Gorrell, Joseph R. (Hon.)

GORRELL, GLASS, HENDRICKS, HUNTER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/29/2009 at 07:42:06

Gorrell, Hon, Joseph R. ~

That life is the most desirable that results in the greatest good to the greatest number, and, though all do riot reach the heights to which they aspire, yet in some measure each can win success and make life a blessing to his fellow men. It is not necessary for one to occupy eminent public positions to do so, for in the humbler walks of life there remains much good to be accomplished and many opportunities for the exercise of talents and influence that in some way will touch the lives of those with whom we come into contact, making them better and brighter. In the list of Jasper County's successful citizens, Hon. Joseph R. Gorrell has long occupied a prominent place. In his record there is much that is commendable, and his character forcibly illustrates what a life of energy can accomplish when plans are wisely laid and actions are governed by right principles, noble aims and high ideals. In his professional career as well as his private life, no word of suspicion has ever been breathed against him. His actions have always been the result of careful and conscientious thought, and when once convinced that he is right, no suggestion of policy or personal profit can swerve him from the course he has decided on, his career being rounded in its beautiful simplicity, for he has done his full duty in all the relations of life, and it is safe to say that no man in Jasper county enjoys to a greater extent the affection and confidence than does Doctor Gorrell. This feeling has been demonstrated for him on more than one occasion, and there is no one who could be more appreciative than Doctor Gorrell when he is made the recipient of signal favors at the hands of friends. The good Doctor has the right of way into the homes of the people and an opportunity to ingratiate himself into the affections of the people, and he has made the best of his opportunities while administering to the sick, in leaving a pleasing and effective impression. For nearly a half century he has been a resident of Newton and a maker of her history. The best part of his life has been given to the service of Jasper County and we are glad to chronicle the fact that this long and faithful service has been rewarded with a competency sufficient to insure his old age from want. Newton has grown from a village under his eye and he has helped it grow. Besides his modern and attractive residence and a substantial business block, he has erected a number of good dwellings, keeping his surplus money active in building up the town and county and he has done much good in a material way, and he is distinctively one of the notable characters of his day and generation in this locality and is eminently deserving of the high esteem in which he is held and of a place in his country's history.

Doctor Gorrell is the scion of a fine old family of the Buckeye State, he himself having been born near. Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, May 6, 1835, being the fifth of a family of ten children born to Joseph and Easter (Glass) Gorrell. Little definite information can be gleaned with reference to the origin and early history of the family, but the ancestry has been traced to continental Europe, either Italy or France. The paternal great-great-grandfather was born on the ocean while his parents were en route to America about 1721, from an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Upon arriving in the United States this family located in South Carolina, but later moved to Pennsylvania, in which state Grandfather James Gorrell was born, and there in 1802 occurred the birth of Joseph Gorrell, father of the Doctor, he being one of a family of twenty-one children, nineteen of whom grew to maturity. Three brothers served in the War of 1812. About 1825 Joseph Gorrell went to Ohio and in 1845 he moved to Wells County, Indiana, where he remained until his death in 1888, his wife having died there in 1877.

The maternal grandfather, James Glass, was born in Pennsylvania, to which state his father had emigrated from Scotland. Little is known of the Glass family.

Doctor Gorrell passed his boyhood upon his father's farm, where he laid the foundation for a sturdy manhood by working in the fields during the crop seasons. When seventeen years of age he entered an academy for one year, then spent three years in a Presbyterian college at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where he mastered the ancient classics and gained a thorough scientific education. He began reading medicine with Dr. J. R. McCleary, at Bluffton, Indiana, and later he took a course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, later entering the University of Buffalo, from which he was graduated in February 1850. He had made a very creditable record at all these institutions and, thus well equipped, he opened an office at Newville, DeKalb County, Indiana, in August 1859, and there he remained until the fall of 1863, enjoying a very satisfactory patronage. Then his patriotic impulses led him to offer his services to his country during the dark days of the great rebellion, entering the service as a surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, continuing in that capacity until the close of the war, performing his duties in such a manner as to reflect credit upon himself, to win the high esteem of his comrades and the hearty commendation of his superior officers. Seeking a new field for his operations. Doctor Gorrell came to Newton, Iowa, at the close of the war and here he has since resided, enjoying an ever-growing and lucrative practice and soon taking rank with the leading physicians and surgeons of the state, always keeping fully abreast of the times in all matters pertaining to his profession. Being an assiduous student and an independent and vigorous thinker as well as a keen observer and a tireless investigator, he has long since become one of the noted men in the medical profession of his day and generation.

Doctor Gorrell was married in 1860, while living at Newville, Indiana, to Frances E. Hendricks, of DeKalb County, that state. She is the daughter of Dr. Joel E. Hendricks, a prominent physician of his day in that county during the time of his practice. Doctor Hendricks was noted as a mathematician, and was recognized by Asop Hall, now manager of the National Observatory of Washington, D. C., and by the Astronomer Royal, of London, England, and by Simon Newcomb, as one of the great mathematicians of the world. Mrs. Gorrell is a lady of splendid attributes of mind and heart and has enjoyed a host of warm friends all her life. This union has been blessed by the birth of two children: Carrie, born January 10, 1862, is the wife of J. W. Hunter; Arthur R., who died October 23, 1911, was born in 1867, and graduated from the Iowa State University and the Northwestern University of Chicago.

Doctor Gorrell has ever acted upon the principles that he who serves his country best serves his party best, and with this object in view his political efforts, although in the highest degree successful and influential, have been above the slightest suspicion of dishonor, and his career as a public servant has been eminently satisfactory to all concerned, irrespective of party alignment. He was elected to the state Senate in 1893 on the Republican ticket and he was elected again to this important office in 1897 on the Democratic ticket. Such a record is evidently criterion enough of his high standing in his district. He made a most worthy and commendable record, making his influence felt for the good of his county and the state, and figuring prominently in the councils and debates among his colleagues, where his ideas were respectfully weighed and usually heartily endorsed.

Politically, Doctor Gorrell is an adherent of principle to the defiance of party demands and party affiliations. He was a Republican until the party strayed from the paths of the fathers, when he identified himself with the Bryan Democracy with all the energy and enthusiasm of his nature, and proved stronger personally than either party. No man ever received a more striking testimonial of personal popularity than to be elected to a high office first by one party then by the other. The Doctor has retired from politics save for the good he can do his friends in their aspirations. When he is a friend to a man he is loyal through every vicissitude. Being of a literary and philosophical turn of mind, his office and dwelling may be said with truth to be the intellectual center of Jasper county, bringing together more of the thinkers of the locality than any other place or places. Here questions of science, philosophy and religion are discussed honestly and fearlessly and, above all, intelligently. Doctor Gorrell is himself a writer of force and great versatility, articles from his trenchant pen being copied far and near, and he has contributed to literature a small volume entitled "Sins Absolved," embodying his views on religion, interwoven with a thrilling story of the war in which he was an active participant. He is not a believer in the creed or doctrine of orthodox churches, but he is a liberal supporter of the gospel.

Sufficient has been said to indicate Doctor Gorrell's character and high standing in the community and state where he has so long resided, and it only remains to be said that throughout his entire professional and official career he has been animated by lofty motives, and made every personal consideration subordinate to the higher claims of duty. Broad and liberal in his views, with the greatest good of his fellowmen ever before him, his conduct has been that of the lover of his kind and the true and loyal citizen, who is ready at all times to make reasonable sacrifice for the cause in which his interests are enlisted. He is, withal, a man of the people, proud of his distinction as a citizen of a state and nation for whose laws and institutions he has the most profound admiration and respect, while his strong mentality, ripe judgment and unimpeachable integrity demonstrate to the satisfaction of all his ability to fill honorably important official positions and to discharge worthily the duties of his trusts. In point of critical scholarship, keen intellectuality and professional success, he easily stands in the front rank, while in all that constitutes the upright man, the public-spirited citizen and the polished gentleman, his position in the social circle and the world of affairs has been firmly established and he stands today among the leaders of thought and moulders of opinion in a state prolific of great men. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 777.