BOIES, Horace 1827-1923

BOIES, HENSHAW, KING, BARBER, CARSON, CLARKSON

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 7/28/2012 at 23:18:35

[Burlington Hawk-Eye, Friday, April 6, 1923]

EX-GOVERNOR BOIES DIES IN CALIFORNIA

Former Executive of Iowa Was 95 Years Old - Funeral Today.

DES MOINES, IOWA, April 5 - By executive proclamation all flags on the Iowa capitol will fly a half mast tomorrow and the general assembly will pay homage to the memory of former Governor Horace Boies in the afternoon at the hour his funeral services are held at Long Beach, California, where he died Wednesday night in his ninety-sixth year.

LONG BEACH, CA - April 5 - Funeral services for Horace Boies, former governor of Iowa, who died here last night, will be held tomorrow afternoon. The body will be shipped to Waterloo, Iowa.

WATERLOO, IOWA, April 5.—Horace Boies, governor of Iowa from 1890 to 1894, died at his home at Long Beach, Calif., at 10 o'clock last night.

He was in his 96th year. His son. Judge H. B. Boies, Waterloo, and his daughter, Mrs. Nellie Carson*, Hemet, Calif., were at his bedside. Governor Boies suffered a alight stroke of paralysis a few days ago and had been in failing health for several months.

Horace Boies was born in Aurora. N. Y., December 7, 1827, his father having been a soldier in the war of 1812. He came.to Waterloo in 1867 and entered the practice of law. For nearly forty years he was a leader in his profession, his power as a pleader before a jury placing him in the front ranks of attorneys in Iowa.

Mr. Boies was offered the post of secretary of agriculture by President Grover Cleveland in his second term, but declined. He early acquired large holdings of farm land in Grundy County and at his death still held title to a considerable tract. He had lived in California for several years past. He was a law partner of H. B. Allen, who left funds with which to build a hospital in Waterloo as a memorial to his wife.

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[Black Hawk County History 1904]

Hon. Horace Boies, twice Governor of the State of Iowa, was a son of Heber and Hattie (Henshaw) Boies and was born in Aurora, Erie County, New York, December 7, 1827.

Mr. Boies lived on the home farm until 16 years of age, and attended the district school. After nine years of age he worked on the farm in summer and went to school in winter. At that age [16] he came West to the Territory of Wisconsin and worked there and in Northern Illinois in the summer and went to district school in the winter. He returned to New York at the age of 20 and when 21 married Adella King, a well educated girl aged 19. She was an inspiration to him; he came to the conclusion that he could do something besides work on a farm, and it was through her influence that he studied the law. He entered the law office of S. S. Clark in the town of Boston, Erie County, New York, and studied under Mr. Clark for two years, six month of which time he worked on farms to pay his way. His wife, meanwhile, taught school and supported herself.

He applied for admission to the bar before the general term of the Supreme Court in a class of 13. The examination was oral and lasted through two sessions of the court. Although he had studied but 18 months, he was one of four admitted to proactive, the nine others being rejected. After admission, he practiced for a time at the village of Hamburg and then went to Buffalo, where he practiced until he came West in 1867. Mrs. Boies died seven years after their marriage. One child was born to them, Mrs. Nellie Clarkson*, of Mount Vernon, Iowa.

In the fall of 1857, Mr. Boies visited in Waterloo, then again in the winter of 1857-58, when he married Versalia M. Barber, daughter of the late Dr. Barber. With his wife he returned to Buffalo and continued the practice of the law until 1867, when he came to Waterloo and entered into the practice of the law with H. B. Allen under the firm name of Boies & Allen, which partnership continued until failure of health compelled Mr. Allen's retirement. It was then Boies & Couch until Couch was elected to the District Court.

Meanwhile Mr. Boies' eldest son had been admitted to the bar and became a member of the firm, which was subsequently changed to Boies, Couch & Boies, Couch having retired from the bench. James L. Husted became a member of the firm after Couch's election to the bench and reamined with it until Mr. Boies' election as Gobernor in 1889.

Mr. Boies has spent much time on his farm in Grundy County for the past 15 years and practically all of it for 10 years past.

It will be seen that he was a self-made man. When the history of Iowa is written, one of it's brightest pages will be given to Horace Boies.

Mr. Boies has been many years a widower. By his second wife he had three children: E. L., deceased, one of the brightest minds and ablest lawyers the State has produced; Jessie, also deceased; and Herbert B. Boies, of the firm of Boies & Boies.

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Horace Boies died April 4, 1923. He is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Waterloo, Iowa.
* The newspaper obit said a daughter was Nellie Carson. The Black Hawk County History, 1904 said the daughter was Nellie Clarkson.

Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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