USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 92
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At the expiration of his term of prosecuting at- torney he devoted himself to the practice of law until October, 1861, when he was elected to the state senate for four years from January, 1862. In the first session of this legislature the most impor- tant committee he served on was that of schools and universities, and among others that on new counties and on commerce. During the first ses- sion he introduced and had the management of the bill for the settlement of claims for swamp lands which were given to the states by an act of con- gress in 1850. By the provisions of this bill a vast amount of land was reclaimed by the state. There were two regular sessions and one special session during these four years.
In the regular session of 1864 he was on the committee on incorporation and on banks, and was chairman of the committee on the state library. In this latter committee he had charge of the bill, which finally became a law, placing this library upon a substantial basis, and it now stands the fourth best in the United States, the tabular state- ment of state libraries being New York, Massachu- setts, Pennsylvania, Iowa and California.
For his persistency in the advocation of his bill Mr. Hurley was bitterly assailed by the partisan press for the expense incurred, but all now admit the genuine worth of the possession of the library, and it has justly become the pride of the state.
Mr. Hurley was elected president of the agricul- tural society of Louisa county in 1866, which at that time did not possess one dollar of property.
At the end of four years he turned the office over to his successor, and property to the amount of four thousand dollars.
About this time he conceived the idea of organ- izing a railroad from Burlington to Cedar Rapids to connect with the road then being built from Cedar Rapids north, and at a meeting called for that purpose at Burlington he presented his articles of incorporation, which were adopted and the com- pany formed, of which he became a director and a member of the executive committee, in both of which capacities he served until the road was com- pleted.
In the fall of 1869 he was again elected to the state senate for a term of four years. In the first session he was placed on the judiciary, constitu- tional amendments and banks committees, and was chairman of the committee on public lands. In the second session, commencing in January, 1872, he was chairman of the judiciary committee and member of the committee on elections, congres- sional districts and compensation of public officers. During this session he introduced the bill enlarg- ing the powers of the circuit judges, reducing the number in each judicial district and increasing their salaries, which became a law; also a bill for the increase of salaries of the supreme judges, which became a law. He also introduced the bill regulat- ing taxation of railway property in the state, which became a law. This regular session adjourned to a consideration of the revision of the laws, which resulted in what is known as the code of 1873.
In 1871 Mr. Hurley made a copartnership with Mr. John Hale, of Wapello, which copartnership is still continued. It enjoys a very large business, practicing in all the courts of the state and in the federal courts. His mother died at Wapello in 1874, leaving eight children. His eldest brother is a physician, the other two brothers are farmers.
Of the Hon. James Simpson Hurley it may with strict justice be said that he was untiring in his services in the various committees upon which he served, and was the author of bills of immense im- portance to the present and future welfare of his state. In his double term of senatorship, passing through a period of eight years, we find him ever on the alert to secure wise and wholesome legis- lation. His record will be found to be as purely devoted to the interests of the whole state as that of any public servant known to the annals of Amer- ican legislation.
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Mr. Hurley was married in May, 1857, to Miss Martha M. Garrett, of Garrettsville, Portage county, Ohio, by whom he has had nine children, five boys and four girls. Four of the former are demised.
His early political affinities were with the whig party. He assisted in the formation of the repub- lican party in the State of Iowa, and has always voted with that party.
Mr. Hurley is a great lover of fine-bred cattle.
He has a stock farm of four hundred acres near the limits of the city of Wapello, where, since 1872, he has raised large herds of fine steers.
Being of Quaker descent he naturally inclines to that persuasion. His general manner would be- speak his religious proclivities. He is very unde- monstrative in his style, but very incisive in all he undertakes, and he holds to any expressed opinion with wonderful tenacity.
DARIUS SCOFIELD, M. D.,
WASHINGTON.
D ARIUS SCOFIELD, was born at Hadley, Saratoga county, New York, on the 31st of July, 1834, and is the second son of William Sco- field and Susannah nee Bishop. His father was a native of Stamford, Connecticut, where the ancestors had resided for five generations previously, the first of the line in America having emigrated from Eng- land and settled in the last-named place about the year 1730, where they have been generally tillers of the soil. From this stock, so far as we can learn, have descended all the men now bearing that name in the United States, though some of them have varied the orthography of the name to that of Scho- field.
The grandfather of our subject was Neazer Sco- field, a soldier in the revolutionary war, and about the year 1800 moved from Stamford, Connecticut, to Saratoga county, New York, where he died in the year 1846, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. He was a pensioner of the government up to the time of his death. He was also a leading member of the Presbyterian church, and a man of considerable in- fluence in the community where he resided.
Although the father of our subject, William Sco- field, was a hard-working, industrious and frugal man, with excellent habits and refined tastes, yet it was chiefly through the influence of his mother, a woman of much ambition and energy, that he and his brothers attained, what might be termed at that early day, a liberal education. Darius was from an early period a diligent student, and very soon de- voured all the historical and scientific works in the family library. Books were not then as attainable as now, a circumstance which led to the more thor- ough appreciation and study of those possessed.
Our subject was prepared for college at the Cam-
bridge Academy, in Washington county, New York, reading for a classical course and for entering col- lege two years advanced; quite usual for students of that academy.
At the close of his academic course, under the advice of medical friends, who saw in him talents especially adapting him to the medical profession, he abandoned his contemplated collegiate course, and in the year 1854 commenced the study of medi- cine under the tutorship of Dr. J. H. Bartholf, then of Cambridge, afterward of New York city, and still later connected with the medical department of the regular United States army. After the removal of Dr. Bartholf he pursued his studies under the di- rection of Dr. J. B. Busneson, of Luzerne, Warren county, New York, and was graduated from the Al- bany Medical College in December, 1858, after which he located, for the practice of his profession, at Corinth, Saratoga county, New York, where he remained, with marked success, until August, 1863, when he entered the medical department of the vol- unteer service of the United States army.
At first he was placed on duty at the rendezvous on Ricker's Island, New York harbor, where he re- mained several months, and in October, 1863, he was assigned to the 176th New York State Volun- teers, and proceeded to Bonne Carre, Louisiana, about forty miles from New Orleans, where his regi- ment was then stationed. Here he remained till February, 1864, when he was transferred to Madi- sonville, Louisiana, and from there was, by order of the secretary of war, assigned to the 8th Louisiana Colored Volunteers (afterward the 47th United States Colored Infantry), under the command of his brother, Colonel Hiram Scofield, which was then on duty at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and where he re-
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ceived his commission as assistant surgeon of the regiment from the secretary of war, thus becoming an officer in the regular army. He remained on duty with his regiment until July, 1864, when he was de- tailed to United States General Hospital No. 3 (then known as "Old Marine "), at Vicksburg, Mis- sissippi, as the executive officer of that institution, and was afterward placed in sole charge, but was re- lieved in a few months, at his own request, in order that he might accompany his regiment, which had been ordered to join the expedition of General Canby against Mobile, pending which he was for a time detailed as assistant surgeon at the "parole camp," in the rear of Vicksburg, to aid in the care of the sick and disabled prisoners of war, which were received from Cahawba and Andersonville prisons, Georgia. At the breaking up of this camp in May, 1865, he proceeded to his command at Mo- bile, where he was soon afterward smitten down with a severe attack of pleurisy, which compelled him to relinquish duty for a period of twenty days. In June, 1865, he moved with his regiment to New Orleans, and thence to Alexandria, on Red river, where he remained on duty until December, 1865, when he was ordered to Baton Rouge, where he was mustered out of the service on the 6th of January, 1 866.
During the period of his military service, which was of the most arduous and laborious character, he was never excused from duty more than three days, except as specified above.
In May, 1866, his father sold the old homestead in New York and removed to Iowa, where two sons had preceded him. The father having determined to make Iowa his home, our subject was induced to follow the example, mainly for the pleasure of keep- ing the family as near united as possible. Being at this time in ill health, it became very much a ques- tion whether he should ever be able to resume the practice of his profession. In the autumn of that year, however, he was so far restored as to be able to open an office at Daytonville, Washington county, where he was soon favored with an extensive patron- age (more, in fact than his strength was equal to), so that in 1871 he was constrained to move into a new field, that he might, for a time at least, enjoy that relaration which seemed necessary for his com- plete recovery, but which was otherwise unattain- able. Accordingly, in the month of March of the last-named year, he located in Washington, which has since been his home, where he soon again as-
sumed a leading position, and his health being now restored, he enjoys the largest and most lucrative practice in the city.
He has held the position of local surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Com- pany for four years past. For the past two years he has been physician to the commissioners of insan- ity for Washington county, and has been for the same period examiner for several life insurance com- panies. He has also been several times president of the Washington County Medical Society, and also president of the Eastern District Medical So- ciety of Iowa. He is likewise a member of the State Medical Society of Iowa. He enjoys the fullest con- fidence and esteem of his neighboring physicians, by whom he is frequently called upon as counsel or to assist in the performance of critical surgical oper- ations. He is, moreover, a gentleman of large lit- erary attainments, a great student, and frequently employs his pen in the domain of science, and espe- cially on subjects pertaining to his own profession. His essays on the more intricate and complicated questions of disease and its treatment, read before the various societies with which he is in union, are always highly appreciated by his brethren ; and while they evince a remarkable familiarity with the sub- jects discussed, demonstrate at the same time the possession of talents of the very highest order on the part of the writer.
He has been a Master Mason for about eleven years, having been initiated in Dayton Lodge, No. 149, in 1866. He took chapter degrees in Cyrus Chapter, No. 13, at Washington, Iowa, in 1871, and is still a member of both bodies, in one or both of which he has been constantly an officer since he became a member. He has also been for four years past a member of the Ancient Order of United Workingmen at Washington, and medical examiner for the order at that point.
He has served repeatedly on school boards in Iowa as president or director, and was elected three terms in succession as councilman from the first ward in Washington, and is a gentleman of consid- erable executive ability.
He is not in communion with any religious de- nomination, but having been raised in a Presbyte- rian family, he prefers that branch of the christian church.
He has always been a republican in politics, hav- ing cast his first vote for the martyred Lincoln.
He was married in 1860 to Miss Caroline G. Her-
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rick, a native of Hadley, New York, who died in Washington, Iowa, in December, 1874, leaving two children surviving her, the eldest of whom, Willie, died in May, 1875, at the age of five years; a little girl, three years old, named Caroline, still lives.
The doctor is tall and slender, but of active, nerv- ous organization ; is grave, dignified and somewhat
reserved ; slow to form acquaintances, but strongly attached to friends and home, and is seldom from home except on professional business. He is, how- ever, spending the current winter (1877-8) in Belle- vue Hospital Medical College, where he is undergo- ing a supplemental course of instruction in medicine and surgery.
JOSEPH D. PUTNAM,
DAVENPORT.
JOSEPH DUNCAN PUTNAM, entomologist and corresponding secretary of the Davenport Acad- emy of Natural Science, was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, on the 18th of October, 1855, and is the son of Charles E. Putnam and Mary Louisa nee Duncan. His father is a lawyer of the highest standing in Davenport, and his mother is daughter to the late Governor Joseph Duncan, of Illinois. Both families are descended from revolutionary stock of great dis- tinction, and have always occupied the foremost social positions.
Charles E. Putnam was the son of a farmer in affluent circumstances ; his mother's maiden name was Eunice née Morgan. He received an excellent private school and academic education, and after- ward read law in the office of Hon. Augustus Bockes, judge of the supreme court in New York, and sub- sequently in the office of Beach and Bockes, in Sara- toga, New York. Hon. W. A. Beach has since be- come famous as the principal lawyer in the Tilton- Beecher case. He was admitted to the bar on the 20th of May, 1847, being then twenty-two years of age ; practiced law for several years in Saratoga, susequently in New York city, and, during the sum- mer of 1850, in Georgia. In the autumn of 1853 he removed to the west, and the following spring formed a copartnership with the late Judge G. C. R. Mitchell, at Davenport, which continued until the election of the latter to the bench of the fourteenth judicial district in the fall of 1857. He subsequently formed a partnership with Joseph B. Leake, now General Leake, of Chicago, which continued until the latter entered the military service. In 1860 his present partnership with the Hon. John N. Rogers was formed.
Through life Mr. C. E. Putnam has been devoted to literary pursuits. In his youth he was for a nun- ber of years secretary of the Saratoga Literary So-
ciety, composed of the élite of both sexes of the village. He has since been a diligent student, and possesses not only a good law library, but one of the finest private collections of miscellaneous books in the west. Mr. Putnam is possessed of a moderate fortune, and occupies a high social position in the community. He has been president of the Daven- port Savings Bank since its organization, and was for a time president of the First National Bank. He is also president of the Davenport Plow Company, of the Davenport Gas Light Company, and director of many other enterprises. He has, by his business ability and integrity, secured the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and is regarded as among the most benevolent, generous and useful citizens of the place.
On the 9th of December, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Louisa Duncan, daughter of Governor Joseph Duncan, of Illinois. The Duncan family is of Scotch origin, the American ancestor having settled in Virginia early in the eighteenth century. On the maternal side, Mrs. Putnam is the great-granddaughter of the Rev. James Caldwell, the well-known revolutionary patriot, of New Jersey, who was shot by a British sentinel, at Elizabeth, on the 24th of November, 1781, whose memoirs form a part of the annals of his country, and to whose memory and that of his wife, Hannah, who had been previ- ously murdered by the British on the 25th of January, 1780, a monument was erected at Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1846.
Mrs. Putnam is a graduate of the Jacksonville Female College, of which her father was the princi- pal founder. She is a lady of rare mental gifts and of the highest literary attainments, and naturally takes the highest social position. Her home is the center of refinement and elegance, and is the syno- nym of all that is generous, affectionate and hos-
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pitable. She has also taken a very active interest in various patriotic and charitable causes, among which may be named the Washington Monument Association, Ladies' Educational Society, Mount Vernon Association, Soldiers' Aid Society, Presby- terian Church, Academy of Natural Sciences, etc.
Joseph D. Putnam, the first-fruits of this marriage, received his rudimental education at his home. Be- tween the ages of ten and seventeen he attended the public schools of Davenport, and became proficient in the ordinary English and mathematical studies, to which were subsequently added a slight acquaintance with the Greek, Latin, German and French languages. He also derived much aid in his studies from the large and well selected library of his father. He early de- veloped a taste for drawing. He always displayed great talent for systematizing and arranging, and rarely left anything unfinished.
At the age of eleven or twelve years he began col- lecting fossils, minerals, coins, postage stamps, auto- graphs, plants, shells, insects, etc., but gradually nar- rowed down the scope of his efforts in this direction to the item of insects alone, and has ultimately con- fined his attention to but a few families of these. During the years 1868 to 1870 he was in the habit of taking long walks with Mr. W. H. Pratt in quest of shells and insects, thereby greatly augmenting his collection. In 1871 he made a visit to Saratoga county. New York, on a like mission, and in 1872 accompanied Dr. C. C. Parry to Colorado, where, during three months spent high up in the mountains, near Empire City, large collections were made. The season was spent in a log cabin, where they did their own cooking, etc., and made numerous excursions to the surrounding Alpine summits and to Middle Park, always on foot. Here they were visited by the two most eminent American Botanists, Dr. John Torry and Dr. Asa Gray. The winter following was spent in hard study. In 1873, again in company with Dr. Parry, he was attached to Captain Jones's expe- dition to the Yellowstone as meteorologist, and car- ried a barometer for over one thousand miles on muleback, through some of the roughest districts of northwestern Wyoming and the National Park, as- cending lofty and dangerous peaks to measure them, making many hair-breadth escapes and meeting with thrilling adventures. In his report of the expedi- tion Captain Jones makes frequent and honorable mention of young Putnam, and the important and valuable service which he rendered to the cause of science. He was absent five months on this occasion,
and, in addition to his duties above described, col- lected a large number of insects.
After returning home he resumed his studies with the intention of entering Harvard College the next year, but taking a severe cold, which settled on his lungs, his health became so impaired that he was forced to give up all idea of a college course. The following year was spent in Colorado for the benefit of his health, and the summer of 1875 was spent in company with Dr. Parry among the Mormons, near Mount Nebo, Utah. In October they removed to San Francisco, whence he was brought home in November, in a very critical state of health. He has remained under the parental roof ever since, except during a visit to Cambridge, Philadelphia and other eastern cities, in 1876, where he formed the personal acquaintance of many eminent entomolo- gists and other naturalists.
During Mr. Putnam's various expeditions he col- lected over twenty-five thousand specimens of insects, many of which have been catalogued and classified, besides a large collection of fossils. He also discov- ered many new species of grasshoppers and other insects, some four of which have been named after himself. All the fossils and natural history specimens collected have been presented by him to the Daven- port Academy of Natural Science, of which, on the 2d of June, 1869, he became a member, and of which he has since been a moving spirit. On the 28th of April, 1871, he was elected recording secretary, a position which he retained until January, 1875, when ill health caused him to resign. He was appointed a member of the publication committee on the 26th of November, 1875, and chairman of the same on the 26th of January, 1877, and elected corresponding secretary on the 23d of November, 1876, which office he still holds. In the spring of 1876 he commenced the publication of the proceedings of the Academy, which are contained in two large octavo volumes of small type. During the same period he has kept up a regular correspondence with all the principal acad- emies of the same denomination in Europe and America, in all over four hundred, much of the foreign correspondence being conducted in German and French, and all this by a man so delicate in health and constitution that he seems only a fit sub- ject for the ward of a lung hospital.
His success as a student and original investigator is in great measure due to that painstaking industry that only gives over when work is accomplished or physical powers exhausted. There was a rapid de-
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velopment of his intellectual character in connection with the geographical explorations in which he was engaged from his sixteenth to eighteenth years, in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, and the opportunities so well improved, for enlarged observation, soon showed that the seed had fallen upon good soil, giv- ing promise of a rich and abundant harvest.
Recognizing, when quite young, the important uses of the printing press as the readiest means of com- municating and fixing definitely the fleeting forms of knowledge, he gave attention to its practical details long enough to master its difficulties; at the same time his instinctive desire for accuracy made him an excellent proof reader.
His correspondence with strangers when a mere lad elicited answers which showed an appreciation
of his early maturity, and justified the encomium bestowed upon him by Professor Asa Gray : " Though young in years, in sage experience old."
The names of the other members of the family. of which Joseph Duncan is the eldest, are, Charles Morgan, John Caldwell, Henry St. Clair, William Clement, George Rockwell, Elizabeth Duncan, Ed- ward Kirby, and Benjamin Risley, each a natural born genius, and already well up in the arts and sci- ences. They own a printing press, with a large stock of types of every variety. They draw, paint, engrave, compose, etc .; they published a quarterly magazine called the "Star of Woodlawn," devoted to the development of amateur and domestic litera- ture. Such is a brief sketch of one of the most remarkable families in the country.
JOHN A. DRAKE,
CENTERVILLE.
JOHN ADAMS DRAKE, banker at Centerville and Drakeville, came to Iowa the year after it was set off, with Wisconsin, from the territory of Michigan, becoming .a town builder the year Iowa became a state. In his seventy-fifth year he is quite active for a man of that age, and takes great un- abating interest in public matters. The Drakes are a wealthy family, and descendants, remotely of course, from Sir Francis Drake.
James Drake, a Virginian by birth, and grandfather of John A., settled on Swift creek, Nash county North Carolina, and died in 1790, leaving a large amount of property. Benjamin, the father of our subject, inherited the homestead ; married Celia Thayer, and had eight children, five sons and three daughters. John A. was born on this homestead on the 21st of October, 1802, and reared on a farm. He was educated in a log school-house, with fair op- portunities for improvement, having a good teacher. In 1829 he removed to Wilson county, Tennessee, worked a short time at the carpenter's trade, and in October, 1830, located at Rushville, Schuyler coun- ty, Illinois. There he remained for seven years, en- gaged in house-building, merchandising, and filling some important offices. He removed to Fort Madi- son, Iowa, in 1837, and there traded in real estate, remaining in Lee county nine years. During that period he held at different times the offices of justice of the peace, master in chancery and probate judge.
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