Biography
Representative from Iowa; born in Sabina, Clinton County, Ohio, May 1, 1841; moved with his parents to Iowa in 1849; attended the public schools, Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University, Greencastle, Ind., and Iowa Wesleyan College at Mount Pleasant; was graduated from the Cincinnati (Ohio) Law School in the spring of 1862; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Des Moines, Iowa; during the Civil War enlisted in the Twenty-third Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in July 1862; first lieutenant and captain; resigned on account of wounds in October 1863; secretary of the Iowa senate in 1872 and reelected in 1874, 1876, and 1878; secretary of state in 1878 and reelected in 1880 and 1882; Lieutenant Governor in 1885 and reelected in 1887; engaged in agricultural pursuits and banking; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-second and to the nine succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1911); chairman, Committee on Military Affairs (Fifty-fourth through Sixty-first Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for renomination; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; retired in 1916 and died in Clarendon, Arlington County, Va., September 26, 1928; interment at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress