Pg 284

         LEVI WILLITS MYERS, of the firm of L. W. & O. P. Myers, editors and publishers of the Wapello Republican, a Republican weekly journal of Wapello, is a native of Indiana and was born in Wayne County, July 15, 1830. His parents were Col. Andrew and Mary (Lloyd) Myers, of Pennsylvania. Col. Andrew Myers was born in Northumberland County, Pa., June 11, 1796, and died in 1883. He was a farmer by occupation, and received the title of Colonel through his connection with the militia. Possessing a martial spirit, he took great pleasure in military affairs, being instrumental in organizing and equipping a regiment of militia in Mercer County, Ill., of which he was commissioned Colonel. The paternal side of the family of which our subject is a member, is undoubtedly of German origin, but the first settlement of the family in America is of so remote a date that the present members have no authentic account of it. On the mother’s side as the name indicates, the family was of Welsh origin, but that is also several generations remote.

Mr. L. W. Myers removed with his parents to Mercer County, Ill., in 1836, when he was but a child, and when that country was just being opened to civilization. He was reared on a farm and received his primary education at the district schools, though later in life he attended Knox College at Galesburg, Ill., but left that institution before completing the course. In 1853 he bought an interest in the Golden Age, a journal of New Boston, and learned the printer’s trade in that office. He continued to publish the Golden Age until the fall of 1856, when he sold out, going to New York City, where he entered upon a course of study for medical profession at the Hygien Therapeutic College of that city, and was graduated in the spring of 1857. Returning to New Boston, Ill., Mr. Myers there engaged in practice until the Presidential campaign of 1860, when he took an active part in politics as a Republican. On the breaking out of the war he became a newspaper correspondent, writing for the St. Louis Globe Democrat, and for certain Cincinnati and New York papers. In June, 1862, he went to Cairo as war correspondent for the associated press, but in the fall of 1863 he resigned that position to accept the position of financial and commercial editor of the Daily Dispatch of St. Louis, which place he held until the fall of 1865, when he resigned. In April of the following year he came to Wapello and purchased an interest in the Republican, which he has continued to publish to this date, having his son, O. P. Myers, associated with him since 1885.

On the 8th of June, 1854, at New Boston, Mercer Co., Ill., the marriage of Mr. Myers and Miss Rosetta C. Prentiss was celebrated. Mrs. Myers was born in Meigs County, Ohio, Aug. 21, 1830, and is a daughter of Stanton Prentiss. They have had two children, a son and a daughter: the daughter Flora died in infancy; the son, Oak Prentiss, was born at St. Louis, Mo., March 18, 1864, was educated at Wapello, learned the printer’s trade in his father’s office at Wapello, and was admitted to partnership in 1885. He was married in this city, Dec. 7, 1886, to Miss Alice Beane, daughter of V. B. Beane, the present county Recorder. Mrs. Myers was born in Dauphin County, Pa., and one child graced their union, a son, Myron Kendig, born at Wapello, Iowa.

L. W. Myers was a Whig in early life, and having strong anti-slavery opinions, he was among the first to join in the organization of the Republican party, of which the main plank was that which expressed opposition to the extension of slavery. He was a delegate to the convention of 1856 at Bloomington, Ill., where the party was organized in that State, and was a colleague of Abraham Lincoln, Owen Lovejoy, Richard Yates and John Wentworth on that momentous occasion. He has taken an active part in political matters ever since, and has done good service in the cause of the Republican party. In 1888 Mr. Myers was chosen a delegate alternate to the Republican National Convention at . . .

Pg 287

. . . Chicago, where Harrison and Morton were nominated, and at the Iowa State Convention following was chosen for the First District. In the summer of 1888 Mr. Myers made a cruise over the Northern Pacific Railroad to Oregon and Washington Territory, visiting British Columbia in his travels, and the chief points of attraction in that region. His letters descriptive of the country, which were published in the Wapello Republican, were interesting and instructive. Mr. Myers is an easy writer, and possesses literary ability of a superior order. As a citizen he is justly held in high esteem for his many excellencies of character. His son, on whom the business of the office devolves, is a young man of superior ability and bright promise.