Hardress Nathan Swaim (1890-1957)

Portrait from Swaim's Memorial Record of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

   A leading legal light in Indiana for over three decades, Hardress Nathan Swaim (or H. Nathan Swaim, as most sources list him) entered into the practice of law at age 26 and from there established himself as a prominent Democratic party member in Indianapolis, holding the office of Indianapolis City Controller. Later nominated to a vacancy on the Indiana Supreme Court, Judge Swaim achieved further distinction in 1950 when he was appointed to the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, serving several years on the bench.

   Born in Zionsville, Indiana on November 30, 1890, Hardress Nathan Swaim was a son of Charles R. and Alice Swaim and attended public schools in Zionsville. He would later enroll at the DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and waited tables as a means of income during his time at the university. Swaim is also recorded as having "tutored other students in German" and graduated from DePauw in the class of 1913. He continued his education at the University of Chicago Law School and earned his law degree in 1916. 

  Following his graduation Swaim established his law practice in Indianapolis, only to be interrupted by the beginning of American involvement in the First World War. Swaim, like many other young men of the time, joined in the war effort, undergoing training and served as an infantry lieutenant in both the 87th and 88th Infantry divisions. He left the Army in 1918 with the rank of first lieutenant and married during his training period to Clara Lavon Kenner on July 14, 1917. The couple would later have two children, Robert (1924-1990) and Jean Swaim Sutter (born ca. 1926).

                   H. Nathan Swaim's senior class portrait from the 1913 DePauw "Mirage" Yearbook.

   After returning home from the Army Swaim returned to the practice of law, residing in Indianapolis where he would raise his family. He established the firm Ogden and Swaim with local attorney James M. Ogden, and Mr. Ogden would remain the only law partner Swaim would have during all his years of practice. Described in his U.S. Circuit Court memorial proceeding as being "widely respected by the bench and bar",  Swaim was recalled as a

"Studious, thorough, painstaking lawyer of sound judgement. His integrity was always beyond question. He was not a specialist in any field. That general experience was very valuable to him in learning to deal with the endless variety of cases which came before him on this court."

   H. Nathan Swaim began involvement in Hoosier state politics in 1930 when he served as the chairman of the Marion County Democratic Committee, holding this office for four years. He would go on to serve as Indiana's 12th district Democratic chairman from 1936-38 and in 1937 began a term as Indianapolis City Comptroller (1937-38). In his last year of service as controller Swaim was elected to the Indiana State Supreme Court defeating Republican candidate Edward Blessing by a vote of 31, 177 to 20, 846. Swaim took his seat on January 1, 1939, and would serve one term on the court, being defeated for reelection in 1944.
  Five years following his loss Swaim was selected by then-President Harry Truman to be his nominee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Appointed during the court recess in November 1949, Swaim was confirmed by the Senate in February 1950 and took his seat that month. He would serve on the court until his death in Chicago, Illinois on July 30, 1957, at age 66, and was subsequently memorialized as:

"A simple, forthright man of high ideals, a man of gentle power, tolerant, but with the strength of his convictions. He was intellectually honest. He had the common touch. It was part of him. He never lost these qualities even while serving in high places.

Judge Swaim (pictured left) at the Columbus Day dinner celebration at Indianapolis, 1939.

   Following his death, Judge Swaim was interred at Indianapolis's famed Crown Hill Cemetery and was survived by his wife Clara and two children. Clara Swaim survived her husband by twenty-one years, dying in August 1978, and was interred in the same cemetery as her husband.

Hazlewood Power Farish (1880-1958)

Portrait from the Official and Statistical Register of Mississippi, 1908.

    A practicing attorney for over five decades, lifelong Mississippi native Hazlewood Power Farish was for many years at the forefront of legal and political circles in both Issequena and Washington County, being elected as a state representative and senator from that county before he turned thirty years of age. Late in his life, Farish achieved further prominence when he was selected as the President of the Washington County Bar Association in 1951.

   Born and raised in the Issequena County town of Mayersville, Hazlewood P. Farish was born on September 14, 1880, one of five children born to Confederate Army veteran Robert Davis (1845-1900) and Caroline Power Farish (1855-1918). Inheriting his unusual first name courtesy of his grandfather, Hazlewood M. Farish (died 1851), Hazlewood Power Farish began his education in the public school system of Mayersville and would later attend the Jefferson Military College in Washington County, Mississippi. In the late 1890s, Farish enrolled at the University of Mississippi's Law School (graduating in the class of 1899) and shortly thereafter entered into practice in Mayersville.

  Within a few years of beginning his practice, Hazlewood Farish entered county politics, becoming secretary of the Issequena County Democratic Executive Committee. He would later serve as the attorney for the Issequena County Board of Supervisors beginning in 1903.

                                         Farish's senior class portrait from the 1899 Ole Miss Yearbook.

  

     On November 14, 1906, Hazlewood Farish married in New Orleans to Mildred Lillard (1880-1907), who died several months after their marriage in June 1907. Farish would later remarry to Sarah Lafon Hunt (1885-1966), with whom he would have two daughters, Elizabeth (1913-1989) and Sarah Hunt Farish (1917-2002).

   In November 1905 Farish was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives from Issequena and served during the house session of 1906-07. In 1907 he was elected to the Mississippi Senate for one term (1908-1912) and during his service held seats on the senate committees on the Judiciary, Public Education, Claims, Corporations, and Levees. Following his brief tenure in state government, Hazlewood Farish returned to practicing law, eventually removing from Mayersville to Greenville around 1910. After his resettlement, Farish took on the post of attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad and later was a member of the Greenville-based law firm of Farish, Keady, and Campbell. He would also serve as the city attorney for Greenville and as the attorney for the local Levee Board.

   In December 1951 the then seventy-one-year-old Farish was selected as the President of the Washington County Bar Association, succeeding outgoing president Holland O. Felt. Active in numerous fraternal organizations in his home state, Farish was a Scottish Rite Mason, a past Chancellor Commander of the local Knights of Pythias Lodge, and a past president of the Greenville Rotary Club. Farish died at age 77 on January 17, 1958, and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Following their respective deaths both Hazlewood and his wife Sarah were interred at the Greenville Cemetery.

       Hazlewood Farish, from the December 10, 1951 edition of the Greenville Delta Democrat Times.

Core Serena Ireland (1874-1943)

Portrait from the Urbana Daily Times Citizen, February 17, 1908.

   The following profile takes a brief look at the life of a man named Core--one Core Serena Ireland to be precise, and despite a truly strange first and middle name, Ireland gained a reputation as one of Urbana, Ohio's favorite sons, being at various times a banker, city council member, Champaign County sheriff and Sergeant-at-Arms of the Ohio Senate. Ireland rightly earns a place here on the site due to his being a three-time delegate from Ohio to the Republican National Conventions of 1916, 1932, and 1936.

  Born and raised in Champaign County, Ohio,  Core Serena Ireland's birth occurred in the town of Terre Haute on September 24, 1874, the son of James and Margaret Davis Ireland. As one of thirteen children, Ireland attended schools local to the town of Mad River and upon reaching the age of seventeen took on a teaching position in his native county, subsequently teaching at various county schools over a period of nine years. He married in November 1895 to Dessie E. Weaver (1876-1959), with whom he would have one son, Ralph Howard (1908-1977).

   Core Ireland made his first move into county politics in 1901 when he was named as the deputy treasurer for Champaign County, holding office until 1905. In November of the preceding year, he was elected as Sheriff of Champaign County with 4, 235 votes. He was re-elected sheriff in 1906 and during the 1908 election year served as the chairman of the Champaign County Republican Executive Committee. Ireland continued his ascent in public office in 1909 when he was chosen as the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Ohio Senate for the 1909-1911 term. 

   In 1916 Core Ireland was selected as part of the Ohio delegation to that year's Republican National Convention being held in Chicago that nominated Charles Evans Hughes for the Presidency. Ireland would later serve as an Ohio delegate on two further occasions, attending the Republican National Conventions of 1932 (held in Chicago) and 1936 (held in Cleveland).

   Attentive to political and civic affairs in his native city of Urbana, Core Ireland served as a city councilman from Urbana's third ward during the mid-1910s and also was a member of the board of directors of the People's Savings and Loan Company. Ireland would later hold the post of cashier of the Champaign National Bank beginning in 1927, and in 1940 succeeded to the presidency of that bank. He served in this capacity until his death at age 68 on August 12, 1943, "after an illness of several years." Memorialized as one of Champaign County's leading Republicans over a four-decade career in public life, Ireland was further remarked as having been

"Intensly loyal to his supporters and those he sought to aid, his political opinions were sought by political leaders throughout the state and although he never held any high political post, he was known to all Ohio politicians and his word carried considerable of weight with the Republican State Central Committee."

  Core S. Ireland was survived by both his wife and son, and all three were later interred at the Oak Dale Cemetery in Urbana.

From the Urban Daily Citizen, August 19, 1943.

Uz McMurtrie (1884-1960)

                    From the Centennial History of Grant County, Indiana, 1812-1912, Volume 2.

   The youthful-looking gentleman pictured above is Uz McMurtrie, a 1908 graduate of the Indiana State University at Bloomington who in 1916 was elected as Indiana State Treasurer. Elected at the ripe old age of 32, McMurtrie was one of the youngest men to ever occupy the state treasurer's office. McMurtrie's peculiar first name "Uz" has left me scratching my head in bewilderment, as I can't quite figure out why he was given his outstandingly different name!
   A lifelong resident of the Hoosier State, Uz McMurtrie was born in Attica, Indiana on July 12, 1884, one of five children born to William (1845-1916) and Elizabeth Georgetta Starr McMurtrie (1851-1924). The reasons behind William and Elizabeth bestowing the name "Uz" upon their son have been lost to history, but, as research has shown, the name looks to have had its origins in the Bible, where "Uz" is recorded as both a place (an ancient land mentioned in the Old Testament) and a person (Uz, the son of minor biblical figure Aram, who was himself the grandson of Noah.) During preparations for this article, I was ready to believe that the name "Uz" was short for "Uzziel" or "Uzziah' (both biblical names), but it appears that this wasn't the case--As shown in his 1917 draft registration card, McMurtrie did indeed have a very odd two-letter first name.
    Uz McMurtrie's early life was centered in the town of Attica, where he attended public schools.  He would go on to graduate from the Marion, Indiana High School and in 1904 entered the University of Indiana at Bloomington. His time at the university saw him serve as President of the 1908 graduating class whilst also being active in the student press, holding the posts of advertising manager of the college's Daily Student newspaper, and vice president of the Indiana Collegiate Press Association. McMurtrie completed his senior thesis on "The Separation of the Sources of State and Local Taxation" and graduated in the class of 1908 with his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree.
   After graduating McMurtrie returned to Marion, Indiana, and entered politics in 1909, becoming the deputy treasurer of Grant County at age 25. He served three years in this capacity, and in November of 1912 was elected to a term as County Treasurer, gaining distinction as "the youngest county treasurer in the state." McMurtrie married during his term on February 11, 1914, in Marion to Elizabeth Hogan (1885-1965). One son was born to the couple, William Hogan McMurtrie (1917-1997), later to be in the employ of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in Los Angeles.

                                   Uz McMurtrie's senior class portrait from the 1908 Arbutus Yearbook.

   McMurtrie's ascension to the county treasurer's office at such a young age garnered him statewide coverage in newspapers of the time, many of which marked him for further success in the political field. He was returned to the office of county treasurer in the 1914 election year, winning, according to the Winchester Journal, "on his official record and by fearless, aggressive campaigning methods."
  During his second term as Grant County treasurer Uz McMurtrie announced that he would be entering as a Republican in the race for State Treasurer of Indiana. Formally entering the race in October 1915, McMurtrie's announcement received substantial press in the Winchester, Indiana Journal, which touted him as an "aggressive young republican", while also noting that:

"The showing made in 1912 marked McMurtrie for statewide notice and admiring comment, as the successful Republican candidate that year in Indiana was a political phenomenon. McMurtrie's still more remarkable vote in 1914, obtained in an impressive Republican fight and on his official record, put the Grant County man before his party as a logical aspirant for state honors."

                                                             From the Winchester Journal, October 13, 1915.

    Riding high on a crest of popularity, McMurtrie won the State Treasurer's office in the 1916 election, formally taking office in February 1917 at age 33, the youngest man ever elected to that office up to that time. He was re-elected as treasurer in the following year and served until the conclusion of this term in February 1921, being succeeded by fellow Republican Ora J. Davies (1874-1958).
    After leaving the treasury post, Uz McMurtrie spent a great deal of the remainder of his life actively engaged in the affairs of his alma mater, the University of Indiana. As one of the school's most distinguished graduates, McMurtrie was a two-time President of the Indiana University Alumni Association and was a past director of the executive committee of the Indiana University Foundation. In 1939 he was appointed to a vacancy on the Indiana University Board of Trustees, succeeding trustee Albert Raab, who had died some weeks previously. McMurtrie's membership on the board extended from 1939-1945 when he retired. In addition to his service to the university, McMurtrie also was acknowledged as an important financial mind in the state, with the Phi Kappa Psi Shield newsletter noting that:

"For many years he had corporate interests and had specialized in financial reorganizations and mergers."

   Following many decades of service to both Indiana and his alma mater, Uz McMurtrie died at age 74 on May 20, 1960. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth and son William and was interred at the Estates of Serenity Cemetery located in Marion, Indiana.

Uz McMurtrie (second from left) at a 1941 gathering of Indiana University trustees. Picture courtesy of the Archives Photograph Collection of Indiana State University at Bloomington.

Frothingham Fish (1820-1895)

From the Medico-Legal Journal, Volume 25, 1907.

   Oddly named New Yorker Frothingham Fish was a two-term member of the state assembly, a Montgomery County district attorney, and a State Supreme Court justice. A member of the prominent Fish family of New York State, Mr. Fish was blessed with a very eye-catching first name, one that is truly unique in the annals of the New York State Assembly (a legislative body that has been very well represented here!)

    Frothingham Fish was the third of five children born to Howland (a former Montgomery County district attorney) and Eliza Frothingham Fish, his birth occurring in the town of Glen, New York on August 26, 1820. Given the first name "Frothingham" due to it being his mother's maiden name, Fish followed in his father's footsteps and embarked upon the study of law in Montgomery County, eventually establishing an office in the town of Fultonville.

   On April 29, 1845, Fish married Susan E. Bronk (1820-1906), with whom he would have four children: Robert Bronk (1849-1919), Howland (1848-1888), Edmund (1858-1918) and Leonard Frothingham (1867-1932). Of these children, Leonard followed in his grandfather's stead and was elected as the District Attorney for Montgomery County in 1893, serving six years in office.

   Three years following his marriage Frothingham Fish was elected to the first of two terms in the New York State Assembly, representing Montgomery County. Taking his seat at the beginning of the 1849 term, Fish served on the assembly committees on Privileges and Elections. He was later returned to the assembly for the 1861 term and sat on the House Committee on Claims. A capable member of the legislature, Fish was described in the 1861 Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York as:

"Formerly a Whig. He adhered firmly to that ancient organization until it ceased to exist, and then became a Republican, to the principles and policy of which party he is still firmly attached. He is not one of the rabid Abolition John Brown school of politicians, and in the present threatening aspect of our national affairs, has generally, by his votes in the house, shown a disposition to do whatever appears best calculated to restore peace and quiet to the country."

Frothingham Fish, from an 1861 New York Assembly photo album.

    After leaving the legislature Fish returned to practicing law in Fultonville and continued along this route until reentering political life in 1883, when he was elected as an Associate Justice of the New York State Supreme Court for the state's 4th judicial district, which comprised the counties of Montgomery, Saratoga, Warren, Fulton, and Hamilton. His tenure on the court extended until 1891 when he retired, and during his time on the bench "occasionally presided at the Warren County circuit at Lake George." 
  Frothingham Fish spent the remainder of his life in retirement in Fultonville and died at his home there on April 27, 1895, at age 74, and was mentioned in his Johnstown Daily Republican obituary as "having been an invalid for a long time." He was survived by his wife Susan, who, following her death in 1906 was interred in the same plot as her husband at the Fultonville Cemetery and Natural Burying Ground.

                                                         From the Johnstown, NY Daily Republican, April 1895.

Zar Delevan Scott (1848-1931)

                                           Portrait from the Michiganensian, Volume 7, 1903.

    Recognized as one of Duluth, Minnesota's prominent business figures of the late 19th century, Zar Delevan Scott rose from quiet beginnings in Michigan to the front ranks of the Minnesota timber industry, for many years owning and operating two of that state's largest lumber businesses. A pioneer in the burgeoning conservation movement in the early 20th century, Scott held the Presidency of the Minnesota State Board of Forestry and also had fleeting involvement in politics, being a Prohibitionist candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1888.
   Born in the small village of Northville, Michigan on October 25, 1848, Zar Delevan Scott was the second of five children born to George and Abigail Hart Scott, both former natives of New York. Scott attended schools local to the county of his birth and later went on to study at the Kalamazoo College and the University of Chicago before enrolling at the University of Michigan, graduating in the class of 1873 with his bachelor of science degree. Following his graduation Scott worked as a surveyor in the employ of the U.S. government, taking part in the U.S. Lake Survey of the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River, and in 1874 made his first foray into the lumber industry, taking work at a Minneapolis lumber yard. 
   Zar D. Scott married in 1875 to Frances Gage (1849-1926), recorded as one of the first two women to ever graduate from the University of Michigan. The couple would later have two daughters, Ruth and Alice. Five years following his marriage Scott and his family resettled in Duluth, Minnesota, where they would reside for the remainder of their lives. Shortly afterward he began a decade-long connection with D.E. Holsten in the lumber firm of Scott and Holsten. The company is recorded as having done a successful business in manufacturing "moldings, sashes, doors and blinds."
  With his name firmly established in Duluth business circles, Zar D. Scott entered into city civic affairs in the mid-1880s, serving at various times as president of the Duluth school board and member of the city council. Active in the Prohibition Party in Duluth, Scott attended that party's nominating convention for Congress in 1888 and during the nominating process proposed the name of Charles E. Shannon. Later in the convention, Scott's name was put forth by another convention delegate, Capt. J.W. Miller, and a short while later Zar D. Scott had received the party's nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives. News of Scott's candidacy was reported not only in Minnesota by also in the New York Times, which related in its July 28th, 1888 edition that:

"The candidate is a sash, blind and door manufacturer, and although he wears the Prohibition sash he is not blind to the interests of the people, and soon his party will open wide the door and place the country on the threshold of a new national life. He has never sought nor held any public office except that of a member of the school board and has heretofore been a Republican of the Minnesota low tariff variety."

Zar D. Scott's nomination as profiled in the Duluth Evening Herald, July 19, 1888.

   As one of three candidates in that year's Congressional race, Scott faced off against Republican candidate Solomon G. Comstock (a former state representative and senator) and Democrat Charles Canning. On election day in November 1888, Scott placed a distant third, garnering only 4,254 votes to Solomon Comstock's winning total of 31, 350. Comstock would go on to serve one term in Congress (1889-1891) before being defeated for reelection in 1890.

  Following Scott's brief flirtation with politics he returned to his earlier business dealings in Duluth, and in 1890 established another lumber firm, the Scott-Graaf Co. Manufacturing similar products to that of his previous business, Scott served as the vice president and general manager of this company, which also dealt "in the buying and selling of Minnesota and California timber lands" and " fine millwork and cabinetry. " Scott remained connected with this company until a few years before his death, retiring when he was in his mid-seventies. 

  Any record of the life of Zar Delevan Scott wouldn't be truly complete without highlighting his involvement with the Minnesota State Forestry Board, of which he served as president between 1909 and 1914. As an advocate of reforestation in Minnesota, Scott's 1931 obituary in the Duluth Herald notes that he took an extended trip to Germany to learn of that country's replanting methods, and after returning to the United States began to replant "30,000 young pine and spruce trees, many of which were brought from Germany." Scott's death notice in the 1931 Michigan Alumnus further relates that he was:

"Listed among the few men making great fortunes in the northwoods who early realized the value of the preservation and protection of the forest lands......He was an ardent advocate of a scheme for lowering taxation on growing timberlands to encourage the regrowth of the forests  by landowners in the rapidly denuded northwest"

         Zar Scott (second from right) and his wife at the University of Michigan Commencement, 1922. 

    Throughout his life, Zar Scott maintained a close connection to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, and as one of the school's prominent alumni attended many reunions at the University. Active in fraternal groups both in Duluth and elsewhere, Scott was a member of the National Geographic Society, the Duluth Commercial Club, and the Duluth Boat Club. Following many years of involvement in business and civic affairs in Duluth, Zar Scott died shortly after his 83rd birthday on November 19, 1931, at the St. Luke's Hospital in that city. A burial location for him is unknown at this time but is presumed to be in the Duluth-St. Louis County area.

Zar D. Scott (pictured in 1930) from the Michigan Alumnus, Volume 38, 1931.

Minor Burge Hupp (1836-1892), Minor Roach Stansell (1886-1960), Minor Kuhn Johnston (1866-1947)

Portrait courtesy of the Kansas Memory website.

    A one-term member of the Kansas State House of Representatives, Minor Burge Hupp was a native of the Buckeye State, being born in Monroe County, Ohio on January 26, 1836, the firstborn son of Phillip and Miranda Burge Hupp. His childhood was spent in Ohio and in 1843 moved with his parents to Iowa, eventually settling in Iowa City. The family relocated to Kansas in the early 1850s and Minor married here in January 1856 to Margaret Eagon (died 1880), later having a family that consisted of several children, including Henry (died in infancy in 1857), Phillip T. (died aged 3 years in 1861), John Minor (1861-1953), William W. (born 1865), Howard E. (born 1867), James Minor (1869-1939) and an infant child who died in 1863.

   During the Civil War Minor Hupp joined the Union Army, enlisting as a private in Co. A of the Kansas Calvary's Ninth Regiment. He was later promoted to lieutenant, serving under the command of Col. Marshall M. Murdock (1837-1908), and participated in the Price Raid with Co. B of the Kansas Calvary. 

   Following his return from military service, Hupp settled in Osage County and in the 1868 election year won a seat as one of Osage County's representatives in the Kansas Legislature, serving during the 1869-70 term. Hupp left the statehouse after one term and later removed back to Iowa, and would later resettle again, this time in Omaha. In the 1880s he returned to Kansas, only to leave a few years later, settling in Joplin, Missouri in the year before his death. 

   Minor B. Hupp resided in Joplin until his unexpected death on April 27, 1892. As the Wichita Daily Eagle reported in his obituary (published the day following his death), Hupp had gone into downtown Joplin to undergo an examination for a pension claim for his war service, visiting the office of a Dr. Minnick. Following the examination Hupp left the office and entered an elevator, "seeming quite weak" and after taking a seat was joined by a woman with a dog. At some point, after the elevator began moving the dog jumped from the woman's arms, causing Hupp to make a grabbing motion to catch the dog. As he did so, he suffered an attack of some sort and fell to the floor of the elevator. Seeing the stricken man, the elevator operator reversed movement and returned to the floor on which Dr. Minnick's office was located, and Hupp was later carried from the elevator to the doctor's office, where he was diagnosed with a heart ailment. Hupp was later taken to the first floor of the building but expired before more help could arrive.

    A few days after his death Minor Burge Hupp was returned to Kansas for burial at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita. He was later memorialized in his Daily Eagle obituary as:

"A well educated man of strong chartcter (sic) and strict integrity and his voice was often heard in defense of  the principles he held dear."

Hupp's obituary from the Wichita Daily Eagle, April 28, 1892.

Portrait from the 1933-34 Iowa State Red Book.

  Another "Minor" that made his name known politically was Minor Roach Stansell, a one-term Iowa state representative in the early 1930s who had previously served twice as Clarke County Attorney. Aside from having a first and middle name that can conjure up images of a small roach scurrying around, Stansell was an attorney of distinction in Clarke County and continued his practice following his relocation to Los Angeles, California in 1937. Born in Clarke County on July 9, 1886, Minor Roach Stansell was the son of Frank and Adaline Stansell.

  During his youth, Stansell attended the public schools of New Virginia, Iowa, and later removed to the city of Osceola. In the early 1900s, he took employment with the Bell Telephone Co., eventually rising to the position of district area manager. Before he resigned from that company in 1918 Stansell married in 1911 to Lenora Sylvia Wade (1890-1972), to whom he was wed for nearly fifty years. The couple would have two children, Norris (1913-1990) and Marna (1917-2010).

  Bitten by the law bug during his time with the Bell Telephone Company, Stansell began reading law under county newspaper publisher Henry Stivers (1849-1917) in 1914 and in 1917 was admitted to the Iowa bar. Soon after he opened his practice in Osceola and within a few years had entered the political life of the county, becoming a Democratic candidate for the Iowa House of Representatives in 1918. While he would lose that election to Republican Marcellus Luther Temple (who had served five previous terms in the house), Stansell wasn't finished with pursuing public office, as he subsequently won election as Clarke County attorney in 1923. He would earn a second term in 1925 and also served as a member of the Osceola Board of Education for a time.

   In February 1932 Stansell was urged by the Democratic party leadership of Clarke County to enter into the race for state representative. In a write-up urging his candidacy in the February 2nd Osceola Tribune, Stansell's law practice and time as county attorney was boosted, while also acknowledging that:

"His wide experience would be valuable and his knowledge of conditions in these very strenuous times is a quality that the legislature needs. Too many men seek the legislative office without knowing what it is all about. Mr. Stansell is not in this class."

From the Osceola Tribune April 5, 1932.

  Following his victory in the June Democratic primary, Stansell faced off against Republican nominee LeRoy Shields. At the close of the polls in November Stansell won out, garnering 2,017 votes to his opponent's 1,812. During the 1933-35 session, Stansell chaired the committee on Railroads and also sat on the committees on Fish and Game, Horticulture and Forestry, the Judiciary, Police Regulations, Tax Reductions, Telegraphs and Express, and Ways and Means.
  Two years after leaving office Stansell and his family left Iowa for Los Angeles, California, where he continued in the practice of law. He retired from practice in 1959 and died on September 8th of the following year, his burial later occurring at the famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park in that city.

From the Osceola Sentinel, September 15, 1960.

From the Legislative Manual of Ohio, 1919-20.

  Longtime Richland County, Ohio resident Minor Kuhn Johnston served three terms in the Ohio General Assembly and had earlier practiced law in Buffalo, New York. The son of Edward and Hannah (Kuhn) Johnston, he was born in Richland County on July  24, 1866. His early education was obtained in schools local to Shelby, Ohio, and later graduated from the National Normal University, earning his A.B. degree in 1891. He would turn to law studies in the early 1890s, and, following graduation from the Buffalo Law School entered into practice in that city in 1896.

  Johnston's stay in Buffalo extended until 1905 when he returned to Richland County.  He would locate back at his old home in Shelby where he would farm for many years afterward. In 1918 he was elected to his first term in the Ohio House of Representatives, having never before held elective office. His service in the 1919-21 session saw him named to the committees on Dairy and Food Products, and Public Printing. 

  Johnston lost his 1920 reelection bid due to the "overwhelming Republican majority throughout Ohio", but rebounded politically in 1922 when he won a second term. In 1924 he won a third term, and in the 1925-27 session sat on the Finance, Highways, and Taxation. Following his terms, Johnston returned to practicing law and for many years had been a member of the Knights of Pythias, Masons, and the Presbyterian church. A lifelong bachelor, Johnston died of a stroke while in Pavillion, Wyoming on January 22, 1947, at age 80. He was later returned to Ohio for burial at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Plymouth, Richland County.

Don Pedro de Alvarado Wysong (1851-1941)

                   Wysong and his grandson Stewart,  from the History of Meade County, Kansas, 1916.

    A prominent local office holder in southern Kansas, Don Pedro de Alvarado Wysong's political notoriety rests on his service as County Attorney for Meade County, Kansas for one term. Listed in the 1916 History of Meade County, Kansas as "D.P. Wysong", a later Google search revealed his full name to be "Don Pedro de Alvarado Wysong", according to the Rootsweb genealogical website. A native of Virginia, Wysong was born in that state on June 16, 1851, one of ten children born to Lewis and Eleanor Burke Wright Wysong. He is presumed to have been given his unusual name in honor of Don Pedro de Alvarado (1584-1641), the famed 16th-century conquistador, military leader, and Guatemalan governor, nowadays remembered for being "violent, cruel, and ruthless" during his conquest of both the Mayan and Aztec empires. 
  Wysong's exact birth location is given as occurring in either Bedford County or Franklin County, Virginia, and he married in the town of Stewartsville in April 1876 to Medora "Dora" Stewart, with whom he had three children, James Thomas (1877-1920), Mary Lucy (died aged two in 1882) and Ansel Stewart (1884-1962). Little is known of Wysong's early life in Virginia, although it has been found that he attended Washington and Lee University in Virginia from 1880-1881.
  Don Pedro Wysong removed from Virginia to Meade County Kansas in 1885 and during his residency here took part in "teaching, contracting, farming" and later established a law practice. In the late 1890s, he entered county politics, serving as Meade County Superintendent in 1892-1893, and was clerk of Meade County from 1902-1906. In 1908 he was elected as county attorney for Meade County and served one term in office, being defeated for reelection in 1910 by Frank S. Sullivan, the Democratic candidate.
  At some point after 1910 Wysong and his family removed from Kansas to California, settling in Alameda County, where his occupation was that of a "poultryman". He was later a resident of Hayward, California, and died a few months short of his ninetieth birthday on January 19, 1941. Wysong was later interred at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, San Mateo County, California.

Imla Keep Brown (1815-1892)

                           Portrait from the "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts", 1879.

    For the past few weeks, several oddly named political figures from the New England region of the United States have received profiles on their respective lives and careers, and that theme continues with the following account on the life of Imla Keep Brown, a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. Before getting too in-depth on Brown's public life and accomplishments I would like to mention that I've always been slightly hesitant when it comes to adding state officials who've occupied offices on the "State Railroad Commission", "State Board of Equalization", "State Board of Health" or "State Board of Agriculture".  All of these positions sound as though they could be non-political but are offices within the perimeter of the state government, and the men and women who occupied these posts were either appointed or elected to them, and in the case of Mr. Brown, his four-year stint as a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture places him squarely in the gray area of a "sort-of-political figure".
   Imla Keep Brown was born in Guilford, Vermont on May 4, 1815, one of seven children born to Isaac and Derinda Keep Brown. Bestowed the unusual name Imla Keep upon his birth, Brown looks to have gained his odd first and middle names in honor of a Massachusetts-born Texas pioneer and physician named Imla Keep, mentioned by the Handbook of Texas webpage as being one of Stephen Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists. This Imla Keep (1785-1854) was born in Groton, Massachusetts and practiced medicine and farmed in both Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. He married three times during his life and died in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1854.
   Imla K. Brown's early life in Guilford saw him work the family farm, later attending schools in the towns of Brattleboro and Townsend. Brown taught school in Bernardston, Massachusetts during the late 1830s and married in March 1838 to Eunice Emmeline Connable (1814-1872). Their marriage of thirty-four years saw the birth of three children, Laura Keep (born 1841), Emma Wright (1846-1894), and Abbott Channing (born 1849). Following Eunice Brown's death in 1872 Imla remarried in Bernardston, Massachusetts to Hattie Cook Larrabee (born 1838) in November 1874. 
   Around 1837 Brown relocated from Vermont to Bernardston and after purchasing a farm belonging to his father-in-law "became one of the town's most successful farmers." Brown served Bernardston as a town selectman from 1857-1859 and 1861, and during his time in this office, his fellow selectman was none other than Polycarpus L. Cushman (1822-1901), a nephew of Polycarpus Loring Cushman (1778-1855), a prominent Bernardston resident, farmer, and member of the Massachusetts State Senate and House of Representatives. Brown's connection to the Cushman family furthered in 1861 when his daughter Laura married Henry Clay Cushman, a son of Ralph Cushman (1783-1863), a younger brother of the previously mentioned Polycarpus Loring Cushman. Imla Brown would continue his relationship with the Cushman family as a trustee and President of the Cushman Library in Bernardston. 
   In 1868 Imla Brown reached his highest degree of public prominence when he was elected by the Franklin County Agricultural Society to represent that county on the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. His tenure on the board saw him serve alongside eminent Swiss-American zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who also taught at Harvard and was the founder of the Museum of Cooperative Zoology. Brown's term (1868-1871) saw him serve on the board committee on Abortion in Cows, while also taking part in pertinent agricultural topics of the day. During the 1869-1870 term, Brown took part in the Hampden County Agricultural Society's annual agricultural fair and cattle show, being a special guest "reporter" at the behest of fellow board member William Birnie. Brown later reported on the event at the next board session, noting that:

"In the various combinations of wood and iron employed in agriculture a great improvement has been made, yet a farmer must use his brains as well as his muscles. In mechanics, in science, commerce or law, it is understood that the man who is most truly alive to his calling is the one that wins. The same really is true in regard to farmers. They must wake up and join the advancing march, or be left behind."

 After leaving the state agricultural board in 1871 Brown continued farming in Bernardston and in 1874 was elected as the President of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, serving one term. In addition to farming, Imla Brown is remarked as being a "constant attendant and a liberal supporter of the Unitarian Church". He died in Bernardston on January 10, 1892, at age 76 and was survived by his second wife Hattie. A burial location for both Imla and Hattie remains unknown at the time of this writing.

  From the 1870 Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture Report.