C. F. LOOFBOUROW
Judge Reed was re-elected to this office [District Judge for the 13th District] in 1876, and in 1880, and remained upon the bench until January 1, 1884, when having been elected one of the judges of the supreme court of Iowa, he resigned the inferior position. The governor thereupon appointed C. F. Loofbourow, of Cass county, the then circuit judge, to the vacant seat upon the bench of the district court, a position which he now occupies.
Judge Charles F. Loofbourow stands among the most prominent men in Cass county, or indeed, in southwestern Iowa. He is a native of the Buckeye State, having been born in Knox county, Ohio, September 4, 1842. His father, John W., who was a millwright by trade, was of English-German descent. He died in Licking county, Ohio. His mother, Mary (Plumb), was of an American family, her parents being Connecticut people. Charles F. spent his early boyhood days in the village of Batemantown, Ohio, and from there went to Chesterfield, Warren county. Here he received his common school education and having a natural taste for the law, he borrowed law books, and commenced the foundation of his legal learning. On the death of his father, the care of the family, including four sisters and a younger brother, devolved upon him, in addition to the task of preparing for his entry to the bar, and his duties as teacher, by which means he earned his support. In 1865 he decided to remove to Iowa, and in the same year took up his residence in Marshall county, where he obtained employment at clerking in a store. He also studied law there with Henderson and Binford. The first named member of this firm is now judge of that district. He spent two years studying law there, one year with the firm mentioned, and the remainder of the time at his home. As a result of his labors, he was admitted to practice by Judge Chase, of Webster City, in the spring of 1868. He then started out to find a location, and soon brought up in Lewis, this county. Here he stayed about three weeks, and failing to find office room, went to Grove City, which, at that time, was thought to be the place where the Rock Island railroad would locate its station. That was in the summer of 1868. He opened an office in Grove City, but, finding that the hopes for the future of that town had been shattered by the starting of the new town of Atlantic, he removed to this place, and was among Atlantic's early attorneys, coming in the spring of 1869. He soon attained a flattering practice, and took his position in the front ranks of the profession. In 1876 he was chosen by the Republican convention as the candidate of the party, for the position of circuit judge, and at the election of that year received a very large majority of the votes of the people. This position he held for seven years, at the end of which time (January 1, 1884), be was appointed by Governor Sherman to the district judgeship of the thirteenth district, to fill the vacancy left by Judge Reed, when he was advanced to the supreme bench. He has been again elevated to the position of judge of the thirteenth district, at the November election, 1884. In the Masonic order he is a Knight Templar, and was Master of the Blue Lodge here a number of terms, besides holding all the other principal offices in that lodge. He is comfortably supplied with this world's goods, having considerable property in Cass county, a pretty residence at the corner of Fifth and Oak, the grounds covering a quarter of a block, and other property. He is also a stockholder in the Cass county bank. Judge Loofbourow was in the service of the Union during the civil war, having enlisted in company I, 136th Ohio, in the hundred day service. At the expiration of this time, he applied for re-enlistment, but was rejected on account of disability. He was married in the spring of 1870, to Miss Hannah Hodgkins, a native of New Hampshire, but reared in Massachusetts. They have four children, all boys, whose names are - John W., Chas. F., Jesse H. and Leon.
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. 378-379.
