Arvello Kling (1865-1937)

From the Journal of Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors of Madison County, 1915-16.

    A prominent resident of Madison County, New York in the late 19th and early 20th century, Arvello Kling's placement here on the site rests on his service as Township Supervisor of Brookfield New York for four years. Mr. Kling is one of the first Township Supervisors to warrant a profile here, and some explanation may be in order as to what a township supervisor actually is! The easiest definition to give is that a  "Township Supervisor" is a post similar to that of mayor, but with a slight twist. A supervisor of a particular township also serves as a member of a County Board of Supervisors, and in this case, Arvello Kling not only served as Supervisor of Brookfield but also as a member of the Board of Supervisors of Madison County, New York.

  While Kling's status on the "political radar" is quite low when compared to some of the other folks featured here, he was for many years a well-known businessman and public official in Madison County, being a feed store owner and coal dealer in addition to his service as supervisor. While the biographical material on Kling remains difficult to come by, two obituaries for him (published in the Waterville Times and the Utica Observer) helped furnish a good majority of the following information!

   A lifelong resident of New York, Arvello Kling was born in the settlement of Paines Hollow on January 23, 1865, and was the son of Charles and Mary Snyder Kling. His unusual first name "Arvello" is quite unique, and also has a number of spelling variations floating around online, including Arvillo (shown in the above picture), Arvilla, Arville, and Orvillo. Kling's education occurred in the Van Hornesville, New York school system, and would later go on to attend the Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan in the mid-1880s.  

  Kling entered into the feed business with his father Charles while still a young man, being based in Van Hornesville until 1884. The Klings are also recorded as operating a grist mill in the Groton Lake vicinity, and in 1884 Kling and his family resettled in the town of Brookfield, where he returned to being a feed dealer. Arvello Kling married in Brookfield in 1901 to Ella Vesta Burchard and later had two children, Joy Elora (1902-1983) and Charles Alton (1904-1963). Charles Kling would later join his father in the feed business, being a partner in the firm of "A. Kling and Son". 

   In addition to his business interests in Brookfield Arvello Kling was active in local Democratic Party circles, being a member of the local school board in the early 1900s and from 1913-1917 served as the supervisor for the town of Brookfield. Kling was also a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge in Brookfield and had been both a founding member and past Noble Grand Master of that lodge. In June 1927 Kling experienced tragedy when his coal shed and feed mill burned to the ground, noted as being "a loss of approximately $10,000" by the Richfield, NY Mercury.

   After many years of business and political activity in Brookfield, Arvello Kling died at age 72 at a Utica Hospital on June 18, 1937, after "an illness of six weeks." Memorialized as a "good neighbor and honest citizen" by the Waterville Times, Kling was interred at the Sweet's Corner Cemetery in Brookfield.

From the Waterville, New York Times, June 24, 1937.

Urcil Wilford Smoot (1899-1957)

From the Chillicothe Constitution Tribune, October 26, 1950.

   The "Show Me State" yields another strangely named political figure in one Urcil Wilford Smoot of Daviess County, Missouri! I'll admit that I got an immediate chuckle out of Smoot's unusual first name "Urcil", which bears a slight resemblance in spelling to "Uracil", an important chemical compound that is part of Ribonucleic acid, responsible for "hereditary characteristics". While his name is certainly funny, Mr. Smoot maintained a reputation as a prominent resident in Raytown, Missouri, where he owned and operated an auto dealership. In addition to his business activities, Smoot was a three-time candidate for the Missouri State Legislature, being defeated on all three occasions.

   This lifelong resident of Missouri was born in the small town of Nelsonville on November 7, 1899, a son of Sobeska Taylor and Lillian Samuel Smoot. No information could be located on Urcil's early life in Nelsonville or the extent of his education. A veteran of the First World War, Urcil Smoot served in the U.S. Navy during that conflict, being recruited at Peoria, Illinois. From May-October 1917 he served as a Hospital Apprentice Second Class at Great Lakes Training Station, and after a short stint at the Naval Hospital in Annapolis went aboard the USS Columbia as a Pharmacist Second Class, serving on this ship from December 1917 to November 11, 1918. 

   After being discharged from service in 1919 Smoot returned stateside and married in Bexar County, Texas in 1921 to Ruth Elizabeth Williams (1900-1988), later having two children, William Taylor Smoot (1923-2007) and Elizabeth May Smoot (birth-date unavailable.) Following his marriage, Urcil Smoot was affiliated with the "Dahl and Dewitt" Chevrolet dealerships in Kansas City, and from 1928-36 owned and operated the "Smoot Chevrolet agency" in the city of Raytown. Beginning in the early 1930s he began a stint as President of the Raytown Chamber of Commerce, and after retiring from auto sales in 1936 was the owner of a farm located in the village of Lock Springs, Missouri.

   In 1942 Smoot made his first run for public office, launching a candidacy for the Missouri House of Representatives from Daviess County. Smoot's opponent in that year's election was another oddly named Daviess County resident, Urlin Eldreth Salmon (1870-1953), profiled here back in February of 2013. In a truly unique contest that pitted a man named Urlin against a man named Urcil, it was Urlin E. Salmon who claimed victory, defeating Smoot by a narrow vote margin, 2, 578 to 1, 892.

   Two years following his defeat Urcil Smoot was again the Democratic candidate for a seat in the state legislature from Daviess County, this time facing off against Republican Charles H. Bryant. He was dealt another loss on November 7th, 1944, losing to Bryant by a vote of 3, 541 to 2, 583. With two losing candidacies behind him, Smoot turned his attention to other aspects of public service in the late 1940s, serving as the Commander for the Department of Missouri Veterans of Foreign Wars for a one-year term in 1946. Smoot's obituary (published in the May 29, 1950, Kansas City Star) notes that while he may have been an unsuccessful aspirant for public office, he was "active in the promotion of legislation designed to benefit veterans and their dependents."

   In 1950 Urcil Smoot once again entered the political field, announcing his candidacy for the Missouri State Senate from the 16th district. As the Democratic senatorial candidate, Smoot's opponent in that year's contest was incumbent Republican W.R. "Fred" Walker, who had served in the senate since 1942. Despite having run two previous losing candidacies for the legislature, Smoot's campaign was highlighted in the October 26, 1950 edition of the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune, which ran a large ad on his candidacy. This ad (shown below) touted his potential legislative agenda if he was elected, noting that:

• He would sponsor legislation to promote "economy in government" whenever possible.
• To build more roads in rural Missouri.
• Improve the school system of every area in the state.
• To stimulate progress for Missouri and all Missourians.

                                                    The Chillicothe Constitution Tribune, October 26, 1950.

   Despite a campaign promise to have his voting record guided by the welfare of "labor, veterans, farmers, and the small business man"  it was W.R. Walker who emerged victorious, besting Smoot that November by a 2,099 vote margin, 19,663 to 17, 564. Following this defeat, he retired to private life in Lock Springs, and from 1952-54 was a member of the Daviess County Democratic Committee. Urcil Wilford Smoot died at age 57 on May 28, 1957, and was survived by his wife and two children. Following her death in 1988, Ruth E. Smoot was interred alongside her husband at the Jamesport Masonic Cemetery in Jamesport, Missouri.

Hartland Duportal Gowey (1821-1909)

   With an impressive beard and an unusual name to match, Champaign County, Ohio resident Hartland Duportal Gowey was an active citizen in that county for over six decades, being involved in both civic and political life in the town of North Lewisburg. Gowey served as postmaster of that town for over three decades and was also elected to multiple terms as Mayor of North Lewisburg.

   A native of  Madison County, New York, Hartland Duportal Gowey was born in the small town of Nelson in that county on November 20, 1821. His parents, John and Fanny Judson Gowey, were the parents of nine children (Hartland being the second born) and looked to have enjoyed bestowing unusual names upon several of their children, these being sons Galesey, Florian and Ossian and daughters Arvilla and Lovanica. Rolland, John F. and Floretta completed the family. Hartland's education began in Allegany County, New York, where he is recorded as attending school "in a cabin in the pine woods" in that county. In 1836 the Gowey family left their native New York and resettled in Licking County, Ohio. At just sixteen years of age, Gowey began a teaching career in this county and later removed to Champaign County in 1844, continuing in the same line of work for a period of two decades.

   Gowey married in Champaign County on February 11, 1846, to Eliza Arvilla Willey (1824-1850), with whom he had two sons, John Franklin (1846-1900) and Marcus C.  John Franklin Gowey followed his father into public service, serving as an Ohio state representative and prosecuting attorney of Champaign County. He would later reside in the Washington Territory, where he would serve a term in the territorial legislature, and was also president of Olympia's First National Bank. John Gowey would later be named U.S. Consul to Yokohama, Japan, where he died in 1900. Following his wife's death in 1850 Hartland would remarry to Lydia Fowler in March 1855. He became a widower for a second time in the mid 1880s, and in 1887 married his third wife, Susan Wilson.

   Hartland D. Gowey first entered public life in Champaign County in 1853, when he was appointed as postmaster of North Lewisburg. He would serve in this capacity for thirty-three years, retiring in 1886. In the same year as his appointment, Gowey was elected to his first term as North Lewisburg mayor, serving continuously until 1858. He would later serve multiple terms as recorder of North Lewisburg (1859-1867) and as town treasurer (1868-1880). Gowey also held the offices of justice of the peace and notary public, occupying the latter post for three decades. 

   Several years after taking the reins as both Mayor and postmaster Gowey entered into publishing, establishing a small publication called The Experiment in 1860. This pamphlet would later morph into the Lewisburg Weekly Magazine in March 1861, which is recorded as lasting for six months. He also maintained a lengthy connection with the Blazing Star Lodge #268 of Free and Accepted Masons, being a founding member of the lodge in 1855 and serving as its Grand Master from 1859 to 1868. Gowey was affiliated with a number of other fraternities in Champaign County, including the Chapter Star #206 of the Royal Arch Masons and the Launcelot Lodge, Knights of Pythias of Urbana.

   In 1893 Hartland Gowey was reelected for another term as Mayor of North Lewisburg and during the final years of his life was described as being "active in astronomical and meteorological researches", being an "observer for the government weather bureau", making reports of his findings weekly. Gowey died in North Lewisburg as the result of a fall on September 8, 1909, at age 88. A burial location for both he and his third wife Susan is unknown at this time.

From the Lima Morning News, September 12, 1909.

Rinaldo Loveland Tilton (1839-1917)

Portrait from the Ottumwa Tri-Weekly Courier, April 28, 1910.

    A distinguished fraternal leader and Republican Party figure in Wapello County, Iowa, Rinaldo Loveland Tilton was born in the town of Deerfield, New Hampshire on September 17, 1839, a  son of  Jacob and Betsey Locke Tilton. Little could be found on his early life and education in the state of his birth, and in 1869 he moved from New Hampshire to Iowa, where he would reside for the remainder of his life. 

   In the years following his resettlement Tilton became active in Republican party circles in Wapello County, and in 1876 was selected as an Iowa delegate to the Republican National Convention being held in Cincinnati that nominated Rutherford Hayes for the Presidency. Tilton is listed amongst that year's delegates as "R.L. Tilden" in the 1876 Republican Convention Proceedings, and in 1880 served as a Republican Presidential Elector for Iowa, casting his ballot for his party's standard-bearer, James Garfield. 

   Following his service as a presidential elector, Tilton was appointed by then-President Benjamin Harrison to be the new postmaster at Ottumwa, Iowa, and entered upon his duties in December 1889. He served in this capacity until December of 1893, when his commission expired, and was succeeded in office in February 1894 by J.R. Burgess. In addition to his service as postmaster Tilton was active in several fraternal groups, being a member of the Ottumwa Temperance Reform Club, a past Grand Master Workman of the Ancient Order of United Workman, and a member of the Ottumwa Lodge No, 16 of Free and Accepted Masons.

  While active in the aforementioned fraternal organizations, Rinaldo L. Tilton also served as Grand Secretary of Iowa's Grand Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows, serving this organization until his death in November 1917. On November 5, 1900, Tilton married in Ottumwa to Florence Bayliss (1875-1950), with whom he would have three children: Rinaldo Jr. (born 1901), Florence (born 1903), and Ruth (born 1909).  

  Aside from the preceding information, little else could be found on Rinaldo Loveland Tilton, except a death notice for him, that records his death in Des Moines, Iowa on November 2, 1917 at age 78. His wife Florence survived him by over three decades, dying in 1950, and was interred alongside him at the Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines. Curiously, a Find-A-Grave listing records a second burial location for Tilton at the Oralabor Cemetery.

From the Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier, November 6, 1917.

Landaff Watson Andrews (1803-1888)

Portrait from "The Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky", published in 1897.

    A two-term U.S. Representative from Kentucky, Landaff Watson Andrews's unusual first name is truly unique amongst the hallowed halls of Congress, and in addition to his terms in that body, he served as a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives and Senate, and would later serve a six-year term as a circuit court judge. Described by the "Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky" as an "erudite lawyer, a cultured scholar," and "a kind, considerate, Christian man", Andrews cultivated a lasting stature as one of Kentucky's noted 19th-century public men.

   A lifelong resident of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, Landaff Watson Andrews was born in that town on February 12, 1803, one of ten children born to Robert and Martha Andrews. A former member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1800-01, Robert Andrews was a "farmer, miller and tanner" who had resided in his birth state of Pennsylvania prior to his removal to Kentucky in 1792. Bestowing the name "Landaff Watson" upon his son, Robert Andrews' exact reasons for giving his son this unusual name may have its origins in one Robert Watson, Bishop of Llandaff (1737-1816), a distinguished clergyman and Bishop of the Anglican Church who served as Bishop of Landaff (Llandaff) in Wales from 1782 until his death.

  Young Landaff spent his childhood on the "home farm", where he engaged in chores like brush burning and attended local schools during the winter months. Despite a limited education, Andrews would go on to enroll at the Transylvania University of Lexington and would graduate from that school in the class of 1824. He would study law under local judge William P. Roper following his graduation and was admitted to the Fleming County bar in 1826. Andrews married on October 24th of that year to Elizabeth Dorsey (died 1862), and the couple would later become parents to two daughters, Margaret (died 1863) and Juliet (1827-1895).

   Following his nuptials Andrews devoted his time to practicing law in Flemingsburg and made his first move into public life in 1829, when he was appointed as District Attorney for Fleming County, Kentucky, subsequently serving a decade in this post. Five years following his appointment Andrews won election to the Kentucky State Assembly, representing Flemingsburg in the lower house of the legislature from 1834-1838. In 1839 he was elected as a Whig to his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and during this term (1839-41) served on the committee on Revolutionary Pensions. He won re-election to the house in 1841, defeating Democratic candidate John L. Mason by a vote of 3,621 to 2,786. During this term, Andrews was again a member of the committee on Revolutionary Pensions.

   In November 1842 Landaff Andrews ran for a third term in Congress but was dealt a narrow loss by Democratic candidate Richard French (1792-1854), 5,481 votes to 5,073. After the conclusion of his second term in January 1843 Watson returned to Flemingsburg and recommenced with his law practice. He returned to politics in 1857 when he was elected to a term in the Kentucky State Senate as an independent candidate, and after a four-year term here won a seat in the state House of Representatives. He resigned his House seat in 1862 to accept the position of circuit court judge for Kentucky. Andrews served on the bench until 1868, and his service was highlighted by the "Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky", stating:

"As a judge his decision was ever based upon law and practice, without prejudice or preference. Always kind an courteous to litigants and lawyers, he was a favorite with both the bar and the people."

Andrews in old age, from "Kentucky: A History of the State", 1888.

   After leaving the bench Andrews continued in the practice of law in Flemingsburg and took ill several weeks before his death, which occurred on December 23, 1888. He was later interred at the Fleming County Cemetery. During preparations for this article, I stumbled upon an interesting tidbit regarding Andrews' death. Nearly every available resource mentioning him (including biographies on Wikipedia, Find-A-Grave, Who Was Who In America, and the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress) records his death date as being December 23, 1887, when in actuality it is December 23, 1888, that date being given in his December 26, 1888 obituary in the Maysville, Kentucky Evening Bulletin (also shown below.) The 1888 death date is also highlighted in the 1897 "Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky", where the above picture of him was located. Truly amazing what one can stumble across while digging through old newspapers!

From the December 26, 1888 Maysville, Kentucky Evening Bulletin.

Lampson Parker Sherman (1821-1900)

From "Beginnings: Reminisces of Early Des Moines"

     A member of the prominent Sherman family of Ohio, Lampson Parker Sherman could count among his brothers John Sherman (a U.S. Senator from Ohio, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes, and U.S. Secretary of State under President McKinley) and famed military leader William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding general of the U.S. Army from 1869-1883. While his two brothers found nationwide prominence in their respective fields, Lampson P. Sherman gained a measure of notoriety in his own right, being a newspaper publisher and a founding father of Des Moines, Iowa, helping to author that city's charter in 1851. Sherman would go on to serve as the third Mayor of Des Moines and lived long enough to see the burgeoning city become Iowa's most populous, as well as its capital.

  The seventh son in a family of eleven children, Lampson P. Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio on October 13, 1821, two years following William Tecumseh and two years before John. Their parents, Charles Robert and Mary Hoyt Sherman, had married in Connecticut and both were residents of Ohio by 1811. Lampson P, Sherman's early life in Ohio saw him begin a long-term connection with newspaper publishing, being on the staff of the Cincinnati Gazette, where he was employed as a foreman. He married in Ohio in 1845 to Mary A. Gitchell, who died shortly after their marriage on May 1, 1848. The couple is recorded as having one son, Charles Hammond Sherman  (1846-1916).

   In the year following his wife's death, Lampson Sherman left Ohio and moved to Iowa, settling in the then-infant community of "Fort Des Moines". He returned to newspaper publishing shortly after his relocation, establishing the "Fort Des Moines Weekly Gazette", mentioned as being the first Whig news publication to be published in the area. Sherman served as both its editor and publisher, and this paper later underwent changes in ownership (as well as several name changes) and continued on for many years as "The Iowa State Register". In December 1851 Sherman remarried in Des Moines to Rebecca Lawson (1830-1905), later having eight children: Stephen L'Hommedieu (1852-54), Mary Elizabeth (died in infancy in 1855), James Edward (1856-1863), John (1858-1948), Elmer Ellsworth (1861-1863), Minnie Edith (1854-1952), William T. (died in infancy in 1867) and Lampson Parker Jr. (1868-1955).

  Beginning in the early 1850s Sherman began to branch out into other aspects of Des Moines public life, helping to draft the "Fort Des Moines" city charter in 1851, and three years later was elected as the Mayor of "Fort Des Moines". In the year following his mayoralty, he served as "Fort Des Moines" city recorder and later as city treasurer, being elected to the latter office in 1858. Sherman would also hold a seat on the Des Moines City Council after it dropped the "Fort" from its name, serving here from 1869 to 1870.

Lampson P. Sherman, from Andreas' Historical Atlas of Iowa, 1875.

   Active in banking and finance in addition to his political activities in the city, Lampson Sherman served as the secretary of the Equitable Life Insurance Company under his younger brother Hoyt beginning in 1867. Also in 1867, Sherman was appointed to the position of U.S. Collector of Internal Revenue for Iowa's Fifth District, holding this post for twelve years. A past deputy district grand master of the International Order of Odd Fellows, Sherman also maintained a membership in the Iowa State Horticultural Society, and for a time served as the treasurer of the Board of the Iowa State Agricultural College from 1866-68.

   Lampson Parker Sherman died at age 79 on November 21, 1900, at his home in Des Moines. He had outlived his younger brother, Senator John Sherman, by exactly a month (the latter having died on October 22), and Lampson's cause of death is recorded in his Iowa State Bystander obituary as being the result of a "stroke of paralysis" he suffered a few days before his death. His wife Rebecca survived him by five years, and following her death in 1905 was interred alongside him in the Sherman family plot at Des Moines' Woodland Cemetery. History has also shown that Des Moines hasn't forgotten the past services of Lampson P. Sherman, as his home in Des Moines was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the Iowa State Bystander, November 22, 1900.

Quintus Ultimus Watson (1874-1929), Quintus Flaminius Atkins (1782-1859), Quintus Quincy Quigley (1828-1910)

   The name "Quintus" is yet another unusual first name that has its origins in ancient Rome, and anyone (politically inclined or otherwise) possessing an exotic-sounding name like "Quintus Ultimus" or "Quintus Flaminius" is certainly worthy of more than just passing notice. The first of three political figures with this curious first name is Quintus Ultimus Watson, a two-term Texas state senator whose name hearkens back to another oddly named Texan profiled here: Decimus et Ultimus Barziza (1828-1882). Mr. Watson was a lifelong resident of the Lone Star State, being born in Washington County, Texas on July 2, 1874, one of four children born to Branch Archer and Anna Amanda Gay Watson. The New Encyclopedia of Texas (which devotes a substantial biography to Watson) notes that he attended "the public schools of Washington County" and later studied at Texas A. and M. University for a time. 

   In the early 1890s, Watson turned his attention to the study of law, studying at a law office located in Brenham, Texas. He was admitted to the state bar in 1893 and soon removed to the neighboring county of Lee to open a practice in the town of Giddings. In March 1897 he married in Burton, Texas to Jessie Burton (1874-1951), a granddaughter of the town's founder. The couple were married for over thirty years and are recorded as being childless throughout their marriage.

  In the years after beginning his law practice in Giddings Watson firmly established his reputation in Texas law circles, and by the turn of the 19th century, there were calls for him to run for public office. In November 1906 Watson won election to the Texas State Senate from the 19th District, and during his first term (extending from 1907-11) served on the following committees: Agricultural Affairs, Counties and County Boundaries, Insurance, Statistics and History, Judicial Districts, Public Debts, Claims and Accounts, Public Printing, State Penitentiaries and Roads Bridges and Ferries. 

  During a portion of his first term Watson served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and in November 1910 won re-election to the Senate for another four-year term. Watson again served as Senate President Pro Tempore Ad Interim, and during the latter portion of his senate term fate intervened, and with this bit of happenstance, Watson's political career gained statewide press. On January 9, 1915, he served as Acting Governor of Texas for one day, in the absence of Governor Oscar Colquitt, who was then visiting Louisiana. As President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate and acting Lieutenant Governor, Watson was second in line of succession to the governorship, as the previous Lieutenant Governor of Texas, William Harding Mayes, had resigned from office some months prior to serve as head of the journalism school at Texas State University.

Quintus U. Watson, courtesy of the Texas Legislative Reference Library.

  Quintus Watson's second term concluded in January 1915 and afterward returned to practicing law, resettling in Houston with his wife. In 1922 he joined with fellow attorney John Tyler Garrison to form the law firm of Garrison and Watson, remarked by the New Encyclopedia of Texas as "being one of the leading law firms of Houston." Their services as General Division Attorneys were retained by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and Watson is noted as "giving the greater part of his time to legislative matters connected with the large practice handled by his firm".

  After decades of service in Texas public life, Quintus U. Watson died at age 55 on November 14, 1929 in Houston. He was survived by his wife Jessie, who died in 1951. Both were interred at the Oakhill Cemetery in Burton, Texas.

Quintus Flaminius Atkins, from the 1878 History of Ashtabula County.

    A native son of Connecticut, Quintus Flaminius Atkins found success in a number of different vocations after resettling in Ohio in the early 1800s. A former sheriff and auditor of Ashtabula County, Atkins would also serve as Associate Judge of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Atkins was later a resident of Brooklyn (a suburb of Cleveland) and died there in 1859, being buried at the famed Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. As luck would have it, I managed to photograph his gravesite at that cemetery during a trip to Cleveland in July of last year. Some photos from that excursion will conclude his profile here!

   Quintus Flaminus Atkins was born in Wolcott, Connecticut on May 10, 1782, a son of Josiah and Mary Gillet Atkins. His early life was spent in New Haven County in the state of his birth and in October 1802 moved to the Ohio Territory, settling in the Ashtabula County village of Morgan. He married in February 1804 to Sally Wright and later had ten children. Shortly after their marriage Atkins and his wife began work as missionaries in the Sandusky area, working with the Rev. Joseph Badger. Their time administering supplies to local Native Americans was cut short by illness and they eventually returned to Ashtabula County sometime later. Atkins would be appointed as the sheriff of Ashtabula County in 1811 and would serve during the War of 1812 as a volunteer guard. He resigned as sheriff in 1813 and continued to devote his time to military service, eventually being promoted to Lieutenant under General (and later President) William Henry Harrison.

   Upon leaving active service Atkins returned to his home and was once again selected as Sheriff of Ashtabula County. He served a four-year term and after its completion was appointed as Ashtabula County auditor, serving in this capacity from 1819-1822. Upon leaving the office of auditor Atkins was selected to be the Superintendent of construction of the Miami and Western Reserve Road, then referred to as the "Maumee Road". The building of this road took place over three years and after its completion lost a substantial sum of money due to a bad business investment partnership involving the construction of a canal.

   In the mid 1830s, Quintus Atkins became active in the anti-slavery movement in Ohio and from 1835-36 was employed as an agent by the Arcole Furnace Company, headquartered in Madison, Ohio. He would remove to the Cuyahoga County village of Brooklyn in 1839 and from 1849 to 1856 served as an Associate Justice of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Atkins' wife Sally died in 1853 and he followed her to the grave six years later on January 23, 1859 at age 76. Both were interred at the famed Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, which is also the resting place of a great many notable figures, including former President James Garfield, John D. Rockefeller, U.S. Senator Mark Hanna and Eliot Ness.

  

The headstones of Quintus and his wife Sally.

Quintus Quincy Quigley, from the "Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky", 1916.

   Paducah, Kentucky native Quintus Quincy Quigley may be one of the few individuals in recorded history to have had the initials "Q.Q.Q.", and behind this highly alliterative name is a man who was for many years at the front of Paducah legal circles, being referred to as the "Dean of the Paducah Bar". Quigley earns a place here on the site due to his service as a Constitutional Union Party Presidential Elector in 1860.

    Born on July 17, 1828, and raised in Paris, Tennessee, Quintus Q. Quigley was one of eight children born to James Boner and Martha Ogburn Quigley. His family relocated to Kentucky a short period after his birth and would go on to attend Cumberland College. he began the study of law at age 19 under Judge John Watkins Crockett, a prominent member of the Kentucky Bar. Quigley was admitted to practice a few years later and would open a law office in Paducah, where he would reside for the remainder of his life. Quigley stands as one of the founding fathers of that city, and in 1856 helped draft the city's charter. He married in February 1853 to Mary Husbands (1833-1911), later having six children: Bruce (born 1854), Isaac M. (1856-1902), Quintus St, Clair (1857-1906), John Hugh (1859-1904), Mary Quintina (1861-1942) and Joseph (died in infancy in 1863). Of these children, Issac M. Quigley followed his father into law and would eventually serve as Chief Justice of the Kentucky State Court of Appeals from 1894-1895.

   Described as having "avoided public life as much as possible" in his 1910 obituary in the Paducah Evening Sun, Quigley had fleeting political involvement in 1860, when he served as a Presidential Elector for the Constitutional Union Party, whose standard-bearers were John Bell and Edward Everett. Aside from this office, Quigley had earlier served as a village trustee of Paducah and city attorney of Paducah, being the inaugural holder of the latter post.

   Following his service as a Presidential Elector, Quigley continued to be active in the civic life of Paducah, being a high ranking Mason, a past superintendent of the Grace Episcopal Sunday School, and in 1872 became the President of the American-German National Bank. Quigley's law firm would eventually add his son Isaac as a partner, and their office is noted as being counsel for the Illinois Central Railroad for a number of years. 

   Quintus Q. Quigley died at age 82 on December 19, 1910, and had been preceded in death by four of his children. Mary Husbands Quigley died two months after her husband in February 1911 and was interred alongside him in the Quigley family plot located in Paducah's Oak Grove Cemetery.

Fortunatus Gleason (1824-1897)

Portrait from the "Old Northwest" Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 11.

   The city of Lawrence, Kansas has had quite a colorful history in its 160+ year existence, being a hot point for anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces in the late 1850s during an era known as "Bleeding Kansas." During the Civil War, the still infant city was attacked by Confederate Colonel William C. Quantrill and his "Raiders" on the morning of August 21, 1863, resulting in the deaths of over 140 Lawrence citizens, some of whom were children. The savage brutality of what was inflicted on the residents of this pro-union town later became known as the "Lawrence Massacre". Fortunatus Gleason, a curiously named New England transplant to Kansas in the 1850s, served as a member of an organized militia to protect Lawrence in the months preceding Quantrill's attack. Following the bloody savagery leveled upon Lawrence in the early 1860s, Gleason would serve his adopted community as a county commissioner and Mayor of Lawrence, being elected to the latter office in 1873.

   Born in Westmoreland, New Hampshire on April 20, 1824, Fortunatus Gleason was the sixth of ten children born to Wilson (1788-1866) and Lucy Atherton Gleason (1791-1852), both lifelong New England residents. Fortunatus is recorded by the Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly as spending his youth in Keene, New Hampshire, where he worked as a clerk in a mercantile store, and would later reside in Rochester, New York, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to continue in the same line of employment. Gleason married in January of 1849 to Mary Foster (1829-1902) and the couple would later have three daughters, Lou, Mary, and Sophia.

   Fortunatus and his family would remove to the Kansas Territory in the late 1850s, settling in Douglass County in 1857. During the dark period in that town's history in the early 1860s, Gleason is noted as having had "his full share in the exciting times in the days of the Kansas troubles", being a lieutenant in a "home guard militia" located in Marion, Kansas. This militia consisted of about thirty persons and is recorded as being called to service "several times" in the year preceding Quantrill's raid, all of which are listed as "false alarms." 

   In the mid-1860s, Gleason first ventured into political life in Douglass County, serving as a County Commissioner between 1864 and 1866. For several years he occupied the post of assistant assessor of Internal Revenue in Lawrence and also began involvement in real estate during this time, becoming a partner in the firm of Gleason and Whitman. In 1873 Gleason succeeded Washington Hadley as Mayor of Lawrence, Kansas, and served one year in office. 

Fortunatus Gleason during his later years, courtesy of the website www.lawrenceks.org.

   Little else could be found on the life of Fortunatus Gleason's life after his term as mayor. Mention is given as to his relocating to California two months before his death to improve his health, and on September 26, 1897, the former mayor died in San Diego at age 73. There appears to be some confusion as to Gleason's final resting place, with two different locations being given. The below notice from the Los Angeles Herald relates that his body was to be returned to Lawrence for burial, but a Find-A-Grave listing for him records his burial location as being at the Mt. Hope Cemetery in San Diego.....all in all very confusing!!

From the Los Angeles Herald, September 27, 1897.

Satterwhite Junius Wall (1886-1951)

Satter J. Wall as he appeared in the 1950 South Carolina state manual.

  

  Following on the heels of the May 31 profile on South Carolina state representative Tonquin E. LaGrone, we continue our stay in South Carolina to highlight one Satterwhite Junius Wall, another oddly named "Palmetto State" legislator. After locating Wall's name on a roster of past South Carolina representatives a day or two ago I immediately began a search for more information on his life, as well as a portrait of him. While I managed to find a meager amount of biographical material on White and his stature in Marion County, finding a photograph of the man proved to be more difficult than I had hoped! After checking through my usual newspaper haunts and Google Books, my search came up empty, but a day or two later was rewarded by discovering the picture Mr. White shown above, discovered in the 1951 South Carolina state legislative manual.

  Satterwhite "Satter" Junius Wall was born in Marion County on March 29, 1886, being one of eight children born to  Hugh Giles (1840-1909)  and Sarah Jane Watson Wall (1847-1929). The reasoning behind his being bestowed the name "Satterwhite Junius" is unknown at this time and as a youth enrolled at the University of South Carolina. He was a member of the Euphradian Society and graduated from the school's teaching department in the class of 1907. He would continue study at Peabody University and Columbia University, and in the early 1910s began what would become a lifelong connection and interest in the educational affairs of his home county of Marion.

   In 1915 the then twenty-nine-year-old Satter J. Wall was elected as Marion County's Superintendent of Education, and also held the post of President of the Marion County Education Association, beginning a twenty-two-year tenure in those offices. Mentioned as being a "bachelor farmer", Wall didn't enter political life until he was past sixty, being elected as one of Marion County's representatives to the South Carolina State Assembly in November 1948. 

  Satterwhite J. Wall would serve in the legislative session of 1949-1950, and would win a second term in the house in the November 1950 election. His second term was cut short by his death from a heart attack on August 21, 1951, at age 65, and was succeeded as representative by Earle Rogers Ellerbe, who won a special election to replace Wall in January 1952. Following his passing Wall was interred in an unusually placed mausoleum located on the Wall Road in Marion County. Satter J. Wall is the only "occupant" of this mausoleum, which is inscribed with a caption denoting his extensive service to the county, his time as a state representative,  and that "His Chief Concern Was the Education of Youth."