of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 195-208
MEN WHO LEFT THE IMPRESS OF CHARACTER ON THE COMMUNITY.
THEODORE SUTTON PARVIN. Theodore Sutton Parvin attained distinction in many walks of life, but possibly of all his titles to fame the most clearly established was his right to take rank as an untiring and almost universal collector. The generality of these collectors are a close handed sort of folk. Things must be retained or there can be no collection. But Mr. Parvin, although so earnest and devoted a collector himself, was always generous and helpful to others engaged in the same work. On more than one occasion he has been known to hand over rare and cherished objects to a brother collector, who seemed to be looking upon them with longing eyes. He was anxious that other state collections besides the one which was the object of his chief solicitude should be kept growing. Neither selfishness nor envy entered into his mental constitution.
To the library of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, the library of the State University, the State Library, the State Historical Society, the State Historical Department, and the Aldrich Collection he was an open handed, liberal contributor and to all but the two last named, for a longer period than the life time of a generation.
His memory will be perpetuated in all the directions named. The memories of men stand little chance of preservation unless they are embalmed in printed books which are gathered into public libraries. If memories are not so perpetuated they speedily perish. But in the libraries I have named the reader in future (and distant) years, will find most precious gifts from the free and ever generous hand of the patriarch and nestor of the state. No other resident in Iowa has built for himself so many, or such permanent and abiding monuments, and if, to use the words of Daniel Webster, when speaking of himself, "the mold shall gather upon his memory," there will be a legion of students of Iowa history, both general and Masonic, to compete for the distinction of scraping the moss from the inscriptions.
Theodore Sutton Parvin was born in Cedarville, Cumberland county, New Jersey, January 15, 1817. His death occurred at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 28, 1901. He had therefore entered upon his eighty-fifth year.
When a mere child, Mr. Parvin was afflicted with rheumatism, which from his fifth to his seventeenth year compelled him to walk with crutches and entailed a permanent lameness. But what to the lad and his friends must have seemed an intolerable affliction, was not without its compensating advantages. Debarred from the usual sports of boyhood and youth, he was thrown back on sedentary enjoyments, and thus was begun a course of omnivorous reading which continued throughout life. His memory was also unusually retentive and habits of order and classification, early formed, made all the treasures of gathered fact and stored sentiment available for the work of later years.
In the fall of 1829 his father and family removed to Cincinnati, then the metropolis of the west. Here young Parvin, who had exhausted the educational facilities of his native village, at once entered the public schools. His aptitude for acquiring knowledge was so great as to command the high respect of his teacher, who gave him special instruction in the classics and the higher mathematics, in both of which the youthful scholar excelled. At the closing examination of his course of study, a wealthy gentleman present proposed, first of all to the teacher, and afterward to the parents, to send the boy to college. The offer was accepted and therefore through the kindness of a stranger young Parvin was enabled to pursue in the first instance a classical course and subsequently to secure a legal education, after which he selected the law as his vocation in life, and in 1837 began the practice of his profession.
In the following year, at the house of a mutual friend in Cincinnati, he met General Robert Lucas, who had retired from the governorship of Ohio, receiving from President Martin Van Buren the appointment of first governor of the new territory of Iowa. Governor Lucas was at once most favorably impressed with the young man, whom he invited to accompany him to Iowa as his private secretary. The offer was accepted and Mr. Parvin went with the Governor to Burlington, where they arrived in the early summer of 1838. In August of the same year, and while still private secretary to Governor Lucas, Mr. Parvin was admitted to practice law in the territorial courts and in connection with this event an anecdote has been related which is of interest as throwing a sidelight on the men and manners of the time.
Upon his arrival at the then little village of Dubuque, Mr. Parvin repaired at once to the residence of Judge Wilson. On knocking at the door, it was opened by a very young man, a mere boy in appearance. After the first greeting the caller asked: "Is your father at home?" "He is not here," was the reply, "but what do you wish?" "Why, I came to see Judge Wilson." "Well, sir, I am Judge Wilson. What can I do for you?" Quickly recovering from his surprise, the other said: "I came to apply for admission to the practice of the law." He was at once and cordially invited to come in. None of the particulars of the examination have come to us but when the budding lawyer left the house he carried with him a certificate of admission "to practice in all courts of record in the territory aforesaid."
During the same year (1838) Governor Lucas appointed his young secretary to the position of territorial librarian and the latter was sent to Cincinnati and Philadelphia, where he succeeded in obtaining a valuable collection of books--the nucleus of the present State Library--for which he paid $5,000 in cash. Here it will be permissible to digress for a moment with the remark, that from the date of his executing the commission with which he had been entrusted in 1838, until the day on which he drew his last breath, Mr. Parvin was the custodian of books, either as state librarian, librarian of the university, or as "Castellan" of the imposing structure at Cedar Rapids, where is enshrined the magnificent collection which it was his life's labor to amass, for the instruction and delectation of the society which had the first place in his thoughts.
The next position to which Mr. Parvin was appointed was that of district attorney for the middle district of Iowa in the year 1839. In the following year he was elected secretary of the territorial council. From 1847 to 1857 he was clerk of the United States district court. In 1840-50 he was county judge. This was in those days a position of much power and responsibility, as these so-called judges not only exercised all the duties of surrogates or probate judges, but also, with more of real power, discharged most of the functions now exercised by the boards of county supervisors. They could lay out county roads, build bridges or court houses and run their counties into almost any depth of indebtedness. Some northwestern counties were more than twenty years paying the debts incurred in the reign of the county judges. The eastern counties happily had little or no difficulty in that direction. Mr. Parvin's administration was both stainless and successful. He was for one term registrar of the state land office, in 1857-8.
It would almost seem that the activities already enumerated would suffice to fill the entire period of one man's usefulness. But as yet I have only touched on the period of preparation, and with the aim of following the order in which the subject of this sketch placed the importance of his life's work. The office holding portion of his career passed away when he took up the more congenial duties of an educator. In the law he was well skilled, a born fighter, and a splendid advocate. In the arena of politics his zeal was perhaps not always tempered by discretion and while his language towards political opponents was always forceful, it often lacked the gentle touch which deprives even the most cutting words of a portion of their sting. But it was in the quieter atmosphere of the class room and in the realms of literature that the best that was in the man was developed into a living force, and this will have an influence upon Iowa schools and Iowa culture long after the memory of "Professor Parvin" shall have faded to merely an honored name upon the rolls of her teachers.
In 1859 he retired from the state land office and was appointed one of the trustees of the then new Iowa State University, becoming in the following year a member of its faculty. For more than twenty years as founder, regent, curator, librarian, member of the executive committee, or professor of history, he was active in the university life. From 1869 to the date of his death, while no longer officially connected with the university, he continued, nevertheless, to be its firm friend and its constant benefactor. He bestowed upon it valuable collections and presented it with complete sets of rare works. Day by day he added some benefaction unknown to the world at large but known to the students and professors there.
The indefatigable zeal displayed by the subject of this memoir as a collector and preserver of books has already been, in part, referred to, and it next becomes my duty to record that he was also a writer of great elegance, accuracy and force. A bibliography, however, of his literary work, even if the files of periodicals for the past sixty years (in which they are principally contained) were readily accessible, would carry me too far, and necessitate the expansion of what is only designed to be a slight sketch of a remarkable personality, into a formal biography.
I shall restrict myself, therefore, to a survey of his writings as connected with the literature of the craft and these are so closely interwoven with the varied stages of his long and distinguished career as a Free Mason, that the convenience of the reader will be most effectually ensured by my proceeding in the first instance with a recital of the successive steps by means of which Mr. Parvin became in the commonwealth of Iowa, the foremost representative of our society.
Theodore Sutton Parvin was raised to the degree of a Master Mason at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1838. He was a founder of the first lodge, Des Moines, No. 1, in Iowa, 1840, and of the second lodge, Iowa No. 2, at Muscatine, 1841. In the latter he filled the offices of senior deacon, worshipful master and secretary. At the organization of the grand lodge of Iowa in 1844, he was elected grand secretary and held the office continuously until his demise, with the exception of one year, 1852, during which time he occupied the station of grand master. In his first term as grand secretary (1844) he founded the grand lodge library, was appointed grand librarian and held the position without a break during the remainder of his life. He was grand master in 1852; reporter on foreign correspondence, 1845-52, 1857, 1859, and 1878-92; and grand orator on the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the grand lodge, 1863, again on the laying of the corner stone of the library building at Cedar Rapids, 1884, and lastly, at the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the grand lodge in 1894.
The Masonic library of Iowa is, however, Mr. Parvin's most enduring monument. To it he gave the best years and the best endeavors of his life. With one poor volume; perhaps the only Masonic work in the state, he began his task and was privileged to witness the full fruition of his labors. Through his timely and persistent efforts the library of the grand lodge was established in its present permanent headquarters at Cedar Rapids in 1885. A fund of some $20,000 had been accumulated and this was wisely devoted to the erection of a large fire proof grand lodge museum and library building. The literary labors of Mr. Parvin which fall within the scope of these remarks have their greatest and best exemplar in the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, the whole of which he edited and compiled. In 1859-60 he edited the Western Freemason, at Muscatine and the Evergreen at Davenport in 1871-2. He was the editor of the Iowa department of Gouley's Magazine, published at St. Louis in 1873, and the author of Templarism in the United States, which forms one of the Addenda to the "American Edition" of my own History of Freemasonry.
In May, 1843, Mr. Parvin was united in marriage to Miss Agnes McCully, whose death a few years ago brought a burden of sorrow from which he never fully recovered. He is survived by three sons: Newton R., for many years his deputy and now his successor in office as grand secretary; Theodore W. and Frederick 0., who are engaged in railroad and mining engineering in Mexico; and Mrs. J. Walter Lee, of Chicago. A beautiful memorial window in Close Hall commemorates a daughter who died some years ago.
HENRY CLAY DEAN. Henry Clay Dean was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1822. He was a graduate of Madison College, Pennsylvania, taught for a time and studied law. In 1845 he joined the Methodist Episcopal conference of Vlrginia and began to preach in the mountain region of that state, where he remained for four years. In 1850 he removed to Iowa, locating at Pittsburg, Van Buren county, where he preached to the Keosauqua circuit, joining the Fairfield conference. It was a short time after that that he was stationed at Muscatine. He preached here but a short time but made a lasting impression. The Methodist church was not a large one at that time but Dean would fill it every Sunday. Through the influence of General George W. Jones, one of the first United States senators from Iowa, he was chosen as chaplain of the senate. He was one of the trustees of the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Mr. Dean was admitted to the bar but did not practice law. He was a public speaker of rare eloquence and was frequently invited to deliver lectures, among which was a Reply to Ingersoll, The Constitution, Declaration of Independence and many other topics. During the Civil war he was arrested for disloyal utterances and confined in prison for several months by order of government officials. Upon his release he wrote and published a book with the title Crimes of the Civil War. It was a bitter assault upon President Lincoln and the administration in the great work of subduing the rebellion. He removed to a farm in Putnam county, Missouri, which he named Rebel Cove. It was four miles from a station on the Burlington railroad, where a postoffice was named Dean. There he spent his last days, reading and writing. His great library was destroyed by fire at that place. He died on his farm in 1887, and thus passed a great character of hlstory.
PECULIARITY OF DRESS. One of the greatest peculiarities possessed by Dean was the manner in which he dressed. He was never "dressed up." Hls usual raiment conslsted of a pair of trousers coming to about four inches above his shoe tops. His shoes were of the coarsest leather. He wore a homespun shirt and a long linen duster, with one button at the top. On state occasions he wore a worn out and battered up silk hat. Around home he went barefooted most of the time and a hickory shirt and pair of overalls were all he had on. The story is told that at one time the graduating class of the State University at Iowa City invited him to make the annual address. They appeared in their best "bib and tucker," but were somewhat chagrined to find their orator attired in a homespun with no coat or vest, but a linen duster and a slouch hat. But when he arose before them and began to talk, all thoughts of the appearance of the man left and his mighty eloquence swayed the vast audience.
George E. Throop, but a recent resident of Muscatine, well remembers hearing Dean in the early '7os at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he spoke before the graduating class of the Iowa Wesleyan University. It was up in old Union Hall and the class, the students and the townspeople turned out en masse. Dean arrived late. He was in characteristic dress. He walked to the platform at the farther end of the hall and tossing his slouch hat in the corner, he began to talk. In a few minutes he walked to the side of the platform and leaned against the wall, with one hand in his pocket. And still he talked. His subject was Reminiscences of the United States Senate. After he got his subject fairly introduced, he launched into the true eloquence of the occasion. He had a wonderful memory and he quoted long paragraphs of the speeches that he had heard when in the senate. For two hours he held the closest attention of the audience, then he proposed to stop but the people would not hear to it and called for him to talk longer. He talked for three hours and then suddenly stopped by saying he had talked long enough. He picked up his hat from the floor and left the room, while people marveled at his eloquence.
John W. Palm, the present postmaster at Mt. Pleasant, was personally acquainted with Dean. He writes that he never knew a brighter man with a greater intelligence. He says that Dean regretted the publication of his book, Crimes of the Civil War, and once confessed that he wished every volume could be consigned to the flames. Mr. Palm says that it is the most bitter, caustic, malignant and vitriolic book that he ever read. Dean challenged Horace Greeley to a debate once and Greeley replied in his characteristic manner which offended Dean and he opened up his batteries of abuse on Old Horace, lashing him with a scorpious tongue. The correspondence was printed in this book of Dean's. Dean had a son by the name of Charles Dean, who still lives at Rebel Cove, Missouri. Mr. Palm writes that Dean was a noble man at the bottom, kind, chivalrous, honest, impulsive, brilliant and eccentric. He was one of the greatest historic characters of Iowa.
The following interesting recollections taken from a recent issue of the Kansas City Star will be of interest:
"Every old lawyer in the first and second circuits of Missouri was well acquainted with H. Clay Dean, the wonderfully vitriolic lawyer statesman of Putnam county," remarked John D. Smoot, of Memphis, Missouri. "Dean was an untamed 'rebel' and he lay awake nights coining sentences to convey his honest opinion of the fellows on the other side. The militia received his earnest and special attention. Of one blue coated captain he said: 'It would require a marvelous stretch of executive clemency on the part of the devil to tolerate him for the thousandth part of a second in hell.'
HIS HATRED INTENSE. "Of another, he thought the proper punishment would be to 'load him naked into a red hot cannon and shoot him through the brier bushes into hell further than a crow would fly in a year!'
"Dean was intensely specific in his castigations. He gave places, names and dates with amazing candor. Nothing was left to inference. If the Putnam county militia raided a hen house he gave the names of the parties involved and how many chickens fell to each one.f
"Besides being a master of vituperation, Dean could draw pictures that would make the angels weep. His voice was well modulated, and when he wanted to thrill he knew how to play the chords as no other platform artist I ever heard.
CONDEMNED TO DEATH. "About the middle of the Civil war, he visited Keokuk, Iowa. A strong militia guard was there and the members had writhed under the eccentric southerner's verbal lashes. They caught him shortly after dark. There was no trial. His death had been decreed many months before. They started with him to a high bluff, over the Mississippi. It was a moonlight night. Dean knew what he was up against and on reaching the place, took off his hat and raised his right hand. 'No speeches! throw him over!' cried the militiamen who did not want to risk his oratory.
"'I have no speeches to make, gentlemen,' Dean said quietly; 'just a little request here of the captain.'
"'Out with it and hurry,' the captain said.
"The man pulled out his watch.
"'This, captain,' he said, brokenly, 'is for my wife; the good woman back in old Missouri who has borne her part in my many troubles and few joys. Tonight she is kneeling at the hearthstone praying for her old helpmeet--that God will guard him and bring him back to her. Please, captain, give--give her this for me.'
"He passed his big hand across his thin hair wearily.
"'And this, lieutenant,' turning to another officer and handing him a jack-knife, 'I would bequeath through your care to my boy, a sunny haired little fellow of six; tomorrow night he will ride his hobby horse to the gate and wonder why papa doesn't come. He always wanted that knife, comrades, to make kite sticks and pigeon boxes. We're poor--very poor, gentlemen--and--and I--I couldn't buy him ready made toys.'
"The condemned man put his hands to his face and bent his head. The militia men released him and began moving off in the dark.
"'Dean,' said the captain, who was unsentimental, 'when you and Beelzebub meet to argue it out my sympathies are entirely with the devil. You can run along home now.'"
Josiah Proctor Walton was born at New Ipswich, Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, February 26, 1826, and died November 23, 1908. He was of Revoluntionary stock, his great-grandfather, Josiah Walton, having fought in the Revolutionary army at Bunker Hill, where he was severely wounded. Amos Walton with his wife and two sons, Josiah and John W., came to Muscatine county in June, 1838, settling three miles above Muscatine, at the hamlet then known as Geneva. Soon thereafter Amos Walton was appointed postmaster, which position he held until the time of his death, which occurred April 29, 1841. Mrs. Walton died January 25, 1880. From 1842 to 1847, Josiah was engaged in farming on Muscatine Island, after which he located in Muscatine, and having a fondness for tools, he soon developed into a first-class carpenter and builder, eventually branching out as an architect and builder, in which avocation he continued until his death. He put up many buildings of importance, the high school buildings of Muscatine and Wilton, the Episcopal church, and other structures. In 1857 he married Mary Elizabeth Barrows, a native of Oneida county, New York, who was also of Revolutionary stock, a woman of culture, refinement and high literary attainments. To them were born five children. For over forty years he took meteorological observations of Muscatine for the United States Signal Bureau, continuing the observations of Hon. T. S. Parvin, which had been taken by him for twenty-one years. Mr. Walton was the father of the levee on Muscatine Island. In 1864 he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood and received the vote of the Thirty-seventh I. V. I. for president and state officer, and for a time served as a director of the Muscatine Board of Trade. He was a charter member of the Muscatine Academy of Science and for a number of years its president. Mr. Walton also served in that capacity for the Old Settlers' Association many years. Taking a deep interest in the preservation of the history of Muscatine county, he carefully collected and preserved everything of interest written in relation thereto and today the public library, through Mr. Walton's efforts, has a magnificent and invaluable collection of data, preserved in book and scrapbook form. He was in fact a living encyclopedia of Muscatine events from its earliest history and it is due to his efforts that a great part of that history has been embodied in this work. He was one of the fathers of the republican party in the state of Iowa and one of twelve men to sign the call for the first republican convention of the state of Iowa. A member of the Trinity Episcopal church for many years, he took a deep interest in its welfare and was the author of a history of that old and famous church organization. Few citizens of this county were more widely known or highly respected than this worthy pioneer.
Judge Arthur Washburn came from New York state and located in Muscatine county in 1835. He was appointed to the first postmastership created in Muscatine county, while it was yet a part of old Des Moines county. This was in 1836. The office was located near "the mouth of Pine" and was called Iowa. The office was kept in a little trading store whose proprietor was Major William Gordon. In 1838 after Muscatine county had been regularly organized, Governor Lucas appointed Mr. Washburn judge of the probate court. The office of county judge was created in 1851 and Judge Washburn was elected to fill the position. This made him financial agent of the county as well as administrator. Besides the offices named, Judge Washburn filled other positions of trust to his own credit and the entire satisfaction of his constituency. His death occurred early in 1856.
In Drury township, Illinois, on the 11th of January, 1897, in the ninetieth year of his age, passed away Err Thornton, who came to Muscatine in July, 1834, and was the second permanent settler of Muscatine. On the 10th of May, 1834, he arrived on the prairie near New Boston, Illinois, and on the 4th of July following crossed the river at that place into Iowa. With his brothers, Lot and Levi, both of whom preceded him to the grave, he made a claim on the bluff about nine miles below what is now known as Muscatine. At the time of his arrival he was twenty-seven years of age. At the first public land sales in the territory, which took place in November of 1838 at Burlington, Err Thornton, John Vanatta and Aaron Usher as commissioners for the county of Muscatine, selected the quarter section of land on which the court house now stands. Err Thornton represented Muscatine county in the legislature which met in Iowa City, December 5, 1842. He was a man of prominence in the affairs of the early days of this section and up to the time of his death held the esteem of all who knew him. He was a fine specimen of manhood physically, standing six feet two and a half inches and weighing one hundred and seventy pounds.
William Leffingwell came to Muscatine county in 1836, almost at the very beginning of the town's history, where he at once began the labor of improving a farm in Wapsinonoc township. He became a resident of the town proper in 1844. He served as county commissioner, clerk of the county, justice of the peace, city treasurer and mayor, and left behind him a most honorable record.
A pioneer of Muscatine was Moses Couch, who settled here in 1836. In the original records of Bloomington is transcribed an abstract of the first election held in this place at the house of R. C. Kinney, May 6, 1839, which shows that Moses Couch was elected recorder, receiving twenty-nine of the thirty-nine votes polled. He was subsequently appointed city treasurer. He was a painter and glazer by trade, following the craft for many years. In religion he was an Episcopalian and in politics a stanch republican. He died September 23, 1879.
Colonel T. M. Isett came to Muscatine county in 1836. He was born in Huntington county, Pennsylvania, and died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Clara Marston, of New York city, on the 25th of July, 1883, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He early acquired large landed interests in Muscatine and during his residence continued to be the largest proprietor in real estate. The first business in pork packing was by Isett & Blaydes in 1844. In the spring of 1855 the banking concern of Isett & Brewster commenced business and continued ten years, when Colonel Isett removed to New York and became the head of the banking house of Isett, Kerr & Company. When he removed to New York from Muscatine he was estimated to be worth at least $200,000. Through speculation in Wall street his effects dwindled to almost nothing.
Adam Ogilvie was born in January, 1804, in Keith, Scotland. He came to the United States in the spring of 1836 and in company with relatives set out for the "far west," arriving in Muscatine, then a trading post, known as Bloomington, on the 1st of September of that year. Here he purchased several lots and established a home. In 1837 he opened a general store in a log cabin on Water street, the second mercantile house in Bloomington, the old trading post as the first. The log cabin was soon supplanted by a substantial two-story structure, the lower story of which he occupied as a store, using the upper floor as a residence. Thirteen years later on the same site he erected a brick building. Adam Ogilvie was enterprising and public-spirited and made many substantial improvements in Muscatine and its suburbs. In the early settlement of the county Mr. Ogilvie was the business agent of the county to receive payment and convey to purchasers tracts of land or lots belonging to the county. His death occurred on the 5th of February, 1865, in the sixty-first year of his age.
Suel Foster was born in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, August 26, 1811, and died January 21, 1886. He was raised on a farm and attended school. At the age of twenty he started out for himself, working on a farm near Rochester, New York, where with his brother he bought some merchandise which he peddled around to the country people, continuing in this pursuit for three years. After some months spent at Middlebury Academy he joined his brother, John H. Foster, in 1836 in a journey to the west. At St. Louis they separated, the brother going to Chicago and Suel to Rock Island. There he became acquainted with the noted Indian chief, Black Hawk, whose village was near, and he witnessed the crossing of the Mississippi by the Sacs and Fox tribes of Indians on their first removal to Iowa. That year he came down the river, accompanied by his brother, to where two log cabins marked the site of the city of Bloomington, now Muscatine, where they purchased an undivided one-sixth of the township for $500. The following year Suel fixed his residence at the place so indissolubly connected with his name. In 1842 he engaged in the grocery business, following the same for four years. In 1846 he married Sarah J., a sister of Hon. S. Clinton Hastings, and in the winter of 1849 escorted Judge Hastings' family to California, remaining there until 1850 as a clerk in the Sacramento postoffice and also as an assessor in taking the census of the state. The latter year he returned to Muscatine and established the "Fountain Hill Nursery" in one of the most beautiful suburbs of the city, which for many years was his home. It is difficult to pronounce upon the special benefactions of Suel Foster, which entitled his memory to the greatest public regard. He was the father of the Iowa State Agricultural College. His was the first voice and the first pen to demand this institution and it was by his advocacy of the measure that in 1856 the legislature passed the bill providing for the college. He was elected to the first board of trustees and acted as president of the board for five successive years. He was elected to directorships and other prominent offices of the State Agricultural and Horticultural Societies and his speeches and essays form not the least important part of the records and publications of those bodies. In Muscatine he figured largely in the organization and support of the Agricultural Society, County Grange and Farmers' County Alliance as a horticulturist. His name is well known throughout the state, but greater than all else is his fame as a western pioneer. He was a great moral force. His views upon slavery and temperance, court abuses, monopolies and other wrongs of the day were forceful and always right. He early became a member of the Congregational church of Muscatine, one of the associate members of the Scientific Club and as a local historian he had no superior. It is not necessary to go into a brilliant sketch of Mr. Foster's life, for by perusal of this history from cover to cover the reader will discover that Suel Foster was a predominant factor in the affairs of this community over a half century.
One of the first settlers in Bloomington was David R. Warfield, who was born at Eastern Shore, Maryland, March 19, 1816, and died in April, 1872. Mr. Warfield came here with his cousin Charles in 1837 and purchased all that tract of land north of the east part of the city from Eighth street, for one mile back, and from a few rods west of the Iowa City road a mile east, including about one-half of the Chester Weed farm. In the spring of 1838 Asbury and David Warfield built a sawmill on Mad creek, where considerable lumber was sawed. In 1841 he married Miss Josephine Steinberger. He was a man who exerted a wide and beneficial influence. The last years of his life were devoted to farming. His wife was a niece of Governor Lucas and filled a most enviable and desirable place in society in early times. She came to Bloomington in 1840, and died January 8, 1875.
Pliny Fay died at Santa Cruz, California, August 14, 1886, when seventy-five years of age. He was among the earliest settlers of Muscatine, coming here in 1837. He bore a prominent and influential part in the social, business, political and religious movements in this community from the time of his arrival until the fall of 1873, when he went to California. He filled many important positions of trust and while a resident of Iowa was United States assessor for this district under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson but he is best remembered as "Deacon" Fay, having held that position of trust in the Congregational church for many years. Deacon Fay figured very largely in the early history of Muscatine.
Colonel George W. Kincaid was born in West Union, Adams county, Ohio, April 24, 1812, and died October 24, 1876, at his home on the farm near this city. He was of Revolutionary stock, his grandfather having been one of the first to take up arms against the British, serving in the engagement on the crest of Bunker Hill by the side of General Warren. Colonel Kincaid was a tanner by trade and followed that pursuit until twenty-seven years of age, when he came to Muscatine county in 1838 with his wife, and settled upon land on High Prairie, in Seventy-Six township. About twenty-five years before his death he purchased his well known place on the Slough road, about three miles below the city, which was his home during the remainder of his life. When the Civil war came on, the famous Thirty-seventh Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry was raised at his instance and specially commissioned by the secretary of war. He became its colonel. This regiment was known as the "Graybeards" and acquired a national reputation, from its being composed of men whose ages averaged nearly sixty years. After the war the Colonel settled upon his farm. His wife was Louisa Steinberger, a niece of Governor Lucas. He was the father of five children.
John A. Parvin came to Muscatine April 18, 1839, from New Jersey, where he had taught school for several years. No school or church graced the life of the community of his adoption. To show the spirit of the new immigrant and the little delay in getting to his work, a Sunday school was opened a month following his arrival, and in July was organized a Methodist Episcopal church of seven members, of which he was one. A day school soon followed, Mr. Parvin teaching in one log cabin and living in another. In April, 1840, he purchased the business and variety stock of Adam Ogilvie and conducted a general store for four years. In 1844 Mr. Parvin was appointed clerk of the district court and elected to that office in 1846, when Iowa became a state. In the meantime he occupied himself with civil engineering and surveying. While prostrated with cholera he was informed of his election on the democratic ticket to the general assembly of Iowa in 1850. At this session of the assembly he prepared and conducted the final passage of the bill changing the name of Bloomington to that of Muscatine. In 1854 he was elected as temperance candidate for mayor of Muscatine and by the last of July of that year every saloon in the place was closed. In 1855 Mr. Parvin returned to a farm in Sweetland township, three miles from Muscatine. The following year he was elected to the constitutional convention which met in 1857 and assisted in framing the present constitution of the state. He was chairman of the convention and was appointed chairman of the important legislative committee. Among the provisions reported and carried by him is the one providing for biennial sessions of the legislature at its meeting on the 1st of January. In 1863 Mr. Parvin was elected to the state senate to fill a vacancy and was elected to the full term of four years in 1865. One of the measures introduced by him was a bill creating the Reform School of Iowa, now known as the Industrial School. For many years Mr. Parvin was the leading trustee of this institution. He served also on the committee for the erection of the Orphans' Home. He died March 16, 1887.
Cyrus Hawley was born in Norfolk, Connecticut, in 1808, and died in 1877. In 1840 he came to Muscatine and joined his brother-in-law, Dr. William Wilson, of Pittsburg, in a speculation which proved disastrous, losing everything that he had. In 1850, having accumulated a few hundred dollars, he built a brickyard, where he manufactured brick until 1857. He then spent six years on a farm, after which he returned to Muscatine and established a fire and life insurance agency, which became one of the leading concerns of the city. Written on a slip, pasted in one of J. P. Walton's valuable scrap books, is the following: "Mr. Hawley built the distillery in Whiskey Hollow in 1840. It was probably the first one in Iowa."
Ansel Humphreys came to Bloomington in the spring of 1840 and was addressed as "General," from the fact that he had gained that title by a commission of major general in the Connecticut militia. He was one of the active men of the early settlement of Bloomington and in 1851 was appointed United States commissioner for the state of Iowa, which position he held until the date of his death. He was widely known as a prominent Mason and filled the highest positions known to the craft. When in 1844 the grand lodge of Iowa was formed, he presided over the convention and drafted the constitution of the present grand lodge. He was three times elected grand master, besides serving as grand secretary and grand senior warden. He died April 27, 1872.
Chester Weed was one of the energetic and prosperous business men of early Muscatine. He was a son of Dr. Benjamin Weed, who emigrated from the old town of Canton, Kentucky, to Muscatine, in 1839. Chester followed his father in 1841 and was for some time engaged as clerk in the store of Joseph Bennett. In 1840 he formed a partnership with hls brother-in-law, Joseph Bridgman. The well known firm of Weed, Bridgman & Company was one of the great mercantile houses of the city of that day. He was a man of superior business attainments and in 1858, when the State Bank was organized, was called to the presidency of the institution, where he remained until 1860. He was a director ot the Muscatine branch of the State Bank from its beginning and also a director of the Muscatine National Bank from its organization to the day of his death. Mr. Weed was a very popular man in the business and social life of the community. He was widely known in this section as a great buyer of stock and grain. Chester Weed married Cora Chaplain July 31, 1873, and for a wedding trip went to Europe.
John Heller was a citizen of Muscatine in 1842. He came from Iowa City, where he had spent about one year. He was a native of Charlestown, West Virginia, born May 17, 1815. He died June 17, 1878.
February 23, 1886, occurred the death of Cornelius Cadle, who came to Muscatine in 1843, in company with his brother Richard and family. He soon became actively interested in the affairs of the community and built the first steam sawmill in Muscatine on the site occupied by the Muscatine Lumber Company's planing mill, and which he operated for many years. He subsequently went into the lumber business, in which he remained until he retired from active business pursuits. As a member of the Academy of Science he contributed many and rare specimens found by himself.
General John G. Gordon was a resident of Muscatine county in 1844, locating in Muscatine in the spring of that year. He opened a general store in a frame building and eventually built a brick block, where for many years the firm of J. G. Gordon & Company held forth. In his business relations he ranked with the pioneers of the city and best known and prominent and influential men in the state. His trade commanded a sweep of country taking in a radius of one hundred to one hundred and forty miles, and his large establishment was known as one of the finest and most extensive in the west. The title of general was bestowed upon him in 1874 by Governor Ansel Briggs of Iowa. The commission was dated at Iowa City, June 27, 1847, and appointed him to the command of the Second Division, Iowa Militia. He was one of the oldest and most esteemed of Masons. General Gordon was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 16, 1810, and died January 30, 1877.
Franklin Thurston came to Muscatine in December, 1844, and for many years was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was a quiet, unassuming, courteous gentleman and had many friends. Mr. Thurston died May 27, 1878.
James Mahin came to Muscatine with the Mahin family in 1847 and resided here to the time of his death, which occurred December 9, 1877. At quite an early age he began work in the office of the Journal as a carrier boy, then as compositor. He eventually branched out as a reporter and finally became associate editor with his brother, John Mahin, with whom he remained until the time of his death. Mr. Mahin in 1862 became a member of the Twenty-fifth Regiment of Iowa Volunteers but was soon after discharged at Cairo on account of illness. In 1871, while making a tour of Europe, his letters home to the Journal were always looked forward to and read with much interest. He married Miss Emma Lillibridge in 1873. There were no children.
William Dill came to Muscatine in 1854 and engaged in the real-estate business up to the breaking out of the Civil war, at which time he was made city marshal, in which position he continued until 1862. In the latter year he engaged in recruiting Company D, Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry, of which he was commissioned captain. For his bravery and gallant service he was promoted and commissioned major. He was mustered out in 1865 and in 1867 filled the office of city collector. In 1869 he was appointed state agent of the treasury department at New Orleans. In the following year he was inspector of customs at Aspinwall and in 1872 was appointed vice consul at that port. In 1874 he returned to Muscatine, where he lived the remainder of his days.
Samuel Lucas located four miles west of Muscatine in 1838. He lived on the same farm all his life. His death occurred in 1878.
William Chambers with his family came to Muscatine in the spring of 1836, but was preceded a few weeks by his son Vincent with whom he settled on a farm six miles from the new village. In 1866 he retired from the farm and passed the remainder of his days with Vincent in Muscatine. His death occurred in December, 1874, at the age of eighty-one years.
William St. John was a pioneer of 1836, and for many years was the junior member of the mercantile firm of Ogilvie & St. John. He was enterprising and progressive in his business views and was associated with many improvements of the early days here. His death occurred at Morrison, Illinois, April 18, 1874.
George Bumgardner came to Muscatine in 1837 and was the first county surveyor. He also taught the first school in the community, although the distinction has often been given to John Parvin. He laid out, in his capacity as surveyor, the boundary lines of Bloomington, now Muscatine, after the formal purchase. He was also one of the founders of the Methodist church here.
In the summer of 1838 General J. E. Fletcher located in Muscatine, coming from Vermont. He was one of the delegates who framed the state constitution and for eleven years was Indian agent for the Winnebago tribe. The General returned to Muscatine in 1858 and died in 1872.
Isaac Magoon was of the number who came in 1839. He died in 1846.
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