The Present Bar
(pg 323-355)
"Praise may be written of the dead,
but not all the living," from its frequent
repetition, might be classed among the proverbs, and the
historian is often at a loss of words to express himself
when writing of those who have not "passed
beyond the Valley in the shadow of death." Just
praise and words of accommodation are often do, but for
fear that envious ones will say that all his flattery,
the words are left unsaid. In the following pages upon
the present bar, terms of flattery are avoided, but just
terms of praise or not withheld when the subject is
deemed worthy. For all that appears the historian is held
responsible.
The bar of Clayton County in the this year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and eighty two, is composed of
some who are the peer of any in the State, men whose
learning and experience, entitled them to front rank. The
following named compose its members: Samuel Murdoch,
Reuben Noble, Elias H. Williams, J. O. Crosby, Thomas
Updegraff, John T. Stoneman, S. T. Woodward, L. O. Hatch,
William A. Preston, W.E. Odell, S. K. Adams, R. E. Price,
Marvin Coke, W. C. Lewis, Robert Quigley, Martin Garber,
J.E. Corlett and S. T. Richards.
In the following pages are given biographical sketches of
most of the these. The sketches of those not in this
chapter will be found in the other chapters of this work.
Samuel K. Adams has
been a member of the Clayton County bar for more than ten
years, having been admitted to practice in 1871. Mr.
Adams was born in Brook County Va., Jan. 18, 1850. His
father was Benjamin Adams, who was likewise a native of
Brooke County. His mother's maiden name was White. She
was an Illinoisian by birth. Benjamin Adams and Mary
White were married in Brook County VA, in 1847. Five
children were born unto them, of whom Samuel K. was the
second. In 1856 he came with his parents to Clayton
County and resided with them upon a farm, doing his share
of the work as soon as he was able to attend to the
duties pertaining to the life of a farmers boy, and his
opportunity offered he attended the common public school
of the neighborhood in which his parents resided. Being
an apt scholar, at eighteen years of age he was
sufficiently advanced to teach a country school. While
engaged in teaching, he began to read law, and for two
years in his leisure moments he pursued a course of
study, at the end of which time he entered the office of
Judge B. T. Hunt, at Elkader, continuing with him one
year, being admitted to the bar of September, 1871. In
1874 he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of
the state. In 1872 Mr. Adams opened an office in Elkader
and at once entered upon an active professional life. At
this time he was appointed by John Everall Deputy County
Superintendent of public schools, and served four years.
He subsequently served in the same capacity under J. F.
Thompson. In 1875 he was nominated on the Democratic
ticket for the office of county superintendent, at which
time the North Iowa Times said:" Mr. Adams
is a promising young lawyer, who grew up in the county,
and has given evidence of rare ability in public life.
Mr. Adams is a member of the Clayton County bar, and
since his admission, four or five years ago, he has
advanced rapidly in his profession, and today stands high
in the bar which is acknowledged to be second to none in
the State." Mr. Adams declined running for the
office, and has since devoted himself to his profession,
though he has taken an active part in the discussion of
political questions, and his services as a public speaker
are called into requisition each campaign. In 1876 Mr.
Adams was united in marriage with Miss A. L. House,
daughter of Anna J. House, of Canton, Dak. She was born
near portage, Wisconsin, June 6, 1860.
Asahel Chapin, one
of the leading members of the Clayton County bar, was
born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on the 13th day of
January, 1846, a son of Reverend Asahel and Cathryn M.
(Sutherland) Chapin, who were married in Chautauqua
County, New York, about 1839, and were the parents of
four children, viz.: Judson S., who died in 1879; Asahel,
Attorney at Law; Edward S., a graduate at West Point, and
at present First Lieutenant of Battery B, 4th US
Artillery, and William F., of Dubuque Iowa. Asahel
Chapin, Sr., was a graduate at Amherst College, and soon
after was ordained as a Baptist minister. He was
subsequently elected president of Horton College, of Nova
Scotia. In 1851 he left Massachusetts and emigrated with
his family to Galena, Illinois, where he supplied the
pulpit of the First Baptist Church for five years. In
1856 he went to Benton County, Iowa, where he engaged in
farming, and in the meantime assisted in organizing the
First Baptist Church of Vinton, supplying the pulpit
until 1864, when he removed to Dubuque, where he was
pastor of the second Baptist Church, until he resigned in
1868. He at present resides in Freeport, Illinois. Rev.
Asahel Chapin is a large-souled philanthropist, a
cheerful loving disciple of Jesus, a genial, trustworthy
friend, a logical and earnest thinker, an eloquent and
impressive preacher, and a broad hearted and every way
noble man.
The subject of this memoir was educated at the Iowa State
University, graduating in the winter of 1867-'8. Soon
after he went to Dubuque where he read law in the office
of Wilson and Dowd two years, and in 1871 was admitted to
the bar. Remaining in Dubuque he associated himself with
Platt Smith and H. B. Fouke until 1874, when he came to
McGregor, and formed a partnership with John T. Stoneman,
now of Cedar Rapids. In 1877 he married Maggie S.,
daughter of John T. Stoneman. By this union there are two
children - Florence and Esther.
James E. Corlett was
born in Farmersburg Township, March 14, 1858. His parents
were J. D. and Catherine A. (Crawford) Corlett, the
father a native of the Isle of Man, and the mother a
native of New York. They came to Farmersburg Township in
1853. Our subject passed his early life on a farm,
attending school winters. He studied law three years with
Murdoch & Larkin, and then studied one year and the
law department at Iowa city, where he graduated in the
spring of 1880. In the following November he went into
partnership with Hon. Martin Garber at Elkport, where
they have their office. They have a lucrative practice,
and a promising future.
Marvin Cook is the
fourth son of Ambrose P. and Eliza J. (Hesser) Cook, and
was born January 16, 1845, in Medina County Ohio. At the
age of ten years he came with his parents to Clayton
County, and was reared on a farm in Highland Township.
Here he attended the common schools until sufficiently
advanced to enter Upper Iowa University at Fayette, which
he attended for some time. In 1865 he commenced the
reading of law, under Hunt & Price, at Elkader, where
he remained until admitted to the bar. On the 28th day of
December 1869 Mr. Cook was united in marriage with Eliza
E., daughter of James L. and Eliza B. (Murdock) Gilbert,
early settlers of this county, where she was born. Two
children have been born unto them - Irving and Herbert.
In 1872 Mr. Cook was elected to the office of the clerk
of the District Court of Clayton County, which office he
held eight years, declining a further reelection. Mr.
Cook has taken great interest in the various benevolent
societies, and is a member of Elkader Lodge, No. 72,
AF&AM, and of Harmony Chapter, No. 41, of the same
order. Is also a member of Elkader Lodge, No. 304,
I.O.O.F.; Elkader Lodge, No. 44, A.O.U.W., and the V.A.S.
fraternity. Mr. Cook has now built up a lucrative
practice in his profession, which he has practiced over
15 years, excepting the time he was clerk of the courts.
Hon. James O. Crosby.
Among the members of the legal profession in Clayton
County and Northern Iowa none stand higher in their
profession than this leading a distinguished lawyer, and
it would be neither doing justice to the high standing of
the Clayton County bar, nor to our history, if we pass
him by without giving him a high and honorable position.
In coming into the County it has been our purpose to
write a faithful history of her men and their actions,
without discrimination, and we trust that we do not
depart from this resolution we say that the bar of the
county is composed of men and of the very highest
character, and that the people of the County have just
cause to appreciate them, and feel satisfied with their
conduct. Among these eminent men of Clayton County, the
subject of this sketch has for an over a quarter of a
century stood in the front rank, and by his voice, his
pen and his actions constantly contributed to his own and
their elevation as members of an honorable profession;
and after time refusing office and emolument, he has
stayed by his chair and his desk until he has acquired
for himself and his family a competence on which he can
rely in his declining years.
He is a self-made man in every sense of the word, and to
make himself what he is he has worked and labored
incessantly at his books and his task until he has
acquired a vast fund of general and practical knowledge,
and this, with the care and attention which he has given
to the discipline of his mind, gives him an advantage in
the investigation of legal subjects that but few other
men in Northern Iowa possess.
There is no trade or calling in the country that he does
not understand; there is no branch of practical knowledge
that he is not familiar with, and there is no branch of
science that he has not studied and investigated, and all
these acquirements, coupled with a thorough and practical
knowledge of the law, give them high and eminent position
before the people of his State and county.
He was born in Warren County, New York, and received his
education and at Seneca Falls and the Fredonia Academies,
and soon after leaving these, he entered the law office
of Mr. Bingham at Ellicottville, New York, and under his
instructions was admitted to the bar of that State.
In 1854 he removed to Clayton County and settled at
Garnavillo, where he still resides, and here he commenced
his long and brilliant career as a lawyer, and will in
all probability die in the harness.
No lawyer in the county has been more successful, none
has had whiter or better reputation, and none has stood
higher as a man of honor and integrity.
In company with the Hon. William Larrabee and Dr. John
Linton, he made the tour of Europe, visited Paris, the
world's fair, Rome and other places of interest on that
continent, and returned home with a mind well filled with
a knowledge of men and things beyond the Atlantic.
He is a close, clear and methodical speaker, and so
arranges his subjects and his thoughts that a child can
understand him; and it is this habit and disciplined up
his mind that is given him the appellation of a
"clearheaded lawyer."
He has always taken a deep and active interest in all the
leading political questions of the day, is an ardent
Republican, and during the great Rebellion was true and
loyal to his country.
He was married in early life to Miss Caroline Gibbs, a
lady of fine attainments and brilliant talent, and she
has made him a kind, gentle and amiable wife; and to one
who may look into that well-managed and lovely abode, it
is a picture of domestic happiness and felicity that is
pleasant to behold.
Martin Garber was
born April 20 6, 1829, in Augusta County Virginia, and
came with his parents to Logan County Ohio, when two
years of age. He was the son of Martin and Magdalen
(Mohler) Garber, both natives of Virginia. The family
shortly afterward removed to Shelby County, where they
lived until the father's death, in August, 1851. Their
farm was then sold. October 1, 1851, Mrs. Garber, with
five sons and two daughters, came to Iowa and settled in
the Turkey Valley, which they reached on the last day of
October. In 1856 Martin was married to Lucy A. Rife,
Elkport. In 1863 he went with his wife and two children
to California, where they remained until 1868. In that
year they returned, and our subject opened a store at
Edgewood. The following year he went into the county
auditor's office as deputy, in which capacity he served
until January 1, 1872, when he was elected Auditor. He
was reelected every two years until he retired, January
1, 1880. He was then chosen State Senator from the
Fortieth District, in that position he now holds. He was
admitted to the bar in 1878, and in November, 1880, he
formed a law partnership with James D. Corlett, of
Farmersburg, and is now practicing law. He is also
engaged in farming. He is a Republican, politically, and
is connected with no church organization. He has a family
of six children - Martha A., now the wife of Dr. Taft;
Estella V., teaching at Elkport; Florence, at school;
Milton C., attending Commercial College at Dubuque; Mary
and Burton, at home. Mr. Garber has been identified with
the county for thirty years, and is deservedly popular
among his fellow citizens, who all wish him many years
more of prosperity.
Leander O. Hatch,
attorney of McGregor, was born in Mesopotamia, Trumbull
County, Ohio, April 13, 1826. His parents were Anson and
Mary (Moore) Hatch, natives of Massachusetts. He and wife
were members of the M.E. Church, and had a family of six
sons and two daughters; all lived to be men and women.
Leander O. was the fourth son; he attended school,
working on his father's farm until 16 years of age. He
graduated from the Farmington Academy in 1842, and taught
school in Ohio and New York states, studying law until
1849, when he was admitted to the Ohio bar at Chardon,
Ohio. He then taught school some 18 months, then began
practicing law in Cuyahoga County, New York, and in the
fall of 1853 he came to Iowa, stopped at Delhi, Delaware
County, a short time, then located a Waukon, Allamakee
County, practicing law. He was elected county treasurer
and recorder of Allamakee, and district attorney for the
tenth Judicial District, comprising Allamakee, Clayton,
Chickasaw, Fayette, Winneshiek and Howard counties; was
District Attorney two years. While here Judge Granger
studied law under Mr. Hatch, afterward becoming his
partner. January 1, 1869, Mr. Hatch located in McGregor,
Iowa, where he has practiced law ever since. He first
formed a partnership with Judge Noble; they remained
partners from 1869 to 1874. Mr. Hatch married Miss Albina
Spalding November 18, 1856, at Waukon, Iowa. She was born
in Dover, Maine, and was the daughter of Asher Spalding,
of Maine. Mr. and Mrs. Hatch have had four sons and one
daughter, viz.: Arthur, a graduate of the Wisconsin
University; Frank, Miss Mary, Leander O. and Burt all
reside with their parents. Mr. L. O. Hatch is one of the
leading members of the Clayton County bar. In politics he
is a Republican, having been a strong supporter of this
party ever since its organization. Prior to his coming to
Iowa he lectured for 18 months in Ohio, Pennsylvania and
New York states against American slavery. Mr. Hatch is
one of the enterprising representative men Clayton
County, where he has been identified since 1869. He is of
English descent.
J. Larkin was born
October 25, 1840, and Joe Davies County, Illinois, of
Irish parentage. In 1842 his parents moved to Grant
County, Wisconsin, to a place about 4 miles west of where
the town of Hazel Green is now situated, and there
purchased from the Government a large tract of fine
farming land. His father became a well-to-do farmer. Most
of the early life of J. Larkin was spent in school. He
attended school at Sinsinawa Mound College (since changed
into a convent) during 1854, 1855 and 1856. Came,
temporarily, to Clayton County in 1857 and taught school
there in 1857 and 1858. Returned to Sinsinawa Mound
College in 1859, and finished his studies there on July
3, 1860, receiving the degree of bachelor of arts. He
attended the Law Department of the University of the city
of New York in 1862 and during 1863 until the annual
commencement, which took place on May 6, when he
graduated an LL.B. On May 21, 1863, he was admitted to
the bar of the Supreme Court of the State of New York as
an attorney and counselor at law; June 20 5, 1863, he
received from his alma mater the degree of A.M. In 1865
he married the daughter of the late Patrick Uriell, Esq.,
one of the oldest of the pioneers of Clayton County. He
followed farming until 1874, when he entered the law
business. In 1876 he and Samuel Murdoch formed the law
partnership firm of Murdoch & Larkin, at Elkader,
which firms still continues. Mr. Larkin is an able
lawyer.
W.C. Lewis, of
Elkader, was born in Kane County, Illinois, May 25, 1854
he is the son of William and Agnes (Sloan) Lewis, natives
of Scotland, who emmigrated to America in 1847; and
located at Elgin, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis came
across the ocean on the same vessel that brought the
renowned Allan Pinkerton, the detective. W. C. Lewis left
his home when but 13 years of age and went into the
pineries, where he remained for a time, and subsequently
ran on the Mississippi River, on the Diamond Joe line of
boats, serving in various positions. In 1877 Mr. Lewis
attended the law school of the State University, from
which place he graduated, after which he entered into
partnership with R.E. Price in the practice of law at
Elkader. In 1876 Mr. Lewis was united in marriage with
Effie J., daughter of David Bachtell, of Boardman
Township. She was born in Clayton County, June, 1859. One
child has been born onto them. In 1879 he was elected to
the office of Justice of the Peace to fill a vacancy, and
re-elected in 1880 for the full term of four years. In
politics Mr. Lewis is a Democrat, and takes quite an
active part in the political councils of his party in in
the dissemination of Democratic views.
Samuel Murdoch.
Neither the history of Iowa and other history of Clayton
County could be written with propriety without an
extensive sketch of the life and times of this
distinguished person. His father and mother were children
of Scotch parents, and were both raised in the country of
Armaugh, Ireland, and emmigrated to America in the or
1812, and settled near Pittsburgh in the state of
Pennsylvania, were the subject of this sketch was born on
the 13th of March, 1817. In the year 1827 his father with
his family moved to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and
finally settled on little farm near that city, in the
town of Rockport. Here he grew up to manhood, receiving
such education as the common schools of that day
afforded, and after arriving at full age, he taught
school in several places in the state of Ohio. It was
during his younger years that he became acquainted with
the family of Hon. Reuben Wood, who was at that time one
of the Supreme Judges of that State, and who afterward
became her Governor. With this family he lived for
several years, and it was from this Judge and Governor
that he not only received many of his early lessons in
general history, law, and politics, but material aid and
assistance, and it is to this noble and generous family
that he still feels himself indebted for the position he
now occupies, and of whom he always speaks of the
tenderness of a child for its parents.
In the fall of 1841 he left Ohio, and soon found himself
alone in the city of Chicago, and after remaining here a
few days, he started out to across the country to Rock
River, sometimes on foot, sometimes on wagons drawn by
oxen. On reaching that river he followed it down to Rock
Island, and after a day or two crossed over to the town
of Davenport. Here he remained for a few days recruiting
his wearied limbs, and then shouldering a heavy pack he
again started on foot across the country, on an Indian
trail for Iowa City, which place he reached after two
days of the most wearisome labor.
The site for the capital of Iowa was at that time fixed,
and here he determined to remain, and soon after his
arrival he entered the Law office of Bates &
Harrison, with whom he remained but a few months, when
this firm dissolved, and he then entered the Law office
of the late Hon. Gillman Folsome, and it was while in
this office that he was admitted to the bar of Johnson
County. Before making a final settlement he determined to
examine and explore the country, and for this purpose he
came to Dubuque, where he had letters of introduction to
some of the principal men. Here he found the Hon. Thomas
N. Wilson on the bench, and the bar composed of J. V.
Berry, James Crawford, Hon. Stephen Hempstead, James
Churchman, L. A. Thomas, Hon. Timothy Davis, and the Hon.
Thomas Rogers, nearly all of whom are and are now gone to
the spirit land.
It was while he was in Dubuque that he heard for the
first time of the beautiful undulating prairies of
Clayton County, and starting out in company with the late
John Thomas, of Prairie Du Chien, with Dr. Frederick
Andros as a guide, he arrived at Jacksonville, since
called Garnavillo, on the ninth day of August, 1843. The
grandeur and beauty of the surrounding scenery, together
with the fertility of the soil, attracted his attention,
and he determined to make this his future home; with this
intention he soon staked and marked out a
"claim" one and one-half miles south on section
twenty-nine, and from time to time in entered the land at
the Dubuque land office. This farm he, for 35 years,
adorned and embellished with his own hands, and in its
days of beauty it was considered the model farm of the
State. He surrounded his gardens and his yards with the
fir, the spruce and the pine, and from their numbers and
luxuriant growth the farm was called the
"Evergreens". Enclosed by these beautiful trees
was to be seen growing extensive orchards of fruits,
selected by him from all parts of America, together with
grapes of every kind in description, while flowers and
shrubs bloomed by the side of every walk, and from the
time he began his work on this farm until the present
time his been considered the best tree and grape grower
in the state of Iowa, and his voice, pen and labor is
still engaged in disseminating useful information on the
subject of both agriculture and horticulture.
He was the first lawyer who permanently settled north of
Dubuque, and during his long residence on this farm he
still kept up his law practice. With the exception of two
terms he has been president and had business in every
term of the courts of his county for thirty-nine years,
and during all this long, he has it to say, that no man
has ever lost a case or a dollar by his carelessness or
want of legal ability.
In the year 1845 he was elected a member of the
Territorial Legislature from the counties of Dubuque,
Delaware and Clayton. He remained in this body until Iowa
passed into a State, and it was while in this body that
he was mainly instrumental in securing for the state her
present northern boundary. In 1848 he was elected School
Fund Commissioner, an office which he held for four
years, during which time he sold most of the school lands
of his county, consisting of both the sixteen sections in
the Counties portion of the 500,000 acres donated for
school purposes, and as he was allowed a large discretion
in the sale of these valuable lands, he took good care to
see that they were purchased by actual settlers. During
these sales he would often have in his house at a time
several thousand dollars, which money he covered up in
his potato bin in his cellar.
In 1855 he was elected the first District Judge of the
Tenth Judicial District, which at the time included 10
counties, and in several of these counties he held the
first courts; and through this large district twice each
year he traveled, generally on horseback, swimming rivers
and wading sloughs, generally accompanied by a number of
lawyers, and to this day these journeys form the theme of
many a pleasing story in the bar of Northern Iowa.
In early life he was a Democrat, but upon the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise he assisted in forming the
Republican Party, and has ever since voted and acted with
that party; and when the Rebellion broke out his voice
and his pen were ever active in the cause of the Union,
and many of his speeches of that day are models of
patriotism, elocution and oratory.
In the fall of 1863 he visited some of the Golf States,
and he came the war correspondent of several Iowa papers.
In the year 1864 he again returned to the Southern
States, and again resumed his correspondence with
Northern papers, and it was this correspondence that
first brought him into notice as a writer; and from that
day to the present his articles on every subject he's
touches are sought after and read with deepest interest.
Returning from the South in the fall of 1864, he was
retained as attorney for Hon. James Andrews, of Columbia,
Tennessee, who had appealed to the president of United
States from the sentence of a Military Court condemning
him to imprisonment for the killing of a soldier
belonging to a Michigan Regiment, and to present and
argue the case before the president he repaired to
Washington in the fall of that year. Mr. Lincoln gave him
a hearing, reversed the sentence and set his client at
liberty.
In 1869 he was elected a member of the Thirteenth General
Assembly, and in this assembly he distinguished himself
as a lawyer and a speaker by his great speech and
opposition to the repeal of the death penalty for the
crime of murder, in which he said its appeal would not
only be an advertisement, inviting all the villains of
America to come to Iowa, were without fear of their necks
they could rob and murder with impunity, but that it only
transferred the inflection of the death penalty in cases
of murder from an organized in legal court to one of
mobs, and his observations and words have since been many
times proved too true.
In the summer of 1869 he unearthed the "Hagerty
Massacre," one of the most cruel and terrible
murders of modern times, in which he brought to light no
less than five dead bodies, after they had been entombed
and hid away for over eight months, and then he pursued
and prosecuted the murderer until he lodged him in the
penitentiary for life. For this great service he was not
only rewarded by the thanks of a grateful public, but the
county paid him a large sum, and he received in addition
$500 from the State.
In 1878, in connection with his friend, W. A. Benton, he
planned the capture of the notorious bank robber, Jim
Uncer, and had him brought from his hiding place in
Chicago to Clayton County, where he was tried and sent to
the penitentiary for his crimes.
Judge Murdoch has been a successful lawyer, and during
his long residence and practice in the county he has
always been engaged on one side or the other of the most
important cases, and today he is regarded by his fellows
as one of the best jury lawyers in the State.
Portraits of Samuel & Louisa
(Patch) Murdock - pages 299 & 300
In 1845 he married Miss Louisa Patch, who
has made him a good and faithful wife, and two daughters
out of six children are their only survivors, the eldest
of which is a graduate of the Boston University and has
led several professorships in different colleges in the
West, and the youngest is at present the German teacher
in the Elkader graded school.
In 1876 he was selected by the Governor to fill Iowa's
Department of Anthropology at the Centennial, and
although the notice was a short one, yet he took the
field, and in a few months he had collected and shipped
to Philadelphia some of the most curious and wonderful
specimens are prehistoric man that had ever been on earth
on this continent, and although his collection was small,
yet it received from the historian of the Centennial the
only compliment paid to Iowa for her part in the great
show.
In 1878 he wrote and published a series of articles on
"Prehistoric Man," and these interfering
somewhat with creeds, brought down upon him a score of
orthodox writers, who sought to drive him from his
purpose and demolishes arguments; yet the press of the
country generally took sides with him, bestowed upon him
high compliments, and encouraged him in every way to
proceed. To these attacks he paid no attention, and
quietly proceeded with his work, and today he has the
proud satisfaction of seeing and knowing that the general
reading public is with him, and believes he was right.
These articles not only show him to be an elegant English
writer, but they displayed deep and profound thought, as
well as historical and scientific research, and for these
and other services in the cause of science, learned
societies have conferred upon him distinguished honors.
In 1859 he wrote and published his "Sketches of the
public man of Iowa before she became a State,"
(among who were her four first governors), and these
sketches not only gave him a wide range of acquaintance,
but they placed him in a high rank among the
distinguished writers of that day.
As a miscellaneous writer in history, astronomy, geology,
archaeology, biography, obituary and on horticulture, he
has probably done more of it than any other man in the
State of Iowa, and in all of these he displays the same
easy and elegant style of composition which commands for
them the attention of the reading public, and his pen is
still as active as ever, for scarcely a week passes
without an article of some kind from yet, in some of the
leading journals of the State. It has been said of him by
one writer, that in "astronomy he could toss the
great globes around us, as the juggler does his brass
balls, with the most frightful ease," and he is
doubtless the first man to assert and publish to the
world, whether true or not, that clouds of electricity of
vapor and ice and open water all coal mingled together in
the terrible commotion of the solar spot, while in
geology he has gone down among the lowest of the Silurian
rocks and under their primitive fossils to enrich his
cabinet. He has probably done more than any other man in
the West to bring to light the remains of the
mound-builder and other prehistoric races that once
inhabited the Mississippi Valley, and his speeches and
articles on this subject are of the deepest interest, and
command the greatest attention.
He is an ardent friend of the Irish cause, in his
speeches before the different "Land Leagues" of
the country not only display a familiarity with Irish
history and all the leading questions of her agitations,
but they also display an elegance of composition and an
eloquence of expression that would do honor to the finest
orators in America; and side by side with those of
Phillips and other distinguished orators, they have been
copied into Irish journals and scattered broadcast to
every Irish fireside throughout that unhappy land.
He is the annual orator for the Pioneers and old settlers
of his county, and his last speech is always said by them
to be his masterpiece; and, indeed, it would be hard to
make any of these old pioneers believe that any other
person in the county could serve them free speech beside
himself, and in this they may be right, for he knows
their ways, their customs and their feelings better,
perhaps, than any other man in the county; and he has
always something pleasing to say of the living, and a
sympathetic expression of sorrow for the dead. These
qualities give to his speeches before them an interest
that no one else could supply, and as one by one, these
old guards are about to drop away, they know that he will
either speak across their biers or give them a good
obituary in the journals of the county.
He is also the author of many beautiful poems, some of
which are entitled "Garnavillo," "The
Indian Queen," "The Glow Worm,"
"Pilgrim's Return," "The Maid of the
Wapsie," "The Woodpeckers Nest," etc., all
of which have been published in the different journals of
the State.
His social qualities are up a high order, his
conversations rich and interesting, his attic dotes are
generally brilliant, and he cherishes an ardent love for
the memories that cluster around the days of his boyhood.
From his birth nature has always been kind to him by
giving him a liberal mind, a healthy and perfect form,
and a generous heart, and whatever fate the tides him he
allows no gloom or shadows to fall upon his mind, and
today his looks and his actions are those of a man in the
vigor and prime of life.
We have given him considerable space in our history, not
alone because he deserves it, but because that history
could not very well have been written without his name,
his actions and his writings appearing conspicuously upon
its pages; and as the first lawyer of his county, the
first judge of the Tenth Judicial District, the prominent
place he has ever occupied before the people of his
county in all her political and social affairs, and as a
miscellaneous, historical, biographical and scientific
writer, his name will be connected with her history into
the latest posterity.
Reuben Noble was one
of the first lawyers in Clayton County, and still
practices in McGregor. The following sketch of his life
was prepared by Judge Murdoch for the Clayton County
Journal, in 1875, when Mr. Noble had just been
elected judge at the Tenth Judicial District: The people
of Clayton County have ever been kind to the bar of their
county, and the large majority given by them to Mr. Noble
at the recent election is not only another evidence of
this fact, but of their high appreciation of the man who
received it; and, as you suggest, a sketch of his history
would no doubt be interesting to them. It has been said,
with much truth, that during the rise, progress, vigor
and prosperity of all nations and governments, it was the
self-made men who ruled the hour, and that their
prosperity and vigor continued only in till the people
began to confer place and power off on birth and caste,
and which in every instance was the first introduction of
the elements of decay. Whether this is true or not, of
other nations, the history of our own country thus far
furnishes a glowing example of its truth. Stretching, as
it does, across a broad continent, who shores are washed
by two of the great oceans of the globe, inviting
commerce, adventure and discovery in foreign lands;
interspersed by chains of lofty mountains, whose rocks
and caverns invite the energy and labor of the chemist,
geologist and miner to explore their deep recesses in
quest of fame and wealth; widespread and fertile plains
stretching from mountain to mountain and watered by deep
and majestic rivers from their sites, inviting the
agriculture is to excel in the cultivation of the soil,
and the merchant to transport the productions to foreign
lands; parceled out into separate and distinct States,
where laws, wealth and prosperity entitle them to the
dignity of empires, and overall a general government with
this domestic and foreign affairs all furnishing to the
youth of America so many roads and avenues of
distinction, honor and wealth to excite their ambition
and encourage their efforts, there is no wonder that
America is the land and nursery of self-made man, and
that they give vigor and impulse to a great body of their
nation. But numerous, wide and boundless as these avenues
are, there are but few men who have reached the highest
positions who can look back over their past lives and say
that their paths have been smoothed, and that during
their lives they have slept upon beds of down. The road
to greatness, in all applications of life, is often
through adversity, toil, poverty and want, and he who
attains it wins a battle in life, the remembrance of
which may well serve to comfort and solace his declining
years.
The history of Mr. Noble is, therefore, but a repetition
of thousands of the best men in America today, were at
the front doing service in the cause of humanity. It
starts in his own mind a desire to educate himself, and a
resolution form to surmount every obstacle in order to
accomplish his purpose. I know but little of his history
prior to 1843, except such fragments as I have gleaned
from him during rambling conversations in early days. I
understand he was born on the 21st of April, 1821, in
Adams County, Mississippi, and that in 1833 he emigrated
with his father to Jersey County, Illinois. Here he
labored on his father's farm until the fall of 1839, when
he formed a resolution to educate himself, and with the
permission of his father, he left home to attend a mutual
labor school, under the charge of Dr. Nelson, in Adams
County. Here he remained about three years, going to
school and reading law, and during all this time he paid
his board by working mornings, evenings and Saturdays. He
has often said to the writer of this, that he was obliged
to practice the most rigid economy, and that during all
this time the sum total of his finances did not exceed
$50, $30 of which he earned working on a farm in the
balance was loaned to him by a brother. He read law with
Edward H. Buckley, Esq., of that county, of whom Mr.
Noble always speaks with the reverence due to a father.
In May, 1842, he came to Fairplay, Grant County,
Wisconsin, then an important mining town, and here he
commenced the practice of law. He remained at this place
into the month of October, 1843, when he removed to
Clayton County, and took up his residence in the town now
called Garnavillo; this town was then called
Jacksonville, and was the county seat.
The summer previous to his arrival, a temporary
courthouse had been erected and fitted for the District
Court and County business. Honorable T. S. Wilson, of
Dubuque, then a young man in the prime of his life, was
the District Judge, of whom the old settlers and the old
bar of the county, often speak with the greatest respect
and reverence. Dr. F. Andros, now at Decorah, who will
ever be remembered by the people of the county with
respect and kindness, was the Clerk; and Ambrose Kennedy,
a native of North Carolina, and a good kind man, now in
his grave, was the Sheriff.
On the first Monday in October, 1843, Judge Wilson held
his first court in the new courthouse at Garnavillo, at
which term Mr. Noble appeared, for the first time, and
then rolled his name on the records as an attorney and
counselor at law, for Clayton County.
At this time Clayton County was bounded on the south by
Dubuque and Delaware, east by the Mississippi, North by
British America, and west by the Rocky Mountains. On the
north and west of what is now the county, was a strip of
county about 40 miles wide, and extending to the
Missouri, called the "Neutral Ground," and on
which were settled the Winnebago Indians.
Through the whole of this vast territory there were
several forts garrisoned by the United States troops, and
in the vicinity of which were Indian Missions, for the
purpose of educating and civilizing the various tribes
around them; while the American Fur Company had their
trading posts scattered at every available point, to
traffic in pelts and furs. All along the Mississippi, the
Turkey and Yellow Rivers, and the belts of timber that
skirted those rivers and their tributaries, were little
groups of settlements, and from all of these at the
October elections, after Mr. Noble's arrival, the county
was able to poll 150 votes. Among all these settlements
and people quite a large traffic had sprung up in dealing
in claims, mining, boat wood, farming, supplying corn,
beef, oats and wheat for the forts and missions, and in
dealing in whiskey, blankets and ponies with the Indians.
Here money was plenty, in proportion to the population,
and as might be expected, all these various branches of
business would furnish the courts with both civil and
criminal business, and enable a lawyer with ordinary
economy to live and clothe himself.
The United States paid all the expenses of the Courts and
Legislature; the Territorial and County taxes were light;
school houses were built of logs; churches were held in
groves; game of all kinds was abundant; an air of wild
freedom surrounded all, and when in after years, with the
burden of civilization upon us, it is no wonder that the
old settlers sigh for the "days when we were
pioneers, some thirty years ago."
Dubuque at this time had an able bar, consisting of
Davis, Crawford, Churchman, Berry, Thomas, Hempstead and
Rogers, all of whom are either in retirement or at their
graves. Previous to Mr. Noble's arrival this bar followed
the judge from court to court, and some of them had quite
a large practice in our county. After his arrival, he,
Honorable E. Price and the writer of this for several
years constituted the bar of this county; until the
arrival of Honorable E. H. Williams, O.H. Stevens, E.
Odell, J. O. Crosby, J. T. Stoneman, Judge Baugh,
Honorable B. T. Hunt and A. J. Jourdan, all of whom, with
the exception of Honorable E. Price and Honorable B. T.
Hunt, are still in the County pursuing their profession,
and these, together with a host of younger attorneys of
mark, talent and ability, constitute the present bar of
the county, in which endpoint of talent and learning will
compare with any other In the State.
From the first day of Mr. Noble commenced practice in the
county he has faithfully and laboriously stuck to his
profession, and as the settlements enlarged, and new
counties were formed, he extended his practice to them
until it was probably the largest of any attorney in the
State.
For more than 30 years he has traveled from county to
county, across trackless prairies, encountering the most
intense cold and the driving storm, only to perform on
his arrival at the courts whole days and nights of the
most intense labor, without rest or sleep, and in all of
his cases ever true and faithful to his clients. His
knowledge of men and things ought to be great, with an
experience as a lawyer that few men of his age of life
can boast of.
In a country like ours, with the General Government,
State Legislature, County school and Township
organizations, and all passing laws, rules and
regulations for their government, to be read, digest it
and explained by the legal profession, it is but natural
that the members of this profession, more than any other,
should from time to time be drawn into the whirlpool of
politics. They are generally the first to discuss the
principles of proposed laws and legal enactments, the
first to apply them to the affairs of the country, as
well as to proclaim the danger from the house-top.
Like many others of his profession, Mr. Noble took an
early and decided stand in the State and national
politics, and although off in earnest in his opinion, was
never in his life a strong partisan. Prior to 1850 he was
elected Prosecuting Attorney for the county, which office
he held but one term and refused a re-election. In 1854
he was elected as a Free-Soil candidate to the
legislature, and, upon its organization, was elected
Speaker of the House, And re-elected Speaker at the extra
session of 1855. His impartial conduct while Speaker of
the House won him many friends throughout the State, and
from that time until the present he has stood in the
front ranks of the principal and able men of the State.
In 1856 he was chosen with General Warren as one of the
Republican electors of the State at large, but declined
the nomination on the ground that he did not feel able to
bear the expense and burden of the State canvass, to the
neglect of his private affairs. During the same year he
was strongly urged by the Republicans of this
congressional district to accept their nomination for
Congress, and had he consented could have received the
nomination and would have been triumphantly elected. But
he declined the nomination, and through his influence to
the support of the late Honorable Timothy Davis, who was
elected, and fill the office with honor and profit to his
constituents.
During the Rebellion Mr. Noble always manifested a strong
and decided feeling for the preservation of the whole
Union, and contributed liberally both in time and money
to raise means for the support of the Army. Feeling,
toward the last of the war, that it had been
unnecessarily prolonged for the purpose of speculation
and gain, and being at all times opposed to the shedding
of human blood, he thought the matter could still be
compromised, the Union saved, and the young men of the
country preserved from premature graves. Both before and
after the war, these principles and sentiments would be
called commendable and he who promulgated them would be
looked upon as a Christian and philanthropist as well as
a benefactor to the human race; but during the war the
spirit of the nation could hear no such doctrine, and for
a time Mr. Noble suffered disfavor in the minds of the
people for his philanthropy.
In 1866 he was nominated by the Democrats of this
congressional district as their candidate, the Honorable
W. B. Allison as his competitor. He took the stump with
Mr. Allison, and conducted an able and lively campaign,
but was defeated in the contest.
In 1868 he was again nominated by the Democrats of the
state for Supreme Judge, but he regarded the nomination
only as a compliment or matter of form, and never paid
the slightest attention to the canvass.
The terrible revulsion and financial crash which came
upon the country and 1858 found him with a large amount
of unproductive real estate upon his hands, and largely
in debt for the purchase money. This large debt was
enough to discourage any living man and drive into
despair, ruin and bankruptcy, but he only redoubled his
energy, enlarged his practice, work more hours, and by
these efforts he has saved his honor, paid every dollar
of his large debt at this, and has today a nice property
that he can call his own.
He now comes to the bench with the vote of every member
of the bar of his county, without regard to politics, and
by a vote in his county and district unheard of in
political elections. He has, therefore, no friends to
reward and no enemies to punish. He brings with him a
world of experience in the law, and a lifelong knowledge
of man; and these, coupled with his high sense of honor
and his discriminating powers of right and justice, will
make him an impartial judge and a faithful public
servant.
W. E. Odell,
attorney at law, McGregor, was born in Jasper County,
Indiana, on the 19th day of September, 1849, and was a
son of Elijah and Rebecca S. (Updegraff) Odell, who were
the parents of three children - W.E., attorney at law, of
McGregor; Mary F., wife of M.E. Duff, an attorney, and
Hiram H., a practicing attorney at Minneapolis,
Minnesota, and a graduate of the Wisconsin University at
Madison, Wisconsin, in the class of 1875. The subject of
this memoir was a graduate at the MadisonUniversity in
1872, and at the age of twenty-three was admitted to the
bar, and in 1874 formed a partnership with his father,
which continued until the latter's death, on February 26,
1875.
On December 15, 1875, he married Miss Maria E. Byrne, a
daughter of John A. Byrne. She was a graduate at the
Wisconsin University, in the class of 1872. By this union
there are two children, viz.: Susie and Mabel. In
politics Mr. Odell is a Republican, and has held several
local offices of trust, serving in the City Council for
three years, and is the present mayor and a director of
the First National Bank of McGregor.
William A. Preston
was born in Monroe County, Illinois, August 7, 1839. His
father, James Preston was a native of East Tennessee,
while his mother, Elizabeth Preston, nee McNabb, was an
Illinoisian by birth. William A. was the second of a
family of nine children, and was reared on a farm. In
1854 he came with his parents to Clayton County, where he
has since continued to reside. The early education of
William A. was received in the common schools of his
native county. On coming to Iowa, in 1855, he entered the
Mt. Vernon, now Cornell College, at Mt. Vernon, Iowa
where he remained a few terms, then changed to the Upper
Iowa University at Fayette, where he remained three
years. During a portion of his college term he engaged in
teaching, and not leaving college he continued to teach,
spending about five years in that profession, including
the time spent during his college career. He next engaged
with the Chicago firm for the sale of school furniture,
and while on the road, was elected Superintendent of
Public Schools of Clayton County, the fact of his
election being unknown to him for several weeks. He held
the office one term, and while engaged in the discharge
of his duties he read law with S. T. Woodward. On the
expiration of his term of office he was urged by friends
to again permit the use of his name for that position,
but declined, desiring to give at least one year of his
time to the study of law, without being engaged in other
business.
Portrait of William A.
Preston, page 605
Mr. Preston was united in marriage with
Julia L. Carlton, an adopted daughter and heir of Victor
Carter, October 12, 1870. She was born in Elkader,
Clayton County. While a mere child, Mrs. Preston lost
both her parents. She was educated in the Upper Iowa
University, and afterward graduated at Rockford,
Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Preston have a family of three
children - Mary E., Donna and Clara. Mr. Preston was
admitted to the bar, January 21, 1871, and the following
year, to the United States Courts, and in 1880, to the
Supreme Court. On his admission to the bar, he formed a
co-partnership with Mr. Woodward, which continued until
1877, since which time he has practiced alone, having
built up a large and lucrative practice.
Realto E. Price was
born August 1, 1840, Jefferson Township, Clayton County,
and was the oldest son of Judge Eliphalet Price, one of
Clayton's earliest pioneers. He passed his early life in
the common schools, and spent the college year of 1857-'8
at Upper Iowa University at Fayette. In May, 1860, he
entered the law office of Murdoch & Hunt, where he
remained two years. The next nine months he was in the
office of Odell & Updegraff, at McGregor, and in
January, 1863, he was admitted to the bar. He commenced
practice in Elkader the same year, in partnership with
Judge B. T. Hunt; they remained in partnership six years
when Hunt, being elected Circuit Judge, retired from the
firm; Marvin Cook, who had practiced law about one year
previous to this time, was then taken into partnership.
The firm of Price & Cook existed from November 1,
1869 to January 1, 1873, when Mr. Cook was elected County
Clerk. Since then Mr. Price has practiced alone. He was
married in 1866 to Sarah F. Stewart, of Clayton County.
They have two children - Valmah Tupelo, and Stewart R.
Mr. Price is politically a Republican. He is a member of
the Masonic fraternity. He has never been a candidate for
any office, although his friends have repeatedly urged
him to accept some nomination.
Robert Quigley was
born in Clayton County, Iowa, December 31, 1845. His
parents were Joseph B. and Nancy B. (Griffith) Quigley,
who came to Clayton County in 1836, and still reside on a
farm in Highland Township. Our subject passed his early
life on his father's farm, attending school winters until
he was 16 years of age. He then spent two years in Upper
Iowa University. He then enlisted in Company D,
Forty-sixth Iowa Infantry, and served the 100 days for
which that regiment was called. After being discharged
from this regiment he was mustered into Company K,
Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, serving one year. He was
discharged at the close of the war and returning to
Clayton County remained at home one year. He then came to
McGregor, entering the Law office of Elijah Odell. Here
he remained six months. The next four and a half years
were passed in the office of John T. Stoneman. He was
admitted to the bar in February 1869. In March, 1869, he
was elected City Attorney, a position which he held six
years. He left Mr. Stoneman's office in the year 1871,
since which time he has been practicing law
independently. Politically Mr. Quigley is a Republican.
He was married November 24, 1875, to Blanche Jacobs, a
native of Fayette County. They have had two children -
Iola Bird and Georgia.
Alvah Clark Rogers
was born September 15, 1817, at Whiting, in Addison
County, Vermont. His father, David Rogers, was born
August 5, 1778 at Roxbury, Connecticut. His mother, Mary
Rogers nee Clark, was born at Middletown Vermont, January
12, 1789. When he was five years of age his father moved
with his family and effects to Westport, Essex County,
New York, where he purchased a farm on the western shore
of Lake Champlain, and where the subject of this sketch
was raised as a farmer boy and received his education, by
early in life attending the district school winters, and
later the Essex County Academy, and at the age of 18
entered a mercantile establishment as a clerk. In May
1838 in the 21st year of his age, he started for the West
and arrived at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, on the 30th of
June, where he worked on a farm until the next spring
when he went to Green Bay, Wisconsin Territory, where he
worked in the stores of D. M. Whitney and Thomas L.
Franks for 16 months, and in August, 1840, he arrived in
Prairie du Chien with a letter of introduction from
Governor Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin Territory, to Reverend
David Lowry, Indian agent for the Winnebagos. The
following winter he was employed by the register of deeds
to write in his office, and at the Register's decease in
the spring he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors
register of deeds for Crawford County, and in 1841 was
commissioned as Justice of the Peace by Governor Henry
Dodge; the said office being appointed under the
territorial laws at that time his commission was renewed
by Governor James D. Doty, who was appointed under
President Tyler. He was afterward elected clerk of the
Board of Supervisors and was appointed commissioner on
insolvent states. While at Green Bay he became acquainted
with Miss Maria Adelaide Plum, daughter of Butler G. and
Deidomia Plum, and on the 29th day of August 1842 they
were united in marriage at Green Lake, in Marquette
County, Wisconsin Territory, and as the issue of said
marriage, there are three children living, viz.: Frank B.
Rogers, born April 27, 1848; A.B.M. Rogers, born January
1, 1853, and A.F. Rogers, born 1859, all at Garnavillo,
Iowa. He resided at Prairie du Chien until November,
1847, and while there studied law at the office of D. G.
Fenton, but never applied for admission to the bar. In
November, 1847, he moved to McGregor, there being only
one frame dwelling house there at the time, in which he
and Mr. Alexander McGregor and their families resided at
the same time. In April, 1848, he removed to Garnavillo,
then the county seat of this county, and engaged in the
business of selling merchandise in co-partnership with
Mr. S. A. Clarke, of Prairie du Chien. In 1853 he removed
from Garnavillo to Clayton and himself and partner
engaged in general forwarding and commission and
merchandise. They also built one-third of the Clayton
City FlourIng Mills, a structure that cost $32,000, which
was finished in 1850. They expended over $50,000 in
improving the village of Clayton. In 1858 he sold out to
his partner, and at the request of Mr. B. F. Fox, who was
then the recorder and treasurer of this county, opened
the first set of double entry accountability pertaining
to both the revenue and school fund ever opened in this
county, which has probably saved this county large sums
and much confusion. He was employed as a deputy treasurer
and deputy clerk of the court until January, 1862, when
he entered upon the duties of the office of County Judge,
to which he was elected three terms, leaving the office
in 1868. Since which time he has frequently been called
upon to look after some crooked accounting of public
secrets.
The subject of this sketch is descended from ancient and
honorable ancestry, being about the ninth generation from
the eminent martyr who surrendered up his life under the
bloody reign of Queen Mary on the 4th of February, 1555,
rather than dishonor the faith he professed, and whose
descendents love to honor him, gathering the fragrance of
sacred memories floating down through the centuries,
becoming a hallowed influence upon their lives and
awakening in the echoes of buried years, by frequently
gathering in their ancient home in Connecticut and take a
cooling draught from
The old oaken
bucket,
The iron bound bucket,
The moss covered bucket
That hangs in the well.
S. T.
Richards, Edgewood, was born in Buffalo, New
York, in 1842. He was the eldest of a family of three
boys, who came to this county and settled in Lodomillo
Township with their widowed mother in 1852. He first
attended school, and then, thrown on his own resources,
taught in the public schools during the winter and worked
on a farm in summertime. In February, 1864 he enlisted in
Company D, Twenty-first Iowa Infantry, and remained in
the service until the close of the war. He held different
township offices for a number of years previous to 1876,
when he attended the law department of the State
University at Iowa City, taking with him his family, a
wife and three daughters. Here misfortune overtook him,
and before his studies were completed he was obliged to
return with his family to Edgewood. He then served as
magistrate for over two years more. He continued his
studies at intervals, and in March, 1881, he was admitted
to the bar. Since that time he has been eminently
successful, and is generally acknowledged to be a
practitioner of great promise.
He was married September 2, 1862, to Miss C. W. Baker, a
daughter of Amasa Baker and Irena Hazzard, natives of
Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have three children, Ella
F., Mertie M. and Warren E. Mr. Richards is a Republican
and cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He is a
member of the Masonic fraternity.
John Thomson Stoneman
is a native of Chautauqua County New York, and was born
in the town of Ellery, on the 24th of February, 1831, his
parents being George and Catherine (Cheney) Stoneman. The
Stoneman's are of English descent, and were among the
early settlers of Chenango County, New York. The Cheney's
were an early Road Island family. George Stoneman moved
with his family to Busti when the son was in his infancy,
and there on a farm, 4 miles from Jamestown, John lived
until he was 16 years of age. He was the fourth child in
a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters,
of whom General George Stoneman, the Gallic cavalry
officer in the late civil war, was the eldest.
John T. prepared for college at the Jamestown Academy,
devoting his summers of this period to labors on a farm.
At twenty he went to Covington, Kentucky, and taught
school one year. He then entered Williams College,
Williamstown, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1856. While
in Kentucky, Mr. Stoneman commenced reading law with
Judge R. B. Carpenter, and during his college course he
spent his vacations at the Albany New York, law school.
He was there admitted to the bar in January, 1855. In
graduating from college, he came West and located in
McGregor in October, 1856. There he was in steady
practice of his profession from that time till the spring
of 1882, when he removed from McGregor. As a lawyer, Mr.
Stoneman has devoted his talents and energies to his
profession with unwearied industry. Dignified before the
court, and respectful to the jury, he commands respect
and wins confidence of his hearers. He is an easy, fluent
speaker, a man of strong sympathy and deep convictions,
and disdains to stoop to any of the shallow artifices of
his profession. Powerful and courageous in argument,
resolute in the defense of what he believes to be right,
he has won among his associates a high and honorable
place. He practices in all the courts, State and Federal.
Mr. Stoneman was the first recorder of the town of
McGregor, being elected in 1857, he was mayor of the city
in 1863, and was elected to the State Senate in 1875. He
was originally a Whig, and for the last twenty-four years
has acted with the Democrats, being one of the leading
members of his party in Northern Iowa. He has been a
candidate for different offices, but being in the
minority side in politics, has usually been defeated. He
was the Democratic nominee for Congress once; two years
later the Democratic and Liberal candidate, and twice
received the votes of the Democratic members of the
legislature for the U. S. Senate.
In March, 1858, Mr. Stoneman was united in marriage with
Caroline Southland, and they have one child - Carrie.
Hon. Elias H. Williams.
Our obligations to the people of Clayton County and
Northern Iowa, as well as our duty as a historian, would
not be complete without an elaborate and somewhat
extensive sketch of this learned and distinguished man.
He was born in the state of Connecticut, on the 23rd day
of July, 1819, and is both, on the side of his father and
mother, descended from a long line of noble and
respectable ancestors, who were among the most ardent
patriots of the American Revolution, and who suffered
greatly from the raids of the notorious Arnold and other
British commanders on the soil of Connecticut.
His father died when he was quite young, leaving his
mother to take care of and educate her children, and
being a lady of talent and great mental power, she
determined to give her sons a first-class education, and
as soon as the subject of this sketch was of the proper
age she sent him to Yale College, where she maintained
him until he graduated with highest honors, and soon
after receiving his diploma he spent one year in New
Hampshire as a teacher of languages; he then made a
journey to South Carolina, where he was also for some
time engaged in teaching and reading law; and it was
while residing here and seeing the degrading effects of
human slavery, that he invited the feeling of hatred and
disgust towards that institution, that shone forth in
after years in the most fervent and eloquent speeches for
its overthrow.
He soon found that with his ideas of justice and human
liberty South Carolina was no place for him, and hearing
of the new Territory whose shores were a washed by two of
the greatest rivers of the globe, he now turned his
footsteps towards Iowa, and in 1846 he arrived in Clayton
County, and settled at Garnavillo.
At this time the county had but few inhabitants; but as
he looked and wandered over her broad and fertile
prairies, he saw that these must in a short time invite
the emigrants, and be settled by a thriving and
industrious population, and here he determined to make
his future home. In addition to his other attainments, he
had acquired a fine law education, and he soon began the
practice, and in a short time established a good practice
in a high reputation as a scholar at the lawyer.
The practice of law soon proved too slow, too confining,
and to irksome for his disposition, and being possessed
of an iron constitution, a strong physical frame, with a
strong desire for manual exercise, he left his
profession, entered a large tract of land near
Garnavillo, and with the labor of his own hands soon
converted it into a beautiful and productive farm.
On this farm he was an incessant laborer, and however
cold or stormy might be the day or the hour, he could be
seen at his work, until he had made himself a competence,
and provided a good home for his widowed mother and his
brother and sisters; and though elevations and honors
showered upon him in after years, yet it is doubtful
whether they brought to him joy, pride, or satisfaction
that he enjoyed, when one day he looked over at that
beautiful farm, the work of his own hands, saw it
completed, and his mother and brothers and sisters
enjoying themselves in ease and luxury and beyond the
reach of want.
Never did a mother idolize a son more than that mother
did him, and never did a son work harder or later to
gratify her every wish and comfort; and when all the
surroundings of that once happy home and family were
grouped together, it presented a picture of domestic
felicity worthy of the attention of the philosopher, and
perhaps the highest, the greatest, and the most
gratifying the human mind is capable of conceiving.
In 1851 he was elected the first County Judge under the
new system of county government, and this not only
included all the county affairs, but the probate of
estates in addition; and when he assumed the duties of
the office all these branches of county affairs were in a
bad and deplorable condition, but he began his work with
that determined will which has ever characterized him,
and in a short time he paid off old and outstanding
debts, levied a just system of taxes, laid out new roads
and built bridges, and at the end of four years he handed
over to his successor the whole county government in a
redeemed and prosperous condition, and again return to
his farm, honored and respected by the people for his
able management of their public affairs.
In 1849 he was married in his native state to Hannah
Larabee, a sister to the Honorable William Larabee, of
Fayette County, and a descendent of an old family of that
State, who took an active part in the side of America and
all the great struggles of the great revolution, and this
amiable, accomplished and talented woman has been his
adviser, his comforter and his helper in all his trials
and hardships for more than a third of a century. Two
sons and two daughters, now grown up to age and maturity,
have been born to them, and these children they have
raised and educated in all the accomplishments that the
country and money could afford.
In 1858 he was elected District Judge of the Tenth
Judicial District of Iowa, and reelected again in 1862,
and during these eight years he presided over the courts
of the district with credit and honor; and it was here
that he gained that wide reputation through the State
which he still retains, a being a profound jurist, an
able lawyer and a finished scholar.
In 1870 he was appointed by the Governor of Iowa, Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, and in this
position he served but a short time, when he retired from
law and politics, to turn his attention to the building
of railroads; but while on the supreme bench his written
opinions and judicial decisions were models of learning,
brevity and research.
Soon after leaving the Supreme Bench he conceived and
originated a planned for the construction of a railroad
from Dubuque, along the west bank of the Mississippi
River to St. Paul, with the main branch up and along the
Valley of the Turkey, via a Mankato, to the Northern
Pacific Railroad; upon announcing his scheme to the
public, it was looked upon as visionary and impossible,
but he threw the full force of his determined will and
character into the scheme, and in a short time he had the
satisfaction of being the first man to break ground on
the enterprise which afterwards became the Chicago,
Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad, and it is to his
energy, will and perseverance that Northern Iowa and
Minnesota are indebted for that magnificent line of road
that follows the Father of Waters from Clinton to St.
Paul.
To avoid heavy grades, as well as to shorten the route
from Chicago and Dubuque to the great Northwest, his plan
was to follow the Valley of the Turkey as a through and
mainline, but in this he was overruled, and Dubuque lost
heavy by the change, and the road still climbs the heavy
grades, and pursues the longest and most unprofitable
routes to the same points.
He stayed by this enterprise until he saw it completed
under his own eyes to Guttenberg, when he left it, and
organized the "Iowa Eastern" Narrow Gauge
Company, whose purpose was to build a road from McGregor,
in a south westerly direction, through Iowa's coal-fields
to the Missouri.
His energy and perseverance soon raised the desired
funds, and he again broke ground upon the new enterprise,
and rapidly pushed it forward from Beulah for a distance
of 16 miles, when all of a sudden a financial panic fell
upon the country, his backers failed, and he was left to
struggle as he could with a large floating debt hanging
over his enterprise, and its creditors pursuing him at
every turn. He had sold his beautiful farm in Garnavillo,
and had invested the proceeds in a large tract of land in
Grand Meadow Township, and this he had soon brought to a
high state of cultivation, and adorned and embellished it
in a magnificent manner, and this fine home and farm he
put in jeopardy to save his fair name and fame as a man
of honor and integrity, and tell at last he found himself
upon the very verge of ruin and poverty.
He was the author, the originator and the president of
the enterprise, and when the crash came with all its
trouble of facts, its creditors met him without
compassion at every turn, and demanded their full share
from the ruins of a blasted enterprise; and to add to his
crushed and tender feelings, many of his former friends
deserted him, and left him to struggle alone under a
pressure that was enough to break and shatter the
strongest mind ever possessed by a human being. In all
these struggles he never lost sight of his honor and
integrity, and he made every effort, offered every
assurance within his power and command, to appease and
stay in the demands, but all to no purpose; suit after
suit was brought, judgments were multiplied, executions
were issued, and his own private property seized to
satisfy the demands against the company.
There was a time during this terrible pressure upon him
when a few of his old friends might have come to support,
and by even their countenance an assurance, and without
the aid of money, could a given such confidence to his
enterprise, as would have pushed it along on its route,
every mile of which would have restored confidence,
allayed the demands of creditors, paid them in the end,
and completed the enterprise; but these were not
forthcoming, and with all this load upon his shoulders,
he kept his 16 miles of road in good condition, and
through storm and sunshine his trains made their regular
trips along the route with their freight and passengers
until the present season when he sold the road with all
its franchises and encumbrances to the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul Railroad Company, and retired once more to
his farm.
In conjunction with his brother he began the construction
of another road from Lancaster Wisconsin, running in the
north easterly direction up and along the valley of the
Kickapoo, and after completing a portion of the road, he
sold out his interest, and from the sales of both roads
he has probably saved his large and extensive farm, which
still leaves him a competence, and a peaceful retreat in
his declining years.
When the Missouri Compromise was repealed, and the South
had threatened to plant her slave colonies on free soil,
he was among the very first man of America to protest
against the encroachment, and among the first to call
together a body of men for the purpose of forming an
organization against the demands of the slaveholders
power, and from that day to the present he has stood by
that organization.
As a profound lawyer, and able an upright judge, as a
finished scholar and a public man, his name and his
public works will ever be connected with the history of
the state and his county and a high and in an honorable
manner; and as he has still many years of usefulness
before him, we will leave him in the hands of those whom
he has served so long and well, to do him more ample
justice in the future.
S. T. Woodward is
a native of Vermont, born in Grand Isle County, January
23, 1828. His father, James Woodward, was a native of
Londonderry, New Hampshire, and was a Scotch Irish
descent, while his mother, Hannah (Town) Woodward, was a
native of Vermont. The subject of this sketch passed his
early life on a farm, obtaining his education in the
common public school, with a few months attendance at
select school when seventeen years of age. In 1848, in
company with his parents, he came West and located in
Farmersburg Township in this county. Previous to coming
to Iowa he taught school for a short time in New York,
where the family had emigrated from Vermont, and the
first winter of his arrival here, that of 1848-9, he
taught a select school at Garnavillo. The spring and
summer of 1849 he spent on his father's farm, and in the
fall of that year went to New York City, where he
remained a few months, returning to Iowa in the spring of
1850. In 1854 he made a trip to Clinton County, New York,
where he was united in marriage with Esther A. Smith, an
estimable lady of that county, who has been truly a
helpmeet to him in the many years they have since
traveled life's journey together. They have two children
living - Charles H., who was born August 18, 1855, an
attorney admitted to the bar in 1877, now residing in
Knoxville, Iowa, in charge of his father's coal interests
at that place; Frances Emma, born June 18, 1868, residing
with her parents. On their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Woodward
located in National, where they resided until 1858, when
he received the appointment of Deputy Clerk of the
District Court, and they removed to Guttenberg, then the
county seat of Clayton County. He served as Deputy Clerk
two years, and while attending to the duties of the
office, as opportunity afforded, he read law, and was
admitted to the bar March, 1860, and at once commenced
the practice of his chosen profession. On the removal of
the county seat to Elkader, in 1860, he moved to that
place, where he has since continued to reside, engaged in
the practice of his profession. Mr. Woodward has ever
been an active man, his professional business for many
years being very remunerative. In every manner of public
interest he has been especially engaged, and in the
building of the Chicago Dubuque & Minnesota railroad
he devoted some two or three years of his life, using his
influence to have the road located by way of Elkader. He
was the Director of the road for two years. In the
organization of the First National Bank at Elkader he was
the prime mover, and was one of the board of directors
several years. In 1881 he purchased a coal mine within
the city limits of Knoxville, Iowa, which is proving very
remunerative, and where he spends a portion of his time.
A portrait of Mr. Woodward appears in this work.
Portrait of S.T. Woodward, page
571
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