Lee County Genealogy
Deaths

Notable Deaths _ June 2009
 

WILLIAM L. DISTIN was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 9, 1S43; he died at Chicago, November 20, 1914. He removed to Keokuk, Iowa, in 1857 and was connected with the Des Moines Valley Railroad until 1863. On February 3, 1864, he enlisted in Company C, Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was taken prisoner in October, 1864, and confined in Andersonville prison for six months. After the war he returned to Keokuk and was employed in the railroad and express business for a year or more. He located in Quiney, Illinois, and founded a produce house, which afterwards became known as the W. L. Distin Produce Company. In 1897 he received from President McKinley the appointment of surveyor general of Alaska. His work was so efficiently done that he continued in that capacity through succeeding administrations until his resignation in 1913. Colonel Distin was one of the early members of the Illinois National Guard and at one time department commander of the Illinois Division, G. A. R.
~Notable Deaths"Annals of Iowa. Vol. XII. Series 80. Pp. 79-80. Iowa Historical Society. Des Moines. April, 1915.


GEORGE F. JENKINS was born in Clark county, Missouri, July 15, 1842; he died at Keokuk, Iowa, September 4, 1914. He attended the public schools of Clark county and the high school at Alexandria. After a course in a commercial college at St. Louis and a visit to the East, he crossed the plains to California and took up the study of medicine in 1865 in the Toland Medical College, San Francisco, which later became the medical department of the University of California. After finishing the course there he returned to St. Louis and graduated from the Missouri Medical College in 1867. After three years' practice in Sandusky, Iowa, he located in Keokuk, and continued in the general practice of medicine and surgery from that time until shortly before his death. From 1879 to 1890 he filled a chair in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Keokuk and was also president of the faculty. In 1890 he assisted in the organization of the Keokuk Medical College, was elected president and retained connection with that institution until 1900, when upon its consolidation with
the College of Physicians and Surgeons he became president and professor and dean of the faculty. He was one of the founders and promoters of St. Joseph's Hospital, Keokuk, and gave close study to sanitation in the city. He acted as medical examiner for a number of the leading insurance companies for many years and was a member of various county, city and national medical associations, contributing valuable articles to the leading medical journals of the day. The honorary degree of master of arts was conferred upon him by Parsons College in 1884.
~Notable Deaths" Annals of Iowa. Vol. XI, No. 1, 3rd Series. p. 631. Historical Society of Iowa. Des Moines. April, 1913.


LOREN S. TYLER  was born in Boston, Mass., April 21, 1845; he died in Los Angeles, California, October 13, 1914. He removed to Keokuk in 1856. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as drummer boy in Company H, Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out at Vicksburg, December 31, 1863. He re- enlisted as veteran In Company H, Fifteenth Veteran Infantry, and participated in all the battles In which his regiment engaged. He was mustered out on July 24, 1865. He returned to Keokuk and engaged with his father In the furniture business. In 1875 be engaged in the auction and commission business with L L. Brown, under the firm name of Brown & Tyler. In 1872 he was mustered Into Torrence Post, No. 2, G. A. R., and held various offices in that organization. He served as assistant adjutant general of the Department of Iowa, G. A. R.; as adjutant and commander, with rank of first lieutenant, of the Second regiment of Infantry, Iowa State Guards, and in 1878 was appointed major and assistant inspector general of the First Brigade, First Division of the Iowa State Guard. He was active and popular in Grand Army circles and state military organizations. For a number of years he had spent the winters in California, but continued to call Keokuk his home. A collection of photographs and negatives of every citizen of Iowa who attained the rank of lieutenant colonel or higher rank, in full rank or by brevet, or of captain of a battery of light artillery, in his service in the War of the Rebellion, was gathered and arranged by Major Tyler, and is now in the possession of the Historical Department, known as the Loren S. Tyler collection. His immense correspondence and all his souvenirs and mementos became the property of the Historical Department of Iowa upon his death.
~Notable Deaths" Annals of Iowa. Vol. XII. Series 80. Pp. 75-76. Iowa Historical Society. Des Moines. April, 1915.

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