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Linn County History
1889
Cedar Rapids City Officers
| Mayor
P. Mullally was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. His parents crossed
the ocean when he was too young to remember anything about the voyage
or the old homestead in Ireland. Locating in New York, he spent his
boyhood days mostly there, and then went to Boston where he grew up
into manhood. He came west in 1857 and has lived all of that time in
Iowa, the first eleven years in Dubuque city and county and the last
twenty-one years in Cedar Rapids. Mr. Mullally received a liberal
education in New York and Boston and in the latter city also pursued an
academic course of study. He commenced his career as a contractor and
builder when nineteen years of age and followed that avocation with
most g ratifying success and prosperity. In Cedar Rapids many of the
prominent buildings, such as the Grand Hotel and the Waterhouse blocks
and many others, attest to the excellence of his work in this respect.
Mr. Mullally has been always closely identified with the best interest
of the city and has had its welfare on his heart ever since his coming
here. He has never sought to demonstrate this interest in a political way, always studiously avoiding politics whenever he could. But as president of the board of trade, always with |  | | it from the inception to its dissolution, and in many similar ways he has always pushed forward Cedar Rapids
and Cedar rapids interests. He has served in the city council first
by appointment and then by election, and has the lasting gratitude of
the city for his arduous labors and vigilance as sewerage commissioner.
A year ago, the citizens wished to show their appreciation of this work
and unanimously elected him mayor, an office which he has in every way
filled with great credit to himself and with entire satisfaction to his
friends. One of the staunchest republicans in the old council only
yesterday said that the city council last year was the most unanimous
and unruffled of any since he has sat in its deliberations and
attributed it to the fact of the fairness with which the mayor treated
the members of opposite political faith. While a democrat he is
unpartisan and always looks to the interest of the city in preference
to party or personal friendships. He has been one of our best mayors
and the coming year we predict he will be a most useful and able factor
in the prosperity of the city. | | John
T. Stoneman, Judge of the Superior Court, was born February 24th, 1832,
at Chautauqua, New York, and worked during boyhood on the paternal
farm. He was afterwards a steamboat engineer on Chautauqua Lake. He
went to Kentucky in 1851 and engaged in teaching school and entered
Williams College in 1852, and graduated in 1856, in the same class as
the late President Garfield. Whilst working on the farm, as whilst
teaching school, he applied himself to the study of the law, and during
his college course spent his vacations attending lectures at the law
school at Albany, N.Y. where he was admitted to practice in the winter
of 1857. On leaving college he came directly to Iowa in 1856 and began
the practice of law in Clayton County, where he resided for 25 years.
In 1875 he was elected to the state senate, where he represented
Clayton County for four years. In 1882 he removed to Cedar Rapids and
became a member of the law firm of Stoneman, Rickel and Eastman and
afterwards of the firm of Stoneman, Ward & Harman. In March, 1885,
he was elected Judge of the Superior Court of the city of Cedar Rapids,
and was re-elected March, 1889, for a term of four years. Mr. Stoneman
is a brother of General Stoneman, late governor of California. He is an
able jurist and stands high among the legal fraternity. |  | | Joseph
Coleman Stoddard, our popular treasurer, “Jo” Stoddard, was born in
Smethport, McKean county, Pa., April 22, 1842. He was one of a family
of nine children – eight boys and one girl. When the subject of this
sketch was four years of age his parents moved on to a farm about
eighteen miles from Parkersburg, W. Va., where they resided for eight
years. At the expiration of that time the family came to Linn county
and settled with a view of making the then very new state of Iowa their
permanent home. Here Joseph worked on the farm during the summer and
fall months, and attended school during the winter, which was the
extent of his school privileges. But, as was characteristic of the boys
of those pioneer times, he applied himself to his books when he had the
opportunity and laid the foundation of a liberal education. When the
war of the rebellion broke out Mr. Stoddard had grown to vigorous young
manhood, and when the call came for defenders of the stars and stripes,
Jo responded, and on the 6th of September, 1861 enlisted in the Eighth
IowaInfantry, company D. His regiment immediately went into camp at
Davenport (Camp McClellan) where the regiment
was organized and Col.
Steele, of the regular army, placed in command. The young soldier was
not in the ranks long until he began to get promoted and
soon rose from the rank of private to first lieutenant. His first fighting was done on that memorable, bloody field of Shiloh.
Here he was taken prisoner and was within two |  | | rods of Gen. Prentiss
when he surrendered. Mr. Stoddard’s regiment was one of several which
occupied that portion of the field which the rebs, after the fight,
named the “Hornet’s Nest,” because it was so hot. The young soldier was
a prisoner for eight months. After his regiment was exchanged in
December, 1862, it was re-organized at St. Louis, and in March, ’63,
joined the army operating against Vicksburg and was in the third
brigade of the third division of the fifteenth army corps, under Gen.
W. T. Sherman. He went through the entire siege of Vicksburg and
participated in all its battles. He participated in many subsequent
battles and in April, 1866, his regiment was ordered home and was
mustered out at the old camp at Davenport May 9, following. Mr.
Stoddard was in the service four years and eight months continuously
and came out of the ranks with a brilliant record. After leaving his
regiment he returned to Cedar Rapids and accepted a position in the
Times office as a bookbinder and had charge of the Times bindery for
fourteen consecutive years. In 1880 he was obliged owing to poor
health, to resign his position on the Times, which he did and gave his
entire attention to the duties of the offices of recorder, assessor
and clerk of the court, to which he had been elected in the spring of
’79. He held this office till the spring of /84 when he was elected
city treasurer which office he is now filling. | | John
D. Blain,
city recorder, was born June 7, 1847, two miles north of
Solon and his life from infancy to fourteen years old was on a farm
with his father. At that age he asked his father to educate him for a
minister, being at that time a member of the Presbyterian church at
Solon, and listening with great interest to Elder Hall of Iowa City,
who preached every two weeks in Solon. His father refused to send him
to any school except the district school. Whereupon he ran away,
trudging sixteen miles through the dark night to Cedar rapids with his
little bundle of one shirt and one pair of pants under his arm. Here he
took the train and landed in Marshalltown where he worked one month on
a farm, then drove stage from Marshalltown to Iowa Falls one month He
quit on account of rough company, and worked another month on a farm,
when he had his left arm crushed in a threshing machine, necessitating
amputation. A telegram sent his father was the first word from John in
the three months. His good father responded at once to the call and
brought him home and for two years he helped what he could on the farm,
attending school winter and summer. Then he again took
up the burden of life for himself, and successfully taught
his first term of school in Marshall County, at the age of 17. He was
then engaged for six years in teaching school in the winter,
huckstering in the spring, teaching in summer and running a |  | | threshing
machine in the fall. Then his health broke and after eighteen months
of sickness he began to regain his health but two thousand dollars of
hard earned cash was gone. After a year’s effort, when he found that he
must quit excessive hard labor, he learned telegraphing and for five
years drew his salary without a day’s loss. Then the companies began
to reduce the wages to such an extent that there was only a living in
it, and he left the business and located in Ames. Here, through the
help of Wm. D. Lucas, dan McCarthy and Judge John L. Stevens, he
received the contract from Gen. J. L. Geddes to furnish the college
with bread stuffs for one year. Then, against the advice of friends, he
tried the farm and at the end of four years he found his health
breaking again. He then located in Cedar Rapids, building what is known
as the Windsor house and barns, making a fine success of the business,
and in 1884 sold out, and to keep from being idle, opened a small cigar
store on Third avenue. In February, 1884, “good old Joe Stoddard,” as
John calls him, stepped in, got a cigar and said: “This is Mr. Blain.”
“Yes, sir.” “Well, I am going to run for treasurer, and if agreeable
I’d like your support.” John took a square look at the man and said to
himself, “There is an honest man.” “All right, Joe, I’ll do it and
gladly.” In a few days the democrats nominated John and he was elected,
and on account of his faithfulness and efficiency has been five times
returned. | | J.
A. Hildebrand, assessor for state purposes, was born in Baden, Baden,
Germany, in 1846, and came to America when three years of age. He was
reared on a farm near Niles, Michigan , and in 1862 enlisted in the
15th Michigan infantry and was discharged in Oct. 1864, for injuries
received at Vicksburg. He re-enlisted in the 30th Michigan infantry and
served until June, 1865. He came to Marion, Iowa, in 1866 and clerked
in a drug store for Ristine & Palmer for two years. Coming to Cedar
Rapids in 1868, he engaged in the lumber and tile business. In 1880, on
account of losing his hand, he sold out the lumber and has since been
in the lime and wood business. He was re-elected this spring as city
assessor. |  | |
THE NEW CITY COUNCIL IN 1889
First Ward – C. Magnus D,
J. J. Snouffer D.
Second Ward – G. M. Olmsted R, Warren Harman R
Third Ward – Frank Allison D, George Lincoln R
Fourth Ward – H. V. Ferguson R, F. J. Shefler R
Fifth Ward – Frank Harwood R, George Noble R.
Sixth Ward – Robert Thompson R, M. Ottmar D
Seventh Ward – P. Roddy D, Frank Slapnicka D
Eighth Ward – J. E. Lapham D, W. C. Byers R
Ninth Ward – H. C. Waite R, Frank Simmons R
| | Christian
Magnus,
the hold-over member in the First ward, was born in Germany in
1884. He attended school in his native land till fourteen years of age
when he took a preparatory course for the university. He subsequently
traveled through Frankfort-on the-Main, Leipsic and other places, for
the purpose of completing his trade as a brewer. Returning home he
remained a while and then set sail for the United States, arriving in
New York City in 1857. The year following he came west and
located at Dubuque, then going to Winneshiek county, where he started a
brewery for a Frenchman, and became foreman. In 1859 he went to
Chicago, having resigned as foreman to become malster for Liel &
Diversy, and also Conrad Seipp. Later in the year (September) he came
to Cedar Rapids and started a brewery for Jacob Wetzel, which was
located where Mr. Magnus’ brewery now stands. For two years he was
foreman, and then he went to Kankakee, forming a partnership with
George Diehl. There he remained two years when he returned an became
partner with Mr. Wetzel, which partnership continued till 1868. In
1873 the brewery burned and it was rebuilt as at present. When the
brewery started first it had a
capacity |  | | of four hundred barrels per year. When it stopped it had capacity for 25,000 barrels. Mr. Magnus has long been identified with
the business interests of the city and is a stockholder and director in
the Cedar Rapids National bank, and stockholder in the Savings bank,
besides being prominent in other interests here. He is a democrat in
politics and served a term once before in the city council from the
First war d. He was president of the Iowa Brewer’s association for four
consecutive years, and is a leading spirit in the society of Odd
Fellows. Mr. Magnus is a liberal, public spirited man and makes a good
alderman. | | Joshua
J. Snouffer is the Nestor of the city council and we might say the
“kicker.” He has served in that capacity more years than any two men in
that august body. He is a native of Maryland and was born in 1825 being
now sixty-four years of age. Capt. Snouffer, like all boys of the
times, then assisted his father on the farm till nineteen years of age,
attending school the meanwhile, and then learned the carpenters trade.
He subsequently became a soldier in the Mexican war, occupying the post
of first sergeant of a dragoon company. He was wounded in the head and
was in the hospital seven months as the result. He returned home as
soon as he was able and remained there till 1852 when he came to Iowa
and settled in Cedar Rapids and for the last thirty-six years has eaten
upon the same table and slept in the same room. There were only about
three hundred and fifty inhabitants when he came to the city and he has
witnessed its improvements and rejoiced in its prosperity. He has been
closely allied to the milling interests of the city and in 1875 built
the brick mill now run by St. John & Clay. His education was
completed at Notre Dame and his early manhood gave indication of his later energy and force of character. He has held
numerous offices in the gift of the people. He has been overseer of the
poor and township trustee, eleven times elected to the city council,
has been acting mayor. He was a prime mover in establishing a water
supply and street railways and was for sixteen years connected |  | | with the
Iowa State Agricultural association as vice president and otherwise. He
was for a long-time president of the Iowa Millers’ association and also
the Insurance Company of Millers of Iowa. He is a rock rooted democrat
and has been in more political battles than any other one man in the
city unless it be his friend whom he defeated at the recent election.
Capt. Snouffer’s return to the city council is a source of
gratification to his friends and the city generally. | | George
M. Olmsted is the senior member from the Second ward. He is a native of
Leydn, N. Y., and came to Cedar Rapids in August, 1865. He was educated
in the public schools of New York, and was one year at Cazenovia
seminary, N. Y., where he showed an aptitude for letters, and but for
circumstances over which he had no control, would have taken a college
course. He interested himself on the farm for a while and then took a
position with T. M. Sinclair & Co., in the business department
where he remained two years and a half, resigning to go into the soap
business in which he has since engaged, and very successfully, too,
having built up one of the largest factories in the west, and his
celebrated “Lincoln” soap is known throughout this country. Mr. Olmsted
has three times been elected to the city council, and twice been made
its president. He was again elected as president Monday. He has proven
to be one of the most faithful of its members, ever watching with
scrupulous care the financial interests of the city, thus making the
city’s business a part of his own as all good aldermen should do. He
has been called the “watch dog of the treasury,” and has guarded it
sacredly. He never refuses to take a stand firmly on all questions and
is always firm in his convictions of right. Having been very successful in
his business, an industry of which Cedar Rapids is proud, he has been
just as studious and jealous of the interests of the city. The public
have the utmost confidence in Mr. Olmsted’s ability, and the citizens
realize that whatever duty devolve upon him will be done promptly,
manfully and right. |  | | Warren
Harman was born in what is now known as Bertram township, Linn County,
Iowa, January 18, 1846, on the farm on which his father is now living.
He enjoyed all the pleasures and romance of pioneer life, such as
living in round log house “chinked” with cordwood and “daubed” with
mud. He lived on the farm until 1864 when he entered Cornell college at
Mount Vernon, where he remained until 1869 at which time he graduated,
having completed the full classical course. After that he went to New
York City where he found employment for a year and a half on the New
York Shipping List and in the office of the Ship Owners’ Association of
that city. In 1871 he returned to Iowa, remaining at home on the farm
for the remainder of the year. In 1872 became connected with the Daily
Republican of this city, first as city editor and afterward as general
editor. After he was retired as editor of the Republican – and such
retirements were frequent in those days – he went to Toledo, Iowa, and
leased the Tama County republican and changed its name to the Toledo
Chronicle. In 1874 he closed out his interest in the Chronicle and
returned to this city and became associated as business partner of
Judge William B. Leach with whom he remained for two years. He was
admitted to the bar in 1876 and since that time he has practiced law in
our city. In 1877 he formed a co-partnership with M. L. Ward in the
practice of law, together with certain real estate and insurance
business, and that co-partnership lasted until it was severed some seventeen months ago by the removal of Mr. Ward to
California. He has established a large practice, enjoys the comforts of
a charming home, and the loyal allegiance of |  | | many admiring friends. He
was the favorite of Alderman John Gates upon whom the deceased alderman
wished his municipal mantle to fall. Mr. Harman is one of those young
men whole untiring industry and excellent natural ability have combined
to enable him to “get on in the world.” He is a quiet, unassuming
gentleman, but a “hustler” nevertheless, and gets there. He will not
only be hard from in the council, but we predict that some day he will
be heard in a higher law-making body. | | J.
F. Allison was born in Genesee County, N. Y. in 1844, and when eighteen
years of age came to Illinois, where he remained ten years, coming
thence to Cedar Rapids, in 1873, and entering the employ of the
Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Minnesota road. Later he was made
chief clerk in the general freight department of the same road, and
when it was changed to the B., C. R. & N remained in the same
position, which he held until 1886 when he was promoted to the local
freight agency of that road here. He has been successful in business
matters and has made an invaluable official for the home road. Last
year in a republican ward he was elected to a seat in the city council,
which is as graceful a tribute to his popularity as one would wish for.
Frank is a popular and capable railroad man, and we dare say
that time will enable us to record him as a general freight
agent of some railroad, a position he is eminently qualified to fill.
He is a brother of “Mit” Allison, for so long the genial and able train
dispatcher of the B., C. R. & N. railway, years ago. |  | | George
A. Lincoln was born at Chicopee, Mass., Jan 31, 1848. At the age of ten
years, he removed with his father to Madison, Wis. Remaining there he
attended common school until between the years of fourteen and fifteen
when he enlisted in the Third Wisconsin battery, light artillery and
served until the close of the war, July 26, 1865. After his discharge
he engaged for a year in the grain business at Madison and then came to
Clinton and traveled for the Fire and Tornado Insurance Company for a
year. He came to Cedar Rapids March 20, 1867, and engaged in the
clothing business and remained in the same business consecutively at
the old stand on First street for nearly twenty years. He organized the
fire department of Cedar Rapids in 1869 and was elected by the city
council chief engineer in 1870, but was deposed subsequently by the
council upon the passage of an ordinance which allowed no one under the
age of twenty-five to act as chief engineer. The ordinance was the
result of a factional fight among the fire companies. He remained
foreman of the Independent Fire Company till 1876, and having arrived
at the age of twenty-five was again elected chief engineer. Previous to this he held the position of
Alderman from the Third ward. In 1878 he was elected recorder and assessor of the city of Cedar Rapids. |  | | He has always been among the
foremost workers for any improvement of the city and under his
management the fire department gained a splendid reputation for
effectiveness. Two years ago, he was chosen to the city council and was
re-elected again this spring. He made himself especially effective fore
the republican party last year in the city campaign for the national
and state ticket and it was due to him more than any one man that linn
county approached something of its old-time majority and that Cedar
rapids and Rapids township went Republican. | | F.
J. Shefler of the Fourth ward, was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, and
at the age of five years removed with his parents to Kankakee County,
Illinois. There during the early years of his life he received such an
education s the common schools afforded, after which he entered
Kankakee Academy and pursued a more extensive course of study. In 1863
he came to Iowa and taught school, and in 1865 he located in Cedar
Rapids where he has ever since lived. He soon accepted a position in
the Burlington shops where he was employed as car-builder in which
business he has earned a lucrative salary and enjoyed the benefits
therefrom. Mr. Shefler is thorough in whatever he undertakes and is one
of the best posted men in the city council. He can see a point of
advantage or disadvantage very quickly and does not hesitate to define
his position on all questions when it is necessary or proper so to do.
He is conservative and judicious and will make a splendid
representative. We are glad to note the growing sentiment in favor of
having the industrial interests represented in the council by practical
men. The laboring men of the city are as much interested as any other
class, and it is the proper thing that they have some friends at court.
Mr. Shefler is such a man, and with ability and fidelity he will
discharge the duties and responsibilities placed in his hands. The
Fourth ward and the city in general may depend on excellent service
from him. |  | | Henry V. Ferguson
was born in Canada West in 1850. His parents moved to Kane County,
Illinois, about the year 1854. He lived in said county until 1868 and
in August of that year he came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and accepted a
position as clerk in the general offices of the Sioux City &
Pacific railroad company and other associate companies. In 1873 he was
elected secretary of Moingona Coal company and Elkhorn Land and Town
Lot company. In 1876 he was elected secretary of the Maple River
railroad company and in 1879 secretary of the Iowa Railroad Land
company and associate Land and Town Lot companies. In 1880 he was made
auditor of the Sioux City & Pacific railroad company and associate
railroad companies and in 1885 land commissioner of the Iowa Railroad
Land company. In 1886 he was made a director and vice president of the
Iowa Railroad Land company and associate companies, making over 20
years of continuous service as clerk or officer in said companies. At
the present time he is a director and vice president of the Iowa
Railroad land company and associate companies, a director and secretary
and treasurer of the Kimball Building company. He has always been a
republican and is a staunch admirer of Cedar Rapids. |  | Col. George W. Noble,
the new alderman in the Fifth ward, was born in New York City in 1839.
He remained there till thirteen years of age and then went to Brooklyn
where he clerked for three years in a store. Then he came west to
McHenry County, Ill., and worked by the month on the farm till 1861,
when the war broke out, and he enlisted in Co. A., fifteenth Ill. Vol.
Inf., remaining in the service four years and two months. He was
promoted corporal and after the expiration of the first three years of
service, re-enlisted. He was at the awful battle of Champion’s Hill, in
the siege of Corinth, Vicksburg and other battles and skirmishes. Like
his colleague, Mr. Harwood, he was taken prisoner, at Acworth, Ga., and
confined at Andersonville for seven months. He was in charge of one
hundred men there, his duties being to issue rations and attend roll
call twice a day. He made his escape on the 13th of December, 1864, but
was run down with blood hounds and recaptured and taken back to prison
where he remained until the close of the war. He returned to McHenry
County and again engaged in farming till 1866 when he sold out and
located in Boulder township, Linn County, Iowa, remaining on the farm
till 1873.
His first occupation here was firefighting for the
Northwestern railroad. He afterwards became station agent for that road
at DeWitt until 1881, and then went into the employ of the B. C.R.
& N. as assistant local agent. In the fall of 1881, he associated
himself with Mr. Tom Lynch in the transfer, baggage, mail and freight
business under the firm name of Lynch & Noble, in which he has been
highly prosperous. He is a strong republican, and has been honored with
the |  | | commandership of T. Z. Cook post of this city, and a colonelcy on the governor’s staff which he now holds, being honored with a reappointment. Mr. Noble is a careful,
judicious, conservative business man, is given to industry and
attention to business, and whatever he undertakes to do he does well.
He will be an honor and a credit to the city as one of its aldermen, as
he has been for so many years as one of its citizens. | | F. W. Harwood
was born Dec. 6, 1843 in Yates County, N.Y. His father moved to
Wisconsin in 1846. There the embryonic alderman received a common
school education. He enlisted in October 1861 in the Second Wisconsin
cavalry and served from the Missouri river to the Rio Grande. He was
captured at Memphis, Tenn., August 1864, when Gen. Forrest made his
celebrated raid, and was exchanged by special exchange, Oct., 1864. He
was confined to his bed from the effects of rebel prison fare until
August 1865 and was discharged March, 1865. He located at Milwaukee,
Wis., and engaged in the grain commission business and then came to
Cedar Rapids April 15, 1885. He has been a member of the G.A.R. since
1866, and held various offices. He was commander of T.Z. Cook post for
the year 1887 and was elected alderman from the Fifth ward, March 1888.
He is now with T. Mower & Co., in the creamery supplies, who are
doing a very successful business. |  | | R. J. Thompson
is the senior alderman in the sixth ward. He was born in Westmorland
County, Pa., 1842 and moved west in 1850 to Bellevue, Jackson County,
Iowa where he lived until 1862. Then he enlisted in Co. K
31st Iowa Vol. Infantry and was in Sherman’s army, and a braver soldier
never trod a southern battle field. He was at the siege of Vicksburg
and from that place went to Chattanooga, was in the engagement on
Lookout Mountain and was with the army on through to the sea. At the
close of the war, July 5, 1865, he came to Cedar Rapids, engaged with
H. S. Camp & Son in the hardware trade, which occupation he has
followed ever since, now occupying No. 42 south First street under the
firm name of Thompson & Gladfelter. He was for nearly twenty years
with E. K. Larimer and has always shown a great adaptability for the
business. He is honored with a second term in the city council and is a
peoples’ representative in the Sixth ward. Mr. Thompson is a thorough
and reliable business man and whatever he has to do he does it promptly
and faithfully. In his work for the city, he labors for its best
interests and has made an excellent record. |  | | M. Ottmar,
the new member from the Sixth ward, is a prosperous boot and shoe
dealer on First avenue. He is a native of Germany and was born in 1840.
Mr. Ottmar attended school from the age of six to fourteen without the
loss of a single day. He served a two years’ apprenticeship with
his father at boot and shoe making and then became desirous of
something better than the prospect offered him in hi native country and
accordingly emigrated to America. He went to Detroit, Michigan, and
worked at his trade, going thence to Michigan City and Lafayette, Ind.
He worked as a journey man till 1869 and by his industry and economy
saved enough money to start in business here. He purchased a stock of
goods and commenced the manufacture and sale of boots and shoes. He has
been prosperous and is ranked as one of the substantial business men of
the city. He is one of the most prominent members of the I.O.O.F. from
which organization he has received many honors. Mr. Ottmar is a
prosperous, progressive business man and will exercise the same good
judgment and business sagacity in attending to the new and public
duties to which he has been called. |  | F. W. Slapnicka,
the enterprising young alderman from the Seventh ward, was born in
Beroun, Bohemia, in 1854 and came to this country with his parents
eleven years later. He lived in Ohio till 1877, when he came farther
west, locating in this city. He has availed himself of the opportunity
afforded to the young men of this country and has become a successful
business man. He is now dealer in sewing machines, pianos and organs on
Second avenue and has a very flattering trade, which he so well merits.
Frank knows the needs of his ward and will look well to its interests.
|  | | Edward Roddy is the hold-over representative for the Seventh ward. He
was born in Belfast in 1846 and came to America in 1869, landing at New
York City where he lived six years. In the old country he was employed
in the spinning mills, but when he came to this country he engaged with
John Sinclair & Co., and in 1875 came west to accept a position
with T. M. Sinclair & Co., in those employ he has been ever since,
in the salting and curing department. Mr. Roddy is one of the most
faithful workmen in the packing house, and a man of strict integrity in
all matters. He was chosen last year to represent the Seventh ward and
has been a careful and painstaking alderman. |  | | Wm. Carl Byers
was born in Green Castle, Franklin County, Pa., March 9, 1844. He
served two yeas and nine months as an apprentice at the boot and shoe
trade, and on April 20, 1861, enlisted in the 2nd Pennsylvania
regiment, and after the expiration of the time of service, returned to
his home and began work in the J. B. Crowell & Davidson’s machine
shops in Green Castle, Pennsylvania, where he remained for about two
years, after which he was married to Miss L. C. Conrad, and shortly
after came to Nachusa, Illinois, in the fall of 1865. In the spring of
1866, he came to Iowa and lived on Crabapple creek, Linn County, about
two years. He then moved to Springville and engaged in the boot and
shoe business for six years and a half. While there he was elected one
year as school director, and in 1872 the year after was elected
constable. He moved to Cedar Rapids and took a position on the Dubuque
and South western railroad, as fireman, and served in the above
positions on the Dubuque & Southwestern railroad, as fireman, and
served in the above position about two years and then took a similar
position with the B.C.R. & N., on the 16th day of September, 1874.
He was promoted to the position of engineer by R. W. Bushnell, M. M.,
on the 20th days of August, 1877 and in August, 1882 he was promoted to
passenger engineer, which position he holds at the present time. Mr.
Byers is an ardent republican and has served two years in the city
council. He was returned at the recent election from a democratic ward
which is certainly a most gratifying result, showing him to be very
popular among the people he represents. His career in the city council
has been just what it has been in private life, honest, manly,
conservative and conscientious. Alderman Byers is a man the people can
tie to because his word is as good as the gold of Ophir. |  | | J. E. Lapham,
the democratic member of the Eighth ward, was born in Massachusetts in
1849 and came to Cedar Rapids in 1862. Being a native of a
manufacturing town, his attention was drawn in that direction and he
learned the watch maker’s trade and for three years was at the bench
with his brother, the jeweler of this city. In 1873, he went into the
dairying business in this city in which he has grown thrifty and
acquired a considerable competence. Last year he sold out and started a
meat market in Time Check, where he is enjoying a splendid
business. Mr. Lapham, though not an office seeker, and would
rather not be encumbered with office, is nevertheless watchful of the
city’s interest and especially of the Eighth ward. |  | | F. A. Simmons,
the “tall sycamore” from the big Ninth, was born at Fulton City, Ill.,
April 12, 1857. In early youth he developed a wonderful aptitude for
business and at the age of ten years entered upon his first clerkship
in a lumber yard at the munificent salary of $4 per month. He was very
proficient and the second month his salary was raised to $10. Before he
left home, and while attending school, he managed to provide his own
clothing and spending money by clerking and working during vacations.
He succeeded in entering the high school, but was obliged to leave it
at the age of seventeen – three months before he graduated. He had been
a close student, not withstanding the interruptions to his course of
study, and in the winter of 1874, he engaged as teacher of a district
school in Linn County, and the following spring commenced the study of
law under the instruction of the late Col. I. M. Preston, of Marion. He
resumed teaching the following winter in Buchanan County and in the
spring returned to his studies in the same office. On March 19, 1877,
he was admitted to the bar, and was the youngest attorney ever admitted
to practice in Linn County. In August of the same year, he removed to
Cedar Rapids and engaged with R. D. Parkhurst as clerk of the abstract
department at a salary of $25 per month. At the end of the first year,
he was admitted to partnership with his employer, and by the withdrawal
of the latter to engage in other business, Mr. Simmons a few months
later succeeded to the business which he conducted with remarkable
success. Until a couple months ago he was secretary of the Perpetual
Building Association and has been vice-president of the Board of Trade
and held various offices in the various improvement and investment companies in the city. He is |  | | prominent in other civic, political and social
organizations and has recently purchased the opera house and become its
successful manager. Mr. Simmons’ success in business is another
illustration of what grit and “hustling” will accomplish. He is a
self-made man. He had natural ability and pluck and put forth his best
efforts and, as a result, in ten or twelve years has made a remarkable
success. He is a great worker, and will be heard from in the council. | | Henry Clay Waite
was born Nov. 13, 1838, at Willoughby, Ohio. His father, Alvan Waite,
was a pioneer preacher of the Christian church, dying May 20, 1847.
Under the direction of a guardian the future alderman served an
apprenticeship of four years at the harness and trunk trade which he
never followed. In 1859 he took a trip overland to southern Illinois
and Missouri, and, returned in time to enlist in the first infantry
formed in his old township. He drilled at Camp Taylor, Cleveland, until
the second call and enlisted again, but was both times rejected on
account of a physical disability. He engaged in wholesaling notions,
traveling by team and rail through several eastern and middle states
and at last through Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 1836, he removed
to southern Illinois. He was a republican and an active member of the
Union League in that country, where to be such, was to be stigmatized a
“Northern Yankee” and threatened by border Ku Klux. The fever and ague
however put a new phase to the novelty and sent him to Ohio again,
where after shaking twelve months he decided to forever “shake” his
love for a southern country. Mr. Waite has always been passionately
fond of good horses and long overland drives by which he has several
times regained his health. This time avoiding southern latitude he
settled for a time in the sewing machine business at Bloomington, Ill.,
and in 1869 came to Cedar Rapids, where he has for twenty years been
engaged in the sewing machine and music and musical instrument business
enjoying the confidence of h is patrons. He has been a |  | | member
of the board of trustees of the Christian church for ten years. He was
elected treasurer of Mt. Hermon lodge of Masons in 1875, and has been
re-elected every year since. He is serving his fourth year as member of
the city council from the Ninth ward, now acting as chairman on the gas
committee. |
(Source: The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA, 13 Mar 1889, pg. 4)
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