Hon. Stephen L. Dows submitted by James Richmond

A broad-minded, generous-spirited man, capable and enterprising in business and yet never so engrossed in commercial and financial affairs as to exclude the other interests of life which come from a recognition of man's duty to his fellowman, to his community and his country, Hon. Stephen L. Dows ranked with the foremost men of Iowa and in Cedar Rapids, where he made his home, and indeed wherever he was known his memory is cherished and revered by those with whom he came in contact.

Mr. Dows was born in New York city, October 9,1832, a son of Adam and Maria (Lundy) Dows. The ancestral line is traced back to one of the old families of New England and the name was originally spelled Dowse... "Stephen L. Dows was a little lad of four years when his parents removed to Troy, New York. He attended the public schools there to the age of fourteen years, when he entered upon an apprenticeship to the machinist’s trade, mastering his duties with promptness and capability. The west, with its broader opportunities, however, attracted him and with the desire to try his fortune in the rapidly developing Mississippi valley, he made his way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1848. His cash capital it the time consisted of seventy cents. He was in a way a soldier of fortune, having no definite plans, but he recognized the fact that industry and determination will always win. The first year was spent in the lumber camp at Badenoquett, Michigan, where his salary was but twelve dollars per month. He then crossed the peninsula and Lake Superior, made his way through the untraveled wilderness and arrived in Marquette, Michigan, in 1849, being one of the first white men to spend the winter there. He found employment in the machine shops, ran the first engine and aided in building the first steamer launched on Lake Superior. After two years he returned to Badenoquett, where he was once more connected with the lumber business until 1853, when he secured the position of superintendent of a lumber mill at Muskegon. Two years later, or on the 12th of April, 1855, he aried in Cedar Rapids and subsequently operated a sawmill and conducted a lumber business in both Linn and Jones counties.  Each change that he made marked a forward step in his career. He afterward became superintendent for the Variety Manufacturing Company, but in 1860 he went to Colorado, attracted by the discovery of gold at Pikes Peak.  A year convinced him that fortunes were not to be had for the asking there and he returned to Cedar Rapids.

In August, 1862, prompted by a spirit of patriotism which at that time dominated every other interest of his life, Mr. Dows offered his services to the government, enlisting as a member of Company I, Twentieth Iowa Infantry, in which he was made first lieutenant. Subsequently e was appointed acting brigade quartermaster of the First Brigade, Second Division, Army of the Frontier, but exposure and overwork at length forced him to leave the service, his health having been undermined. Folling his return from the war he began railroad building under contract and was not long in reaping the results of his former labor and experience. His efforts in that direction were of material benefit to the state, as well as the source of gratifying income for himself.  Contract followed contract and he employed a large force of workmen and conducted a most extensive and profitable business, becoming one of the leaders in his line in the west. As his financial resources increased he made large investments in realty and many tracts which he owned were converted into town sites in Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota.  His investments were wisely placed and his capable control of his business dealings gained for him the high regard and honor of all with whom he came in contact. Mr. Dows made extensive investment in Cear Rapids real estate and in 1874 erected the Dows block, one of the finest office and business structures in the west at that time.  A contemporary biographer has written: "Self-made in the strictest sense of the term, he educated himself, became a skillful machinist and later developed into one of themost farsighted business men Cedar Rapids has known. He was also largely interested in Cedar Rapids banks and served for many years as a director of various local financial institutions."

Mr. Dows was married October 31, 1855, to Miss Henrietta W. Safely, a daughter of Thomas Safely, of Waterford, New York.  She was born in Scotland, November 12, 1834, and when tow years of age was brought by her parents to the new world, the family home being establlished at Waterford, where they remained until 1851, when removal was made to Sugar Grove, Linn county, Iowa.  Mr. and Mrs. Dows began their domestic life in Mount Vernon, but after a year went to Cedar Rapids, where Mrs. Dows became a recognized leader in the social, religious and charitable circles of the city. She held membership in the First Methodist church, took a prominent part in all of its activities and gave most most generously toward its benevolence.  The poor and needy ever found in her a friend and in all of her good work she was guided by tact, kindliness and ready sympathy. She passed away August 7, 1893, at the age of fifty-eight years, and no where was her loss so keenly felt as in her own home, for whe was a devoted wife and mother, counting no personal sacrifice or effort too great if it would promoted the happiness and welfare of the members of the household.  Mr. and Mrs. Dows were the parents of six children: Minnie Marie, who died at the age of fifteen years: Elma, the wife of Benjamin Thane, of Pittsburgh, Pennsyulvania; Elizabeth, the wife of Thompson McClintock, also of Pittsburgh; Henrietta, the wife of James E. Blake, of Chicago; Stephen Leland, who died July 5, 1899; and William G., of Cedar Rapids. Following the death of his wife Mr. Dows gave to St. Luke's Hospital as a memorial to her its splendid operating room with its equipment, said to be one of the finest in the United States.  Mr. Dows gave unfaltering allegiance to the republican party from the time that age conferred upon him the right of franchise. In 1875 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature and served in the sixteenth and seventeenth general assemblies.  He was made a member of a number of important committees, including that of railroads, manufacture, appropriations and penetentiaries.  He was connected with much constructive legislation and ever placed the public good before partisanship and the general welfare before personal agrandizement. A contemporary writer has paid a fitting tribute to his memory: "Like his wife, Mr. Dows was ever deeply interested in that which worked for the betterment and advancement of the community. He was naturally an enthusiast in the cause of education, serving for many years as a trustee of Coe College of this city and of Cornell College, at Mount Vernon. Fraternally be was a Knight Templar Mason and an Odd Fellow. He began with nothing, not once but several times, for he made and lost several fortunes before he gathered the last and largest one. He had worked and worked hard at anything that came to his hands, from primitive railroid building to digging gold.  He traveled Illinois and Iowa on foot because he bad nothing with which to pay for conveyance; later he built railroads in every direction and did it at a time when the financing of such a project was a difficult problem.  He frequently took what seemed like desperate chances, but his unusual business sagacity enabled him to be on the winning side. He served in the Civil war with distinction, for he was not too busy with privite affairs to forget the duty which be owed to his country and to humanity. His life was typical of the great, growing west, to which growth be contributed so largely. He was a man of action rather than of theory and with determined purpose carried forward to successful completion whatever he undertook, and in his death Cedar Rapids lost one of the most rugged, honest, capable and honorable men that the city has ever known."

John Francis Duncombe

Pioneer Defender of the Frontier - Journalist - Legislator - Lawyer

1831 - 1902

I

Told in outline, the life of John Francis Duncombe is as follows:

Born in Waterford, Erie County, Pa., on the 22d day of October, 1831; died at his home in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on the 2d day of August, 1902.

John F. Duncombe was the descendant of the Duncombes, a prominent family in England. His great-grandfather, Charles Duncombe, founder of the American branch of the family, was a Revolutionary patriot. From his large fortune he contributed over sixty thousand dollars in aid of the colonists. His son, grandfather of John F. Duncombe, was a volunteer soldier in the War of 1812. He was reared on a farm, and his stalwart, muscular frame told of a good inheritance of strength and vigor supplemented by years of life in the open.

He remained at home assisting his father and, in winter, attending district school, until he reached the crucial age of sixteen, when the ambition and inward urge of youth impelled him to seek a broader intellectual horizon than that which the hills of Pennsylvania shut in. He prepared for college at Meadville, Pa., and studied awhile in Center College, Danville, Ky. He entered Allegheny College, Meadville, where, after four years of close application, he was graduated. During his college course he taught school winters earning money to meet expenses. After graduation, he won the master's degree from his college. He began the study of law, in Meadville, continuing his studies in Erie, where, at the age of twenty-two, he was admitted to the bar. He was married December 29, 1852, to Carrie Perkins, who died in Erie, on the 19th of November, 1854.

The young lawyer after a year's experience at the bar in Erie, borrowed $300 from his father, surrendering his interest in the paternal estate, and went west to seek his fortune. In 1855, he located in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he resided during the remainder of his life.

His commanding ability and his extensive reading and working knowledge of the law brought him into prominence, and he was soon accounted one of the foremost attorneys in interior and Northwestern Iowa. For thirty- six years he was Iowa attorney for the Illinois Central railroad.

His avocation as a journalist began early and continued long; but he never allowed it to interfere materially with his chosen vocation - the law. Soon after he located he became editor of the Fort Dodge Sentinel, the pioneer journal of Northwestern Iowa. Later he published and edited the Democrat, of Fort Dodge, a paper of large influence in the party politics of the state. Meantime, he became a popular campaign and occasion orator, and as a campaigner had few equals in logic, humor and force.

II

Few pioneer Iowans of prominence slipped through life without supplying to the biographer a chapter which may with truth be termed heroic, or bordering closely on the heroic. The service rendered by John F. Duncombe in defense of the border from Indian incursions in part of the history of Iowa.

In the summer of 1887, thirty years after the Spirit Lake Expedition of 1857 in which Mr. Duncombe took a prominent part, a brass tablet was placed in the Hamilton county courthouse in memory of Company C of that famous expedition. The tablet was unveiled on the 12th of August of that year. Among the seven participants in that expedition who took part in the exercises on that occasion was Capt. John F. Duncombe. To the address delivered by ex-Governor Carpenter, himself a private in the expedition, and that delivered by Captain Duncombe, the state is indebted for its best inside history of the expedition. The author's present purpose is to retell the story by personalizing one of the commanding figures in the movement for the defense of the frontier.

Governor Carpenter, in the course of his address, said:

"Of the three captains, two are living - Messrs. C. B. Richards and John F. Duncombe. Their subsequent careers in civil life have been but a fulfillment of the prophecy of the men who followed them through the snow-banks of Northwestern Iowa in 1857."

Captain Duncombe's address, prepared and delivered by request on this occasion, was rewritten and read at a meeting of the Pioneer Law-Makers' Association held in Des Moines in February, 1898. This interesting and valuable contribution to Iowa history is made up chiefly of recollections of the expedition.

The captain first alluded to the desire of Inkpadutah, leader of a renegade band of the Sioux, to avenge the murders committed a few years before by a white man named Lot. The Indians came down the Little Sioux River to a small settlement now called Smithland, where they were halted and turned back. On their return, their temper underwent a change. Settlers were insulted, provisions taken, cattle slain, children maltreated and women outraged. Their depredations continued, culminating in the massacre at West Okoboji, known in history as the Spirit Lake Massacre.

When in the winter of 1857 reports came to Fort Dodge that a band of Indians led by Inkpadutah were desolating the region of the north, the only thing to do was promptly done. A rescue party went to the relief of the terrorized, suffering and starving settlers. The distance traversed was over seventy miles, across an unbroken, treeless, trackless prairie, constantly visited by storms wholly unknown in Iowa before or since. The snow on the level was very deep and in the beds of streams it was ten to fifteen feet in depth.

The three companies, two from Fort Dodge and one from Webster City, under command of Major Williams, were supplied with teams and wagons, provisions, clothing and blankets, also with arms and ammunition. "Nearly every kind of gun from double-barreled shotguns to the finest rifles" was included in the outfit.

The Expedition started from Fort Dodge on the 24th of March, less than three days after the massacre was reported. When he started Captain Duncombe had a very stiff neck and a badly inflamed car, and the slightest jar caused him severe pain. That first night was to him one of extreme torture. He lay on a snow-bank and was kept awake by the pain he endured, accentuated by the terrific snoring near by.

Next day the men shoveled snow and tramped it down for the teams, or with a long heavy rope hauled the wagons through the snow-banks, and after them the helpless horses and oxen. They waded the Des Moines River fifteen or twenty times. They made only about ten miles a day. At Dakota City a few of the men found places to sleep in houses and sheds; other, rolled in their blankets, slept in groves.

During the second night the captain suffered torture from the ear-ache. Next morning, the gathering broke and he found relief. Snow-blindness and frozen feet compelled the discharge of two men, and caused "one or two faint hearts to desert."

Thence to McKnight's Point, eighteen miles to the northwest.

To the stalwart and vigorous Duncombe was assigned the duty of going ahead and finding "the best places for crossing the deep and almost impassable drifts," necessitating double the amount of travel. He kept two or three miles ahead, signaling back from high points. There was a crust on the snow upon which the lighter men could march, but which broke with the heavier men, frequently letting them down to their hips. At night-fall, instead of retracing his steps, in company with two other pickets, he pushed on toward the timber at McKnight's Point. Constantly breaking through the crust, the captain's fatigue was intense.

When within two miles of the grove, one of his two companions passed to their captain a viol of "cough medicine" which proved to be chiefly laudanum. Weakened from loss of food, the medicine overcame him and he was compelled to succumb. He could not stand alone and but for a vigorous shaking would have fallen asleep. He urged Lieutenant Maxwell and Private Wheelock to save themselves, as they, too, were worn down with fatigue. The night was cold and they had not even a single blanket to protect themselves. Captain Duncombe afterward declared that to their manly, courageous and self-sacrificing spirit, he undoubtedly owed his life.

Maxwell, too weak to walk, breaking through the crust at every step, lay down on the crust, thus distributing his weight, says Duncombe, and, "rolled over and over that two miles, to a cabin in the grove, suffering injuries from which he never fully recovered. Wheelock kept himself from freezing by his violent efforts to keep me awake, refusing to leave me for a moment and faithfully staying by me for hours until help came. At the cabin Maxwell found the old pioneers, Jeremiah Evans, and William Church, and these two men followed back the tracks he had made, to where Wheelock had remained with me. . . ."

The two dragged Captain Duncombe to the cabin, and the faithful Wheelock, "walking, falling and plunging along, . . . succeeded in making the cabin about the same time, late at night." Duncombe slept till late the next day, after the command had reached the grove. Doctor Bissell thought it a miracle that the laudanum had not killed him, taken when he was nearly famished and overcome with fatigue.

In four days the command had made only a little more than thirty miles. Here several of the men either refused or were unable to go farther. One of their number, a hero of the Mexican war, declared it was suicidal to continue the march. But, having set out to overtake the Indians and rescue the survivors of the massacre if any, the command moved on, valiantly led by the intrepid Williams.

They reached West Bend; thence on to the Irish Colony. Beyond this point evidence of Indian depredations became numerous. As they neared the lakes they came upon about seventeen settlers who had mistaken them for Indians and had thrown up defenses, determined to sell their lives dearly. They had escaped from Springfield, Minn., where the Indians had been repulsed. The leader of the party had seen his own son killed in front of his cabin. His own arm had been broken by a rifle-ball; and, later, on reaching Fort Dodge it was amputated. One woman and several men of the party had been wounded.

The food supply, diminished by the increased numbers, ran low and the command was reduced to half-rations. Beavers' meat, cooked by night fire, helped keep away hunger.

The command pressed on, weary and foot-sore, and some of them snow- blind, the stronger ones dragging teams and wagons through snow-banks. The refugees from Springfield, who would have perished but for their timely aid, led them to believe that the disappointed Indians would follow them, thus suggesting redoubled watchfulness.

One day as Captain Duncombe was riding on horseback, about half-way between the men and the scouts, he heard the agreed-upon signal, the firing of a gun, followed by other reports. Looking in the direction of the firing, he saw two persons, presumably Indians, running out of the timber about two miles away. Well-armed, with a revolver and a double- barreled gun, he started his horse of a full run, purposing to head off the escaping savages. On nearing the men he found they were scouts who, seeing a number of beavers lying upon the ice sunning themselves, forgot their orders not to fire except at sight of Indians, and shot at the animals.

The captain humorously recalls the reprimand Major Williams gave him afterwards for needlessly risking his life. "I remember," he says, "after saying a few severe things to me in a loud, angry tome of voice, he demanded, "Did you expect to whip all the damned Indians, yourself?" I received my reprimand in silence and, two years after, took my revenge by marrying his daughter!"

At Granger's cabin, near the Minnesota line, a soldier from Fort Ridgeley reported the Indians at least a hundred miles to the northwest. It was decided to send a detail to bury the dead at Springfield, and to search about the lakes for survivors if any, rejoining the command at the Irish Colony. About twenty volunteers undertook the task, with Captain Johnson in command. The rest took up the slow march home. The melting snow made the streams almost impossible. Reaching the Irish Colony, they found the party that had been detailed had not arrived and had not been heard from. A fierce blizzard had set in the night before, and grave fears were entertained that all had perished.

After burying the dead, Captain Johnson and his detachment started in the direction of the colony. Becoming bewildered as to direction, and remaining all night on the open prairie without food and shelter and with wet feet and frozen clothing, the next morning found them in a pitiable condition. They separated in squads, each following its judgment as to directions. All returned except Captain Johnson and William Burkholder, who were frozen to death. Some of those who came into camp were crazed with suffering and fatigue, and remained dazed for several days.

On the return, Captains Duncombe and Richards and two privates, finding Cylinder Creek swollen to the width of nearly a half-mile, rigged up a boat from a wagon-box, calking it with cotton. The wind rose suddenly, retarding their progress and by constant bailing they reached shallow water before the boat sank. It had been their purpose to use the improvised boat to transport their comrades; but failing in this, they tramped to a cabin three miles away, which they reached after dark - their clothing and boots frozen stiff and their feet wet. They passed a long, tedious night trying to dry out their clothing by the cabin fire. Meantime the creek had frozen over. Both captains tried by means of two boards of the wagon-box to cross on the thin ice but the ice broke and the experiment was abandoned.

Talking with two men across the creek, they learned that during the night all the men piled up close as they could lie and covered themselves with blankets, and consequently had not suffered much. Next day even the horses could cross upon the ice. This remarkable freeze began on the 4th, and lasted until the 6th, of April!

Food becoming scarce, the command separated in squads, and in due time all who started out on the heroic mission of helpfulness returned to Fort Dodge and Webster City - all except Captain Johnson and Private Burkholder. Some of the party, however, received injuries from undue exposure from which they never fully recovered.

A pleasant incidental allusion to Mrs. John F. Duncombe in her girlhood occurs in Governor Carpenter's sketch of her father, Major William Williams (Annals of Iowa, July-October, 1895). Referring to the musical tastes and accomplishments of the Williams family, the writer says: "In the early days at Fort Dodge, the home of Major Williams was the only house in which there was a piano. . . . There was a sprightly and accomplished young lady in the family (now Mrs. Duncombe) and every member of the family could perform on some musical instrument."

III

In 1857, the Fort Dodge district, as it was commonly called, comprised nineteen counties in Northwestern Iowa. The honor of representing the district in Congress was contested by John F. Duncombe, democrat, and Cyrus C. Carpenter, republican. The pioneer contest was conducted with unusual ability and energy. Both were men of rare strength and endurance and each was in the full flush of a vigorous manhood. A few years before, the contest would have been one-sided; but in 1857 the republicans were beginning to feel their strength, and they nominated Carpenter with a farm purpose to elect him, and in this they succeeded, but only by a very small majority.

The pioneer editor had not only a keen appreciation of news values but also the modern journalistic scent for a "story." He succeeded where many a modern "cub" reporter fails; he did not subordinate news values to mere cleverness in telling the tale. Take, as a good illustration, young Duncombe's story of the coming of the first steamboat to Fort Dodge. No event in the eventful history of Fort Dodge ever more thoroughly stirred the community imagination and ambition than the arrival of the little steamboat, Charley Rodgers, on the 6th of April, 1859. There had been much talk of the possibilities of navigation on the Des Moines, and hope was high that at some time in the near future Fort Dodge would be a great depot for supplies for the vast agricultural region roundabout. And here was what seemed to the little community a material realization of the dream!

No telegraph wire conveyed the news. No telephone announced the approaches of the treasure-laden "ship." Outriders had, however, told of its coming and all were alert for the event. And when, after the long wait, the shrill whistle announced its coming, every ear was strained and every heart beat quicker, and on the steamer's arrival every man, woman and child in the little town was at the landing to welcome the prosperity-bringer and watch the magic unloading of merchandise. In their dreams they had seen -

". . . the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales."

And here, on that eventful day, penetrating the early morning fog came, puffing and blowing into port, the advance-agent of prosperity, - unsentimentally named "Charley Rodgers," - and in due time its crew were busily unloading unmagical, but for that reason all the more welcome bales - sheet iron and dried fruit, sacks of salt, bags of coffee, hogsheads of sugar and barrels of molasses, kegs of nails and of soda, boxes of drugs and soap and general merchandise, and - incidentally several passengers!

The editor of the Sentinel - then twenty-eight years old - was there "takin' notes," and, in his issue of the 7th, he recorded the "extreme delight" with which Fort Dodge welcomed the incoming steamer. By the politeness of Captain Beers, he in company with over a hundred ladies and gentlemen of the town enjoyed "the first steamboat pleasure excursion on the upper Des Moines River." He thus describes the event:

". . . The steamboat left the landing of Colburn's ferry about two o'clock and after crossing the river and loading with coal from the mines, started for the upper ferry. . . . The steamer passed over the rapids with perfect ease in the west channel. At the mouth of the Lizzard the boat 'rounded to' and passed down the river at race-horse speed in the eastern channel. The scene was one of intense interest. The beautiful plateau on which our town is built was covered with men, women and children. The river bank was lined with joyful spectators. Repeated hurrahs from those on the boat and on the shore filled the air. The steamer passed down the river about six miles and then returned.

"Old grudges were settled - downcast looks brightened - hard times were forgotten - everybody seemed perfectly happy. We had always believed the navigation of our river was practical; but to know it, filled our citizens with more pleasure than a fortune. We felt like a boy with a rattle box - 'only more so.' The Fort Dodge steamboat enterprise has succeeded, in spite of sneers and jeers!"

In the evening a mass-meeting was held in the schoolhouse in celebration of the event. On motion of Mr. Duncombe a committee was appointed to draft suitable resolutions.

Mr. Duncombe and others explained and supported the resolutions. But, as is well known, the argosies seen in the dreams of the Sentinel editor vanished in the purple twilight of a later day; and, in time, the hopeful young editor was the realization of his dream - not in argosies but in lines of railroad connecting Fort Dodge with the outside world.

When on the 9th day of January, 1860, the Eighth General Assembly of Iowa convened in the new capitol of the state, the stalwart form of Senator Duncombe of the thirty-second district was seen among those who advanced to take the oath of office.

It early became evident that the Fort Dodge senator would be "no dead- head" in legislation. On the 11th, he gave notice that he would introduce a bill providing that the state printing be given to the lowest responsible bidder.

On the 1st of February, Mr. Duncombe on behalf of twenty senators offered resolutions protesting against the proposed publication of Governor Kirkwood's message on the ground that a great portion of it related to John Brown and the Harper's Ferry invasion, with the governor's private opinion as to the causes of the insurrection, - "a direct departure from the plain duty of the executive as presented by the Constitution." And for the further reason that the petitioners regarded the message as "a palliation of the course pursued by Brown."

The president of the Senate decided that it was competent for that body to determine whether the document was a protest or not. Mr. Duncombe appealed from the decision of the chair but was not sustained.

Late in March a bill came up making provision for the settlement of all liabilities of the state growing out of the sale of certain lands of the Des Moines River Improvement Grant for School Lands. The senator moved to amend by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting therefor a substitute providing for the adjustment of all claims against the state arising from failure, on the part of the state, to give title to the purchasers of said lands. The amendment was concurred in; and on motion of Mr. Duncombe the bill was put upon its passage, carrying by a vote of 23 to 4.

An extra session, rendered necessary by the outbreak of rebellion in the South and the call of the President for support by the loyal states, convened on the 15th of May, 1861. On the following day the message of Governor Kirkwood was read, officially informing members as to the war measures undertaken in emergency, and calling on the General Assembly to pass such legislation as would put the state upon a war footing.

Both houses promptly passed resolutions pledging "the faith, credit and resources of the State of Iowa both in men and money - to any amount and to every extent which the Government may constitutionally demand to suppress treason, subdue rebellion, enforce the laws, protect the lives and property of loyal citizens, and maintain inviolate the constitution and sovereignty of the nation." This pledge was made good by subsequent appropriations of money and the adoption of a vigorous enlistment policy.

IV

No more vividly personal picture of the Eighth General Assembly of Iowa has been handed down to us of today than that which Mr. Duncombe drew, off-hand, on being called to the presidency of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association in Des Moines on the 25th of February, 1886. As illustrating Mr. Duncombe's free and happy colloquial style, his camaraderie and the generous tone in which he was wont to refer to his contemporaries of other days - with not a few of whom he had had many a contest in debate - we quote, somewhat freely, from this extempore address:

". . . When, on the 8th of January, 1860, I was sworn in as a senator, representing or misrepresenting the entire northwest quarter of the State of Iowa, I met there the elegant and able lawyer, John W. Rankin - long since passed over the dark river; and eloquent and brave Cyrus Bussey, a general of the late war; the bold, rough, big-hearted Harvey W. English, a soldier of the Mexican war; the polished, handsome, scholarly Wm. F. Coolbaugh, whose sad death we all remember so well; the shrewd calculator, Alvin Saunders, late United States senator from Nebraska; the able United States senator, James F. Wilson, who now represents our state in Congress; the brilliant wit, A. O. Patterson, who we all hoped would be here and speak for himself; the analytic, sterling ex-congressman, L. L. Ainsworth, whose sharp sarcasms always caused the procession to move on where the way was blocked; the sound and cautious' ex-Congressman Pusey, whose advice was always taken; the dashing Tom Drummond, peace to his ashes; the wide-awake Col. John Scott, who now again honors the senate with his presence. And there was honest Dan Anderson and Jarius E. Neal, and Udell and Bailey, and Taylor and Thompson and Davis and Angle and Judge Wilson of Dubuque, and Trumbull and Hammer and Henderson and McPherson and Brown and Gray and Powers, and many more whose names I cannot now mention, but whose memories I shall ever cherish; and over all presided the good-hearted German, Nicholas J. Rusch, whose voice from across the river I still in memory hear calling, the "Chintlemen fram Vebster has the floor,' in that pleasant, good-natured manner, as I heard it twenty-six years ago; and then there was 'Lin Kinsale,' the newspaper correspondent, who from time to time, with his sharp pen, tormented and flayed democratic senators and made giants of small men on the other side.

"At the next session there was McCrary, since secretary of war, United States circuit judge, and now attorney of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company; and there was our own Gue and the polished Jennings and many that I have not now time to mention; but among them all I shall never forget the noble, brave man, Col. James Redfield, whose life's blood poured out on the altar of his country - than whom Julius Caesar was never braver. I shall never forget how, when the lightning flashed over the wire from Donelson, the word 'victory,' when the House and Senate gave out one shout of triumph, he was almost overwhelmed with enthusiasm. In the House I will only mention one man. Among the noble men there was Gen. Nathaniel B. Baker. At that time he had the most remarkable executive ability I ever saw. His quickness, his courage, his readiness, his wit, his sarcasm - his powers of argument were all in full activity, and he was an exceedingly dangerous foe on any field. His great big heart has long since ceased to beat, but Iowa can never forget its debt to General Baker, and his memory should never fade away. When the roll of these assemblies is now called there is no response for Redfield, Robb, Rankin, Coolbaugh, Thompson, Judge Wilson, McPherson, Drummond and many others who answered the roll call at the sessions of the Eighth and Ninth General Assemblies and the two special sessions between 1860 and 1864. They have gone - conquerors in the battle of life. Their names are not forgotten. Their acts aided very much to mould our laws and institutions, and bring beautiful Iowa into the proud position in the great sisterhood of states which she now holds.

With the new year, 1862, came together the Ninth General Assembly. Senator Duncombe was given place on the Judiciary Committee and on the Committee of Military Affairs - two of the most important committees, the second especially so at that time.

Reared in the school of old-time democracy, Mr. Duncombe while heartily supporting President Lincoln in his efforts to put down the rebellion, was sure he saw in the trend of affairs a purpose to precipitate a movement for the emancipation of the slaves. In an honest endeavor to put his state upon record as adhering to the original purpose of the President and Congress, on the 22d of January he offered a resolution, which, after reciting the causes of the War of the Rebellion as he saw them,

Resolved, That the Senate of the State of Iowa hereby pledges cordial support to the President of the United States in a patriotic effort to put down all rebellion against the Constitution and laws of the United States, and in resisting secession, abolition and negro emancipation from whatever source it may come, by every constitutional means in the power of the Government.

Mr. Holmes moved its reference to the Committee on Federal Relations. Mr. Duncombe opposed the motion as virtually amounting to an indefinite postponement. But the motion prevailed by a vote of 27 to 10, and nothing further was heard of the resolution.

On the 17th of February, the routine business of legislation was happily disturbed by news of the first great victory of northern arms, the capture of Fort Donelson. Governor Kirkwood, overflowing with joy, gave a dinner at the Demoine House to which everybody was invited. The ordinary restraints of the banquet were abandoned and, for once, grave and reverend senators and representatives acted as they felt! With few exceptions the democratic legislators vied with the republicans in demonstrations of enthusiasm.

Senator Duncombe, long afterward, told the Pioneer Law-Makers he could never forget the joy of that hour. When the lightning flashed over the wire from Donelson the word "victory," he "was almost overwhelmed with enthusiasm."

On the 12th of March, Woodward submitted a lengthy report on the Des Moines River Land Grant, and Duncombe a lengthy minority report on the same, its history. the several contracts and how they had been variously interpreted, the proposition of the state for settlement, etc., and the duty of the state in the emergency. The minority report is an evidence of the thoroughness with which Senator Duncombe studied and worked out legal problems.

The intervening years between Mr. Duncombe's retirement from the Senate of Iowa and his return to the General Assembly as a member of the Lower House were busy years in which the subject of this sketch was actively engaged in the practice of his profession, and public-spiritedly planning and working with his fellow citizens for the upbuilding of Fort Dodge and the development of Iowa. In most important cases tried in the courts, he was on one side or the other. In many instances, regardless of his own immediate interests, he would advise the settlement of civil cases out of court.

On the 9th of January, 1872, ex-Senator Duncombe, elected on the democratic ticket from a republican district, presented himself at the clerk's desk and was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives of the Fourteenth General Assembly. There were more than seventy republicans in the House, and only about a score of democrats. He was made a member of the Judiciary Committee, and of the Committee on Railroads.

The principal issue of the session was an additional appropriation for the proposed new capitol and a reorganization of the capitol commission. The previous Legislature had appropriated $150,000 for that purpose, leaving to its successor responsibility for the continuation, if not completion, of the work. Mr. Kasson entered upon a third term for the express purpose of investigating undesirable contracts for stone, the abolition of the old and unwieldy capitol commission, the creation of a new commission, and the procurement of an annual appropriation.

On the 20th of February, 1873, the adjourned session came to a close, and the brief legislative career of John W. Duncombe terminated.

Though he was politically in a hopeless minority at a time when political lines were drawn more closely than they are at present, Representative Duncombe's legal ability and evident purpose to serve the state to the full measure of his opportunity were recognized by the majority and in the House deliberations of 1872 and 1873, as in those of the Senate a dozen years and more before, his impress was made upon legislation, the value of which was a source of substantial after- satisfaction both to him and to his family and friends.

In his history of "The Fight for the New Capitol," Kasson remarks that "the House also included many strong men and good debaters," and among these he especially mentions John F. Duncombe.

From 1881 to 1889, Mr. Duncombe enjoyed the distinction of being lecturer on railroad law on the law faculty of the Iowa State University; and many are the graduates of the Law School at Iowa City who can testify to the thoroughness of his research and the vigor and clearness of his expositions of the law. He was for eighteen years a regent of the State University.

In 1892, for the second time (the first, in 1872) Mr. Duncombe was chairman of the Iowa delegation in the Democratic National Convention. Designated as the one to present Horace Boies for nomination to the Presidency, he resigned the chairmanship of the delegation. There are many who pleasantly remember the eloquent speech by him in presentation of Iowa's candidate. Several times during his career, Mr. Duncombe's name was prominently mentioned in connection with the democratic nomination for governor, the last time in the campaign preceding his death. While never an office seeker, in the course of his late career, he three times consented to run on a hopelessly minority ticket, once for lieutenant governor, again for a supreme court judgeship and the third time for Congress.

In 1893, Mr. Duncombe was selected as a member of the Iowa Columbia Commission and did serviceable work in making the Iowa building and Iowa's part in the exposition a credit and an honor to the state.

Another of the many unsolicited honors which came to Mr. Duncombe was his appointment by Governor Jackson, along with Governor Carpenter and others, as a member of the Spirit Lake and Okoboji Monument Commission, created in 1894. The purpose of the commission was satisfactorily accomplished in the erection of a granite monument near the Gardiner Cabin on the site of the Spirit Lake Massacre of 1857.

John F. Duncombe while a member of the Iowa House ably supported Governor Carpenter in creating a commission to estimate the losses sustained by settlers upon the questioned Des Moines River Lands by reason of failure of title. In 1893, a new effort was made based upon the idea of fair indemnity advocated by Carpenter and Duncombe, and this new effort was ultimately successful, thus tardily performing an act of justice to the long-suffering settlers on the upper Des Moines.

Though almost continually engaged in the courts and in the preparation of his cases, Mr. Duncombe interested himself in the development of coal and gypsum, and in the several railroad projects which promised to aid Fort Dodge and develop the State of Iowa.

The several public duties devolving upon him during his last years were performed during interims in the practice of his profession. To the last he was a student of law and a student of men - especially of that little world of men chosen for service on a jury.

His last appearance in the court room was for the prosecution in the murder trial of the Brickers, in August, 1901.

Early in the summer of 1902 his waning strength became an object of solicitude. He had been ill for about eight weeks. A Chicago specialist had declared his life in danger. For several days he lay in a state of coma, and on Saturday evening, the 2nd day of August, 1902, his heart ceased to beat. He died apparently without pain, and without giving any sign of recognition.

The deceased left five children, all of adult years: Charles F., William E., Mrs. W. S. Kenyon, wife of United States Senator Kenyon, Mrs. R. P. Atwell and Mrs. G. H. Woolington.

The funeral was held on the following Tuesday, the Masons officiating. It called together a vast concourse of neighbors and fellow citizens and friends from a distance.

In the issue of the Fort Dodge Messenger following the funeral appeared a number of tributes of respect and regard from surviving friends and brother attorneys of the deceased.

In Senator Dolliver's eloquent tribute occur the words: "Upon his threescore years, filled with labor and crowned at last with the fullest measure of success, there is no stain."

His young associate in the practice of law, who after his death succeeded him as Iowa attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad, Thomas D. Healy, said: "He was my first friend in Fort Dodge and I felt it a great honor to keep his personal, political and professional friendship."

M. F. Healy used these strong words of praise: "In the courtroom he never struck an unfair blow; he never profited by an act of doubtful propriety. . . . His tongue was clean of suggestive speech. . . . I shall cherish his memory as the fairest lawyer I have known."

The Hamilton County Bar Association met on the day of the funeral and passed resolutions of respect and regard. Its members attended the funeral in a body.

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JOHN F. DUNCOMBE

John F. Duncombe, deceased, who was a prominent attorney at law in Fort Dodge, Iowa, was born in Wattsburg, Pennsylvania, October 22, 1831. Under the parental roof he spent his boyhood days and in his native town acquired his early education, which was supplemented by study in Allegheny College of Meadville, Pennsylvania, and in the Central College at Danville, Kentucky. He was graduated from both of these institutions before taking up the study of law in his native town in the office of Marshall & Vincent. He was admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania and for one year engaged in the practice of his profession there. In April, 1855, he went to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and began the practice of law in that city. He made for himself a creditable place in the ranks of the legal fraternity and was widely known for the care with which he prepared his cases. In no instance was his reading ever confined to the limitations of the questions at issue; it compassed every contingency and provided not alone for the expected but as well for the unexpected, which happens in the courts quite as frequently as out of them. His logical grasp of the facts and principles of the law applicable to them was another potent element in his success, and his remarkable clearness of expression and precise diction were counted among his conspicuous gifts and accomplishments. For thirty-seven years he acted as attorney for the Iowa division of the Illinois Central Railroad and he served in the same capacity for the Mason City & Fort Dodge, the Des Moines & Fort Dodge and the Cherokee & Dakota Railroads. He practiced in twenty-five counties in the state.

In political and public life Mr. Duncombe was equally prominent. In 1857, when the news of the Spirit Lake massacre reached Fort Dodge, he took an active part in raising the troops which were sent against the Indians and acted as captain of Company B. In 1859, he was elected to the state senate from the senatorial district which was then composed of one-fourth of the entire state. He also was a member of the lower house for two terms and attended four general and three special sessions. In 1872 he served as chairman of the Iowa delegation to the national democratic convention at Baltimore. For sixteen years he served as regent of the State University of Iowa, and he was appointed by Governor Geer to serve on the capital commission but this honor he declined. Because of his public energy and liberality his name is identified with most of the institutions of Fort Dodge. The Duncombe Hotel stands in proof of his public spirit and it is an acknowledged fact that his individual efforts and support were employed in all enterprises persuading railroad companies to extend their lines into Fort Dodge. In conjunction with C. B. Richards, he developed the coal mines there and at Boone, and he served as secretary for both the Fort Dodge Coal Company and the Rocky Ford Coal Company of Wyoming territory.

On May 11, 1859, Mr. Duncombe was married to Miss Mary A. Williams, a daughter of Major William Williams, the patriot-pioneer of Fort Dodge. To this union seven children were born, including the following: William E.; Charles F., publisher of the Chronicle and former mayor of Fort Dodge; Mary J., wife of Senator W. S. Kenyon; Gertrude; and John A.

In politics Mr. Duncombe was an inflexible democrat, stanchly supporting the policies and activities of that party. His influence was always used along the lines of reform and progress. He was a charter member of the chapter and commandery of the Masonic fraternity of Fort Dodge and also attained the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite. Mrs. Duncombe is president of the Webster County Historical Society, an office which she is well qualified to hold, as she has been a resident of Fort Dodge since her arrival there in 1855. At present she is living at the old home, Fair Oaks. Mr. Duncombe's death occurred August 2, 1902. His interest in community affairs was that of a public-spirited citizen who recognized the opportunities for reform, progress and improvement, and he labored to achieve what could be attained in that direction.