OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Emil McClain

EMIL McCLAIN
​ EMIL McCLAIN is a native of the State of Ohio, having been born in Salem, November 25, 1851. His father removed with his family to Iowa in 1855, locating in Tipton where he had charge of the public schools. The son entered the State University at Iowa City in 1871, graduating in the Law Department in 1873. He studied law with Judge Wright of Des Moines, becoming his private secretary after he was chosen United States Senator and later was clerk of the Senate committee on claims. In 1877 he began to practice law in Des Moines and prepared “McClain's Annotated Statutes of Iowa” which was published in 1880 and became the ​standard code of the State. In 1881, Mr. McClain was appointed professor in the Law Department of the State University, removing to Iowa City where he was made Vice-Chancellor in 1887 and Chancellor in 1890. He has been long a law writer; his principal works are: “Outlines of Criminal Law,” 1884; “Synopsis of Elementary Law and Law of Personal Property,” 1884; “Digest of Iowa Reports,” 1887 and 1898; “Criminal Law,” two volumes, 1897; “Cases on Law of Carriers,” 1893 and 1896; “Cases on Constitutional Law,” in 1900. He has been a contributor to many law journals and an active member of the American Bar Association. In 1894 Chancellor McClain was appointed one of the Commissioners of Iowa to act with Commissioners from other States to recommend uniform laws on negotiable instruments and in conformity with their report acts have been passed by New York, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida and other States which will probably be the basis of future commercial law in the United States. In 1894 Chancellor McClain was selected by the Senate of Iowa as one of the Code Commissioners to formulate a revised code. Their work was the basis of the code adopted by the special session of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly. Chancellor McClain was selected to prepare the annotations of the new code which was published in 1897. At the Republican State Convention in 1900, he received the nomination for Judge of the Supreme Court, and was elected, assuming the duties in January, 1901.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Elijah Sells

​ ELIJAH SELLS was born in Franklin County, Ohio, February 14, 1814. His father served under General Harrison in the War of 1812. The son came to Iowa in 1841, locating at Muscatine, where he engaged in business. He took a deep interest in the free soil movement and at one of the early Whig conventions secured the adoption of resolutions declaring it to be the duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories. This was the first convention in the State to make the declaration which afterwards became the cardinal doctrine of the Republican party. In 1844 he was a member of the First Constitutional Convention. He was elected a member of the First General Assembly of the State and again in 1852 served in the House. Mr. Sells was a delegate to the convention which organized the Republican party, was nominated for Secretary of State and elected. He was twice reëlected, serving six years. In 1863 he was appointed paymaster in the army and afterwards held a position in the navy. He also served as Third Auditor of the Treasury. In 1865 he was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs in one of the southern districts and removed to Kansas. He served three terms in the Kansas Legislature and in 1878 removed to Utah. In 1889 he was appointed Secretary of Utah Territory, serving four years. Mr. Sells died at Salt Lake City, March 13, 1897.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Enos Lowe

​ ENOS LOWE, one of the pioneer lawmakers of Iowa, was born on the 5th of May, 1804, in the county of Guilford, North Carolina. He took a course in medicine at the Ohio Medical College and, locating at Greencastle, Indiana, entered upon the practice of his profession. He became an active Democratic politician and was elected to a seat in the Indiana Legislature. In 1837 he removed to the “Black Hawk Purchase” and located at Burlington, then a small frontier village where he practiced medicine. He became widely and favorably known and in 1844 was chosen a member of the First Constitutional Convention where he made the acquaintance of many young men who afterwards became famous in the history of Iowa. The Constitution framed by this Convention having been rejected, Dr. Lowe was elected to the Convention of 1846 which enacted the Constitution under which Iowa became a State. He was elected to preside over that body. When the United States Land Office was established at Iowa City Dr. Lowe was appointed receiver of public money and removed to the Capital. In 1853 he was appointed receiver of the United States Land Office at Council Bluffs. He became one of the founders of the city of Omaha, being a member of the company that platted the town in 1853. He died on the 13th of February, 1880.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Eugene Secor

[Eugene Secor]
​ EUGENE SECOR is a name well known to all lovers of trees and parks in Iowa. He was born in Peekskill, New York, May 13, 1841, and attended the district schools in his native State. His father possessed a well-selected library and from this his children gleaned a higher education. In 1862 Mr. Secor came to Iowa and enlisted in the “hundred days” service but was not called to the field. Two years later he entered Cornell College at Mount Vernon but was soon obliged to abandon his studies. He held a number of offices in Winnebago County during the following fourteen years. But he is best known throughout the State for his valuable papers on bee-keeping, horticulture and preserving the beauties of nature in parks and forest reserves. He has been a prominent member of the State Horticultural Society for many years, having served as director, president and manager of one of the experimental stations. He has contributed to journals and magazines both literary and technical for many years, and written by request a resume of the apiarian industry of the United States and its exhibit at the World's Fair for the permanent records of that and the Omaha Expositions. He is a successful bee-keeper, often procuring a ton of honey in a season. He has served as treasurer, president and general manager of the National Beekeepers' Society. In 1888 Mr. Secor was chosen trustee of the State College of Agriculture, serving six years. He is a prominent Republican and for sixteen years has usually been a delegate to the annual State conventions and has also served as a delegate to the National Convention in 1892. In 1901 he was elected a Representative in the Twenty-ninth General Assembly and served as chairman of the committee on horticulture.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Elden J. Hartshorn

​ ELDEN J. HARTSHORN, soldier and legislator, was born in Lunenburg, Vermont, June 16, 1842. He was educated in the public schools and St. Johnsbury Academy where he prepared for college. In 1862 he enlisted in Company E, Fifteenth Vermont Volunteers, and was soon promoted to second lieutenant. He was offered a West Point cadetship, but declined to leave the service. In 1864 Lieutenant Hartshorn was promoted to captain of Company G, Seventeenth Vermont Infantry and joined Burnside's Ninth Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The regiment was in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Tolopotomy Creek, North Anna River, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and the fall of Richmond. At the close of the war Captain Hartshorn studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1869 and coming west the following year, located at Emmetsburg, in Palo Alto County, Iowa. Here he was land agent for the Milwaukee Railroad and represented many non-resident land owners. In 1873 he was elected Representative in the House of the Fifteenth General Assembly from the district consisting of the counties of Pocahontas, Buena Vista, Palo Alto and Emmet. He was elected to the Senate in 1875 serving in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth General Assemblies. In 1898 Captain Hartshorn was appointed to a position in the Interior Department at Washington.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Elias H. Williams

​ ELIAS H. WILLIAMS was born in Ledyard, Connecticut, July 23, 1819. After attending the common schools he prepared for college and graduated at Yale. He came west and during the Black Hawk War was in the military service, being stationed at Fort Atkinson for a time. He removed to Iowa in 1846, locating at Garnavillo, Clayton County. He engaged in farming and the practice of law and became a Republican upon the organization of that party in 1856 always taking a deep interest in public affairs. He served as county judge in Clayton, and in 1858 was elected judge of the Tenth Judicial District, where he served until 1866. In January, 1870, he was appointed by Governor Merrill Judge of the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy. He resigned the position in September of the same year. In addition to managing his farm and practicing law, Judge Williams was largely engaged in the promotion of railroad enterprises. He was influential in securing the building of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad up the shore of the Mississippi River through Clayton County; and also in securing the construction of the road up the ​valley of the Turkey River. He was at the head of the company that built the Iowa Eastern Railroad to Elkader, and furnished most of the means for its construction. He died on the 20th of August, 1891.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Emlen G. Penrose

E. G. PENROSE
​ EMLEN G. PENROSE was born at Chesterfield, Ohio, August 22, 1844, and was educated in the district schools of his native State. He came to Iowa in 1860 where he worked on a farm and taught school. He attended the State University several terms and in 1868 located at Tama City where he engaged in the mercantile business. He was for several years a resident of Grand Junction where he carried on the hardware, agricultural implement and grain trade. In 1872 he returned to Tama City and opened a hardware store, and has been member of the city council and mayor of the city. In 1893 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate from the district consisting of the counties of Benton and Tama, where he served in the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth General Assemblies, and was chairman of the ​committee on railroads. In 1900 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Enoch W. Eastman

​ 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 9th of January, 1885.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John J. Seerley

​ JOHN J. SEERLEY was born at Toulon, Illinois, March 13, 1852. He removed to Iowa and graduated at the State University in 1875. He was principal of the Iowa City high school in 1876. The following year lie graduated from the Law Department of the University and entered upon the practice in Burlington, was elected city solicitor, holding the position six years. In 1888 he was nominated by the Democrats of the First Congressional District for Representative and was defeated by Ex-Governor Gear, the Republican candidate. In 1890 he was again the Democratic candidate and was elected over his former competitor.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John L. Kamrer

​ JOHN L. KAMRER has long been one of the prominent lawyers and Republicans of north central Iowa. He was born in Union County, Pennsylvania, October 12, 1842, secured a liberal education and was at one time principal of the public schools of Savannah, Illinois. He was a lieutenant in the One Hundred Forty-sixth Illinois Volunteers in 1864. In 1869 Mr. Kamrer removed to Iowa, locating in Webster City, where he soon after began the practice of law and has attained high rank in the profession. In 1881 he was elected to the State Senate from the district composed of the counties of Hamilton and Hardin, serving in the Nineteenth and Twentieth General Assemblies. He was the author of a number of important laws which remain on the statute books. At the Republican State Convention of 1895 Mr. Kamrer was one of the prominent candidates for nomination for Governor.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John L. Stevens

[J. L. Stevens]
​JOHN L. STEVENS was born in Northfield, Vermont, on the 29th of May, 1850. He attended the common schools several years and in 1863 came to Iowa, making his home at Cedar Rapids. He entered the Iowa State College where he graduated as a civil engineer in 1872. Soon after he entered upon the study of law and began to practice in 1874, locating in Boone. In politics he was a Republican, and in 1879 was elected District Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial District, serving until 1886, when he was elected judge, holding that position until 1893. He was for several years one of the commissioners appointed by the President to adjust the long pending claims of the settlers on the Des Moines River lands.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John Mahin

​ JOHN MAHIN was born on the 8th of December, 1833, at Noblesville, Indiana. He learned the printer's trade in the office of the Bloomington (now Muscatine) Herald in 1847. In 1851 the name of the Herald was changed to the Muscatine Journal and in July, 1852, Mr. Mahin became its editor, a position which he has held for nearly fifty years. In 1856 the daily edition was established; it was first a Whig and later a Republican paper and one of the firm, unflinching advocates of temperance. In 1872 Mr. Mahin was elected on the Republican ticket one of the Representatives in the Legislature. He served many years as postmaster of Muscatine and was for a time Inspector of the Post-Office Department. In ​1888 he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Railroad Commissioner but was defeated by a few votes for a candidate who was more acceptable to the railroad companies of the State. Mr. Mahin was one of the most fearless and uncompromising foes of saloons and in his warfare upon the liquor traffic had incurred the enmity of the liquor league. On the night of May 10, 1893, his residence was destroyed by dynamite placed under it by conspirators in the interest of the saloons of the city. Two other residences belonging to persons who had been active in trying to enforce the prohibitory law were destroyed. Threats had been repeatedly made against the men who were active in prosecuting the violators of the law and on the night of the destruction of the homes they were occupied by the families consisting of eighteen persons, mostly women and children. While the homes were wrecked, the inmates fortunately escaped the horrible fate intended for them. Arrests were made and one of the wretches, Matt Woods, was proved to have been the person who threw one of the bombs. He was sent to the penitentiary for ten years. He refused to divulge the names of the other conspirators and they escaped punishment. Mr. Mahin's loss was about $6,000 but it did not silence his war upon the saloon lawbreakers.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John King

​ JOHN KING, founder and editor of the first newspaper published within the limits of Iowa, was born at Shepardstown, Virginia, January 10, 1803. He was educated in the public schools of his native State and at Chillicothe, Ohio, to which place he removed in 1829. In 1833 he went to the frontier town of Dubuque, then in Michigan Territory, to engage in lead mining. Stephen T. Mason, then acting Governor of Michigan Territory, appointed Mr. King Chief Justice of the Court of Dubuque County during the first year of his residence there. In the fall of 1835 Judge King decided to establish a newspaper in the new town and made a trip to Cincinnati by river where he purchased a Washington hand press and a small printing outfit, returning as soon as navigation was resumed in the spring of 1836. He issued the first number of the Dubuque Visitor on the 11th of May of that year. It was the first and only newspaper in the vast region north of St. Louis and west of the Mississippi River. Judge King was an able writer and judge, an enterprising pioneer and a citizen of the highest character. His foreman was Andrew Keesecker, an accomplished printer, who set the first type in Iowa. He was also a native of Shepardstown, born there in 1810 and who came to Galena, Illinois, when a young man and worked on the first paper established there. He died in Dubuque April 15, 1870. Judge King died in that city February 13, 1871.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John M. Corse

​ JOHN M. CORSE was born April 27, 1835, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1842 his father removed to the new Territory of Iowa, locating at Burlington. The son, John, after acquiring an education became a clerk in a drug and book store. In 1853 General A. C. Dodge, who was a friend of the father, secured the son an appointment in the Military Academy at West Point. After two years' instruction he left the Academy and engaged in business with his father at Burlington. Later he studied law with C. Ben Darwin, finally took the law course at Albany, New York, and was admitted to the bar. He was a “Douglas Democrat” and in 1860 received the nomination of that party for Secretary of State, but with his party was defeated. When the Civil War began he helped raise men ​for the First Battery of Light Artillery. Soon after he received the appointment of major of the Sixth Regiment of Infantry and was in the Battle of Shiloh. In May he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and was in command of the regiment. In March, 1863, he was commissioned colonel and in August was promoted to Brigadier-General. In 1864 he was in Sherman's great campaign through the Gulf States and greatly distinguished himself by an heroic defense of Allatoona against an assault by a greatly superior force. He served with distinction to the close of the war and was brevetted Major-General of volunteers in April, 1866. In 1867 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue in Chicago. He was one of the incorporates of the Texas Pacific Railroad Company. In 1871 he removed to Boston where in 1886 he was appointed postmaster. He died in that city on the 27th of April, 1893.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John M. Hedrick

​ JOHN M. HEDRICK was born in Rush County, Indiana, on the 16th of December, 1832. He received but a common school education yet qualified himself for teaching by the time he was seventeen years of age. For three years he worked on his father's farm summers, teaching winters. He came to Iowa and opened a store in Ottumwa but soon after the beginning of the Civil War entered the service as first lieutenant of Company D, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry and was afterward promoted to captain. At the Battle of Shiloh he was wounded and taken prisoner. After remaining a prisoner six months he was exchanged, returned to his regiment and soon after was promoted to major. The regiment was in Sherman's campaign through the Gulf States and, in August, 1864, Hedrick was promoted to colonel. At the Battle of Atlanta he was severely wounded and completely disabled for active service. In the spring of 1865 he was brevetted ​Brigadier-General for gallant services in the Atlanta campaign. After the war he was for many years editor of the Ottumwa Courier. He was several years employed in responsible positions in the revenue service.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John L. Brown

​ JOHN L. BROWN was born in Essex County, New Jersey, October 31, 1838. He first came to Iowa in 1856 but returned to Indiana where his father had located and attended and taught school. When the Civil War began, he enlisted in Company A, Seventeenth Indiana Volunteers, and at the Battle of Resaca received a gunshot wound which caused the amputation of his arm. Upon the close of the war he attended a Methodist Academy at Danville, and in 1870 moved to Chariton in Lucas County, Iowa, which became his permanent home. He has held many offices in the county, serving seven years as auditor, and resigning to become Auditor of State in 1883. He inaugurated many reforms in the insurance department which arrayed against him powerful corporations which sought to have him impeached for official misconduct. After a lengthy trial he was acquitted of all serious charges and a subsequent General Assembly reimbursed him for expenses incurred in the trial. The reforms which he accomplished placed the insurance companies of the State on a sound basis requiring them to make good impaired capital. Upon the retirement of Mr. Brown from official life he returned to Chariton and purchased the Herald, of which he became the editor and publisher.
# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John L. Waite

​ JOHN L. WAITE, journalist, was born in Ravenna, Ohio, August 29, 1840. He was educated in the public schools of his native place and attended business college at Chicago. For twelve years he was a telegraph operator; and later was one of the projectors of the Burlington & Missouri Railroad telegraph line which he helped to construct, and of which he became superintendent. In 1869 he became identified with the Burlington Hawkeye, first as city editor and in 1874 became associate editor. In 1877 he was promoted to managing editor and in 1881 he was appointed postmaster of Burlington. At the close of his term he became editor in chief and general manager of the Hawkeye which, under his direction, has wielded wide influence among the Republican journals of Iowa. In 1898 Mr. Waite was again appointed postmaster of Burlington retaining the management of the Hawkeye.