Elias R. Zeller

COX, KALE, KUMLER, ZELLER

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/13/2004 at 10:19:24

“History of Madison County Iowa and Its People”
Herman A. Mueller, Supervising Editor
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915

Hon. Elias R. Zeller, of Winterset, has been prominently known as an educator and journalist of Madison county and also as a political leader. Through individual activity as well as through the columns of his paper he has done much to shape public thought and action and has left the impress of his individuality for good upon many lines of improvement.

He was born near Hamilton, in Butler county, Ohio, September 13, 1844, and comes of German ancestry. His parents were John and Susan (Kumler) Zeller, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The former became a farmer and carpenter and was also a local preacher of the United Brethren church. He met with a fair measure of success in life and passed away in 1857 at the age of sixty years. His wife was also a native of Pennsylvania, as were her parents, but the family comes of German ancestry. Her father, Henry Kumler, was one of the first bishops of the United Brethren church in America. Mrs. Zeller passed away at the advanced age of seventy-five years. In the family were eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. Five of the sons reached adult age and all served in Ohio regiments during the Civil war, valiantly defending the Union.

Elias R. Zeller was reared upon the home farm in Ohio and acquired his education in the district schools. He was twenty years of age when, in 1864, he responded to the country's call for further aid in crushing out the' rebellion in the south and joined Company K, One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry for one hundred days. He spent the period of his enlistment in Virginia and took part in several skirmishes. Following his military experience Mr. Zeller engaged in farming on the old homestead, which was sold in 1867. It was subsequent to that time that he entered the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, from which he was graduated in the class of 1871, while in 1887 he received a post-graduate degree. Entering the field of journalism, he became publisher of the Oxford Citizen at Oxford, Ohio, and following his removal to Iowa was city editor of the Burlington Gazette. He afterward published the Eldora Herald and eventually became owner and editor of the Winterset Madisonian. He has also been correspondent for the Chicago Times and other metropolitan papers.

In the meantime he became a prominent figure in educational circles. In 1873 he came to Winterset to take charge of the public schools and for five years continued in the position of principal. He was then elected county superintendent, which position he filled for four years, and for seven years he actively and successfully engaged in county institute work. He had the ability to impart clearly and readily to others the knowledge that he had acquired and to inspire them with much of his own interest in advanced educational standards. His efforts have been of marked value to the schools of county and state, and he is one of the highly respected and honored educators of Iowa. He still maintains a deep interest in educational work and on various occasions assisted the state superintendent in carrying on the examinations after the new law went into effect. For several years he was president of the Winterset school board and did everything in his power to advance the interests of the schools in that place. While he has now practically retired from the field of education and of journalism, he yet gives supervision to the farm which he owns near Winterset.

In 1879 Mr. Zeller was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Cox, who was born in Madison county near Winterset, and they have become parents of three children : Katherine, the wife of N. L. Kale, who is living on her father's farm near Winterset; Theodore C., at home; and Joseph Walter, a graduate of the Iowa Wesleyan University, now attending law school at Harvard.

In politics Mr. Zeller has always been a stalwart advocate of republican principles and has done much to shape the policy of the party in his section of the state. In 1908 he was elected to the state legislature and was reelected in 1910, serving in the thirty-third and thirty-fourth general assemblies. He was made a member of a number of important committees, including the committees on appropriations, schools and agriculture. He was also chairman of the committee on military affairs and a member of the railway committee. In fact he was connected altogether with ten different committees and has left the impress of his individuality upon the legislation enacted during the periods in which he was a member of the house. He belongs to Pitzer Post, No. 55, G. A. R., of Winterset and is popular among his comrades of that order. Although now seventy years of age, he is still hale and hearty. Advanced years do not necessarily suggest idleness nor want of occupation. There is an old age in which the individual gives out of his rich stores of wisdom and experience for the benefit of others and such is the career of Mr. Zeller. He still does considerable writing for the press and yet looks after his farming interests, although making his home in Winterset. He has wisely used his time and talents throughout his entire life and the course which he has followed has been largely characterized by signal service for the benefit of the community in which he has lived.

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