USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 63
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On the 18th of October, 1855, he was married to Miss Cornelia A. Manning, daughter of Colonel Joel Manning, of Lockport, Illinois. She resides at her beautiful home in east Waterloo, possessed of every comfort in life except of him who was the light of that home.
HON. BUREN R. SHERMAN, DES MOINES.
B UREN R. SHERMAN was born in Phelps, Ontario county, New York, on the 28th of May, 1836, and is the third son of Phineas L. Sher- man and Eveline née Robinson, both of whom were natives of New York. His parents were persons of advanced ideas, who fully realized their responsibil- ities and rightly understood their duty in providing for the future of their children, and, as they were unable to bestow wealthy possessions, adopted the wise course of giving them a liberal and thorough education. They spared no pains in rearing their children to habits of industry and economy, and in impressing upon them the value of a noble charac- ter, and to the influence of their teachings is due, in a large measure, the success that has attended their family.
The father died on the 27th of December, 1873, and the mother on the 7th of February, 1876. Of their children, the two eldest died in infancy. Buren R. is auditor of state of Iowa; John W. is deceased ; Wright P. is a book-keeper in Waterloo, Iowa; Ward B. is manager of a life insurance company at Davenport ; Eugene I .. is a Congregational minister at Prairie City, Iowa; James P. is a publisher at Waterloo, Iowa, and George D. is a teacher, of Tama City, Iowa.
The subject of this sketch received his early ed- ucation in the public schools of his native place, and concluded his studies at Elmira, New York, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the English branches. He never had the advantage of a colle- giate course, but being a close observer has gained
a practical knowledge of men and things, that ad- mirably fits him for active business life. At the close of his studies, acting upon the advice of his father, who was a mechanic (an axe maker), he ap- prenticed himself to Mr. S. Ayres, of Elmira, to learn the watchmaker's trade. In 1855, with his family, he removed to Iowa and settled upon an unbroken prairie, in what is now Geneseo township, Tama county, where his father had purchased lands from the government. At that time the nearest postoffice was Waterloo, a distance of sixteen miles, and the nearest mill fifty miles. There young Sherman la- bored on his father's farm, employing his leisure hours in the study of law, which he had begun at Elmira. He also engaged as book-keeper in a neighboring town, and with his wages assisted his parents in improving their farm. In the summer of 1859 he was admitted to the bar, and the following spring removed to Vinton, and began the practice of law with Hon. William Smyth, formerly district judge, and J. C. Traer, conducting the business under the firm name of Smyth, Traer and Sherman. They built up a flourishing practice and were pros- pering when, upon the opening of the war, in 1861, Mr. Sherman enlisted in company G, 13th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and immediately went to the front. He entered the service as second sergeant, and in February, 1862, was made second lieutenant of company E. On the 6th of April following he was very severely wounded at the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, and while in the hospital was promoted to the rank of captain. He returned to his com-
Sincerely yours B. M. Sherman
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pany while yet obliged to use crutches, and remained on duty till the summer of 1863, when by reason of his wound he was compelled to resign and return home. Soon after returning from the army he was elected county judge of Benton county, Iowa, and reelected without opposition in 1865. In the fall of 1866 he resigned the judgeship, and accepted the office of clerk of the district court, to which he was reëlected in 1868, 1870 and 1872, and in December, 1874, resigned in order to accept his present office, auditor of state. He now resides at Des Moines, the capital of the state.
· Captain Sherman was married on the 20th of August, 1862, to Miss Lena Kendall, of Vinton, Iowa, a young lady of rare accomplishments and strength of character. The union has been happy in every respect, and her counsel has ever been characteris- tic of the true wife who desires the good name of her husband. They have two children : Lena Ken- dall, born in 1863, and Oscar Eugene, born in 1866. Mr. Sherman is personally popular with all classes of the people. Possessed of a quiet manner and generous disposition, he is surrounded by warm per- sonal friends, with whom his relations, both of busi- ness and socially, are of the most pleasant character.
Politically, Judge Sherman has been a republican since the organization of that party. From early boyhood he was taught the fundamental truth that the people were the true sovereigns, from whom emanated all political power, and to whom should
be direct and certain responsibility. He has ever remained religiously true to that faith, and has con- tributed largely of his time and talents in promoting the success of those principles. He is decided and uncompromising in his views of political right and responsibility, and believes in the largest liberty to every citizen, compatible with good government.
As a public speaker, he is one of the ablest in the state; always clear and convincing, he never fails to interest his auditors. His services are in frequent demand, especially during the times of po- litical canvassing, now so common throughout the country, in which he takes an active part, and from which he retires with honor.
As an officer, Mr. Sherman has been fortunate in every capacity in which he has served, and has made an enviable record. In his present prominent posi- tion of auditor of state he has fulfilled the expecta- tions of his warmest friends. His office is, perhaps, the most arduous and responsible of the state depart- ments, requiring constant care, and affording ample opportunity for the exertion of the best business ability; but his administration has been character- ized by an efficiency eminently true of the man. Himself honorable and thorough, his management of public business has been of the same character, and such as has commended him to the hearty ap- proval of the citizens of the state, by whom he is regarded as a prudent manager, a reliable officer, and a generous and conscientious man.
HON. JOHN N. W. RUMPLE,
MARENGO.
J JOHN N. W. RUMPLE, state senator from Iowa county, and one of its ablest attorneys, dates his birth on the 4th of March, 1841, in Seneca county, Ohio. His parents are William Rumple, many years a hotel keeper in Ohio, and Mary J. Rosenberger. The Rumples are an old Pennsylvania family, the grandfather of John having been in his day a staunch Dunker, and a man of great firmness of christian character. The maternal grandfather of John immi- grated from Virginia to Ohio in the youth of the latter state, and opened a farm in Seneca county. Will- iam Rumple died of cholera in 1851, and his widow moved with her family to Iowa, in 1853, and settled on a farm in Iowa county, near Marengo, where the subject of this sketch had a little experience in agri .
culture, but in two or three years left home for school.
He received his academic and preparatory edu- cation in Ashland Academy, Wapello county, and Western College, Linn county, and was attending the Iowa State University when the south took up arms to destroy the Union. This nefarious act ex- cited his mind, unfitted him for study, and led him, in August, 1861, to enlist as a private in Company H, 2d Iowa Cavalry. He was in the service a little more than four years, and during that period he was promoted from corporal, step by step, to cap- tain of the company. He was in more than a hun- dred skirmishes and fights, and received only a . slight wound in the face.
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In December, 1865, Captain Rumple entered the law office of H. M. Martin, of Marengo, and read until February 1867, when he was admitted to prac- tice at the Iowa county bar. Here he has since followed his profession, with a growing reputation, particularly as a jury lawyer. He enters heartily into sympathy with his clients' rights, makes an im- passioned argument, and has great power with a jury.
Captain Rumple was elected to the state senate, to fill a vacancy, in 1872; attended the adjourned session of the fourteenth general assembly, the fif- teenth and sixteenth sessions, and as we write is preparing to attend the seventeenth. He was re- elected in 1875, and his present term will expire at the close of 1879.
He has been chairman of the committee on col- leges for the blind, and was on the judiciary commit-
tee during every session. He is the father of the three-card monte bill, which became a law in 1876. As a legislator, he is attentive to business, and shows much practical good sense.
Senator Rumple has served at home on the school board, and lends his influence and aid in local causes generally, which tend to the public good.
Politically, he has uniformly acted with the re- publican party.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a church-goer, ·but a communicant in no religious body.
Senator Rumple has a second wife. His first was Miss Addie M. Whittling, of Marengo; married in December, 1866. She died in February, 1869, leaving one child. His second wife was Miss Mary E. Shepherd, of Iowa City, chosen on the 7th of December, 1872. She has one child.
COLONEL WILLIAM T. SHAW,
AN AMOSA.
T HE brick town of Anamosa, Jones county, the best built city of its size in Iowa, owes more of its beauty and solidity to Colonel Shaw than to any other ten men in the city. He is a town builder, a railroad builder and a rebellion smasher, and would be a man of mark in a much larger city than Anamosa.
William Tuckerman Shaw, a native of Maine, was born in Steuben, Washington county, on the 22d of September, 1822. His parents were William Nich- olas Shaw and Nancy D. Stevens Shaw. His pater- nal grandfather was a distinguished officer in the revolutionary army : aid-de-camp to General Knox ; was promoted to the rank of captain of artillery in 1780, and served until the close of the war.
Young Shaw was educated in the common schools of his native town, and the Wesleyan Seminary at Readfield, attending the latter institution two or three years. At nineteen he started for the west, spending one year in teaching a private school in Greencastle, Indiana. He then went to Harrods- burg, Kentucky, and continued teaching until the Mexican war broke out.
In 1848 Mr. Shaw strayed into Arkansas and the Indian Territory, among the Cherokees, Chocktaws, and other tribes, and the next year found his way into California. He remained there, digging in the mines with fair success, until 1851, when he returned
as far eastward as Anamosa, then little more than a four-corners, on the banks of the Wapsipinecon river. Here he bought lands and opened a farm, with more "yellow boys " of the mines all the time before the eye of his imagination, and in 1852 he returned to the Golden State again by the overland route. Two years later he returned to Anamosa and speculated in real estate, being fortunate in many of his investments. He built the Dubuque Southwest- ern railroad from Farley to Anamosa, and was at work on this road when the rebellion broke out. For the last ten or twelve years he has been engaged in banking, real estate, and the building of brick blocks in Anamosa and railroads to help the town. The Iowa Midland road, running from Clinton to Ana- mosa, is the work of his hands. He is of the bank- ing firm of Shaw, Schoonover and Co. Nearly every business block in Anamosa was put up by him. His energy, business tact and executive power are un- matched in Jones county.
In 1846 he enlisted as a private in the 2d regi- ment of Kentucky Volunteers, and remained with it till the close of the Mexican war. He was in the battle of Buena Vista, where both the colonel and lieutenant-colonel were killed. Mr. Shaw returned as a non-commissioned officer.
On the 24th of October, 1861, he was commis- sioned colonel of the 14th regiment Iowa Infantry,
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and served the full three years for which it enlisted. His regiment was in the second brigade, third divi- sion, sixteenth army corps, and after being fearfully cut up at Pittsburgh Landing, it composed for a time part of the "Iron Brigade," which consisted of the 8th, 12th and 14th Iowa and 58th Illinois regi- ments. No better fighting regiment went from Iowa than the 14th, and no braver, more daring officer than Colonel Shaw.
For a while he commanded the third division of the sixteenth army corps, and when finally relieved at the end of the three years, on the 29th of Octo- ber, 1864, Major-General A. J. Smith paid- a high compliment to him for his " courage, patriotism and skill " during the fifteen months that he had its com- mand. When about to leave the division which he had so bravely commanded, the officers made him a present of a beautiful sword and scabbard, a token of their kindly regard, which he cherishes highly.
The Shaws are a patriotic family. A cousin of the Colonel, Robert G. Shaw, commanded the first colored regiment, and was killed at Fort Wagner.
Colonel Shaw was originally a federalist, then a whig, and latterly a republican. He is now a mem- ber of the lower house of the general assembly, and one of the leading members of that body. He is not a member of any religious body.
Colonel Shaw has had three wives. In 1854 he married Miss Helen A. Crane, of Jones county. She had two children, and died in 1865. One child survives her. His second wife was Rhetta Harmon, who lived only one short year. His present wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Higby, of Kalamazoo county, Michigan.
Colonel Shaw is a tall, sparely built man, of nerv- ous temperament, quick to act and to think, and always ready at repartee. He is as full of humor as an egg is of meat. He is a good hater, and would have pleased Dr. Johnson, hating hypocrisy, shams of every description, and traitors preëminently. He is attached to his friends and to every true, fair- dealing person, and will travel a long distance to render aid to the needy. In every respect he is a valuable citizen.
JACOB W. ROGERS,
WEST UNION.
J
UDGE ROGERS, as he is universally called in
Fayette county, and who was a pioneer in West Union, is a native of the Granite State, being born in Moultonboro, on the 15th of August, 1820. His father, John Rogers, was a farmer, whose ancestors came from England, and settled at an early day in the eastern part of New Hampshire. The wife of John Rogers was Anna Wentworth, a descendant of Governor Wentworth, and a relative of Hon. John Wentworth of Illinois. In England it is one of the noble families, but Judge Rogers places no weight in pedigree. In this free country every man builds his own ladder.
Jacob lost his father when the son was only four years old ; at seven the family moved to Ossipee, in the same state, and in 1831 to Bethel, Vermont. There the subject of this notice worked out more or less on farms, purchasing, after four or five years, his time of his stepfather, Samuel Rogers, for one hundred dollars. At this time, seventeen years of age, he had had but a few months' schooling, and now alternated between laboring in the summers, attending academies at Randolph and Royalton
in the autumns, and teaching during the winters. This course he pursued for three or four years.
In 1843 Mr. Rogers came as far west as McHenry county, Illinois, where he taught steadily until 1845, going thence to Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin, where he taught four or five terms. He then went into the mercantile business with Jacob Lybrand ; continued in trade there until the summer of 1849, and on the 7th of the following September he and his partner took a stock of goods to the spot where West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, now stands. The town was not laid out, and there was no building on the site. William Wells had a log house half a mile away. Mr. Rogers built the first house, which was made of hewn logs, in the place, and moved into it on Christmas day, 1849. The goods were put into Mr. Wells' log house, and the partnership was soon dissolved.
In 1850 Mr. Rogers, Mr. Lybrand and Mr. Wells laid out the town, and that year Mr. Rogers was appointed postmaster, the nearest postoffice before that date being at Elkader, Clayton county, twenty- five miles distant. Provisions were brought from
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Quasqueton, on the Wapsipinecon, in Buchanan county, forty-five miles southward. For two or three years Mr. Rogers acted as compulsory landlord, there being no hotel in the place.
In 1850 the lands in northern Iowa were not in the market ; so Mr. Rogers, dropping the mercan- tile business, took up claims, opened farms and sold the claims, and when the lands came into market, continued to deal in them, thus operating until 1857, when the financial panic put a stop to the business for a few years.
Prior to this date Mr. Rogers had read law, and was admitted to the bar as early as 1853, but did not practice much until of late years.
In 1854 he was elected to the legislature, and served two years. He was an anti-slavery man in those days, and was the first man in Fayette county to suggest the organization of the republican party.
He was elected county judge in 1857 ; reëlected in 1859, and resigned in January, 1861, soon after- ward, for a few months, trying his hand, for a tem- porary purpose, at journalism, he naming his paper the " Republican Era."
In August, 1862, Judge Rogers raised company F, of the 38th regiment, became its captain, and served
until January, 1865, when the 34th and 38th regi- ments were consolidated.
On returning to West Union, Judge Rogers en- gaged in farming a few years, dealing also in real estate at the same time. During this period, in 187 I and 1872, he was also editor and proprietor of the West Union "Gazette," doing good service in the republican cause, and showing himself a writer of much sharpness and power.
In 1873 the judge went to California and spent a year, and since his return has been engaged in the practice of law, giving his whole time to his profes- sion. He is of the firm of J. W. Rogers and Son, his son, Oscar Wentworth, being in practice with him.
The judge was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Jane Simons, of McHenry county, Illinois, on the 25th of February, 1848, and has five children, all married except Omar A., who resides at Los Angeles, California. Ada A. is the wife of Elisha M. Eggle- ston, of Los Angeles ; Anna A., of Charles F. Bab- cock, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Frances, of John S. Sampson, of West Union. Oscar W., already men- tioned, and who was married in May, 1874, to Miss Mary F. Putnam, of Lynn, Massachusetts, is a young lawyer of decided promise.
JAMES D. CARTER,
WINTERSET.
T `HE baptismal name of James Dyhouse Carter was derived from his maternal ancestors, who were among the early colonists from England. The ancestors of his father were also from England. James Carter was a native of Yorkshire, England, who, with a company of others from the High Church of England, landed in America in 1729; passed through Albemarle sound up the Roanoke river, and settled in Guilford county, North Carolina. There he was married to Charity Vincent, by which union they reared a family of eight children, one daughter and seven sons. Five of the latter were lost in the revolutionary war, three of them being killed at the battle of Guilford Court House, on the 15th of March, 1781. After the battle the tories took pos- session of all they had, and he then engaged in the saddle and harness business. Benjamin, the young- est son, died of sickness, and the father did not long survive, his death occurring in 1783. Having sold his entire possessions for Continental money, Charity,
the only daughter. and Jesse, the only surviving son, inherited the entire estate in this currency. The money greatly depreciated in value while in their hands, and Jesse at one time gave a hundred-dollar bill for a jack-knife. Jesse Carter, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, in 1764. When he was quite young he married Mary Hains. The spirit of adventure which animated their forefathers would seem to have been inherited by the descendants, for with the west- ward march of civilization they were found among the pioneers. Soon after their marriage they moved to near Murphysboro, Tennessee, where she died, leaving two children. They were sent back to her friends in North Carolina, and Jesse moved to Crab Orchard, Lincoln county, Kentucky, in 1811. In 1812 he married Sarah Dyhouse, and by this union they had ten children, five of them now living. She died in April, 1831. In 1832 he married Mary Sword, with whom he lived but one year, when she
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died. In 1835 he was married to Ann Starns. By this marriage they had three children.
In religion Jesse was a Baptist. One of his prin- cipal characteristics was excessive benevolence ; his charity to the poor was often more than his personal interests would admit. In appearance he was tall and commanding, and slightly stooped ; in disposi- tion very quiet, speaking but little, and never in a boisterous way. He was hale and hearty, and almost youthful, for one of his age, and the day of his death walked over his farm giving instructions, remarking that he should soon die. On his return to the house he died while resting in his chair, on the 8th of April, 1853. His wife survived him till 1874.
The maiden name of James' mother was Sarah Dyhouse. Her father, George Dyhouse, came to America in 1772, and settled in Maryland. At the breaking out of the revolution he espoused the American cause, and served through the war. For four years he belonged to Washington's life-guards, and was for three years messenger, bearing informa- tion and dispatches through the British lines. He was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, at York- town; at the battles of Brandywine and Valley Forge. At the latter place he was obliged to cut his way out, in doing which he had the cap of his knee cut off, which caused him to be ever afterward a cripple. One's hand could not be placed on his person without touching a scar from wounds received in passing the pickets. While messenger he formed the acquaintance of Mary Adams, who, in order to promote the American cause, assisted in conveying news of the enemy by secreting dispatches in her clothing, and carrying them through the lines. Her career through the revolution was almost as noted as that of Lucretia Mott. She was married to Dy- house at the close of the war, when they settled in With county, Virginia. They were among the early pioneers of Kentucky, settling at English Station. During the interval of peace he worked at the black- smith trade in Garrard county, Kentucky, and reared a family of nine children. At the commencement of the war of 1812 one of his sons enlisted, and though a cripple for life from wounds received in the previous war, Dyhouse could not let him go alone, and not being able for active service he enlisted as drum-major in Colonel Richard M. Johnson's regi- ment. 'He was present at the battle of the Thames, and others. At the close of the war, while crossing the river on his way home, jubilant and enthusiastic over the victory and declaration of peace, he was
joyously beating his drum, which caused a dispute between parties on board, ending in an encounter in which the drum-major received injuries from the effects of which he died at Fort Meigs in 1815, leav- ing a wife and nine children. The former lived to be one hundred and four years old. The last fifteen years of her life she was blind, but could distinguish persons whom she had not met for years, and tell the color and material of their clothing, as readily as though she possessed her sight. She, with an old negro who had gained his freedom by his services in the war, and was termed " Revolutionary Jack," lived with her son-in-law, Austin Adams, till her death in 1854. After the death of George Dyhouse his heirs employed Robert P. Letcher, then a prom- inent lawyer of Kentucky (afterward governor of that state), as their agent to England to settle their estate, an inheritance of forty thousand dollars. On presenting the claim, owing to the children having changed the last letter of their name, he obtained nothing, and the entire sum went to the crown.
James was brought up on the farm. He received at intervals, in all, about three months' schooling in the common schools of Lincoln county, but by perusal of studies alone he acquired a liberal edu- cation, -- keeps his own books and transacts all his own business ; is a constant reader, and well versed in literature, there being no subject, religious or national, ancient or modern, on which he is not well posted and enjoys a discussion. After the third marriage of his father he left home, from choice. When thirteen years old Hiram Roberts obtained for him a situation with Archibald Shanks, to be educated and taught the mercantile business; but owing to his having read Dr. Franklin's warnings, and Mr. Shanks placing him in a saloon to sell liquor, he would not remain with him. Leaving Mr. Shanks, being destitute of means, and too young to earn any, he engaged to learn the saddle and harness trade with Henry Beddow. At the end of four years he had finished learning the trade. At the age of nine- teen he started north as a traveling saddler, and worked at many places. The following are some of the incidents that had a decided influence in form- ing his habits and course of life. At Salem, Indi- ana, he engaged to work for a man who proved to be a grand rascal. After having worked some time the man, in order to cheat him of his wages, circu- lated the report that he was a runaway apprentice. James produced his indentures and proved to the contrary ; but the fellow being worthless, he received
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