Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 331

GEORGE W. VAN HORNE, was born in the town of Chicopee, then a part of Springfield, Mass., Oct. 12, 1833. He was rigorously kept at school during his youth,and after a High School and academic course he entered the law office of Hon. Charles R. Ladd, now and for many years Auditor of State, and continued his studies with Hon. E. B. Gillette, of Westfield, Mass. In May,1855, he came to Muscatine, and entered the office of Cloud & O'Connor to complete his course under the code of Iowa, where he intended practicing his profession. After admission to the bar he formed a partnership with Hon. D. C. Cloud, then Attorney-General of the State, with whom he remained in practice until 1861. Mr. Van Horne took an active interest and prominent part in the organization of the Republican party, and in the Fremont and Lincoln campaigns he was constantly on the stump for the Republican ticket. During the first week of President Lincoln's administration he was appointed United States Consul at Marseilles, France, and left immediately with his family for his post. In 1866 he was removed from office by President Johnson, and returned to Iowa, and soon after accepted an invitation from the Republican State Central Committee of Arkansas to take editorial charge of the new State organ to be established at Little Rock. He found so little congeniality in his work in the then unsettled and distracted condition of political affairs that he soon resigned his position, but was persuaded by his Arkansas friends to accept a Registrarship under the re-construction laws of Congress for Scott County, in that State. It was while executing the duties of registrar that he saw and felt the great injustice that was to be perpetuated upon the South by subjecting the whites to negro domination, and he has since failed to justify the revolution which restored white supremacy in that section. He left Arkansas after the first election held under the acts of Congress, and spending three years in his old home of Massachusetts, he returned to Muscatine in the winter of 1870, and began the publication of the Muscatine Tribune. He subsequently purchased the Muscatine Courier, but retained the favorite name of "Tribune" for thr joint publication. The Betts Brothers were admitted to a partnership which existed for several years, until Mr. Van Horne's withdrawal. For a long period Mr. Van Horne did a miscellaneous editorial work on both the Muscatine Tribune and Journal, severing his relations with the latter paper in 1887, when in December of that year the Muscatine News Company was incorporated, and he was elected Secratary of the company and editor-in-chief of the Muscatine Daily and Weekly News , positions which he still occupies.

September 15, 1858, Mr. Van Horne contracted a marriage with Mary, only daughter of the late Dr. James G. Morrow, one of the founders of Muscatine, and step-daughter, at the time of marriage, of his old law partner, Mr. Cloud. Of this union there have been born four children : Hattie D.; Bennie R. ( who died in France ); Lulu C., who was born in France; and Ellsworth Stiles, the first and last being natives of Iowa. Mr. Van Horna is fond of relating, as interesting incidents of his mariage, that his wife was the first woman he saw on landing at Muscatine in 1855, nd that she was the first native-born bride of Iowa.

Mr. Van Horne's preferences are for an independent position in politics, and in his treatment of men and measures he aims to preserve a judicial impartiality; but in the shaping of the recent issues of Protection or Tariff Reform, and Prohibition or High License he finds his sympathies strongly enlisted with the Democratic party, while in respect to the "Southern Question," so-called, he believes the South must be left to work out the grave race problems itself. Our subject delights in the miscellaneous work of the writer and editor, and his story of " Tom Rockley," printed by the American Publishing Company, Hartford; " The Old Settlers' Chair," the title of serial descriptive articles upon pioneer days of Muscatine; "Storied Scenes of Europe;" " Men and Women I Have Seen;" " Farmer Whiting Letters;" and "Anonymous Portraits of Muscatine Women." evince a taste congenial to the lighter walks of Literature. The editor finds his repose in a delightful domestic circle, where, surrounded with books and pictures gathered from many lands, he enjoys an "otium cum dignitate " which he would exchange with none.


Back to 1889 History of Muscatine Co. Index Page

Back to the Muscatine Co. IAGenWeb Index Page