Weaver, Gen. James Baird

WEAVER, VINSON, EVANS, SULLENBERGER, COHART, PAYNE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/24/2009 at 08:41:16

Weaver, Gen. James Baird

Among the few surviving commissioned officers of the Civil War is the man whose name heads this biographical notice. Gen. James B. Weaver, whose gallant military career, as well as useful political record, is well known to nearly everyone within the borders of Iowa. His espousal of the cause of reformation and temperance in this state will live in principle and be enacted into laws long after he has passed from earthly scenes. To have had the courage to fight the battles of one's country, whether on the field of carnage, or by tongue and pen, as a wide-awake, forceful writer and speaker in the great national political arena, is indeed a fit legacy to bequeath to future generations.

Mr. Weaver was born June 12, 1833, at Dayton, Ohio, and was educated in the common schools of early Iowa. He drove an ox team across the great plains of the West from Davis County, Iowa, to Sacramento City, California, in 1853. He returned via Panama and New York the same autumn, and clerked for Edwin Manning at Bonaparte, Iowa, in the winter of 1853-4. The following spring he began his long cherished study of the law in the office of S. G. McAchran, at Bloomfield, Iowa. He then attended law school at the Cincinnati College and graduated as a Bachelor of Law in 1855. On the board of examiners was Rutherford B. Hayes, who long afterward, became President of the United States. He then returned to Bloomfield, Iowa, and was there admitted to the bar under Judge H. B. Hendershott, and entered upon the practice of his profession and continued therein actively until the spring of 1861, when he entered the Union Army as a private soldier in Company G, Second Iowa Infantry Regiment. He was elected first lieutenant and served in that capacity through the Battles of Forts Donelson and Shiloh, and until the morning of the first day's battle at Corinth, Mississippi, when he was promoted to the rank of major. His commission as major came to him as a great surprise on the morning of the first day's battle. He had no intimation of his having been recommended for this position and was in no sense a candidate for that honor. In this he was promoted over all the captains of his regiment. The first day of that fierce engagement his colonel, James Baker, was killed, and at the first volley in the morning of the second day's fight his lieutenant-colonel, Noah W. Mills was mortally wounded. The next morning he was unanimously chosen colonel of the regiment by the officers and was duly commissioned by Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood. Subsequently, he was brevetted brigadier-general by President Lincoln.

After the conflict of that great civil War had ended, General Weaver returned to Bloomfield, Iowa, and again resumed the practice of law, and in 1866 was elected district attorney of the second judicial district, which was composed of several counties. The term lasted four years and during that time and two years longer he also held the office of United Stated assessor of infernal revenue for the first district of Iowa. When his term of office had expired he again entered the general law practice, meantime taking an active part in every political campaign as a Republican. Before the war lie had edited a weekly newspaper for a time and in many ways this became useful to him in after life. He also edited the Iowa Tribune, of Des Moines, several years and it had a national circulation.

In 1875 he was before the Republican State Convention as a candidate for the governorship of Iowa, and on the very morning of the convention it seemed certain to all that he would be the nominee, but on account of his antagonism to the liquor interests in the state and his uncompromising temperance principles, the liquor license men of the convention secretly organized a movement to bring out the name of Samuel J. Kirkwood, the old "War Governor," and against that grand old man's wishes they presented his name in dramatic manner and by a prearranged plan had a tremendous applause and cheering started in the convention hall which swept the convention off their feet and at the last moment diverted from General Weaver's strength to nominate Kirkwood. The majority of Iowa voters desired to make him governor, but the men at the convention were swerved from the path of honor and political duty.

But Weaver was to be heard from again. In 1878 he was deleted to Congress from the sixth district in Iowa, on the independent, or so-called Greenback party platform, defeating Judge Sampson. In 1880 he was nominated by the national Greenback Party for President of the United States and polled over three hundred thousand votes, after having made an extended canvass both North and South. In 1882 he again became a candidate for Congress in a triangular fight, and was defeated by Hon. M. E. Cutts, though General Weaver, having started in third, came out second best in the spirited contest. But he did not give it up. In 1888 he defeated Hon. Frank Campbell, by a close margin, that of only sixty-six votes. Again in 1886 he was elected to a seat in Congress over John A. Donnel, a Republican candidate. In 1888 Weaver was defeated by Hon. John F. Lacey.

In 1892, twelve years after his first Presidential race, he was again nominated for President of the United States by the Populist Party, and polled over one million votes, receiving twenty-two electoral votes, notably those of Kansas, Colorado and Nevada. During this campaign he canvassed the whole country from sea to sea and from the lakes to the gulf. He is the only third party candidate since Gen. John C. Fremont who has ever been able to force his way into the Electoral College, a victory that cannot be effaced. He still takes an active part in politics and religious work. He has long been identified with the Methodist Episcopal church.

General Weaver was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1904 and a member of the committee on platform. In 1900 he made the fight of his life in the St. Louis Populist National Convention and secured the endorsement of W. J. Bryan by that convention. As a token of regard, Mr. Bryan dedicated his book "The First Battle" to three men, Bland, of Missouri, Teller, of Colorado, and J. B. Weaver, of Iowa.

Of late years General Weaver takes but little part in the practice of law, but is still very active on the stump when his heart is in the cause. In the campaign of 1908 he spoke from two to four times each day until the last night of the campaign. He is still hale, hearty and active. It should be added that his work in Congress was marked by great force and constant conflict. His battle for the opening of Oklahoma is unparalleled. For nearly one week, solitary and alone, he held up the House of Representatives until they were forced to pass that righteous bill. Remember, he stood alone upon the floor of the House in that struggle. That record stands unparalleled in all our parliamentary history. He had been prepared for this service by his conflicts at the bar where he met in fierce combat such men as Trimble, Knapp, Perry, Miller, Burton, Hendershott, Jones, Harris and all of the great men of the lowa bar of that day.

General-Weaver has truly been foremost in the advocacy of every reform now urged by the progressives of both parties of the present day. His speeches in Congress, his book "A Call to Action," published in 1892, and the platforms upon which he ran twice for President of the United States, establish this beyond doubt. oLf there ever was a representative in Congress from this Commonwealth true to his honest convictions, it was the gentleman of whom this sketch is written, and these points of excellency are being more and more realized as the years come and go in the political history of this country. Whether one views the venerable General from the standpoint of a brave soldier on the field of terrible conflict in the Southland; in the halls of national Congress; in state and national conventions; on the stump, the lecture platform, before the bar, or among his own home people, at his humble home in the beautiful city of Colfax, he is always and ever the same true, loyal, abiding friend to the great throng of American commoners.

That his services have been appreciated by many of his fellow country men, it only needs to be referred to that in 1908, after the smoke of political battle had cleared away, his scores of admirers in Iowa had painted an heroic life-size oil portrait of General Weaver, and publicly presented it to the art gallery in the Iowa State Historical rooms at Des Moines. Upon that occasion scores of friends sent letters of congratulation to him, the same being finally neatly bound and presented to him as a tribute of respect and honor. One of these letters (too lengthy to here insert) was from the pen of "Ret" Clarkson, formerly of the State Register, who lived in New York City and could not be present. But one section of this letter should here be given place, showing a trait of character not yet brought out concerning General Weaver: "It may be said of General Weaver that he has achieved in all the larger fields except that of commercial success and money-making. His failure in that is to be credited to his generous nature and his life-long desire to help others rather than himself. Had he not looked to the interest of others all his life, more than to his own, he by his profession and oratory could have amassed a fortune.

"I regretted he was not nominated for governor, instead of Kirkwood; he had fairly earned the position and a majority of the people of Iowa wanted him nominated."

Mr. Weaver was married in July 1858, at Keosauqua, Iowa, to Miss Clara Vinson, an Ohio girl, and by this union nine children were born, eight of whom are living, viz: Maude, J. B., Jr., Susan, Abraham C., Laura, Ruth, Esther, Paul and another son who died in infancy.

ADDENDA. --Since the foregoing sketch was prepared. General Weaver passed away on Tuesday afternoon, February 6, 1912, while visiting at the home of his daughter, Mrs. H. C. Evans, in Des Moines. Though he had been ill for a couple of days, suffering severely from an attack of acute indigestion, it was not thought his condition was critical, and his sudden death came as a profound shock to the whole community in which the General had for so many years been a familiar figure. Funeral services were held at the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Des Moines, where the body lay in state for several hours prior to the services. The Rev. Dr. Pruitt, of Colfax, General Weaver's pastor, was in charge of the services, and the Rev O.W. Fifer and Rev. Father James Nugent made appropriate addresses touching eloquently on the life and character of the deceased. The active pallbearers were the two sons, J. B. Weaver, Jr., and A. C. Weaver, three sons-in-laws, Charles Sullenberger, of Colfax, Edward Cohart, of Traer, and H. C. Evans, and a nephew, D. H. Payne, of Bloomfield. Honorary pallbearers were survivors of the Second Iowa, the General's old regiment. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 417.