1903 Index

History of Iowa From the Earliest Times To The Beginning of the Twentieth Century
Volume IV, Iowa Biography, B. F. Gue, 1903.

F

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Becke Dawson.

SAMUEL H. FAIRALL was born at Little Meadows, Allegheny County, Maryland, on the 21 st of June, 1835. He was educated in the public schools and at an academy of Fayette County, studied law, located at Iowa City in 1855, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court in 1856. He has been an active politician in the Democratic party, serving as a delegate to the Philadelphia and New York National Conventions for the nomination of candidates for President. In 1861 he was elected a Representative in the Ninth General Assembly, serving one term. In 1867 he was elected to the State Senate, serving eight years by reelection, being a member of the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth General Assemblies. In 1886 he was elected judge of the District Court, and was reelected in 1890. From 1868 to 1873 he was a member of the Board of Legal Inquiry with W. H. Seevers and J. O. Crosby. While a member of the General Assembly Judge Fairall was the author of several important acts. He is the author of a Reference Digest of Iowa Reports, and a work on Township Laws of Iowa.

DAVID S. FAIRCHILD was born in Fairfield, Vermont, September 16, 1847. He attended the academies of Franklin and Barre, after which he studied medicine in the University of Michigan, and Albany, New York. Going west after graduation, he was appointed physician to the Iowa Agricultural College and in 1870 was elected professor of physiology and comparative anatomy which position he held until 1893. He then resigned to accept the position of surgeon for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway; later he was made district surgeon, and in 1897 was appointed special examining surgeon for the Milwaukee Railway. In 1882 he was elected professor of histology and pathology in the Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons in Des Moines, and in 1885 was transferred to the chair of pathology and diseases of the nervous system; in 1886 he was given the chair of theory and practice. He served two years as president of the college. Dr. Fairchild has always taken an active interest in medical organizations, serving as an officer of the District Medical Society, in 1895 as president of the State Medical Society, and has also been president of the Western Surgical and Gynecological Association. He was a delegate to the International Medical Congress in 1876; assisted in the organization of the Iowa Academy of Sciences, and was chairman of the committee appointed by the State Medical Society to prepare a history of medicine in Iowa.

SEWELL S. FARWELL was born in Ohio, April 20, 1834, came to Iowa in 1852 and made his home in Jones County. When the Civil War began he entered the military service and was commissioned captain of Company H, of the Thirty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry and before the close of the war was promoted to major. He participated in the battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Sherman 's March to the Sea. In 1865 he was elected on the Republican ticket to represent Jones County in the State Senate, serving four years. In 1869 he was appointed by President Grant Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Second District of Iowa for the term of four years. In February, 1875, he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue, serving six years, in the same district. In 1880 he was nominated by the Republicans for Representative in Congress and was elected, serving one term.

ORAN FAVILLE, first Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa, was born in Herkimer County, New York, October 13, 1817. He was reared on a farm, received a liberal education, having graduated at the Wesleyan University of Connecticut in 1844. For many years he was instructor in ancient languages in varous seminaries in New York and Vermont. While Professor of languages in Lebanon College, Illinois, his health failed and he removed to a farm in Mitchell County, Iowa, in 1855. In 1857 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State on the Republican ticket, that office having been created by the Constitution just adopted. He became President of the Senate and ex-officio President of the State Board of Education. In January, 1864, he was chosen secretary of the board and in March was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, serving until 1867. Mr. Faville was president of the State Teachers' Association in 1864-5 and editor of the Iowa School Journal from 1863 to 1867. He died on the 31 st of October, 1872.

JOSEPH D. FEGAN is one of the pioneers of Iowa, having lived in the State since 1849. He was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1831, and had but few educational advantages, learning the tailor's trade when fourteen years of age. In 1849 he came West, and stopped at Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa. In 1850 he removed to Princeton, Scott County, and later settled in Clinton County. In 1862 Mr. Fegan enlisted as a private in Company I, Twenty-sixth Iowa Volunteers and was promoted to sergeant-major, participating in twenty-one engagements and several sieges. He was in the battles of Arkansas Post, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain and in the sieges of Vicksburg, Atlanta and Savannah and the march to the sea. Mr. Fegan was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment in 1863, and later became captain of company B, of the regiment. He was commissioned by President Lincoln Assistant Adjutant-General in the regular army. He was chairman of the Commission appointed by Governor Jackson to locate and mark the position of Iowa troops engaged in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge and was also one of the commissioners appointed by Governor Shaw to locate and mark the lines of Iowa troops at the siege of Vicksburg. Captain Fegan was formerly a Democrat but since the Civil War has affiliated with the Republicans.

LIBERTY E. FELLOWS was born at Corinth, Vermont, August 22, 1834. His education was acquired in the common schools and academies of Orange County. In 1857 he removed to Iowa, locating near Lansing, where for several years he was engaged in farming and school teaching. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1862 and entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1865 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the House of the Eleventh General Assembly. At the close of his term he was elected to the Senate, serving in the Twelfth and Thirteenth General Assemblies. In 1889 Mr. Fellows was appointed judge of the District Court to fill a vacancy, and has been three times elected for full terms in the same position. He was for twelve years a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital for Insane at Mount Pleasant and many years a regent of the State University. He was two years Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Iowa. In 1883, Judge Fellows united with the Republican party.

STEPHEN N. FELLOWS, theologian and educator, was born May 30, 1830, in North Sandwich, New Hampshire. His early educational advantages were meager; at the age of eighteen he entered Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, Illinois, but for lack of means was unable to continue his studies beyond the fourth term. In 1851 he entered Asbury, now De Pauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, where he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1854. Previous to his graduation he was made professor of mathematics and natural science at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. In 1856 he joined the Upper Iowa Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1860 resigned his professorship and entered the ministry, having charge of churches at Dyersville, Tipton, Lyons and Marshalltown. In 1867, by a unanimous vote, Dr. Fellows was elected principal of the Normal Department of the State University, holding the position for twenty years. When he began his work, the State had neither made provision for any higher normal course nor planned to do so; but Dr. Fellows recognized the need of this higher education of teachers and it was largely through his influence that the standard of the department was raised. In 1873 through the efforts of Dr. Fellows the elementary normal department was formed and became the chair of didactics and united with that of mental and moral science. For six years this was the only chair of didactics in any American college or university. Dr. Fellow was president of the State Teachers' Association in 1869 and 1872. He has had great influence in State temperance work, his open letters on the subject attracting wide attention. He was at one time president of the State Temperance Alliance. In 1871 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Cornell College. In 1891 he was a delegate to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference at Washington and in 1893 was a member of the Advisory Council of Religions at Chicago. He was a leader in organizing the Indian Rights Association of Iowa.

ANDREW J. FELT, pioneer journalist, was born at Victor, Ontario County, New York, December 27, 1833. He was educated at Hamilton Academy, later studying law, and came to Iowa in 1855 before being admitted to the bar. Mr. Felt located in Clayton County and the following year became associate editor of the NORTH IOWA TIMES of McGregor. He was admitted to the bar in Chickasaw County and established the CEDAR VALLEY NEWS at Bradford, attending to law business and editing his paper. In 1860 he renewed his editorial connection with the NORTH IOWA TIMES until the Civil War began when he enlisted in Company B, Seventh Iowa Volunteers. At the Battle of Belmont he was taken prisoner, remaining in captivity for a year, when he was exchanged and joined his regiment at Corinth. After returning from the army Mr. Felt established the PUBLIC RECORD at West Union, and in 1867 the NASHUA POST which he conducted until 1874 when he purchased an interest in the WATERLOO COURIER. He was originally a Democrat but became a Republican during the war period. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago which, in 1868, nominated General Grant for President and was chosen one of the secretaries. Later he removed to Kansas where he became prominent in public affairs and was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State.

ROBERT S. FINKBINE, the builder of the permanent State House of Iowa in his fourteen years' superintendence of that structure, erected a monument to his own memory that will endure for many generations. From the day that he was appointed Superintendent of the construction of the Capitol not a dollar of the appropriations made from time to time, was misapplied. He was thoroughly competent from long experience in building and no contractor was ever able to deceive him in the quality of the material furnished. His eagle eye was on every part of the work and from start to finish the State never lost a dollar of the $2,876,300 expended under his supervision. Mr. Finkbine was born in Ohio on the 9 th of July, 1828, removed to Iowa in 1850 and for many years was a resident of Iowa City, where e engaged in contracting and building. On the 22d of February, 1856, when a State Convention of the opponents of slavery assembled at Iowa City and proceeded to organize the Republican party in Iowa R. S. Finkbine was one of the delegates from Johnson County. He was one of the men who in the evening at the ratification meeting called out Samuel J. Kirkwood for a speech which was the first introduction of the afterwards famous ‘War Governor' to the public. In 1863 Mr. Finkbine was elected to the House of the Tenth General Assembly and two years later he was reelected to the Eleventh General Assembly. He was not a speechmaker but was esteemed as a member of excellent judgment. Soon after his appointment as superintendent of the erection of the State House, Mr. Finkbine became a resident of Des Moines, where he died on the 8 th of July, 1901.

MATURIN L. FISHER was born in Danville, Vermont, on the 10 th of June, 1807. He was a graduate of Brown University and studied law, but never practiced. He was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Worcester District of Massachusetts in 1836. In 1849 he removed to Iowa, settling on a farm in Clayton County, making that his permanent home. In 1852 he was elected to the State Senate from a district embracing fifteen counties of northeastern Iowa. Two years later he was elected President of the Senate of the Fifth General Assembly and presided over the joint convention which first elected James Harlan to the United States Senate. At the extra session of 1856 Mr. Fisher was chosen President of the Senate by a unanimous vote. In April, 1857, he was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction on the Democratic ticket, although the Republicans had carried the State at the preceding August election by more than 7,000 majority. Mr. Fisher was elected one of the trustees of the Mount Pleasant Insane Asylum in 1860 and served as president of the board until 1872. In 1861 he was appointed to act with the State Treasurer to negotiate the sale of State bonds for the War and Defense Fund. In 1863 Mr. Fisher was nominated for Governor by the Democratic State Convention but declined. He was one of the commissioners who superintended the erection of the Hospital for the Insane at Independence and the State House at Des Moines and was universally esteemed as one of the most useful public men of Iowa. He died on the 5 th of February, 1879.

WILLIAM H. FLEMING was born in the City of New York on the 14 th of April, 1833. His education was acquired in the schools of that city and in the printing offices where he was employed. He came to Iowa in 1854, stopping in Davenport where he worked at his trade. A few years later he went to Le Claire where for three years he published a paper. He was later city editor of the DAVENPORT GAZETTE, and soon after the beginning of the Civil War he became a clerk in the office of Adjutant-General Baker. In 1867 he was appointed by General Ed. Wright, deputy Secretary of State, remaining in that position until appointed private secretary to Governor Merrill. He has served as private secretary also to Governors Carpenter, Kirkwood, Newbold, Gear, Drake and Shaw. No man in Iowa has a ore thorough knowledge of the State affairs and public men of the times than Major Fleming. He has been employed in superintending the State census upon several occasions. In 1883 he purchased an interest in the IOWA WEEKLY CAPITAL and soon after established the daily edition. During his residence in Iowa he has done a large amount of newspaper work on various papers, and has long been regarded as high authority on all matters relating to Iowa history. In 1903 he received an appointment in the Treasury Department at Washington. He is a Republican in politics and has been a life-long worker in the temperance cause. He was one of the founders of the Unitarian church in Des Moines.

JAMES P. FLICK was born at Bakerstown, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1845. When he was seven years of age his parents removed to Iowa, making their home in Wapello County. In 1857 they became residents of Taylor County which has since been Mr. Flick's home. He enlisted in the Fourth Iowa Infantry in April, 1862, and served in the Civil War as a private soldier. Studying law after his return he was admitted to the bar. He was elected on the Republican ticket to the House of the Seventeenth General Assembly and was District Attorney for six years. In 1888 he was elected to Congress in the Eighth District and reelected in 1890, serving four years.

JOHN G. FOOTE was born at Middlebury, Vermont, April 21, 1814. He came to Iowa in 1843, locating at Burlington where for thirty-three years he was engaged in the hardware business. He was one of the influential promoters of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad and treasurer of the company for several years, also serving as director of the Peoria, Carthage & Burlington Railroad and of the first telegraph company which built a line to Burlington. Mr. Foote was one of the organizers and a director of the First National Bank of Burlington. In 1861 he was elected on the Republican ticket State Senator, serving in the Ninth and Tenth General Assemblies. He ranked high in financial legislation. In 1872 he was chosen one of the commissioners to superintend the erection of the new State House and had charge of the finances until the building was completed in 1886. Under his administration $2,876,300 were disbursed and not a dollar was misappropriated during the fourteen years in which the work was in progress. He was a man of fine business ability and of stern integrity. He died on the 4 th of March, 1896.

SIDNEY A. FOSTER was born May 17, 1849, in Allegany County, New York. His education was obtained in the schools of that section and the printing office. He came to Iowa in 1874 and was employed in writing county histories for the Andreas Historical Atlas, and later was one of the authors of the histories of the counties of Dubuque, Fayette, Howard, Mitchell and Floyd. Later he was engaged in conducting the MITCHELL COUNTY NEWS and the WORTH COUNTY EAGLE. In 1884 he was elected chief clerk of the House of the Twentieth General Assembly. In 1886 he was one of the organizers of the Royal Union Mutual Insurance Company of which he has since been secretary. He is a notable public speaker and in one of his addresses acquired more than State-wide reputation as the author of the following remark: ‘Of all that is good, Iowa affords the best.' 

SUEL FORST was one of the pioneer horticulturists of Iowa. He was born at Hillsboro, New Hampshire, on the 26 th of August, 1811, and on his mother's side was related to George Bancroft the historian. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. In 1836 he made the journey to Rock Island. Mr. Foster and his brother purchased a sixth interest in the town of Bloomington for $500, which then consisted of one hundred sixty acres of land upon which were two log cabins. Here Mr. Foster made his permanent home and here the city of Muscatine grew up. In 1852 he began to plant a nursery and to give his attention to experimental work in horticulture. He became a well-known writer on fruit and forest growing, contributing to the principal journals of agriculture and horticulture in the West. Mr. Foster was one of the founders of the Iowa Horticultural Society and a life-long member. As early as 1847 he began to advocate the establishment of a State Agricultural College, similar to institutions existing in Germany. He gathered information relating to the European schools of agriculture and was a strenuous advocate of the establishment of one in Iowa to be supported by State aid. He assisted in preparing a bill which was introduced into the Legislature by R. A. Richardson in 1856, for the creation of such a college. When the Seventh General Assembly provided by law for a State Agricultural College, Suel Foster was made one of the trustees and was for five years president of the board. To the end of his life he continued to work in experimental horticulture and by his pen advocated industrial education.

BENJAMIN T. FREDERICK was born in Fredericktown, Columbiana County, Ohio, on the 5 th of October, 1834. He removed to Iowa, becoming a resident of Marshalltown where he engaged in manufacturing. For a long time he was a member of the school board and also of the city council. In the fall of 1882 he was nominated by the Democrats of the Fifth District for Representative in Congress. The election was close and the certificate was awarded by the canvassers to his Republican competitor, James Wilson. But after a long contest, lasting until the last day of the second session, it was decided that Mr. Frederick had been elected in place of Wilson who had held the seat. Mr. Frederick was again nominated in 1884 and elected over Milo P. Smith. In 1886 Mr. Frederick was nominated a third time but was defeated at the election and soon after removed to California.

ALICE FRENCH was born March 19, 1850, in Andover, Massachusetts, and was educated at Abbott Academy in Andover. She came to Iowa with her parents in 1857, making her home at Davenport. At an early age Miss French developed a talent for story writing and eventually became one of the best known authors of fiction in the West. Her character delineations of the west and southwest are among the most graphic to be found, showing close observation of the salient peculiarities of the types of that region. Among her best known works of fiction are ‘Knitters in the Sun,' ‘Otto the Knight,' ‘Stories of a Western Town,' and ‘Expiation.' She is perhaps more widely known as ‘Octave Thanet' a nom de plume adopted. Her stories have been in demand by the best magazines of the country and are among the most fascinating in American fiction.

WILLIAM E. FULLER was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, March 30, 1846. The family removed to Iowa in 1853, settling at West Union in Fayette County. William E. attended the Upper Iowa University and graduated from the Law Department of the State University in 1870. He then entered upon the practice of his profession at his home in West Union. In 1866 he received an appointment in the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior and spent two years in Washington. In 1876 he was a member of the Lower House of the Iowa Legislature. Mr. Fuller was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in Congress for the Fourth District in 1884 and in 1886 was reelected, serving two terms. During this time he was a member of the Republican Congressional Committee. In 1901 Mr. Fuller was appointed by President McKinley Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, having charge of the Spanish was claims.

AMBROSE C. FULTON was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1811, working on his father's farm until 1827 when he went to Philadelphia and began a career of adventure. He went to sea, landed in New Orleans and engaged in trade with the West India Islands, accumulating money to build several business houses in New Orleans. He raised a company and aided Texas in its revolt against Mexico. In 1842 Mr. Fulton located in Davenport, Iowa, where he built the first flat-boat that made the trip to New Orleans from that city. In company with others he selected a mill-site on the Wapsipinicon River in Buchanan County and built a dam and flouring mill. In 1848 he built a large flouring mill in Davenport and was one of the first to project the railroad which was built west from that place. In 1854 Mr. Fulton was elected by a union of the Whigs and Antislavery voters to represent Scott County in the State Senate and helped elect James Harlan to the United States Senate to take the place of George W. Jones. For more than forty years Mr. Fulton was engaged in nearly all public enterprises for the building up of Davenport and during that time erected thirty-seven buildings. He was always one of the leaders and promoters of public enterprises to advance the development of the city and State. He was an intelligent writer for the leading newspapers and did much in that way to bring settlers into the city, and men of capital into the State.

ALEXANDER R. FULTON, author of ‘THE RED MEN OF IOWA,' was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, October 11, 1825. He received a liberal education and came to Iowa in 1851 where he was employed in newspaper work on the FAIRFIELD LEDGER for three years. For twelve years he was county surveyor. He was one of the founders of the Republican party of Iowa, and was judge of Jefferson County when that officer had charge of financial affairs. In 1867 he was elected a member of the House of the Twelfth General Assembly. During the years 1868-9 he traveled through the counties of Iowa for the STATE REGISTER writing historical sketches, which were of permanent value. He compiled a book on the ‘Fee Lands of Iowa,' giving a large amount of information to persons seeking homes in the State. Mr. Fulton served several years as secretary of the State Board of Immigration and also as secretary of the Capitol Commission. In 1872 the State Printing Company was organized at Des Moines to supply auxiliary printed sheets to country papers and Judge Fulton was selected as editor, a position he held under various changes as long as he lived. The work for which he will be longest remembered was performed during this time. No history of the Iowa Indians was in existence and Judge Fulton entered upon the work, which was completed and published in 1882. The title of the volume was, ‘The Red Men of Iowa' and was a comprehensive and reliable history of the various Indian tribes which had at times occupied portions of Iowa. Judge Fulton was secretary of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association at the time of his death, which occurred September 28, 1891.

ABRAHAM B. FUNK, journalist and legislator, was born at Liberty, Illinois, January 12, 1854. He came to Iowa with his father's family in 1865, first locating in Hamilton County and later removing to Estherville. Here in 1870 the young man entered the office of the NORTHERN VINDICATOR as compositor and made such progress that in two years he became half owner of the SPIRIT LAKE BEACON. In 1878 he established a paper at Flandreau, Dakota, where he was elected the first mayor of the town. In 1879 the same year he returned to Spirit Lake of which he also became the first mayor, and was connected with the BEACON at the same period. Through this journal Mr. Funk acquired wide influence in northwestern Iowa. His political career began with his election as delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1884, and in 1887 he was elected to the State Senate from the district consisting of the counties of Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Palo Alto and Kossuth. He served in that position for three terms, attaining high rank among the leading members of the General Assemblies during that period of twelve years. As chairman of the committee on ways and mean he was largely instrumental in framing and securing the passage of the bill creating the State Board of Control. In 1897 Senator Funk was one of the most prominent candidates before the Republican State Convention for nomination for Governor, at the time Leslie M. Shaw was nominated. Upon the creation of the State Commission to improve and complete the Capitol building, Senator Funk was made a member.

JAMES H. FUNK was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, February 15, 1842. His educational advantages were meager but by evening study he became qualified to teach school. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in the Fifty-third Illinois Infantry. After returning from the war he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He took an active part in Illinois politics and served two terms in the Legislature of that State. In 1890 Mr. Funk removed to Iowa, making his home on a farm near Iowa Falls where he engaged in raising horses. He became an active participant in public affairs and in 1893 was elected on the Republican ticket to the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly. He was chairman of the committee on the suppression of intemperance and was reelected to the Twenty-sixth General Assembly where he became chairman of the committee on ways and means. He was elected to the Twenty-seventh General Assembly and was chosen Speaker of the House.