Iowa History Project

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Gue, Benjamin F. History of Iowa Vol. IV; New York City: 1903

HENRY SABIN, educator, was born at Pomfret, Connecticut, on the 23d of October, 1829.  He entered Amherst College, graduating in 1852.  Coming to Iowa in 1871 Mr. Sabin located at Clinton and has been engaged in educational work nearly all of his mature life.  He was for a long time superintendent of public schools and an active and influential member of the State Teachers' Association.  In 1887 he was nominated on the Republican ticket for State Superintendent of Public Instruction and elected, serving until 1892.  In 1893 he was again elected to the same position and reelected at the end of the  term for another period of two years, retiring in 1898.  He has been a frequent contributor to educational publications, is a member of the National Educational Association, was president of the Department of Superintendency in 1895 and chairman of the committee of twelve on rural schools from 1895 to 1897.  Mr. Sabin has long been one of the most influential workers for the advancement of education through the public school system, in the state.  In 1900 he published a book of two hundred eighty-two pages on "The Making of Iowa," for use in the public schools.

MARY AUGUSTA SAFFORD was born at Quincy, Illinois, December 23, 1851.  At the age of eighteen she entered the State University at Iowa City.  After several years of study and teaching she began to preach in Hamilton, Illinois, to which city her parents had removed in her childhood.  Here Miss Safford organized a Unitarian Society in 1878.  She preached in Hamilton a year and a half, after which she was invited by the Iowa Unitarian Association to be ordained in the state of Iowa.  She received her ordination in the town of Humboldt where she remained five years, finally attracting the attention of those interested in the needs of larger towns.  In the summer of 1885 Miss Safford accepted a call to the new parish of Sioux City, and entered upon her pastorate there in the fall of that year,  completing the organization of the society and stimulating the growing society to build a commodious church.  In Sioux City Miss Safford was one of the founders of the Humane Society.  She also initiated the firs church literary clubs of Sioux City, which were afterwards taken up by other churches until from the nucleus in Unity Church there extended throughout Sioux City an ever broadening circle of literary life.  Miss Safford resigned her Sioux City pastorate in June, 1899, to accept a call to Des Moines.  In addition to her work at Des Moines, Miss Safford is secretary of the Iowa Unitarian Association, traveling from place to place, organizing, advising and stimulating the churches.  Her work has always been largely missionary.  She has organized thriving churches in Cherokee, Washta, Perry and Ida Grove.  For ten years she was president of the Iowa Unitarian Conference and under her plan of organization the conference developed a financial strength that has been deemed impossible.  In addition to their position as State secretary and minister of the des Moines church, Miss Safford is a director of the National Unitarian Association, a director of the Western Association, a director of the State Conference, and a member of the National Fellowship Committee.  In addition to the literary, educational and humane work of her church, Miss Safford has always been an ardent woman suffragist.

WILLIAM SALTER, one of the pioneer preachers of Iowa, was born in Brooklyn, New York, November 17, 1821.  He was educated in the Union Theological Seminary of New York, the Theological Institution of Andover, Massachusetts, and the New York University.  In November, 1843, he came to Maquoketa, Iowa, one of eleven young Congregational ministers who, early in that year formed an "Iowa Band" to establish churches of their faith in the new Territory.  They were young men from twenty-two to thirty-four years of age who were in the senior class at Andover.  Seven of them, including Mr. Salter, were ordained in the old academy building at Denmark in Lee County, on Sunday, November 5, 1843.  From there they went to different localities as missionary preachers.  After preaching two years at Maquoketa, Mr. Salter became the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Burlington.  In addition to his services as a minister, Dr. Salter has given much time to study of Iowa history and for many years has been a contributor of valuable articles to historical publications.  His "Life of James W. Grimes" is one of the best of Iowa biographies.  He has also written biographies of General Augustus C. Dodge, General J. M. Corse and Governor James Clarke.  He is the author of a church hymn book, "Memoirs of J. W. Pickett,"  "Forty Years' Ministry" and numerous historical addresses.  For more than half a century he has continued to meet the highest expectations of a cultured and critical congregation.  In all the attributes of a great and popular minister, a genial and helpful pastor, he was uncommonly endowed.  His name and fame are intimately entwined with the building up of the State which in youth he selected for a home.

EZEKIEL S. SAMPSON was born in Huron County, Ohio, on the 6th of December, 1831.  When a small boy his father removed to Illinois and in 1843 located on a farm in Keokuk County, Iowa.  The son worked on his father's farm until he was nineteen years of age, attending the district school winters.  He then learned to set type and earned money as a printer to pay his way in the higher schools until he secured a good education.  In 1854 he went to Oskaloosa and began the study of law with Enoch W. Eastman and Samuel A. Rice and in the following year was admitted to the bar.  He began to practice at Sigourney and in 1856 was elected Prosecuting Attorney.  Early in 1861 he helped to raise a company for the Union army and was appointed captain of Company F, which was assigned to the Fifth Infantry.  In May, 1862, he was promoted to major of the regiment, serving in that position until 1864, when it was mustered out.  In 1865 he was elected to the State Senate and after serving one session was chosen District Judge and remained on the bench by reelection until 1874 when he was elected to Congress.  Mr. Sampson served four years in the House of Representatives from the Sixth District, retiring in 1879 and resuming the practice of law.  He died at his home in Sigourney on the 7th of October, 1892.

ADDISON H. SANDERS was born on the 13th of September, 1823, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  His education was begun in a printing office of his native city and completed at Cincinnati College.  In 1845 and again in 1846 he came to Davenport, where his brother Alfred, was struggling to put his Gazette on a paying basis.  During each of these visits he stayed several months, taking editorial charge of the paper and thus relieving his overworked brother, so that he might bring the business department into better condition.  When the city had grown large enough to demand a daily paper, Addison H. removed to Davenport, in October, 1856, took editorial charge of the Daily Davenport Gazette and continued in that position until he entered the Union army.  At the beginning of the Civil War no newspaper in Iowa had wider influence that the Daily Gazette of Davenport. Early in 1861, Add. H. Sanders was commissioned aid to Governor Kirkwood, serving with Judge Baldwin of Council Bluffs and later in the year he was placed in command of Camp McClellan, at Davenport, where the Union volunteers were mustering for the organization of regiments and for drill.  The Sixteenth Regiment was organized early in the winter of 1862 and Governor Kirkwood was so impressed with the excellent work and superior qualifications of Add. H. Sanders, that he offered him the position of colonel of the new regiment.  But having observed the disadvantage of placing inexperienced officers at the head of new regiments he declined the command, urging the selection of a regular army officer for the place.  The Governor and General Baker realized the wisdom of such a selection and Captain Alexander Chambers of the Eighteenth United Stares Infantry was appointed colonel and Mr. Sanders was commissioned lieutenant-colonel.  The regiment received its "baptism of fire" at the desperate and bloody battle of Shiloh and at Corinth, Lieutenant-Colonel Sanders was wounded very severely.  He did gallant service during the war, often in command of the regiment.  At the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, Colonel Sanders was taken prisoner, suffering everything but death in the Confederate prison and when exchanged was so low with starvation and fever that for a long time his recovery was doubtful.  On the 2d of April, 1865, he was discharged from the service for disability, having been brevetted Brigadier-General for gallant conduct on many battle-fields  Upon his return home, he was appointed postmaster of Davenport.  In 1870 he was appointed by President Grant Secretary of Montana Territory and became acting Governor.  In 1872 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office for Montana.  He returned to his old home at Davenport where for many years he has done editorial work on several of the daily papers.  As a writer, General Sanders has for a third of a century ranked among the ablest in the State.

ALFRED SANDERS, pioneer journalist, was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, having been born in that city on the 13th of May, 1819.  Like his brother, Addison H., he received his education in the printing office and at Cincinnati College.  In 1841 he came to Davenport, Iowa, where in August he established the Davenport Gazette, a weekly Whig newspaper.  It was from the first a model typographical journal and gave particular attention to the local interests of the new city and Territory.  The young man was but twenty-two years of age and possessed all of the enthusiasm and ability to "work and wait," that characterized the youthful adventurers who hesitated not to leave the comforts of civilization, to help found a new State.  For twenty-one years Alfred Sanders worked in his chosen field with undeviating faith in a brilliant future for his journal, his city, and State.  The "old Davenport Gazette" was, under his administration, among the most potential forces in helping to lay a sure foundation for the upbuilding of one of the most beautiful and substantial cities of Iowa and no paper in its day contributed more largely toward the material development of all that is most desirable by good citizens, in the growth of a State.  Alfred Sanders never sought office and held steadfastly to the career of journalism which he had chosen in youth; was an active member of the Christian Church and died at the early age of forty-six, on the 25th of April, 1865.

JAMES H. SANDERS was born on the 9th of October, 1834, in Union County, Ohio.  He received a liberal education in the schools and academies of that section and in 1852 came with his father to Keokuk County, Iowa.  The son was an active Republican and was elected county clerk.  In 1860 he came to Des Moines at the assembling of the Legislature and secured the position of Secretary of the Senate.  He was a good writer on agricultural topics and in 1869 established The Western Stock Journal, the first publication of the kind in the United States.  It was conducted with ability and grew into a wide circulation.  Seeing the advantages of having the Journal issued from a large city, he removed it to Chicago where it attained a national circulation.  As the live stock interests of the west developed  he saw an opening for a weekly publication devoted to the growing branch of farming and selling his interest in the monthly Journal, established the Weekly Breeders' Gazette in 1881.  This proved to be a profitable enterprise and grew into a valuable property, circulating over the entire country where stock raising was carried on extensively.  Mr. Sanders was a member of the United States Treasury Cattle Commission and a special agent of the department of Agriculture in Europe in 1885 and was the author of several publications relating to stock.  He died on the 22d of December, 1899, at the age of sixty-seven.

JAMES P. SANFORD was born in Seneca County, New York, November 11, 1832.  When thirteen years of age he went to South America and spent four years in that country, Mexico and the West India Islands.  In 1851 he located in New Orleans where he remained until 1855 when he removed to Iowa, taking up his residence at Bentonsport.  The following year he became a Universalist minister, preaching his first sermon at Big Rock in Scott County on the 22d of March, 1856.  He was a public speaker of unusual ability and eloquence and rose rapidly in the profession until in a few years he became one of the most famous ministers in Iowa.  Early in the Civil War Mr. Sanford enlisted in the Second Iowa Cavalry and was commissioned first lieutenant and was afterwards promoted to captain.  Upon the organization of the Forty-seventh Infantry he was commissioned colonel of that regiment.  In 1864 he retired from the service and went to Europe, making an extensive tour of the countries of the old world.  Upon his return he lectured on foreign lands and people he had visited.  Mr. Sanford crossed the ocean fifteen times and extended his travels into almost every country of the eastern world.  Possessed of rare descriptive powers and pleasing address, Colonel Sanford soon won national fame as a lecturer on foreign countries.  He eventually became one of the most extensive travelers in America as well as one of the most notable lecturers.

WILLIAM F. SAPP was born at Danville, Ohio, November 23, 1824.  He received an academic education and studied law at Mount Vernon with Columbus Delano.  He was admitted to the bar in 1850 and began practice at Mount Vernon.  In 1854 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney, holding that position four years.  In 1860 he removed to Omaha and later became a member of the Territorial Legislature.  He was appointed Adjutant-General and in 1862 was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Second Nebraska Cavalry.  After the war he made his home at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and practiced law.  In 1866 he was a Representative in the Eleventh General Assembly of Iowa.  In 1869 he was appointed by president Grant United States District Attorney for Iowa, serving until 1873.  In 1878 he was nominated by the Republicans of the Eighth District for Representative in Congress and elected, serving but one term.

ALVIN SAUNDERS was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, July 12, 1817, and received but a common school education, working on his father's farm until nineteen years of age.  He came to Iowa in 1836 when it was a part of Michigan Territory, and located at Mount Pleasant.  After a few years he opened a store and was appointed postmaster.  He took an active part in public affairs and in 1846 was chosen a delegate to the convention which framed a Constitution for the State.  In 1854 he was elected to the State Senate as an antislavery Whig and was one of the most influential members in securing the election of James Harlan to the United States Senate.  He was a delegate to the convention which organized the Republican party in 1856.  Mr. Sanuders served eight years in the Senate, helping to elect Governor Grimes to the United States Senate in 1858.  He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1860 which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President.  In 1861 Mr. Saunders was appointed Governor of Nebraska Territory where he became one of the promoters of the building of the Union Pacific Railroad.  He served as Governor until 1867 when Nebraska became a State.  In 1877 he was elected to the United States Senate for six years.  After the expiration of his term he served ten years on the Utah Commission which had supervision of registration and elections in that Territory.  Governor Saunders died at his home in Omaha, November 1, 1899.

CHARLES A. SCHAFFER, late president of the State University, was born August 14, 1843, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  His early education was thorough and he was fitted for college at the Germantown Academy.  His progress was so rapid that he was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1861, at the age of eighteen.  He then began the study of medicine, entering a pharmacy and beginning a laboratory course in Philadelphia which was continued at Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In 1862 he became private secretary to his uncle, General Herman Haupt, then stationed in Virginia.  The following year he enlisted in Landis' Philadelphia Light Brigade and in a skirmish at Carlisle distinguished himself for gallant conduct.  In 1863 he entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, remaining two years.  From there Mr. Schaffer went to Union College at Schenectady, New York, as instructor in chemistry.  In 1867 he went abroad for advanced study in chemistry and for two years was a student at Gottingen, where in 1868 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.  During the following year he studied metallurgy at the Berlin School of Mines and completed his foreign studies by a course of six months in Paris.  While studying there he was elected to the chair of analytical chemistry and mineralogy at Cornell University, at the time being but twenty-six years of age.  There he remained nineteen years, and during the absence of the president, Andrew D. White, was usually called to act in his absence.  During his last year at Cornell Dr. Schaffer was dean of the faculty.  He was inaugurated president of the Iowa State University, in June, 1887, and entering upon the work he voluntarily took upon himself instruction in chemistry of the medical and dental students with lectures on medical jurisprudence.  Dr. Schaffer worked untiringly for a large endowment for the University throughout the State and before the Legislature.  He was not a brilliant public speaker and "his strongest point was his remarkable executive ability," says Henry Sabin.  During his residence in the State he was an earnest worker for the upbuilding of Iowa City, the home of the University.  He stood high in the councils of the Episcopal Church and was a trustee of Griswold College and St. Katherine's Hall, Davenport.  President Schaffer died in the midst of his great usefulness at Iowa City, September 13, 1898.

WILLIAM O. SCHMIDT is a native of Davenport, where he was born June 9, 1856.  He was educated in the public schools of his native city and at the State University, entering upon the practice of law in Davenport.  He has always been a Democrat and since 1896 has affiliated with the sound money wing of that party.  Mr. Schmidt was a member of the House of Representatives in the Nineteenth and Twentieth General Assemblies, and a member of the Senate of the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth General Assemblies, having served continuously for twelve years.  He was the author of a bill for the regulation of the liquor traffic which received the endorsement of the Democratic party in State convention, and similar to the plan upon which Horace Boies was twice elected Governor of the State.

HENRY P. SCHOLTE, the founder of the Holland Colony of Marion County, was born at Amsterdam, kingdom of Netherlands, September 25, 1805.  He was educated at the University of Leyden and studying theology was licensed to preach in 1832.  Two years before, Mr. Scholte had volunteered to assist in suppressing a rebellion in Belgium in which he won medals for bravery.  In 1833 he became a preacher in the National  Reform church but soon after joined the dissenters and was tried in 1834 for teaching heresy and expelled from the established church, suffering persecution by fine and imprisonment.  In 1846 Mr. Scholte became president of an organization to promote emigration to America and in April of the following year four ships bearing between seven and eight hundred persons sailed for Baltimore.  No profane, immoral or intemperate person could be a member of the colony, nor an atheist, skeptic or Roman Catholic.  A location was chosen in Marion County, Iowa, where two thousand acres of land were purchased and the town of Pella (city of refuge) was platted.  Mr. Scholte here adopted the profession of law, taking an interest in American politics, and in 1860 was one of the delegates from Iowa to the National Republican convention at Chicago, which first nominated Abraham Lincoln for President.  He was the first postmaster of Pella and donated five acres of the most beautiful ground in the town to the Iowa Central University.  He remained the dominating spirit of the colony until his death on August 25, 1868.

JOHN SCOTT was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, April 14, 1824.  He attended the common schools until sixteen years of age when he began to teach.  He came to Iowa in 1843 but returned to Ohio and Kentucky, teaching school until May, 1846, when he enlisted in a regiment of Kentucky volunteers fitting out for the Mexican War.  In 1847 he, with Cassius M. Clay and seventy others, was taken prisoner and marched to the City of Mexico where they were held in captivity for eight months.  From 1852 to 1854 he was editor of the Kentucky Whig.  He removed to Iowa in 1856, locating in Nevada, where he was engaged in farming and real estate.  In 1859 he was elected to represent the counties of Story, Boone, Hardin and Hamilton in the State Senate.  He served in the regular session of 1860 and the war session of 1861 and then resigned to enter the Union army.  Mr. Scott was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Third Regiment and was in command at the Battle of Blue Mills, engaging a superior army of the enemy.  In 1862 he was promoted to colonel of the Thirty-second Infantry where he served with distinction until May, 1864, being engaged in many severe conflicts.  In 1867 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa on the Republican ticket, serving two years.  In 1870 Colonel Scott was appointed Assessor of Internal Revenue, holding the office until it was discontinued.  He has been intimately associated with the industrial progress of the State for more than a quarter of a century and has been president of the State Agricultural Society, of the State Road Improvement Association, the Improved Stock Breeders' Association and delegate to the National Agricultural Congress.  He was for many years an able contributor to agricultural journals.  In 1885 he was again elected to the State Senate where he was the author of the bill to establish a State Board of Control for the various public institutions.  He has several times come within a few votes of the nomination for Congress in Republican conventions.  Colonel Scott is the author of several books.  In 1849 he published a narrative of the imprisonment of himself and companions during the Mexican War.  In 1895 he published a "Genealogy of Hugh Scott" and his descendants, and the "Story of the Thirty-second Iowa Volunteers."  In 1896 Colonel Scott was elected president of the "Pioneer Lawmakers' Association."

WILLIAM A. SCOTT was born in Crawford County, Indiana, December 18, 1818.  When Fort Des Moines was established at the Racoon Forks in 1843, Mr. Scott came with the troops, having contracted to furnish provisions for the garrison.  He remained at the fort three years and when the Indians were removed to Kansas he accompanied them to their reservation as Indian trader.  When the public lands in the vicinity of Des Moines came into market, Mr. Scott returned and entered five hundred acres on the east side of the river including most of the ground upon which East Des Moines has been built.  He erected his log cabin where the city gas works stand near East Market street and established a ferry across the Raccoon River near its mouth.  He built the first bridge across the Des Moines River and laid out the city of East Des Moines on his farm.  Mr. Scott was active in securing the removal of the Capital from Iowa City and in procuring the location of the State House on the east side of the river.  In order to comply with the requirement of the State to furnish a Capitol building and grounds free of expense, Mr. Scott donated most of the land upon which the permanent State House stands, the "Governor's Square" and other ground amounting to fifteen acres.  He then became one of a company which erected the first Stare House at a cost of nearly $40,000.  In the accomplishment of these enterprises Mr. Scott had encumbered his real estate to raise the large sums of money required.  In 1857 came the most disastrous financial depression of the century; banks and thousands of business houses went down in widespread ruin.  Good money disappeared from circulation and real estate could not be sold.  Generous, public spirited "Alex. Scott" was caught in the flood-tide of ruin with his vast holding of real estate mortgaged and no income to tide him over.  He started for the Pike's Peak gold field with the desperate hope that fortune would favor him and enable him to save his property.  But he was stricken with sickness and died in a tent on the plains, June 23, 1859.

EUGENE SECOR is a name well known to all lovers of trees and parks in Iowa.  He was born in Peekskill, New York, May 13, 1841, and attended the district schools in his native State.  His father possessed a well-selected library and from this his children gleaned a higher education.  In 1862 Mr. Secor came to Iowa and enlisted in the "hundred days" service but was not called to the field.  Two years later he entered Cornell College at Mount Vernon but was soon obliged to abandon his studies.  He held a number of offices in Winnebago County during the following fourteen years.  But he is best known throughout the State for his valuable papers on bee-keeping, horticulture and preserving the beauties of nature in parks and forest reserves.  He has been a prominent member of the State Horticultural Society for many years, having served as director, president and manager of one of the experimental stations.  He has contributed to journals and magazines both literary and technical for many years, and written by request a resume of the apiarian industry of the United States and its exhibit at the World's Fair for the permanent records of that and the Omaha Expositions.  He is a successful bee-keeper, often procuring a ton of honey in a season.  He has served as treasurer, president and general manager of the National Beekeepers' Society.  In 1888 Mr. Secor was chosen trustee of the State College of Agriculture, serving six years.  He is a prominent Republican and for sixteen years has usually been a delegate to the annual State conventions and has also served as a delegate to the National Convention in 1892.  In 1901 he was elected a Representative in the Twenty-ninth General Assembly and served as chairman of the committee on horticulture.

EDWARD P. SEEDS is native of Wilmington, Delaware, where he was born August 1, 1855.  When a child his father removed to Manchester, Iowa, where the son received his early education in the public schools.  He entered the Law Department of the State University and graduated in 1877.  Mr. Seeds began practice of Manchester, continuing with the interruption of a few years in the postal service, until 1890.  During his second term as city solicitor he resigned to accept the office of State Senator, serving in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies.  In 1890 he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico and was judge of the First Judicial District for four years.  During his term he was called upon to render a decision in case of election frauds and his decision was sustained by the United States Supreme Court.  At the expiration of his term Judge Seeds returned to Manchester and was elected professor of law in the State University.

HOMER H. SEERLEY was born near Indianapolis, Indiana, August 13, 1848.  He came with his parents to Iowa in 1854, locating at South English, where his early education was acquired in the public schools.  He entered the State University, graduating in 1873.  The following autumn he began his career as a teacher by accepting a position as assistant in the high school of Oskaloosa.  The following year he became principal of the school and in 1875 city superintendent of schools.  In 1886 he resigned to accept the presidency of the State Normal School at Cedar Falls.  For twenty-five years he has been identified with the State Teachers' Association of which he was president in 1884.  He is  also a member of the National Educational Association and the National Educational Council.  Mr. Seerley has written many educational articles for the press and delivered numerous addresses before educational assemblies.  He is one of the authors of Seerley and Parish's History of Civil Government in Iowa.  He has been president of the State Normal School for more than seven-teen years.

JOHN J. SEERLEY was born at Toulon, Illinois, March 13, 1852.  He removed to Iowa and graduated at the State University in 1875.  He was principal of the Iowa City high school in 1876.  The following year he graduated from the Law Department of the University and entered upon the practice in Burlington, was elected city solicitor, holding the position six years.  In 1888 he was nominated by the Democrats of the First Congressional District for Representative and was defeated by Ex-Governor Gear, the Republican candidate.  In 1890 he was again the Democratic candidate and was elected over his former competitor.

WILLIAM H. SEEVERS was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, April 8, 1822.  His boyhood was passed on his father's farm and his education was acquired in the common schools.  He began to read law in 1843 and removed to Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1844, where he began practice.  Mr. Seevers was elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1848, serving one term.  In 1852 he was elected judge of the Third Judicial District, serving until 1856.  In 1857 he was elected to the House of the Seventh General Assembly and was chairman of the judiciary committee.  In 1872 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated General Grant for President the second time.  He was a member of the commission to revise the laws of the State and was  editor of the Code of 1873.  In 1875 he was again elected to the General Assembly.  In 1876 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy where he served until 1888.  Judge Seevers died at his home in Oskaloosa, March 24, 1895.

CATO SELLS was born in Vinton, Iowa, October 6, 1859.  Losing his father at an early age he was obliged to provide for the family, attending public school winters.  He entered Cornell College at sixteen, supporting himself while pursuing his studies.  In 1878 he began the study of law in the office of Charles A. Bishop and two years later was admitted to the bar and began practice at La Porte.  In 1889 he removed to Vinton and soon became a prominent leader in the Democratic party, serving on the State Central Committee, and was for seven years secretary or chairman of the executive committee.  In 1887 he was chairman of the committee, and in 1888 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.  In 1892 he was again a delegate and served as secretary of the National Convention.  In 1893 he was president of the Democratic State Convention.  In 1894 he was appointed by President Cleveland United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.  In 1899 he was again president of the Democratic State Convention and in 1900 chairman of the Iowa delegation in the National Democratic Convention at Kansas City.  Mr. Sells served on the staff of Governor Boies for four years and in 1892 was elected trustee of the State College of Agriculture.

ELIJAH SELLS was born in Franklin County, Ohio, February 14, 1814.  His father served under General Harrison in the War of 1812.  The son came to Iowa in 1841, locating at Muscatine, where he engaged in business.  He took a deep interest in the free soil movement and at one of the early Whig conventions secured the adoption of resolutions declaring it to be the duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories.  This was the first convention in the State to make the declaration which afterwards became the cardinal doctrine of the Republican party.  In 1844 he was a member of the First Constitutional Convention.  He was elected a member of the First General Assembly of the State and again in 1852 served in the House.  Mr. Sells was a delegate to the convention which organized the Republican party, was nominated for Secretary of Stare and elected.  He was twice reelected, serving six years.  In 1863 he was appointed paymaster in the army and afterwards held a position in the navy.  He also served as Third Auditor of the Treasury.  In 1865 he was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs in one of the southern districts and removed to Kansas.  He served three terms in the Kansas Legislature and in 1878 removed to Utah.  In 1889 he was appointed Secretary of Utah Territory, serving four years.  Mr. Sells died at Salt Lake City, March 13, 1897.

JOSHUA M. SHAFFER was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1813, where he attended the common schools, graduating from the Medical Department of the Pennsylvania University.  He has received the degrees of a. B., A. M. and M. D.  In 1852 he came to Iowa, making his home at Fairfield, in Jefferson County, where he practiced medicine.  In 1854 he was one of the organizers of the State Agricultural Society and its first secretary; he served in that capacity at different times for fourteen years, doing very much to make the State fairs successful.  In 1862 he was elected to the State Senate to fill the unexpired term of James F. Wilson, elected to Congress.  For many years he was secretary and librarian of the Jefferson County Library.  During the Civil War he was surgeon of the Board of Enrollment from 1863 to 1865.  In 1876-7 Dr. Shaffer was a lecturer at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk where he had taken up his residence.  For many years he was a trustee of the Unitarian Society at Keokuk, and later secretary of the board of trustees.  Teh doctor has for many years been a  student of natural science, and for twenty-five years has been a promoter of cremation as against earth burial, and is a member of an association pledged to the cremation of their own bodies.  During the mature years of his life Dr. Shaffer has been a continuous contributor to the press on a variety of subjects of interest to the public, always working for some worthy purpose.

BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH is a native of Iowa, born at Elvira, January 29, 1871.  He acquired his education at the Iowa City Academy and the State University of Iowa, and was fellow in the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in 1893-95.  In the latter year he became instructor in the University of Iowa, assistant professor in 1896 and Professor of Political Science in 1897.  Professor Shambaugh is a curator of the State Historical Society at Iowa City and editor of the Iowa Journal of History and Politics.  He has written much of value to the student of Iowa history, including three volumes on "Documentary Material Relating to the History of Iowa,"  "Fragments of Debates of the Constitutional Conventions of 1844 and 1846," and a "History of the Constitutions of Iowa."

JOHN SHANE was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, on the 26th of May, 1822, and was educated at Jefferson College.  He studied law with Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's great Secretary of War and was admitted to the bar in 1848, beginning practice at Steubenville.  In 1855, he removed to Iowa, locating at Vinton where he engaged in the practice of law.  He was a delegate to the State Convention which organized the Republican party at Iowa City in 1856.  He entered the military service as captain of Company G, Thirteenth Infantry in 1861, in October was promoted to major and was in the Battle of Shiloh.  Soon after he became lieutenant-colonel and in March, 1863, was promoted to colonel of the regiment.  He served in this position with distinction until November, 1864, when the term of enlistment expired.  In 1871 Colonel Shane was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate, serving four years.  In 1876 he was appointed judge of the Eighth Judicial District and was elected in 1878  for a full term but was stricken with paralysis before the expiration and resigned.  He died on the 18th of September, 1899.

ALBERT SHAW, journalist, was born at Shandon, Ohio, July 23, 1857.  He came to Iowa when a young man, entering Iowa College at Grinnell where he graduated in 1879.  He first entered upon journalism by securing an interest in the Grinnell Herald but still continued his studies under Professor Macy, giving special attention to constitutional history and economic science.  In 1881 he entered Johns Hopkins University as a graduate student, and while there attracted the notice of James Bryce who was preparing his "American Commonwealth," and availed himself of Mr. Shaw's knowledge of western political and social conditions.  In 1883 Mr. Shaw secured a position on the Minneapolis Tribune but returned to Johns Hopkins taking the degree of Ph. D.  He then resumed work on the Tribune.  While pursuing his studies he wrote a book called "Icaria; A Chapter in the History of Communism," which became his thesis, was translated and published in Germany where it won the author an enviable reputation.  After spending two years in study in Europe he gave lectures at Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Michigan Universities.  In 1891 he was invited to establish the American Review of Reviews of which he has since been the editor.  He is the author of "Municipal Government in Great Britain;"  "Municipal Government in Continental Europe;" a :History of the Spanish-American War;"  "History of the United States from the Civil War to the Close of the Nineteenth Century."  Dr. Shaw is a member of the American Economic Association, American Antiquarian Society, a fellow of the American Statistical Society and the New York Academy of Political Science.  The Outlook says:

"Dr. Shaw has a catholicity of feeling and knowledge which very few American possess.   .   .   .   and is one of the few journalists in this country who treat their work from the professional standpoint, who are thoroughly equipped for it and who regard themselves as standing in a responsible relation to a great and intelligent public."

LESLIE M. SHAW, sixteenth Governor of Iowa, was born in Morristown, Vermont, November 2, 1848, was reared on a farm and attended the academy of Morrisville.  He came to Iowa in 1869 and entered Cornell College at Mount Vernon, from which he graduated in 1874.  Mr. Shaw was dependent upon his won exertions for the means to defray his expenses while attending the Iowa College of Law.  These he met by work in the harvest field, teaching and selling nursery stock.  In 1876 he located at Denison in Crawford County and began the practice of law.  He was a hard worker and soon won a prominent position at the bar.  Mr. Shaw began the accumulation of a library and in time possessed one of the best collections of law books in the State.  He was a liberal contributor to the establishment of the Academy and Normal School at Denison, engaged in banking and became president of a bank at Denison and also at Manilla.  In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. Shaw for the first time took an active part in politics and in the discussion of money issue he made able arguments for the gold standard which attracted attention and gave him a State-wide reputation as an effective public speaker.  In 1897 he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Governor and after a spirited canvass was elected by a majority of over 11,000.  Two years later he was reelected by a majority of over 11,000.  In 1898 he was president of the Sound Money Convention at Indianapolis, where his speech was considered an able defense of the gold standard.  Upon the expiration of his second term in January, 1902, Governor Shaw was appointed by President Roosevelt Secretary of the Treasury.

WILLIAM T. SHAW was born in Steuben, Washington County, Maine, on the 22d of September, 1822.  He was educated in the Maine Wesleyan Seminary and went to Kentucky where he taught school for some time.  When the Mexican War began he at once enlisted and served through the war taking part in many of the principal battles.  In 1849 and in 1852 he led parties across the great western plains which were then unsettled and infested with hostile Indians.  In 1853 he came to Iowa, locating at Anamosa.  Upon the organization of the Fourteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry Mr. Shaw was appointed by Governor Kirkwood, colonel.  He led the regiment in the thickest of the fight at the Battle of Fort Donelson and again at Shiloh where his regiment was assailed by overwhelming numbers and forced to surrender.  At the disastrous Battle of Pleasant Hill, Colonel Shaw commanded a brigade and made a most gallant fight, aiding greatly in saving General Banks' army from disaster.  In a letter written soon after the battle he exposed the incompetency and drunkenness of certain of his superior officers and they took their revenge by procuring his dismissal from the service.  It was the general opinion of his associates in the Red River campaign that he richly deserved promotion to the rank of Brigadier-General.  In 1875 he was elected on teh Republican ticket a member of the House of the Sixteenth General Assembly.

STEPHEN B. SHELLEDY was born in Kentucky in 1802.  He came to Iowa in 1842 and took up his residence at "Tool's Point" (now Monroe), then in Mahaska County.  He was elected by the Whigs to the First Constitutional Convention which assemble that year.  In 1845 he was chosen to represent Mahaska, Washington and Keokuk counties in the House of the Territorial Legislature and was reelected, serving until Iowa became a State.  He was a member of the Second Constitutional Convention which framed the organic law under which the Territory became a State.  In 1854 he was a member of the Whig State Committee which managed the campaign that resulted in teh election of James W. Grimes, Governor.  This was the first defeat of the Democratic party since Iowa had an existence.  In 1858 Colonel Shelledy was again elected to the General Assembly and was chosen Speaker of the House.   He died a few years later.

BUREN R. SHERMAN, eleventh Governor of Iowa, was born in the town of Phelps, Ontario County, New York, on the 28th of May, 1836.  He received his education at the public schools of Ontario and an academy of Elmira.  When a youth he worked for a time with a watchmaker but in 1855 he came with his father's family to Iowa.  Assisting his father on the farm the son gave a portion of his time to the study of law.  In 1859 he was admitted to the bar.  At Vinton he secured a position as junior member of the law firm of Smyth, Traer & Sherman.  Soon after the beginning of the Civil War Mr. Sherman enlisted in Company G, Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, was soon promoted to second lieutenant of Company E, and was severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh.  He was promoted to captain and served several month, when he resigned on account of disability occasioned by his wound.  After returning to Vinton he was elected county judge and in 1866 was elected clerk of the District Court, serving by reelections until 1874 when he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Auditor of State and elected.  He served in that position three terms with marked ability.  In 1881 he was nominated by the Republican party for Governor and elected by a large majority.  He was reelected in 1883.  He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity.

HOYT SHERMAN, son of Charles R. Sherman, Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, was born in Lancaster County, November 1, 1827, and is the younger brother of John  Sherman, the distinguished Ohio statesman, and of General William T. Sherman of Civil War fame.  Until eighteen years of age, Hoyt's time was divided between school and the printing office.  In the spring of 1848 he came to Fort Des Moines, Iowa, then far out on the western frontier.  In 1849 he was admitted to the bar and began to practice law, and also engaged in real estate business.  In March of that year he was appointed by President Taylor postmaster of Des Moines, holding that position until the inauguration of President Pierce, when he resigned and was elected clerk of the District Court.  In 1854 he was the senior member of the baking house of Hoyt Sherman & Co., and upon the establishment of the State Bank of Iowa he became cashier of the Des Moines branch and was one of the directors on part of the State to supervise the system and guard the public interests.  When the Civil War began Mr. Sherman was appointed by President Lincoln paymaster in the Union army with the rank of major, holding the position for three years.  He was one of the organizers of the Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa and for many years its general manager.  That institution owes much of its stabililty and high standing to the fine executive ability and unquestioned integrity of Major Sherman.  In 1866, Major Sherman was a member of the House of the Eleventh General Assembly where he was chairman of the committee on railroads and a member of the committee of ways and means.  In 1886 he was one of the founders of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association and has always been one of its most influential members, serving as president  and long a member of the executive committee.  He has contributed valuable historical articles to the Annals of Iowa on "Early Banking in Iowa," and on the "State Bank of Iowa."  For many years he was the executive officer of the Associated Charities of Des Moines.

JOHN C. SHERWIN was born at berlin, Erie County, Ohio, February 6, 1851.  His early education was acquired in the public schools and later he attended Ripon and Beloit colleges in Wisconsin.  After leaving college he entered the Madison Law School from which he graduated in 1875.  He removed to Mason City, Iowa, in 1876, where he entered upon the practice of his profession.  He was mayor of that city in 1884-5, and the latter year was elected District Attorney of the Twelfth Judicial District.  In September, 1888, he was appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy as judge of the District Court and was continuously reelected, serving until 1900 when he became a judge of the Supreme Court, having been elected on the Republican ticket.

JAMES H. SHIELDS was born near Bowling Green, Missouri, May 8, 1842, and soon after his parents removed to Dubuque, Iowa, where his early education was acquired,  He was sent to Union College, New York, where he graduated in the class of 1862.  Returning to Dubuque he studied law, was admitted to the bar and followed that profession for thirty-nine years.  He was elected on the Democratic ticket District Attorney for the Ninth Judicial District in 1883, serving four years.  In 1889 he was elected to the State Senate, serving in the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth General Assemblies.  He was a delegate at large and chairman of the Iowa delegation to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1892.  He has been for some time president of the Dubuque Business Men's League, an organization composed of jobbers, manufacturers, real estate owners and capitalists of Dubuque.

JOHN G. SHIELDS was born on the 22d of May, 1811, in Grayson County, Kentucky.  He was one of the earliest settlers in the "Black Hawk Purchase," long before it was organized into Iowa Territory.  In 1835 he went to the Dubuque lead mines and established a store which for more than twenty years furnished goods for the early settlers in the lumber regions of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  He was several terms alderman of the city of Dubuque and served as mayor in 1855-6.  Mr. Shields was elected on the Democratic ticket to the State Senate in the summer of 1848 and was repeatedly reelected, serving continuously for eight years.  His district embraced thirteen counties a portion of the time.  He was a practical legislator and took an active part in formulating the early laws of Iowa.  In 1851 he was appointed senior Major-General of the State Militia by Governor Hempstead and organized the troops to repel the Clear Lake invasion of 1854.  General Shields, with Jesse P. Farley organized the first Dubuque steamboat line in 1850 long before any railroads were built in Iowa.  He was a lifelong Democrat and was one of the honored and highly esteemed pioneers of Dubuque.  He died on the 25th of June, 1856.

OLIVER P. SHIRAS, jurist, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in Pittsburg, October 22, 1833.  He graduated from the Ohio University in 1853 and took a three years' course at Yale, graduating in the Law Department and in 1856 was admitted to the bar.  He came to Iowa the same year, locating at Dubuque, where he became a member of the law firm of Bissell, Wells and Shiras.  In 1862 Mr. Shiras joined the Union army as quartermaster of the Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry, serving until November, 1864.  He resumed the practice of law in Dubuque and in 1882 was appointed by the President Judge of the United States District Court for Northern Iowa.  Judge Shiras has long been deeply interested in education and literary affairs, having served many years as president of the Literary Association of Dubuque.  As a lawyer and judge he ranks among the ablest in the State.

CHRISTIAN W. SLAGLE was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, November 17, 1821, and graduated from Washington College in 1840.  He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1843.  Coming to Iowa the same year, he located at Fairfield which became his permanent home.  Here he engaged in the practice of his profession.  In 1848 he was one of the active promoters of Congressional grants of public lands for aiding in the construction of railroads in Iowa.  He was one of the founders of the Jefferson County Agricultural Society and also of the State Agricultural Society.  He was an untiring worker in the establishment and development of the public library and museum of Fairfield and one of the first trustees of the institution.  To him is due the preservation of the recollections of pioneers of that section of the State in a County History.  Mr. Slagle took a deep interest in the development of the State University of Iowa, serving as one of the regents from 1866 to 1882, and acting president of the University in 1877-8.  His death occurred in Fairfield October 3, 1882.

ROBERT SLOAN is a native of Ohio, where he was born October 21, 1835.  At eighteen years of age he came to Iowa with his parents, having been reared on a far.  His educational advantages were meager, being confined to the district schools and one year in the New Lisbon High School.  After coming to Iowa he taught school until 1860 when he entered the law office of Judge George G. Wright at Keosauqua.  So rapidly did he advance in his studies that he was admitted to the bar the following year.  Mr. Sloan was in 1868 chosen Judge of the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District, serving twelve years.  In 1894 he was elected Judge of the District Court, and has been repeatedly reelected, still holding that position.

HIRAM Y. SMITH was born in Piqua, Ohio, March 22, 1843.  He received a liberal education, graduating at the Law School of Albany.  He located in Des Moines, was admitted to the bar and began practice in 1866.  He was elected on the Republican ticket District Attorney for the Fifth Judicial District in 1874, serving four years.  In 1881 he was elected to the State Senate, serving in the Nineteenth and Twentieth General Assemblies.  He was elected to Congress in the Seventh District in 1886 to fill a vacancy.  He died on the 4th of November, 1895.

LEWIS H. SMITH, one of the pioneers of northwestern Iowa, was born at West Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 21, 1835, and received his education in the public schools of his native place.  He came west in 1853, and was employed in the survey of the line of the Rock Island Railroad through Iowa until 1855, when he engaged in school teaching.  When C. C. Carpenter was employed in surveying public lands in Kossuth County, Mr. Smith was ne of his party.  He remained at Algona and surveyed and platted that town.  In 1857 he was a volunteer in a company raised to protect that part of the State against the hostile Sioux Indians.  As a surveyor he platted the town of Esterville, the county-seat of Emmet County; and in 1857 was elected county judge of Kossuth, serving most of the time until the office was abolished.  In 1861 Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar, and in the following year was appointed quartermaster of the Northern Border Brigade which was organized to guard the settlers from attacks from the Sioux Indians.  he was a member of the Republican State Central Committee in 1858-60 and secretary of the State Convention.  Mr. Smith was enrolling and reading clerk of the House of Representatives in 1860-1.  For twelve years he served as trustee of the Hospital for Insane at Independence and during eight years was president of the board.

MILO SMITH was born in the State of Vermont about the year 1819.  He came to Iowa taking up his residence at Clinton.  The Twenty-sixth Regiment of Iowa Volunteers was raised in Clinton County in the summer of 1862.  Milo Smith was appointed colonel and remained in command until near the close of the war, making an excellent officer.  He resigned the command in January, 1865, and returned to private life and was soon after appointed General Superintendent of the Des Moines Valley Railroad which position he held many years.

RODERICK A. SMITH, one of the early settlers of northwestern Iowa, was born in the State of New York, October 13, 1831, and came to Iowa in 1856.  In 1857 he was a volunteer in the Spirit Lake Relief expedition under Major Williams which marched to the scene of the massacre by the Sioux Indians.  He made his home at Spirit Lake soon after the massacre and in 1867 was elected to the House of the Twelfth General Assembly from the district composed of the counties of Dickinson, Emmet, Clay and Palo Alto.  He has long been a member of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association of Iowa, and in 1898 read before teh Association a valuable historical article on the "Iowa Frontier During the War of the Rebellion."   In 1894 he was appointed by the Governor a member of the State Commission to superintend the erection of a monument to the memory of teh victims of the Spirit Lake massacre and the Relief Expedition under Major Williams.  To Mr. Smith was assigned the duty of grading the ground, superintending the construction of the monument and reinterring the remains of the victims of the massacre.  Mr. Smith is the author of a very complete "History of Dickinson County" which is a valuable contribution to the historical record of northwestern Iowa.

WALTER I. SMITH is a native of Council Bluffs, where he was born July 10, 1862.  He received a public school education, taught school and studied law in the office of D. B. Dailey.  In December, 1882, he was admitted to the bar.  He was elected on the Republican ticket in 1890 judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District, which position he held by reelections until September, 1900, when he resigned, having been nominated by the Republicans of the Ninth Congressional District for Representative in Congress to fill a vacancy.  He was elected, serving in the Fifty-sixth Congress, was reelected to the Fifty-seventh, where he was a member of the special committee to investigate "hazing" at the West Point Military Academy.  Mr. Smith was a member of the committee on banking and currency, and also on elections.  He was reelected to the Fifty-eighth Congress; and in 1902 presided over the Republican State Convention at Des Moines where he made the opening address which sounded the keynote of the campaign.

WILLIAM R. SMITH was born in Ocean County, New Jersey, December 30, 1828.  His boyhood days were spent on a farm and in the winter he attended the public school.  In 1845 the family removed to Michigan where the son taught several winters.  He had decided to study medicine and when about twenty-one went to New York City and attended lectures.  In 1856 he removed to Iowa, locating in the frontier town of Sioux City.  Northwestern Iowa, Dakota and northern Nebraska were at that time almost entirely unsettled.  Sioux City was but a little village remote from railroad and reached only by a semi-weekly stage line from Dubuque.  In the spring of 1861, when the Sioux Indians were threatening the frontier settlements of Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota and Nebraska military companies were organized for protection and Dr. Smith was chosen a lieutenant in one consisting of mounted riflemen, in which he served until relieved by the arrival of United States troops.  He was appointed Government surgeon and was sent on a sanitary tour of inspection among the Iowa regiments serving in the Vicksburg campaign.  In 1863 he was appointed surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for  the Sixth Congressional District and served through the draft of 1864, being stationed at Fort Dodge.  He served as mayor of Sioux City, was one of the incorporators of the First National Bank, also of the Sioux City & St. Paul and other railroad companies.  In 1878 he was appointed by Governor Gear one of the Commissioners to the Paris Exposition.  He was a member of the Cobden Club of England and deeply interested in tariff reform.  Dr. Smith was one of the founders of the First Unitarian Church of Sioux City and an active member of the Iowa and Western Conferences of that denomination.  In politics he was an independent Republican of the George William Curtis stamp and always acted up to his convictions of right, regardless of party platforms.  he served for thirteen years as Receiver of the United States Land Office at Sioux City and as such had the custody of millions of dollars of the public money during the sales of public lands.

ROBERT SMYTH, one of the pioneers of Linn County, was born in Ireland, February 26, 1814.  He came to America in 1834 and located in Linn County, Iowa, in 1840.  Here he became an extensive dealer in real estate and afterwards engaged in banking.  He was a member of the Sixth Territorial Legislature in 184304 and of the State Legislature in 1846-8.  Mr. Smyth was again a member in 1868, serving four years in the Senate.  In 1884 he served in the House of the Twentieth General Assembly forty years after he first became an Iowa lawmaker.  Colonel Smyth was one of the paymasters of the United States army for several years, disbursing more than $10,000,000 during his term.  He died at Mount Vernon April 3, 1898.

WILLIAM SMYTH was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, January 3, 1824.  He came with his parents to America when about fifteen years of age and in 1840 located in Linn County, Iowa.  Mr. Smyth studied law at Iowa City and in 1848 opened a law office in Marion.  In 1853 he was appointed judge of the Fourth Judicial District, serving until 1857.  In 1858 he was chosen by the Seventh General Assembly one of three commissioners to revise and edify the laws of the State.  Their work was accepted by the Legislature and became the Code in 1860.  Judge Smyth was then appointed on the Commission to Legal Inquiry.  In 1861 he was one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate the bonds issued by the State to provide a war defense fund.  In August, 1862, he was commissioned colonel of the Thirty-first Iowa Infantry and served in the field until December, 1864, when he resigned on account of failing health.  In 1868 he was elected to Congress and served until his death in 1870.

FRANCIS SPRINGER was born in the State of Maine, April 15, 1811.  He worked on a farm in boyhood and attended district school during the winter months.  When eighteen years of age he began to teach at ten dollars a month.  In 1833 he studied law and five years later went to the far west, locating at the new town of Wapello, in Louisa County, Iowa.  He was the first lawyer in the new county and in 1840 was elected on the Whig ticket to represent Louisa and Washington counties in the Council of the Legislative Assembly, where he served four years.  Upon the admission of Iowa as a State, in 1846, Mr. Springer was elected to the Senate of the First General Assembly where he served four years.  In 1849-50 he was a special agent of the Post-Office Department and in 1851 was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Fairfield.  In 1854 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney and in 1855 was chosen District Judge.  In 1856 he was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President.  In 1857 Judge Springer was a member of the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State and was the permanent president of that body.  He was again elected District Judge in 1858, serving until 1869, when he resigned to accept the position of Collector of Internal Revenue.  In 1882, on the 19th of January, a reunion of the surviving member of the Constitutional Convention of 1857 was held at Des Moines, at which Judge Springer presided.  It was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Convention which framed the Constitution and Judge Springer delivered an address of great historic interest.  He died on the 2d of October, 1898.

FRANK SPRINGER is the son of Judge Francis Springer and was born at Wapello, Iowa, June 17, 1848.  He graduated from the State University in 1867 and immediately began the study of law at Burlington.  The following year he matriculated with the senior class at the State University and was admitted to the bar in 1869.  He entered upon the practice of law in Burlington and was soon appointed Special Prosecuting Attorney.  In 1873 Mr. Springer removed to New Mexico where he was employed as attorney for the famous Maxwell Land Grant Company which brought him into prominence before the United States Supreme Court.  In 1883 he became a resident of Las Vegas where he has since resided.  He was chosen president of the Maxwell Land Company in 1891 and has been counsel for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company since 1878.  Mr. Springer served several terms in the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico and was a member of the Constitutional; Convention in 1889.  In the same year he was elected president of the Bar Association of New Mexico.  In 1902 he was a member of the New Mexico Irrigation Commission and president of the Board of Regents of the Normal University.  From early youth Mr. Springer took a deep interest in natural science, and while at the University gave special attention to geology.  At Burlington he became acquainted with Professor Wachsmuth and was associated with him in his studies and publications on crinoids.  He was also author of the "Revision of the Palaeocrinoidea," published by the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences.  He and Professor Wachsmuth consolidated their collections and libraries, added much by exchanges and erected a fire-prof building at Burlington where the wonderful collection is housed.  The principal scientific writings of Mr. Springer are in collaboration with Professor Wachsmuth.  He is working upon a continuation of the "Monograph of North American Crinoids," the first three volumes of which appeared in 1896, with Professor Wachsmuth as joint author.  This is the most important scientific work ever produced in the State.

EDGAR W. STANTON was born in Waymast, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1850.  His education was begun in the public schools of his native town and continued at waymast Normal School and Delaware Literary Institute at Franklin, New York.  In 1870 he came to Iowa, entering the State Agricultural College, where he graduated in 1872.  The following year he was appointed instructor in mathematics and in 1877 became full professor in that department, continuing in that capacity until the death of President Beardshear.  In 1902 when he was appointed acting president of the college.  Professor Stanton became secretary of the Board of Trustees in 1873 and retained that office until he became acting president.  For over thirty years Professor Stanton has been intimately associated with the financial and general business management of the college with its large endowment arising from the Government land grant and it may be truly said that to his fidelity, unusual business capacity and intimate knowledge of the aims of the College, the institution is more largely indebted for its remarkable development and general prosperity, than to any other man now living.  His management of the business intrusted to his supervision has received the unreserved approval of successive boards of trustees, and as an instructor in his department he had been remarkably successful.  He is the author of "Stanton's Algebra."

THADDEUS H. STANTON was born in the State of Indiana in 1835.  He came to Iowa in 1851m taking up his residence at Mount Pleasant where he became editor of an antislavery paper.  Later he removed to Washington in this Stat and was for several years editor of the Washington Press, a Republican paper.  He was correspondent of the New York Herald at the beginning of the Rebellion but enlisted and served three months.  In October, 1861, he was elected to the House of the Ninth General Assembly and served through the regular and extra sessions.    After the close of his term he reentered the military service and at the close of the war was appointed paymaster with the rank of major in the regular army.  He held this position for twenty years and was successively promoted, reaching the rank of Brigadier-General.  at the close of the Spanish war he retired from active service.

JOHN L. STEVENS was born in Northfield, Vermont, on the 29th of May, 1850.  He attended the common schools several years and in 1863 came to Iowa, making his home at Cedar Rapids.  He entered the Iowa State College where he graduated as a civil engineer in 1872.  Soon after he entered upon the study of law and began to practice in 1874, locating in Boone.  In politics he was a Republican, and in 1879 was elected District Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial District, serving until 1886, when he was elected judge, holding that position until 1893.  He was for several years one of the commissioners appointed by the President to adjust the long pending claims of the settlers on the Des Moines River lands.

EDWARD H. STILES was born in Granby, Connecticut, October 8, 1836.  He received a liberal education in the New England schools, studied law and removed to Iowa in 1856, locating at Ottumwa, where the following year he began the practice of his profession. In 1859 he was chosen city attorney and in 1861 county attorney.  In 1863 he was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in the House of the Tenth General Assembly.  At the close of the term he was elected to the State Senate.  In 1867 he was chosen reporter of the Supreme Court, a position he held for eight years.  During his term of service he edited, compiled and published fifteen volumes known as "Stiles' Iowa Reports" which rank high among the law reports of the country.  He also prepared and published four volumes of digests of the decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court from the time of its Territorial organization down to the close of volume fifty-eight of the Iowa Reports.  In 1881 he began to collect the material for a "History of the Early Bench and Bar of Iowa."  In 1883 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Sixth District but by a fusion of the Democratic and Greenback parties in support of General J. B. Weaver, Mr. Stiles was defeated.  In 1886 he removed to Kansas City, where he ranked high at the bar, having served as Circuit Judge and Master in Chancery of the United States Circuit Court.

LACON D. STOCKTON located in Burlington, Iowa, in 1836.  He entered upon the practice of law and became one of the leading members of the bar.  In politics he was a Whig  but took no active part in public affairs, confining himself strictly to the duties of his profession.  He was a personal friend of James W. Grimes and after the resignation of Judge Isbell from the supreme bench, Governor Grimes on the 17th of May, 1856, appointed Mr. Stockton to fill the vacancy.  In January, 1857, he was elected by the General Assembly.  Under the new Constitution the judges were to be elected by the people.  Judge Stockton was nominated by the Republicans and elected for a full term of six years, in October 1859, but died on the 9th of June, 1860.

GEORGE A. STONE was born in Schoharie, New York, on the 13th of October, 1833, and came to Iowa with his father in 1839, locating in Washington County.  After completing his studies at Mount Pleasant the son procured a position in a bank in that place, serving as cashier until the beginning of the Rebellion.  Early in the spring of 1861 he assisted in raising Company F, First Iowa Volunteers, and was chosen first lieutenant.  He took part in the Battle of Wilson's Creek and served in Missouri until the three months' regiment was mustered out.  In October he was commissioned major of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry and in August, 1862, was appointed colonel of the Twenty-fifth Iowa Infantry.  He served through the war with that regiment participating in the Battle of Arkansas Post, in the Vickburg campaign, the battles about Chattanooga and in Sherman's march to the sea.  At the close of the war he was brevetted Brigadier-General.  Upon his return to Mount Pleasant he again engaged in banking.  In 1884 General Stone was appointed National Bank Examiner which position he held at the time of his death, which occurred on the 28th of May, 1901.

JOHN Y. STONE was born near Springfield, Illinois, on the 23d of April, 1843, and came with his parents to Iowa in 1856.  He received a liberal education and at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion enlisted in the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry and served until peace was restored.  He then returned to Glenwood and studied law with William Hale, afterwards entering into partnership with him.  Mr. Stone was elected Representative in the House of the Twelfth and Thirteenth General Assemblies and to the Senate of the Fourteenth, serving four years in each branch.  In 1875 he was again elected to the House, serving four years more, the last term as Speaker.  He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1876 and a member of the National Republican Committee from 1876 to 1880.  He was again a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1884.  In 1888 he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Attorney-General and elected, serving three terms.  During his busy life in law in law and politics, General Stone has found time to engage largely in fruit growing.  He began many years ago to plant apple trees in Mills County and continued until over eight hundred acres were in orchard, upon which were growing more than 100,000 bearing apple trees. He also planted a vineyard of more than 75,000 grape vines; these with his apple orchard made the largest fruit plantation in the State.

JOSEPH C. STONE was born in Westport, New York, July 30, 1829.  He came with his father to the Territory of Iowa in 1844, attended the public schools and later studied medicine, graduating at the Medical Department of the St. Louis University in 1854.  He enlisted as a private in the First Iowa Cavalry in June, 1861, and was successively promoted to adjutant of the regiment, captain and assistant adjutant-general of volunteers.  He served in the close of the war and returned to the practice of medicine.  In 1876 he was elected to Congress from the First District on the Republican ticket, serving but one term.

WILLIAM M. STONE, sixth Governor of Iowa, was born in Jefferson County, New York, October 14, 1827.  In 1834 his parents removed to Coshocton, Ohio, and for two seasons he drove horses on the canal and when seventeen was apprenticed to a chairmaker.  At twenty-one he began to read law and in 1851 was admitted to the bar.  In 1854 he emigrated in Knoxville, Iowa, and began practice.  He purchased the Knoxville Journal and took editorial charge of it.  Mr. Stone was delegate to the convention which organized the Republican party and was nominated for presidential elector in the Fremont campaign of that year.  He was an eloquent public speaker and won wide reputation.  In April, 1857, he was elected judge of the Eleventh District.  When the Civil War began he raised a company for the Third Infantry and was commissioned major of the regiment.  He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Shiloh and after his release was appointed colonel of the Twenty-second Infantry.  He resigned in August, 1863, having been nominated for Governor by the Republican State Convention.  He at once entered upon the campaign and was elected over Colonel James M. Tuttle the Democratic candidate, by more than 38,000 majority.  He was reelected by a reduced majority and during his term his private secretary in the absence of the Governor appropriated to his own use funds belonging to various counties of the State.  An investigation by the General Assembly exonerated the Governor from any knowledge of or participation in the transactions.  In 1877 Governor Stone was elected to the House of the Seventeenth General Assembly.  In 1888 he was chosen one of the presidential electors and upon the accession of President Harrison he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of the Land Office at Washington and later was promoted to Commissioner.  Governor Stone died in Oklahoma Territory, July 18, 1893.

HENRY L. STOUT was born in Hunterdon, County, New Jersey, October 23, 1814.  He was reared on a farm and his education acquired in the public schools.  In 1836, before Iowa became a Territory, he located in Dubuque and for half a century was closely identified with the business interests and growth of that city.  He built up one of the largest lumber establishments of the country, the business growing to an estimated value of $4,000,000.  The yards and mills were located in Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, having an annual output of more than 125,000,000 feet.  Mr. Stout has long been largely interested in the breeding and raising of trotting horses and his name is known throughout the country as the owner of "Nutwood," who became the king of trotting sires, leading all sires of his age in both first and second generation.  Mr. Stout died in Dubuque, July 17, 1900.

JOSEPH M. STREET was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, December 15, 1782.  He went to Kentucky, studied law with Henry Clay and practiced a few years.  Later he was editor of the Western World, published at Frankfort, which became famous for exposing the conspiracy of Aaron Burr to dismember the Union.  Street was repeatedly assailed by the friends of  Burr and at one time severely wounded.  he lived for several years at Shawneetown, Illinois, where he held various offices.  In 1827 he was appointed by President Adams agent at Prairie du Chien for the Winnebago Indians.  During his long service in that position he established schools and instructed them in farming.  He protected them from plundering traders and acquired great influence with that tribe.  During the Black Hawk war he removed the Winnebagos out of reach of the influence of the Sac chief with whom they sympathized.  He was instrumental in securing the surrender of Black Hawk and fifty members of his band who escaped from the massacre of Bad Ax, to General Taylor at Fort Crawford, and was also instrumental in procuring the removal of the Winnebagoes from Wisconsin to northern Iowa upon lands they had accepted to exchange.  In 1835 General Street was transferred to Rock Island as agent for the Sac and Fox Indians.  In 1838 he selected the site for the new agency of the Sac and Foxes on the Des Moines River which became known as Agency City, which was in Wapello County, near where Ottumwa stands.  Here General Street died May 5, 1840, and was buried near the grave of the chief Wapello.

GEORGE R. STRUBLE was born in Sussex County, New York, July 25, 1836.  He became a resident of Ohio at an early age where he attended the common schools and the Academy at Chesterville.  He removed to Iowa City in 1856, studied law and was admitted to the bar.  In 1857 he removed to Toledo in Tama County, where he began the practice of his profession.  He served several years as circuit judge in the Eighth Judicial District.  In 1870 he was elected Representative in the Eighteenth General Assembly and at the close of the term was reelected.  He received the nomination of the Republicans and was chosen Speaker of the House of Nineteenth General Assembly.  In 1890 Judge Struble was the Republican candidate for Representative in Congress from the Fifth District; but that year the Democrats for the first time since 1853 elected a majority of the Representatives in Congress from Iowa, and Judge Struble was one of the Republicans defeated.

ISAAC S. STRUBLE was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the 3d of November, 1843.  He received a common school education and attended the State University after removing to Iowa.  He enlisted in Company F, of the Twenty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry when eighteen years of age and was wounded at the Battle of Cedar Creek in October, 1864.  Mr. Struble studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1870.  In 1872 he took up his residence at Le Mars in Plymouth County and entered upon the practice of his profession.  In 1882 he received the Republican nomination for Representative in Congress in the Eleventh District and was elected.  He was three times reelected, serving eight years.

DANIEL P. STUBBS was born in Preble County, Ohio, July 7, 1829.  He was reared on a farm where he aided his father and attended the district school, with a few months' instruction at Union County Academy, Indiana.  He began teaching in the public schools in 1853 and in 1854 and the following year he was principal of the academy he had formerly attended.  During this time he was reading law and later took the law course in Asbury University where he graduated in 1856.  Entering upon the practice of his profession he also had editorial charge of the Union  County Herald.  In 1857 he came to Iowa, locating at Fairfield which has since been his home.  In 1863 he was elected to the State Senate and served in the Tenth and Eleventh General Assemblies, being on the standing committee on Federal relations, railroads, charitable institutions and during his entire term serving on the judiciary committee.  In 1866 he was elected president pro tem. of the Senate.  He was the author of the following joint resolution which passed the General Assembly in 1864:

Section I-Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section II-Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Mr. Stubbs was originally a Liberty party man, but after 1856 acted with the Republicans.  He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864 which nominated Abraham Lincoln for reelection and served on the National Executive Committee for four years.  He later joined the Greenback party and was the candidate for Governor in 1877.

SAMUEL W. SUMMERS was born in Virginia, in 1820, and in 1842 removed to Iowa, locating in Van Buren County.  He had studied law and was admitted to the bar but had a hard struggle to make a living at his profession at that early day when there was little business and less money.  He finally removed to Ottumwa where he was more successful.  In January, 1963, he was appointed colonel of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry which was sent west to operate against the Indians.  His headquarters were most of the time at Omaha and his regiment did not have an opportunity to see much hard fighting and was mustered out in 1865.

ADELINE M. SWAIN was born in Bath, in the State of New Hampshire, May 25, 1820.  She acquired an unusually good education and was for many years a teacher of languages in seminaries in Vermont, Ohio and New York.  In 1846 she married James Swain and in 1858 they removed to Iowa, locating at Fort Dodge, where Mrs. Swain organized a class of young ladies, giving them instruction in higher English, French, drawing and oil-painting.  She also organized a class in botany which studied the flora of northwestern Iowa.  Mrs. Swain was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was the first woman to prepare and read a paper before that body at its meeting in Iowa.  She was also an active member of the State Historical Society and a contributor to its collections.  She was a valued correspondent of the Entomological Commission appointed to investigate the habits of the Colorado grasshoppers.  Mrs. Swain took a deep interest in public affairs and was an active and influential worker in the National Woman's Congress, in the State and National Woman Suffrage Associations and was for several years one of the editors of the Woman's Tribune.  At the meeting of the National Suffrage Association at Atlanta, Georgia, she was elected honorary vice-president for life, in recognition of her forty years' work in the cause.  In 1883 Mrs. Swain was nominated by the Greenback State Convention of iowa for Superintendent of Public Instruction, being the first woman nominated for a State office in Iowa.  In 1884 she was chosen a delegate from Iowa to the National Convention of that party held at Indianapolis to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President.  Mrs. Swain's mature life was largely devoted to educational and reform work in which she long ranked among the ablest in the State.  She died at Odin, Illinois, on the 3d of February, 1899.

ALBERT W. SWALM was born at Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pennsylvania, on the 30th of November, 1845.  In 1855 he came to Iowa and learned the printing business at Oskaloosa.  When the Civil War began he enlisted but was rejected on account of his youth.  Later he joined Company D, Thirty-third Iowa Infantry and served through the war as a private.  Just before the Rebellion ended he was recommended for promotion.  Upon his return home he was employed on the State Register and was soon promoted to city editor.  In January, 1870, he became the editor of the Grand Junction Headlight.  A few years later he removed to Jefferson and took editorial charge of the Jefferson Bee.  In 1873 he, with his wife, purchased the Fort Dodge Messenger, removed to that city and published that paper.  Selling that establishment after a few years he returned to Oskaloosa and bought the Herald establishment.  Here he held many official positions, among which were postmaster, four years; Indian Land Commissioner, member of the State Prison Commission, of the Republican State Committee, Regent of the State University from 1885 to 1897, and for thirteen years an officer in the Iowa National Guards, attaining the rank of colonel.  He was for some years on the Governor's staff.  In 1897 he was appointed Consul to Montevideo, in Uruguay, South America, by President McKinley.  In March, 1903, Colonel Swain was by order of the President  transferred to Southampton, England.

PAULINE G. SWALM was born at Dahonega, Wapello County, Iowa, on the 7th of October, 1850.  She prepared for college in the public and private schools and graduated from Iowa College at Grinnell.  Miss Given was an accomplished writer and in 1871 became associate editor of the Iowa State Register.  In October, 1872, she was united in marriage with Albert W. Swalm.  In 1874 she was associated with her husband in the publication and editorial management of the Fort Dodge Messenger.  Some years later they removed to Oskaloosa and purchased the Herald, where for many years they gave their time to the editorial and business management of that journal.  They soon established a daily edition which became one of the most influential Republican journals in the State.  During all of this time Mrs. Swalm was a contributor to leading political papers and magazines.  She was an accomplished public speaker and was often invited to deliver lectures.  She accompanied her husband to Montevideo, where she has been a close observer of South American people and countries, which will be the subject for a book from her pen.

JOSEPH H. SWENEY was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of October, 1845.  He came to Iowa when a young man and graduated from the regular as well as the law course of the State University.  Mr. Sweney has been engaged in farming and banking but gives most of his attention to law.  In the War of the Rebellion he served three years in Company K, Twenty-seventh Volunteer Infantry.  After the war he was for four years colonel of the Sixth Regiment of the National Guards and was promoted to Brigadier, and Inspector-General of the State.  In 1883 he was elected on the Republican ticket State Senator for the Forty-first District, composed of the counties of Howard, Mitchell and Worth.  He was in 1886 elected president pro tem. of the Senate.  Mr. Sweney was reelected to the Senate at the close of his first term, serving eight years, most of the time being on the judiciary, railroad and military committees.  In 1888 he was elected to Congress in the Fourth District, serving one term.  He was nominated by the Republicans in 1890 but was defeated at the election by the Democratic candidate.

RICHARD H. SYLVESTER was one of the pioneer journalists of Iowa.  He was born in Charlestown, New Hampshire, and attended school at Exeter Academy, taking a course at Yale College and graduating at the Law School of Ann Arbor.  In 1854 he came to Iowa and continued he law studies with Judge James Grant and John F. Dillon at Davenport.  In 1855 he went to Iowa City and reported the proceedings of the General Assembly.  Later he established the Iowa City State Reporter, a Democratic paper.  He was chosen superintendent of schools in Johnson County and founded the Iowa State Press, after conducting it several years sold it to John P. Irish.  During the Civil War he was a war correspondent of the New York World.  In 1862 he was nominated by the Democratic party for Secretary of State but was not elected.  He went south and was for some time editor of the Memphis Argus, and secretary of the Howard Association.  He located in St. Louis where he was managing editor of the Daily Times.  In 1880 he removed to Washington D. C., where he was associated with Frank Hatton on the Washington Post as managing editor until he died in 1896.  Mr. Sylvester was an able and graceful writer, spending nearly all of his mature life in journalism.  His eulogy on Governor Kirkwood was one of the finest productions of the time.  He was the originator of the Memorial Bridge project over the Potomac to commemorate the war and link the North with the South.

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