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Biographies Beginning with the letter D

History of Iowa, Vol IV. 1903

JAMES G. DAY, jurist, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, June 28, 1832.  In youth he attended Richmond Academy and afterwards graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in the class of 1857.  He soon after located at Afton, in Union County, Iowa, where he entered upon the practice of his profession.  In the fall of 1861, when it became evident that the Civil War was to be a long and desperate conflict,  Mr. Day closed his law office and joined a military company which was incorporated into the Fifteenth Regiment of Infantry.  He was chosen one of the lieutenants of Company F, and was soon at the seat of war, where for gallant service he was promoted to captain of the company.  He was severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, so that he was compelled to relinquish his command and retired from the service in September, 1862.  Before his return home he had been nominated by the Republicans for judge of the Third District, was elected and was serving his second term when appointed judge of the Supreme Court on the 1st of September, 1870, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Wright who had been elected to the United States Senate.  He was continued on the Supreme bench by election until January 1, 1884, serving as Chief Justice the last year of his term.  He was defeated in convention for nomination in consequence of a decision rendered by the Court, declaring the prohibitory amendment proposed to the Constitution void, in consequence of failure of the Legislature to submit it to the voters in a legal manner.   Judge Day wrote the opinion of the Court and thus incurred the opposition of enough prohibition delegates in the State Convention to accomplish his defeat.  That Judge Day was actuated by the purest motives, in pronouncing this decision, has never been doubted and its soundness has been conceded by many of the ablest lawyers of the State.  He removed to Des Moines and resumed the practice of law, where he died suddenly on the 1st of May, 1898.

WILLIAM DEWEY was born on the 26th of March, 1811, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts, was educated at West Point Military Academy and later studied law with his father and was admitted to the bar of Indiana in 1836.  After practicing law a few years he studied medicine at the St. Louis Medical College, then came to Iowa, becoming a resident of Wapello County in 1842.  In 1850 he was one of the commissioners appointed to settle the disputed boundary line between Iowa and Missouri.  After completing that work  he removed to Sidney, Fremont County, where he was engaged in the practice of medicine when the Rebellion began.  Early in 1861 he assisted Colonel Hugh T. Reid to raise the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel and was with it in the Battle of Shiloh and the siege of Corinth.  In August, 1862, he was promoted to colonel of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry.  While in command of that regiment at Patterson, Missouri, he died of erysipelas on the 30th of November, 1862

GRENVILLE M. DODGE was born in Putnamville, Danvers County, Massachusetts, on the 12th of April, 1831.  He received a liberal education, having graduated as a civil engineer from Norwich University in 1850.  He then entered a military school from which he graduated the following year.  Mr. Dodge went to Illinois, locating at Peru, where he engaged in land surveying.  In 1851 he secured a position with the Illinois Central Railroad Company and was employed in surveying the line from Dixon to Bloomington.  Soon after he was employed in surveying the line of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad from Davenport to Council Bluffs.  In 1854 he removed to Council Bluffs and engaged in overland freighting across the plains to Colorado.  He also became a member of the banking firm of Baldwin & Dodge.  During the years from 1854 to 1860 he was engaged in surveying a line for the Union Pacific Railroad.  At the beginning of the Rebellion he was appointed on the staff of Governor Kirkwood and, going to Washington, secured for Iowa 6,000 muskets to arm the regiments being organized.  When the Fourth Iowa Infantry was organized Dodge was appointed colonel.  His regiment was sent to Missouri and was actively engaged in the battles of Sugar Creek and Pea Ridge.  He was severely wounded in the latter where he held the extreme right and lost one-third of his command.  He was promoted to Brigadier-General and assigned by General Grant to the command of the Second Division of the Army of the Tennessee.  In the campaigns which followed General Grant recognized General Dodge as one of his ablest officers.  He said of the Iowa commander:  "Besides being a most capable soldier General Dodge was an experienced railroad builder.  At one time he constructed more than one hundred miles of railroad and built one hundred eighty-two bridges, many of them over wide chasms."  He was with Sherman's army in the march to the sea and was promoted to Major-General for gallant services.  In November, 1864, General Dodge was placed in command of the Department of Missouri by order of General Grant.  In January, 1865, the Department of Kansas, Nebraska and Utah were added to his command, where he served to the end of the war.  A history of his military services would fill a volume, and frequent mention of them will be found in the volume on the Civil War.  In July, 1866, he was nominated for Representative in Congress for the Fifth District and elected.  While a member of that body he was the recognized authority on all subjects relating to the army, and was prominent in promoting the act for putting the army on a peace footing.  He was an active supporter of the legislation promoting internal improvements in the West, and was regarded as the sagacious leader who had accomplished difficult tasks in railway construction in that then wild country.  He declined a reelection, preferring to give his entire time and energies to the construction of the Union Pacific Railway, including the building of the great bridge across the Missouri River between Council Bluffs and Omaha.  As an able military commander General Dodge had received the warmest endorsements of the three great chiefs of the War Department-Secretary Stanton, Generals Grant and Sherman; so also after his services in the construction of the Union Pacific Railway he received testimonials of his remarkable efficiency and ability from the highest officials of the company.  During his busy life since the war and the construction of the first great line of railway across the continent, General Dodge has served as president, chief engineer or director in the construction companies of the following railway enterprises:  American Railway Improvement Company of Colorado, 1880; International Railway Improvement Company of Colorado, 1880; Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company, 1880; Oriental Construction Company, 1882; Fort Worth and Denver Railway Company, 1889; St. Louis, Des Moines and Northern Railway Company, 1884; Des Moines Union Railway Company, 1884; Colorado and Texas Construction Company, 1887; Iron Steamboat Company, 1888; Denver, Texas and Fort Worth Railway Company, 1889; Des Moines and Northern Railway Company, 1890; Western Industrial Company, 1891; Wichita Valley Railway Company, 1891; Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway Company, 1891.  Although for many years residing in New York to superintend his multitude of great business enterprises, General Dodge has retained his loyalty to his Iowa home and never ceased to keep intimate relations with his Iowa friends of pioneer years.  He has been president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, and vice-president of the Grant Monument Association of New York.  He recently had the remains of General Kinsman exhumed form the battle-field of Black River Bridge and buried at his old home at Council Bluffs where he caused to be erected a fine monument to the memory of his gallant comrade of war times.

WILLIAM G. DONNAN was born at West Charleston, New York, on the 30th of June, 1834.  He lived on a farm in boyhood and was educated at Cambridge Academy.  He entered Union College later and graduated in 1856.  In September of the same year he came to Iowa and located at Independence where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1857.  In September he was elected recorder and treasurer of the county and served until 1862, when he enlisted in the Union army and was elected lieutenant.  He won rapid promotion in the service until he reached the rank of major before the close of the war.  In 1867 he was elected to the State Senate on the Republican ticket, serving four years.  He was largely instrumental in securing the establishment of the Hospital for the Insane at Independence.  In 1870 he received the Republican nomination for Representative in Congress for the Third District and was elected by a majority of 4,964.  He was reelected in 1872, serving two terms, declining a third.  In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention and voted for the nomination of President Arthur.

FRANCIS M. DRAKE, fifteenth Governor of Iowa, was born at Rushville, Illinois, on the 30th of December, 1830, and removed to Iowa in 1837, locating at Fort Madison.  Here he secured an education in the schools of that city and at the age of sixteen became a clerk in his father's store.  Soon after the discovery of gold in California, he fitted out two ox teams to make the overland journey to the gold fields.  At the Missouri River a caravan of several teams and twelve additional men was organized for mutual protection from hostile Indians.  At a crossing of the Platte River the party was attacked by a band of Pawnees and a lively fight ensued, in which the emigrants were under the command of Mr. Drake.  The Indians were finally defeated and the party, after several months on the plains, reached California in safety.  He remained in California until the fall of 1852, when he returned to the States by water, crossing at Panama, where he was seized with a fever.  In 1854 he again made the trip overland to Sacramento and, while returning by water, was shipwrecked.  In 1861 he volunteered to help defend the Missouri border from invasion.  Upon the organization of the Thirty-sixth Regiment of Iowa Infantry he was appointed lieutenant-colonel and served three years in the Union army.  He commanded at the Battle of Mark's Mills where he was severly wounded and taken prisoner.  After his return to service he was brevetted a Brigadier-General of Volunteers.  After the close of the war General Drake became extensively engaged in railroad building, acquiring large wealth.  He became one of the founders of a college at Des Moines, to which he made large donations at various times,  and which named Drake University.  The school is under the direction of the Christians, of which denomination General Drake is a prominent member.  In 1895, Gerneral Drake was elected Governor of Iowa, on the Republican ticket, served one term.

THOMAS DRUMMOND was born in the State of Virginia in 1833 and came to Iowa in 1855, making his home in Vinton, Benton County.  He became the editor of the Vinton Eagle, a Republican journal, and in 1856 was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President.  In 1857, when but twenty-five years of age, he was elected to represent Benton County in the House of the Seventh General Assembly.  In 1860 he was promoted to a seat in the Senate and secured the location of the Asylum for the Blind at Vinton and an appropriation for the erection of a building for its home.  At the beginning of the Rebellion he raised a company of volunteers and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry.  After several months service he received a commission in the regular army and was attached to Fifth United States Cavalry.  He was a gallant officer during the war and was mortally wounded while bravely leading his men in a charge in General Sheridan's army, in the last battle on Virginia soil, which resulted in the surrender of General Lee's army in April, 1865.

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 JAMES CLARK DUNCAN had a place among the citizens of Davenport with a rich portion of esteem due not only to his work, but to his personal character and his interesting social qualities. He was for many years proprietor of the Duncan Davenport Business College, and the splendid reputation of the capability of James Clark Duncan as an educator.

He was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, December 14, 1840, and was about fifteen years of age when his parents, James and Jane (Wilson) Duncan, moved out to Iowa and settled on a farm in Scott County. His grandfather James Duncan, came from Scotland.

James Clark Duncan was the oldest son of a large family of eleven children, and from early youth he realized a sense of responsibility and shared in the heavy work of developing an Iowa homestead. He attended country schools, at the age of nineteen went out to Kansas, and spent two years in that territory just before the outbreak of the Civil war. Not long after his return to Iowa he enlisted for the stern duties of a soldier, becoming a private in Company G of the Twentieth Iowa Infantry on August 15, 1862. He saw service in the border states of Missouri, Arkansas and Indian Territory, was at the siege of Vicksburg and finally at Fort Morgan, Alabama, toward the end of the war.

After the war he engaged in farming, left the farm to attend Bryant and Stratton Business College at Davenport, and after graduating was kept in the institution as a teacher. In 1883 he became a part owner and in 1883 he became apart owner and in 1886 bought the school, changing the name to the Duncan

Davenport Business College. He was the actual head of that institution forty years, until his death on May 13, 1923. Many of the prominent business men and bankers of Davenport and throughout Iowa gave a high degree of credit to this institution and the personal instruction of James C. Duncan. He was unexcelled as a lightning calculator. He trained his students thoroughly in an art which was valuable to every accountant in the days before adding machines. He had practically retired from the active management of the school in 1911. He was a resident of Davenport from 1876.

James Clark Duncan was associated with the late John B. Fidlar in the organization of the Register Life Insurance Company in 1888, and he became the first secretary of the company. He was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Grand Army of the Republic.

James Clark Duncan married, May 28, 1862, Miss Nancy J. McConnell, who was also born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She died February 24, 1913. Of their eight children a daughter, Mabel died in childhood. The living children are: E. H. Duncan, of Eldorado, Kansas; J. D. Duncan, of Davenport; Charles; Mrs. Edward H. Hartz, of Port Byron, Illinois; Mrs. Philip Freytag, of Reynolds, Illinois; Miss Ella and Miss Violet, both of Davenport. Charles Duncan has had a notable business career and for many years has been closely associated with the widespread activities of Herman J. Zeuch.

Mr. Duncan grew up in Davenport, attended high school and business college there, and as a young man entered the employ of the Van Patten & Marks Wholesale Grocery Company, one of the pioneer firms of that city. When this partnership was dissolved, in 1903, he became the first secretary of the Morton L Marks Company, and treasurer of this outstanding wholesale grocery house. The president of the company is Mr. Herman J. Zeuch. Mr. Duncan is an official in several of the companies representing the far flung enterprises of Mr. Zeuch, extending from Florida to Northwestern Canada.

He and Mr. Zeuch in 1912 acquired a large acreage in Florida, and after an enormous expenditure of labor and capital in draining and development laid out the town of Vero Beach. They were pioneers in putting down driven wells and bringing in a supply of pure water, which insured the community against the repeated visitations of typhoid fever. Mr. Duncan is a director of the Indian River Farms Company, and is also a director of the Register Life Insurance Company, the Davenport Morris Plan Bank, the Crossett Western Company and Gales Creek Logging Company, the last two being located in the State of Oregon, is a director of the Northern Warehouse Corporation of Davenport, of the Northwestern Loan & Insurance Company, and is secretary of the Indian River Farms in Florida. mr. Duncan is unmarried. He is a popular member of several social and business organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce, Outing Club, Davenport Country Club, Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club, and is a Methodist.

WARREN S. DUNGAN was born at Frankfort Springs, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of September, 1822.  He was reared on a farm, attending school in the winter months and assisting in the work of the farm during the summers.  When eighteen years of age he entered Frankfort Academy.  He taught school winters, after leaving the academy, until he was twenty-eight, earning money to enable him to study law.  He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and came to Iowa, locating at Chariton, where he opened a law office.  In 1861 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate for four years.  When the war began he was active in raising troops for the Union arrmies and in the organization of the Thirty-fourth Infantry, was appointed lieutenant-colonel, sharing all of the perils and glories of that regiment throughout its term of service.  During the last year he was on the staff of Major-General C. C. Andrews, as Inspector-General.  At the close of the war Colonel Dungan returned to Chariton and resumed the practice of law.  In 1872 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated General Grant for a second term and was one of the presidential electors chosen in November.  In 1880 he was a member of the Eighteenth General Assembly and was reelected to the House of the Nineteenth General Assembly.  In 1887 he was again elected to the Senate and served a full term of four years.  In 1893 Colonel Dungan was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Lieutenant-Governor and elected by a plurality over Bestow, Democrat, of 36,904.  His long legislative experience made him an accomplished President of the Senate.

WILLIAM McE. DYE was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 26, 1831.  He entered the Military Academy at West Point in July, 1849, graduating in 1853.  He served as second lieutenant for several years in California and Texas and in May, 1861, was promoted to captain in the Eighth Infantry.  He was living at Marion, Iowa, in 1862 and Governor Kirkwood, anxious to find experienced military men qualified to take command of the numerous Iowa regiments being organized, tendered the command of the Twentieth Volunteer Infantry to Captain Dye.  He accepted the position and was commissioned colonel.  The regiment participated in the Vicksburg campaign and was for a long time in the Gulf  Department.  Colonel Dye proved to be an able officer and became a colonel in the regular army.  In March, 1856, he was promoted to Brigadier-General of volunteers.  After the close of the war he returned to the regular army where he served until September, 1870, when he resigned and returned to Marion and engaged in farming.  He went to Egypt after several years, where he became a high officer in the army of the Khedive and was severely wounded in one of the battles.  He returned to America in 1879 and was made Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia.  In 1888 Colonel Dye went to Corea where he became military adviser and Instructor-General of the king of that country.  He introduced many reforms in the army equipment and arms.  He wrote a valuable book on Egypt and Abyssinia and their military systems and, returning to America in 1899, died at Muskegon, Michigan, in the same year.