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~Page 197~
Phineas F. Sturgis
Hon. Phineas F. Sturgis, of West Union, banker, farmer
and stock-dealer and late a merchant of this city, is a native
of Pennsylvania, born in Fayette County in December, 1830. His parents were Enos and Diana (Jones) Sturgis, both of whom were
born in the same county as their son, the father in March, 1803,
and the mother in 1806. Her death occurred in 1883 but Mr.
Sturgis is still living at the old home at the advanced age of
eighty-seven years. The grandfather of our subject was also
named Phineas and was born in Pennsylvania, in the year 1777. He
was a son of John Sturgis who was born near Philadelphia, about
1750, served as a soldier in the War of the Revolution and
fought at Brandywine, Monmouth and Germantown and was encamped
with Washington's army at Valley Forge during the dreary winter
of 1777. The Sturgis family was founded in America by brothers
of that name who emigrated from England, their native country,
about the year 1700 and settled in Massachusetts, Canada and one
in New Jersey, whence he removed to Pennsylvania.
The subject of our sketch is descended from the last branch
of the family. He received his education in the public school of
his native State and attended the Jefferson College of
Cannonsburg, pa., but did not complete the course of study in
that institution. After leaving college he engaged as clerk in a
dry-goods store of Uniontown, pa., and in 1851, nearly forty
years ago, came to the then frontier State of Iowa, locating in
West Union which at that time contained about seventy-five
inhabitants, the county of Fayette having been organized only
the previous year (1850). Mr. Sturgis first secured employment
as a clerk in the dry-goods store of Woodle & Brunson, but
the next year formed a business partnership with Daniel Cook in
general merchandising which continued until the death of the
latter in 1854. Three years later Mr. Sturgis removed to Clear
Lake, Cerro Gordo County, where he opened two general
merchandise stores, one at the town of his residence and the
other at Mason City which he operated three years. At the
breaking out of the war in 1861 he closed his business in that
county and returned to West Union, where he soon after
re-embarked in the general mercantile business which he
continued until 1872 when he sold and purchased a farm near the
city. In 1878 he purchased lands in the State of Kansas, one
tract of which with his usual sagacity, he purchased near the
thriving city of Beloit and in 1885 laid out eighty acres of
that land into Sturgis' Addition to the city of Beloit, from the
sales of a part of which property he has realized handsome
profits. He also owns and operates a farm adjacent to that city.
On the 31st of January, 1856, Mr. Sturgis and Miss Rachel
Irwin, of West Union were married. She was the only daughter of
John and Catherine Irwin, deceased, and was born in Union
County, pa. They have two sons living and have lost one son and
one daughter, both having died at the age of nine months. The
elder son, Henry Clay, married Miss Dora Scoville, of Fayette
County, and is engaged in banking in Oelwein, Iowa, where they
make their home. Lew I. was for many years employed by the
United States Government in the pension department at
Washington. He married Miss Ella Rogers of that city and at the
present time is engaged in the cattle business. He resides with
his father at the old home at West Union.
Mr. Sturgis has always been a man of enterprise, has no
hobbies, is thoroughly practical in his methods in politics as
well as business, has done his full share in improving and
building up the town and has added to it many structures some of
which were costly and remain as ornaments to the city. A few
years ago, in company with his son, Henry Clay, he founded the
Citizens' Bank of Oelwein, the business of which institution has
been carefully and successfully conducted by the son as cashier
and resident partner. In politics Mr. Sturgis was in early life
a Clay Whig, but after the breaking up of that party by the
passage of what is known as the Kansas and Nebraska Bill,
repealing the slavery restriction compromise of 1820, he
assisted in organizing the Republican party of Iowa, was active
and influential in both local and State politics for many years,
acquiring a State-wide reputation as an unselfish, reliable,
discreet, sagacious and effective politician and enjoying in a
marked degree the confidence of public men. Mr. Sturgis has
always had an aversion to holding official positions himself,
his ambition not being in that direction, and for this reason he
was dubbed by his friends with the sobriquet of 'the Thurlow
Weed of Iowa.' Without solicitation on his part, however, he was
nominated and elected on the Republican ticket in 1863 a member
of the Tenth General Assembly of Iowa, and at the commencement
of the session was placed on the Committees of Ways and Means,
Internal Improvement, Judicial Districts and Organization of the
Counties, besides serving on several important special and
select committees raised by the House during the session. At the
close of his term he declined to become a candidate for
re-election. Again in 1876 he was chosen by the State
Legislature and commissioned by Gov. Kirkwood, a Trustee for the
College for the Blind at Vinton, Iowa, which position he filled
for four years with credit to himself and friends and with honor
to the institution. At the end of his term he declined a
re-appointment. The Republican State Convention in 1880 again
honored Mr. Sturgis by choosing him a delegate to the Republican
National Convention at Chicago, in June of that year, where he
was witness of, and participated in that memorable six days'
struggle of the intellectual Republican giants of the Nation,
resulting, as all remember, in a drawn battle and compromise
candidate for nominee for president in the person of Gen.
Garfield. Mr. Sturgis zealously supported Mr. Blaine for
president until the thirty-sixth and last ballot when his
delegation in a body voted for Garfield. Shortly after he
withdrew from active politics but is still, as ever, a close
observer of public events as well as a careful student of the
annals of the race.
Mr. Sturgis is a man of positive convictions, has firmness of
character with strong will power, possesses great courage, is
fond of books, has always been a general reader, has a retentive
memory, is deeply versed in biography, in ancient and modern
history, in fact is considered authority on most biographical
and historic subjects. Of all the books which he has read those
of which he is most fond are Gibbon's Rome, Plutarch's Lives and
Shakespeare. He is of the opinion, however, that Lord Bacon
produced most the plays contained in Shakespeare's works. His
private library is among the largest and best selected in this
section of the State. The religious views of Mr. Sturgis not
being very fully expressed lead us to believe him as rather
favoring the advanced opinions of such men as Thomas and Swing.
He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for more than
thirty years, and Mrs. Sturgis is a consistent member of the
Baptist Church.
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