USA > Iowa > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self made men, Iowa volume > Part 98
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Alexander Sears was in the northern army in 1812-14, when it was operating at Plattsburgh and in that vicinity. He died when our subject was only twelve years old. His wife lived until in her eighty-ninth year.
Epenetus received an academic education at Gal- loway, in his native county, and at Amsterdam, Montgomery county, teaching occasionally to meet pecuniary obligations, he being dependent entirely on his own resources. About this period his health failed, and he spent nearly a year in New Orleans in order to improve it. The next year he was a clerk for the builders of the Croton water-works.
Going to Chautauqua county, in the western part of the state, in 1844, he located at Sinclairville, and for two or three years alternated between reading law and teaching school, being admitted to practice in the court of common pleas at Mayville, the county seat, in 1845. A little later he was reexamined and
admitted to practice in the supreme court and court of appeals.
Mr. Sears commenced practice at Sinclairville, and with the exception of a few months spent at Franklinville, in Cattaraugus county, he remained there until 1853, when he removed to Sidney, Iowa. At that time the village did not contain more than two hundred inhabitants. Here he continued in the practice of his profession until January, 1855, when, by commission of Governor Grimes, he went on the bench of the old fifth judicial district to fill a va- cancy caused by the resignation of Judge A. A. Bradford, who has since been a congressman from Colorado. Governor Grimes was a whig and Mr. Sears was then a democrat, the governor giving as his reason for making the appointment a desire to secure the fittest man in the district. At that time the district embraced twelve counties in the south- western part of the state. It was long before any railroads made their appearance, and when the pub- lic roads were very poor, and it was often a tedious, and sometimes, when streams were swollen, a peril- ons task to get to and from a county seat. At the May election held in 1855, Judge Sears was elected to the same office by the people; was reelected at the end of four years, and served in all nearly nine years, making a popular and eminently trustworthy jurist.
While he was on the bench Governor Kirkwood appointed him one of his aides, with title of lieuten- ant-colonel, and he had charge of the southwestern
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military division of the state, holding that position until the governor went out of office.
Early in 1865 he received the appointment from President Lincoln of direct tax commissioner for the State of North Carolina, and performed the du- ties of that office from May of that year until De- cember, 1866. This was one of the latest appoint- ments made before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated. While in North Carolina Judge Sears had an attack of hemorrhage of the lungs, and has not been very healthy since that time. He does a little law prac- tice, such as his strength will permit, but, having a competency, so far as regards work, he is "taking the world easy."
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Judge Sears was a democrat until 1857, though he was strongly opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and voted for Mr. Buchanan in 1856 under protest. For the last twenty years he has acted heartily with the republican party. In 1868 he was a delegate to the national convention which nominated General Grant.
He is a member of the Presbyterian church, a ruling elder of the same, and for the last seven years has been the superintendent of the Sunday school. He represented the presbytery in the general assem- bly at Philadelphia in 1870, and at Detroit in 1872, and is a wise counselor in an ecclesiastical body.
His wife was Miss Julia A. Allen, of Sinclairville,
New York, chosen on the 5th of October, 1848. They have one child, an adopted daughter, Adelaide, the wife of Jeremiah Mosser, artist, of Sidney.
In the "History of Fremont County," written by L. Lingenfelter, Esq., an attorney of Sidney, he thus speaks of Judge Sears when on the bench :
When upon the bench he presided with dignity, and commanded the respect of every member of the bar, every officer of the court, every witness and juror who attended its sessions, as well as every spectator. He was ever in his place to execute justice upon the guilty, or to protect the rights and the liberties of the poor man when innocently charged with an offense. I recollect of a very exciting time in his court in this county in 1859. In 1857 the new con- stitution of Iowa provided that a negro might testify the same as another person in all courts of judicature, federal or state. Under its provisions, and the statute made there- under, it happened at the September term of the district court for 1859 there were three free blacks, to wit: Green Garner, Henry Garner and Thomas Reed, subpoenaed, and were in attendance to testify in a certain case against some parties who were wealthy, respectable and influential. When the case came on for trial the court-house was crowded with men full of excitement, who were intent upon an interruption should these witnesses be put upon the stand. Threats were audibly made against the law- vers, the parties interested, the witnesses, the officers of the court, and even against the court itself, should they attempt to testify. But Judge Sears quailed not ; he was firm, fear- less and unmoved. He called upon the sheriff to bid the spectators be seated and be quiet, stating they should have a good opportunity to hear all the evidence; that what was now transpiring was something new, to be sure, but it was now the law, and he hoped no man who loved the enforce- ment of the law would see it violated. This had a good effect. The witnesses were sworn, testified, subjected to a cross-examination, and then retired without molestation, and no one else injured or insulted.
REV. JESSE W. DENISON,
DENISON.
ESSE WOOD DENISON, the founder of the J town of that name, the seat of justice of Craw- ford county, Iowa, was born in the township of Berne, Albany county, New York, on the 9th of April, 1818. His parents were Thomas and Polly Crary Denison. The Denisons are of English descent; the Crarys are an old Connecticut family, of whose history far- ther back we have no knowledge.
The subject of this sketch passed his early life on his father's farm; at eighteen he commenced his academic studies at Schoharie Court House ; entered the junior class of Union College, Schenectady, in 1842, and graduated in 1844. He studied theology in New York city and Covington, Kentucky; grad- uated in 1846, and was pastor, successively, of the Baptist churches in Upper Alton, Rock Island and Brimfield, all in Illinois.
In 1856 Mr. Denison located in Crawford county, becoming at the same time agent of the Providence Western Land Company, which he organized, and which embraced about thirty stockholders. He en- tered about twenty-one thousand acres of wild land in Crawford county, three thousand in Harrison, and one thousand each in Shelby and Pottawattamie counties.
For twenty years real estate was his main business, yet he found time for a great deal of other work - looking after public schools, establishing Sunday schools and churches, in which he always evinced the greatest interest. He organized the Baptist church of Denison during the first year of his resi- dence in the county, and was its pastor until 1863.
After leaving the pastorate Mr. Denison engaged in the grain and lumber trade, and bought and
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shipped poultry ; at the same time he was also busily occupied in his land operations. Always ready to encourage manufactures, and thus aid in building up the town, he became interested in the manufacture of concrete brick, and only two or three years ago started a soap factory, which he is still managing and carrying on with success.
In the autumn of 1859 Mr. Denison was elected to the lower house of the general assembly, and served in the regular session of 1860 and the extra session of 1861. He has held various local offices, discharging his duties with the utmost faithfulness. In public spirit and enterprise he is a leader.
Mr. Denison has had two wives, the first being Miss Mary W. Briggs, daughter of Professor A.
Briggs, formerly of Waterville College, Maine. She died on the 27th of December, 1855, leaving two daughters, both now married. Mary L. is the wife of Thomas Hooker, of Dallas county, Iowa, and Julia P. is the wife of Rev. A. M. Duboc, of Livonia Station, Livingston county, New York. Mr. Deni- son's present wife was Miss Eliza B. Lewis, of Provi- dence, Rhode Island, a cousin of his first wife; mar- ried on the 3d of August, 1859 She has had three children, two of them, Willie S., aged sixteen, and Maria Louisa, aged eleven, still living.
As one of the town builders of Iowa, Mr. Deni- son has done a noble work, and his name will be remembered gratefully and long after he has closed his labors and gone to his rest.
HENRY OSBORNE, M. D.,
COUNCIL BLUFFS.
O NE of the oldest medical practitioners in west- ern Iowa, and one of the most eminent sur- geons, is Henry Osborne, who has been a resident of the state since 1852. He is a native of Morgan county, Ohio, and was born near McConnellsville, on the 29th of January, 1830, his parents being Thomas A. and Lorena Beckwith Osborne. His maternal grandfather belonged to the engineer department in the revolutionary war.
Henry was on a farm in his native county until seventeen years of age: commenced to teach a win- ter school at eighteen, and a year or two later began the study of medicine. In 1852 he came to Wapello county, Iowa, took up wild lands, improved them for two or three years, and in 1855 resumed his medical studies, reading with Dr. E. C. Atkinson, of Dover, Lee county. He attended lectures at Keokuk ; grad- uated in February, 1857 ; practiced with his precep- tor at Dover and at Pilot Grove, in the same county, five years, and in the autumn of 1862 went into the service as contract surgeon, first at Keokuk and then at Saint Louis; served in that capacity until January, 1863, when he was commissioned surgeon of the 3d Missouri Infantry Volunteers; was with that regi- ment until the close of the siege of Vicksburg, and during that siege had charge of Colonel Woods' brigade hospital. At its close, by especial order of the department of Adjutant-General L. Thomas, Dr. Osborne was ordered to report to Colonel I. F. Shep- ard, acting brigadier-general in charge of the organ-
izing of colored regiments at Milliken's Bend, and other points in western Louisiana, the doctor to act as ranking surgeon of that command. He was in and around Vicksburg, in the capacity here men- tioned, nearly two years.
In the spring of 1865 he went to New Orleans with the command of General John P. Hawkins, and in a very short time joined General Fred. Steele, who commanded a column which operated against Mobile, marching from Pensacola Bay across the country to Fort Blakeley, on the east of Mobile Bay. There Dr. Osborne was chief of one of the oper- ating corps during that siege. At its close he joined General Hawkins' troops, and went up to Cahaba, Selma and Montgomery, remaining there about two months; then returned to New Orleans and, at the end of one month, joined the command of General A. J. Smith, at Alexandria, Louisiana, the doctor be- ing at this time in company with General A. Watson Webber, as his chief medical officer. He remained in the vicinity of Alexandria until June, 1866, when he was ordered to Baton Rouge to be mustered out with other officers. Few surgeons left the army with a better record, the doctor being very vigilant as well as skillful in the discharge of his duties.
After spending a few months in visiting friends in Ohio and eastern Iowa, Dr. Osborne located at Coun- cil Bluffs, where he is still practicing. His long ex- perience and his high reputation as a surgeon call him over a wide range of territory, and make his
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practice all that one man could desire. He is an eminent success in his profession.
Dr. Osborne is a republican, but will accept no office. He is a Master Mason.
His wife was Miss Rhoda M. Arnold, of Dover, Iowa. They were married on the 19th of Septem- ber, 1860, and have had three children, losing their
first-born. Mrs. Osborne has good patriotic and fighting blood in her veins. Her great-grandfather on both sides fought in the first war with the mother country ; both grandfathers in the second, and four brothers in the late civil war, one of those brothers losing his life after battling more than three years to save the Union.
HON. STEPHEN L. DOWS,
CEDAR RAPIDS.
T HE Dows family, from which Stephen Leland Dows descended, originally spelled the name Dowse. They were among the early settlers in Mas- sachusetts, coming from England only a few years after the Plymouth colony arrived. They located near Boston. The great-grandfather of Stephen L. resid- ed in Charleston at the outbreak of the revolution, and at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill his prop- erty was destroyed. He was one of the brave men who aided in gaining our independence. Thomas Dows, the eccentric and celebrated bibliopolist, of Cambridgeport, was a great-uncle of Stephen. He was a self-made man, largely self-educated, and col- lected one of the largest private libraries in the United States, giving it, at his demise, to the Massachu- setts Historical Society. According to the condi- tions of the gift, this library is kept in a fire-proof building, and no book is allowed to go out of the building. He left property set aside especially for the endowment of the Dows course of lectures, which: is given annually at Cambridge, the best talent in the country being employed for that course. In the town of Sherborn he caused a town hall to be erected at his expense, on which he placed an astronomical clock.
The paternal grandmother of Stephen L. was a Leland, a family equally as distinguished as the Dows family. The pedigree of the family is traced back distinctly to John Leland, born in London, England, in 1512, an accomplished scholar flourishing during the reign of Henry VIII. Among his descendants in the old world were Rev. Drs. John and Thomas Leland, eminent authors of the eighteenth century. Henry Leland, the progenitor of all who bear the name except by adoption, in this country, is supposed to have emigrated to the United States about 1652, and settled in what afterward became the town of Sherborn, Massachusetts. His children, who lived
to grow up, were Experience, Hope Still, Ebenezer, and Eleazer, from whom has sprung a numerous fam- ily, many members of which are quite distinguished, as American biographical history shows. All left issue but Eleazer. Among the prominent men in this family was " Elder " John Leland, many years a res- ident of Cheshire, Massachusetts. He lived a short time in Virginia, and. in 1789, in a Baptist general conference, he boldly denounced slavery as a " vio- lent deprivation of the rights of nature." The prom- inent professional men and eminent scholars of this name are numbered by the hundred. There are elev- en generations of the Leland family in this country.
Stephen Leland Dows was born in New York city, on the 9th of October, 1832, his parents being Adam Dows, a merchant in early life, and Maria Lundy, a daughter of Captain Lundy, of New York city. His grandfather, James Dows, was a soldier in the war of 1812-15, and was killed while on picket duty.
At fourteen years of age the subject of this sketch went into a machine shop at Troy, New York, in which city his parents then lived. At the end of two years he left the city of Troy, and started westward with a cash capital of seven dollars and fifty cents, and a pass to Buffalo on a line boat. He landed in Milwaukee with seventy-five cents in his pocket ; after a little de- lay proceeded to Green Bay, where he spent one year in lumbering; then went to Lake Superior, and was one of the first winterers in the then new town of Marquette ; worked there in the first machine shop built, and run the first engine ever started there ; at the end of two years, returned to Green Bay, acting as engineer until the spring of 1853, when he went to Muskegon, Michigan, and superintended a lumbering establishment.
In 1855 the health of Mr. Dows failed, and he came to Cedar Rapids and became engineer and superin- tendent of the Variety Manufacturing Works. In
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company with other men connected with these works, in 1860 he conveyed a quartz mill to Gold Hill, in the Rocky mountains, and with two young men re- turned overland the next winter, driving a pair of mules from Denver to Omaha in seventeen days, and having on one occasion a narrow escape from Indians, being saved from robbery, and perhaps murder, by the coolness and self-possession of Mr. Dows.
After superintending the Variety Works another season, in August, 1862, he went into the army as first lieutenant company I, 20th regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry ; in a short time was promoted to acting brigade quartermaster of the first brigade, second division, army of the frontier; from exposure and overwork became disabled, and was obliged to leave the service in one year.
Since 1863 Mr. Dows has been engaged in public works and manufactories. He has been an extensive and successful railroad contractor; started, and is run- ning, in connection with Mr. J. H. Shaver, an exten- sive cracker factory in Cedar Rapids, and built with Dr. J. E. Ely, the Dows and Ely block, better known as the post-office block, at the corner of Washington and Eagle streets, this being one of the finest build- ings in the city. Mr. Dows has other property in the city and outside of it; is a great encourager of man- ufacturing and other industries tending to advance the interests of Cedar Rapids, and has done a good work toward building up a city second in enterprise to no other in the interior of Iowa.
In 1875 Mr. Dows was elected state senator to rep- resent Linn county, and in the sessions of the gen- eral assembly held in 1876 and 1878 he was chairman of the committee on public buildings, and on four or five other committees - railroads, manufactories,
appropriations, and penitentiary. In 1878 he was chairman of the committee appointed to visit the penitentiary at Fort Madison. His practical turn of mind, his solid good sense, his sound judgment and great industry make him a valuable legislator. On matters pertaining to the mechanic arts he is regarded as the Nestor of the upper house. His senatorial term will expire in December, 1879. He has always been a republican.
Mr. Dows is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids, and an elder of the same. For some years he was superintendent of the Sunday school. He is a man of benevolent disposition, very generous to the poor, dispensing his charities in the most secret manner.
On the 31st of October, 1855, Miss Henrietta W. Safely, daughter of Thomas Safely, of Waterford, New York, was married to Senator Dows, and they have had six children, all yet living but the first-born, Minnie Maria, who died in budding womanhood, in her fifteenth year, on the 14th of July, 1871. The living children are Elizabeth Holroyd, aged nine- teen ; Elma Ellsworth, aged sixteen ; William Greene, aged thirteen ; Stephen Leland, aged eleven, and Su- san Henrietta, aged six. Mrs. Dows is a noble, chris- tian woman, and is thoroughly devoted to the interests of her family. Like her husband, she is very social, abounding in hospitality, and is a rich entertainer.
Mr. Dows is a purely self-made man. Cast upon his own resources at an early age, he educated him- self, and developed into a skillful mechanic, and later in life into an eminently successful railroad contrac- tor, and a legislator with but few peers in the com- monwealth. With rare exceptions, whatever he has touched has " turned to gold."
JACOB L. CHASE,
OSAGE.
J JACOB LIBBY CHASE belongs to a family of early settlers in Maine, in which state he was born on the 27th of October, 1823, his native town being Limington, York county. His parents were Moses Chase, a farmer, and Mary Libby. His maternal grandsire was a private soldier in the seven years' struggle for freedom from the British yoke, and his father, Moses Chase, was in the second war with the mother country, acting as fife-major. Jacob was reared a farmer, and pursued that calling until 1852, |
when he went to Portland and carried on the provis- ion and grocery trade, until burnt out in 1854. At that date he shifted his location, opening a dry-goods store in Saco; continued in that line of trade until 1856, in which year, on the 31st day of July, he reached Osage, in the State of Iowa, and he has here had a home twenty-one years. Soon after reaching this place he had a contract with his brother, Dr. S. B. Chase, for building a court-house, which was com- pleted in 1859. Subsequently he worked as a joiner
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and builder, in company with his brother-in-law, W. S. Johnston. In 1862 he was appointed postmaster, and held the office until February, 1871. During this period he also held other offices; was justice of the peace four years, commencing on the ist of Jan- uary, 1864. In June of the year before he was ap- pointed deputy provost-marshal for Mitchell county, serving until the close of the civil war. In the au- tumn of 1865 he received the appointment of assist- ant assessor for Mitchell county, and served until the office was abolished. He was prompt and efficient in the discharge of all his official duties.
For the last four or five years Mr. Chase has been engaged in selling agricultural implements and ma- chines, and is as well and favorably known in the farm- ing community as any man in Mitchell county. Dur- ing all his years of residence in Iowa he has himself owned a small farm near town, and attended to it, raising from year to year the bread consumed by his own household.
Mr. Chase is a member of the commandery in the Masonic order, and has held all the offices in the blue lodge, the chapter and commandery. In politics, he is a strong republican, and aided in organizing the party before leaving Maine. His religious views ac- cord with those of the Congregationalists.
On the 25th of November, 1845, Mr. Chase was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Johnston, of Standish, Maine. They have five children, four daughters and one son, and have lost two. The two eldest daughters are married, Annie A. being the wife of Joseph F. Rood, of Mitchell county, and Alice M. the wife of Melville White, clerk of Mitchell coun- ty. Most of his children were educated in the graded schools of Osage, and the Cedar Valley Seminary.
Osage was fortunate in having a good class of cit- izens among its early settlers. They gave tone and character to the place, and their healthful influence has always been strikingly marked. Prominent among this class of men is Jacob L. Chase.
OSCAR W. GARRISON,
IOWA FALLS.
O SCAR WEBB GARRISON, attorney and journalist, is a son of Nathaniel and Abba Miller Garrison, his ancestors being of English and Welsh origin. Both great-grandfathers participated in the struggle for American freedom, and both grandfathers were in the second war with England. His four grandparents lived past ninety years. His father, who was a carpenter by trade, was an early settler in Ithaca, New York.
Oscar was born in Mecklenburg, Tompkins coun- ty, New York, on the 29th of August, 1839, and spent the first eighteen years of his life in his native town, where he acquired a common-school education, also working at his father's trade part of the time and teaching two or three terms to defray expenses.
In 1857 he struck out for himself; prospected awhile in the western states, and finally located at Oregon, Ogle county, Illinois, reading law with H. A. Mix, an eminent lawyer in that part of the coun- try, teaching school during the winters at Oregon, Ashton and Rochelle, and working more or less in the county clerk's office during the summers. He was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Illinois on the 16th of May, 1863 ; formed a partner- ship with Hon. J. K. Edsell, of Dixon, now attorney-
general of the state; continued in practice with him at Dixon one year, and then practiced alone in Ore- gon until April, 1866, when he removed to his pres- ent home. Here he has been in legal practice since that date, uniting other business with it most of the time. He was deputy revenue collector for Hardin and three other counties for a year or two. In May, 1871, purchased the "Sentinel " newspaper and job office, and has since conducted it, with the exception of fourteen or fifteen months. He doubled its circu- lation in two years after assuming its management. It is the oldest newspaper in this part of the Iowa valley. He makes it a paper of great influence. While conducting it he also does more or less legal business, being well read and an able and wise coun- selor. He is an indefatigable worker.
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