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Biographies and Obituaries of Civil War Veteran

Biographies beginning with the letter B

History of Iowa, Vol IV 1903

WASHINGTON I. BABB was born in Des Moines County, Iowa, October 2, 1844.  His education was begun in the public schools and continued in the Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant.  Early in 1863 he enlisted in the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, serving with his regiment in the Army of the Cumberland until the close of the war.  He took part in the Atlanta campaign, the battles of Franklin and Nashville and the Wilson expedition through Alabama and Georgia.  Upon his return to Mount Pleasant, Mr. Babb reentered the University, graduating in 1866.  He studied law, was admitted to the bar and entered upon practice in 1868.  He was a member of the law firm of Woolson & Babb, which for eighteen years was regarded as one of the ablest in that section of the State.  Although originally a Republican, Mr. Babb differed with his party on reconstruction policy and united with the Democrats after the war.  In 1883 he was elected to the House of the Twentieth General Assembly in a strong Republican county, serving as a member of the committees on judiciary and railroads.  In 1890 he was chosen judge of the Second Judicial District, resuming practice upon leaving the bench in 1895.  When the free silver issue became prominent Judge Babb was largely instrumental in securing the adoption of a sound money platform at the Democratic State Convention of 1895, which nominated him for Governor.  In 1896 he received the Democratic  vote in the General Assembly for United States Senator.  He adhered to the sound money wing of the party in the campaign of 1896.  Judge Babb has taken a deep interest in education, serving for more than twenty years as a trustee of the Iowa Wesleyan University, and several years as regent of the State University.  The former institution has conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.

Jeremiah R. Bailey, a farmer residing on section 32, Yellow Spring Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, was born in Center County, Pa., June 5, 1835, and is a son of Ephraim and Mary H. (Rankin) Bailey, both of whom were also natives of Center County. Our subject was reared upon a farm, educated at the common schools, and emigrated to Iowa with his parents in 1855, they locating on section 32, Yellow Spring Township, Des Moines County, and adjoining where our subject now lives. Ephraim and Mary H. Bailey are the parents of six children, all of whom are now living. Jeremiah R. is the eldest; Sarah, the next, is the wife of Martin L. Heizer, of Mediapolis; Mary J. is the wife of James McMullen, of Burlington, Iowa; John N., who was a member of Company K, 2d Iowa Calvary, of which he was Sergeant, is now a resident of California; Rachel E. is the wife of David R. Bruce, living near Grafton, Neb.; and Ephraim E. D. lives with his father in Kossuth, Des Moines Co., Iowa. Jeremiah lived with his father until Nov. 12, 1861, when, responding to his country's call for volunteers, he enlisted in Company K, 2d Iowa Calvary, serving for three years, and participating in the battles of Corinth, Iuka, Holly Springs, Tupelo, and numerous other skirmishes, in one of which he was slightly wounded in the arm. Returning home in November, 1864, Mr. Bailey worked as a farm-hand for a year, and then rented land in various localities until 1870. On the 20th of November, 1866, he wedded Sarah Hinson, a native of Ross County, Ohio, and a daughter of Joab and Eve (Philips) Hinson, whose birthplace was also in the Buckeye State. Her parents were among the earliest pioneers of Des Moines County, having settled in Benton Township in 1839. The mother died Jan. 5, 1883, aged seventy-nine years, but the father is still living at Kingston, Iowa.

In 1871 Mr. Bailey made his first purchase of land, which consisted of a farm of forty acres on section 32 of Yellow Spring Township. Upon this land the family yet resides, though he now owns eighty acres. Mr. Bailey and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian Church, and he also belongs to Sheppard Post, No. 159, G. A. R.

Ephraim Bailey, the father of our subject, now lives a retired life in the village of Kossuth. His wife died in 1856, and he was again married, Abbie R. Rankin, a cousin by his former marriage, becoming his wife.

Rev. William French Baird was born on the 22d day of September, 1818.  His ancestors were of Scotch extraction, from the city of Glasgow, Scotland.  Some of the family sojourned in the northern part of Ireland, near Londonderry, and thence they came to the American Colonies and settled near Lancaster, Pa.  His grandfather, Robert Baird, was barely twenty years of age when he entered the patriotic army of the Revolution. Mr. Baird's father, Alexander Baird, the eldest son of Robert Baird, was married to Nancy French, the daughter of Enoch and Mary French.  The maternal side of the family was also of Scotch descent, and came to America prior to the Revolution, and settled near Germantown, Pa.  Both grandparents of Mr. Baird settled in Fayette County, Pa., and were Ruling Elders in Dunlap's Creek congregation, of the Presbyterian Church.  His grandfather Baird was married to Elizabeth Reeves, whose parents were of English and Welsh descent, and were natives of Long Island.  His grandfather French was married to Mary McIlroy, of Scotch and Irish descent.

Mr. Baird's father was an officer under Gen. William Henry Harrison, for whom he ever cherished the most affectionate regard and admiration.  The early influences by which Mr. Baird was surrounded were most favorable to early development of Christian life and character.  His parents were members of Dunlap's Creek congregation, of the Presbyterian Church, which was organized about 1775 or 1776.  During the long years of faithful ministrations of such men as Rev. Myers, Powers, McMillan, Dunlap, Jennings, Johnson and Samuel Wilson, D. D., now of Fairfield, Iowa, they could not fail in furnishing the most desirable society for childhood and youth.  The observance of the Sabbath, prayer-meetings, Sabbath-schools, catechizations, temperance and education, were the results of such faithful labor.

Mr. Baird professed religion when twelve years of age, and united with Hopewell congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  Mr. Baird had six brothers and six sisters; of his brothers three were ministers and three were Ruling Elders in the church.  Mr. Baird's father not only gave his children a good education, but desired his sons to learn some trade, so as to be the better prepared for any misfortune that might befall them in the future.  Two sons were millwrights, one a coachmaker, one a stonemason, one an artist and one a dentist.  Of the six sons four received a collegiate education and one son died in his senior year at college.

Mr. Baird left home early in life and learned to build a nine-passenger coach, a barouche, phaeton and buggy.  He then completed a collegiate course in Madison College, at Uniontown, Pa., and received his theological education under Rev. Milton Bird, D. D., and Rev. Azil Freeman, D. D., and was licensed to preach on the 8th of April, 1848.  Mr. Baird came to Iowa, arriving in Burlington on the 16th day of December, 1848, and was appointed missionary the spring following, to operate in Iowa, with his home at Burlington.

Mr. Baird was ordained by the Union Presbytery at Hopewell, Pa., on the 3d of September, 1849, and on the 5th day was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca B. Harah, of Uniontown, Pa.  It was a happy marriage.  The religious influence surrounding Mrs. Baird's early life was of the most precious character.  She was educated in Fayette Seminary, at Uniontown, Pa., and was a member of the Presbyterian Church.  The fruit of this union was two sons--William H. and Henry M. Baird, both graduates of the dental department of the Iowa State University, and now located in the city of their birth.

Mr. Baird returned to Iowa, arriving at Burlington in the fall of 1849.  At this time there was but one Cumberland Presbyterian Church house in Iowa, and now there are between thirty and forty, seven of which were built under the labors of Mr. Baird.  Much of the vast field in Iowa, and some thirty counties in Illinois, were traversed on horseback.  Mr. Baird made three extended tours, prior to the war, in the Southern States, under the direction of the Board of Missions of his church.

When the late war came on Mr. Baird remained a Union man, and presented a battle flag to the Burlington Zouaves, which severed his relation with the Board of Missions, which was located in the South.  Mr. Baird was one of the three agents jointly appointed by the American Bible Society, and the United States Christian Commission, to superintend the Scripture work in the army and navy--styled Army Agents at New York and Field Agents at Philadelphia. Mr. Baird was assigned to the "armies of the Southwest, under Gen. Grant and Sherman," with headquarters at Nashville, Tenn., after the capture of the city.  At the close of the war Rev. Dr. Hall, of the Gulf, and Rev. Mr. Gilbert, of the Potomac, were released, and the entire work was entrusted to Mr. Baird, to provide for the remnant of the army and navy, to re-open the Bible work in the Southern States, to select State agents and to bring in the freedmen.  This required two years of hard labor and much travel.  The last labor was performed in the trans-Mississippi Department.  Mr. Baird was in New Orleans during the riot of July, 1865; a terrible day it was.  He crossed over to Galveston, Tex., and thence north to Red River, visited the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, and provided for them the Scriptures, returning south to Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Brownsville. Here Mr. Baird found Rev. James Hickey, agent for Mexico, on his deathbed, received his dying requests, preached his funeral discourse, and laid him to rest.  Mr. Baird took the aged widow, Thomas Sepulvada, Mr. Hickey's guide, the American Bible Society's ambulance, and drove to Monterey, reorganized the Bible work and returned to New Orleans, and thence to Burlington, after an absence of eight months, having traveled 8,000 miles and spoken 800 times.  After recovering from a severe sickness, Mr. Baird went to New York in May, 1866, and closed his agency.  He received $400 besides his salary as a token of appreciation for faithful services rendered amid danger and death.  For several years Mr. Baird's health was so impaired as to demand rest, but at present he is quite well, and preaches every Sabbath, and had in charge a congregation at Mr. Hamill, Lee County, and two congregations in Cedar County.  Every year of Mr. Baird's ministerial life has received tokens of divine favor in revivals of religion.

A Narrative History of The People of Iowa
with
SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN
EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,
BUSINESS, ETC.
by
EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M.
Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc.
Chicago and New York
1931
 
HORACE W. BAKER during his many years of residence at Wapello has come in contact with many interests and activities, has been a school teacher, a practicing lawyer, merchant, public official and is at the high tide of his success today. Mr. Baker is a great-great-grandson of Robert Williams, one of the earliest residents of Louisa County. This family enjoys the distinction of being perhaps the only one in the state with members of the seventh generation living in Louisa County, where the ancestor Robert Williams, is buried. Horace W. Baker was born at Wapello, February 2, 1873. His father, William L. Baker, was born in Greenwich, New York, and was a child when his parents came out to Iowa in 1850 and settled at Wapello. He grew up there, attended local schools and finished his education in the University of Iowa. He was one of the capable early-day educators of Iowa, a profession he followed for a number of years. He died in 1925 and his wife, Matie I. Jones, a native of Wapello, died in 1878. Their two children were Horace W. and Mrs. Abbie A. Yakle, the latter now deceased.

Horace W. Baker was educated at Wapello, and graduated from high school at Morning Sun in 1893, having taught two terms of school before finishing high school. For four years he was superintendent of schools at Winfield, Iowa, remaining there until 1898, when he entered the University of Iowa for the law course. The LL. B. degree was given him in 1900, and on returning to Wapello he practiced law in association with Arthur Springer until 1905. Mr. Baker was elected and served five terms, ten years, as county auditor of Louisa County and in 1918 was called upon to take up further work in connection with this office, acting as county examiner for the state auditor's department. This was his official relationship until 1925, when he resigned to engaged in the business of collector of delinquent taxes and other accounts due the counties. Mr. Baker has some valuable farming interests, real estate investments,and is one of the owners of the Commercial Hotel at Wapello. He is a member
of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Davenport, thirty-second degree, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America and a Republican in politics.

He married Miss Katharine H. Pierce of Winfield, Iowa, March 16, 1897. They have four children, Kenneth B.; Vern M.; William H. and E. Pierce. Three of their four children, Kenneth B., William Horace and E. Pierce, are members of the firm H. W. Baker Company, and are engaged in collecting accounts, having had contracts in nearly one-third of the counties of Iowa. Vern M. is connected with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, now located in New Mexico.
Mrs. Katharine Pierce Baker is a daughter of Lyman Beecher and Lea Ann (Bandy) Pierce, who were early settlers of Des Moines County, Iowa. Mrs. Pierce came from Indiana with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Bandy, in 1838. Mrs. Baker represents a long line of educators, both her father and mother having been teachers in Des Moines and Louisa counties and both were students in the Yellow Springs Academy when the Civil war broke out. Lyman B. Pierce served all through the war as a member of the Second Iowa Cavalry and afterwards he wrote and published a history of his regiment. Following the war he took his family out to Kansas and for five years was superintendent of schools at Manhattan. Later he homesteaded a claim in Dickinson County, near Solomon City, Kansas. In 1876 the Pierce family returned to Iowa again located at Kossuth in Des Moines County. In 1882 they moved to Winfield, Iowa, where L. B. Pierce was active in civic and church matters. Mrs. Pierce died June 14, 1918, and Mr. Pierce on February 20, 1922. Besides Mrs. Baker their children were:

C. H. Pierce, an engineer with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, living at Winfield; Grace, wife of William Price, a merchant at Winfield; J. Ed., owner and manager of one of the largest tile manufacturing plants in Iowa; and Mrs. Mary Pierce Van Zile, dean of women of the State Agricultural College at Kansas at Manhattan, a position she has held for the past twenty years.
 
 History of Iowa, Vol IV, 1903

NATHANIEL B. BAKER is a name which will for all time be intimately associated with Iowa' war history.  He was born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, September 29, 1818.  A graduate of Harvard, he entered the law office of Franklin Pierce in 1839 and began practice in 1842.  He was for three years editor of the New Hampshire Patriot and in 1846 became Clerk of the Supreme Court.  In 1851 he was elected to the Legislature and chosen Speaker of the house of Representatives, serving two terms.  In 1852 he was one of the presidential electors and voted for his old preceptor for President.  In 1854 he was elected Governor of New Hampshire and was the last Democrat who held that office before the political revolution which left his party in the minority.  In 1856 Governor Baker became a resident of Iowa, locating at Clinton.  In 1859 he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and when the War of the Rebellion began he led the war wing of his party to give cordial support to Governor Kirkwood's administration.  The Governor appointed him Adjutant-General of the State and all through the Rebellion his superb executive ability was given to the work of organizing the fifty-seven regiments of volunteers which Iowa furnished to the President.  He organized a system that has preserved a permanent record of the service of every Iowa soldier who entered the army.  As the war progressed the duties of Inspector-General, Quartermaster, Paymaster and Commissary-General were imposed upon him, and the duties discharged with promptness unsurpassed.  He was untiring in caring for the comfort of Iowa soldiers, and as the regiments were discharged he gathered at the State Arsenal all of the battle flags which were brought home for careful preservation.  He planned and superintended the great reunion of Iowa soldiers in 1870, where every one of the 20,000 veterans was eager to take him by the hand.  He held the office of Adjutant-General to the day of his death, which occurred on the 13th of September, 1876.  Governor Kirkwood issued a proclamation announcing his death and enumerating his great services to the State.  The national flag was displayed from the public buildings at half-mast and minute guns were fired the day of his funeral, which was one of the most imposing ever seen in the State.  A monument was erected to his memory over his grave in Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, by voluntary contributions of Iowa soldiers.

JABEZ BANBURY was a native of England but came to America when quite young.  He was a mechanic and located at Marshalltown, Iowa.  Before the Rebellion he had some military experience as a member of an independent company.  In June, 1861, he helped raise a company which was attached to the Fifth Iowa Infantry, as Company D, of which Banbury was elected first lieutenant.  He won rapid promotion, becoming captain in February, 1862, major in July following and colonel in April, 1863.  After the fall of Vicksburg, he was for a time in command of a brigade.  He was mustered out of the service in August, 1864, and removed to California in 1870, where he died on the 11th of December, 1900. 

Elijah W. Bandy has been a resident of Yellow Spring Township for almost half a century.  Here he was born March 25, 1840, and is a son of John and Mary (Vannice) Bandy.  John Bandy came to Des Moines County in 1838, settling upon the farm where our subject now lives.  He was a wheelwright by trade, but during his residence in Iowa, was engaged in tilling the soil. Twelve children were born to them, ten in Indiana, and two in this county, of whom nine are now living, two being residents of the county, and four of the sons were soldiers in the late War.  William, now a farmer in Scott County, Minn., was a soldier in the 4th Minnesota Infantry; Isaac died in this county in 1884; Rachel became the wife of S. A. Hall, a resident of Santa Cruz, Cal.; Thomas resides in Brookings County, Dak.; John, who lives in Fairfield, Iowa, and is engaged in dairying, was a soldier in the 2d Iowa Cavalry; Samuel is engaged in farming on section 19, Yellow Spring Township; Peter is a merchant of Holt County, Mo.; Henry died at the age of twenty years and eleven months, in September, 1853; Jacob F., a soldier in the 2d Iowa Cavalry, served from 1861 to 1865, as Captain of Company K, and died Oct. 11, 1878, near Memphis, Tenn.; Lee A. is the wife of L. B. Pierce, of Winfield, Iowa; our subject is next in order of birth; and Catherine is the wife of Isaiah Messenger, who is engaged in the manufacture of tile at Fairfield, Iowa.  The father of these children, who was born in 1794, died at an advanced age, May 5, 1873.  His wife, who was born in 1799, died June 2, 1881.  They were both active members in the Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Bandy was an Elder for thirty-five years, and his aid was largely given to the advancement of the cause.  In his earlier life he cast his ballot with the Whig party, but later became a Republican.  He also served in the War of 1812, and was a native of Virginia, and his wife of Mercer County, Ky.

There are few men in the county who can boast of having been born and reared upon a farm where they now reside, but this is true of Mr. Bandy. His early education was received in the district schools, supplemented by a course in the Yellow Spring College.  At the age of twenty-one, in 1861, he enlisted under the stars and stripes, becoming a member of the 2d Iowa Cavalry, and serving three years.  He participated in the siege of Corinth, the battles of Iuka, Black Land, Farmington, Boonville, Rienzi, Paton's Mills, battle of Corinth, Holly Springs, Yockeney River, Water Valley, Collierville, Moscow and Prairie Station, Miss., and in all Mr. Bandy was always found at his post of duty, serving his country faithfully and well. Being mustered out of service in October, 1864, Mr. Bandy returned home and worked for his father for five or six years.  On the 22d of May, 1873, he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Frame, who was born in Yellow Spring Township, and is a daughter of Milton J. and Maria (Allen) Frame.  Their union has been blessed with two children--John E. and Herbert F.  Mr. and Mrs. Bandy are both members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a Deacon.  He has served on the Township Board for several terms, and is a member of the I. O. O. F., and also of the G. A. R.  He has a fine farm of 100 acres, all highly cultivated, and is one of the progressive farmers of Yellow Spring Township.

M. J. Frame, the father of Mrs. Bandy, came to this county in 1851, and here improved a fine farm.  He is a native of Indiana, and was a blacksmith by trade, which occupation he carried on at Kossuth, until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the 14th Iowa Infantry, serving three years.  After the war was ended, he returned to Kossuth, where he again worked at his trade until 1876, and then removed to Champaign County, Ill., where he owns and carries on a large farm.  His wife was formerly Maria Allen, a native of Kentucky

 

JOHN F. BATES was the first colonel of the first regiment furnished by Iowa to the War of the Rebellion.  He was born on the 3d of January, 1831, at Utica, New York.  He paid his expenses at school for six years by performing the labors of janitor.  From 1852 to 1855 he was an insurance agent in New York City and then removed to Iowa locating at Dubuque.  There he was elected Clerk of the District Court in 1858.  When Governor Kirkwood issued his proclamation on the 17th of April, 1861, calling for volunteers for a regiment to serve for three months, thousands of citizens responded.  But one thousand could be accepted and when they were organized into the First Iowa Infantry in May, John F. Bates was chosen colonel.  He commanded the regiment in the battles of Booneville and Dug Springs under General Lyon, but at the greater Battle of Wilson's Creek he was not present.  His military career closed at the end of three months when the First Iowa was mustered out.

A Narrative History
of The People of Iowa
with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN
EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,BUSINESS, ETC.
by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M.
Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc.
Chicago and New York
1931

NEWTON BATTIN, of Bloomfield, at the age of ninety-one was one of the surviving veterans of the Civil war. He was a member of an Iowa regiment. For many years he had been one of the highly respected citizens of Davis County. He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, January 2, 1839, son of Ezra and Julina (Keith) Battin, and grandson of John Battin, who was of old Quaker Pennsylvania ancestry. In 1856 the Battin family moved to Davis county, Iowa.

Newton Battin grew up on a farm, and in August, 1861, enlisted at Bloomfield in Company E of the Third Iowa Cavalry. He went all through the war, being commissioned a second lieutenant. He was a participant in the Wilson raid through Alabama and Georgia, and was in many campaigns and skirmishes, being twice wounded. He received his honorable discharge at Atlanta, Georgia, and returned home to Iowa, where he engaged in farming until he reached the age of seventy. Mr. Battin has always shown a disposition to work with others and assume duties and responsibilities in a public way. For three years he was a member of the county board of supervisors and has held other offices. During the World war, though nearly eighty years of age, he was made head of the Davis County war organization work. His chief hobby and recreation in recent years has been gardening. For many years he has been commander of Elisha B. Townsend Post No. 100 of the Grand Army of the Republic and has also been president of the Third Iowa Cavalry Association.

In December, 1865, he married Matilda E. Modrell, of Davis County. She died in 1870. Her daughter June died in 1869. In February, 1871, Mr. Battin married Harriet Modrell, a sister of his first wife. She passed away in 1911, at the home in Bloomfield, where he continued to reside. She was the mother of seven children: John E., a Davis County farmer, Fred E., of Pierre, South Dakota, who is married and has two daughters, Lala and Blanche; Margaret E., the wife of L. G. Senseney, of Bloomfield; Lenora, a graduate nurse, served as army nurse in France during the World war and is superintendent of a hospital at Monterey Park, California; Jason E., of Davis County, is married and has a daughter, Pauline: Newton Elmer; and Harriet Ruth, wife of E. F. Bandel of Denver, Colorado, and mother of a daughter, Bernice E.

Since the writing of the above sketch Mr. Battin died, February 19, 1931.

 BYRON A. BEESON was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, February 26, 1838.  His education was obtained in the public schools, and in 1854 he removed to Iowa, locating on a farm in Marshall County.  When the Civil War began he enlisted in a company raised by William P. Hepburn which became a part of the Second Iowa Cavalry.  Mr. Beeson served in that famous regiment three years and then reenlisted as a veteran in 1864 and was promoted to first lieutenant of Company B, serving to the close of the war.  He was elected treasurer of Marshall County, serving until 1882.  In July, 1878, he was commissioned adjutant in the Iowa National Guards and was repeatedly promoted holding the position of captain, lieutenant-colonel, colonel and Brigadier-General. In 1889 he was appointed Adjutant-General of the State, and in 1890 he was elected on the Republican ticket, State Treasurer, serving four years.  In 1897 he was appointed quartermaster of the Iowa Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown where he served until 1903, when he was appointed Treasurer of the National Soldiers' Home at Norfolk, Virginia.

WILLIAM W. BELKNAP was born in Newburg, New York, in 1829.  He graduated at Princeton College in 1848, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1851.  He came to Iowa in 1853, locating at Keokuk where he entered upon the practice of law in partnership with Ralph P. Lowe, afterwards Governor of the State.  He was elected to the House of the seventh General Assembly in 1857 on the Democratic ticket.  When the War of the Rebellion began he was commissioned major of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry.  He was in command of the regiment at the Battle of Corinth and was soon after placed on the staff of General McPherson.  After the Battle of Atlanta he was promoted to Brigadier-General and at the close of the war was brevetted Major-General.  He was offered a commission in the regular army but preferred to return to civil life.  General Belknap had become a Republican, supporting Lincoln for President in 1864 and in 1866 was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District.  When General Grant became President, General Belknap was invited into his Cabinet at Secretary of War, where he served seven years, resigning in March, 1876.  Charges of official misconduct had been preferred against him by the House of Representatives in a time of great political bitterness, but in the trial by the Senate he was acquitted.  Judge George G. Wright, who was a member of the Senate from Iowa, pronounced his acquittal just and his opinion was heartily indorsed by the people of Iowa who never lost confidence in the gallant officer.  General Belknap died at Washington, October 13, 1890, and was buried in the National Cemetery at Arlington.  Hugh J., a son of General Belknap, became a member of Congress from Chicago.

THOMAS H. BENTON, JR., was a nephew of the great Missouri statesman whose name he bore.  He was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, on the 5th of September, 1816.  His education was acquired at Huntington Academy and he graduated from Marion College, Missouri.  In 1839 he located at Dubuque, Iowa, where he taught school and afterwards became a merchant.  In 1846 he was elected to the Senate of the First General Assembly, two years later elected on the Democratic ticket Superintendent of Public Instruction and was reelected, serving six years.  Mr. Benton became a resident of Council Bluffs and was chosen Secretary of the State Board of Education in 1858, serving four years.  In 1862 he was appointed colonel of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, served during the war and in 1865 was brevetted Brigadier-General. In 1865 he was the Democratic and anti-negro suffrage candidate for Governor but was defeated.  In 1866 he became a supporter of President Johnson after the latter left the Republican party and in August was appointed by the President Assessor of Internal Revenue in place of the Republican incumbent removed.  He died in St. Louis on the 10th of April, 1879.

LUCIAN C. BLANCHARD is a native of Diana, Lewis County, New York, where he was born April 15, 1839.  Not satisfied with the meager education obtainable in the district school of that period, he attended Carthage Academy, coming west in 1858.  He entered Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris, Illinois, teaching school a portion of the time.  Coming to Iowa, at Newton he taught school and studied law.  When the Civil War came he enlisted in Company K, Twenty-eight Iowa Volunteers and participated in the battles of Port Gibson, Champion's Hill and the siege of Vicksburg.  In 1864 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan from which he graduated in 1866.  He began the practice of law at Montezuma and soon after was elected county judge of Poweshiek, serving in that position until 1868 when he was chosen Circuit Judge of the Sixth Judicial District, filling the position for twelve years.  In 1890 Judge Blanchard was chosen senior vice-commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.  In 1893 he was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in the Legislature for Mahaska County, and in 1895 was elected Senator, serving in the Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eight and Twenty-ninth General Assemblies.  With the assistance of Judge Wilson he prepared the Masonic Digest published by the Grand Lodge.

SAMUEL S. BURDETT was born in England, in 1835, and emigrated to America in 1856.  After graduating at Oberlin College he located at De Witt in Clinton County, where he engaged in the practice of law with Judge Graham.  He was a radical Abolitionist and an active agent of the "underground railroad," a warm friend of John Brown, assisting many fugitive slaves on their way to Canada.  He was a prominent Republican speaker in the Lincoln campaign of 1860.  When the Rebellion began he helped raise a company for the First Iowa Cavalry, was commissioned lieutenant of Company B, and was soon promoted to captain.  He was appointed Provost Marshal at St. Louis and organized the plans for the arrest of Mulligan and his gang of so-called "Sons of Liberty" in Indiana.  In 1868 he was one of the Presidential electors in Iowa, casting the vote of the State for General Grant.  He removed to Osceola, Missouri, where he served two terms in Congress.  In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes Commissioner of the United States Land Department at Washington, where he served eight years.  In 1885 he was chosen Grand Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.

CYRUS BUSSEY was born October 5, 1833, in Trumbull County, Ohio, and was educated at various places where his father was stationed as a Methodist minister.  When eighteen years of age he began the study of medicine.  In July 1855, he removed to Iowa, locating at Bloomfield in Davis County where he opened a store.  In 1859 he was nominated by the Democrats of Davis County for State Senator and elected.  He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1860 which met at Baltimore and nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President.  At the extra session of the Legislature in May, 1861, called by Governor Kirkwood to place the State on a war footing, Cyrus Bussey was among the Democrats who gave a warm support to the war measures.  At the close of the session he helped raise the Third Iowa Cavalry Regiment of which he was commissioned colonel.  He was a gallant officer and in 1864 was promoted to Brigadier-General.  After the war he located at New Orleans and became President of the Chamber of Commerce.  In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated General Grant for President.  In 1880 he was again a delegate to the Republican Convention and was one of the famous three hundred six delegates who voted for Grant for a third term.  In 1889 General Bussey was appointed by President Harrison Assistant Secretary of the Interior where he served unto 1893.  General Bussey left the Democratic party early in the Civil War and became a Republican, often taking an active part in the national campaigns as a public speaker.

EBER C. BYAM was born in Canada in 1826.  He came to Iowa, locating in Linn County.  He was for many years a minister of the Methodist church and at one time presiding elder.  In the organization of the Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood its colonel.  He did not prove adapted to military command and resigned his commission on the 30th of June, 1863.  In 1871 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Fort Dodge and remained in that city several years in the real estate business.  He finally moved to Rochester, New York, where he died many years ago.

MELVIN H. BYERS was born in Noble County, Ohio, January 12, 1846.  When seven years of age his father came to Iowa, locating at Glenwood, Mills County, later removing to a farm where the son worked summers, attending the public schools winters.  In January, 1864, Melvin enlisted in Company B, Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the Civil War.  He served as recorder of Mills County and mayor of Glenwood.  In 1879 he enlisted in the Iowa National Guard and has been promoted from private to major.  In 1898 he was appointed by Governor Shaw Adjutant General of the State.  Upon him devolved the responsibility of organizing the quota of troops which Iowa was called upon to furnish for the Spanish War.  This duty was performed with a degree of energy and ability that placed the Iowa troops in the field with thorough drill and equipment unsurpassed by those of any State in the Union.  During his administration General Byers has brought the National Guard of Iowa to a high degree of efficiency in all soldierly qualities

SAMUEL H. M. BYERS was born in Pulaski, Pennsylvania, in 1838.  Coming to Iowa in 1851 with his father he was educated in the schools of Oskaloosa, where his father located.  He enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry and served in the army until March, 1865, was promoted to adjutant in April, 1863.  He was in many battles and in a charge at Missionary Ridge was taken prisoner and for fifteen months suffered the horrors of Libby and other Confederate prisons.  He finally escaped and returned to the army, where for a time he was on General Sherman's staff.  At the close of the war he was brevetted major.  While in prison at Columbia, South Carolina, he wrote the well-known song, "The March to the Sea," which brought him into national notice.  It gave the name to Sherman's famous march and thousands of copies were sold immediately after the war.  Major Byers was sent by General Sherman to General Grant and President Lincoln as bearer of dispatches announcing his great victories.  He served fifteen years as American consul at Zurich in Switzerland and was under president Arthur, Consul General for Italy.  Under President Harrison he served as Consul to St. Gall and later as Consul General for Switzerland.  Major Byers has been a contributor to the leading magazines of the country.  He is the author of "Iowa in War Times,"  "Switzerland and the Swiss," "Twenty Years in Europe" and several volumes of poetry.

HENRY LOUIS BOUQUET. Clerk of the Supreme Court, was born in Amsterdam, Holland, February 14, 1840. In 1849 he emigrated with his parents to the United States and located in Pella, Iowa. He attended the public schools of Pella until 1854 when he entered Central University where he remained as a student for two years. In 1856 he became a clerk in a general store at Pella and in July, 1862, he enlisted in Company "G" of the 33rd Iowa Infantry. In December, 1864, he was transferred and promoted to First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the 4th Arkansas Cavalry. He remained with his regiment until the close of the war and was mustered out of service in July, 1865. He returned to Pella after the war and in 1868 was elected Clerk of the District Court for Marion county, which office he held for four years. From 1875 until 1884 he was assistant cashier of the Pella National Bank. After leaving the bank he engaged in the general merchandising business at Knoxville with A.B. Culver, under the firm name of Culver & Co. He remained in this business until the store was burned in 1901. In 1902 he was a candidate before the Republican state convention for Clerk of the Supreme Curt, but was defeated for nomination by John C. Crockett and upon the election and qualification of Mr. Crockett he was appointed deputy clerk which position he held until Mr. Crockett resigned in January 1908, when he was appointed by the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy. He was nominated at the Republican primaries in 1908 to fill the unexpired portion of the term and was elected at the general election in 1908. A Republican in politics.