USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 91
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Such is a brief outline of the military career of Hiram Scofield, a career second to that of but few heroes of the war, and of which his state and coun- ty, no less than his immediate friends and relatives, may well be proud.
On his retirement from the war he resumed the practice of his profession at Washington, Iowa, in partnership with his brother William, also a lawyer of high standing, and has long since taken the high- est rank at the bar of his adopted state.
In politics, the general was raised in the demo- cratic faith, though always opposed to slavery, and at the outbreak of the rebellion found his place in the republican party, where he has since remained, except in 1872, when he favored the election of Horace Greeley to the Presidency. He was a presi- dential elector, and voted for General Grant in 1868.
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He has also filled the office of city solicitor of Wash- ington for several years. He has never been con- nected with any secret societies.
He was raised under Presbyterian influence, and still prefers that branch of christianity, but is not in union with any church.
In personal appearance, General Scofield is of dark complexion, full beard, regular features, and intellectual countenance ; five feet eleven inches in height, and weighing one hundred and eighty-five pounds. His habits are studious, and he loves re- tirement and quiet, though ambitious and desirous of success.
As a lawyer, he is thoroughly read, gentlemanly and dignified, always trying his cases upon their merits and the law governing them.
As a military man, he was brave, skillful and pa- triotic. Entirely loyal, and desirous to do his whole duty to his country, he was contented to serve in any capacity where his superiors might be pleased to place him, or his services could be most useful.
As a disciplinarian, he was stern and unyielding, and his command was noted for order and punctili-
ous compliance with every military regulation, yet he was always approachable and sympathetic.
As a politician, while he has been an uncompro- mising abolitionist, and consequently a republican, yet principles rather than party measures have always received his approval. His prospects for an election to congress, once second to none, were sacrificed to his unswerving devotion to principle. Of late he has, therefore, eschewed party affiliations, supporting only such men and measures as meet his approval.
As a citizen, he is quiet and unostentatious, cor- dially indorsing and supporting any measure of real public benefit.
In the selection of his books he shows a taste for the unique as well as the valuable, and has gathered in his library many volumes prized alike for age, quaintness or literary merit. In converse with these he spends most of the time snatched from profes- sional labor.
In October, 1856, he married Miss Amelia B. Wil- son, daughter of Henry Wilson, of Iowa county, Iowa, formerly of Ontario county, New York, by whom he has two children, Clara B. and Cora J.
LEVI B. NELSON,
TOLEDO.
A MONG the younger business men of Toledo, no one has made a better record than Levi Buel Nelson. His career is all the more praiseworthy because he had no school privileges after he was thirteen years old, yet educated himself for respon- sible positions, and has shown himself possessed of uncommon business talents and capabilities. He is a son of Seth B. Nelson, a physician, and Jane Gray Graham, and was born at Horsehead, Chemung county, New York, the 4th of May, 1838, he now being in his fortieth year. Seth B. Nelson moved to Tioga county about 1843, and there his son lived until seventeen, clerking in a dry-goods store as soon as he was large enough to be of any service. Being cut off from school privileges at an early age, he educated himself, securing a good business outfit.
On the 31st of March, 1856, young Nelson reached his present home, and two days afterward became deputy recorder and treasurer of Tama county, hold- ing that position until July, 1861. On the 22d of that month he was mustered into the United States service as sergeant of company C, roth Iowa Infant-
ry. He was immediately assigned duty in the adju- tant's office, and was soon designated by the colonel to act as his aid. The latter place he held until the colonel resigned. Mr. Nelson was mustered out in September, 1862, because of ill health.
Returning to Toledo, he went into the hardware business, combining with it agricultural implements and real estate. In 1869 he sold out his mercantile interests, continuing real estate and the loan agency until the present time with good success. He has a partner, Mr. C. P. N. Barker, who attends to this department.
In the spring of 1873 the Toledo Savings Bank was organized, Mr. Nelson was appointed its cashier, and the duties of that office still occupy his undi- vided and close attention. It is a popular institution which he is managing, and its success is owing in no small measure to his method of conducting it. There is no better business man in Toledo.
In politics, Mr. Nelson was a liberal in 1872; be- fore that time was, and since has been, a republican. He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, and
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a member of the Congregational church, acting as trustee in the latter society. He is active in the Sunday-school, warm and generous hearted, and in all respects a valuable citizen.
On the 20th of October, 1866, he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza M. Hendry, of Delaware county, New York. They have had three children,
and, including an adopted son, have three living. Mrs. Nelson was educated at a private school in New Haven, Connecticut. Previous to the Ameri- can revolution her paternal great-grandfather and his two brothers were taken prisoners in Delaware county, New York; the brothers were killed, and he was taken to Canada and there died in prison.
HON. DELANO T. SMITH, MARSHALLTOWN.
D ELANO T. SMITH, real-estate dealer and fine stock raiser in Marshall county, Iowa, and dur- ing the rebellion one of the active, useful friends of the republic, is a native of New York, his birth dat- ing at Litchfield, Herkimer county, the 6th of No- vember, 1830. His father was a man of unusual natural powers, of great industry, energy and enter- prise, owning at different times several farms in the vicinity where he lived. Most of these farms were bought more to afford homes and business for rela- tives and friends than for speculative purposes, an act of benevolence and enterprise which, owing to the great financial crisis of 1837, came nigh costing him all of his hard-earned gains. He died in 1844 of inflammatory disease, caused by overwork, after a sickness of only ten days, being the only illness of his life, leaving a widow and three sons, Irving D., Delano T., and Melville C. The subject of this sketch was then thirteen years of age. His mother, Mrs. Julia Smith, succeeded to the management of the estate, and most of.the land was sold and the debts paid, leaving the family in possession of the homestead of some two hundred acres. Mrs. Smith managed the farm and reared her three children with marked ability, was a devoted mother, and one of the most generous and large hearted women in the country. Her son Irving is now among the largest farmers in Iowa, and the Hon. Melville C. Smith one of the most enterprising and prominent business men and politicians in the city of New York. She died in Iowa in May, 1876, at the age of seventy, having spent the last few years of her life with the subject of bis sketch.
Delano gave his youth to the cultivation of land and his own mind, finishing his school education at the Clinton Liberal Institute, commencing to teach at sixteen, while pursuing his academic course. He taught five years, first in Herkimer and later in the
high schools of Ontario and Wayne counties, steadily the first two or three years, and later only a part of the time, giving the residue to the study of law. He read with Hon. James C. Smith, of Lyons, Wayne county, now judge of the supreme court, residing in Canandaigua. He finished his legal studies at the National Law School, Ballston Spa, and was admitted to the bar at Albany, New York, in 1852.
After practicing a year in the village of Herkimer with Judge Graves, he moved to Dixon, Illinois; was two years in company there with H. J. Sibley and Colonel C. N. Levanway, prominent attorneys since deceased ; and in 1855 removed to Minneapolis, Min- nesota. In June of that year the land there was made subject to preëmption, and he engaged largely in real estate, continuing the business there some ten years with marked success. He was elected to the territorial legislature in 1857, and was also a member of the senate during the first two years after Minnesota was admitted as a state.
Among the many favorable notices of Mr. Smith found in the Minnesota papers we insert the follow- ing :
Hon. D. T. Smith ... left Washington about two weeks since, where he has been occupying a responsible post in the treasury department. He is also the president of the sanitary commission, which has done and is still doing so much for the relief of our wounded and suffering soldiers; and Mr. Smith has in some instances taken the wounded into his own house, and, assisted by his estimable lady, has given them the best of care and attention. The blessings of those who were ready to perish be upon him.
This, after his unanimous nomination in Minne- sota for the senate :
Mr. Smith is a true friend of the workingmen every- where, and they may rely with unwavering confidence upon his defense of their interests in the legislature. Talented, honest, industrious and prudently progressive, he will be elected by those who have the interests of Hennepin county at heart, and will stand up an embodiment of the integrity and intelligence of that county in the senate of the State of Minnesota,
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He was a prominent actor in shaping the laws of that state, and his valuable services have not been forgotten by its citizens. At a subsequent period. when he and his brother were about to take up their abode in New York, the "Minnesota State Atlas" thus spoke of their departure :
HONS. DELANO T. AND MELVILLE C. SMITH .- Last week we alluded to the fact that the above named Minne- sotians contemplated moving to New York city, and ex- pressed our regret that the state was to lose two so worthy and prominent citizens. We are glad to learn that although they are to establish a business office in New York they will retain most of their interest in Minnesota, and may still be considered as largely identified with our state. The Messrs. Smith were early settlers in Minnesota, and from the first, as business men and citizens, ranked among the most enterprising and prominent. Always foremost in what- ever concerned the moral and material welfare of the com- munity, earnest and energetic, and honest even above sus- picion, they have won the fullest confidence of our people. Though largely involved in real-estate transactions at the time of the terrible financial crash of '57, they were among the few who went through that trying ordeal with credit unimpaired and integrity unimpeached. Politically, both are effective workers, and on the right side, and to carry out their present business plans resigned important positions of trust and confidence. In expressing our regrets at their departure, and heartily wishing them that success they so eminently deserve, we but express the feelings of all who know them.
At the commencement of Mr. Lincoln's adminis- tration Mr. Smith was very highly recommended by more than half of the United States senate, by most of the prominent members of the house of repre- sentatives, and by all the leading officials of Minne- sota, for one of the most responsible positions under Secretary Chase; and so strong were these recom- mendations, such a full indorsement of his strict integrity, marked ability and true patriotism, that the President remarked, on reading them, that he should cheerfully sign his appointment to any office in the treasury department, and that they were suf- ficient to justify him in taking him into his cabinet.
At the solicitation of the secretary of the treasury in 1861 Mr. Smith took the appointment to the chief clerkship of the third auditor's office of the treas- ury department, with the understanding and promise that he should soon be made the auditor; but owing to the exigencies of the war a vacancy was not made as was contemplated by the president and secretary, and he therefore remained in that position until Oc- tober, 1863, when he resigned at the suggestion of Secretary Chase, and accepted the appointment to the office of United States direct tax commissioner for Tennessee, and at once entered upon its duties.
In the winter of 1864-65 he went from Memphis to Washington by the direction of the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Fessenden, to aid in securing ad-
ditional legislation to more efficiently collect the direct taxes in the rebellious states. He laid the matter before the proper committees of the house and senate, and persisted in his efforts until the law pertaining thereto was amended in accordance with his views, and as desired by the government. Sub- sequently, however, President Johnson issued an order forbidding the sale of property for the non- payment of taxes in the insurrectionary states, thus rendering the law, so recently amended, inoperative, substantially stopping all the collections thereunder. For that reason, and desiring to engage in business with his brother in the city of New York, Mr. Smith, in July, 1865, resigned the office of tax commissioner, much to the regret of all having knowledge of his faithful and efficient discharge of its important du- ties. On this event the New York "Tribune " thus editorially commented :
The Hon. Delano T. Smith, tax commissioner for Ten- nessee, has resigned his position, to the regret of the Presi- dent and Secretary Mccullough, by whom he was esteemed a very faithful officer.
Mr. Smith is one of the truest patriots, and during the progress of the civil war few men had deeper concern for the country. While in Washington, he was president of a union league and of other organi- zations having for their end the salvation of the nation. He was a member also of the executive com- mittee of the National Union League, and worked effectually in that capacity with leading men of the country.
After resigning his office in Tennessee he spent a short time in Minneapolis arranging his business and property interests, and in the autumn of 1865 re- moved to the city of New York, where he remained and engaged actively in business for four years. During a part of this time he was at work, in con- nection with his brother Melville, in projecting the "Arcade Railway," to run under Broadway in that city, one of the most important projects ever con- ceived for the benefit of New York. It would vir- tually have made Broadway and other streets double, and provided ample accommodation for the trade and travel of that overcrowded city. Notwithstand- ing it was estimated to cost sixteen million dollars, and was to make so great a transformation of the streets, the Smith brothers secured the necessary influence and a pledge of the required capital, and the legislature of the state passed a bill authorizing the construction of the work. The enterprise en- countered the bitter opposition of the "Tweed
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ring," then in the zenith of its power, and through its influence John T. Hoffman, then governor, was induced to veto the bill, and thus this great project was for a time defeated. Commodore Vanderbilt, who pledged two million dollars in aid of the origi- nal undertaking, has since adopted the plan in what is known as "The South Avenue Improvement," which cost six millions to construct, and it is not unlikely the original purpose may yet be fully car- ried out.
Not finding life in that great city to agree with his health, Mr. Smith again moved west, and on the Ist of September, 1869, reached Marshalltown. Here for eight years he has been engaged in real estate, money loaning, and, after one year, stock raising, making every branch a success. He is now, withal, an extensive farmer; has a thousand acres or more in Logan township, eighteen miles from Marshall- town, under excellent improvement; six hundred and forty acres in Plymouth county, near Lemars, besides his stock farm, "Highland Home," adjoining the city. On this farm and that in Logan he usually has from forty to sixty thoroughbred shorthorn cat- tle, two or three hundred thoroughbred Berkshire swine, and two hundred or more graded.cattle. He is one of the most extensive stock raisers in the county.
Mr. Smith has always been a republican, and has advocated the principles of the party by pen as well as tongue. The first political article he ever wrote
was against the fugitive slave law, and was published in the Lyons, New York, "Gazette " and other pa- pers in Wayne and Ontario counties. In the days of his Minnesota campaigns few stump speakers had more weight with the people. He was earnest, forci- ble and eloquent, and being well posted and on the right side, produced conviction, and was remarkably successful as a politician in whatever he undertook.
He has had two wives : the first was Mary E. Cook, of Springville, Erie county, New York; married in 1852, died at Minneapolis in 1857, leaving one child, Mary J. His present wife was Miss Mettie A. Pal- mer, daughter of Chauncey Palmer, a prominent iron founder and builder of Utica, New York. She is the mother of five children, one son and four daughters, all living.
In this brief sketch we have done scant justice to the important events in Mr. Smith's busy life, and still less have we portrayed those characteristics which make him so respected and honored, and most by those who know him best. Starting comparatively without means, he has been "the architect of his fortune," and stands prominent among our noble array of self-made men. Temperate in habits, honest and upright in motive and action, kind and con- siderate of others, sincere and patriotic, of untiring energy, quick and clear in his perceptions, discreet and comprehensively thoughtful, he has justly earned and is more than entitled to his marked success and position among men.
JESSE CLEMENT,
CHICAGO.
TESSE CLEMENT, once for eleven years a resi- dent of Iowa, and one of the writers of this volume, comes of revolutionary stock. His grand- father, Moses Clement, at the age of seventeen was on guard the night before the battle of Bunker Hill, and witnessed that early blow struck for the inde- pendence of the colonies. At the end of six months the young private returned to his farm in Dracut, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, where he subse- quently married Rachel Perham, of Tyngsboro, Mas- sachusetts, and had a family of fourteen children.
The second of these children was Asa Clement, a farmer and poultry merchant, and the father of Jesse, who was born on the 12th of June, 1815. His mother was Elizabeth Wilson, of Pelham, New Hampshire,
and died when the son was eleven years old. He was reared on the farm, but had no taste for agri- cultural pursuits, and always took his newspaper or book into the hay-field. At nineteen years of age he left the farm for the academy at New Hampton, New Hampshire, and in the course of five years at- tended school a little more than three, teaching dis- trict schools during five consecutive winters, and oc- casionally a select school for a short time. He had a hard struggle, particularly during the early part of his academic life, boarding with a farmer and pay- ing in work at six cents an hour.
From May, 1840, to December, 1842, Mr. Clement taught in the English department of the institution where he had been educated; in the last named
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month he went to Buffalo, New York, and was there connected with the "Western Literary Messenger " for fourteen years, being its sole editor the last twelve. From 1847 to 1857 he was also a traveling corre- spondent of the " Buffalo Commercial Advertiser." During this period he had the compiling and entire supervision of nine city directories. In addition to these labors he wrote more or less poetry for the " Knickerbocker Magazine," the "Ladies' Book," the " Union Magazine," and the "Southern Literary Messenger." In 1850 and 1851 he edited " The No- ble Deeds of American Women," a volume- of five hundred and eighty pages, and wrote the first life of Adoniram Judson, the pioneer American missionary to Burmah. He also wrote regularly for three or four Baptist papers; for one of which he has writ- ten thirty years, for another more than twenty.
In April, 1857, Mr. Clement removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and became one of the founders of the " Daily Times," of which he was associate editor until Feb- ruary, 1863, when he engaged in the business of life insurance, following it ten years. During these years, however, he did not wholly relinquish his literary labors, often delivering lectures, poems and addresses before colleges, literary societies and various other organizations. In the spring of 1868 he removed to Chicago. For the last five years he has been a travel- ing correspondent of the " Daily Inter-Ocean," writ- ing more or less for other papers, secular and re-
ligious, and doing some literary work on the Wiscon- sin, Iowa and Minnesota volumes of THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Clement was originally a democrat, with free- soil proclivities, but he left the party in thorough disgust in 1854, or at the time that an effort was made to nationalize slavery.
He is a member of the University Place Baptist Church, and has been one of its deacons since it was organized. He held the same office in Buffalo and Dubuque, and has been an earnest worker in all christian organizations. He was among the first members of the Young Men's Christian Union, of Buffalo, acting at times as treasurer, president or manager, and was at the head of the Sunday-school associations of both places.
Mr. Clement was first married on the 21st of Au- gust, 1841, to Miss Mary E. Blood, by whom he had two children, only one of whom survived her. This daughter, Ada Elizabeth, is the wife of William J. Gilbert, law-book publisher, of St. Louis, Missouri. His present wife was Lucetta H. Blood, to whom he was married on the 25th of April, 1859. She has two sons: Ernest Wilson, aged eighteen, a sopho- more in the University of Chicago, and Clarence, aged eleven. His wives were daughters of David Blood, Esq., of Dracut, Massachusetts; both were women of fine mental qualities, and earnest workers in religious and benevolent enterprises.
HON. JAMES S. HURLEY,
IMPELLO.
T HE father of James Simpson Hurley was born in the gallant State of New Jersey when the infant republic had been but ten years an inde- pendent nation. His grandfather had borne a con- spicuous part in the heroism of that time, and his patriotism legitimately descended to his children, and they in turn imparted it to their issue.
The father of J. S. Hurley was a Quaker, who had become one of the early pioneers of Ohio, and the subject of our biography was born in Cham- paign county, in that state, on the 18th of May, 1829.
In 1814 his father had married Miss Elizabeth Downs, of New Jersey, a lady of rare qualities of mind and of good education. Bringing her chil- dren into a new country, upon the very outskirts
of civilization, there were for a long period no schools to which she could send them, and she consequently devoted much of her time to their instruction, and to her unceasing care in this di- rection J. S. Hurley owes nearly all the material education he ever received. She also implanted in his young heart the right principles of conduct which have been so conspicuous in his after career. In 1840 his father removed to Iowa. James Simp- son Hurley worked upon his father's farm for tour years after his settlement in Wapello, when a dis- trict school was established, which he attended dur- ing three or four winters. His father died in March, 1848, when the cares of the farm and the family de- volved upon him. This continued until 1852, when he entered the academic department of Knox Col-
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lege, at Galesburg, Illinois, but in six months' time he was obliged to return to the farm and superin- tend its affairs. He commenced reading law in the office of B. F. Wright, at Wapello, with whom he remained until the fall of 1853, and then went to the law school at Dubuque during the winters of 1853-4, and was admitted to the bar in 1854, in the fall of which year he commenced his practice. In the succeeding year he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney for Louisa county, which office also involved the duties of the county judge during that official's absence. He was first elected to fill a vacancy, and was subsequently elected for the full term of two years, acting in the double capacity almost the entire time. The new consti- tution of Iowa was adopted in August, 1857. By its provisions the election of a district attorney for each judicial district was instituted in lieu of prose- cuting attorney for the county at large.
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