USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 67
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In 1852 he engaged, in company with the late Colonel S. G. Hill, in the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds, which was carried on successfully until 1861, when the firm was dissolved, Mr. Hill going into the army. The business has since been con- ducted alone by Mr. Stein. In 1855 he engaged with G. P. Vesey in the manufacture of bedsteads and chamber furniture. This business continued in operation until 1859, when it was discontinued. He is also largely interested in farms and in farming
lands in Muscatine, Louisa, Cedar, Jackson, Benton, Hamilton and Calhoun counties, Iowa, and in Rock Island county, Illinois ; in all, fifteen hundred acres of improved lands. He is also the owner of three of the finest buildings in the business part of Mus- catine. He is also engaged in business with Messrs. Barnhardt Brothers, Spindler and Co., in the Great Western Type Foundry, of Chicago, one of the most extensive type manufacturing establishments in the west.
Mr. Stein is president of the Muscatine Steam Ferry Company. Has been president of the Mer- chants' Exchange National Bank, of Muscatine City, for ten years past. Was president of the Muscatine Western Railroad Company at the organization of the company and during the construction of the road. He is also president of the Muscatine, Tip- ton and Anamosa Railroad Company. During the years 1871 and 1872 he held the office of chief magistrate of the city of Muscatine, being twice elected without opposition, and receiving the unani- mous nomination of both the republican and demo- cratic parties, an honor unprecedented in the history of the city. In 1872 he was appointed one of the capitol commissioners, for the purpose of selecting plans and overlooking the construction of the new state-house at Des Moines, and served two years in this capacity with zeal and great wisdom.
He was admitted a member of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows in 1844, and continues in fel- lowship, being at the present time a member of the grand lodge of Iowa. He is also a distinguished member of the Masonic fraternity, to which he was admitted in 1850.
He is one of the most benevolent of the citizens of Muscatine, always contributing liberally to pub- lic and private charities.
He was raised in the communion of the Lutheran church, and was admitted to membership in that society by confirmation at the age of sixteen years.
In politics, he was originally a whig, and since the organization of the republican party he has been identified with it, and was during the war a staunch supporter of the government, and in favor of the emancipation and enfranchisement of the negro.
On the 20th of May, 1841, he married Miss Anna Catherine Bernthisel, who was a native of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, of German origin, and a lady of rare good sense, modest, amiable and kind-hearted. The union has been blessed with two children, a daugh- ter and a son. The daughter, Angie S., was born in
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1844, and is the wife of A. M. Barnhardt, of Chi- cago, Illinois, to whom she was married in 1869. The son, Simon G., who was born in 1861, resides with his parents.
Mr. Stein is one of those fortunate individuals who almost invariably succeed in whatever they undertake, and whose enterprises always seem to come out right in the end, however mazy they may have appeared while in process of development. From small beginnings, by energy, perseverance, faithful industry, and above all, consummate wis- dom, he has gradually amassed a fortune, and his fair and honorable dealing has made his name a tower of strength in the community where he is known. For the railroad interests of the state, especially those communicating with Muscatine, he has worked with unabated zeal and energy, and spent both time and money freely, looking for his remuneration in the growth and progress of the city of his adoption. To know that any public interest was intrusted to him was to be assured that it would receive the most faithful attention and be carried to the most successful issue. In the various positions
of trust and honor to which he has been called he has discharged his official duties with scrupulous care and fidelity, and to-day he stands in the front ranks of the most valued, judicious and successful citizens of the state. Two more useful, unassuming and universally beloved individuals than Mr. Stein and his estimable wife it would be difficult to point out, or a pair possessing more of that plain, sterling common sense and good judgment, a little rare in these days, and yet of no less value than pure gold tried in the fire. While abundantly able to make a display in the world, they have preferred the quiet and sedate walks of life in a well balanced medium between extravagant pomp and sordid parsimonious- ness, remote from the least ostentation, yet in all points exemplary. Satisfied with the discharge of their daily duties in the domestic circle, they have been content to allow others to wear the tinsel and display the gildings of fashionable life, reserving to themselves the more substantial comforts resulting from prudent habits and moderate desires. They have thus become models of domestic virtue, and patterns of social life and manners.
M. L. TEMPLE,
OSCEOLA.
T HE subject of this sketch was born in Monon- galia county, West Virginia, on the 16th of September, 1848. His father's name was Nathaniel Temple, who was born and raised in Green county, Pennsylvania, and removed to West Virginia in 1844. His mother's maiden name was Henrietta Rice. His father was a farmer. M. L. Temple worked upon his father's farm until he was twenty years of age, when he obtained a scholarship and cadetship in the West Virginia University, which he attended for five years, and from which he graduated in June, 1873, in the classical and military departments.
He began the study of law prior to graduation, in the office of Judge John H. Dice, at Morgantown, West Virginia. He left this office on the 30th of September, 1873, and came to Osceola, Iowa, and commenced the practice of law, which he still con- tinues.
He early in life evinced a great desire for study, and although he never had more than one hundred and twenty-six days of schooling previous to enter- ing the university, he attributes the advancement he
made by virtue of close application to books while at home under the guidance of a devoted mother, who was well educated and possessed of a disposi- tion befitting her for teaching. At sixteen he com- menced teaching in the public schools when the free- school system was first inaugurated in West Virginia. He early formed a great desire to study history and solid literature generally, which induced him to ob- tain, if possible, a collegiate education.
Mr. Temple married at Morgantown, West Vir- ginia, on the 30th of September, 1873, Miss Julia M. Protzman, who has borne him one boy.
In religious matters, he inclines toward Method- ism, though he is allied to no church organization.
In politics, he is an active democrat.
Mr. Temple is in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative practice throughout Clark county. He is physically and mentally a strong, active man. In the twenty-ninth year of his age we find him well established in reputation and profit in the practice of his profession, a noble example of what pluck, guided by well earned scholarship, can do to advance
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the interests of a rising man. What a commentary the success of such a man is to the thousands on thousands of comparatively briefless lawyers who are rotting away in dingy offices in the great Atlan- tic cities, who have book knowledge enough, but who lack the nerve to strike out for themselves amid the thousand and one opportunities which continu- ously present themselves in the great west for men
of tact and energy of character. Mr. Temple is a climbing man, and notwithstanding just now he seems to be unambitious, yet it will by no means surprise us to find him, ere he reaches the meridian of life, making an indelible mark upon the history of the state of his adoption.
He became a member of Clark Lodge, No. 95, in December, 1875.
HON. SUMNER B. HEWETT,
EAGLE GROVE.
S UMNER BARSTOW HEWETT, a pioneer set- tler in Wright county, Iowa, and second judge of the county, is a son of Sumner B. Hewett, sen- ior, a millwright and carpenter, and Mary E. Allen, and was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, on the 22d of June, 1833. The Hewetts are of English pedigree, and were early settlers in the Old Bay State. The grandfather of our subject was in the war of 1812. Sumner spent his boyhood in Sutton, Worcester county, Massachusetts, near his birth- place, finishing his education at the East Douglas Academy. He was a clerk in a store at East Doug- las and other places a few years; afterward an ac- countant in Boston four years, and in 1854, at the age of twenty-one, settled in Wright county, which has since been his home. His father and brother- in-law, Nathaniel B. Paine, came with him, and they were the first settlers who remained. With the ex- ception of narrow belts of timber on the streams and around Walled Lake and other bodies of water, and here and there a grove, the county twenty-four years ago was an open prairie, “ unshorn and beau- tiful," waiting for the plow. Buffalo, elk, deer and other wild animals were abundant, but no white man had turned a furrow.
Judge Hewett selected his home in Eagle Grove township, in the southwestern part of the county, and started what is now known all over northwestern Iowa as Eagle Grove Farm. It consists of six hun- dred acres of the best quality of land, under good improvement, and well stocked with short-horn and graded cattle. Stock raising has been a specialty with Judge Hewett. He has taken much pains to acquaint himself with the science of the business; is well posted on matters generally pertaining to agri- culture; has a small orchard, and is a good repre- sentative of lowa men engaged in this pursuit.
He was appointed county judge in April, 1861, and the following October was elected to the same office for the term of two years. In 1862 he was appointed revenue collector for the sixth district, and held the latter office until turned out by Andrew Johnson, the bolting republican president. Prior to taking this office in January, 1862, he was appointed engrossing clerk of the senate in the general assen- bly, and most of the time acted as second assistant secretary of the senate.
Judge Hewett was elected to the general assembly in the autumn of 1871, and in the session held the. next January-March served on the committees on agricultural college, railroads and public buildings, being chairman of the first-named committee, and doing good work on all of them. He was for some time a director of the Iowa State Agricultural Soci- ety, and quite active and efficient in the board.
He seems to be always ready for public service, and prompt in the discharge of every duty.
The records of the fourteenth general assembly indicate that representative Hewett was usually in his place when votes were taken. He was a dis- creet legislator, doing very little public talking, but prompt and untiring in the committee room.
He has always been a republican, and is vigilant in his efforts to advance the interests of the party, after attending congressional and state conventions. Politically and in all respects he is an influential man.
He has been a Freemason since 1862, having, however, taken only three degrees.
The wife of Judge Hewett was Miss Abbie S. Parker, of Blue Hill, Maine, a woman of good edu- cation, and in her younger years a popular school teacher. They were married on the 24th of October, 1854. They have two adopted children, recently
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taken, a boy and a girl, whom they are intending to educate and fit for usefulness.
The judge has been engaged from time to time in trying to secure a railroad for his part of the state ; was one of the first men to suggest the Iowa Pacific
road, now graded through Wright county, and pass- ing within a mile and a half of his farm; and is one of the foremost men in his section in prosecuting enterprises calculated to develop the wealth of the soil or the best qualities of the people.
WILLIAM H. BAXTER, M.D.,
WILTON.
W TILLIAM HENRY BAXTER was born in Cannonsburg, Washington county, Penn- sylvania, on the 28th of December, 1828, and is the eldest child of Joseph Baxter and Isabella née Por- ter, both natives of the Keystone State. His father was an industrious blacksmith, and wrought at the anvil all his lifetime, but having a family of ten children to support, his utmost efforts were ex- hausted in hammering out a bare subsistence for them, so that beyond the then crude and irregular public schools he was unable to provide for their education ; consequently the children were early thrown upon their own resources. Both parents are descended from Scotch Covenanter ancestors, who took refuge in the north of Ireland to escape the bitter persecution visited upon the non-con- formists under the Stuart dynasty, from whence they emigrated to Pennsylvania previous to the revolution.
The father of our subject in early life had a taste for military tactics, and was for many years captain of a military company under the militia laws of the state. Of his ten children, two died in infancy and eight lived to maturity, namely, five sons and three daughters. Four of the sons were soldiers in the Union army during the late rebellion. Robert was a member of an Ohio regiment and was killed while on a "scout " in Braxton county, Virginia, in 1862. James was a member of the 11th Iowa, and was wounded in the battle of Shiloh, from the effects of which he died in 1863. The other two, Joseph and John, were also through the war, but escaped un- hurt. Mary Jane is the wife of John W. Guard, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Elizabeth Ann is the wife of Joseph Herron, of Clay City, Illinois, and Martha Matilda is the wife of Samuel Comer, of Moscow, Iowa. The father died in 1857, in Leesville, Carroll county, Ohio, and the mother, a most worthy lady, is still living, in the enjoyment of good health, in the family of her daughter at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
At the age of twelve years William Henry re- moved with his parents to Leesville, Carroll county, Ohio, where, by working in the summer months, he was enabled to pay his way through an academic course in the New Hagerstown Academy, in that county. At the age of sixteen he taught a district school for several winters.
From a very early period in his history he enter- tained a controlling desire to become a physician, and in 1847 an opportunity offered for preparation for the profession which had been the aim of his life. In that year he entered the office of Dr. John H. Stephenson, of Leesville, Ohio, where for four years he was a diligent student. Ambitious to at- tain to a full knowledge of the science of medicine, and indefatigable in his pursuit of experimental skill, he was in high favor with his preceptor, who during the last years of his pupilage was accus- tomed to place the knife into the hands of his pupil and superintend while the latter performed some of the most critical operations coming with- in the practice of a country physician of that day. Dr. Stephenson has often been heard to say that he would never relinquish the practice in Leesville until Dr. Baxter would remove there and take his place.
In 1850 Dr. Baxter commenced the practice of his profession at Leesville (without a college diplo- ma), and remained one year longer under the eye of his preceptor. In 1851 he removed to New Franklin, Harrison county, Ohio, where he practiced a year ; and in 1852 he immigrated to Moscow, Muscatine county, Iowa, where he practiced with very flatter- ing success for fifteen years. In 1867 he removed to Wilton, which has since been his home, where he has long since attained to the highest rank in the profession, and built up a large and lucrative prac- tice extending many miles into the country, and be- ing often called upon by his brother practitioners in other towns to consultations on the most serious and critical cases.
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In 1865 he attended a course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa, from which he graduated with honors; and during the winter following he graduated at the Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, receiving addendum de- gree. He is one of the assistant surgeons of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad, and at- tends to all the accidents occurring on the line in the vicinity of Wilton Junction. He is a member of the Muscatine County Medical Society, of the Iowa and Illinois Medical Association, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was president of the Iowa and Illinois Association in 1874, and in 1870 was a del- egate from Iowa to the national convention of the American Association held at Washington, District of Columbia, and served as the representative of his state on the committee for the nomination of officers for the ensuing year.
He is a member of the Masonic order, and has been twice master of Wilton lodge, No. 167, also a member of the Muscatine Chapter of Royal Arch Masons.
His religious views are orthodox, but he is not in union with any church, though an attendant of the services of the Presbyterian church, and is gener-
ous in his contributions toward religious and benev- olent objects generally. In politics, he is a republi- can of the radical school.
In personal appearance, the doctor is rather be- low the middle size, of fair and ruddy complexion and solid build, weighing one hundred and ninety pounds, of a bright and cheerful disposition. His presence and breezy manners in the sick room be- ing often not less beneficial to the desponding pa- tient than his professional treatment. He is known as a kind-hearted, whole-souled and generous gentle- man. He possesses considerable professional pride and courtesy, and is very highly esteemed by his brother practitioners for his eminent ability, skill and integrity. In a word, he is an amiable gentle- tleman and an exemplary citizen.
He has been twice married : on the 18th of Janu- ary, 1852, to Miss Matilda J., daughter of William Wright, Esq., of New Franklin, Harrison county, Ohio, by whom he has two children, Clara and Ida. She died on the 9th of February, 1863. On the 14th of April, 1864, he was married to Miss Mary Eliza- beth, daughter of Alexander Small, of Washington, Tazewell county, Illinois. They have had four chil- dren, one of whom died in infancy, and three sur- vive, namely, Nelly, Lizzy and Willie.
SANFORD W. HUFF, M. D.,
SIGOURNEY.
S ANFORD WILLIAMS HUFF was born in Hamburg, Erie county, New York, on the 25th of December, 1826, and is the son of Timothy Huff and Phebe née Potter. His father was born near Vergennes, Vermont, and removed, at the age of twenty-one years, to the wilderness known as the "Holland Purchase," which composed several of the westernmost counties of that great state, and in- cluding the sites of the present cities of Buffalo and Rochester. The former was but a village of a few rustic houses when, with knapsack in hand, this stalwart youth, six feet one in his stocking feet, hair black, dark eyes, and erect symmetrical figure, first set foot upon its streets as a pioneer of the newly- opened-up annexation to the state. Locating his claim of a tract of wild land purchased from the Holland Company, at their office in Buffalo, near the present thriving town of Hamburg, he com- menced opening up a farm. Success crowned his
industrious efforts, and he subsequently became a well-to-do farmer, and a man locally renowned for hi's integrity of character. He was often called upon to perform important public duties, and intrusted with responsible official positions. For many years he held a magistrate's commission, and "Esquire Huff's" court was always the synonyme of justice and impartiality. His death occurred in 1854.
The mother of our subject was Phebe Potter, a sparkling young Quakeress, daughter of Nathaniel Potter, descended from one of the solid old fami- lies of that persuasion, of New England historical stock, which suffered persecution and martyrdom at the hands of the Puritans of the Colonial days, in that era of religious intolerance which was marked by edicts of banishment, and often capital punish- ment, for heresies against orthodox creeds. Out of these persecutions grew a hatred of sectarianism in religion by this exemplary and otherwise amiable
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persuasion that lasted through generations, and which is still manifest in many of the descendants of the old stock. To the influence of his mother's liberal and genial views of christian duties may possibly be attributed the disinclination to the restraints of creeds, and the large and liberal views of christian duties, and the faith upon which they are based, so eminently characteristic of our subject.
The first of the family known to the American genealogical records is Angalus Huff, of German nativity. (The family chronicler has said German, but it has been thought by some branches of the fami- ly that this is an error of some copyist of the records in confounding in his own mind the terms Dutch and German, so common in conversation in this country; if so, it has served to make the extraction somewhat doubtful to all future generations). An- galus Huff seems to have been a man of consider- able local celebrity for his scholarship, which was thought remarkable for that early day and locality. He was also noted for his dashing horsemanship, and for his great longevity. He died in the one hundred and twenty-first year of his age.
The family records fade into indefiniteness for a generation or two after. The Huffs are next found on the banks of the Hudson, in Dutchess county, in one of the thriving neighborhoods of that ancient county, where the grandfather of our subject, John Huff, was born.
He joined the revolutionary army at the age of sixteen, and for the next six years he carried a musket. Except his participation in the battles of Saratoga and Brooklyn, little is known of his army career.
He returned home, after the achievement of the independence of the colonies, to find his father ruined in property by the devastations of the sev- eral armies.
He removed soon after to the newly formed state of Vermont, where he married, and where most of his children were born, including the father of our subject, who was one of the eldest of several broth- ers, and was educated under the sparing facilities of that then new state. However, the proclivity for education was predominant in the blood, and most of the children, especially the younger members, overcame the obstacles of the situation and ob- tained good educations, and became men and wom- en of more or less intellectual prominence.
The fruit of his marriage with Phebe Potter was five children, of whom our subject is the youngest,
and four of whom are still living : the oldest brother named Levi, two sisters and the doctor, each the head of a family, and residents of different states of the Union.
A sister, Mrs. Charlotte Gould, residing on a farm adjoining the homestead, remains the sole repre- sentative of the family in its native state of New York; while Adalia is the wife of a merchant named Scott, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
As the youngest of the family Sanford W. came into the world after the first wild roughness of pio- neer life had passed away. He grew up in vigorous usefulness on the farm, passing much of his boyhood, however, in the school-house on the hill. The Huff family, as noted above, were all lovers of knowledge.
Financial embarrassments which overtook the father in his declining days prevented in a measure the carrying out of a cherished design to give our subject the advantage of a thorough collegiate edu- cation, so that he was left to achieve his own mental discipline as best he could. He was able by dint of perseverance, economy and industry to avail himself of the advantages of academical schools. During his boyhood the state, by a legislative enactment, provided for the establishment of circulatory libra- ries in the school districts, of one of which his father became the custodian and librarian. To our sub- ject, who had been starving for something more to read than the few scattering books in the families of the neighborhood, this was a God-send. It was a fountain from which he drank largely, and upon which he grew intellectually. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo in the spring of 1851, and in the summer of the same year commenced practice as the partner of a prac- titioner of high standing in that city. But the severe application incident to his professional studies now began to recoil upon his health, demanding the more vigorous exercise, and healthful atmosphere of the country, and after twelve months of city practice he was obliged to flee to the country for dear life. Opening an office in the pleasant village of North Evans, in his native state, he was soon crowded with business that kept him in the saddle or the sulky al- most constantly, under the stimulus of which he grew strong and vigorous, regaining the ancestral vitality and physical development. In 1857 he removed to Iowa, and located at Iowa City. During the first two years of his western experience his attention was divided between his profession and outside op- erations and speculations, which in the main were
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