Thayer, Edward H.

THAYER, PENNIMAN, PAYNE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 2/14/2003 at 17:07:46

JUDGE EDWARD H. THAYER, Editor and one of the proprietors of the Clinton (Iowa) Morning Age, was born at Windham, Maine, November 27, 1832. His father, Ludo Thayer, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1796, and his mother, whose maiden name was Rhoda Penniman, was born in Windsor, Vermont, the same year. For many years he attended the district schools at Orono, state of Maine, graduating from the East Corinth Academy in 1850. That year he started for Portland, Oregon, although at that time Greeley had not given the young men that excellent advice “to buy a Hoe press and go West.” At Albany he took passage on a canal boat for Buffalo, thence by lake boat to Cleveland, where he was taken sick, preventing his continuing his journey.

He remained in Cleveland three years reading law in the office of Bolton, Kelley & Griswold, attending lectures of the medical college and doing local work on the Herald and Plain Dealer, newspapers of that city. While in Cleveland, the subject of this sketch learned shorthand writing, being one of the very few persons in the country who at that time was able to report speeches verbatim. In the political campaign of 1852 he reported speeches made by Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, Horace Greeley, Sam Houston and other distinguished gentlemen. He reported the speech of General Scott which was made in that city, in which occurred the notes phases (sic) “sweet German accent” and “rich Irish brogue.” He accompanied the party that escorted General Scott to the Blue Lick Springs, reporting the speeches made on the route of that celebrated chieftain. He also reported several speeches made by Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot.

In the spring of 1853 Mr. Thayer was admitted to the bar, passing the very thorough examination at that time made imperative by law, his certificate authorizing him to practice his profession in all the courts of the state. In May of that year he started further West, spending a week or two in Chicago. By railroad he went to Freeport, Illinois, thence by stage to Savannah, and down the river by boat to Muscatine, Iowa, where he commenced the practice of law. In 1854 he was elected county attorney on the Democratic ticket. In 1856 he was elected county judge of Muscatine county, and re-elected in 1858, both times as a Democrat. In 1858 he married Miss Delia E. Payne, of Westport, New York, who during their 43 years of married life has been his most valuable helpmate. The fruits of this marriage were three daughters, all now residing in Clinton. In 1860 he was elected by the democratic state convention as a delegate to the Charleston convention, being made the Iow member of the committee on permanent organization, before which committee the first contest was made between the Douglas and Breckenridge factions. In that convention Judge Thayer voted fifty-six times for Stephen A. Douglas for candidate as president. The convention without selecting a candidate adjourned to Baltimore, where on the first ballot Judge Douglas was placed in nomination. In 1862 Judge Thayer was the Democratic candidate for congress, but was defeated by Hiram Price. During his residence in Musatine (sic), Judge Thayer was engaged in the newspaper business, and in 1868 he moved to Clinton, where he established the Age, which paper he has since continued to edit and manage. He at once took a prominent part in advocating the construction of railroads, was director in several railroad companies, president of the Iowa Southwestern road, building a portion of that road and then operating it. He has been active through his paper in urging capital to establish manufactures in Iowa, has been a leader in championing the educational interests of the state, a persistent advocate of good roads, his work in that direction running through a period of twenty years. He has made the beet sugar industry a study, beginning the agitation of that subject in 1873 and from time to time publishing a vast amount of valuable information which has had much to do with the establishment of beet sugar factories in the country, and he is now a firm believer in the practicability of growing sugar. beets and manufacturing beet sugar in Iowa.

In 1875 Judge Thayer was elected a member of the lower house of the General Assembly of Iowa, and the following year he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood, a trustee of the state normal school, assisting in the establishment of that institution, holding the office of president of the board for several years, resigning in 1885 to accept the office of postmaster of Clinton, which unsolicited, was tendered him by ‘President Cleveland. In 1876 he was chosen a delegate to the Democratic national convention which met in St. Louis, taking an active part in securing the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden. In 1884 he was elected delegate at large to the Democratic national convention held at Chicago, was selected as the Iowa member of the platform committee and performed valuable service in formulating the tariff plank.

Besides his active advocacy of good roads in the Daily Age he inaugurated a movement for a good roads convention, which met at Des Moines in August, 1892. This was one of the largest assemblies, outside of political gatherings, ever held in the state, every county and nearly every city and town sending delegates. He was elected chairman of the convention, making an address upon the subject of good roads, and subsequently, when the permanent organization known as the “Iowa Road Improvement Association” was organized, he was elected the president, which position he held for a number of years.

In October, 1892, the first national convention to consider the subject of good roads met in Music Hall, Chicago. This convention was presided over by Judge Thayer, and subsequently when the national league of good roads was organized, he was made chairman of the executive committee, which office he now holds. In January, 1893, he read a paper on “good roads” before a convention of the National League for Good Roads, held at Washington, D. C. In May, 1893, he addressed the Iowa Bankers’ Association at their annual meeting, taking for his subject “Good roads and how they affect our financial condition.” In October, 1893, he deliver two addresses in Chicago; one before the American Bankers’ Association, at their annual meeting, being assigned the subject, “The construction of good roads as a matter of finance,” and the other before the “Good Roads Congress of the World’s Columbian Exposition,” his topic being “A New Departure.”

In 1880 he was appointed by Governor Gear the Iowa member of the Mississippi River States Commission, taking a prominent part in the annual meetings which were held in New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis and St. Paul. This committee consisted of one member from each state bordering on the Mississippi river. It served the public many years and until congress recognized the importance of its work by providing for the existing national commission.

For almost half a century Judge Thayer has been a familiar face in Democratic state conventions. He has often been placed on the committees on resolutions and he presided over the deliberations of the convention of 1864 held at Des Moines.

For several years he was a member of the school board of the city of Clinton and for twenty-five years a vestryman in St. John’s Episcopal church. In local matters the Age, under the direction of its editor, has been active in advocating and urging forward the material interests of the city. At an early day, realizing the fact that railroads were essential to the growth, prosperity and welfare of the state, the Age zealously and untiringly, not only advocated gridironing the state with railroads, but discountenanced and condemned the spirit of antagonism toward railroads which at times prevailed on the part of some of the people and some of the law makers.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.