Azor Ruggles Mills (1827-1901)

From the Jefferson Bee, October 26, 1954.

  A prominent 19th-century resident of Greene County, Iowa, Azor Ruggles Mills was a transplant to that state from Wadsworth, Ohio, and in the early 1850s became the first person to teach in the recently organized school in Greene County. A Civil War veteran, Mills lost the use of his left arm due to wounds sustained at the Battle of Allatoona. In 1865 he was elected as Greene County's representative in the Iowa state legislature and later served as a county school superintendent. The son of Col. Henry Augustus "Harry A." (1795-1873) and Harriett (Ruggles) Mills (died 1844), Azor Ruggles Mills was born in Wadsworth on February 11, 1827. Bestowed the unusual name Azor Ruggles, Mills received this name in honor of his maternal grandfather (1768-1843), a native of Brookfield, Connecticut who later removed to Canfield, Ohio.

  During his youth Mills studied in schools local to his village and later attended the Twinsburg Academy for Boys. After attaining maturity Mills looked westward and moved to Wisconsin in the early 1850s. Following resettlement, he enrolled in the first class ever to register at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and taught school for a time. Around 1854-55 he moved to Iowa and settled in Jefferson in Greene County. Soon after his arrival, the local citizenry organized a subscription school, the first of its kind in the county. Mills was selected as the school's first teacher and also organized a debating society. The school comprised thirty-two students, and at the dawn of the Civil War, he began military drilling with his class, with all 33 (including Mills) enlisting for service in the Union Army.

  In 1862 Mills took rank among Co. E., 39th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and on October 5, 1864, was grievously injured at the Battle of Allatoona Pass in Georgia. "With four bullets in his coat", Mills was spared a death blow by the ramrod of his rifle, which he was then pulling from his gun. Instead of being struck in the heart, the bullet passed through his left arm, subsequently wounding his fellow infantryman, James Smith. This injury caused Mills to lose the use of his left arm, but he continued to serve in the Army until his honorable discharge in July 1865. After his return to Iowa, Mills was a founding member of the George H. Thomas Post in Jefferson, with which he was affiliated until his death.

  On July 25, 1865, Azor Mills married Miranda Dyle Anderson (1844-1917), whom he had known before the war. The couple were wed until his death in 1901, and had nine daughters: Emma (died in infancy in 1866), Ada (1868-1953), Ella (born 1869), Grace Ruggles (1871-1952), Lilian Bird (1873-1933), Flora (1875-1876), Ethel Ray (1877-1903), Marcy Octavia (born 1879), and Vera Elizabeth (1884-1954).

   In the same year as his marriage, Azor Mills received the Republican nomination for state representative from the counties of Greene, Carroll, Audubon, and Calhoun. Following his election in late 1865, Mills took his seat in January 1866 and during that session was named to the committees on Banks and Engrossed Bills. This term saw Mills back legislation that approved $95,000 for the construction of a main building at the newly organized Iowa State College at Ames, where six of his daughters would attend school.

From the Jefferson Bee, March 14, 1901.

  After leaving state government Mills continued prominence in Greene County, being elected to two consecutive terms as county superintendent of schools where his "labors were practical and whose efforts were effective." Additionally, Mills was a charter member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Jefferson, where he taught a bible class for forty-five years. He also farmed near the northern Jefferson city limits, and with Joseph Manning established a boot and shoe manufacturing business in town. 

  Due to physical disability, Mills later retired from his business pursuits but continued to reside in Jefferson until his death at home on March 12, 1901, at age 74. He was survived by his wife and daughters and was interred at the Jefferson Cemetery. Mills was subsequently memorialized by his fellow townsman and friend John Gray as having had:

"A rare mixture of aloofness and friendliness, aloofness inherited from eastern origins, friendliness bred in the new west. He willingly shared the burdens of humanity even to the risking of his own life, whether on the battlefield, or in the halls of legislation, his strength and voice were ever on the side of right."

Vardaman Allen Cockrell (1843-1901)

   A native of Platt County, Missouri,  Vardaman Allen Cockrill journeyed to the Montana Territory at a young age and here found success as a farmer and territorial legislator. Cockrell is only the second Montanan to be profiled here on the site (the first being Commodore Perry Bruce) but he certainly won't be the last. Vardaman Cockrell's last name is recorded as being spelled in a variety of ways, including "Cockerill", "Cockerell" and "Cockrell", which made finding information on Vardaman rather difficult. Cockrell's gravestone in Bozeman, Montana spells his last name as "Cockrell" and it is that spelling that I've gone with here.

   Vardaman A. Cockrell was born on September 11, 1843 (date also given as 1844) in Platt City, Missouri, the son of Jeremiah Vardaman (died 1859) and Louisa Mayo Cockrell. Jeremiah V. Cockrell is not to be confused with another Jeremiah Vardaman Cockrell (1832-1915) who served as a U.S. Representative from  Texas from 1893-1897. Our subject is recorded as receiving his primary education in the schools of Platt City and later attended the Plattsburg College in Clinton County, Missouri.

  Cockrell left his home in Missouri in 1863 and journeyed north to the Montana Territory, eventually settling in an area referred to as Alder Gulch. He engaged in mining here briefly and later traveled by ox-train to Utah. The Progressive Men of the State of Montana notes that Cockrill and several other settlers began a trek back to Montana that fall but were hampered by a blizzard that forced them to camp in Beaver Canyon for the winter.

  Cockrell and his fellow travelers returned to Montana in the spring of 1864 and in that same year, he found work as a cow herder in the Blacktail Deer Creek area. In December 1864 he moved to the Gallatin Valley area and established a homestead that he continued to improve upon over the succeeding years. Cockrill added horses, cattle, and mares to his farm in the early 1870s and as a farmer was described by the Progressive Men of the State of Montana as being "of eminently scientific turn" and was also Stock Commissioner of Gallatin County for several years and "gave the people of the county excellent service."

   In 1868 Cockrell was elected as Gallatin County's representative in the Montana Territorial  House of Representatives, serving in the legislative term of 1869-1870. Due to the lack of information on Cockrell, it is unknown whether or not he took part in any important legislation during his term of service. A notice mentioning his term appeared in the register of the Society of Montana Pioneers and has been posted below.

   After his brief service in the legislature, Cockrell continued to improve on the state of his farm, named the "Superior Stock Farm", which is listed as being over 1600 acres and having "250 head of horses and 350 head of cattle." In 1876 Cockrill married Marthena "Thena" Winifred Smith (1853-1926), the daughter of a prominent Kirksville, Missouri banker. Vardaman and Thena eventually became the parents of four children, who are listed as follows: Irvin Mackerness (1878-1951), John T. (born 1884), Vardaman Allen (born 1888) and Rolph Goode (1890-1919). 

  In addition to farming, Cockrell is also noted as being heavily involved in mining interests "in different parts of the state", and was remarked as "at the front line in every business he engaged, being broad-minded, spirited and progressive." Cockrell was also a member of the Society of Montana Pioneers, serving the organization as a vice president in 1885 and 1888. In 1897 he was named to the Montana State Board of Stock Commissioners (representing Gallatin County) and served a two-year term. 

  Vardaman A. Cockrell died in Bozeman, Montana sometime in 1901, when he would have been around 58 years of age. He was interred at the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman and was survived by his wife Thena, who died in 1926 at age 73. She and her eldest child Irvin M. Cockrell are also interred at Sunset Hills. The portrait of Cockrell featured above was located in the History of Montana: 1739-1885, published by Warner, Beers, and Co. in 1885.

Rheuna Drake Lawrence (1837-1901)

From the Encyclopedia of Biography of Illinois, Volume III.

  Hailing from the Illinois capital city of Springfield, the curiously named Rheuna Drake Lawrence served as mayor of that city for one term in the 1890s and had earlier distinguished himself in several endeavors in the "Land of Lincoln", including time spent as a mine manager and as city superintendent of public works.
   A native of the Buckeye State, Rheuna Drake Lawrence was born near Cedarville, Ohio on January 18, 1837, the son of Lewis W. and Sarah Minerva Lawrence. He had limited educational advantages as a youth, and while in his teens took work as a carpenter. Lawrence and a fellow carpenter would leave Ohio at an early age, hoping to make their way to Chicago. Along the way, Drake found employment as a bricklayer in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Drake would settle in Springfield in 1856, and after taking up residence, established himself as a building contractor in the still-young city. In the succeeding years, he aided in the design and construction of the Springfield Universalist Church, as well as masonry work on the Jacksonville Insane Asylum. Following his death in 1901, Lawrence's building prowess was described in a memorial notice to him in a Springfield Board of Education annual report, which noted:

"Many public and private structures were erected by him in Springfield and in other cities in Central Illinois. Blessed with robust health in early manhood, he was able to accomplish much. Endowed with great common sense, he quickly perceived and availed himself of the opportunities that existed for the investment of his earnings and profits, and at the time of his death he possessed a great deal of real estate on which he had erected buildings which adorn and beautify our city."

  In January 1859 Rheuna Lawrence married in Springfield to Mary Agnes Maxcy (1841-1905), to whom he was wed until his death. Two daughters were born to the couple, Salome Agnes Lawrence (who died in infancy in 1862), and Susan Lawrence Dana (1862-1946). Susana Lawrence would gain notoriety after she inherited her father's fortune, and with this wealth hired famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to redesign and remodel the existing Italianate Rheuna Lawrence home, which took two years to complete. The finished work was later to be known as the Dana-Thomas House. This home, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, still exists as a tourable location and contains the "largest collection of site-specific original Wright glass and furniture."
  During the late 1860s, Lawrence began dabbling in railroad contracting, helping to design and construct a railway from Springfield to Gilman, Illinois. and later began a lasting interest in the coal mining industry. In 1872 he and several partners established a coal mining town in Barclay, Illinois, with Lawrence subsequently holding the presidency of the Barclay Mining Company for several years. In 1876 he was named by then Illinois Governor John Lourie Beveridge as a member of the commission that would eventually locate and design the Illinois State Penitentiary. He served on this commission until August of 1878 when he resigned, and within a few years was appointed to the office of Springfield Superintendent of Public Works.

                   Rheuna D. Lawrence,  courtesy of the 1996 book Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana House.
  
   Throughout the 1880s, Lawrence's public profile in Sangamon County continued on the rise, and during this period he served as President of the Springfield Board of Trade. Ten years later the citizens of Springfield elected Lawrence as its Mayor for a one-year term. During his tenure, "his administration accomplished many reforms and much was done in the way of municipal improvements." Shortly after the conclusion of his term in 1892, he was appointed as a member of the Springfield Public School Board. He served on this board for almost nine years (including six as its president) and was later appointed president of the State Board of Public Charities by Governor John Riley Tanner. This period saw Lawrence hold the additional role of president of the State Bank of Springfield, serving from 1894 until his death.
   After a "long and painful illness", Rheuna Drake Lawrence died at his Springfield home on February 17, 1901. Lawrence was interred at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, and it can certainly be said that he is buried among good company! This massive cemetery is the final resting place of numerous Illinois public figures, including Governor Ninian Edwards (1775-1833), Illinois Governor and Senator Shelby Moore Cullom (1829-1914), and last but not least, Abraham Lincoln and his family.

From the Indianapolis Journal, February 18, 1901.