Mitchell
County
pages 846-849
Historical
The county was organized in 1854. Prior to this it had
been attached to Chickasaw county for judicial and other
purposes. At the first election, A. H. Moore was elected
county judge; Amos Cummings, county clerk; B. C.
Whitaker, treasurer and recorder, and L. S. Hart,
sheriff. Judge Samuel Murdock held the first term of
court at Mitchell, in 1857. The county-seat was located
at Osage, in 1861.
Nothing of importance came before the court until July 2,
1855. Considerable attention had in the meantime been
devoted to locating county roads. At the date mentioned,
a court convened with John M. Bennett prosecuting
attorney, presiding, the judge being absent. first bill
against the county was presented at this time by A. S.
Faville. It was in the sum of $50.75 for services as road
commissioner and an order for the amount was issued to
him.
At the August term L. S. Hart, Jr., sheriff, made census
returns. In November, 1855, Judge Moore appointed John
Bishop as commissioner to locate the Mitchell county
swamp lands. The year's labors were closed on the third
day of December, 1855, by allowing bills against the
county.
On the fourth day of February, 1856, county court
convened, with A. H. Moore county judge, presiding. After
attending to the road business, the attention of the
court was directed to a petition which had been
presented, asking for an order granting a vote at the
April election for the re-locating of the county-seat
from Mitchell to Osage. The petition was presented by L.
S. Hart, Jr., and was signed by sixty-four citizens. A
request was presented at the same time by C. G. Clausen
that action on said petition be deferred until the March
term of court, and it was granted. At the March term the
matter again came up, and the prayer of the petitioners
was granted, the judge issuing an order to the effect
that at the April election the question whether the
county-seat should be moved to Osage should be voted
upon. After the election had been held, court again
convened and declared that Osage having received a
majority of the votes cast, was the county-seat of
Mitchell county.
The Present Bar &
Biographical
The Mitchell county attorneys are as follows: Judge J.
F. Clyde, G. E. Marsh, W. L. Eaton, J. H. Sweney, J. M.
Moody, A. E. Roberts, W. H. Salisbury, T. F. Warner, B.
N. Hendricks, C. E. Salisbury, A. A. Kugler, H. G.
Bartlett, K. J. Johnson, C. F. Hambrecht, M. K. Culver,
C. R. Graves and H. L. Stoughton.
Jefferson F. Clyde, judge of the twelfth judicial
district of Iowa, was born in Milford, Jefferson county,
Wis., May 24, 1850. His father was of Scotch-Irish
descent and his mother a native of England, who came to
the United States in 1820. When the boy was five years of
age the family removed from Wisconsin to Iowa, in which
state he has since resided. He received his education
chiefly in Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, and the Iowa
State University. Before his admission to the bar, in
1882, he served as principal of the public schools of
Mitchell and St. Ansgar, Iowa. Since 1883 his entire time
has been given to professional duties, except during the
period of his service as state senator in the
Twenty-third general assembly of Iowa. Since January 1,
1897, Judge Clyde has presided over the twelfth judicial
district of his state to the general satisfaction both of
litigants and members of the profession. He has resided
at Osage since the fall of 1883. He was a member of the
firm of Eaton & Clyde up to the time he took his seat
as judge, January 1, 1897. He is a republican in
politics.
Arel K. Eaton came to Iowa and settled in Delaware county
when he was thirty-three years of age. He was born in New
Hampshire December 1, 1813. He was educated at the public
schools and for several years taught school. He came west
in 1841 and located at Winchester, Indiana, where he was
elected county auditor. In 1846 he removed to Iowa and
built the second log cabin in the new town of Delhi. He
was elected prosecuting attorney and afterwards county
judge. In 1850 he was elected a representative in the
Third general assembly and was chairman of the committee
on schools. He was elected to the Fourth general assembly
which enacted the code of 1851. Upon the opening of the
United States land office at Decorah in 1855, Mr. Eaton
was appointed by President Pierce, receiver of public
money. One year later, in 1856, the land office was
located at Osage, and Mr. Eaton removed there and made
that his home, where he died in 1896.
George E. Marsh was born February 20, 1853. In 1866 he
located in Buchanan county, Iowa. In 1876 Mr. Marsh was
admitted to the bar and commenced to practice at Cresco,
Iowa, where he remained for eight years. He formed a
partnership with the Hon. C. Foreman at Osage, Iowa, in
1885. Although he has never sought office, in 1892 he was
a delegate to the national convention, which met at
Minneapolis and in 1894 was elected county attorney,
serving one term.
G.E. Marsh
John B. Cleland, Portland, Oregon, was born in Rock
county, Wisconsin, July 15, 1848. He passed his boyhood
on his father's farm, in Center township, Wisconsin. He
was educated in the district school and Carroll College,
Waukesha, Wisconsin. He read law in the offices of
Cassady & Merrill and Pease & Ruger, Janesville,
his native state, and at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor. He was admitted to the bar at Detroit, Michigan,
April, 1871, by the supreme court; since to the courts of
the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota,
Washington and Oregon, and to the United States courts in
the states of Iowa, North Dakota and Oregon. Mr. Cleland
began to practice his profession at Janesville,
Wisconsin, in 1871, and shortly afterward, same year, he
removed to Osage, Iowa. In 1888 he located at Fargo,
Dakota territory. In 1890 he went to Portland, Oregon,
and engaged in the practice there in partnership with
William A. Cleland. This partnership continued until
1898. Judge Cleland served as president of Oregon State
Bar association in 1901 and vice president of the Pacific
Bar associations and lecturer in the law department,
University of Oregon. Mr. Cleland was district attorney
of the twelfth judicial district of Iowa two terms, 1877
to 1885, and circuit judge of the same district 1885-6,
district judge 1887-1888, he resigned this judgeship
Sept. 1. He was appointed circuit judge of the fourth
judicial district of Oregon January, 1898, and he was
elected the same year and reelected in 1904.
~*~*~
Biographies from other Iowa counties,
same source Vol I:
(Blackhawk county, pg 488)
Alva B. Lovejoy was born September 1, 1867, in Mitchell
county, Iowa. He was admitted in 1894. He removed from
Osage to Waterloo in 1902, and is of the firm of Mears
& Lovejoy.
(Buena Vista county, pg 512-513)
Frederick F. Faville was born in Mitchell, Iowa, June 5,
1865. He spent his early life on a farm in Mitchell
county, Iowa, and was educated in the public schools,
Cedar Valley Seminary, Osage, Iowa, Iowa State College,
Ames, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the State
University of Iowa, and was admitted at Iowa City in
1891. He practiced law in Des Moines from September,
1891, to April, 1892. Then he removed to Sioux Rapids,
Iowa. In 1894 he was elected county attorney of Buena
Vista county, and removed to Storm Lake in the spring of
1895, where he has practiced since. He is a member of A.
F. & A. M. Blue Lodge and Chapter. He served as
county attorney from 1895 to 1899. He is a republican and
was presidential elector from the Eleventh congressional
district of Iowa in 1904.
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