Coello Orland Boling (1867-1934), Coello Merriman (1846-1937)

From the Cedar County, Iowa Atlas, 1902.

   Another oddly named Iowan discovered in these past few months is Coello Orland Boling, a transplant to that state from Holmes County, Ohio. While little information could be located on Mr. Boling, his political qualifications (that of Prosecuting Attorney for Cedar County, Iowa) and his being an alternate delegate to the 1908 Republican National Convention, more than earn him a place here.

   Born in Holmes County, Ohio on August 28, 1867, Coello Orland Boling was the son of John and Harriet (Hoyman) Boling. At the age of two, he relocated to Cedar County, Iowa with his family and during his youth resided on a farm and attended school in the town of Stanwood. He would go on to study at the Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa and later studied law at the Northwestern University in Illinois, graduating in 1893. Two years following his graduation, he entered into a partnership with Robert Gordon Cousins in Tipton, Iowa. A prominent figure in his own right, Cousins (1859-1933) was a former Iowa state representative and in 1893 was elected to the first of eight terms in Congress from Iowa's 5th congressional district.

  Coello Boling began his political career in 1896 when he was elected as Prosecuting Attorney for Cedar County, and served in that post from 1897-1902. He married in June 1904 to Tipton native Mary MacNamara (1866-1944), who survived him upon his death in 1934. The couple would have two daughters, Mary Katherine and a daughter who died in infancy.

  In the years following his time as county prosecuting attorney, Boling served Tipton as its city solicitor for eight years and in 1908 was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in Denver that saw William Howard Taft nominated for the presidency. A former chairman of the Cedar County Red Cross chapter during WWI, Boling continued to practice law until a week prior to his death on June 20, 1934, at age 66. He was later interred at the Masonic Cemetery in Tipton.

 From the Muscatine Journal and News-Review, June 21, 1934.

Portrait courtesy of Find-a-Grave.

  Even more obscure than the preceding gentleman, Coello Merriman had fleeting involvement in the political life of his adopted home state of Minnesota, being elected to that state's house of representatives in the late 1870s. A son of Hyra and Lucinda (Marsh) Merriman, Coello Merriman was born in Friendship, Allegheny County, New York on December 2, 1846. His birth year is also variously given as 1848 and 1849. Little is known of his early life or education in New York, and by 1866 had relocated to Minnesota.

   A resident of Hennepin County early in his Minnesota residency, Merriman engaged in the insurance and real estate business and married on New Year's Eve 1871 to Julia Tomlinson (1848-1909). The couple's near four-decade marriage saw the births of several children, Clara Belle (1872-), Hyra L. (1875-1941), Sophronia "Frona" (1879-1972), Josephine Estelle (1882-), and Ralph Coello (1884-1921).

  By 1876 Coello Merriman was residing in Carver County and in that year was elected as a Democrat to the Minnesota House of Representatives. Serving in the session of 1877-78, Merriman's (whose first name is misspelled as Coellos in several legislative documents from the period) time as a state representative proved to be quiet, with notice given as to his introducing one bill "to provide for reduction in salary of judge of probate in Carver County" and serving on the committee on Public Buildings.

  Following his legislative service, Merriman was a resident of Watertown, Michigan in Sanilac County, where he is recorded as a druggist. The remainder of Merriman's life is equally as obscure, with little information available as to what he may have been up to in the years prior to his death. Widowed in 1909, Merriman spent the twilight of his life in Rooks County, Kansas, where he died November 3, 1937, his age being variously given as either 91 or 88. He was subsequently interred at the Woodson Cemetery in Rooks County.

Cadmus Ambrose Tope (1863-1940)

Portrait from the Carrollton Free Press Standard, January 4, 1940.

   A Carrollton, Ohio-based hardware merchant for over forty years, Cadmus Ambrose Tope had fleeting involvement in political life in 1908 and 1916 when he was selected as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention held in Chicago. A lifelong Ohio resident, Cadmus Ambrose "Cady" Tope was born in Harrison County on June 8, 1863, being the son of Hiram and Mary Anne Shultz Tope. He moved to Carroll County at an early age and would attend both the "public schools at Perrysville" and the Harlem Springs College, a Methodist Episcopal Church seminary. 

  For ten years Cadmus Tope taught public school in Carroll County and later was elected to two terms as Carroll County Recorder. Tope married on New Year's Day 1885 to Ella Beamer (1859-1938), their union producing two daughters, Mary Ethel (1887-1964) and Sarah Leona (1892-1969). In 1894 he made his first foray into the hardware trade, establishing a store in Dellroy, Ohio. Two years later he moved his business to Carrollton, subsequently partnering in the hardware firm of Campbell, Tope, and Beamer.

   Tope continued to be involved in the hardware business in Carrollton for the remainder of his life, becoming the sole owner of the aforementioned business in 1918. Tope is noted by the History of Carroll and Harrison Counties as running a:

"Prosperous business....supplied with a complete stock of heavy and shelf hardware, and the various accessories that go to make up the modern hardware store."

  In addition to hardware sales, Cadmus Tope was a prominent figure in the Carroll County Agricultural Society, serving as its secretary for two decades. Tope is also noted as having been a show horse judge, visiting (in addition to Ohio) Indiana and Illinois to judge horses at county fairs. A longstanding member of the Republican Party, Tope was named as an alternate delegate to the 1908 Republican National Convention held in Chicago that nominated William Howard Taft for the Presidency. In 1916 Tope again served as an alternate delegate to the RNC, this time seeing Charles Evans Hughes put up as the party's standard-bearer.
  In the years following his service as a delegate, Tope continued to experience success in the hardware business, being elected as President of the Ohio Hardware Association for a one-year term in 1923. He would also be affiliated with the Hardware Mutual Insurance Company of Coshocton and the Carrollton Methodist Church. Cadmus Tope died in Carrollton on New Year's Day 1940, having been ill for over a year. He was interred alongside his wife Ella at the Grandview Cemetery in Carrollton, coincidentally enough the same resting place of Union Corwin DeFord, a former Carrollton mayor and judge profiled here back in June 2012.

Cadmus and Ella Tope, portrait courtesy of Find-A-Grave.

Jetlee Bryngelson Nordhem (1841-1919)

Portrait from the History of the Norwegians of Illinois, 1905.

  The first Norwegian native to be profiled here on the site, Jetlee Bryngelson Nordhem found his business fortunes in his adopted state of Illinois, where he settled at age 18. Born in Voss, Norway on June 6, 1841, Nordhem was the son of Bryngel and Ingeborge Saue Nordhem. The History of the Norwegians of Illinois notes that he attended the common schools in his native country, worked on his father's farm, and was "confirmed in the Vossvagens church."

  In 1859 Jetlee Nordhem immigrated to the United States, first settling in the town of Long Prairie, Illinois. After a year in this location, he moved to Decorah, Iowa, and in 1862 signed on for service in the Civil War, joining Company H, First Battalion of the Sixteenth U.S. Infantry. During his three years of service, Nordhem participated in several important battles, seeing action at the battle of Marietta, Kenesaw Mountain, Mission Ridge, and Stone River, where he was wounded. 

  After his military service, Jetlee B. Nordhem returned to Long Prairie and married in 1871 to Ms. Julia Jonsdatter Amondson, with whom he would have three children, Joseph Bernard (died in infancy), Harriet Nordhem Hamann (1873-1968) and Edith Josephine (born 1877). 

    Following his marriage, Nordhem and his family relocated to Chicago, where he found employment in the customs service. His years in this occupation saw him serve as an inspector, warehouse ledger clerk, and bond clerk. Nordhem eventually left the employ of the customs service and found work in the publishing industry. He became the Secretary and director of the John Anderson Publishing Co. in the early 1890s and later became its vice president.

  Jetlee Nordhem made his first foray into political life in 1879, when he won election as supervisor of West Town, Chicago, Illinois, serving a one-year term. In 1908 he was named as an alternate delegate to that year's Republican National Convention in Chicago, where William Howard Taft was nominated for the Presidency.

   Nordhem continued to be a prominent figure in Chicago's Norwegian community well into his twilight years, serving as the president of the Norwegian Republican Club of the 28th Ward and also held a life membership in the Norwegian Lutheran Tabitha Hospital Society. Jetlee and his family were parishioners at the English Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity, and it is recorded that he was a trustee of this church for nearly two decades.

   Details on the remainder of Jetlee B.Nordhem's life are quite sketchy, although it is recorded that he passed away at his home in Chicago in May 1919 at age 78. His wife Julia survived him by thirteen years, dying in November 1932 at age 82. A burial location for both Jetlee and his wife is unknown at the time of this writing.

                                         From the Printer's Ink, Volume 107, published in 1919.