USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 95
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years, and as deputy sheriff two years, being post- master all the time he remained in Wisconsin.
In February, 1862, Mr. Perkins enlisted as a pri- vate in company G, 19th Wisconsin Infantry, which was in the eighteenth army corps. He served three years; was with the regiment in all the skirmishes and battles in which it participated, and, like two brothers who also served the same length of time, he never received even a scratch. He came out a first lieutenant of the company.
In September, 1865, Mr. Perkins settled in Onawa, farming for four years. He was elected recorder of Monona county in 1871, but resigned before his term had expired. He was a member of the four- teenth general assembly, representing Monona, Craw- ford, Shelby and Audubon counties, and serving on the committees on agriculture, on highways and on
some special committees. He was appointed post- master in February, 1873, and in this, as well as every other position he has occupied, he has served the people with the utmost faithfulness. In many ways he is a very useful citizen.
Mr. Perkins has always affiliated with the repub- lican party, cherishes its principles with the greatest cordiality and firmness, and works earnestly to fur- ther its interests.
On the 9th of October, 1853, he was united in marriage with Miss Ruth Stearns, of Lowell, Massa- chusetts. They have had five children and have lost two of them. Mary W., the eldest of the living children, is the wife of John Cleghorn, dealer in agricultural implements, Onawa; Charles W. and Addie M. are single, aiding their father in the post- office and his store.
WV. H. GIBBON, M. D.,
CHARITON.
T HIS distinguished army surgeon was born at Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, on the 31st of Jan- uary, 1832. His father, Mason Gibbon, was born at Salem, New Jersey, in 1797. His mother's maid- en name was Mary Marr Brooks; she was born at Roadstown, Cumberland county, New Jersey, and is still living at Philadelphia. Dr. Gibbon's father was a civil engineer, and was engaged upon the sur- vey of the Philadelphia and Baltimore railroad at the time of the birth of the subject of this sketch. He died when the son was but fifteen years of age.
Dr. Gibbon attended the Salem Academy, New Jersey, until he was twelve years of age, shortly af- ter which his family removed to Philadelphia, at which city the doctor attended a public school until he was seventeen ; after which he was employed as clerk in a dry-goods store at Philadelphia until he was twenty years of age.
Preferring Esculapius to dry goods, the doctor then commenced reading medicine with his uncle, Dr. Quinton Gibbon, at Salem, New Jersey, with whom he remained studying and attending lectures at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and from which he graduated in 1857. He then traveled for a year, and in the spring of 1858 he came to Chari- ton, lowa, where he commenced the practice of his profession.
sioned assistant surgeon of the 15th Iowa regiment, and in the succeeding year was commissioned sur- geon of the same regiment. In this capacity he served at the battle of Shiloh, and was with the army of the Tennessee from that time until the capture of Vicksburg, and subsequently participated in the At- lanta campaign, and was with the 17th army corps during Sherman's memorable "march to the sea." He was mustered out of the service at the expira- tion of his term of service at Savannah, Georgia, and returned to Chariton, where he at once recom- menced the practice of medicine, in which he is still engaged.
During Dr. Gibbon's entire term in the field he was one of the board of operators, and displayed great skill in the manipulation of his many and ar- duous duties. Upon his retirement from the service Major Pomutz, then in command of the 15th Iowa Veteran Volunteers, issued the following order :
[GENERAL ORDERS NO. 23.] HEADQUARTERS 15TH IOWA INFANTRY VETERAN VOLUNTEERS. SAVANNAH. GEORGIA. December 22, 1864.
Surgeon William H. Gibbon, of this regiment, having this day been honorably discharged the United States ser- vice, the commanding officer of this regiment cannot for- bear giving expression to the just appreciation by him- self, as well as by the officers and men of his command, of the unabated zeal, efficiency and practical skill with which the surgeon has discharged his important duties while con- nected with and in charge of the medical department of this regiment. In the earlier part of the military life of this
On the 2d of November, 1861, he was commis- | command, during the memorable battles of Shiloh and Cor-
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inth, he acquired the individual confidence of the officers and men by his efficiency in the line of his profession, as well as by his courageous conduct while bravely and skill- fully attending to the wounded soldiers in the immediate rear of the line of battle, then fiercely engaged with the enemy. That confidence, well merited then, he retained and deserved ever afterward through the entire period of his three years' service. The soldiers felt sure that what- ever vigilant care, knowledge of science and practical skill could accomplish for the sick and wounded, was secured to them while under his treatment.
During the eventful campaign of this year, resulting in the capture of Atlanta and Savannah, being one of the se- lected board of operators, he displayed those highest quali- fications in practical surgery that have stamped him as "one of the best field surgeons of the army." While the surgical operations performed by him have rescued and preserved the life and limb of many a brave officer and sol- dier of this and other commands, the same are justly re- corded as a triumph of the art and science of his profession.
This command, in hereby tendering thanks to the sur- geon for his past services, earnestly hope he may soon re- turn to the field of his wonted invaluable usefulness to the army.
The adjutant will forward an official copy of this order to the surgeon.
By order of Major George Pomutz, commanding regi- ment.
WM. C. STIDGER, Adjutant.
To this we may also add that for meritorious ser- vices as surgeon, especially at Vicksburg and At- lanta, Dr. Gibbon was breveted by the United States as lieutenant-colonel.
On the 4th of September, 1861, he was married to Miss Laura R. Gibbon, of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, by whom he has one child, Anna Gibbon.
Dr. Gibbon has had three brothers and two sis- ters. The youngest brother, Captain Leonard Gib- bon, of the 19th Michigan Infantry, was killed at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina; the other two are in private life in Philadelphia, together with their sisters.
Dr. Gibbon has been a republican ever since the organization of that party. In religious matters, he İ is an Episcopalian.
HON. JOSEPH R. ZUVER,
SIOUX CITY.
TOSEPH R. ZUVER, circuit judge of the fourth district, is a native of Kittanning, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, a son of Jacob and Catherine Claypole Zuver, and was born on the 16th of Sep- tember, 1833. His paternal grandfather came from Germany, and nothing is known of the family far- ther back. Joseph was the third child in a family of ten children, eight of whom are yet living. An elder brother had a feeble constitution, and at fifteen years of age Joseph had not only to take care of himself, but, in a large measure, of his parents and the younger members of the family.
At the age mentioned, with an ordinary common- school education, he commenced flat-boating on the Alleghany and the Ohio rivers, operating on these streams, in various capacities, most of the time until thirty-four years old. He was a steamboat pilot during the first year of the civil war, and captain of a boat in 1862, 1866 and 1867.
During this period he also learned the carpenter's trade, working at it at different periods. He also taught school three terms, and had pressing invita- tions to continue teaching ; but he could make more at flat-boating and steamboating, and his responsi- bilities compelled him to make all the money that he could, without any regard to congeniality of pursuits.
In the spring of 1868 Judge Zuver came to the
Missouri slope in Iowa; read law in Missouri Valley, Harrison county ; was admitted to the bar at Mag- nolia, then the county seat, in June, 1869, and prac- ticed in Missouri Valley and in Magnolia until he went on the bench. He was appointed circuit judge on the 7th of September, 1874, to fill a vacancy oc- casioned by the resignation of the Hon. Addison Oliver, now in congress; was elected by the people the next month, to fill the unexpired term ; was re- elected in 1876, and now holds the office, his term expiring on the 31st of December, 1880. Before going on the bench he was regarded as among the best read lawyers in the judicial district, and since assuming the ermine he has exhibited his eminent fitness for the honor, he having most of the qualities which make a good jurist.
Judge Zuver was a whig in early life, and has acted with the republican party since 1860. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and of the Masonic fraternity, and is a man of undoubted honesty and of high moral character.
The judge was first ma rried in January, 1861, to Miss Mary J. Richardson, of Pennsylvania. He had six children by her, and five of them are living. His present wife was Mrs. Josie Marshall, of Missouri Valley, Iowa ; married on the 15th of February, 1872.
Though a well read lawyer, the judge has only
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moderate literary attainments. Realizing his defi- ciency in this respect, he takes good care that his children shall be well educated. They are all in the graded schools of Sioux City, and his eldest son, in his sixteenth year, is the best scholar, of his age, in the school. His attainments are almost astonishing.
While in Pennsylvania and Harrison county, Iowa, the judge did much good work in the school board, and probably the cause of education has no warmer friend in the state. Sioux City has been his home since June, 1875, and as a citizen the people are be- ginning to realize and appreciate his worth.
MAHLON J. DAVIS, M. D., LEWIS.
M AHLON JAMES DAVIS, one of the best physicians and surgeons in the Nishnabotna valley, belongs to an old Pennsylvania family. He was born in Juniata county, in that state, on the 20th of October, 1838, and is consequently in his fortieth year. His parents were Judah and Charlotte Leas Davis, both of whose ancestors were early settlers in the Keystone commonwealth. Mahlon lived on his father's farm until about fourteen years of age, when he was placed in the Tuscarora Academy, in his na- tive county, and a little later in the Kishacoquillas Seminary, Mifflin county. After receiving a good academic education, including the higher mathemat- ics and classics, he commenced in 1859 reading med- icine with Dr. D. M. Crawford, of Millerstown, Perry county ; took two courses of medical lectures in the University of the City of New York, and received his diploma in March, 1862.
Civil war had been in progress nearly a year, and after practicing for a few months in Newport, Perry county, in August, 1862, Dr. Davis went into the reg- ular army as acting assistant surgeon, being located for a long time in the hospitals at Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia. In May, 1864, he was assigned to the position of surgeon-in-chief of the artillery of the second army corps, on the staff of General Haz- ard, being in some of the heaviest campaigns and serv- ing until mustered out in November, 1865.
Dr. Davis returned to Newport the same month, and the next summer located at Lewis, where he is still in practice, and where he soon secured the con- fidence of the people. Few young men just out of a medical college have had better opportunities to im- prove themselves in surgery, or made better use of such opportunities. His experience in the army has been of great assistance to him, and he stands among the foremost men in his profession in this part of the state. He has other qualifications besides skill to make him an eminently useful physician.
In addition to his general practice Dr. Davis acts as examining surgeon for pensions, has a drug store, and is also postmaster. He is a very busy man.
In politics, he is a republican, firm and active, and has at times served as chairman of the county cen- tral committee.
In religion, his views may be denominated liberal. Dr. Davis is a Freemason, and was master of the Lewis lodge for three or four years.
On the 27th of December, 1864, he chose for his wife Miss Priscilla K. Shuman, of Millerstown, Penn- sylvania, a cousin of Hon. Andrew Shuman, lieut .- governor of Illinois; they have three children.
Dr. Davis has a phlegmatic temperament, a fair complexion and gray eyes ; he is five feet and eight inches tall, is always good-natured and inclined to be jovial.
CHARLES A. L. ROSZELL,
CLARKSVILLE.
A" MONG the lawyers who early settled in Butler county, Iowa, is Charles A. L. Roszell, a man of fine literary as well as legal attainments. He is a son of Elisha Roszell, a farmer, living in Alabama, Genesce county, New York, at the time the son was
born, on the 25th of March, 1833. His mother's maiden name was Hannah Nethaway. The Roszells were descendants of the Huguenots.
Charles received his academic education at the Caryville Collegiate Seminary, Genesee county, and
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the Clinton (Oneida county) Liberal Institute ; en- tered the University of Virginia, at Charlotteville, in 1852, and received his diploma four years later. He spent two years in the law department of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; took his de- gree of LL.B. in 1858; came directly to Iowa, and after spending a short time at Independence, Bu- chanan county, settled in Clarksville in 1859. Here he has built up a fine reputation as an attorney, and attended very closely to his profession, except during three years' absence in his country's service.
In the summer of 1862, when the call was made for six hundred thousand volunteers to aid in put- ting down the rebellion, Mr. Roszell raised a com- pany and went into the service as captain of com- pany G, 32d Iowa Infantry. He was at the head of his company during three years; was in a dozen battles or more ; had forty of his men hit and thir- teen killed in a single engagement, the battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, yet was one of the few for- tunate ones who were never wounded. He was inustered out with his regiment in August, 1865.
Captain Roszell was elected to the general assem- bly on the independent ticket in October, 1873, and
in the session of 1874 served on the judiciary com- mittee, and on the special committees to visit the blind asylum at Council Bluffs, and to report on the condition of the people in the district infested by grasshoppers.
Captain Roszell has been a life-long democrat, and was known during the civil strife as a war dem- ocrat, no man in the Shellrock valley striving harder than he to restore the Union.
In religious sentiment he is a Universalist.
On the 29th of December, 1867, Miss Mary Veber, of Clarksville, became his wife, and they have one child, a son, eight years old.
Captain Roszell has a fair complexion, dark hazel eyes, a bilious temperament and a solid build. He is five feet ten and a half inches tall, and weighs one hundred and eighty-five pounds. His manners are graceful; his disposition is social; his language polished, and he is a pleasant converser. Before a jury he excels in the elegance of his diction, the strength of his logic and his persuasive rhetoric. He started out in professional life with a thorough prep- aration and a laudable ambition to succeed, and has not been disappointed.
GEORGE H. GRIMMELL, M. D.,
JEFFERSON.
G EORGE HENRY GRIMMELL, the oldest medical practitioner in Greene county, Iowa, is the son of a physician and a native of Virginia, his birth dating in Loudon county on the 16th of Febru- ary, 1830. His parents were Henry C. and Mary Ann Swartzfager, both of German descent. When George reached the age of ten or eleven years the family moved to Malta, Morgan county, Ohio, where the son assisted his father in the office and attended a district school. He began to read medicine at an early age, taking a fancy for the science and being encouraged by his father. When twenty-three years of age he attended a course of medical lectures in Saint Louis, Missouri; practiced several years in Des Moines city and Boone county, Iowa, and settled in Jefferson in August, 1865.
In the winter of 1860-61 Dr. Grimmell attended a course of lectures in the medical department of the State University at Keokuk, and received an honor- ary degree ; attended a second course at the same place, the institution now being known as the Col-
lege of Physicians and Surgeons, and graduated in February, 1877. He seems ambitious to excel in the medical science, is yet in his prime, and, should his life be spared, will continue to progress. He evi- dently believes in concentrating his talent and labor and attending to his chosen profession with the ut- most assiduity.
When the doctor first settled in Jefferson he had some extensive and very hard rides, extending over bridgeless streams, into the edges of Calhoun, Dal- las, Carroll, Guthrie and Boone counties. The valley of the North Coon river, and of other streams in this part of the state, is now much more thickly settled, the counties adjoining Greene are well supplied with physicians, and Dr. Grimmell rarely goes out of the county, except to attend to some difficult case of surgery. He has all the rides he could desire in a radius of eight or ten miles of his home. He started out some twenty-five years ago with a pocket case, saddle-bags, a single horse and no carriage; he now drives blooded horses second to none in the county,
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he has every convenience for expediting calls, and is surrounded by all the comforts which a liberal com- petency can afford. Financially, as well as profes- sionally, he is a success.
In politics, Dr. Grimmell is a democrat, but in local matters votes for the best man. He is a Royal Arch Mason; in religious connection, a Methodist.
He is a member of the Central District Medical Association, which embraces six or seven counties in the vicinity of Greene county. His standing in the profession is excellent.
Dr. Grimmell has had two wives, the first being Miss Annettie McCall, of Boone county ; married on
30th of August, 1861. She died on the 3d of July, 1873, leaving five children, all yet living. His pres- ent wife was Miss Hannah Scott, a native of Ontario, Canada; married on the 16th of November, 1874. She has one child living and has lost one.
Dr. Grimmell has been a director of the Greene County Agricultural Society since it was organized ; was one of the prime movers in getting it up, and is very active in contributing to its efficiency. He has quite a taste for fine stock, and keeps blooded horses and hogs and the best strain of fowls. He is a valu- able citizen of the county, infusing a spirit of lauda- ble enterprise in more than one direction.
DANIEL C. GREENLEAF, M. D ..
BLOOMFIELD.
T' "HE branch of the Greenleaf family of which Dr. Greenleaf is a representative, and which embraces a great many physicians, clergymen and other professional men, sprung from Edmund Green- leaf, a native of Devonshire, England, born about 1600, and dying in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1671. In his will he bequeathed money to all his children, and to his grandchild, Sarah Winslow, he bequeathed five pounds, adding, "if her father pay me the four pounds he oweth me." When he married the sec- ond time he declares that he kept his wife's grand- child "three years to schooling, diet and apparel." She had several children by her first husband, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Greenleaf states that he sent her son. Ignatius Hill, to the Barbadoes, " in mackerel, cider, and bread and cheese, as much as come to twenty pounds, and never received one penny of it." When he married the widow Hill she brought him a silver bowl, a silver porringer and a silver spoon, but she lent or gave them to her son, James Hill, without her husband's consent Alas for Mr. Greenleaf! he had not heard Mr. Weller's advice to his son to " beware of vidders." Israel Greenleaf, great-grand- son of Edmund, the common ancestor, and grand- father of our subject, was the father of twenty-two children.
Daniel Clinton Greenleaf is a native of Switzer- land county, Indiana, and was born in the town of Bevay, on the 3ist of March, 18-3. His parents were Stephen Greenleaf, a millwright, and Pauline Anderson, both born near Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen Greenleaf had a small farm, on which the
son spent most of his time until eighteen years of age, pursuing his studies during the winters, as most lads do under such circumstances. About this date he began the study of medicine, for which he seemed to have a natural relish. Before finishing his read- ings, in 1845, he went to Texas; was there, with his trunk well lined with medical books, when General Taylor called for troops with which to fight the Mexicans; enlisted as a private, and served under General Taylor for six months. *
Returning northward, Mr. Greenleaf finished his medical studies ; attended lectures in the medical de- partment of the Missouri University at Saint Louis, and graduated in 1850. He had practiced pre- viously between one and two years in Saint Louis; on receiving his diploma removed to Bloomfield, and with the exception of two more years spent in Saint Louis ( 1860-1) he has been a resident of this place since March, 1850.
In May, 1863, Dr. Greenleaf was commissioned surgeon of the 4th lowa Infantry, and was mustered out in August, 1865. He was very attentive to the wants of the regiment in his line, no man ever suf- fering because the doctor was off duty. Day and night for twenty-seven months he was at his post, and won the highest esteem of officers and soldiers by his unwearying attentions and skillful services.
Dr. Greenleaf was a representative in the lowa legislature in 1855 and 1856, and voted for George G. Wright for chief justice and James Harlan for United States senator, and for the bill removing the capital from Iowa City to Des Moines. He is a re-
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publican, and was formerly a whig, but never be- comes so absorbed in politics as to neglect his pro- fessional business.
The doctor is a third-degree Mason, a member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a man of sterling character. Were he a good col- lector of his own medical bills, he would be still more independent in his pecuniary circumstances.
In June, 1853, he was joined in wedlock with
Miss Amanda Young, whose home was at Keosauqua, Van Buren county. She died in 1858, leaving two children : Stephen Greenleaf, now a physician in Unionville, twelve miles west of Bloomfield, and Eugene Young Greenleaf, a teacher and law-student in Bloomfield. The present wife of Dr. Greenleaf was Miss Augustine V. Young, of Bloomfield; mar- ried in 1859. She has had eight children, all of them yet living.
REV. JAMES MCKEAN,
ANAMOSA.
JAMES McKEAN was born near Pease's Mill, J on Ten-Mile Creek, Washington county, Penn- sylvania, on the 24th of September, 1795. His father's name was Hugh Mckean, who was born in Antrim county, Ireland, in 1753. The father of Hugh Mckean died in 1763, at an advanced age.
The family came originally from Scotland, and were what is known as the Scotch-Irish, settling in Ireland about the close of the sixteenth century, and were originally Scotch covenanters. Hugh McKean emigrated to America at the close of the revolution. He intended to come before, but the war interfered.
James' youth was spent on a farm west of New Wilmington, on the Pulaski road, one mile from the Shenango creek. He joined the army at the age of nineteen years, in the war against Great Britain, at Erie, Pennsylvania, and was a member of Captain Rea's company, Colonel Christy, Pennsylvania Mili- tia. On his discharge he marched home ninety miles. The weather was cold and the snow very deep, and in after-life he was afflicted with bron- chitis and weakness of the chest arising from dis- eases contracted in his army career.
The schools at that early day were few, and clas- sical education was hard to obtain. He worked by the job or by the month, and in any way that was remunerative and honorable to obtain funds. He was one of the men who in the year 1818 helped to clear the ground where Wooster, Ohio, now stands, receiving fifteen dollars per month for his services. For several years he attended the academy at Mer- cer, Pennsylvania, under the care of a teacher named Amberson, and went over the whole college curri- culum, but owing to failure of health was not able to finish the course at Jefferson College, Pennsyl- vania, where several of his classmates graduated.
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