, a woman of culture and rare social attainments. Some six years prior to her marriage she was engaged in teaching in the public schools of Iowa. They have three bright and promising children, one boy and two girls.
At the writing of this sketch Mr. Neidig's mother still lives, also his two sisters, the eldest of whom married Mr. F. P. Steele, a stock dealer in Butler county, Nebraska; the younger became the wife of J. B. Overholsen, an attorney at Grundy Center, Iowa.
ABRAIM P. HOSFORD,
CLINTON.
A BRAIM P. HOSFORD, capitalist and lumber merchant, and one of the pioneer settlers of Iowa, was born in Orange county, Vermont, on the 8th of December, 1811. He is the son of John and Lydia Perkins Hosford, whose ancestry is among the most respected and earliest in that state. His pa- ternal grandparent, Joseph Hosford, and likewise his maternal grandparent, Colonel Perkins, were both soldiers in the war of independence, and were highly esteemed in their day for their sterling in- tegrity and disinterested patriotism. On his father's side his pedigree is of Welsh origin, his ancestors having emigrated to this country during the first settlement of the old Plymouth colony.
He was educated principally in common schools of his neighborhood, but subsequently received a thorough and practical course of instruction, both literary and scientific, in an academic institution, intermediate between the common school and col- lege.
Having devoted the usual number of years, al- lowed New England youths, to qualify himself for the duties of life, at the early age of nineteen he engaged in teaching, and during the following five years made this his special vocation. He seems to have been remarkably gifted as a teacher, and his fitness for that pursuit was widely known and duly acknowledged. He possessed the happy faculty of making study attractive to the youths committed to
his care, and his success as an educator may be attributed to the accuracy and thoroughness with which pupils were required to work, and above all, to the active sympathy between himself and his scholars.
In the fall of 1834, having long entertained the desire to visit the west, he left home, and on foot traveled throughout several of the southern coun- ties of New York, possibly with the intention of locating, and also for the purpose of obtaining in- formation regarding the country. His impressions of the various points examined not being satisfac- tory, he retraced his steps and finally returned to Vermont by way of Utica and Albany. His pedes- trian powers were amply tested on his return route by a walk from Syracuse to Utica in one day, a dis- tance of fifty-two miles.
In the fall of 1835, having devoted the previous winter in teaching school in New Hampshire, he again visited the west as far as Ohio, and after hav- ing engaged in teaching during the winter of 1835- 36, in Fairfield county, returned to his home in Vermont.
The west, with its rolling prairies, elysium fields and attractive climate, still haunting his imagination, he resolved to pass the following summer at the old venerated homestead, and then, after taking fare- well of the parental mansion and the loved ones within its hospitable walls, to turn his face to the
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setting sun, and follow, for the third time, " the star of empire westward."
Having gathered together all the little worldly gear he possessed, he left home finally for the last time, and turned his steps toward Chicago, then the great Mecca of the entire west, as his point of destina- tion.
The lateness of the season, at the time he em- barked at Buffalo in a vessel for Chicago, inter- cepted the voyage, and he was left at the mouth of the Maumee river, where the city of Toledo is now located. Leaving his baggage at this point, he con- tinued his journey on foot to La Salle county, Illi- nois, where he determined to settle. Having defi- nitely decided upon the above location, he walked back to the Maumee river, and taking twenty-eight pounds of his baggage on his shoulder returned to La Salle county on foot, averaging thirty-five miles daily for the entire distance, and requiring some seven days to accomplish the journey. Such feats need no comment, they are their own commenta- tors.
The history of his agricultural career in this lo- cality ; his progress, step by step, in opening up the virgin soil; his subsequently extensive investments, and, as years passed on, his costly improvements, vying with many an eastern establishment, all re- lated in minute detail, would be exceedingly inter- esting, not only in each particular itself, as exhibit- ing the material growth and development of that locality, but also as showing the ability and energy, as well as business capacity and indefatigable in- dustry and perseverance, of him who planned and achieved it all. But the studied brevity of this sketch will not permit in detail their introduction. .
Soon after locating himself in this vicinity he built a log-house, and in 1837 married Julia C. Car- ter, daughter of Joel Carter, formerly a resident of New York. He subsequently built a commodious frame-house, and still later a large barn. During the following five years he added to his original purchase of two hundred and forty acres four hun- dred and eighty acres more, making his entire estate seven hundred and twenty acres.
In 1853, having found a favorable opportunity, he disposed of his entire landed property in this vicinity, with all the personal property. reserving only some twenty acres for his own use and con- venience. This closing up of his agricultural busi- ness, with the intention of seeking some more genial occupation, was the necessary result of his growth
of mind and unconscious mental development. His life required greater mental activity than agricultural pursuits could give, and thus a vague unrest of an unsatisfactory existence weighed heavily upon his spirits, and daily increased. Those who will study the philosophy of the human mind will learn that only in the midst of pressing activities and responsibili- ties is there either peace or happiness. Having dis- possessed himself of all his material interests in Illi- nois, he located himself, in 1854, in Black Hawk county, Iowa, and during the subsequent three years was actively engaged in various enterprises, and es- pecially in securing the removal of the county seat from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo.
While a resident of Waterloo his public spirit was manifested in the organizing of schools and churches and other public improvements.
In 1857 he established himself in Lyons, Clinton county, Iowa, and built a saw-mill. After having manufactured a large quantity of lumber the busi- ness prostration of the entire county during that financial crisis prohibited any sales, and in 1858 he returned to Waterloo.
In 1859, while his partner devoted himself to the mutual business interests in Waterloo, the subject of this sketch removed his saw-mill from Lyons to Clinton, Iowa, and the firm of Hosford and Miller continued in successful operation, increasing and extending its business during the following seven years.
In 1866 the company was mutually dissolved, A. P. Hosford having purchased the entire interest of his former partner. Soon after, during the same year, the Clinton Lumber Company was organized, a majority of the stock being held and owned by A. P Hosford.
In 1867 he took an active interest, and likewise a stock interest, in the Dubuque Lumber Company, and in 1868 became an active participant in the Clinton Paper Company. He is president of the Clinton Lumber Company, and also of the Clinton Paper Company.
In 1870 he purchased the entire property of the Union Works for fifty-one thousand dollars, the original cost of which was seventy-two thousand dollars.
In all these varied business establishments he furnishes employment for not less than one hundred and seventy-five men. The amount of lumber manu- factured annually is from thirteen to fourteen mill- ion feet, independent of the daily manufacture of
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thirty thousand shingles and eleven thousand lath, ' found in him a quiet but influential advocate, and besides the productions of the planing machines.
As a developer of the resources of the west, great credit must be awarded to him. It is through the agency of men of his nature and energy that the material interests of our country are forwarded and expanded. He is emphatically a self-made man. His career has been most successful, and the prob- lem of life may be said to be solved in his own ex- perience. He ground his wealth out of poverty.
As a public-spirited citizen, few men have done more to advance the general interests of the com- munity than he, and during his long business career he has been an active and liberal patronized of use- ful institutions. Every public improvement has
he has ever shown his readiness to extend substan- tial aid to all projects calculated to benefit the com- munity.
In politics, he is a republican, although not a partisan. He has no sympathy with party "hacks" who make .politics a trade.
In person, he has a strong and vigorous constitu- tion ; of a solid, compact organism and a clear and active intellect; his countenance is pleasant and agreeable; his manners courteous and affable to all, indicating benevolence, generosity and kindness.
In religious matters, he belongs to the Congrega- tional church, of which he is a valuable and consci- entious member.
HON. WILLIAM H. TUTHILL,
TIPTON.
T HE Tuthills in this country are of English pedigree, and descended from John Tuthill, who settled at Southold, Long Island, in 1640. The grandfather and great-grandfather of William Henry Tuthill were participants in the struggle for Ameri- can independence. His father was James M. Tut- hill, for many years a merchant in New York city, where the son was born on the 5th of December, 1808. His mother was Emma Townsend, a descend- ant of a prominent English family, a representative of it early settling on Long Island.
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