Marquis Lafayette McPherson

MCPHERSON, MORLEY, SCHAPER, TIBBIES

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 6/29/2006 at 11:01:15

Marquis Lafayette McPherson, as the name McPherson implies, was of Scotch descent. He was born May 29, 1822, at a place near the line between the two states of Carolina, probably within the state of North Carolina. His parents, William and Mary McPherson, with their four small sons, Oliver, Marquis Lafayette, Enoch and John, removed to Morgan county, Indiana, about the year 1830. The father in a small way was a farmer as well as a harness-maker.

In Indiana in those days the people were poor. There were no free schools, with the result that schools were in session but a few months of the year, conducted by teachers who received their pay on the subscription plan. A Mr. Preston, an Englishman, taught for quite a time the country school near the McPherson home, and, being highly educated, he had much to do in directing the habits and mind of M. L. McPherson. During the school years of 1846 and 1847 he attended Asbury University, at Greencastle, Indiana. He then studied law, as was the custom of those days, in a law office. Algernon Sidney Griggs, a lawyer of prominence at the county seat, Martinsville, Indiana, was his instructor in law. After remaining with him for a year, Mr. McPherson removed to Arkansas to engage in the practice of law, but after staying there two years he returned to his old home in Indiana, where he remained about a year, teaching school. His brother John had located near Carthage, Illinois, and Mr. McPherson of this review followed him. While in western Illinois he became acquainted with Miss Mary E. Tibbies, who later became his wife.

M. L. McPherson conceived the idea that Iowa was the place for him to reside. Accordingly, without money and without friends with money or influence, he walked from Carthage, Illinois, to Winterset, Iowa, then but a village, where he arrived in the spring of 1850. He taught a term of school in the old log courthouse at Winterset; he cut cordwood along some streams and split some rails, but it was not long until he had clients. He soon became quite prominent in the new republican party but although much of his time was taken up by politics he continued his law practice, which increased until he was in every suit of importance in Madison county as well as in a fair percentage of the litigation not only in the surrounding counties but in many of the counties of western Iowa. It has been said that he had but few equals in power with both courts and juries. He had an unusual vocabulary, his pronunciation was good, and his reading had been extensive, particularly in history and in the literature of oratory, both ancient and modern. His powers of wit and humor, of sarcasm and invective and denunciation as well as of declamation and reasoning and his universally high repute enabled him to hold his own, even in counties where he was largely a stranger, with a host of the old-time lawyers, and in those days there were many strong men in the legal profession in central and western Iowa. His partner from 1859 to 1862 was G. N. Elliott. His practice was interrupted by his military service during the Civil war but following his return to civil life he resumed his practice, forming a partnership with B. F. Murray. He was in many of the important cases tried in western Iowa, civil as well as criminal. In 1869 he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and formed a partnership for the practice of law with Captain D. W. Price, one of the most brilliant public speakers that Iowa ever produced. In 1870 Mr. McPherson was elected district attorney for the third Iowa judicial district and in the following January entered upon the duties of that office. The district included the counties of Pottawattamie, Mills, Fremont, Montgomery, Page, Adams, Taylor, Union, Ringgold, Decatur and Clarke and his official duties required him to attend court in each county twice a year. Although his health failed him soon after he took office he attended several terms of court during the first half of 1871. In the summer of that year he went to New York city for treatment but his health was unimproved and he returned home, going in the latter part of 1871 to St. Louis, where he passed away in a hospital on the 29th of December of that year. His body was taken to Council Bluffs and interment was made in Fair View cemetery.

Mr McPherson was a man of the highest principles and was an uncompromising enemy of evil in all forms. He had a bitter hatred of saloons and the liquor traffic and delivered temperance addresses in the villages and at the country settlements in Madison and adjoining counties while living in Winterset. A few years after his arrival in this city he became a leader in the formation of the new republican party, which was grounded on morality and the freedom of every human being. He took part in the campaign of 1856, supporting Fremont for the presidency and in 1857 he unofficially called a mass convention for Madison county of all those who were opposed to the extension of slavery and was the principal speaker at the convention. He aroused the people by declamation and by his extraordinary powers of reasoning and in a few years became one of the idols of central Iowa in the political field. He was a delegate at large at the Chicago convention of 1860, at which Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the republican candidate for president. During the campaign that followed Mr. McPherson worked sincerely and heartily for the election of Mr. Lincoln and was a presidential elector on the republican ticket. In those days the position of elector was one of great prominence and, although then, as now, it was a position of honor only, men were often selected because of ability and willingness to make a political campaign. Mr. McPherson traveled the west half of the state and delivered speeches in many of the counties and those who heard him say that but few, if any, republican orators in Iowa eclipsed him in brilliancy and power of public speech.

He was twice elected to the state senate from the district comprising Madison, Adair, Guthrie and Dallas counties, serving eight years. The last session of which he was a member was in the winter of 1862. That was the formative period for building railroads and the railroad committee, of which he was a member, was one of the most important committees. He was also a member of the judiciary committee. lie was one of the leaders in securing legislation which gave a married woman the right to own property, to make contracts, to sue and be sued, and which gave her the same right in her husband's property as the husband had in the wife's property at death. The legislation then adopted with reference to the rights of women has remained upon the statute books until the present day. The name of Mr. McPherson was urged for the office of secretary of state by Madison county in 1860 and in 1861 that county supported him for the nomination for congress. Five years later he was again a candidate for nomination to congress but on the second day of the convention his name was withdrawn at his request.

Mr. McPherson was with the Union army for three years, receiving the appointment, over the signature of President Lincoln, of captain of commissary subsistence, his commission being dated March 6, 1862. Later he was promoted to the office of major and left the service by resignation with the brevet of lieutenant colonel, June 12, 1865. The greater part of the time he was with the armies in Kentucky and Tennessee. In October, 1866, he organized the first Grand Army post in Winterset and was made its first commander.

Mr. McPherson was survived by his widow, who, however, also passed away a number of years ago. A daughter, Ida, died when a child. His eldest daughter, Ada, married a civil engineer, W. R. Morley, a man of much eminence, who ran the line of the Santa Fe Railroad over the mountains in New Mexico. He was building the line of the Mexican Central from El Paso, Texas, to the city of Mexico, Mexico, when in 1883 he was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun. The youngest daughter, Mary, married Professor Schaper, of one of the German universities, who died several years ago, leaving his widow and a son.

Mr. McPherson lived a life in part of gentleness and with peace of mind and contentment, but like many men who have been active practitioners of law, he engaged in politics and public life and there came inevitable conflicts. However, there was never any question as to his integrity or sincerity and even those who differed from him in opinion respected him highly. As one of the leaders in the formation of the republican party in his part of Iowa he demonstrated the qualities of aggressiveness, fearlessness and moral enthusiasm. He became known as a public speaker of unusual effectiveness and his work was an important factor in the success of his party. His record in public office was a very creditable one and as a lawyer he was not only successful in a marked degree but there was never the slightest doubt of his fidelity to a client or to the calling in which he was engaged.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915,” by Herman Mueller.