USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 69
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REV. GAMALIEL C. BEAMAN, KEOSAUQUA.
G T AMALIEL CARTER BEAMAN was born at Winchendon, Massachusetts, on the 20th of March, 1799, and was a son of Captain David Bea- man, of that place. He graduated at Union College and Andover Theological Seminary, and entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1831. He was married the same year to Elizabeth G. Jacobs, and removed to Piketon, Pike county, Ohio, and there organized a Presbyterian church ; became a prominent leader in the anti-slavery movement of those days, and par- ticipated in the conflict in that county with the pro- slavery element, coming near losing his life several times at the hands of pro-slavery mobs. While there, in 1834, his wife died.
In 1836 he was married to Emelia Crichton, who was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1814, and was a descendant of the Crichton family to which the Admiral Crichton belonged.
Mr. Beaman removed to Burlington, Lawrence
county, Ohio, in 1837, and for five years was princi- pal of the academy there.
In 1846 he removed to Montrose, Lee county, Iowa, and organized one of the pioneer Presbyterian churches in the midst of the Mormon settlements of that region. The Mormon war was then in pro- gress, and soon after the Mormon temple at Nauvoo, Illinois, just across the Mississippi river opposite Montrose, was burned, and a general exodus of Mor- mons took place. The temple stood upon an emi- nence about a mile from the river, which at that point is over a mile in width, making its distance from Montrose over two miles. Notwithstanding this distance a newspaper of the finest print could be easily read by the light of the burning temple, and for more than four miles in the surrounding country people got out of their beds and chickens crowed, supposing it to be daylight. The conflagra- tion occurred about two o'clock in the morning.
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Having placed the church at Montrose on a sure footing, and having, as it were, a desire for more aggressive work, he removed in 1852 to Croton, in the same county and on the Des Moines river, into the midst of the infidel colony of Abner Kneeland. Kneeland had been imprisoned in Boston, Massa- chusetts, a few years before for blasphemy, and on his release had sought this beautiful location when almost entirely unsettled, and had written to his friends in the east to come out and locate there, as he had found a place where there was "no priest, no God, no heaven, no hell."
Soon, however, he was overtaken by the onward march of Christianity, and Mr. Beaman organized there another pioneer church and planted the stand- ard of the cross in the very center of the infidel's stronghold. For twenty-one years the contest be- tween infidelity and religion was carried on ; several other churches were organized in the neighborhood by Mr. Beaman ; the influence and spread of infi- delity was checked, and finally its organization was wholly overthrown, its followers dead or scattered until almost every vestige of it has disappeared, and the benign influence of the religion of the Redeemer
is felt and revered where once the icy pall of atheism covered the land like a dark cloud.
Having thus accomplished a great work at that place, Mr. Beaman received a call in 1873 to return to his old charge at Montrose, which was accepted. He continued at Montrose until 1875, when, being quite old, his declining strength compelled him to desist from ministerial labors, which he had prose- cuted without cessation for forty-four years. This he did with great reluctance, having continued to preach as long as his strength enabled him to go from his house to the church.
In 1875, being evidently near the close of his life, he removed to the residence of his son, D. C. Bea- man, at Keosauqua, in Van Buren county, where on the 26th of October, 1875, he died a peaceful death, at the advanced age of seventy-six years, after an eventful and well spent life of more than forty-four years as a soldier of the cross, bearing its banner continually in the forefront of the conflict and upon the high places of the field.
He was always an advocate of temperance and abolitionism, and lived to see a part of his desire realized in the overthrow of slavery in this country.
DAVID C. BEAMAN,
KEOSAUQUA.
D AVID CRICHTON BEAMAN, was a son of Rev. Gamaliel C. Beaman, and was born at Burlington, Lawrence county, Ohio, on the 22d of November, 1838. He moved with his parents to Montrose, lowa, in 1846, and to Croton, lowa, in 1852.
He was educated at Denmark Academy, Iowa, and Oberlin College, Ohio, but did not take a regu- lar collegiate course nor graduate.
After leaving school, and in 1860, he entered the employ of a railroad company as station agent, that being at that time congenial to his taste.
He was married on the 31st of December, 1860, to Miss Luella A. Smith, daughter of Dabzell Smith, of St. Louis; granddaughter of Arthur Thome, of Athens, Missouri, and niece of Professor James A. Thome, of Oberlin College.
He removed in 1862 to Independent, Van Buren county, continuing in the employ of the railroad company until 1867. He then engaged in merchan- dising at Independent, in which he remained for
about two years. He began the study of the law, with the intention of adopting it as a profession, in 1867, having prosecuted it during the time he was engaged in other employment, being obliged to con- tinue in business as a means of support ; was admit- ted to the bar in September, 1869, at Keosauqua, and has been engaged in constant practice since that time.
In November, 1874, he removed to Keosauqua, and there formed a law partnership with Rutledge Lea, one of the most reputable firms in this part of the Des Moines valley. Their business is extensive and extending, built on their high character as law- yers and their integrity as men.
Coming from New England and Scotch ancestors, Mr. Beaman was naturally a republican in politics, and has always been an ardent supporter of repub- lican principles.
Prior to engaging in the practice of the law he had always taken a somewhat active part in politics, but since that time his attention has been almost
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wholly devoted to his profession. He has held several minor offices and responsible positions. He was the republican candidate for the legislature in Van Buren county in 1875, but was defeated by a small ma- jority. He attended the national republican con- vention in Cincinnati in 1876, when President Hayes was nominated. He belongs to the Masonic fra- ternity, having joined in 1876.
Mr. Beaman is a believer in the truth of Christi- anity, but is not a professor of religion. In moral character he is above suspicion, and is active in all commendable enterprises.
Mr. Beaman is a hard-working, methodical lawyer, of good judgment and knowledge of the law. As a speaker, he is conversational in style, but exhaustive, aiming to cover the whole case and leave no point of benefit untouched. In law, as in everything else, he does no slipshod work. He has been a resident of Keosauqua but three or four years, yet is thor- oughly known by the citizens, and his usefulness in the community seems to be well appreciated. The firm name of Lea and Beaman stands in this com- munity for a good deal of moral as well as legal weight.
DANIEL O. FINCH,
DES MOINES.
T HE subject of this sketch was born in Una- dilla, Otsego county, New York, on the 6th of June, 1829. His parents were David and Ruth Ann Finch, natives of Connecticut. His paternal grand- father, Ransom Mallory, was a captain in the revo- lutionary war, and, at its close, was married to Ruth Ann Wooster.
At the early age of eleven Mr. Finch was de- prived of the care and counsel of his father by death. Prior to this event he had attended the com- mon school in his own neighborhood, but shortly afterward he was sent by his mother to the Dela- ware Institute, at Franklin, Delaware county. Here he remained four years, and after attending the Ox- ford Academy, Chenango county, was qualified to enter the sophomore class in college. At that period, however, he gave up his hope for a classical educa- tion and commenced the study of law. For two years he remained in the office of Judge C. C. Noble, at his native place, when he entered the Fowler Law School, then at Cherry Valley. After graduating at this school he went to Poughkeepsie and remained there until November, 1847, when he left for the west, locating at Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin. The following spring he was admitted to the practice of his profession, being then nineteen years of age. Mr. Finch remained there for two years, diligently engaged in his profession. In the spring of 1851 he came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where, in addition to the duties of his profession, he edited a democratic paper.
On the 16th of September, 1851, he was married to Miss Ellen Maria Calder, daughter of Joseph
Calder, formerly of New York. Her parents were natives of England, but were married after coming to America. Her mother, whose maiden name was Keeling, has recently celebrated her seventy-seventh birthday. Mrs. Finch's grandfather, Keeling, was a very successful farmer, and had attained the ad- vanced age of ninety years when he was accidentally killed by the fall of a tree. He was a man of much influence, and owned one of the finest farms on Otsego Lake.
Mr. Finch was for some three years a member of the law firm of Ware, Finch and Co., of which com- pany Judge George Greene was a member. This latter gentleman was the author of "Greene's Re- ports," the first law book published in Iowa. In the spring of 1853 Mr. Finch closed his business affairs in Cedar Rapids, and the following summer removed to Des Moines, then a place of two hun- dred and fifty inhabitants. Here he at once engaged in the practice of law, being associated with Judge Curtis Bates. Mr. Finch was also interested in the banking business. In addition to the arduous labors these pursuits gave him, he found time to write many articles, and for some time was editor of the "Iowa Star." In 1855 Judge Bates left the.firm, and was succeeded by General M. M. Crocker. Since that time Mr. Finch has been associated with Judge Mitchell; Hon. J. A. Kasson, present United States minister to Austria; George Clark, Esq., now of Saint Louis; Byron Rice, and John D. River. His present partner is W. S. Sickman.
During the campaign of 1856 he was on the elec- toral ticket for Buchanan, and canvassed one half
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the counties in the state. In 1860 he was a dele- gate to the national democratic convention held at Charleston, and took an active part in the nomina- tion of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. In 1862 he ran for congress in the fifth district, but was defeated by a small majority. In 1864 he was a member of the same convention held at Chicago, and supported General George B. McClellan for the Presidency. When the convention was held in New York, in 1868, Mr. Finch was again a delegate, and an earnest sup- porter of Horatio Seymour. In 1876 he was chair- man of the Iowa delegation, in the national demo- cratic convention which met at Saint Louis, and was president of the democratic state convention in 1877.
Mr. Finch is one of the oldest law practitioners in Iowa, having been engaged in his profession some twenty-eight years. His practice, both civil and criminal, has been large, and he has been very suc- cessful. To his excellent oratory and earnest appli-
cation much of this is due. He attended the earliest courts in more than fifteen counties, some of which have since become the most populous and wealthy in Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Finch have always been faithful members of the Episcopal church, and have given their children a careful christian training. Their first-born son, Willie, died at the age of four years; the second son, Joseph Calder, has prepared himself for the Episcopal ministry,- he was born on the 8th of January, 1855; the next son, Daniel Mallory, born on the 17th of May, 1858, is at home and will probably adopt the profession of his father; Edward Douglas, born on the 15th of October, 1861, is in the Des Moines High School; the youngest, Charles Marcus, born on the 8th of February, 1864, is still in the city graded school. The boys are all intelli- gent and promise a good future, based on the train- ing given them in early childhood.
COLONEL MILO SMITH,
CLINTON.
C OLONEL MILO SMITH, financier, soldier, and one of the first railroad pioneers west of Chicago, was born on the 25th of January, 1819, in Shoreham, Addison county, Vermont. His ancestors were among the oldest families of the state, and came originally of a good old Saxon stock. He is the son of James Smith, and grandson of John Smith, a revolutionary hero, well known in his day for his disinterested patriotism and sterling integrity. The mother of Colonel Smith was a lady of great per- sonal worth and benevolence, who was highly es- teemed in all the relations of life ; her maiden name was Sarah Cochran. The family estate descended from the grandfather, who received it in considera- tion of services rendered during the war of inde- pendence. The original and only deed of the prop- erty is dated 1798. The farin upon which James Smith lived and died, at the age of eighty-five, was given to him in his boyhood; the domain is still in possession of the family, the property having been inherited by one of the sons. The longevity of this family is most remarkable : of eleven children, all but one attained the age of eighty-five. Colonel Smith, like his ancestors, is a man of strong and vigorous constitution, of a solid, compact organiza- tion, and a clear and active intellect.
His early education was received in the public schools, supplemented by a thorough and liberal course of instruction in the Newton Academy, a sci- entific and literary institution of some eminence in his native town.
During the four years subsequent to the age of sixteen his time was devoted alternately to laboring on the farm in summer, and in teaching school in winter.
At the age of twenty he left home, and, following the star of empire westward, reached Chicago in 1840. In this locality he devoted a few years, both as teacher and likewise as land surveyor, and sub- sequently settled in Belvidere, Boone county, Illi- nois. In 1848 when the first railroad enterprise was originated west of Chicago, he assisted as civil engi- neer in the construction of the first one hundred miles of the Galena and Chicago Union railroad. In 1852 he was appointed chief engineer and super- intendent of the Elgin and State Line railroad. In all these responsible positions his sterling quali- ties and marked ability have been conspicuously displayed. In 1855 he came to Iowa, and was made chief engineer and superintendent of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad. In this position his ability as a financier, and his skill as an engineer,
Do. Pinch
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were severely tasked. During the panic of 1857, all the directors having abandoned the road, Colonel Smith carried the company successfully and triumphantly through that financial crisis. To facilitate transpor- tation, and utilize the entire line already completed, he built a bridge across the east half of the Missis- sippi river, and constructed, at the same time, a boat- transfer to convey loaded cars over the west half. The enterprise was crowned with entire and perfect success. Although unprecedented and hitherto un- known to the engineering fraternity, the impediment to be overcome was the periodic rise and fall of the river of more than eighteen feet. It was neces- sary that the surface of the stream should be brought (when needed) on the same horizontal plane with the railroad track ; in short, it was a problem for the engineer to bring into practical harmony or union this rising and falling bosom of the river with the land-track of the road. By a most ingenious device Colonel Smith solved the problem, and was the first to bring it into practical application. The under- taking had been previously denounced by the oldest engineers as an impossibility, and the president of the road himself had so little faith in the success of the enterprise, that he pronounced its author crazy. The same opprobrious epithet, it will be remembered, was likewise applied to Mr. Stephenson, the father of railways. The world has too few such crazy men.
It is not easy, at this day, when the railroad system is thoroughly organized and acknowledged success- ful, to appreciate how onerous and responsible those duties were. The respective rights of the public and the road were yet undefined, and the immense labor of organization had all to be performed with- out the light of precedent or example. Although the company justly recognized that one mind must control the whole untrammeled by its interference or conflicting opinions, yet the bold and original plan practically executed by Colonel Smith was by many sound and cautious men deemed a hazardous and even chimerical experiment, likely enough to bankrupt its stockholders. In his broad and com- prehensive grasp of railroad interests he has few, if any, equals, and certainly no superiors. Hence for years he may be said to have been the autocrat of western railways, carrying his plans with little oppo- sition, and using his influence with such discretion that neither employés nor stockholders ever pre- ferred just ground of complaint against his manage- ment. It may not be inappropriate, in this connec- tion, to call attention to a fact not generally known,
that the American Zanzibar trade, on the east coast of Africa, is almost monopolized by a Salem, Massa- chusetts, man, Captain John Bertram, formerly pres- ident of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad, at the time Colonel Smith held the position of chief engineer and superintendent. It was chiefly through the action of this gentleman himself that the trade recently has been transferred to Boston, having been many years controlled by him against all American and foreign competition. Against the antagonism of such masterly minds as this Colonel Smith carried the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad through the panic of 1857, and continued to superintend the operation of the road after its completion to Cedar Rapids until leased to the Galena and Chi- cago Union railroad.
In 1862, a call having been made for three hun- dred thousand men, Governor Kirkwood, without his knowledge or solicitation, commissioned him colonel of the 26th Iowa Infantry. His military career has been equally varied and honorable, and characteristic of the man. He did not seek a posi- tion, but his country claimed his services, and duty and patriotism assigned him a place in the Union army.
His regiment formed a part of the first division of the fifteenth army corps, and continued in service until the close of the war. He was with General Sherman in his movements in and around Vicks- burg and Atlanta, and in his march to the sea; and during eighteen months he was in command of the first brigade of the first division of that corps. His distinguished services have won for him just enco- miums from his brother officers and government offi- cials. Although his acknowledged military talents and ability justly entitled him to promotion, yet the marked modesty of his character induced him to decline all advancement and remain with the men he had led to the field. Prominent and foremost in all civil enterprises, and equally so in military undertakings, he led his men in all the services they rendered, as three honorable wounds will ever bear sufficient record and ample testimony. Since the close of the rebellion he has been engaged in various railroad enterprises, and in building up Clinton, the city of his adoption. His energy, foresight, thorough- ness of action, and ability to overcome all obstacles, are proverbial. Nothing that he undertakes is a failure. From the moment that he grasps an enter- prise, be it regarded by other minds as a chimera, or at best but of doubtful expediency, from that mo-
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ment it acquires a life, a character and a success. He has invariably declined every solicitation to take office, preferring the reputation of a worthy and pri- vate citizen.
In politics, Colonel Smith is a decided republican, although not strictly a partisan.
His religious views are liberal, and although not a member, is a regular attendant of the Episcopal church.
In 1847 he married Mary J. Dodge, of Shirley, Massachusetts, who was lost on the steamer Atlan- tic, on Lake Erie, in 1852. He was again united in
| matrimony with Miss D. E. Oatman in 1854. After a few years of conjugal happiness, this lady died in 1868. He is now living with his third wife, for- merly Mrs. C. A. Baker, to whom he was married in 1869. He has no children living.
Colonel Smith is emphatically a self-made man. He may be described as the embodiment of the genius of young America. Bold and successful in all his undertakings, by his never-questioned ability and indefatigable industry he has secured wealth, and at the same time maintained a high reputation for integrity and benevolence.
JAMES C. TRAER, M.D.,
VINTON.
T HE oldest settler and first physician in Vinton, Benton county, Iowa, is James Clarkson Traer, a native of Knox county, Ohio. His birth dates the 7th of September, 1825, he being a son of James Traer, then a farmer in the town of Berlin, and Par- thenia Fletcher. His paternal grandfather, William G. Traer, a native of London, came to this country prior to the revolution, and was a soldier in General Montgomery's army when that brave commander fell. At the close of the war he settled in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and lost his life by the blow- ing up of a powder-mill. The Fletchers were of Irish descent, settling at first in western Pennsyl- vania, and after the second war with England mov- ing into Ohio.
James C. remained in Knox county until twenty years of age, working on his father's farm, with win- ter schooling, until sixteen, and no education except what he picked up after that date. He was not idle, however, and by the careful husbanding of leisure time prepared himself, as it will be seen, for a life of diversified pursuits.
His father moved to West Liberty, Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1844, and the son followed the next year, aiding his father in breaking and improving wild land one season. In the spring of 1846 he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Henry Mer- edith, of Rochester, Cedar county, continuing such studies two years. Practiced at Cedar Rapids from 1848 to 1851, and in August of the latter year made a permanent settlement in Vinton. There was then on the town plat one man, who soon left, and there were not more than five hundred people in Benton
county. At the election twelve months later the county had only four organized towns, and cast one hundred and twenty votes. Vinton had been desig- nated as the county seat three years prior, and when Dr. Traer settled there only three buildings of any kind had been erected. John S. Tilford laid out the town that year, and moved his family thither the next year.
After practicing three years Dr. Traer opened a drug and grocery store; in February, 1856, started a bank, with George Greene, of Cedar Rapids, and others, and has been in that business steadily for twenty-one years. At first the firm was Greene, Traer and Co., and afterward J. C. Traer and Co., and still later Traer and Williams; for the last few years it has been Traer Brothers, J. W. Traer, a prominent railroad man. being his partner.
Mr. Traer read law in 1856 and 1857; was admit- ted to the bar of Benton county in the spring of 1858, and has done an extensive legal and collecting busi- ness. In 1861 and 1862 he was in partnership with Colonel William Smyth, of Marion, Linn county, and Buren R. Sherman, of Vinton, now auditor of the state, the firm name being Smyth, Traer and Sher- man. Latterly the firm has been Traer and Burn- ham, the junior member being G. W. Burnham, late of Ohio. Their legal and collecting business is very extensive, and constantly growing. Mr. Traer makes a success of every branch he embarks in.
He has a stock farm near town, under the man- agement of Thomas Wright, a native of England, and an experienced cattle-raiser, who has an interest in the short-horn cattle, the Berkshire, Poland-China
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and Yorkshire hogs, and other blooded stock, on this farm.
Mr. Traer was in the constitutional convention which was held at Iowa City, January-March, 1857, and was one of the youngest members of that body. He represented the twenty-fifth district, embracing Benton, Buchanan, Black-Hawk and part of Linn counties, Hosea W. Gray, of Linn county, being with him in the same body, representing the twenty- fourth district, Linn alone. Mr. Traer was clerk of the district court in 1852 and 1853, and has been mayor of the city two years. He rarely seeks office, is contented with private life and the honor of being a straightforward, first-class business man.
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