JUDGE WILLIAM P. WOLF

View Portrait of Judge W. O. Wolf

When the history of Iowa’s prominent men shall be written the record will contain the name of no one more worthy the honor of his fellow citizens than was Judge William P. Wolf. He was Cedar county’s foremost resident. There have been other men in Iowa who have attained to higher political honors, to greater military distinction and to greater success in the field of business and yet in all those lines his was a creditable record. That which won him a regard above many of his fellows was his unflinching loyalty to duty and his unqualified support of what he believed to be right. Even those who opposed him politically never doubted the integrity of his belief or the sincerity of his purpose and this when the end came he passed on, leaving a name untarnished and a memory that will be cherished while any who knew him yet remain as active factors in the world’s work.

Judge Wolf was born in Stark county, Ohio, in the village of Harrisburg, December 31, 1833, and when a small boy accompanied his parents on their removal to a farm in the vicinity of Marlboro, Ohio. He manifested a special aptitude in his studies and supplemented his district-school course by attendance at a seminary and high school. He afterward engaged in teaching in the union school at Limaville, Ohio. Subsequently he became principal of the Edinburg high school in Portage county, Ohio. During a part of that time he was under the instruction of Professor Holbrook, one of the distinguished educators of that state, afterward connected with the normal at Lebanon, Ohio. All through his life Judge Wolf remained a student, carrying his investigations far and wide into the realms of knowledge, so that in his later years he could draw from a rich fund of wisdom to illustrate his ideas or point his remarks. Determining upon the practice of law as his life work, he prepared for the profession in the office of Beirce & Pease, of Canton, Ohio, who directed his reading until 1856, when the family removed to Cedar county, Iowa, settling in what is now Gower township. Judge Wolf was at that time a young man of twenty-three years. Thereafter for a period he devoted his attention to farming, teaching school and reading law with Rush Clark of Iowa City as his preceptor. It was during those years that John Brown, the famous opponent of slavery, spent some time at Springdale, Iowa. Mr. Wolf, who had become convinced of the righteousness of the cause of abolition, became well acquainted with Mr. Brown and his men, even assisting them in helping negroes to the north. On one such occasion he took a hazardous midnight ride to Iowa City to baffle their enemies and to aid their enterprises. In this he manifested the same loyalty and fidelity to duty which were characteristic of him throughout his entire life.

In 1859 Judge Wolf was united in marriage to Miss Alice Macey and soon afterward established his home in Tipton, where he entered upon the practice of law. The successful work which he had done along educational lines led his fellow townsmen to solicit him to become a teacher in the grammar department of the Tipton union school. This he consented to do, dividing his time between his school work and his professional activities. Later he was chosen county superintendent of schools but on retiring from the office declined to take up any further educational work, desiring to devote his entire attention to the practice of law.

In the meantime Judge Wolf had become recognized as a prominent member of the republican party and in 1863 was elected to represent his district in the state legislature. In January of the following year he formed a law partnership with J. H. Rothrock who had returned from the army with impaired health. The relationship between them was maintained until Mr. Rothrock went upon the bench three years later.

Judge Wolf, however, put aside the duties of his profession in May, 1864, to render active service to the Union cause and succeeded in raising Company I of the Forty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry and was elected captain. The troops proceeded to Davenport and as soon as the regiment was organized they were sent to Cairo and thence into Tennessee, where they aided in guarding a railroad at Colliersville near Memphis in July. Here they were ambushed and attacked by Confederates and several of the company were wounded. Captain Wolf fell at the first fire, a ball passing through his right arm, entering the right side, passing through the body and lodging in the left hip. He was carried from the field almost dead and for some time his life hung in the balance. He never recovered from his injury, carrying the rebel lead to the last, and the wound ultimately caused his death.

After his return to Tipton, Captain Wolf resumed the practice of law in connection with Judge Rothrock and continued throughout the remainder of his life a prominent and honored representative of the bar of Tipton and of Iowa. At times he was called to public office and therefore divided his time between the duties that thus devolved upon him and the interests of his clients. He served as assistant collector of internal revenue under President Lincoln. In 1866 he devoted about six months to editing The Advertiser. The following year he was elected to the state senate, in 1867, and thus served until 1870, when he was chosen to congress to fill out an unexpired term. In 1882 he was returned to the legislature as a member of the lower house and in 1884 was reelected, after which he was chosen speaker of the house. A splendid parliamentarian, he made one of the best presiding officers that has ever occupied that post in the general assembly. During 1884 he was chairman of the republican state central committee and about that year was favorably mentioned for governor in many parts of the state.

When he retired from the speakership, the State Register of Des Moines said of him: “His skill and his success are alike the marvel and the admiration of all parties and even the opposition who were defeated in all their masterly tactics by his cool and remarkable leadership, joined in saying that it was honorably and fairly done. * * * * This is the best proof of leadership and manliness and Mr. Wolf by his splendid record this winter has so far increased his previous standing in Iowa that today no public man in the state stands in stature above him. * * * * The statesman from Cedar was the very man that the momentous situation in Iowa this winter demanded. It was the greatest good fortune of the state that the leader so necessary was so happily found.”

When Judge Wolf was first spoken of in connection with the candidacy for governor, many of the newspapers of the state rallied to his support. The Maple Valley Era said: “There is no man in the state who is better versed in the public affairs of Iowa than he. During the entire period that he presided as speaker of the house not a single charge was brought against him by the opposition, claiming that his rulings were unfair or that he took any advantage whatever of the power placed in his hands. He has also served in congress where his ability and experience brought him to a position of influence.” The Tipton Advertiser in speaking of Judge Wolf’s candidacy for governor said: “His canvass has been all that the most scrupulously honorable could ask; it has antagonized no element whose good wishes are worth looking after; it meets the requirements of the people that their governor shall be beyond small things—shall have the manhood to stand always and everywhere for principle and for those things that go to elevate the state, to broaden its fame and to stimulate its industries, and defend its institutions and enforce its laws. He fills every Jeffersonian requisite of personal honor, capability, patriotism and possesses those other qualifications of personal fairness and astuteness in debate, great vigor and energy in his conduct of a campaign and strength before the people that always go with strong men.”

While Judge Wolf did not receive the nomination, the expressions of the press concerning him show in what regard he was held in the portions of the state where he was best known. While he was not without that laudable ambition which is the stimulus of honorable service in public office, he yet regarded the practice of law as his real life work and after Judge Rothrock was called to the bench, entered into partnership with S. V. Landt, a relationship that was maintained for many years. Following the removal of Mr. Landt to California, Judge Wolf formed a partnership with T. B. Hanley, which continued until he was elected to the bench of the eighteenth judicial district in the fall of 1894. He presided over that court up to the time of his death. His former law partner, Judge Rothrock, after his demise said “He was an able lawyer. I never knew a man at the Iowa bar who could try a case so well with so little time for preparation. He was not an orator in the popular sense, he was more than that. He was endowed by nature with the very strongest reasoning power and in a plain, unostentatious manner he presented every feature of his case with all the force of strong, logical and convincing argument.” Upon the bench Judge Wolf made an equally creditable record, passing his opinions upon the law and the equity in the case, his course characterized by a masterful grasp of every question presented for solution. It was characteristic of him that upon his death-bed he requested that pen and paper should be given him that he might write his resignation as judge of the district court. This was in keeping with his whole course of life for he did not want to be paid for services he could not perform.

Unto the first marriage of Judge Wolf there were born six children: Mary, now the wife of James Snyder of Pasadena, California; Lucy, the wife of William Bowers of Rock Rapids, Iowa; Clara, the wife of Paul Ward of Banning, California; Louis, living in St. Joseph, Missouri; William, of Mount Vernon, Iowa; and Edith, the wife of Harry Stewart of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The death of Mrs. Wolf occurred in 1881.

In 1885 Judge Wolf married Miss Martha H. Redfield, a daughter of Colonel James Redfield. Her father was the twelfth and youngest son of Luther and Mary (Dryer) Redfield and was born in Clyde, Wayne county, New York, March 27, 1822, and came of early New England ancestry. His great-grandfather, Captain Peleg Redfield, was a soldier in the French and Indian war under General Wolff and four of his great-uncles were in the Revolutionary war, holding commissions under Washington, while two were killed in battle. The parents of Colonel Redfield were natives of Richmond, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. They were married May 19, 1803, and two years later started for western New York and on reaching Seneca county Mr. Redfield purchased land and cleared a large farm. In 1822 he removed to Clyde, Wayne county, New York. During the war of 1812 he was captain of militia of his home town and on the landing of the British at Sodus Point, Lake Ontario, in June, 1813, he and his company were attached to Colonel Swift’s regiment which was summoned to the defense of that place. Marching all Sunday afternoon and night, they reached Sodus Point at sunrise in time to see the burning village and the retreating vessels of the enemy. Captain Redfield died in 1868 and his wife in May, 1853.

James Redfield attended the high school of Clyde and afterward entered Yale College as a freshman at the age of seventeen years. Following his graduation he returned to Clyde, where he entered upon the practice of law and the following year was elected county superintendent of schools of Wayne county, New York, filling the office for two years. In 1848, at the invitation of the Hon. Christopher Morgan, secretary of state of New York, he went to Albany and accepted a position in his office, becoming virtually supervisor of county schools for the state. Subsequently he engaged in merchandising in Albany until May, 1855, when he removed to Davenport, Iowa. There he made the acquaintance of Thomas Moore, subsequently his father-in-law, and with him spent some time in prospecting for a location. In connection with Mr. Stevens they at length purchased a large tract of land in the valley of the middle branch of the Raccoon river in Dallas county. There they founded the village of Wiscotta and since the death of Colonel Redfield the name of the town has been changed, being called Redfield in his honor.

Colonel Redfield was married in Beaver, Pennsylvania, May 2, 1856, to Miss Achsah Moore, a daughter of Thomas and Achsah (Harvey) Moore of that place. They became the parents of three children: Thomas Moore, Mrs. Martha Heard and Mrs. Mary Lewis. In October, 1861, Mr. Redfield was elected to the state senate of Iowa on the republican ticket and served on the ways and means committee and the committees on schools and public lands. He was afterward appointed by Governor Kirkwood, lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-ninth Regiment of Iowa Volunteers and was killed at the battle of Altoona Pass, Georgia, October 5, 1864. He resigned his position in the senate to enter the army and gave his life in defence of the Union. His widow long survived him, passing away in 1907.

A daughter, Martha Redfield, born in the town of Redfield, Iowa, became postmistress of the new state capitol and while there became acquainted with Judge Wolf, who was the first speaker of the house of the twentieth general assembly which was the first to occupy the new state capitol. Judge and Mrs. Wolf became the parents of two children, Louise Redfield and Walter Paul, both of whom are at home with their mother.

Judge Wolf was a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Loyal Legion. He died at his home in Tipton after a long and painful illness, on the 19th of September, 1896. The funeral services were in charge of the Cedar county bar and the Grand Army Post and Women’s Relief Corps attended in a body, while many distinguished men from other parts of the state were present. Judge Rothbrock said of him: “He was my nearest neighbor for many years and it can be truthfully said that there was never a man of a more kindly nature and generous impulses. His daily life was a rare example of an upright man without guile or malice in his heart. I believe that if he had been reduced to poverty he would have divided his last crust of bread with his bitterest enemy. But he had no enemies in the common acceptation of the term. He had rivalry in his public life. As a member of the senate, as speaker of the house, as a member of congress and judge of the district court he had the opposition common to political contests, but no man had cause to question his honor or the purity of his character. He was not learned in the classics but he was a scholar in the sciences, in philosophy, history and biography. Few men were possessed of more general information than he had.”

W. R. Boyd, editor of the Cedar Rapids Republican, wrote editorially of him as follows: “The death of Judge William P. Wolf to those who knew him as a man and as a friend, is a personal loss for he was one of the most lovable characters who ever blessed this world. When death comes we usually throw the mantle of charity over all foibles and remember only the tender things in connection with the dead man’s life. In the case of William P. Wolf the mantle needs not to be large. He had few faults to hide. Of vices he had none. Of weaknesses, perhaps a few, as the world judges. He was careless only of himself. He thought little of his personal attire and little of his bank account, but he thought everything of his honor and of his integrity; everything of his family, and he loved with intense devotion his fellowmen. If the beautiful dream of Leigh Hunt be true and in the Book of Life it be written that ‘those who love their fellowmen lead all whom love of God hath blest’ then the name of William P. Wolf adorns the topmost page.

“We have known him since childhood and we know that all who have been similarly honored with his acquaintance will say yea and amen to what we have said here touching his character. He was a simple-minded man living near to nature’s heart; fond of flowers and fields and the whole realm of nature’s world. He was a student, too, of men and of books. His learning in the law was not more profound than his knowledge of general literature. He seemed to have traversed the whole field of history, of philosophy and of poetry. He possessed wit that might have been sharp and incisive as a two-edged sword had it not been for his kindliness.

“As a rule we expect to find men in possession of the characteristics of mind that William P. Wolf possessed, something of a lack of courage and that quality which we somewhat vulgarly call nerve. But William P. Wolf was the bravest of the brave. He fought for his country and almost gave his life for it. He really did not know what fear was, and had we needed evidence additional that his courage was sublime, it has been furnished us during the long weeks and months that he has faced death. He has looked into his open grave for many days without a shudder, without a murmur. It was characteristic of him that on one of his last days of consciousness, when speech had almost failed him, he called his wife, after a barber had finished shaving him and whispered to her, ‘Give this young man a basket of grapes and some other fruit to take home to the children.’ His generosity never knew any bounds. It overflowed his capacity for being generous and actually made him unjust to himself.

“Others have or will speak of his great qualifications as a lawyer and as a judge. We speak of him only as a man, tender, just, true and brave. A man whom it was an inspiration to have known, and who, as he lies there dead, exemplifies again that old truth that ‘neither riches nor power, nor high honor count for much after all, when we take the measure of stalwart men’ and proves again that, ‘alone the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.’”