USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 83
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side, where he is now found, he owning that whole side of the square. The store which he occupies is twenty-two feet by eighty-three feet, with warehouses and store-rooms not far off. Excepting a few weeks, he has dealt in general merchandise during twenty- six years. From carrying one hundred and fifty dollars' worth of stock at the start, he gradually extended his business until he carries thirty-five thousand dollars.
While engaged in trade, Mr. Kilburn also deals more or less in real estate; has owned five farms at one time, and now has two. One of these he im- proves himself, the other one he rents. He deals also in live stock, handling from fifty thousand to seventy thousand dollars' worth per annum.
Mr. Kilburn married his first wife, Miss Sarah Chandler, in Hartland, Vermont; they were united in June, 1841, Mrs. Kilburn dying in February, 1870, leaving three daughters, all now married. Mary H. is the wife of William A. Moody, of Knoxville, Iowa; Abigail S. is the wife of Dr. J. C. Tribbet, of Monte-
zuma, and Sarah is the wife of Judge Blanchard, of Oskaloosa. Mr. Kilburn's present wife was Mrs. Mary F. Ferry, of Newton, Iowa, married in Febru- ary, 1871 ; she has one child.
Mr. Kilburn has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since fourteen years of age, and bears not only an unsullied but truly enviable repu- tation for probity and purity of character. He has been an office holder in the church most of the time since residing in Iowa. Political offices he has. always shunned; he votes the republican ticket.
Mr. Kilburn, who early became inured to hard work, seems to love it still. He has great energy of body and mind, and, coupled with industry, it has led him on to success. He has kept steadily at his business, has attended to its minutest details, has let no threads run loose and nothing needlessly run to waste; and hence, while possessed of a good share of christian benevolence, and showing commend- able liberality and kindness to the poor, he has ac- quired a comfortable independence.
HON. WILLIAM M. STONE,
KNOXVILLE.
W TILLIAM MILO STONE, governor of Iowa for four years, is a native of Jefferson county, New York, and was born on the 14th of October, 1827. His father, Truman Stone, a farmer in early life, is yet living, his home being in Knoxville. The Stones were from England, and settled in New Eng- land. The mother of William M. was Lovina North, and his great-grandfather on both sides of the family was in the seven years' struggle for independence. His grandfather, Aaron Stone, was in the second war with England.
Truman Stone moved to Lewis county, New York, when the son was a year old, and six years later to Coshocton county, Ohio. The subject of this brief memoir never attended a school of any kind more than twelve months; in boyhood he was a team- driver two seasons on the Ohio canal. At seventeen he was apprenticed to the chair-maker's trade, and followed that business until twenty-three years of age, reading law meantime during his spare hours, wherever he happened to be. He commenced at Coshocton, with James Mathews, who afterward be- came his father-in-law; continued his readings with General Lucius V. Pierce, of Akron, and finished with
Ezra B. Taylor, of Ravenna. He was admitted to the bar in August, 1851, by Peter Hitchcock and Rufus P. Ranney, supreme judges holding a term of court at Ravenna.
After practicing three years at Coshocton with his old preceptor, James Mathews, he in November, 1854, settled in Knoxville, where he is practicing in the firm of Stone and Ayres, the leading law firm in the place.
The year after locating here Mr. Stone purchased the Knoxville " Journal," and was one of the prime movers in forming the republican party in Iowa, be- ing the first editor to suggest a state convention, which met on the 22d of February, 1856, and com- pleted the organization. In the autumn of the same year he was a Presidential elector on the republican ticket.
In April, 1857, Mr. Stone was chosen judge of the eleventh judicial district, consisting of Madison, Dallas, Warren, Polk, Jasper, Marion, Mahaska and Poweshiek counties ; was elected judge of the sixth district when the new constitution went into opera- tion in 1858, and was serving on the bench when the American flag was stricken down at Fort Sumter. At
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that time, April, 1861, he was holding court in Fair- field, Jefferson county, and when the news came of the insult to the old flag he immediately adjourned court and prepared for what he believed to be more important duties - duties to his country. In May, 1861, he enlisted as a private ; was made captain of company B, 3d Iowa Infantry, and was subsequently promoted to major. With that regiment he was at the battles of Blue Mills, Missouri, in September, 1861, where he was wounded. At Shiloh he com- manded the regiment, and was taken prisoner. By order of Jefferson Davis he was patrolled for the space of forty days, with directions to repair to Washing- ton, and if possible secure an agreement for a cartel for a general exchange of prisoners, and to return as a prisoner if he did not succeed. Failing to secure his end within the period specified, he returned to Richmond and had his patrol extended fifteen days ; repairing again to Washington, he effected his pur- pose, and was exchanged. In August, 1862, he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood colonel of the 22d Iowa Infantry, and participated in the battles of Port Gibson, where he commanded a brigade, Cham- pion Hills, Black River, and in the charge on Vicks- burg on the 22d of May, 1863, when he was again wounded, receiving a gunshot in his left forearm. He and his whole regiment showed great bravery on that occasion, but the gallant boys were fearfully cut up, having one hundred and five men killed or wounded in less than five minutes.
Colonel Stone commanded a brigade until the last of August, when, being ordered to the Gulf depart- ment, he resigned. He had become very popular with the people of Iowa, and they were determined to make him governor. He was nominated in a republican convention held at Des Moines in June, 1863 ; elected by a large majority, and two years later was reëlected. He made a very energetic and efficient executive.
He was brevetted brigadier-general in 1864, after having been elected governor.
Governor Stone is now a member of the general assembly, having been elected in October, 1877.
He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order.
In May, 1857, he married Miss Caroline Mathews, a native of Ohio, then residing at Knoxville. They have one child, William A., a student of Iowa College at Grinnell. Mrs. Stone is a member of the Presby- terian church, where the family attend worship.
The history of Governor Stone shows that under a republican form of government there is no royal road to eminence. Beginning life as a farmer's chore boy and a mule-driver on a tow-path, working his way up through a cabinet-shop to the bar, he had not been in Iowa thirty months before he was on the bench. While on the bench he doffed the ermine for the musket, and then the sword, and in thirty months more was governor-elect of Iowa. It is enough to add that he has deserved all the honors bestowed upon him.
BENJAMIN F. SHAW,
AN AMOSA.
B ENJAMIN FIELD SHAW is a son of Rufus Shaw, an architect and builder, and Amy Med- bury, and was born in Utica, New York, on the 12th of February, 1830. His branch of the Shaw family early settled in New England. Rufus Shaw moved with his family to New Berlin, Chenango county, when Benjamin was two years old, and the son lived with his grandparents several years, he losing his mother when he was nine years old. His education was limited to the common schools, though he ac- quired no inconsiderable amount of knowledge out- side the recitation room, and has always been in- clined to study.
to the United States at the end of four years, and soon afterward starting wagon-shops at Stillwell Prai- rie and Kingsbury, Indiana, and continuing the bus- iness three years. During this period he acquired a knowledge of the daguerrean business, and afterward traveled awhile in Illinois and Wisconsin, also teach- ing music, vocal and band, continuing it at intervals for seventeen years. After traveling five years as an artist and musician, he engaged in buying lumber and shipping it down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers.
In 1858 Mr. Shaw came to Jones county, Iowa, and in October of the next year settled at Anamosa, which has since been his residence. He was county superintendent of schools in 1859 and 1860; became
At seventeen years of age he went to Canada, learning the blacksmith and joiner's trade, returning ; proprietor of the Fisher House in October, 1859,
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and remained in it between two and three years. About this period, having part ownership in a quarry of superior stone near the city of Anamosa, and thinking it would be a feasible point at which to lo- cate a penitentiary, he with others began to agitate the question of the location of such an institution at this place. He began to build side-tracks from the Dubuque Southwestern railroad ; put up a perpetual limekiln, and commenced developing the quarry. The result of this movement on his part and a few other men was the penitentiary at Anamosa, opened about four years ago.
In 1874 Mr. Shaw was appointed one of the three fish commissioners of the state, an office created at the session of the general assembly held in January- March of that year, and he still holds that office, he being the sole commissioner since 1876. It was a fortunate appointment, for no other man in the State . of Iowa has taken so much interest in fish culture or done so much to interest the people in the sub- ject. He may be called an enthusiast in the science, he having made it his careful study for years.
Mr. Shaw inherited in a large degree the mechan- ical talent of his father, and has recently invented a fishway that is of a superior quality. Michigan, which has probably paid more attention to fish cul- ture than any other state in the west, has recently, after examining a dozen inventions of the kind, adopted his, and is introducing it into her streams.
Commissioner Shaw was a very useful man in Jones county before his services were required by the state in the direction here indicated. He was a member of the school board of the city of Anamosa, and its president four or five years, and has held other offices in the municipality.
He is master-workman of the Anamosa Lodge of United Workmen.
Mr. Shaw has uniformly affiliated with the demo- cratic party, but of late years has given but little attention to politics.
His wife was Miss Olive Burlingame, of Chenango county, New York; married on the 21st of May, 1851. They have had four children, three of them yet living.
HON. ROBERT G. REINIGER,
CHARLES CITY.
R OBERT GEORGE REINIGER, the present judge of the twelfth circuit, is a son of Gus- tavus Reiniger, a farmer, still living in Seneca coun- ty, Ohio, where Robert was born, on the 12th of April, 1835. His mother was Rosa Durr, and both parents were from Germany. Robert prepared for college at Tiffin, near his home; entered Heidelberg College, in that city, in 1853; pursued miscellaneous studies for three years, reading law at the same time, and was admitted to the bar at that place in Septem- ber, 1856.
His elder brother, Gustavus G., had been settled in Charles City, Iowa, more than a year, and hither Robert bent his steps, reaching the city, then but a small village, on the 3d of March, 1857. The brothers formed a partnership in the law and real- estate business ; started out well, preserved a high character for promptness, integrity and ability, and built up an excellent reputation in a few years. On the rst of August, 1858, I. W. Card joined them, and the firm of Reiniger, Card and Reiniger con- tinued until the rst of January, 186r:
In May, 1861, Mr. Reiniger enlisted in the state
service in one of the first companies formed in this part of the Cedar valley; but the regiment it was designed for was full, and not till the July following did he get into the United States service, going out as first lieutenant of company B, 7th Iowa Infantry. He was promoted to captain in the spring of 1863, soon after the battle of Shiloh, and served until October, 1864.
Returning to Charles City, he resumed his pro- fessional labors, continuing with his brother until 1865, when Gustavus G. Reiniger removed to Union, Missouri, and Robert practiced alone.
On the roth of October, 1870, he was commis- sioned by the governor, circuit judge to fill a vacan- cy caused by the resignation of Judge Ruddick, who was appointed district judge. At the succeeding general election, in October, 1871, Judge Reiniger was elected by the people to fill the rest of the un- expired term, and was reëlected in 1872 and 1876, still holding that office.
As a jurist, he is cautious, conscientious and can- did; has his prejudices, like other men, but lays them aside on the bench, and is impartial in his 'de-
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cisions. His honesty, we believe, was never ques- tioned.
A legal association was formed in the twelfth judi- cial district in 1871, and he was made its president ; he is likewise president of the Charles City Chess Society.
In 1876 Judge Reiniger purchased the interest of Judge Fairfield in a private bank, and, in company with W. D. Balch and others, under the firm name of Reiniger and Balch, is doing a good business. He is a stockholder and director of the Charles City Water Power Company, and has considerable town property, having never dealt in any other; and in every branch of business he is a success. He has one of the finest brick houses and most elegant home in the corporation.
He has always acted with the republican party ; is a Royal Arch Mason; attends the Congregational church, and has a pure life record.
His wife was Mary E., daughter of Dr. William M. Palmer, of Charles City. They were married on the 18th of November, 1867, and have no children.
Gustavus G. Reiniger, of whom we have spoken, and who was a resident of Charles City from 1855 to 1865, was a brilliant lawyer for years at the head of the Floyd county bar. He read law at Tiffin, Ohio, and was one of the first attorneys to settle in Charles City. Legally and intellectually, as well as morally, his shoulders were broad and high, and it was to the deep regret of many friends that he left Iowa.
He died in Union, Missouri, on the 5th of Octo- ber, 1869, leaving a widow and five children. The writer of this sketch became acquainted with him and his brother Robert as early as 1859, and haz- ards nothing in saying that as long as he lived in | Iowa, Gustavus G. Reiniger honored the legal pro- fession.
JOEL W. SMITH, M. D., CHARLES CITY.
O NE of the oldest practicing physicians in Floyd county, Iowa, and a man of excellent reputa- tion, is Joel W. Smith, a native of New York, and son of Silas and Lydia (Gillett) Smith. He was born in the town of Franklin, Delaware county, on the 23d July, 1824. His paternal ancestors were from England, and among the early settlers in New England. The Gilletts, it is believed, were origi- nally from Wales. Joel was educated at the Del- aware Literary Institute in Franklin, at that time one of the best institutions of the kind in the State of New York, noted for the excellent scholarship of the young men there fitted for college. At twenty-two he began studying medicine under the auspices of ex-Governor Peters, of Hebron, Connecticut, and finished with Dr. William Detmold, of New York city, teaching part of the time to defray expenses. He attended lectures at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and in the medical department of Yale College, graduating from the latter institution in January, 1850. The year before and after graduating he took special courses of study in New York city.
Thus thoroughly prepared to operate in the heal- ing art, Dr. Smith settled at Croton, in his native county, remaining there between six and seven years, and in March, 1857, settled in Charles City. Here
for twenty years he has steadily adhered to his pro- fession, and has built up a wide practice. No phy- sician in Floyd county is better known, and none, probably, is so highly esteemed for his skill and personal character. In surgery he has no superior in this part of the state, and some of his cases show special skill.
In 1862 Dr. Smith was offered a position as sur- geon in one of the Iowa regiments, but could not accept it. In June, 1864, during the severe fighting in Virginia, he volunteered to join General Grant's army as a volunteer surgeon, and reached New York city early in July, where he learned that his services were not then needed.
He has been United States examining surgeon for many years, during and since the war.
Dr. Smith was postmaster from 1861 to 1869, but he did not relinquish his medical practice, clerks attending to much of his official business. He was president of the school board for several years, and is very active in educational matters, and in what- ever pertains to the literary, moral, social, material and sanitary interests of the community.
He is a member of the district and state medical societies, and of the American Medical Association, and read a paper before the latter body at its ses-
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sion of 1877. He is a reading, thinking, progressive man, and contributes to several of the medical peri- odicals. He was also a member of the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia in 1876.
In religious belief he is liberal, but wholly un- sectarian in his views. He is not a member of any secret societies, owing more to want of time than from any prejudice upon the subject.
On the 4th of April, 1850, Dr. Smith was joined in wedlock with Miss Susan M. Wheat, only daughter of the late William Wheat, Esq., and Alta Wolcott
Wheat, both of New England. They have had six children, all but one of them still living. Irving W., the eldest son, was educated at the Iowa State Agri- cultural College, and the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; is married, is in practice with his father, and is a young man of much promise. In July, 1877, he received an appointment as physi- cian at the Kiowa Indian agency. Ida E., the only daughter, is the wife of L. W. Noyes, of Batavia, Illinois. Three boys, all under fifteen, are being educated at home.
LIEUTENANT JOHN CHANEY, OSCEOLA.
JOHN CHANEY was born in Monroe county, Indiana, on the 4th of July, 1832. His father, Francis Chaney, was a native of Randolph county, North Carolina, and was born in March, 1796. He was taken from North Carolina to Tennessee when he was twelve years of age. He became a practical mechanic and farmer. His mother's maiden name was Rachel Elban. Mr. Francis Chaney married this lady at Harrison county, Indiana, in 1831.
John Chaney went to school at intervals until he was thirteen years of age, when he learned his father's trade of blacksmithing, which he worked at until he was twenty-one. He then went to college at Mount Pleasant until he was twenty-four. Upon leaving this college he commenced the study of law in the office of Colonel Dungan, at Chariton, Lucas county, Iowa, and also taught school. He continued to read law and teach school for several years, and on the 19th of July, 1862, he entered the Union army, and was mustered in as second lieutenant of company K of the 34th Iowa regiment, and was subsequently advanced to the first lieutenancy, in which position he remained during the entire war. Lieutenant Chaney is one of the very rare examples of hair-breadth escapes from the imminent deadly peril of the battle-field. He was almost continu- ously in action, marched over fifteen thousand miles, was never injured in the least by the enemy, and was always physically able to report for duty.
We propose to narrate the leading events which occurred in Lieutenant Chaney's regimental action in connection with the war of the rebellion, and with- out any expressed desire that we do so on the part of the gallant lieutenant. His regiment was connect-
ed with the thirteenth army corps. The 34th Iowa served with General Sherman on his first attack on Vicksburgh. Thence they went to Arkansas river, where they captured about five thousand prisoners. The regiment was then detailed, in company with four companies of Illinois soldiers, to escort these prisoners to Camp Douglas, Chicago. The regi- ment then recruited at St. Louis; they were there from the 14th of February until the 13th of April, when they were ordered to report at Iron Knob, Missouri, to repel an attack of General Marma- duke's rebel forces; there they remained till the 6th of June, when they were ordered to join the siege against Vicksburgh, under General Grant. On the surrender of Vicksburgh the thirteenth army corps was ordered to New Orleans to join the nineteenth corps, commanded by General Banks. A detach- ment of this corps, including the 34th Iowa, was then ordered to proceed to Morganza, on the Mis- sissippi river. They subsequently returned to New Orleans, and on the 25th day of November the whole corps embarked for Brazos, Santiago. This fleet consisted of twenty vessels, which was overtaken by a terrible storm the first night out, which sepa- rated it. The thirteenth corps were, however, among the first that landed on the island. The corps here marched up the Rio Grande river to Brownsville, opposite to Matamoras, where they remained for three days. At this time a division of this corps, including the 34th Iowa, was ordered to reconnoitre the coast. The division was landed on the west end of St. Joseph's Island, where they remained about a week, and then marched up the coast to Cedar Pass, where they had a skirmish, and crossed the pass on
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to Mattagorda Island; marched up that island to Fort Esperanza, where a desperate action was fought, and the fort captured, on the 22d of December, 1863. Here they remained and fortified the post, and con- structed five forts across the island. The division was then ordered to reinforce General Banks at Alexandria, Louisiana, on the Red river. Here they took part in several sharp engagements. It became necessary to dam the river at this point, which was done under the direction of General Baily. They then embarked on boats, and proceeded to Mor- ganza, from whence they embarked for Baton Rouge. From here they went to New Orleans, and again embarked on gulf steamers on Lake Pontchartrain, and landed on Dauphin's Island on the 3d of August, 1864; captured Fort Gaines, and then crossed the pass in vessels to Fort Morgan, and captured that place. Here they remained until the latter part of August, and then embarked on their vessels and re- turned to Morganza, on the Mississippi river, and encamped there for two months, during which time they had several engagements on the Atchafalaya river, at which place they were ordered to reëmbark and proceed to the mouth of the White river, in Arkansas, where they remained in camp for several weeks, at which time the regiment was consolidated into a battalion. Here they embarked again, and returned to Morganza, and while there they were consolidated with the 38th Iowa regiment. In Feb- ruary, 1865, they embarked for Pensacola, Florida, where they remained until the toth of March. Here the corps were united with six thousand colored troops, and placed under command of General Steel, and marched to Pollard, in Alabama, at the junction of the Mobile, Montgomery and Pensacola railroads. They captured this post and then marched on Fort Blakeley, which they invested and laid siege, charged the works, and captured them about the 13th of
April, 1865. Here they remained for several days, and then embarked for Montgomery, Alabama. When they reached Selma, Alabama, they met a dispatch boat from the rebel general Johnson, with dispatches advising the rebel general Taylor, then in command on the Tombigbee river, about forty miles from Selma, to surrender. They remained at Selma, and about nine o'clock that night they received a dis- patch from General Taylor that he would surrender. Here they remained for about two weeks, and were then ordered to return to Mobile, from which place they were ordered to Texas, landing at Galveston in July, 1865. Here the 34th Iowa was ordered to Houston, Texas, where they remained until the Ist of September, when they were mustered out of the service, being ordered to Davenport, Iowa, where they received their pay and final discharge. Not more than three hundred and forty of the original 34th regiment were then alive.
Almost as soon as he returned home, Lieutenant Chaney commenced the study of law, and was ad- mitted to the bar in the spring of 1867, and came to Osceola, where he opened an office on the 20th of June, 1867. Lieutenant Chaney has had a very fair success in business, and is a very popular man in and out of court. Despite the privations, exposures and sufferings of his long and arduous campaign, Lieutenant Chaney is now in the meridian of his life, full of health and exuberant spirits.
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