Western Starr (1854-1940)

From the Land and Freedom: An International Record of Single Tax Progress, Vol. 3, 1904.

    A distinguished figure in Illinois public life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the mysterious Western Starr was one of those obscure political figures who remained without a face to place with his name for over a decade-- that was until the discovery of the above portrait! A candidate for the Illinois state senate as well as for the U.S. House of Representatives, the distinct lack of information regarding Mr. Starr's life and public exploits kept me from compiling a biography for him here for the past three years, and if it hadn't been for the discovery of a biographical passage in Vol. 3 of the Land and Freedom Single Tax Review the following write-up would not have been possible. 

   However obscure he may be, the number of newspapers and period literature that give passing mention to Mr. Starr proves that in his day he was a remarkable figure. Active as a farmer, attorney, public speaker, writer, politician, and civil service reformer, Starr's humorous name will certainly give people a case of the giggles in this day in age, and it's quite interesting to note that many of his contemporaries also found it odd, with sources referring to the name as "harmonious", "luminous and heavenly" and even "unlikely but colorfully appropriate", frequently making references to celestial subjects like the stars and the solar system. 

    The life of this intriguingly named man began in the then-burgeoning city of Davenport, Iowa, where he was born on September 14, 1854, one of three children born to James Comfort Starr (1824-1895) and the former Cynthia McKoon (1832-1899). The Starr family removed from Davenport around 1859 and settled in Rock Island, Illinois, where young Western would first attend school. He went to high school in the city and during adolescence took on a position as a farmhand, and in the late 1870s worked construction on a bridge, later traveling to Colorado to stake a claim in mining. 

   Returning home in 1877, Starr used personal funds to put himself through school, enrolling at the Oberlin College in that year. After studying here for a time he attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and graduated in the class of 1880. He continued his studies at Columbia University, being a classmate of future President Theodore Roosevelt, and earned his law degree from this institution in 1882. 

  After being admitted to practice Starr moved to Chicago, where for a year he practiced law, and in 1883 he relocated to Dickinson, North Dakota to continue his practice. During his residency, he was appointed as a territorial assessor and magistrate. While residing in North Dakota Starr re-encountered his old Columbia classmate Roosevelt, who, while ranching in the Bad Lands, had captured three horse thieves and, with the help of two companions, brought the outlaws to Dickinson to be arraigned, where, by coincidence, Starr was serving as a justice of the peace!

   Western Starr continued to reside in North Dakota until 1889 when he returned to Chicago to both practice law and start up a real estate brokerage firm. He married here on December 29, 1897, to Edith Hammond (1870-1968), with whom he would have two children, James Hammond Starr (1898-1978) and Martha Starr Larson (1901-1987). Within a few years of settling into family life, Starr became connected with the Civic Federation of Chicago's civil service reform committee, serving as the secretary of this body for two years. In 1901 he became chairman of that committee and also took on a position as legal counsel for the Civil Service League of Chicago. 

   Starr's involvement with the civil service reform committee saw him become a veritable watchdog for the group, being a "fighter for honest legislation", as well as trying to route out corrupt political practices then rampant in Chicago. While Starr tried to be an advocate of honest government and "clean" politics, newspapers of the time often had a field day with his name, and the snippet below (stemming from Starr's accusation of incompetency on the part of John J. Sloan, then Superintendent of the Chicago House of Correction), proves that Chicago newspaper editors didn't pass up a chance to chide Starr on his funny name!

"That legal luminary, Western Starr, has again peeped above the horizon of the Civil Service Commission, this time in an attempt to throw some light on certain proceedings in the house of correction."----The Chicago Eagle, October 5, 1901

  While he may have refrained from running for public office, Western Starr was by no means politically naive, and a search of Google Books shows that between 1883 and 1920 Western Starr lent the tip of his pen to numerous periodicals centering on hot-button political issues of the day, including giving advice on crime ("A Radical Cure for Crime", published in the Liberal Review in 1906), and was a fervent advocate of the establishment of a single tax. While a frequent contributor to newsletters like the "Single Tax Review" and the "Public: A Journal for Democracy", Starr gained further prominence on the lecture circuit, traveling throughout Illinois and elsewhere speaking on such topics as "The Ethics of Conservatism". During the 1900 election year, Starr was described by the Chicago Daily Herald as hitting the campaign trail, "doing considerable platform work for the Democratic National Committee" and stumped for the party in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

From "The Public: A Journal for Democracy", 1903. 

    In the 1902 election year, Western Starr made his first attempt at elected office, being a candidate for a seat in the Illinois State Senate from Cook County. Stating in the Chicago Daily Herald that the "nomination was not one of my seeking", Starr further related that:

"This is a case where the nomination sought the man and not the man the nomination. In response to the urgent solicitations of the eminent gentlemen who are the representatives of all political parties, and shades of political thought in this district, I consented to accept this nomination with the hope that I might be able to crystallize in this campaign all of those political forces which are tending toward the elevation of political standards, and the character of public service and public life. In the strictest sense the campaign in which I am engaged cannot be regarded as a political or partisan campaign."

   Running against Starr in that year's campaign was one John Humphrey (1838-1916), a native-born Englishman who had first been elected to the state senate in 1886. As the incumbent Republican, Humphrey's decades-long career in state politics was targeted by Western Starr in the November 1, 1902 edition of the Chicago Daily Herald, noting:

"I oppose Senator Humphrey because he has for 30 years been a personal representative of a political philosophy, which I do not agree and which, I am convinced the people of this district will not support, once its true inwardness is once understood."

  Rallying against "Humphreyism", Starr stumped throughout his district in support of votes in the latter part of 1902, and, as in years past, newspapers picked up on his peculiar name, with the Chicago Eagle using some very clever wordplay to describe the contest between John Humphrey and Starr, noting:

"His opponent is one Western Starr, and if Humphrey's sun is to suddenly set now in the declining days of his life, it is a question if the new luminary is one which will shed a more beautiful light on the political horizon of the Seventh district. Mr. Humphrey's opponent is not a "Starr" of the first magnitude, as everybody who knows him is aware, but there is a large and young element of the community in the Seventh Senatorial district composed of bright people who are sick and tired of 'Old John' and his ways and who would put up with anything for a change."

From the Chicago Inter Ocean, April 5, 1903.

   Western Starr's political platform touted "equal rights for all, special privileges for none, Municipal Home Rule, public ownership of public utilities and honest assessment and equal taxation", and he was widely considered to be a shoo-in at the polls. However, on election day 1902, John Humphrey eked out a win over Starr, besting him by a vote of 7,013 to 5,834. Despite a loss margin of nearly 1200 votes, Starr was not one to let a loss get the best of him. Between 1903 and 1908 he continued to be a forceful voice on the lecture circuit and in political newsletters, and in 1908 re-entered the political area, announcing his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois. His opponent was George Edmund Foss (1863-1936), a six-term Republican incumbent who, like Starr, had been a graduate of Columbia University. Starr's congressional candidacy received a write-up in the Single Tax Review that year, which touted his longstanding membership in the Single Tax movement and his willingness to be a "force in the war for economic righteousness." 
   Unfortunately, when the votes were tallied in November 1908, Starr was dealt another loss, losing to Foss, 31,130 votes to 14,840. An electoral result from that contest was published in the 1910 Tribune Almanac and Political Register and is shown below.

   A few years following his congressional loss, Western Starr removed with his family to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was active in both agriculture and the Farmer-Labor Party. In 1918 he gave a statement in front of Congress in connection with the Revenue Act of 1918, and during his testimony gave examples of land monopoly and the effects of taxation on farm owners. Starr later appeared in front of Congress once again in July 1921 on behalf of the Farmer-Labor Party, speaking to the Joint-Commission of Agricultural Inquiry.
  Around 1919 Starr relocated once again, this time to Washington, D.C. During his residence here he was a contributing writer to The Searchlight, a journal on Washington politics and congressional proceedings. In addition to being a contributor to this journal, Starr also served as Treasurer of the Searchlight Publishing Company for a time, resigning this office in 1921. Starr continued to be active in public service well into his seventh decade, with notice being given as to his service as a "special investigator in the investigation of contributions and expenditures of senatorial candidates" in August of 1930. 
   The remaining years of Western Starr's life post-1931 are largely a mystery, as is his burial location. He is recorded in the 1940 census as being an 85-year-old patient at the Washington Home for Incurables in Washington, D.C., and per his 1940 obituary, was stricken blind sometime in the mid-1930s. Starr died in Washington, D.C. in May 1940, aged 85. His wife Edith Hammond Starr lived on for nearly three more decades, being a resident of Wilmington, Delaware, and died there at age 97 in 1968. 

From the Davenport Daily Times, May 18, 1940.

Rutilleous Britt Basford (1836-1916)

Portrait from the St. Paul Globe, January 11, 1897.

    A New Englander by birth, Rutilleous Britt Basford later resided in Wisconsin where he was a merchant in the Jefferson County area. In the mid-1860s he relocated to Minnesota, where he was subsequently elected to a number of local political offices in Winona County, and in November 1896 was elected to one term in the Minnesota State House of Representatives.

  Born in Guilford, Maine on June 2, 1836, Rutilleous Basford was the son of Pliny Britt (1808-1890) and Sarah Stephens Basford (1806-1896). His unusual name has a variation in spelling, being listed by more than one source as "Rutillus Brett Basford", while also being abbreviated as "R.B. Basford". However, both the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota Death and Burial Index give the spelling as it is given in the title to this profile. Whichever spelling is the correct one, it certainly doesn't change the fact that Basford's name is one of the more intriguing ones to be found amongst the annals of past Minnesota legislators!

   Removing to Watertown, Wisconsin with his family while still a child, Basford attended common schools in that area and in March 1858 married Jennie Snow (1839-1916). The couple is recorded as being childless through the duration of their nearly sixty-year marriage. In the early 1860s, he did his patriotic duty and became a sutler (civilian merchant) to the 16th Wisconsin Infantry, providing various provisions to soldiers of the regiment. While still a resident of Wisconsin Basford served as a U.S. Revenue Agent for the county of Jefferson, continuing in this post until removing with his wife to Winona, Minnesota around 1866.

  Early in his Winona residency Basford became involved in real estate dealings as well as the sale of insurance, continuing along this route until 1875. In that year he was elected as the Treasurer of Winona County, serving two terms in office. In 1880 he won election as county auditor and later occupied the office of Fire Inspector for Minnesota's southern district for thirteen years. Active in fraternal clubs in addition to his civic doings, Basford became a member of the Coeur de Leon Commandry, No. 3 of the Knights Templar in 1874 and served as the group's Captain General in 1879 and its treasurer four years later. Basford is also the first strange name political figure to have been a druid, being a charter member of the Oak Grove Lodge, No. 15, Ancient Order of Druids in Winona in August 1877.

  After retiring from the position of Fire Inspector in the mid-1890s Basford continued in his real estate dealings, and in 1896 was nominated by his fellow Winona county citizens to be their representative in the Minnesota State Legislature. Running as a Republican, he went on to defeat his Democratic opponent John Nagler in the November election, 1,295 votes to 963. Taking his seat at the start of the 1897-99 term, Basford was named to the following standing committees of the house: Appropriations, Railroads, Insurance, Banks, and Legislative Expenses. He served as chairman of the Committee on Manufacturers and left office in January 1899.

  

This portrait of Rutilleous Basford is in the collection of the Minnesota State Historical Society.

    After leaving the legislature Basford returned to his early business interests and in 1907 is recorded as opening another insurance office in Winona with W.E. Stanton, operating under the name of Basford and Stanton. Basford died three months before his eightieth birthday on March 3, 1916, in Winona. His wife of 58 years Jennie followed him to the grave two months later on May 15th, and both were presumably buried somewhere in the Winona County vicinity, an exact place of burial being unknown at this time.

Colonel Ellsworth Rudesill (1861-1944), Colonel Ogden Swayze (1859-1922), Colonel Isham Wood (1887-1983), Colonel Manfred Johnson (1854-1928)

From the "Progressive West Virginians", 1905.

  If you've followed this site for any length of time you may remember reading about General George Oleander Pence, an Ohio representative and state senator who was given a military title as a first name. As it turns out, there happens to be another political figure, born nearly two decades before Mr. Pence, who also lucked into getting a military title for his first name! That man, Colonel Ellsworth Rudesill, was also an Ohio native but would go on to find success in politics in West Virginia during the early 20th century.

   The son of Columbus Jacob and Frank Bentley Rudesill, Colonel Ellsworth Rudesill was born in Medina, Ohio on October 10, 1861. He was bestowed his unusual first and middle names in honor of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the first Union soldier to be killed during the Civil War, his death occurring in Alexandria, Virginia on May 24, 1861. Rudesill's early education occurred in Akron, Ohio and he was a graduate of that city's high school. Following his graduation, Rudesill removed to Gallipolis, Ohio to join his father's business, that of a crockery and queensware (glazed ceramics) retailer. While residing in Galliopolis Rudesill married to Alice Romain Crowley, with whom he would have three children, including Frank Ellsworth (1890-1922, later to become a newspaper publisher in Ohio), Alice M. (birth-date unknown), and Donald Bentley (1896-1953).

   Around 1886 Columbus Rudesill relocated his business to Charleston, West Virginia, where Colonel E. Rudesill would eventually join him. For over twenty years their business (later to operate under the name of Rudesill and Mead) prospered until shutting its doors in 1909. Successful in other non-business related areas, Colonel E. Rudesill entered state politics in November 1902, winning election to the West Virginia State House of Delegates from Kanawha County. Taking his seat in January 1903, Rudesill served as a member of the house for one term (1903-05), and during his second year in office won election as Mayor of the city of Charleston, serving a two-year term. He had earlier been appointed to the West Virginia State Board of Asylums in 1901 for an eight-year term and served as the president during the entirety of his service.

   Following his time in public service, Rudesill served as a census supervisor and in 1911 returned to his business interests, becoming a state agent for the Atlanta based investment firm called the Guarantee, Trust and Banking Company. He later served as the director of the United Savings and Annuity Company of Charleston, and was a longtime member of the Charleston Elks Lodge, serving as the lodge's exalted ruler on three occasions.

From the Charleston Gazette, February 13, 1944.

  Colonel E. Rudesill continued to serve the city of Charleston well into his eighth decade, being connected with the "city collectors office." He died of pneumonia on February 12, 1944 at a Charleston hospital and following funeral services was interred at the Mountain View Cemetery in that city.

From the Charleston Gazette, February 13, 1944.

Portrait from the Standard Atlas of Genesee County, Michigan, 1907.

   Another non-military "Colonel" who made his name known politically is Colonel Ogden Swayze, a Flint, Michigan attorney who served several years as Judge of Probate for Genesee County in that state. A native of New Jersey, Colonel O. Swayze was born in Warren County on September 15, 1859, the son of Daniel and Sarah Angle Swayze. Colonel Swayze would remove with his family to Michigan as a child and would attend the public schools of Lapeer County. He later studied at the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, and following his graduation returned to Lapeer to begin teaching. Swayze later served as a school principal in Ritzville, Washington for a time and again returned to Michigan after two years away.

   Soon after his return to Michigan Swayze entered into law studies in Flint, Michigan, beginning study in the law office of Wisner, Lee, and Atkin. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1891 and shortly afterward was elected to his first public office, that of police justice for the city of Flint. He continued in that role for twelve years and in 1896 married Edith Alma Kurtz (1869-1962), a native of Erie County, New York. The couple later had three sons: Colonel Kenneth (1899-1989), Karl Ogden (born 1901), and Donald K. (born 1909).

   In November 1908 Colonel O. Swayze was elected as the probate judge for Genesee County and officially took office at the beginning of the new year. He would win a second term on the bench in 1912 and left office in 1916. Following his term as probate judge Swayze returned to practicing law in Flint and was also affiliated with the Young Men's Republican Club in that city, serving as its president for a time. Swayze died in August 1922 and was interred at the Glenwood Cemetery in Flint.

Portrait from the 1943 Tennessee legislative composite.

   In a February 9, 2017 update, another politically inclined "Colonel" has been located, Colonel Isham Wood of Warren County, Tennessee. In another case of someone being bestowed a military title for a first name, Wood was a farmer and school principal for a good majority of his life and had fleeting involvement in politics, being elected to one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives from his native county of Warren.

  The son of Obadiah and Elizabeth (Orrick) Wood, Colonel Isham Wood was born on August 2, 1887. Little is known of his early life, except his marriage to Hilda Irene Wimberly (1897-1989) in the mid-1910s. The couple were wed for over sixty years and later had one son, Randolph Clay (born 1917.)

   Colonel I. Wood was for over forty years a teacher and principal, teaching throughout middle Tennessee and the town of Lobelville. Elected as Warren County's representative to the Tennessee legislature in 1942, Wood served one term (1943-45) and during that session sat on the committees on Commerce, Education and Common Schools and Public Health and Sanitation.

  Colonel I. Wood died in Warren County on July 10, 1983, a few weeks short of his 96th birthday. He was survived by his wife Hilda, who, following her death at age 92 in 1989, was interred alongside her husband at the Morrison Cemetery in Morrison, Tennessee.

  On April 30, 2018, the name of Colonel Manfred Johnson was located in a 1922 history of McHenry County, Illinois, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was Colonel his first name (and not a title) but that he had fleeting political involvement, as he served as mayor of Harvard, Illinois. While he lacks a picture, enough information has been found to give him a mention here.

  Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on May 2, 1854, Johnson was the son of Horace and Adeline LaToure Johnson. Relocating to Harvard, Illinois with his family during his youth, Johnson attended school in that town and, after deciding on a career in the medical profession, would further study at Notre Dame University and the University of Michigan. Johnson would graduate from the latter school in 1875 and did post-graduate medical work at the Bellevue Hospital in New York.

  Following his relocation back to Harvard, Colonel M. Johnson began construction on a hospital for Harvard, one that once finished could accommodate 32 patients and several nurses. Sources relate to Johnson's non-medical prominence in Harvard, including stints as city treasurer and alderman, as well as city physician. He would serve as mayor of Harvard, though no source gives note as to his dates of service. John resided in Harvard until his death on June 24, 1928 and he was later interred at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in that city.

Clesson Selwyne Kinney (1859-1913)

 

From The Irrigation Age, Volume 17, published in 1902.

    A distinguished figure in Utah legal circles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Clesson Selwyne Kinney also served one term in the Utah State House of Representatives, representing the county of Salt Lake beginning in 1905. Both before and after his time on the political stage Kinney maintained an avowed interest in a rather unusual non-political subject, irrigation and water rights. Viewed by many of his contemporaries as a true scholar on the history of irrigation in both ancient and modern times, Kinney authored many irrigation-related articles in agricultural periodicals of his time and is honored today as the newest biography to be added to the site.

    Born and raised in Ohio, Clesson Selwyne Kinney's birth occurred in the town of East Townsend on December 5, 1859, a son of Edwin and Elizabeth Godden Kinney. His education began in the Huron County school system and as a young adult studied at both the Dennison University and Oberlin Colleges. After spending a four year period (1877-1881) in the employ of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company he enrolled at the University of Michigan and graduated in the class of 1887, having earned his bachelor of arts degree. Following his graduation Kinney spent several months teaching mathematics

at a high school in Leavenworth, Kansas and later decided upon a career in law, being admitted to the Kansas bar in 1888. He married in Chicago, Illinois in December of 1889 to Antoinette Brown (ca. 1862-1946), with whom he would have one son, Selwyne Perez Kinney (1890-1976), later to become notable as an engineer and inventor. 

   Removing to Salt Lake City, Utah soon after his marriage, Kinney established a law office in that city and over the succeeding decades would devote himself not only to the practice of law, but to the "law of irrigation and water rights." Kinney became interested in the study of irrigation shortly after settling in the arid climate of Utah, and after years of study developed a reputation as one of the nation's foremost experts on water rights and irrigation properties. 

    Not content to just specialize in water rights as an attorney, Kinney also authored a four-volume masterwork on irrigation and water management, "Kinney on Irrigation and Water Rights", first published in 1894. Kinney's work gained him wide praise and it became "a standard, and is cited as an authority in all the courts of the West, and also the U.S. Supreme Circuit and district courts." He also authored numerous articles related to this subject for the Irrigation Age illustrated journal between 1896 and 1912, and in 1903 completed "Kinney's Digest of the Utah Reports" an extensive index for the twenty-six volume law reports of the Utah State Supreme Court. Active in the Utah State Bar Association for many years, Kinney served as the Secretary of that organization beginning in 1894.

  Kinney took no part in politics until November of 1904 when he was elected as a Republican to the Utah State House of Representatives. Taking office in January of 1905, Kinney served as the chairman of three house committees during his one term, those being the Judiciary, the St. Louis Purchase Exposition Commission, and the Committee on Rules. 

From the Irrigation Age, Volume IX, published 1896.

   After the conclusion of his term in 1907 Kinney returned to his law practice and continued to write, beginning work on the second edition of "Kinney on Water Rights and Irrigation" which was eventually published in late 1912. His later years were marked by his memberships in the Knights Templars and Shriners lodges, while also serving as Masonic Grand Master. In October of 1912, Kinney was a featured speaker at the National Irrigation Congress, where he would give his last public address. 

   Burdened by years of overwork writing and revising his manuscripts, Kinney left Utah in December 1912 out of concern for his health, vacationing in Honolulu, Hawaii. He spent the first two months of 1913 here and on February 17th died at age 53, being felled by illness at a dinner that was being given in his honor at the home of a local judge in Honolulu. After being cremated, Kinney's ashes were brought home to Salt Lake City by his wife Antoinette, and following her death in 1946 was buried along with her husband at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in that city.

From the Salt Lake Tribune, February 19, 1913.

Telesphore LeBoeuf (1881-1946)

 From "The Souvenir of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention".

  Hailing from the city of Webster in Massachusetts, Telesphore LeBoeuf's political claim to fame rests on his service as a delegate to the Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention of 1917-19. A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, LeBoeuf was born in Webster on August 18, 1881 (or 1880, according to some sources), a son of Melchoir (1854-1942) and Noemi Cabana LeBoeuf (1854-1946), who were both natives of Canada. He attended schools local to the Webster area and as a young adult enrolled at the Boston University Law School, where he earned his bachelor of laws degree in 1907.

   Establishing a law practice in Worcester County, LeBoeuf later married Demerise Dufour (1879-1921) and had the following children: Norman T. (1910-1984), Joseph (died in infancy in 1911), Lucille (born 1912) and Jeannette (born 1914). Laboeuf would continue to practice law in Webster for many decades and in 1917 was elected to represent Webster at the Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention, being held at Boston. During his time at the convention, Leboeuf took an active part in debate proceedings and served on the committee on Military Affairs.

   Following his service as a delegate, LeBoeuf continued to serve his community of Webster in a number of different areas, holding the offices of town counsel, water commissioner and Secretary of the Webster-Dudley, Massachusetts chapter of the Red Cross. He maintained memberships in the Worcester County Bar Association and the Massachusetts Republican Club and served as the Vice President of the South Worcester County Bar Association for a time. As a man of French Canadian descent, LeBoeuf was active in groups devoted to French-American heritage, including serving as the vice president of the Franco-American Club and the Franco-American Foresters.

   In 1923 Telesphore LeBoeuf became a special assistant U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, serving under Emerson W. Baker, who had recently been elected as U.S. District Attorney for Massachusetts. After many years of plying his trade in the field of law, Leboeuf made the jump into national politics, announcing his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts' 3rd district in mid-1938. In a Fitchburg Sentinel article on his candidacy, Leboeuf noted that he would dedicate himself "to legislation that will contribute to the greater welfare of our workers, to the acceleration of our industries, and to the progress of our farmers."

   Running against two other Republicans in that year's primary, Leboeuf and fellow candidate William P. Constantino were defeated by one J. Walton Tuttle, who went on to become the Republican congressional nominee that November. Tuttle was later defeated for Congress by incumbent Democrat Joseph E. Casey (1898-1980), who served in the U.S. House until 1942

From the Acton Concord Enterprise, September 7, 1938.

  Eight years following his defeat for a seat in Congress, Telesphore Lebeouf died at age 65 on April 18, 1946, while attending a meeting of the directors of the Webster National Bank. Notice is given as to his being nominated for bank president at the meeting, but due to his death never was able to serve in that post. Following his death, he was interred at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Webster.

Romanzo Norton Bunn (1829-1909)

From the "Notable Men of Wisconsin", published 1902.

    A New Yorker by birth, Romanzo Norton Bunn later removed to Wisconsin in the 1850s and shortly after his resettlement began what would become a lengthy career in Wisconsin political circles, serving a term as district attorney of Trempealeau County and later was elected to the state legislature. He would gain further prominence as U.S. District Judge for Wisconsin's Western District, serving on the bench for nearly three decades. 

   The son of Peter and Polly Ann Jackson Bunn, Romanzo N. Bunn was born in the village of South Hartwick in Otsego County, New York on September 24, 1829. He moved with his family to Cattaraugus County, New York at age three, where they established a home in the village of Mansfield. Young Romanzo engaged in farm work as a young man and later began attending the Springville Academy at age sixteen, while also teaching school during the winter time, plying his trade at schoolhouses in the villages of East Otto, Yorkshire, and Waverly, New York. He would go on to enroll at Oberlin College in Ohio and studied there for one year. While in Ohio he began the study of law in the city of Elyria and later returned to Cattaraugus County to complete his studies in the law office of William H. Wood of Ellicottville, who was later to serve a term in the New York State Assembly.

  After practicing law with William Wood in Ellicottville for about one year, Bunn experienced a case of wanderlust and removed west in 1854, settling first in Sparta, Wisconsin and a few months later relocated to Galesville in Trempealeau County. Shortly before his removal to Wisconsin Bunn had married in New York to Sarah Purdy (1832-1918) and this couple later became the parents to six children, who are listed as follows in order of birth: Charles Wilson (born 1855), Mary (1857-1919), Channing Bunn (1861-1864), George Lincoln (1865-1918), John Marshall (1867-1924) and Fannie Bunn (born 1870). Of these children, George Lincoln Bunn and John Marshall Bunn followed in their father's stead, going on to distinguished careers in public service, with George serving as an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court (1911-1917) and dean of the St. Paul School of Law. John Marshall Bunn would eventually become a prominent attorney in the Spokane, Washington area.

   Despite being a resident of Wisconsin for a short period Romanzo Bunn quickly advanced to prominence in local law circles, being elected as District Attorney for Trempealeau County. He served from 1857-58 and in the following year won election as one of that county's representatives to the Wisconsin General Assembly, where he served for one term. After leaving the legislature Bunn returned to private practice and moved back to Sparta, where he had first settled after coming to Wisconsin with his wife. He continued along this route until 1868 when in that year he was elected as Judge for Wisconsin's Sixth Judicial Circuit. He served a term of six years and was reelected in 1874, holding his seat until 1877. In 1872 Bunn served as a Presidential Elector on the Republican ticket, casting his vote for Ulysses Grant.

                                 Romanzo Bunn, from the"History of the Bunn Family of America", 1928.

   Bunn's reputation as one of Wisconsin's foremost legal figures reached its apex in 1877 when he was selected by President Rutherford Hayes to fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. This vacancy had come about with the death of sitting judge James Campbell Hopkins, who had died in September of that year. Bunn's name had been put forward for the post by both of Wisconsin's U.S. Senators, as well as several state attorneys and fellow judges. Confirmed in October of 1877, Bunn would serve on the bench until his retirement at age 76 in 1905, having logged 28 years of service on the court.

  Aside from his judicial service to Wisconsin, Judge Bunn was described by the Historical Gazetteer and Biographical Memorial of Cattaraugus County as a well-read man with a penchant for reading Shakespeare, noting that he was:

"A man of fine literary taste and culture, and spends many leisure hours in his carefully selected private library of several thousand volumes. Perhaps his greatest pleasure is in studying and comparing the different versions of plays of his favorite writer, Shakespeare, of whose works he is exceedingly fond and has more than a dozen editions. He is frequently invited to lecture before the students of Madison University and the literary societies of Madison on some literary subject, and always responds with something interesting to the most cultivated listener."

   Romanzo Norton Bunn spent the remainder of his retirement residing in Madison, where he died on January 25, 1909, at age 79. He was interred at the Forest Hill Cemetery in that city and was survived by his wife Sarah, who, following her death in 1918, was buried at the same cemetery as her husband. 

Ibzan William Middlebrook (1837-1899)

                                          From the Personnel of the Texas State Government, 1889 edition.

   The Lonestar State yields another oddly named political figure in one Ibzan William Middlebrook, a resident of Colorado County who served as a state representative in the Texas Legislature during that body's 21st legislative session. While his first name "Ibzan" is truly unusual, it has its origins in the Bible, being the name of one of the Judges of Israel featured in the Book of Judges. Why Middlebrook was bestowed this odd name has been lost to history, and his name also has a variation in spelling, being listed on his gravestone as "Ibsam William Middlebrooks", presumably a spelling error on the part of the gravestone carver.
    Born in the county of Chickasaw in Mississippi on November 28, 1837, Ibzan W. Middlebrook was the first born child of nine born to  James Bird Middlebrook and his wife Mariah Bray (1815-1874). He received his schooling in the "private schools of that state" and later relocated to Texas with his family. The Personnel of the Texas State Government reports that Middlebrook worked at farming during the 1850s and is also recorded as being the manager of the estate of a "Mrs. Hardeman" in Bastrop County.
    Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War Ibzan Middlebrook enlisted for service amongst the ranks of the Confederacy, becoming an orderly sergeant. The Personnel of Texas notes that Middlebrook saw action at the Battles of Elkhorn, Corinth, Mississippi, and Iuka, and in the closing months of the war was taken prisoner, spending the remainder of the hostilities at Fort Delaware. After being released at the conclusion of the war, Middlebrook returned to Texas and later removed from Lavaca County to Colorado County, where he engaged in lumber manufacturing for many years, subsequently amassing a substantial fortune through "lumber yards in different localities."
   On January 3, 1869, Ibzan Middlebrook married in Columbus, Texas to Hattie Cunningham, who eventually gave birth to five children: Earl Sloan (1869-1914), Ibbie (1871-1945), John Moore (1873-1938), Ray (1875-1950) and Percy Cunningham Middlebrook (1879-1963). 
  In the mid-1870s Middlebrook made his first move into politics, winning election to the Texas State House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1876. Representing the counties of Colorado and Lavaca, Middlebrook was returned to the legislature in 1888 and during his second term chaired the house committee on Claims and Accounts, while also holding a seat on the committees on Internal Improvements, Mining and Minerals, Penitentiaries, Public Buildings and Grounds, Roads, Ferries and Bridges, and State Institutions of Learning. In his last full year of legislative service (1890), Middlebrook was named as a member of the Texas State Penitentiary Board, also serving as an inspector of convict camps for a five-year term.

                                                    From the Legislative Reference Library of Texas website.

    After leaving the legislature Middlebrook returned to his business dealings and in 1891 he and his brother Oscar joined in a partnership to purchase several thousands of acres of land which was eventually harvested for its timber, this acreage eventually saw the erection of a sawmill and a cattle ranch. Middlebrook also continued activity in politics, being elected as the Mayor of Columbus, Texas, serving in office until his death on July 5, 1899, at age 61. He was later interred at the Columbus, Texas Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery and was survived by his wife Hattie, who followed her husband to the grave in January 1917 at age 69.

Maple Talbot Harl (1893-1957)

                                              Portrait courtesy of the website www.fdic.gov.

    Following on this week's earlier write-up on Denver based attorney and judge Westbrook Schoonmaker Decker, we continue our stay in Colorado to highlight the life of a man named Maple...an odd first name to be sure, but Maple Talbot Harl didn't let his unusual name keep him from pursuing a distinguished career in public service, building up an impressive resume in the realms of business and politics. He would serve as the State Bank Commissioner of Colorado during the early 1940s and in 1945 began an eight-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
   Born and raised in Missouri, the birth of Maple Talbot Harl took place in the town of Marshall on February 4, 1893, one of two children born to Baptist minister Baldwin Evans Harl (1852-1907) and his wife, the former Maxey J. Campbell. Following his early education, Harl went on to attend the William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later enrolled at the University of Colorado and the University of Chicago's Law School for a year (1916-17) and during his time at this school served as a cadet lieutenant in the University's student corps. 
   Harl would eventually put his studies on hold at the dawn of American involvement in WWI, and after enlisting at Fort Logan Roots in Arkansas became a 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry. Harl would later become an officer in the First, Second, and Third Armies, American Expeditionary Forces, and is recorded as seeing action at the battles at Argonne and St. Mehiel. Honorably discharged from service in 1919, Harl returned to the United States in September of that year and is mentioned by the Greeley Daily Tribune as "remaining in hospitals for four years on account of disabilities received in France." Harl married in Colorado in July 1920 to Maybelle Mayfield (1895-1982), with whom he would later have one daughter, Suzanne Harl Stockmar (1923-2008).
   In the years preceding his marriage Maple T. Harl had moved from Missouri to Colorado, and in the late 1910s is recorded as establishing a "clothing store at Canon City". After serving his country overseas and returning home he reentered the Colorado business community and took on the position of Vice President of the Englewood, Colorado State Bank, serving in this position from 1923-25. Harl maintained a lengthy affiliation with the Disabled American Veterans Association, serving as National Commander of that organization from 1937 to 1938, and also served a term as district governor of the Colorado and Wyoming Kiwanis clubs.

From the Greeley Daily Tribune, January 3, 1939.

   Throughout the 1930s Maple T. Harl continued involvement with various civic organizations in Denver and Colorado, and in January of 1939 was appointed as the new Colorado State Banking Commissioner, succeeding Grant McFerson, who had died two months previously in November 1938. Harl's tenure as bank commissioner extended to 1945, and in that year was selected by President Harry S. Truman as his choice for Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Harl was later confirmed and began an eight-year tenure as the corporation's board chairman. Under Harl's watchful eye, the FDIC made headlines in 1948 when it finished paying off of a $289,000,000 debt, a "final repayment of capital furnished by the government to the FDIC" fourteen years previously. In a Spokane Daily Chronicle article on the newsworthy event, Harl is quoted as stating:

"We hold that the American system of free enterprise banking, with federal and state authority sharing credit and responsibility is the right answer to America's banking needs......As the last major system of free enterprise banking in the world, it represents not only an American way of life."

   Harl's chairmanship of the FDIC concluded in 1953 with his resignation, but he continued to serve as a regular member of the board until his death, which occurred at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1957. Following his death, his body was returned to Colorado for burial at the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, which, coincidentally, is the same burial location as Westbrook Schoonmaker Decker. Maybelle M. Harl was also interred here following her death at age 87 in 1982. 

From the Greeley Daily Tribune, April 18, 1957.

Westbrook Schoonmaker Decker (1839-1903)

                        

From the Portrait and Biographical Record of Denver and Vacinity, 1905.

    A descendant of an old established New York family, Westbrook Schoonmaker Decker later resided in both Illinois and Colorado, attaining distinction as an attorney and judge in both of these states. Appointed by President Ulysses Grant as U.S. District Attorney for the Colorado District, Decker was the first man to hold the office under the new state government, as Colorado had been admitted as the 38th state a year prior to his appointment.

  The son of Albert and Gertrude Schoonmaker Decker (both of whom are recorded as being of Holland Dutch extraction), Westbrook S. Decker was born in the village of Tyre, New York on April 22, 1839. His education took place in public schools local to that area and as an adolescent entered upon study at the Brockport Collegiate Institute. Following the completion of his schooling, Decker removed to Charleston, Illinois where he took on a teaching position. He continued along this route for several years until the outbreak of the  Civil War, and in 1861 returned home to New York state to sign on for service.

   Enlisting in August of 1862 at Waterloo, New York, Decker became a private in Co. I of the 126th New York Infantry, subsequently seeing action at the battles of Maryland Heights, and Harper's Ferry. He was taken prisoner during the latter battle in September 1862, and after being paroled three months later was deployed to help defend Washington from attack. Decker later suffered wounds at the Battle of Gettysburg which necessitated a four-month stay at a military hospital in Newark, New Jersey. After his recuperation, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant in Co. B. of the 19th Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops, and in July 1865 was promoted to First Lieutenant.

   Resigning from service at Brownsville, Texas in October 1865 (not 1867 as mentioned in the above link), Decker journeyed to Michigan to begin the study of law at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating in the class of 1867. He married in August of that year to Katherine Worden (1841-1897), an acquaintance of many years who had resided near Decker's hometown. The couple would later have three children, Cora Emily (born 1868), Howard (died aged seven), and Mason Loomis Decker (1873-1911).
   Shortly after his marriage Westbrook Decker began the practice of law in Kankakee, Illinois, operating a law office here for several years. During his residency in this city, Decker won election as city attorney for Kankakee, and a year after this was elected as Kankakee County judge. He served in this capacity from 1869-1873 and towards the end of his term incurred a bout of ill health. Out of concerns for his health, Decker and his family left Kankakee and migrated west, eventually settling in Denver where he would reside for the remainder of his life.
   Within months of relocating to Denver Westbrook Decker had reestablished his law practice, operating a firm with George Gifford Symes (1840-1893), a former Territorial Judge in Montana who would later go on to serve two terms in Congress from Colorado during the mid-1880s. Decker was still practicing law in Denver in February 1877 when he received notice of his appointment by President Grant for the post of U.S. District Attorney for Colorado. Decker was confirmed and took office as the first District Attorney for the state of Colorado since it had gained statehood a year previously. He served in this post until April of 1880 when he resigned to recommence with practicing law in Denver. In 1882 he formed a partnership with Thomas D. W. Yonley, a former Arkansas State Attorney General, and continued this practice for several years.

                     From the Report and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Colorado Bar, 1901.
  
    In 1887 Westbrook Decker reentered public life when he was elected to fill an unexpired term for the U.S. District Court of Colorado's 2nd Judicial District. He served out this one-year term and in 1888 was elected to a term of his own on the bench. Elected to serve a term of six years, Decker resigned in 1891 to again take up the practice of law, establishing a joint law practice with Thomas Jefferson O'Donnell, who later gained prominence with the Democratic Party in Colorado. In the remaining years of his life, Decker was active in both the American and Colorado State Bar Associations and was also prominent in Civil War veteran's affairs, serving as a past Commander of the Commandery of Colorado.

   On March 18, 1897, Katherine Worden Decker, Westbrook's wife of thirty years, died. Two years following her passing Westbrook Decker remarried to Sarah Sophia Platt, who gained notoriety in her own right for being the first female to be appointed to a seat on the Colorado Civil Service Commission, as well as being active in the affairs of state women's clubs. 

   Westbrook S. Decker retired from public life in 1901 out of concern for his health and died of pneumonia on January 16, 1903, at age 63. Sources of the time also note that "his wounds and ailments sustained and contracted during the Civil War" played a role in his demise. Decker was later interred at the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver alongside his wife Katherine. Decker's second wife Sarah survived him by nearly a decade, dying in 1912, and was later buried in the same cemetery as her husband.

From the Colorado Springs Weekly Gazette, January 22, 1903.

Chelius Clifton Benefield (1867-1951)

From the Official and Statistical Register of Mississippi, 1912 edition.

   A successful businessman and political figure who made his home in both Tennessee and Mississippi, Chelius Clifton Benefield reached his highest degree of political prominence in 1911 when he won election as one of Pontotoc County's representatives to the Mississippi State Legislature. One of nine children born to William Hardy and Mary Hill Benefield, Chelius Clifton Benefield's birth occurred in the town of Trion, Georgia on October 17, 1867. He attended schools local to the area of his birth and later went on to study at the Terrell College in Texas.

   Both before and after his time at college Benefield spent time teaching school, being employed at various schools in Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia for a period of about ten years. He married in Tennessee on Independence Day 1894 to Ms. Belle Woodlee (1871-1953), to whom he was married for nearly sixty years. Their long marriage saw the birth of seven children, who are listed as follows: Myrtle May (born 1895), Bessie Bell (born 1896), Ralph Clinton (1899-1983), Glidden Ross (1902-1994), Tennie Alma (1905-1942), Chelius Clifton Jr. (1907-1921) and Mary Lucille Benefield DeBock (1909-1990).

   In the late 1890s, Benefield undertook a career change and began learning the art of surveying, subsequently becoming County Surveyor for the county of Warren in Tennessee, serving in this capacity from 1899-1903. Around this same time, Benefield began making his name known through various business endeavors in and around the Crossville, Tennessee area, including a stint as superintendent of the Tennessee Coal and Lumber Company. He was later instrumental in the founding of the Southern Land and Investment Company (serving as its General Manager) and occupied similar executive positions at the Monarch Coal Mining Company and the Crossville Lumber Company.

   Politics first beckoned to Chelius C. Benefield during his residency in Tennessee, and in 1896 received the nomination for the state senate from the county of Georgia. The Notable Men of Tennessee notes that he "declined the honor", and for the next decade and a half had little involvement in political affairs. He later left Tennessee and moved with his family to Mississippi, where in November 1911 he won election to the state House of Representatives from Pontotoc County. Taking office at the start of the 1912 legislative session, Benefield was named to the House Committee on Education, the Constitution, Engrossed Bills and also chaired the committee on Contingent Expenses.

                               From the Notable Men of Tennessee, Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1, 1905.

    Little is known of Chelius Benefield's life following the conclusion of his term in 1914. At some point between 1914 and 1921, he moved with his family to Tehama County, California, where he would reside for many years afterward. Chelius and Belle Benefield experienced personal tragedy in November 1921 with the death of their fourteen-year-old son Chelius Benefield Jr., who lost his life in a school bus-train collision near Proberta, California while on the way to the Red Bluff Union High School. Young Benefield was one of fourteen schoolchildren who lost their lives in the accident, which received significant coverage in the December 10, 1921 edition of the Sausalito News.

  Chelius Clifton Benefield died at the age of 83 in Butte, California on August 5, 1951, and was interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Red Bluff, California, where his son was laid to rest three decades earlier. Belle Benefield survived her husband by two years, and following her death in 1953 was interred at the same cemetery as her husband and son.