Cheshire, Thomas Abbott

CHESHIRE, VESTAL, MCCLELLAN, HILLS

Posted By: Don Wherry (email)
Date: 7/20/2010 at 20:35:53

Cheshire, Thomas Abbott, senator from Polk county, and one of the leading lawyers in the city of Des Moines, is son of John Wesley Cheshire, of Poweshiek county, who died September 5, 1877.  His mother was Grace M. Vestal, a daughter of a clergyman and southern whig, very much opposed to slavery, who emigrated to Iowa in 1851.  Mr. Cheshire and Miss Vestal were married May 15, 1851.  He was born in North Carolina and lived there from 1838 until 1853, when he came to Iowa.  His family had always been slaveholders.  He returned south in 1854, but seeing that the slavery question was bound to provoke a war, he returned to Iowa in 1858, and when the war broke out he volunteered in Company B, Fortieth Iowa infantry, and went back to the south to fight the battles of his country, against his place of birth and many of his kinsmen.  He was editor and proprietor of the Montezuma Republican.

Thomas A. Cheshire was born April 2, 1854, in a log cabin erected by his father upon a quarter section of land that he entered in 1853, in Poweshiek county.  His first schooling was obtained in a log school-house, about eight miles south of Grinnell, which was of the primitive kind, both as to furniture and books used.

The family removed to Montezuma in 1864, the father having been discharged from service because of disability.  Thomas attended Iowa college in Grinnell and the university in Iowa City, but his health did not permit him to finish the course and he entered his father's printing office to learn the trade, helping his father in the editorial work at the same time.  In early childhood he had determined to be a lawyer, so he entered the law department of the University of Michigan in 1874, and was graduated in 1876, and at once began the practice of law in Montezuma.  His father's death the next year made it necessary for himself and brother to take charge of the paper.  They bought it from the estate and conducted it until 1880, when Thomas A. went into partnership with Charles R. Clark, for the practice of law.  The next year he sold his interest in the paper to George R. Lee, of Oskaloosa.  He continued in his practice until the fall of 1886.  He was nominated for county attorney that year, but having come to Des Moines to prepare an argument for the supreme court, he became so much impressed with the advantages of being in Des Moines that he declined the nomination for county attorney, and immediately after election located in Des Moines, entering into partnership with Capt. J. W. Carr.  The latter went to Kansas about six months later and Mr. Cheshire practiced alone.  Four years later he went into partnership with Cole & McVey.  In June, 1893, Judge Cole retired and the firm became McVey & Cheshire, until June, 1896, when it was dissolved.  Mr. Cheshire has practiced alone since that time and has been highly successful, especially as an insurance lawyer, and in personal injury cases against manufacturing and railroad corporations, and general civil practice.

For four years, from 1890 until January 1, 1895, Mr. Cheshire was assistant attorney-general, under John Y. Stone, and argued practically all the criminal cases appealed to the supreme court, besides preparing many opinions for the attorney-general.  In the summer of 1893 he was nominated by acclamation for senator from Polk county, and was elected by 3,100 plurality.  He was re-elected four years later, without opposition in his own party and by a larger majority.  During his first session he was chairman of the committee on labor, and was member of committees on judiciary, cities and towns, printing, judicial districts and agriculture, and took a prominent part in changing the laws providing a salary for constables and justices of the peace, instead of fees.  The next session he was chairman of the committee on cities and towns, and was second on the committee on judiciary, and served on other important committees.  He took an active part in the codification of the laws, and the making of the code of 1897, and as chairman of the committee on cities and towns; gave special attention to the laws in regard to cities and towns, the most intricate part of the codification.  He offered an amendment to the revenue bill, providing for the taxation of telegraph, telephone, express and sleeping car companies, which became known as the Cheshire amendment and attracted wide attention.  It is similar to the laws of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and provides for the valuation of these properties by taking the market value of stock, the bonded indebtedness being deducted, and also the personal property and real estate taxed locally, and dividing the amount thus obtained by the number of miles regularly operated or run by the company, and fixing this as the value of the property per mile, to be assessed as other property.  This would have resulted in largely increasing the taxes of these corporations.  The senate failed to agree on the amendment, but it was adopted by the house, and the conference committee reported a compromise measure which embodied some of the features of the amendment, and this brought largely increased revenues to the state from these corporations.  Senator Cheshire was chairman of the committee on judiciary in the senate in 1898, and was a member of other important committees.  He again offered his revenue measure, but it was swallowed up in other business, — particularly the board of control bill.  A substitute bill to tax the cars of fast freight lines, oil companies, coal and refrigerator cars, etc., was reported by the ways and means committee and passed the senate, but it was defeated in the house by the sifting committee.

Mr. Cheshire was married September 18, 1879, to Virginia B. McClellan.  One daughter, Virginia, was born to them July 26, 1880.  Mrs. Cheshire died August 3, 1880.  Mr. Cheshire was married a second time, December 3, 1884, to Harriet L. Hills.  They have two children, Henry Hale, born January 1, 1890; and Everett Emmett, born June 23, 1893.

In the practice of his profession and in the discharge of his duties as a legislator, Senator Cheshire has maintained a high degree of honor, and it has never been said that there was anything questionable in his motives.  He has kept himself free from all influences that would interfere with the untrammeled exercise of his judgement and has fearlessly and ably stood up for his convictions.

- p. 414-415,
 Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa:
 Leaders In Business, Politics, And The Professions, 2 vol.; 1210 pps.
 Gue, Benjamin F.; Shambaugh, Benjamin Franklin
 Conaway & Shaw; Des Moines, IA; 1899

Photo: T. A. Cheshire
 

Poweshiek Biographies maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen