H. H. Trimble during his period was, in my opinion, the best trial lawyer in Iowa; and this period was actively continued for an unusual length of time--for sixty years, and until near his death. He was born in Rush County, Indiana, in 1827, and died at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1910, at the age of eighty-three. He was always, from the beginning to the end, a Democrat of the old school, and upon him were often conferred the highest public honors of his party. He studied law with the eminent Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, and came to Bloomfield, Iowa, and entered upon the practice in 1850. He was the earliest lawyer of state-wide distinction in Davis County. He was among the first lawyers I became acquainted with on my admission to the bar, in 1857, and from that time, excepting the period of his military service in the War of the Rebellion, through the course of many years, there was not a session of our court at Ottumwa that he did not attend, and for the period of four years he was the Judge of our District. To look at Henry Trimble, as Judge Knapp used to call him, you might have failed to see amid the lines of that furrowed face, any signs of pathos or eloquence, but I have seen him on two or three occasions in the olden times, exhibit powers that would hastily change your mind. He was a soldier in the Mexican War; a colonel in the great Civil War, and bore on his face the marks of that conflict. He was one of the foremost judges forty years ago, though his chiefest distinction was that of a trial lawyer, rather than that of a judge. This was but natural from the fact that one role was so strong that it greatly overshadowed the other. Judge Trimble formerly lived in Bloomfield, in Davis County, but in later years he removed to Keokuk, where he ably represented the interests of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company and there was scarcely an important case in Iowa concerning that Company, in which he did not take part.

Judge Trimble was tall, spare, and a casual observer would likely think him somewhat delicate physically, but this would be a mistake, for scarcely any man

Added 4/3/2023

*****

History of Davis County, Iowa.

Des Moines: Iowa Historical Company, 1882

pp. 639-40 

TRIMBLE, HENRY HOFFMAN, is of remote German descent, his parents, John Trimble and Elizabeth Hoffman, having Teutonic blood in their veins. His grandfather was a soldier of the revolution. During is boyhood, his father, who was a carpenter and farmer, lived successively in Rush, Decatur and Shelby counties, Indiana, where Henry farmed until sixteen years old. He received his education in Franklin College, in the State University at Bloomington, and in Asbury University at Greencastle, graduating from the last named institution, July 21, 1847. He defrayed all his own expenses, by teaching and other work. From college he went directly into the Mexican war, serving one year in the Fifth Indiana Volunteers, James H. Lane, Colonel. On his return he read law, first with Eden H. Davis, of Shelbyville, then with Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks. His father came to Iowa in 1848, and he followed, a year later, coming to Bloomfield, and was admitted to the bar April 29, 1850, by Hon, J. F. Kinney, at Keosauqua, and in a very few years taking a high position in the profession. He was county attorney from 1851 to 1855, and State Senator from 1855 to 1859, being at the last session held at Iowa City, and the first held at Des Moines. In July 1861, he entered the army as lieutenant colonel of the Third Iowa Cavalry, and served till the 9th of September 1862, when he was discharged on account of wound in the face, at battle of Pea Ridge. In October 1862, Colonel Trimble was elected district judge of the second district, and served four years. Judge Trimble was president of the St Louis and Cedar Rapids R. R. Company during the building of the road north to Ottumwa, and also assisted in building the Burlington and Southwestern. Judge Trimble has a National as well as State reputation, as a democratic politician. He was twice a candidate for the Supreme Court, once before the legislature, and once before the people, in 1863. Was a candidate for congress, in the first district, against Gen. Curtis, reducing the usual republican majority more than 1,200 votes, and in 1872, ran for the same office, against Wm. Loughridge, and ran 5,000 votes ahead of Horace Greeley, presidential candidate. Judge T. has been president of the State Bar Association, and stands at the head of the profession in Iowa, He was the democratic candidate for governor, in 1879, against John H. Gear, republican. The Judge is a member of the Masonic order, and is a beliver in Christianity, although not belonging to any church. He was married at Shelbyville, Indiana, April 5,1849, to Miss Emma M. Carruthers, a native of Wheeling, West Virginia. They have five children, all living, Palmer, the eldest, is married, and a member of the firm of Trimble, Carruthers & Trimble. Mr. Carruthers being a brother-in-law of the Judge, and his partner since 1867. The second son, Frank K., is studying for the profession.

*****

Proceedings of the ... Iowa State Bar Association.

Iowa City, IA: the association, 1910.

pp.216-21

                                                JUDGE HENRY HOFFMAN TRIMBLE, OF LEE COUNTY. 1822-1910.

 Judge Henry Hoffman Trimble was born May 22, 1822, in Dearborn county, Indiana, and died January 9, 1910.

     He was educated at Asbury University, now DePauw, and State University of Indiana, doing his work as a law student in the office of Thomas A. Hendricks and Eden H. Davis. He was admitted to the bar at Keosauqua, Iowa, in April 1850, and this year commenced the practice of the law at Bloomfield, Iowa, the whole of his professional life being spent at Bloomfield, Iowa, and Keokuk. He was county attorney of Davis county, state senator, judge of the district court and general attorney for the C. B. & Q. R. R. company.

                                                [From The Gate City, Keokuk, January 16, 1910.]

     Judge H. H. Trimble died at 9 o'clock Sunday evening, of pneumonia, painlessly and in the harness, as he desired to die. Thus ended a life of about eighty-six years, which has seldom been excelled, even in this America of remarkable biography, as an example of overcoming difficulties and rising from the mass, by sheer pluck and brains, to the heights of public position and honor. He came to Keokuk in 1882, and was one of the list of noted men who have belonged to Keokuk; but he also belonged to the whole state of Iowa, the American legal profession, and the veterans of the civil war, for each of which he made history enough to make one man's biography worth while. His parents were hardy pioneers in the young state of Indiana. They were living on a farm in Dearborn county when Henry Hoffman Trimble was born, and soon after moved to Rush county, and later to Shelby county, then an unsettled part of Indiana, where they cleared a farm in the big woods. On this farm the boy lived until he was fourteen years old.

      He went to school some winters in a little log school house, and at that early age, just into his teens, had a wonderful ambition tomake a man worth while of himself. The boy of fourteen sold a cherished horse, given him by his grandfather, and used the money to go to school six months at Shelbyville, a small town, but a metropolis of the frontier. Somehow, he managed to finance a term of another six months school at Woodsfield, Ohio, where he had relatives. Then, aged sixteen, he taught school in Bartholomew county, Indiana, and with the savings bought a term or two of instruction at a little pioneer college at Franklin, Indiana. The resourcefulness of this boy, seen later in the same resourcefulness of the leading lawyer and successful politician, was demonstrated back there by the fact that young Trimble studied music at the Franklin College, and the next year or two made his expenses at the state university by teaching music to those who knew less about it than he did

     The determination and force of the man was forecast back there. For two years at the Indiana State University, young Trimble kept bachelor's hall, boarded in a cheap club of equally poverty- stricken students, and managed to live on an outlay of from forty-five to sixty cents per week for food, which plus books and room rent made up his expense account. He raised this by teaching music, to the students, during the college year, and to the people of central Indiana during the summer vacations Some who afterwards were big men in the Hoosier state were pupils at his singing schools. Hon. Joseph I. Irwin of Columbus, for instance.

     His class went in a body from the state university to Asbury university, now DePauw, which graduated him in '47. When he rose from the country, isolated, log school to the wider field of the college with its competitions, Henry Hoffman Trimble took the high rank which he maintained ever after in the university of the world. He took scholastic honors, was popular among the students, and was admitted into the Beta Theta Pi society, which marked the greatest college student success in both the universities he attended. This brought him in very close contact with a small, closely-knit body of youth, nearly all of whom afterward became very famous men; they were an inspiration to one another and young Henry H. Trimble was already full of ambition and inspiration to succeed. Having fought with fate to his graduation from college, he at once, after receiving his diploma, enlisted in the Fifth Indiana volunteers and served in that regiment for the year that elapsed before the close of the Mexican war.

     Returning from Mexico, he taught school in Shelbyville, Indiana, while he studied law with Thomas A. Hendricks and Eden H. Davis, one of his preceptors afterward becoming senator from Indiana and candidate for vice-president. During all this time, Iowa was in the early stages of its making. Having completed his studies in a law office, Mr. Trimble came to Iowa, in 1850, arriving at Bloomfield in February, and being admitted to the Iowa bar in April. His capacity for leadership was so apparent at this stage of his career, that six months after he arrived west of the Mississippi he was elected county attorney. He was reflected in 1852.

      Naturally, to one who knows the man, or studies his character, he was more or less in politics ever after. He was never a place- seeker; the people and his party drafted his services as a candidate to help his party ticket; he always reduced the majority of the opposing party; he was practically always in the minority party, but in the minority always won results worth while, although the fact kept him from holding the high offices which surely would have been his, could any democrat in Iowa get them.

     That Judge Trimble was sincere and a fighter for principles he believed to be right is proved by his remaining in the minority party of Iowa, when he had numerous opportunities to gracefully move over and improve his personal fortunes. But he stayed in the democracy and fought many a losing fight.

       In Davis county, however, a democrat could be elected; after his service as county attorney. Mr. Trimble was elected state senator in 1856, sitting in the last legislature to meet at Iowa City and the first to convene in Des Moines.

      After returning from his brilliant service in the civil war, he was elected judge of the district court for the district which extended a hundred miles along the turbulent Missouri border. He held court fearlessly, some times with the court room full of armed men bent on the conviction of one prisoner or the releaseof another. Once a company of militia undertook to rescue their captain and lieutenant under indictment for murder; once a crowd of armed men tried to prevent the release of a man on habeas corpus; the officers were tried on the indictment, and the other man was released on habeas corpus proceedings. That is the kind of a judge he was.

      Previously to this, he was the democratic candidate for congress against Samuel R. Curtis, then a congressman, and reduced the majority of Curtis 1200 votes.  As soon as the civil war was over he was nominated by the democrats for supreme justice of Iowa, in 1865. In 1872 he ran for congress again and reduced the republican majority 5,000, but failed of election. In 1876, he was a delegate at large to the St. Louis convention, which nominated Tilden and his old preceptor, Hendricks. In 1879, he was unanimously nominated as the democratic candidate for governor of Iowa. In 1880, he was a delegate to the convention which nominated Hancock for president. In 1884, he was a delegate at large from Iowa to the convention at which he had much to do with the nomination of Grover Cleveland.

      In the councils of his party he was prominent and efficient for many years, and the democracy of Iowa owes him much. When the civil war came, Judge Trimble instantly realized conditions and his duty—and he never in his life swerved from what he believed to be his duty.

     In 1861 he had a leading part in organizing the Third Iowa cavalry, of which he was made lieutenant colonel. He at once devoted himself to the task of making trained soldiers out of the raw recruits by establishing a system of military instruction which he kept up to the end. Being a natural teacher and devoted to this work, he made his regiment one of the best drilled in the federal armies.

      He was always a fighter, in politics and at the bar as well as in the war. After serving with brilliancy with his regiment through much fighting, he led the celebrated charge of his regiment down a lane bordered with brush and a fence overgrown with weeds which a newspaper correspondent at the battle of Pea Ridge likened to the charge of the six hundred at Balaklava.

     There he was severely wounded in the face. It was March 7, 1862. The surgeons said he had to leave the army.

     Coming back in Bloomfield, he served on the bench and led a forlorn hope for congress, and then began to build a railroad for the benefit of his home town. It was an extension of the old Northern Missouri railroad which he organized to run to Cedar Rapids through Ottumwa and Bloomfield. He was its first president and built the road to Ottumwa. It is now part of the "Wabash system.

     In 1878, he became attorney for the Burlington company and remained in its service to the day of his death. Last Tuesday, he started to Jefferson City to try an important case for it; at Saint Louis, where he was delayed by a late train, he took sick, reluctantly, he was persuaded to return to Keokuk, last Friday night. It was his last illness.  In 1881, he was made general attorney for Iowa for the Burlington road and the following year moved to Keokuk as a better place for the legal headquarters. As a railroad attorney, Judge Trimble was distinguished in railroad history, and at the same time he held the confidence of the people.

      As a member of the bench and bar of Iowa, he was beloved by all the younger attorneys who came in contact with him.  One of the most celebrated of California lawyers was sick and penniless in Iowa in the old days, when Judge Trimble found him utterly discouraged and preparing for death. Judge Trimble gave him several hundred dollars and told him to go out west and get well.

     Hon. W. W. Baldwin, vice-president of the Burlington now, wrote Judge Trimble only a few weeks ago to express high appreciation of the kindliness of the latter to young lawyers and said that Judge Trimble was his Mentor in the law. Many less distinguished lawyers can say the same thing. He was always ready to take time to help any lawyer with legal lore or advice.

      Among his other activities, Judge Trimble engaged in farming and banking. He owned fine farms, totaling nearly 1,200 acres near Bloomfield, Edina, Missouri, and Keokuk. He was president of the State Bank of Albia, the State Bank of Bloom- field, and the State Bank of Keosauqua.  It goes without saying that the man who did all this was a man of remarkable force.

      He was a man of fine physique, fine brain fibre and fine character, and the pneumonia seized him. He constantly walked, not only between his home and his office, but also took long pedestrian tours all over the country around Keokuk. He always walked a certain number of miles each week; and the number was not diminished with advancing years.

      This strong body containing his very strong mind, had much to do with the remarkable output of his brain. Judge Trimble attended the Episcopal church and was a Knight Templar. His life was a demonstration of practical Christianity lived out.

      He was married in 1849 at Shelbyville, Indiana, to Miss Emma M. Carruthers. Mrs. Trimble survives him, with one son, Palmer Trimble, the law associate of his father, and three daughters, Mrs. 0. D. Wray, of Bloomfield, Mrs. O. S. Stanbro, of Keokuk, and Miss Helen Trimble.

      At a meeting of the bar of his home county, held in the city of Keokuk, on January 11, 1910, after a recital of Judge Trimble 's history and his achievements, the following was adopted:

       The members of the Keokuk Bar with a deep sense of personal loss hereby:

       Resolve, That we extend to the mourning and bereaved widow and family of Judge Henry H. Trimble, our deepest and most sincere sympathy; that this memorial as an appreciation of his life and services, be petitioned to be spread upon the permanent records of the District and Superior Courts of Iowa in and for Lee County, and the United States Circuit Court for the southern district of Iowa; and that the members of the bar of Lee county attend the funeral in a body.

Back to sketches

Copyright © Davis County IAGenWeb. All rights reserved.

/