A. S. CHURCHILL
A. S. Churchill, one of the prominent attorneys of Atlantic, was born in Erie county. New York in 1846, his parents being, L. M. and Eliza (Smith) Churchill. His parents moved to Green county, Wisconsin in 1848, where A. S. was reared to manhood, receiving his education in Evansviile seminary previous to the war. In 1862 he enlisted in company A, Twenty-second Volunteer Infantry, and participated in a number of important engagements. During the entire war he was with the Army of the Cumberland, and was taken prisoner on the 3d of March, 1862, during the battle of Spring Hill. He was then taken to Libby Prison, where he was confined for five and a half months, being then exchanged and rejoining his regiment at Camp Benton, St. Louis. He also took part in the battle of Chickamauga, and was with Sherman in his march to the sea. He was discharged June 28, 1865, at Washington, D. C, after the grand review, in which he participated. On September 8th of the same year he entered the University of Chicago (better known as Douglas University), and graduated in the June class of 1868. During his last two years in the university he studied for his profession, and in March, 1868, was admitted to the bar at Newton, Jasper county, Iowa, where his parents had removed two years previously. He remained in Jasper county until March, 18U9, when he moved to Atlantic and embarked in the real estate business; and commenced the practice of his profession in 1872, and had been eminently successful. Mr. Churchill was married February 22, 1869, to Miss Orlena C. Murphy, a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and who was born October 23, 1848. By this marriage there are two children--Amy E, born March 10, 1869, and Zetta B., born November 17, 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Churchill are members of the Baptist church, Mr. C. having been a member of the Sabbath school for twelve years. He was the first superintendent of the school, and to him is due much of the credit for its organization. He was the first city clerk of Atlantic, and has always taken an active part in the welfare of the city, and in all matters pertaining to the purity of the city government.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 385.
