1903 Index

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

D

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Becke Dawson.

MARK A. DASHIELL, a pioneer in central Iowa, was born in Dearborn County, Indiana, October 2, 1826. He received his education at Aurora and Wilmington in his native State and obtained the degree of M. D. from the Indiana Central Medical College at Indianapolis in 1851. Two years later he removed to Iowa, locating at Hartford, Warren County, where he entered upon the practice of medicine. He was one of the early Republicans of the State and was appointed a member of the Board of Medical Examiners of the Pension Bureau under Lincoln 's administration and still holds the position. Dr. Dashiell was elected Representative in the House of the Twelfth General Assembly, in 1868, and in 1872 was elected to the Senate, serving in the General Assembly for a period of twelve years. During his term he was chairman of the committee on the suppression of intemperance and on reform schools. He has been a prominent member of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association and was a trustee of the State Reform Schools for ten years.

GEORGE DAVENPORT, in whose honor the city of Davenport was named, was born in England in 1783. He was a sailor in his youth and coming to New York in 1804 enlisted in the army and served ten years. In the spring of 1816 he was with the expedition under Colonel Lawrence which was sent to Rock Island to build a fort. After he was discharged from the army he engaged in trade with the Indians and in a few years built up a profitable business. In 1825 a post-office was established at Rock Island of which Mr. Davenport was appointed postmaster. In 1826 he became a member and agent of the American Fur Company and had charge of its business from the Iowa to the Turkey River. In the Black Hawk War he was quartermaster with the rank of colonel. He had built a residence on the lower part of Rock Island near the old fort and in 1835 in company with six others purchased a large tract of land on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, opposite the island. Here a town was platted which was called Davenport. In 1842 he rendered the Government valuable service in assisting Governor Chambers in negotiating a treaty for the purchase of Iowa lands from the Sac and Fox Indians. On the Fourth of July, 1845, while alone in his house, Colonel Davenport was robbed and murdered. Three of the murderers were convicted and executed for the crime.

SAMUEL T. DAVIS, on of the pioneers of Sioux City, was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1828. His early education was acquired in Mercer County, of his native State, and at the age of twenty he entered the preparatory department of Allegheny College at Meadville, taking a course which he thought would best serve him in a business career. After leaving college he first became principal of Greenville Academy, but having the practice of law in view soon began that study and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Coming west he located at the frontier town of Sioux City in 1856, opening a law and real estate office. He has been the promoter of several important lines of railroad in Northwestern Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota and Nebraska, and has aided local manufacturing. Mr. Davis served as Register of the United States Land Office at Sioux City, under President Lincoln's administration, and was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate in 1868 to fill a vacancy. He was a Democrat until the fall of Sumter when he became a Republican. He was one of the founders of the SIOUX CITY JOURNAL.

TIMOTHY DAVIS was born in Newark, New Jersey, in March, 1794. He received but a common school education, went to Kentucky and studied law in 1816. He practiced his profession for twenty years in the State of Missouri and then removed to Dubuque in Iowa. In 1847 he was nominated by the Whigs of the Second District for Representative in Congress but was defeated by Shepherd Leffler the Democratic candidate. He united with the Republicans upon the organization of that party and was elected to Congress in 1856 but retired at the end of the term.

JAMES G. DAY, jurist, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, June 28, 1832. In youth he attended Richmond Academy and afterwards graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in the class of 1857. He soon after located at Afton, in Union County, Iowa, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1861, when it became evident that the Civil War was to be a long and desperate conflict, Mr. Day closed his law office and joined a military company which was incorporated into the Fifteenth Regiment of Infantry. He was chosen one of the lieutenants of Company F, and was soon at the seat of war, where for gallant service he was promoted to captain of the company. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, so that he was compelled to relinquish his command and retired from the service in September, 1862. Before his return home he had been nominated by the Republicans for judge of the Third District, was elected and was serving his second term when appointed judge of the Supreme Court on the 1 st of September, 1870, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Wright who had been elected to the United States Senate. He was continued on the Supreme bench by election until January 1, 1884, serving as Chief Justice the last year of his term. He was defeated in convention for nomination in consequence of a decision rendered by the Court, declaring the prohibitory amendment proposed to the Constitution void, in consequence of failure of the Legislature to submit it to the voters in a legal manner. Judge Day wrote the opinion of the Court and thus incurred the opposition of enough prohibition delegates in the State Convention to accomplish his defeat. That Judge Day was actuated by the purest motives, in pronouncing this decision, has never been doubted and its soundness has been conceded by many of the ablest lawyers of the State. He removed to Des Moines and resumed the practice of law, where he died suddenly on the 1 st of May, 1898.

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 Virginia 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 through the Keosauqua circuit, joining the Fairfield Conference. Through the influence of General George W. Jones, one of our first United States Senators, Mr. Dean was chosen chaplain of the Senate. He was one of the trustees of the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant. 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 about four miles from a station on the C. B. & Q. Railroad where a postoffice was named Dean. Here he had gathered a great library which was destroyed by fire. He died on this farm February 6, 1887.

HORACE E. DEEMER was born on the 24 th of September, 1858, at Bourbon, Marshall County, Indiana. In 1864 his parents, who were Quakers, removed to Iowa, making their home near the Quaker colony of Springdale, made famous by harboring John Brown while he drilled his band for the Harper's Ferry raid. Here the young man began his education in the public schools, taking a course later in the High School at West Liberty and finally graduating from the State University at Iowa City. He first engaged in the furniture business at West Liberty but later took up the study of law and removing to Red Oak, entered upon the practice of his new profession. He met with marked success and was chosen chairman of the Republican county committee and secretary of the county agricultural society. In November, 1886, he was elected a Republican judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District and at the close of the term was reelected but, before the expiration of his second term was appointed by Governor Jackson, Associate Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1898 he became Chief Justice, one of the youngest men who has attained that position in Iowa. In 1898 he was reelected. Judge Deemer has been one of the Lecturers at the Law Department of the State University, author of Synopsis of Legal Subjects; member of the State and American Bar Associations. He has written several opinions involving constitutional questions.

NATHANIEL C. DEERING was born in Denmark, Maine, on the 2d of September, 1827. He acquired a liberal education and taught school several winters. In 1850 he went with a party of gold seekers to California, by the Panama route. He remained there for two years and acquired a small fortune with which he returned home and established a paper mill. In 1856 his establishment was destroyed by fire. In September, 1855 he was elected to the Maine Legislature, serving two terms. In September, 1857 he removed to Iowa, locating at Osage, Mitchell County, where he engaged in the lumber business. In July, 1861, while on a visit to Washington, D. C. he was appointed to a clerkship in the Senate. In the spring of 1865 he was appointed special agent of the Post-office Department for Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, serving four years. In July, 1872, he was appointed National Bank Examiner, serving nearly five years. In 1876 he was elected to Congress on the Republican ticket, from the Fourth District and was twice reelected, serving until 1883.

ORSBORN W. DEIGNAN, the Iowa hero of the Merrimac, was born at Stuart, Iowa, in February, 1877. His father was conductor of the passenger train which was wrecked near Grinnell in the tornado which destroyed the college and a large part of the town. Young Deignan was industrious and ambitious, taking an especial interest in history. At the age of fourteen he went to the far West to make his own way in the world and shipped as a seaman. After several years he entered the service in the United States Navy and was first rifleman on the cruiser Lancaster. He enlisted in the Spanish American War and to his disappointment was assigned to a coal boat, but by this means was enabled to be with Lieutenant Hobson in one of the most thrilling episodes of our naval history – the sinking of the Merrimac in the channel of Santiago Harbor. Through the efforts of the Iowa delegation in Congress Deignan was offered a course of study in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, which he declined. He has since served in the navy as boatswain and has visited many parts of the world in the vaious cruises.

JESSE W. DENISON, founder of the county-seat of Crawford County, was born in Albany County, New York, April 9, 1818. His early life was passed on his father's farm and his education begun at the Academy of Schoharie Court House. He entered Union College, graduating in 1844. Later he studied theology in New York City and Covington, Kentucky, graduating in 1846. Mr. Denison came to Crawford County, Iowa, in 1856, as agent for the Providence Western Land Company which, through him, acquired 21,000 acres of land in Crawford, 3,000 in Harrison and 1,000 acres each in Shelby and Pottawattamie counties. He laid out the town of Denison and for many years worked for its interests in securing the county-seat and railroad connections. He organized the Baptist church during the first year and was its pastor until 1863. He was active in the promotion of education and the establishment of schools and for twenty years was untiring in all good work to develop the new country where he had settled. In politics he was a Republican and in 1859 was elected Representative for the district composed of the counties of Crawford, Monona, Carroll and Greene, serving in the regular session of the Eighth General Assembly and the war session of May, 1861.

MICHAEL L. DEVIN was born in Morgan County, Ohio, January 23, 1823. He received a common school education and while a young man removed to Macon County, Illinois, and from there to Des Moines, Iowa, in the spring of 1855, where he engaged in selling goods until 1860, when he entered eight hundred acres of Government land seven miles south of the city where he opened a farm, planting a large orchard and engaged extensively in breeding fine stock. He was an intelligent farmer and a citizen of wide influence. He was active among the ‘Grange' reformers and from the beginning took a deep interest in the barb wire contest. He was elected president of the Farmers' Protective Association and served several years during the time of the continued litigation with the Washburn Syndicate. At one time when the attorney of the Association failed to appear on the day set for an important trial before Judge McCrary, United States Circuit Judge, the attorney of Washburn moved for judgment against the association by default. Mr. Devin was present and asked permission of the judge to appear for the association of which he was president. The judge consented and upon explanation by Mr. Devin, he refused to have a default entered and postponed the case until the attorney could be present. At another time a bond of $50,000 was required to be given by the association and Mr. Devin soon made it up through his influence among business men who had implicit confidence in his management and judgment. Mr. Devin raised the money to pay for the first car load of wire to start the farmers' free factory and all through the struggle with the syndicate was a tower of strength to the association. He was active, alert, full of resources to meet and overcome all obstacles and never for a moment contemplated or feared defeat. In 1878 he was nominated by both the Democrats and Greenback party for State Treasurer but the Republican majority was too large to be overcome and he was not elected, although he received a large vote.

WILLIAM DEWEY was born on the 26 th of March, 1811, in the town of Sheffield, Massachusetts, was educated at West Point Military Academy and later studied law with his father and was admitted to the bar of Indiana in 1836. After practicing law a few years he studied medicine at the St. Louis Medical College, then came to Iowa, becoming a resident of Wapello County in 1842. In 1850 he was one of the commissioners appointed to settle the disputed boundary line between Iowa and Missouri. After completing that work he removed to Sidney, Fremont County, where he was engaged in the practice of medicine when the Rebellion began. Early in 1861 he assisted Colonel Hugh T. Reid to raise the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel and was with it in the Battle of Shiloh and the siege of Corinth. In August, 1862, he was promoted to colonel of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry. While in command of that regiment at Patterson, Missouri, he died of erysipelas on the 30 th of November, 1862.

PETER A. DEY was born at Romulus, Seneca County, New York, January 27, 1825. He received his education in the public schools and at Geneva College, New York. He became a civil engineer and moved to Iowa City, Iowa, where he followed his profession in railroad construction. It was while in the line of his profession that a supreme test of the character of the man was made. The notorious ‘Credit Mobilier or American' had been organized by Thomas C. Durant, Oliver Ames, Oakes Ames and other capitalist for the purpose of constructing the Pacific Railroad. The Government subsidies granted for the construction of the road amounted to the enormous sum of $64,000 a mile for a part, and $96,000 a mile for the remainder. Peter A. Dey was the chief engineer of the construction, and having made a survy of the first hundred miles reported that it could be constructed for $30,000 per mile. The Government was offering $32,000 and an enormous land grant in addition for this portion of the road. An article in SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY for March, 1874, tells the story of how the Credit Mobilier made a profit of $5,000,000 in builidng two hundred and forty-six miles of the road. The following illustrates the stern integrity of the Iowa man who was Chief Engineer,

‘When his estimate was made to the Directors, it was returned to him with orders to retouch it with higher colors, to put in embankments on paper where none existed on earth, to make the old embankments heavier, to increase the expense generally, and he was requested to send in his estimate that it would cost $50,000 per mile. When Mr. Dey was informed that this part of the road was let to -- -- at $50,000 per mile, which he knew could be done for $30,000, this difference amounting to $5,000,000 on the two hundred and forty-six miles, he resigned his position as Chief Engineer in a noble letter to the president of the road. He closed that letter with this statement: ‘My views of the Pacific Road are perhaps peculiar. I look upon its managers as trustees of the bounty of Congress … You are doubtless informed how disproportioned the amount to paid is to the work contracted for. In need not expatiate on the sincerity of my course, when you reflect upon the fact that I have resigned the best position in my profession this country has offered to any man.'

This fidelity to public interest is the one bright spot in that disgraceful era of corruption which reached into Congress and blackened the reputation of scores of public officials. It is not strange that Peter A. Dey, whose stern integrity was thus tested, should have been chosen as the Democratic member of the Commission which built the State House, a work which for all time will stand as a monument to the ability and integrity of Robert S. Finkbine, Peter A. Dey and John G. Foote. In 1878, upon the creation of the State Railroad Commission, Mr. Dey was appointed by the Governor a member, where he served until the Commission was reorganized and the commissioners were elected by the people. Notwithstanding the fact that the State was strongly Republican, Peter A. Dey, a life-long Democrat, was elected and served continuously (with the exception of one year) until 1895. Mr. Dey has been president of the First National Bank of Iowa City more than sixteen years.

JOHN F. DILLON was born in Montgomery County, New York, December 25, 1831. His parents removed to Davenport in 1838, then a frontier village in the new Territory of Iowa. Here the son was educated in the common schools and when seventeen began the study of medicine with Dr. E. S. Barrows. He attended medical lectures at the Keokuk Medical College but finally concluded to study law. He entered the office of John P. Cook and pursued his legal studies until admitted to the bar in 1852. Soon after he was elected Prosecuting Attorney and rose rapidly in the profession until, in 1858, he was elected judge of the Seventh District. He served with distinction four years and in 1863 was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Judge of the Supreme Court. He was elected and in 1868 became Chief Justice. In 1869 he was reelected for six years but before qualifying was appointed by President Grant United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, consisting of the States of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Colorado. In 1869 he was made lecturer on Legal Jurisprudence in the State University of Iowa. He was the founder and editor of the CENTRAL LAW JOURNAL and author of a ‘Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa,' as well as five volumes of United States Circuit Court Reports from 1871 to 1880. In 1879 he resigned the Circuit Judgeship (a life appointment) and removed to New York City where he had been chosen Professor of Real Estate and Equity Jurisprudence of the Law Department of Columbia College. In 1891-2 he was Lecturer on Municipal Law in Yale College. In 1892 he was chosen president of the American Bar Association. He has long had charge of the legal business of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company. He has found time to continue his law writing as the author of a ‘Commentary on the law of Municipal Corporations,' published in 1872, which has run through four editions; ‘Removal of Causes from State Courts to Federal Courts,' published in 1875, which has passed through three editions; ‘Laws and Jurisprudence of England and America,' being a series of lectures delivered before Yale University, published in Boston in 1895. Judge Dillon's works have had a large sale in England as well as in America, some editions having been published in London. In this country they were from the first recognized as standard legal authority. He is the author of many pamphlets on legal and historical affairs, and one of the most elegant memorial volumes that has appeared in this country, in memory of his wife and daughter who were lost at sea in July, 1898. His wife was the accomplished daughter of Hon. Hiram Price, long member of Congress from the Second Iowa District. From a boyhood of poverty and obscurity, but endowed with remarkable intellectual powers and untiring energy, John F. Dillon has by force of character, during a life of continuous work, reached the summit of the American Bar.

JACOB W. DIXON was born in New Castle County, Delaware, on the 25 th of December, 1832. His education was acquired in the common schools and Unionville Academy, Pennsylvania, with a two years' course at the Law School at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he graduated in 1855. He came to Iowa in 1856, locating at Ottumwa, where he began the practice of his profession. In 1861 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate from Wapello County, serving in the regular and extra sessions of 1862 and the regular session of 1864. In 1866 Mr. Dixon was chosen Secretary of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly. In 1873 a powerful movement of the people in favor of the legislative control of railroads had resulted in the organization of an Antimonopoly party to secure the desired legislation. J. W. Dixon was elected to the House of the Fifteenth General Assembly on this ticket. The Republicans had elected fifty members of the House and the entire opposition numbered fifty, and at a conference held Mr. Dixon was selected as the candidate for Speaker upon whom all could unite. John H. Gear was the Republican candidate. For twelve days the contest was waged with great earnestness, each candidate receiving fifty votes on every ballot. Finally when every effort to organize the House had failed, Mr. Dixon consented to a compromise which ended the deadlock by the election of Mr. Gear. Mr. Dixon'' last public service was as a member of the Sixteenth General Assembly. He died on the 1 st of January, 1889.

JOHN N. DIXON was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, February 20, 1821. His education was acquired at Friends Academy, Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and continued by a classical course in a college at Athens. After graduation he returned to the farm and gave special attention to horticulture. In 1855 he removed to Mahaska County, Iowa, where he planted what was then the largest orchard in the State. He became a prominent member of the State Horticultural Society, making valuable practical contributions to its literature, founded upon his experimental work. In 1869 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate, serving in the Thirteenth General Assembly. He was for several years a trustee of the Iowa Agricultural College. He discovered a remedy for the ravages of the ‘curculio' for which he was awarded a prize by the State Horticultural Society. He died in December, 1883.

AUGUSTUS C. DODGE, son of General Henry Dodge, was born at St. Genevieve, then in the Territory of Louisiana, January 2, 1812. In 1827 the family removed to Galena, Illinois, where General Dodge was placed in command of a military force and caused block-houses to be erected to protect the settlers against the hostile Winnebago Indians. Augustus grew up amid the stirring events of frontier life and while a youth joined a military expedition against the Indians. He there made the acquaintance of a young man, George W. Jones and the two became warm friends. As they camped and campaigned together over the wild prairies there was nothing to indicate that in the near future they were destined to work together in founding a new State of which they were to become the first United States Senators. At the beginning of the Black Hawk War, Augustus C. Dodge was chosen lieutenant of a military company and served as an aid to his father. In 1838 Mr. Dodge was appointed Register of the United States Land Office in Burlington in the new Territory of Iowa, making that place his permanent home. In 1839 he was commissioned Brigadier-General of militia by Governor Lucas. In 1840 he was nominated by the Democrats for Delegate in Congress and was elected over Alfred Rich, the Whig candidate. He was twice reelected, serving until Iowa became a State in 1846. In December, 1848, Augustus C. Dodge and his friend, George W. Jones, were elected to represent Iowa in the United States Senate. Seven years before, Mr. Dodge and his father sat together in the House as Delegates from Iowa and Wisconsin : now they met as Senators from the same States; the only instance of the kind in the history of the country. During the long conflict over slavery, General A. C. Dodge supported the ‘Compromise of 1850,' and followed the lead of Stephen A. Douglas in voting for the famous doctrine of ‘Squatter Sovereignty.' He remained in the Senate until 1856 when the Democratic party lost control of the State and by a union of all of the ‘Free Soil' elements in the Fifth General Assembly he was succeeded by James Harlan. Thereupon President Pierce appointed General Dodge Minister to Spain where he served until 1859, when he resigned and returned home. The Democratic State Convention in June nominated him for Governor, and he made a vigorous canvass of the State but was defeated by Samuel J. Kirkwood. In 1860 the Democratic members of the Eighth General Assembly gave him their votes for United States Senator. During his long public career General Dodge gave his State faithful and valuable service in every position intrusted to him. He won the respect and esteem of its citizens of both political parties. He died on the 20 th of November, 1883.

GRENVILLE M. DODGE was born in Putnamville, Danvers County, Massachusetts, on the 12 th of April, 1831. He received a liberal education, having graduated as a civil engineer from Norwich University in 1850. He then entered a military school from which he graduated the following year. Mr. Dodge went to Illinois, locating at Peru, where he engaged in land surveying. In 1851 he secured a position with the Illinois Central Railroad Company and was employed in surveying the line from Dixon to Bloomington. Soon after he was employed in surveying the line of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad from Davenport to Council Bluffs. In 1854 he removed to Council Bluffs and engaged in overland freighting across the plains to Colorado. He also became a member of the banking firm of Baldwin & Dodge. During the years from 1854 to 1860 he was engaged in surveying a line for the Union Pacific Railroad. At the beginning of the Rebellion he was appointed on the staff of Governor Kirkwood and, going to Washington, secured for Iowa 6,000 muskets to arm the regiments being organized. When the Fourth Iowa Infantry was organized Dodge was appointed colonel. His regiment was sent to Missouri and was actively engaged in the battles of Sugar Creek and Pea Ridge. He was severely wounded in the latter where he held the extreme right and lost one-third of his command. He was promoted to Brigadier-General and assigned by General Grant to the command of the Second Division of the Army of the Tennessee. In the campaigns which followed General Grant recognized General Dodge as one of his ablest officers. He said of the Iowa commander: ‘Besides being a most capable soldier General Dodge was an experienced railroad builder. At one time he constructed more than one hundred miles of railroad and built one hundred eight-two bridges, may of them over side chasms.' He was with Sherman 's army in the march to the sea and was promoted to Major-General for gallant services. In November, 1864, General Dodge was placed in command of the Department of Missouri by order of General Grant. In January, 1865, the Departments of Kansas, Nebraska and Utah were added to his command, where he served to the end of the war. A history of his military services would fill a volume, and frequent mention of them will be found in the volume on the Civil War. In July, 1865, he was nominated for Representative in Congress for the Fifth District and elected. While a member of that body he was the recognized authority on all subjects relating to the army, and was prominent in promoting the act for putting the army on a peace footing. He was an active supporter of the legislation promoting internal improvements in the West, and was regarded as the sagacious leader who had accomplished difficult tasks in railway construction in that then wild country. He declined a reelection, preferring to give his entire time and energies to the construction of the Union Pacific Railway, including the building of the great bridge across the Missouri River between Council Bluffs and Omaha. As an able military commander General Dodge had received the warmest indorsements of the three great chiefs of the War Department – Secretary Stanton, Generals Grant and Sherman; so also after his services in the construction of the Union Pacific Railway he received testimonials of his remarkable efficiency and ability from the highest officials of the company. During his busy life since the war and the construction of the first great line of railway across the continent, General Dodge has served as president, chief engineer or director in the construction companies of the following railway enterprises: American Railway Improvement Company of Colorado, 1880; International Railway Improvement Company of Colorado, 1880; Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company, 1880; Texas and Colorado Railway Construction Company, 1881; Oriental Construction Company, 1882; Fort Worth and Denver Railway Company, 1889; St. Louis, Des Moines and Northern Railway Company, 1884; Des Moines Union Railway Company, 1884; Colorado and Texas Construction Company, 1887; Iron Steamboat Company, 1888; Denver, Texas and Fort Worth Railway Company, 1889; Des Moines and Northern Railway Company, 1890; Western Industrial Company, 1891; Wichita Valley Railway Company, 1891; Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway Company, 1891. Although for many years residing in New York to superintend his multitude of great business enterprises, General Dodge has retained his loyalty to his Iowa home and never ceased to keep intimate relations with his Iowa friends of pioneer years. He has been president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, and vice-president of the Grant Monument Association of New York. He recently had the remains of General Kinsman exhumed from the battle-field of Black River Bridge and buried at his old home at Council Bluffs where he caused to be erected a fine monument to the memory of his gallant comrade of war times.

WILLIAM W. DODGE, son of Senator Augustus C. Dodge, was born in Burlington, Iowa, April 25, 1854. He pursued his education in Notre Dame University, taking a scientific course and graduating in 1874, then entering the State University he graduated from the Law Department in 1876, and began practice in his native city. Mr. Dodge is an earnest Democrat, inheriting a taste for politics. He has been a delegate to many State Conventions and was a delegate at large to the national Democratic Convention at St. Louis at which Grover Cleveland was nominated a second time. Mr. Dodge was elected to the State Senate in 1885, serving by reelection in the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth General Assemblies. Among the important acts of the Legislatures of which he was the author during his term of service may be mentioned – one to prohibit the employment of children under fifteen in factories, workshops and mines; one making the first Monday in September a holiday known as Labor Day; and one to protect working people in the use of their labels and trade marks. Senator Dodge was one of the two members selected by the Senate to investigate charges made against the State University. In 1890 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel on the staff of Governor Boies.

JONATHAN P. DOLLIVER was born near Kingwood, in Preston County, West Virginia, on the 6 th of February, 1858. He received a liberal education, graduating from the West Virginia University in 1875. He began the study of law and in 1878 came to Iowa, settling at Fort Dodge, where he was admitted to the bar and at once entered upon the practice of his profession. Mr. Dolliver developed a remarkable talent for public speaking and his services were in great demand in the State political campaigns. In August, 1884, Mr. Dolliver was chosen to preside over the Republican State Convention at Des Moines and his opening address, one of unusual eloquence, was his first introduction to the Republicans of the State. In 1886 he was one of the most prominent candidates for nomination for Congress in the Republican Convention of the Tenth District. In two years from that time he was nominated and elected by a plurality of 5,368. He has been continuously reelected since, serving up to the close of 1900, when he was appointed by Governor Shaw to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. Mr. Dolliver has taken an active part as a public speaker in several National campaigns and won a wide fame as an orator and lecturer of unusual power and eloquence. In his efforts to secure justice to the settlers on the Des Moines River lands, Mr. Dolliver prevailed upon President Harrison to direct the United States Attorney-General to begin an action in the name of the Government to forfeit the original grant. The case was tried in the United States District Court for Northern Iowa, where Judge Shiras decided against the Government, which decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court. No other remedy now being left, the settlers at last united in asking for indemnity. Mr. Dolliver thereupon secured the insertion of a section in the Sundry Divil Bill of 1893, making an appropriation for such indemnity and subsequent additional appropriations. Thus a tardy settlement of the long controversy was finally made. In 1902 Mr. Dolliver was elected to fill the unexpired term in the United States Senate occasioned by the death of Senator John H. Gear.

WILLIAM G. DONNAN was born at West Charleston, New York, on the 30 th of June, 1834. He lived on a farm in boyhood and was educated at Cambridge Academy. He entered Union College later and graduated in 1856. In September of the same year he came to Iowa and located at Independence where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1857. In September he was elected recorder and treasurer of the county and served until 1862, when he enlisted in the Union army and was elected lieutenant. He won rapid promotion in the service until he reached the rank of major before the close of the war. In 1867 he was elected to the State Senate on the Republican ticket, serving four years. He was largely instrumental in securing the establishment of the Hospital for the Insane at Independence. In 1870 he received the Republican nomination for Representative in Congress for the Third District and was elected by a majority of 4, 964. He was reelected in 1872, serving two terms, declining a third. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention and voted for the nomination of President Arthur.

WILLIAM G. DOWS was born in Clayton County, Iowa, August 12, 1864. He was educated in the public schools of Cedar Rapids and Shattuck Military Academy from which he was graduated in 1883. Upon the organization of Company C, of the Iowa National Guard, he became a member of the regiment. When the Spanish-American War began, he became colonel of the Forty-ninth Iowa Infantry and served with his regiment for one year in Cuba. In 1897 Colonel Dows was elected on the Republican ticket to a seat in the House of Representatives in the Twenty-eighth General Assembly from Linn County. He was reelected in 1899 serving in the following Legislature as chairman of the House committee on appropriations.

FRANCIS M. DRAKE, fifteenth Governor of Iowa, was born at Rushville, Illinois, on the 30 th of December, 1830, and removed to Iowa in 1837, locating at Fort Madison. Here he secured an education in the schools of that city and at the age of sixteen became a clerk in his father's store. Soon after the discovery of gold in California, he fitted out two ox teams to make the overland journey to the gold fields. At the Missouri River a caravan of several teams and twelve additional men was organized for mutual protection from hostile Indians. At a crossing of the Platte River the party was attacked by a band of Pawnees and a lively fight ensued, in which the emigrants were under the command of Mr. Drake. The Indians were finally defeated and the party, after several months on the plains, reached California in safety. He remained in California until the fall of 1852, when he returned to the States by water, crossing at Panama, where he was seized with a fever. In 1854 he again made the trip overland to Sacramento and, while returning by water, was shipwrecked. In 1861 he volunteered to help defend the Missouri border from invasion. Upon the organization of the Thirty-sixth Regiment of Iowa Infantry he was appointed lieutenant-colonel and served three years in the Union army. He commanded at the Battle of mark's Mills where he was severely wounded and taken prisoner. After his return to service he was brevetted a Brigadier-General of Volunteers. After the close of the was General Drake became extensively engaged in railroad building, acquiring large wealth. He became one of the founders of a college at Des Moines, to which he made large donations at various times, and which was named Drake University. The school is under the direction of the Christians, of which denomination General Drake is a prominent member. In 1895, General Drake was elected Governor of Iowa, on the Republican ticket, serving one term.

THOMAS DRUMMOND was born in the State of Virginia in 1833 and came to Iowa in 1855, making his home in Vinton, Benton County. He became the editor of the VINTON EAGLE, a Republican journal, and in 1856 was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President. In 1857, when but twenty-five years of age, he was elected to represent Benton County in the House of the Seventh General Assembly. In 1860 he was promoted to a seat in the Senate and secured the location of the Asylum for the Blind at Vinton and an appropriation for the erection of a building for its home. At the beginning of the Rebellion he raised a company of volunteers and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. After several months service he received a commission in the regular army and was attached to the Fifth United States Cavalry. He was a gallant officer during the war and was mortally wounded while bravely leading his men in a charge in General Sheridan's army, in the last battle on Virginia soil, which resulted in the surrender of General Lee's army in April, 1865.

JOHN F. DUNCOMBE, one of the pioneer lawyers and editor of northwestern Iowa, was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1831. After living on his father's farm until the age of sixteen, he entered Meadville preparatory school and finally graduated at Allegheny College. After admission to the bar in April, 1855, he went to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and opened a law office. In 1856, he, in company with A. S. White established the first newspaper in northwest Iowa – the FORT DODGE SENTINEL. There was little law business on the frontier and Mr. Duncombe found time to write vigorous editorials for the Democratic party, of which he soon became one of the prominent leaders. When the Spirit Lake massacre in the spring of 1857 horrified the country, Mr. Duncombe was chosen captain of one of the companies which made up the relief expedition which marched under Major Williams to the protection of the settlers. In 1859 Mr. Duncombe was elected to the State Senate of the Eighth Genearl Assembly, representing twenty counties of northwestern Iowa. He was an able and aggressive public speaker and for four years was the leader of his party in the Senate. Returning to the practice of his profession, as the years passed by he became a great lawyer. He was one of the first to develop the coal mining interest of Fort Dodge and was always prominent in public enterprises to build up that city. He was the leading spirit in the construction of several railroads and long the attorney of the companies. He was twice elected to the Legislature from Republican districts, was for eighteen years a regent of the State University and one of the commissioners of the World's Columbian Exposition and one of the Commissioners who superintended the erection of the monument to the memory of the victims of the Spirit Lake Massacre. In 1872 he was chairman of the Iowa delegation in the National Democratic Convention and again held the same position in 1892. He was once a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, twice a candidate for Congress and once a candidate for Supreme Judge. But being a life-long Democrat, living in a Republican district and State, his election was hopeless. Had he been a Republican he might have attained the highest official positions in the State. Mr. Duncombe died at Fort Dodge, August 2, 1902.

WARREN S. DUNGAN was born at Frankfort Springs, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on the 12 th of September, 1822. He was reared on a farm, attending school in the winter months and assisting in the work of the farm during the summers. When eighteen years of age he entered Frankfort Academy. He taught school winters, after leaving the academy, until he was twenty-eight, earning money to enable him to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and came to Iowa, locating at Chariton, where he opened a law office. In 1861 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate for four years. When the war began he was active in raising troops for the Union armies and in the organization of the Thirty-fourth Infantry, was appointed lieutenant-colonel, sharing all of the perils and glories of that regiment throughout its term of service. During the last year he was on the staff of Major-General C. C. Andrews, as Inspector-General. At the close of the was Colonel Dungan returned to Chariton and resumed the practice of law. In 1872 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated General Grant for a second term and was one of the presidential electors chosen in November. In 1880 he was a member of the Eighteenth General Assembly and was reelected to the House of the Nineteenth General Assembly. In 1887 he was again elected to the Senate and served a full term of four years. In 1893 Colonel Dungan was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Lieutenant-Governor and elected by a plurality over Bestow, Democrat, of 36,904. His long legislative experience made him an accomplished President of the Senate.

CLARK DUNHAM, one of the notable pioneer journalists of Iowa, was born at New Haven, Vermont, January 21, 1816. His father removed to Ohio when he was a child and Clark, after attending the public schools, entered Granville College where he graduated. He acquired a knowledge of the printing business and with the aid of his father purchased the NEWARK GAZETTE and for fourteen years was its editor and proprietor. In 1854 he removed to Burlington, Iowa, where, with the assistance of his brother-in-law, he purchased the HAWKEYE, then a tri-weekly journal. When the Republican party was organized the HAWKEYE became one of the ablest exponents of its principles and Mr. Dunham developed into one of the most successful editors in the State He knew how to make a newspaper before the era of telegraphs and daily papers. While he was not a voluminous writer, he knew just what the public wanted in a paper and gave it. The HAWKEYE under his management was the best known and most influential paper in Iowa and became widely known throughout the West. Mr. Dunham was a trusted friend of James W. Grimes, Samuel J. Kirkwood, James F. Wilson and Samuel F. Miller. During the War of the Rebellion Mr. Dunham was one of the first to realize that it could only end with the destruction of slavery and the HAWKEYE was striking sturdy blows against that remnant of barbarism while others were vainly attempting compromise. In 1867 Mr. Dunham was appointed postmaster of Burlington, which position he held until his death which occurred on the 12 th of April, 1871.

WILLIAM McE. DYE was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1831. He entered the Military Academy at West Point in July, 1849, graduating in 1853. He served as second lieutenant for several years in California and Texas and in May, 1861, was promoted to captain in the Eighth Infantry. He was living at Marion, Iowa, in 1862 and Governor Kirkwood, anxious to find experienced military men qualified to take command of the numerous Iowa regiments being organized, tendered the command of the Twentieth Volunteer Infantry to Captain Dye. He accepted the position and was commissioned colonel. The regiment participated in the Vicksburg campaign and was for a long time in the Gulf Department. Colonel Dye proved to be an able officer and became a colonel in the regular army. In March, 1865, he was promoted to Brigadier-General of volunteers. After the close of the war he returned to the regular army where he served until September, 1870, when he resigned and returned to Marion and engaged in farming. He went to Egypt after several years, where he became a high officer in the army of the Khedive and was severely wounded in one of the battles. He returned to America in 1879 and was made Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia. In 1888 Colonel Dye went Corea where he became military adviser and Instructor-General of the king of that country. He introduced many reforms in the army equipment and arms. He wrote a valuable book on Egypt and Abyssinia and their military systems and, returning to American in 1899, died at Muskegon, Michigan, in the same year.

JOSEPH DYSART was born in Huntington, Pennsylvania, on the 9 th of July, 1820. He made a trip to Iowa as early as November, 1839, and was greatly pleased with the beauty and fertility of its vast unsettled prairies but preferred to remain in the East until the then new Territory became better settled. In April, 1856, he returned with his family and became a resident of Vinton and for two years was editor of the VINTON EAGLE. For many years he gave his chief attention to farming. In 1861 he was elected to the State Senate as a Republican to represent the Benton and Tama District. In 1869 he was again chosen from the same district to a full term of four years in the Senate. In 1873 he received the nomination for Lieutenant-Governor on the Republican ticket and was elected, serving one term. In 1884 he was elected one of the trustees of the State Agricultural College, having long been a helpful friend of that institution. The town of Dysart, in Tama County, was named for him and was for many years his home, where he died on the 8 th of September, 1893.