1903 Index

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

E

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Becke Dawson.

DAVID C. EARLY was one of the first settlers in Sac County, having ventured across the wild prairies to that region as early as May, 1856. He and his companion found a beautiful grove and staked off a claim, while Mr. Early went on foot to Sioux City to enter the land. His partner in the meantime was cutting logs for a cabin. It took Early six days to make the trip; as there were no bridges he had to wade the creeks and sloughs. There were but four or five cabins in the county, and they had the pick of as fine a country as the sun ever shone upon. Mr. Early taught the first school in the county, and soon after was appointed deputy treasurer, transacting the business of the office. He has remained in the county nearly fifty years, taking an active part in its development, the securing of railroads, and building up the flourishing town of Sac City. He was a native of Ohio, having been born in Brown County, April 21, 1830. He studied law and was admitted to the bar before he left that state.

ENOCH W. EASTMAN was born at Deerfield, New Hampshire, April 15, 1810. He was educated in the public schools with a few terms at an academy, and worked on his father's farm until the age of twenty-one when he began the study of law, practicing in his native State until the summer of 1844 when he removed to Iowa, locating at Burlington. Although a Democrat, he distinguished himself the first year of his residence in Iowa by taking the stump against the adoption of the Constitution recently framed by his party and helped to defeat it at the election. Under this Constitution the boundaries of the State would have extended north taking in a large portion of southeastern Minnesota and would have excluded all of the Missouri slope west of a line running north and south from near the west side of Kossuth and Ringgold counties. Enoch W. Eastman, Theodore S. Parvin and Frederick D. Mills, all Democrats and young men, warmly opposed the adoption of such boundaries and influenced enough of their Democratic associates to unite with the Whigs to defeat the Constitution. This was one of the most important public services ever rendered the State. When Iowa was called upon to contribute a stone for the Washington monument in 1850, Enoch W. Eastman was the author of the inscription placed upon it: " Iowa – Her affections like the rivers of her borders, flow to an inseparable Union.' Mr. Eastman removed to Oskaloosa in 1847 and to Eldora in 1857. When the Rebellion began he left the Democratic party and united with the Republicans. In 1863 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor and in 1883 he was elected to the State Senate. He died on the 9 th of January, 1885.

ARIEL K. EATON, one of the lawmakers of Iowa, was born at Sutton, New Hampshire, on the 1 st of December, 1813. His education was acquired in the public schools and for several years he was a teacher. In 1841 he located at Winchester, Indiana, where he was elected county auditor. He was admitted to the bar and for several years practiced law. In 1846 he removed to Delaware County, Iowa, where he built the second log cabin in the new town of Delhi. He was soon elected prosecuting attorney and afterwards county judge. In 1850 he was elected a representative in the Third General Assembly and was chairman of the committee of schools. He was reelected to the Fourth General Assembly which enacted the Code of 1851. Upon the establishment of the new United State Land Office at Decorah in 1855, Mr. Eaton was appointed by President Pierce receiver of public money. In 1856 the Land Office was removed to Osage and Mr. Eaton made that place his permanent home. After his retirement from office and the practice of law, General Eaton for many years contributed valuable historical articles to the press. He died July 14, 1896.

WILLARD L. EATON is a native of Iowa, having been born at Delhi in Delaware County, October 13, 1848. He is a graduate of the Law Department of the State University, and began the practice of law at Osage in Mitchell County, in 1874. Mr. Eaton is the son of Hon. A. K. Eaton who was one of the prominent pioneer lawmakers of Iowa, and long a leader in the Democratic party. W. L. Eaton has been three terms mayor of Osage, and county attorney. In politics he is a Republican and in 1897 was elected to represent his county in the House of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly. He was reelected to the Twenty-eighth General Assembly and became a prominent candidate for Speaker, but not being chosen was made chairman of the committee of ways and means. He was again elected, serving in the Twenty-ninth General Assembly as Speaker of the House.

EZRA C. EBERSOLE is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born at Mount Pleasant, October 18, 1840. He was educated in the common schools, Otterbein University and Amherst College, graduating from the latter in 1862. He was employed as instructor for a time in the Tracy Institute on the Hudson. He served for some months in a Pennsylvania cavalry regiment in the Civil War; and in July, 1863, was chosen professor of mathematics and astronomy in Western College, Linn County, Iowa. For two years he was professor of ancient languages in the State University. After numerous changes he settled in the law practice at Toledo. In 1882 he was elected reporter of the Supreme Court. During the time he held that position he collected the material and prepared for publication twenty-two volumes of Iowa Supreme Court Reports. He was for ten years a member of the executive committee of Western College and a portion of the time lecturer on constitutional law. He has prepared and published a valuable treatise on the laws of Iowa.

JOHN EDWARDS was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, October 24, 1815. He was educated in the schools of Louisville and when quite young removed to Indiana for the purpose of leaving a slave State. In 1848 he was elected to the Legislature, serving but one term. In 1852 he was elected to the State Senate by the Whigs. He had inherited slaves from his father's estate in Kentucky but abhorring the system, he liberated them and gave them property with which to begin life in Indiana. In 1853 Mr. Edwards removed to Iowa, settling in Chariton, Lucas County, where he began the practice of law. In 1856 he was chosen a member of the convention which framed the new Constitution which was adopted the following year. He became a Republican upon the organization of that party and in 1858 was a member of the House of the Seventh General Assembly, was reelected and in 1860 was chosen Speaker of the House of the Eighth General Assembly. When the Civil War began he was appointed aide on the staff of Governor Kirkwood and served in protecting the Missouri border from invasion. In 1862 he was commissioned colonel of the Eighteenth Iowa Infantry, serving through the war, after which he was brevetted Brigadier-General. After the was he settled at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and was appointed by President Johnson Assessor of Internal Revenue. He united with the Democratic party and in 1871 was elected to Congress, serving but one term.

JOSEPH EIBOECK was born in Zeleskut, Hungary, on the 23d of February, 1838. He was educated in Vienna, receiving a thorough course in Latin. His step-father having been engaged in the Hungarian revolution and being obliged to leave the country brought his family to America in 1849, making his home at Dubuque. Here Joseph entered the office of the MINERS' EXPRESS where he learned the printing business and the English language. He taught school three years and in 1859 purchased an interest in the CLAYTON COUNTY JOURNAL, which he conducted until 1872, when he disposed of the paper and wrote and published a history of Clayton County, In 1873 he was appointed by Governor Carpenter Commissioner to the World's Fair at Vienna. In 1874 he settled in Des Moines and became the editor and publisher of the IOWA STAATS ANZEIGER, a weekly journal in the German language. It has a State-wide circulation and is one of the chief papers of that nationality in the country. Colonel Eiboeck has written and delivered able lectures on various subjects. In 1878 he was the Democratic candidate for Auditor of State but was not elected. He has written a history of the Germans of Iowa, a work of nearly eight hundred pages which contains biographical sketches of the notable men of that nationality in Iowa.

JOHN A. ELLIOTT was born on the 24 th of September, 1824, in Armagh, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He received a liberal education and taught school for some time in Ohio. In 1853 he removed to Wisconsin where he was engaged in mercantile business. In 1857 he came to Iowa, locating in Mitchell County on a farm. In 1858 he was elected county treasurer, holding that position until 1864, when he was elected Auditor of State on the Republican ticket. He served three terms and was then appointed land commissioner of the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company and employed in selling the lands obtained by grant from the General Government. He was one of the organizers of the Citizen's National Bank, also of the State Printing Company and was for many years president at the State Insurance Company. He died at his home in Des Moines.

WASHINGTON L. ELLIOTT was an officer in the regular army when the War of the Rebellion began. He had served in the War with Mexico and attained the rank of captain. Later he distinguished himself in the Indian wars of the West. On the 14 th of September, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the Second Iowa Cavalry. In June, 1862, Colonel Elliott was promoted to Brigadier-General and soon after was made Chief of Cavalry in the army under General Pope in his Virginia campaign. Later he was transferred to the army of the Cumberland and became Chief of Cavalry to General Thomas. After the Battle of Nashville he was promoted to brevet Major-General for distinguished services. After the close of the war he returned to the regular army as colonel of the Third Cavalry. In 1879 he was placed on the retired list and died in San Francisco on the 29 th of June, 1888.

LYMAN A. ELLIS, one of the prominent lawyers of Clinton County, was a native of Vermont where he was born March 11, 1835, on a farm near Burlington. In the public schools he acquired sufficient education to teach, thus earning his tuition at an academy and a course of law lectures. In 1861 he came to Iowa, taking up his residence at Lyons, where he began to practice law. In 1865 he was elected District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial District where he served until 1880. In 1893 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate, serving four years. He was the leader of the opposition in that body to granting suffrage to women, making an elaborate speech against the constitutional amendment for that purpose. At the extra session of the General Assembly in 1897, Mr. Ellis was a member of the joint committee for the annotation and publication of the new code.

CHARLES J. A. ERICSON was born in Sweden, March 8, 1840. In 1852 his father emigrated to America with his family, settling on a farm near Moline, Illinois. In the spring of 1859 Charles removed to Mineral Ridge in Boone County, Iowa, where he opened a country store, the nearest railroad town at that time being Iowa City. He was appointed postmaster holding the position until 1870. In that year he removed to Boone, entering the City Bank as cashier. In 1871 he was elected Representative in the House of the Fourteenth General Assembly, where he secured the passage of a bill making settlers on the Des Moines River lands, occupying claimants, many hundreds of them living in his county. In 1895 Mr. Ericson was elected to the State Senate from the district of Boone and Story counties, and was the author of a bill which became a law taxing corporations for filing articles of incorporation. He also secured the reduction of interest on State warrants from six to five per cent. Mr. Ericson has been a successful business man, accumulating wealth which he has used liberally in building up his home city. He has also made large contributions to worthy enterprises. In 1899 he gave more than $12,000 to provide a part for Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois. In 1867-8 he built five school houses in the county; and in 1900 he built and presented to the city of Boone a building for a public library at a cost of $10,000, which has been named the ‘Ericson Memorial Library.'

SAMUEL B. EVANS was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee, July 31, 1837. In boyhood he attended the public schools of that section and later entered the State University. His parents removed to Davis County, Iowa in 1841, which was then a part of Van Buren. He learned the printer's trade and when a young man founded the SIGOURNEY DEMOCRAT, in Keokuk County. Some years later he established the OTTUMWA DEMOCRAT which he published for many years. He was also the founder of the OTTUMWA MERCURY and later the publisher of the OTTUMWA INDEPENDENT. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army and was in the battles of Helena, Little Rock and Jenkin's Ferry. He was promoted to first lieutenant for gallantry in service. He has long been one of the prominent leaders of the Democratic party. He was a delegate to the national Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1872, at St. Louis in 1876, at Cincinnati in 1880 and chairman of the Iowa delegation at Chicago in 1896. As an editor and writer he has few equals in Iowa journalism, it having been his life work. He was postmaster of Ottumwa from 1885 to 1890. He was an enthusiastic advocate of fish culture for many years and when the act passed providing for the promotion of this industry in Iowa, Governor Carpenter in recognition of his valuable services in this line appointed Mr. Evans Fish Commissioner. He has long been a contributor to the publications of the Department of American Archaeology.