Apollonius Bohun Houston (1823-1902)

                                   Portrait courtesy of Ronda Weber and the Audubon, Iowa Historical Society.

   The state of Iowa has yielded numerous instances of curiously named public figures featured here over the past few years, and that list of oddly named Iowans grows ever larger with the addition of Mr. A.B. Houston of Exira, Iowa, and you can probably imagine my surprise when I found that the initials "A.B."  actually stood for Apollonius Bohun! A resident of Audubon County for over four decades, Houston made his name through involvement in several business concerns in that county, as well as through political service, occupying the offices of Judge of Audubon County, Audubon County Treasurer and Mayor of Exira, Iowa. When I first located Mr. Houston's name several weeks ago I began a lengthy search for a portrait of him to include in the article that I was preparing on him, and after scouring several sources on the history of Audubon County came to the conclusion that there were none to be found! 
   Faced with this lack of a portrait, I soon began work on a message to the Audubon County Historical Society relating my interest in Mr. Houston's life, and a week or so following my message received a response from Society member Ronda Weber, who related that a copy of a picture of Apollonius Houston would soon be sent to me via e-mail. That picture adorns the top of Mr. Houston's write-up here and this author is most thankful for the efforts of Ronda and the Audubon Historical Society in managing to track down a portrait of this once prominent Audubon County resident!
   Although a good majority of his life was spent in the small Iowa town of Exira, Apollonius B. Houston was a native son of the South, being born in South Carolina on February 16, 1823, the eldest of ten children born to Oswald and Anna Louise Shaw Houston. Houston's truly unusual first name has two variations in spelling, being given as "Appollonias" and "Appollonius" in addition to the spelling listed here, and his middle name "Bohun" is also recorded as being spelled as "Bohon."
   Houston's early life was spent in the state of his birth and at age nine removed with his parents to Tennessee, where he would attend the "subscription schools." Houston would marry at age 18 in 1844 to Nancy Bridges (1826-1906), to whom he was wed for nearly sixty years. Their marriage would see the births of ten children, who are listed as follows: Henry Bohon (born 1848), Eudora Indiana (born 1851), Louise Blake (born 1853), Oswald James (born 1855), William Walter (born 1858), Flora Douglas (born 1860, Mary Louise (1862-1941), Charles Washington (born 1866), Robert Lonee (1868-1937) and Eliza Amanda (born 1871).
   Following the completion of his schooling Houston joined his father Oswald in a mercantile store in Atlanta, Georgia. Remaining here for several years, Houston also worked as a carpenter, and in 1853 began traveling through the "state of Texas and the Pacific states", returning to Tennessee sometime later. In 1856 he began preparations for a move to California, and after a journey of several weeks made it as far as Iowa. On account of Indian attacks in the vicinity, the U.S. government's actions combating the natives precluded Houston from traveling further, and he instead settled in Hamlin's Grove, located in Audubon County, Iowa.
   A few months after their removal to Iowa, Houston and his family resettled in the neighboring community of Exira, where he would reside for the remainder of his life. As one of Exira's pioneer settlers Houston is recorded by the Biographical History of Shelby and Audubon Counties as "having built the first dwelling house in the village", and also participated in the building of Exira's first schoolhouse.
   In the years following his removal, Apollonius Houston established a reputation as one of Exira's prominent public men, "purchasing a good deal of merchandise" in the early 1860s and shortly thereafter established a general store, later being described as a "shanty" in the 1915 History of Audubon County. He continued in this line of work for several years, and was noted in the aforementioned work as having done "the largest business in the county from 1865-1870" and in the latter year built the Houston House (pictured below), later to become one of Exira's popular hotels. 

The Houston House in Exira, Iowa.

   Several years after his resettlement in Exira Apollonius Houston took his first steps into public service in his adopted home county, being elected as Audubon County Judge in 1863. He served as judge from 1864 to 1865 and in the following year began a two-year stint as the deputy clerk of the district court. In 1870 he became Audubon County Treasurer, serving until 1873. 

   In November 1884 Apollonius Houston was elected as the Mayor of Exira, Iowa, and served one term in office. He left this post in 1885 and for the remainder of his life remained active in the affairs of Audubon County, dealing in real estate, being a member of the local Masonic chapter, and was a justice of the peace. Houston died in Exira on October 21, 1902, at age 79 and was later interred at the Exira Cemetery. Nancy Bridges Houston, his wife of sixty-plus years, survived him, and upon her death in 1906 at age 82 was laid to rest at the same cemetery as her husband.

From the Exira Evening Times Republican, October 23, 1902.

Mungo Montgomery Dick (1821-1895)

Portrait from the Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County.

   A descendant of a Scottish family with its roots in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Mungo Montgomery Dick was a veteran of the Civil War, being a major in the 105th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. A farmer before his military service, Dick would later serve Westmoreland as a county commissioner for three years and in 1884 was elected as his county's representative in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, where he served one term.

  Born in the township of Sewickley, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1821, Mungo M. Dick inherited his unusual first name courtesy of his father, the Rev. Mungo Dick (1773-1839), a pastor of the Associated Reform Church of Sewickley, Pennsylvania from 1806-36. Born in Moray Firth, Scotland, Rev. Mungo Dick emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1806 and married in 1815 to Eliza Murray, with whom he would have eight children, our subject being the fourth born. Mungo M. Dick received his education in the "subscription schools", as well as a log house located on his father's property, and as a youth engaged in both farming and stock raising.

  Beginning in the early 1840s Dick entered into military service, becoming a captain in a local company of volunteers referred to as the "Sewickley artillery." He was affiliated with this unit until 1859, and in June of that year was named a "brigadier general of the first brigade of the seventeenth division" of the Pennsylvania militia, comprising the counties of Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, and Greene. At the dawn of the Civil War in 1861, Dick gathered together a company of men known as the "Sewickley Infantry", which later joined the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers. During his service, Dick and his company would see action during the Peninsula Campaign, as well as the "stubborn battles of Fair Oaks and the Seven Days Fight." 

  

  

                                                                    Major. M.M. Dick in his military uniform.

   Mungo M. Dick married his first wife Mary Ann Guffy (1846-1870) sometime in the 1860s and later had two sons, Jeremiah (died aged four in 1872) and Joseph (born January 1870 and died in July 1876). Mary Guffy Dick died shortly after Joseph's birth on January 12, 1870. He would wed Elizabeth Gaut (1847-1876) shortly after and would have one further son, Mungo M. Dick Jr., who died in infancy in November 1876. Elizabeth Gaut Dick died shortly after her son's birth in September 1876, leaving her husband a widower for the second time. 
   In addition to his military service both within Pennsylvania and in the Civil War, Mungo M. Dick operated a "banking house" in Sewickley, and was described in the Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County as having "acquired a handsome competency" through this business. Dick served Sewickley as its school director for many years and in 1876 was elected as one of three county commissioners for Westmoreland County, serving in this capacity until 1879. In November 1884 Dick was elected to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives as a Republican, garnering 8,840 votes on election day. Taking his seat at the start of the 1885 session, he would serve on the house committees on Agriculture, Elections, the Military, and the Geological Survey.
  Little is known of Dick's life following his service in the state assembly. He would marry for a third time in the mid-1880s to Emma Pentzer Goehring, later having one son, Mungo (born August 1889). After many years of prominence in the Westmoreland County vicinity, Mungo Montgomery Dick died at age 73 on June 5, 1895. He was survived by his wife Emma and was later buried at the Sewickley Union Cemetery in West Newton, Pennsylvania. 
   In an aside note, Dick's unusual first name Mungo (which was shared by his father) has its origins in ancient Scotland. Saint Mungo (also referred to as St. Kentigern) is noted as being the patron saint and founder of Glasgow, Scotland.

Handel Napthali Daggett (1821-1894)

Portrait from "The History of Bristol County, Massachusetts", 1883.

   

    Bristol County, Massachusetts resident Handel Napthali Daggett was for over four decades a prominent business figure in said county, being the son of a successful cotton manufacturer. He would follow in his father's stead and established a business devoted to the manufacture of cotton print cloths and mohair braids and found further distinction as a banker and two-term member of the Massachusetts General Court.

   Born and raised in Attleborough, Massachusetts, Handel Napthali Daggett was born on January 27, 1821, one of nine children born to Ebenezer Daggett (1763-1832)  and his wife, the former Sally Maxcy (1778-1867). A member of the Massachusetts state senate at the time of his death, Ebenezer Daggett had been an Attleborough-based cotton manufacturer for a number of years, and being the son of a man-of-means, Handel N. Daggett had the benefit of a fine education, attending the public schools in Attleborough, as well as Day's Academy in Wrentham, Massachusetts and the Perkin's Academy of Attleborough. 

   After completing his education Daggett resided in Boston for a short period and returned to Attleborough, where in January 1844 joined his twin brother Homer Micajah Daggett in forming a cotton print cloth business in the settlement of Falls Village, operating under the firm name of H.N. and H.M. Daggett.  Handel Daggett married his first wife Eunice Whipple Sheppard (1825-1848) in Attleboro in June 1844 and had two children, Josephine Sheppard (born 1845) and Francis Whipple (1847-1854). Following Eunice's untimely death at age 24 in 1848 Daggett remarried in Livonia,  New York to Jane Amelia Adams (1825-1854), with whom he would have a further two children, Eunice Eudora (died in infancy in 1852) and Flora Eugenia (1853-1857). Daggett was widowed for a second time in 1855 with the death of his wife Jane, and a year after her passing remarried to her sister Lucy (1828-1870). This union would see the births of three daughters, Florence Jane (born 1857), Frances Adams (born 1860), and an infant daughter who died soon after birth in February 1856.

   The Daggett brother's firm continued until its dissolution in 1855. Handel Daggett would continue in business on his own, eventually purchasing another site in an area called Farmer's Village. Here Daggett would develop a hoop-skirt manufacturing business, which existed until 1860. In the following year, he turned his attention to mohair braids, and would soon establish a factory devoted to their manufacture, being noted as "being the first establishment of its kind in the country". Daggett's braid factory grew to become a truly prosperous business in Bristol County, and with this success, it eventually outgrew its original home. Around 1866 Daggett removed his company to a stone mill located at Attleborough Falls, and with this move came an industrial boom in the area, which was recorded by the National Wool Manufacturer's Bulletin in the following passage:

"There soon arose a model Massachusetts manufacturing village, in which a peaceful and industrious population has learned to look upon Mr. Daggett as the benefactor of a community chiefly created by his energy and business ability."

The Gold Medal Braid Company as it looked in the 1870s.

   In 1869 Daggett and two investors (Austin Dunham and George S. Moulton) joined together to establish the Gold Medal Braid Company. With $50,000 furnished by Dunham and Moulton as capital, Daggett took the reins of the company, and in 1873 bought out his friends and continued to operate it alone. The company would house fourteen hundred braiding machines (braiders) and employed one hundred and fifty persons. Active in other areas of business life, Daggett served as the director of the Attleborough National Bank, treasurer of the Attleboro Branch Railroad, president of the Industrial Mutual Fire Company of Boston, and the Woolen Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company, also located in Boston. 

Daggett's home in North Attleborough, from "North Attleborough", published 1998.

   On May 23, 1870, Lucy Frost Adams died at age 42, leaving Handel Daggett as a widower for the third time in his life. In November 1875 he married his fourth wife, Annie Merritt Parsons (1842-1898), and one daughter was born to the couple, Blanche (1879-1967).
  Beginning in the late 1840s Daggett made his first move into local political office in Attleborough, serving at various times as town selectman (from 1849-1850 and 1861-1862), clerk (1848-1851), and assessor. He was elected to represent Bristol County in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives in November 1863 and served during the legislative session of 1864, holding a seat on the committee on manufactures. He won a second term in the house in 1883 and during the 1884 session served on the house committee on the Library. 
   Daggett continued to be involved with his business concerns until his death, and at the time of his passing was serving as the director of both the North Attleborough National Bank and the First National Bank of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He died of "disease of the heart" on February 27, 1894, at his North Attleborough home, a month after celebrating his 73rd birthday. Following his death, The Gold Medal Braid Company underwent a name change to the Standard Braid Company, and later the International Braid Company, until its closing in 1941. Daggett was survived by his fourth wife Annie, who died in 1898, and both he and three of his wives were interred at the Mount Hope Cemetery in North Attleborough.

                               Handel N. Daggett, from the "One of A Thousand" biographical series, 1890.

Starlin Marion Newberry Marrs (1862-1932)

Portrait from the Lubbock Avalanche July 14, 1922.

   A highly regarded figure in Texas educational history, Starlin Marion Newberry Marrs parlayed a nearly three-decade tenure as Terrell City superintendent of schools into a prominent role in Texas state government, serving as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for nine years, dying in office in 1932. Born on January 2, 1862, and raised in the small West Virginia town of Gauley Ridge, Starlin M.N. Marrs was one of ten children born to Francis Marion and Kathryn Lloyd Paddleford Marrs. Starlin attended the National Normal University in Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated from this college with his B.S. degree in the class of 1884.

   In the mid-1880s, Marrs relocated to Texas and married there in 1886 to Annie Ross Heslep (1862-1904), with whom he would have three children: Cecil Douglas (born 1894), Starlin Marion (1897-1974) and Mary C. (born ca. 1900). Following Annie's death in 1904, Marrs would remarry to Ida Caddell (187-1960) in June of 1909. Beginning in 1885 Marrs entered into the superintendency of the Stephenville, Texas school system, remaining here until 1888 when he accepted the position of superintendent of schools in Hamilton (serving from 1888 to 1890). He went on to serve as superintendent in the town of Cleburne from 1890 to 1893 and in the latter year settled in Terrell, Texas, where he was city school superintendent until 1898. 

   In 1898 he resigned as superintendent, having been appointed as chief clerk of the Texas Department of Education. He served a short time in this post and in 1900 was returned to the office of Terrell City School Superintendent, holding office until 1919. In that year he and his wife removed from Terrell to Austin, where Starlin assumed his duties as assistant state superintendent of education. Succeeding outgoing superintendent E.L. Dohoney in the post, Marrs served here until being elected as State Superintendent of Public Instruction in November 1922.

   Entering into his official duties in 1923, Marrs' nine-year tenure as superintendent is recorded by the Texas State Handbook website as being a "champion of rural and financially weak school districts", as well as being a supporter of "school consolidation, the strengthening of county school administration, and the provision of transportation to high school for students who otherwise would be unable to attend." In 1924 Marrs ran for a second term as state superintendent and in the November election coasted to an easy victory, defeating Republican candidate F.E. Illsley by a vote of 599, 935 to 91, 504. Reelected to third term in 1926 with over 230,000 votes, Marrs ran for a fourth term in 1928 and again won a resounding victory, garnering 582,190 votes on election day.

   Starlin M.N. Marrs won his fifth term as state superintendent in November 1930, besting his Democratic opponent by a vote of 271, 602 to 36, 549. Marrs would die in office on April 18, 1932, having suffered a heart attack while visiting College Station, Texas where he had been slated to give an address at Texas A&M University. He was survived by his wife Ida and was later interred at the State Cemetery in Austin.

                                                                From the Lubbock Avalanche, April 21, 1932.

Jerubial Gideon Dorman (1818-1910)

Portrait from the "Illustrated History of Missouri", 1876.

  The Missouri State Assembly once again takes center stage with another oddly named state representative, Jerubial Gideon Dorman of Henry County. A resident of both Kentucky and Illinois prior to his removal to Missouri, Dorman served as Henry County Judge during the early 1860s and in 1872 was elected to represent his adopted home county in the Missouri General Assembly for one term. A son of Kentucky farmer Matthew Dorman and his wife, the former Atlanta Barnes, Jerubial Gideon Dorman was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky on July 17, 1818. His family removed to the neighboring county of Gallatin soon after his birth, and Dorman is recorded as having attended a "primitive log school house" and also worked on his father's farm. 

  The daily drudgery of farm work during his youth eventually proved to be too much for Jerubial, who left the farm and took to the water, working on riverboats for several years. Like so many other young men of the time, Dorman caught the gold rush bug in 1849, and in that year began his journey to California via the water, embarking from Quincy, Illinois. He would eventually join a party of fellow "49ers" and went aboard the ship "Galveston", which experienced a spot of trouble when it was caught in a storm in the Caribbean Sea. The ship wrecked during the storm, and Dorman and his fellow travelers made it safely to a port in Honduras. The party would reach California some weeks after the wreck, but Dorman would reside in California but a short time, returning to his home in Quincy around 1851. 

   On April 12, 1852 Dorman married in Quincy to Udolpha F. Miller (1830-1906), with whom he would have seven children: Charles Douglas (1853-1938), William Henry (1855-1941), George Harris (1858-1938), Oscar McClellan (1862-1939), Emma Katherine (1864-1947), Lucy Bell (died in infancy in 1867) and Victoria Olivette (1867-1964).

   Three years after his marriage Dorman and his family relocated from Illinois to Missouri, settling in the town of Clinton in Henry County. Shortly after his arrival, he established a mercantile business in town and for several years after was the only such store "of any importance in the county." Dorman would also dabble in banking in addition to his mercantile firm, being a founder and first president of the First National Bank of Clinton. 

   Dorman first became active in local politics after Clinton was incorporated as a town in 1858 when he was named as a town trustee. He also served as a member of the town school board and in 1860 was elected as the judge of Henry County. In the same year as his election as judge Dorman served as a delegate to the Missouri State Convention being held in Jefferson City, and had earlier helped draft a resolution to "conserve the Union." In 1872 he was elected as one of Henry County's representatives in the Missouri General Assembly, by  "a majority of 575". The 1874 Biographical Sketches of the Missouri Legislature described Dorman as:

"A Democrat of the old school, an intelligent, high minded gentleman, deliberate and careful of speech and vote, and ever mindful of the interest of his people and of the state. He is a gentleman of modest worth and sterling integrity."

   Noted as being "industrious in the interests of his constituents", Dorman's term concluded in 1875 and he returned to his farm in Clinton. A member of the Odd Fellows Lodge for over fifty years, Dorman is noted as having the "distinction of being the oldest member in the state". He died at age 91 on February 4, 1910, and was interred at the Englewood Cemetery in Clinton. He had been predeceased by his wife Udolpha in 1906 and is a far-from-forgotten figure in Clinton, with his home (erected in the 1850s) being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in February 1983. The two-story brick home (mentioned as being the first of its kind in Clinton) can be toured by appointment.
   One should also note that there are two spelling variations of Dorman's first name, being given as both "Jerubal" and "Jerubial". While editions of the Official Missouri Manual list the former spelling, Dorman's own death certificate records it as "Jerubial", and it is that spelling that is given in the title of his article here. 

Cuno Hugo Rudolph (1860-1932)

Portrait courtesy of the Library of Congress photograph collection.

   The second oddly named political figure from Washington, D.C. to be profiled here on the site, Cuno Hugo Rudolph's political claim to fame rests on his service as the president of the Washington, D.C. Board of Commissioners. As the governing body of the District of Columbia from 1874 to 1967, the Board of Commissioners was made up of three members, of which one would be elected as President of the Board. Maryland native Cuno H. Rudolph served as president of this Board on two separate occasions, holding the post for a total of eight years. 

   Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Cuno Hugo Rudolph was born on June 26, 1860. The son of Jacob and Elizabeth Yerger Rudolph, young Cuno attended private schools in the city of his birth and would go on to study at both the Stadtler Business College and the Bryant and Stratton Business College. Rudolph removed from Baltimore around 1889 and soon after resettled in Washington, D.C., where he would become engaged in the hardware business, having bought a small share in the local hardware firm of J.H. Chesley and Co. Rudolph would eventually establish his own hardware firm, operating under the name of Rudolph and West Co., of which he served as president. Rudolph married on June 8, 1901, to Amy Edna Merz (1868-1951), who survived him upon his death in 1932. The couple's three-decade marriage would be childless.

   While still attentive to his hardware firm, Cuno Rudolph began to branch out into other areas of Washington, D.C. business life, including service as the President of the West Brothers Brick Company. Rudolph also made headway into the financial affairs of the city, being a Vice President of the National Metropolitan Bank, a director of the Union Savings Bank, a vice president of the Washington D.C. Board of Trade, and was the director of the Washington D.C., Chamber of Commerce.

From the Washington, D.C. Herald, September 1, 1910.

   Sources of the time denote that Mr. Rudolph was involved in numerous charitable societies and fraternal organizations in our nation's capital, attaining high office in nearly all of them. In the early 1900s, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Washington D.C. Public Playground Committee, serving as the group's chairman for several years. He would occupy the post of chairman of the Public Playground Association and maintained memberships in the Prisoner's Aid Society, the Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, the Columbia Historical Society, and the Washington Country Club. In addition to all of the above, Rudolph would also serve as a trustee and executive board member of Howard University.

   In 1910 President William Howard Taft appointed Cuno Rudolph as a member of the Washington, D.C. Board of Commissioners, and he officially entered into office in January of that year. He was elected as Board President by his fellow commissioners shortly afterward and continued in the office until resigning in March 1913, when he was named a member of the District of Columbia's Public Utilities Commission, serving in office until July of that year. Following his resigning from that office in July 1913 Rudolph returned to his banking interests in the capital, serving as the president of the Second National Bank of Washington until 1921. 

   In 1921 Rudolph was reappointed to the D.C. Board of Commissioners by then-President Warren Harding and was again elected Board President, serving until his resignation in October 1926. Following his departure, the Who Was Who In America 1897-1942 notes that Rudolph was "tendered a dinner by 1,000 citizens" in December 1926, and was later presented with a "silver service by the people of Washington."

   After leaving the office of commissioner Cuno Rudolph continued to be active in civic affairs in Washington, and in 1930 was tapped to head the District of Columbia Bicentennial Commission, organized to celebrate the 1932 bicentennial celebration of George Washington's birth. Shortly before the celebration of Washington's bicentennial birth (which was to take place on February 22, 1932), Cuno Rudolph died, his death occurring on January 6, 1932. He was later interred at the Lorraine Park Cemetery in Woodlawn, Baltimore County, Maryland. His wife Amy survived him by nearly twenty years, dying at age 83 in 1951, and was later buried in the same cemetery as her husband.

  

Cuno Hugo Rudolph, around the time of his service on the D.C. Board of Commissioners.

Flamen Ball (1809-1885)

Portrait from the 1887 Illustrated Cincinnati Business Directory.

   A distinguished name in Ohio law circles during the mid-19th century, a name like "Flamen Ball" is certainly worth a laugh...how many men do you know of that possess a name that immediately conjures up images of a bright fiery ball--a "flamin' ball", if you will!! During a career in law that extended over forty years, Ball operated a law practice with future Ohio Governor and U.S. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, and in 1861 was appointed as U.S. District Attorney for Ohio's Southern District. Ball was also honored by being elected to multiple terms as Mayor of Clifton, Ohio (a satellite village within Cincinnati.)

  A native of New York, Flamen Ball was born in New York City on January 9, 1809, being the son of Flamen Ball Sr. and Anna Western Ball. In the late 1820s, he began to study law under the tutelage of his father and would put his studies on hold to work in a mercantile business for a time. Ball married in New York in 1829 married Evelina Candler Ball (1810-1864) with whom he would have ten children. They are listed as follows in order of birth: Evelina Candler (born 1831), Flamen (died in infancy in 1834), Samuel Candler (died in infancy in 1836), Flamen III (1837-1912), Charles Henry (1841-1843), Laura Amelia (born 1844), George Harry (died in infancy in 1846), Susan Louise (1847-1934), Alice Devereux (died in infancy in 1852) and Allen Devereux (1854-1860). 

   In 1832 Flamen Ball relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio to continue in business, and did not resume his law studies until the late 1830s, when he entered Cincinnati College as a law student. He graduated in the class of 1838 with his law degree and shortly thereafter formed a law practice in Cincinnati with Salmon Portland Chase (1809-1873), later to find nationwide prominence in politics, serving at various times as Governor of Ohio, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1864-1873. The firm of Chase and Ball would exist for twenty years until being discontinued in 1858 when Chase was re-elected as Governor of Ohio (having first been elected in 1856.) 

  Three years after the dissolution of the Chase and Ball firm, Flamen Ball was appointed by President Lincoln to be U.S. District Attorney for Ohio's Southern District. He served in office from 1861-1869 and two years before leaving office was named as a U.S. Register in Bankruptcy by his old friend Salmon Chase, who was then serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Ball would serve as register until he died in 1885, and his time in office was profiled in Volume 13 of the American Law Record, which notes that:

"As a Register he transacted the majority of the bankruptcy business of this county. The questions passed upon by him were numerous and important. His opinions were frequently able, elaborate, and, in almost every case, affirmed by the court. He examined all questions submitted to him with exemplary care and thoroughness, and never failed to dispose of every question submitted."

  Flamen Ball (portrait courtesy of Find-a-Grave).

   Before his service as district attorney Flamen Ball had been instrumental in the incorporation of the village of Clifton, Ohio, a small satellite community within the city of Cincinnati. Ball first proposed a charter to incorporate the village in 1849 and after presenting the charter/petition to the Ohio General Assembly the village officially came into being in March 1850. Ball would later serve the village as its mayor on multiple occasions, serving from 1851-1855, 1856, and again from 1869-1871. 
  Despite being over fifty years old at the dawn of the Civil War, Flamen Ball was a staunch Union man, and as such organized a company of volunteers, mainly consisting of Clifton residents. Ball later was commissioned as a captain and served as an aide to Major General John Ellis Wool, and at the war's conclusion returned to Cincinnati to resume his law practice.
  In 1864, Flamen Ball's wife of over thirty years, Evelina Candler Ball, died at age 54. He would remarry in 1873 to Elizabeth Parmalee, a native of Brooklyn, New York. Several years prior to his death Ball moved to Glendale, Ohio, and continued in the practice of law until six months before his death. Health concerns plagued him during his last weeks of life, and two days before his passing "was attacked with a hemorrhage of the brain" and died on January 20, 1885 at his Glendale home. Ball was later buried at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, the same resting place as that of his wife Evelina.

Mansfield Livingston Plympton (1867-1934)

Portrait from the 1915 Florida State Blue Book.

   A businessman and prominent citizen of Lake City, Florida, Mansfield Livingston Plympton was elected to four terms in the Florida State Senate between 1914 and 1921. While little biographical material has come to light on Mr. Plympton, the above picture of him (located via the 1915 Florida State Blue Book) has come as a welcome surprise. This particular blue book also yielded another oddly named Florida state legislator, Link Field Forehand (1877-1916), who was profiled here back in May of 2013.

   Born in Columbia County, Florida in December 1867, Mansfield L. Plympton was the son of Joseph Ruggles and Cassa Osteen Plympton. His early life was centered in Lake City, Florida where he attended school and was a graduate of the University of Florida, then located at Lake City. Described as being a "successful merchant" in Lake City by the Florida Blue Book, Plympton is mentioned as being the operator of a mercantile establishment/general store in that city for sixteen years. Information has been located that also notes that he was the manager of the "Plympton Opera House" in Lake City, with a holding capacity of 500 people on both floor and balcony.

  Aside from his business interests in his native city, Mansfield Plympton was a member of the Lake City city council for a decade, serving as board president for eight of those years. A past secretary of the Columbia County Democratic Executive Committee, Plympton was elected to represent that county (and other areas in the 17th district) in the Florida State Senate in November 1914. Taking his seat in January of the new year, Plympton's first term in the senate saw him sit on the committees on Game and Fisheries, Mining and Minerals, Municipalities, Organized Labor, and Public Health. He also served as chairman of the committee on Insurance and was recognized by the Bluebook for being:

"Sincere in his efforts to obtain clean and just legislation for his district and the state of Florida."

   Following a successful first term as a freshman senator, Plympton was returned to the senate by the voters of Florida's 17th district in the elections of 1916, 1918, and 1920. Upon the completion of his final term in 1923, he returned to Lake City, and in the following year took an active part in forming a campaign committee for U.S. Senator Oscar Wilder Underwood of Alabama, who was then contemplating a run for President. A lifelong bachelor, Plympton died in Lake City on December 15, 1934, at age 64, later being interred at the Oak Lawn Cemetery in Lake City, the same resting place as his father Joseph. 

Epenetus Howe (1836-1909)

From the New York Legislative Souvenir of 1894.

    The New York state assembly has fielded a number of oddly named political figures in its lengthy history, and the vast number of Empire state assemblymen profiled here grows ever larger with the addition of Mr. Epenetus Howe. Aside from possessing a truly strange first name, Mr. Howe is also the proud owner of one of the most magnificent mustaches this author has ever seen! His impressive facial hair notwithstanding, Epenetus Howe was a leading political figure in Tioga County, New York, representing that county in the New York State Assembly for two terms in the mid-1890s. Earlier in his political career, Howe had served as a township supervisor and was a candidate of the Greenback Party for the U.S. House of Representatives, New York Secretary of State, and Governor of New York.

   Epenetus Howe's birth occurred in Auburn, New York on December 6, 1836, a son of Epenetus (1798-1863) and Emeline Cooper Howe (1808-1847). His youth was spent in Auburn, New York City and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and he is recorded as having attended school "in the latter place." He engaged in the mercantile business in Tompkins County, New York until about 1852, when he returned to the town of Elizabeth. Two years later he returned to Tompkins County, settling in the village of Caroline. Howe married in 1859 to Sarah Amanda Legg (1835-1911) and the couple is noted as being childless through their fifty years of marriage.

   Howe's residence in Caroline saw him purchase a farm in 1858, operating it for a number of years, and in the mid-1870s entered into local politics, being elected as Supervisor of the township of Caroline on two occasions, 1876 and 1877. In the latter year, he switched political allegiance to the Greenback Party, having formerly been a voter of the Republican and Democratic tickets. The Greenback Party (based on a platform of anti-monopolies, currency reform, and farmer-labor) experienced its heyday in the late 1870s and early 1880s, running Presidential candidates on three occasions, and also fielded nearly two dozen U.S. Representatives elected between 1879 and 1888. 

    As a leading figure in the Greenback party in New York in the late 1870s, Epenetus Howe was the Greenback candidate for high office on three occasions between 1878 and 1884, the first occurring in 1878, when he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 26th district. As one of four candidates vying for the seat, Howe placed third on election day, garnering only 1,883 votes to incumbent Republican Jeremiah Dwight's winning total of 15, 559. Howe's 1880 candidacy for Secretary of the State of New York brought him another loss, being trounced by Republican Joseph B. Carr, who coasted to an easy victory with over 400,000 votes (compared to Howe's total of 16, 018). Undeterred by his two unsuccessful candidacies, Epenetus Howe announced his candidacy for the New York Governorship in 1882. Again the Greenback standard bearer, Howe placed a distant fourth in that year's contest, receiving only 11, 974 votes to Grover Cleveland's 535, 318. 

   In 1885 Epenetus Howe removed from Tompkins County to the neighboring county of Tioga County, New York, settling in the town of Candor. Perhaps sensing a change in the political winds of the time, Howe left the Greenback Party in 1888, when he campaigned for Benjamin Harrison, who went on to be elected President in November of that year. Howe's early years in Candor saw him become active in both the Speedsville and Candor Granges, serving as master of the latter lodge for several years.

From the 1894 New York Red Book.

   Howe returned to political life in the early 1890s when he was elected to the first of two terms as Candor town supervisor, and in November 1893 was elected as a Republican to the New York State Assembly from Tioga County, defeating his opponent Charles R. Swift by a "plurality of 1,184". His first term in the assembly saw him serve on the committees on Railroads, Insurance, and Internal Affairs, with the 1894 New York Red Book noting that Howe was:

"One of the most faithful watchdogs the farming class had in the legislature, and he had attached to an Erie County bill an amendment exempting Tioga County from the cost of state troops during the Lehigh Valley strike of 1894."

   In November 1894 Howe was reelected to the assembly over Democratic candidate C.S. Carr by a vote of 4,175 to 2, 276. Taking his seat in January 1895, Howe was noted by sources of the time as being a close associate of one Thomas Collier Platt, a U.S. Representative and Senator from New York who during the 1890s was viewed as the titular "political boss" of the state Republican Party. Both Howe and Platt were Tioga County residents, and their working relationship in regard to politics eventually led to a case of political double-dealing that left Epenetus Howe "the maddest man in the assembly". 
    As the New York Herald related in its January 12, 1895 edition, Howe (memorably described as having a "mustache as large as a billy-goat's whiskers") had been privy to an understanding between Platt and fellow assemblyman Hamilton Fish II that Mr. Fish was to be elected as assembly speaker. With Platt's considerable influence in state politics and assembly legislation, he instructed Epenetus Howe to vote for another potential candidate for speaker, St. Lawrence County assemblyman George R. Maltby, to "conceal the Platt tracks and make it appear that Mr. Platt was not for Fish." Platt had earlier informed Howe that "he would be taken care of" if he voted the way he was told, and because of this deal Howe had expected to be named as chairman of a "good committee."

Epenetus Howe, from the May 19, 1895 edition of the New York Times.

   Howe did as he was told. During the caucus for the vote for speaker, he shouted his vote for Maltby, who did not get the speakership, the post instead going to Fish. Instead of being rewarded for his actions, Howe was denied a place on the assembly's most important committees and was instead given "second place" on the committee on Printing and "eighth place" on the committee on Ways and Means. Understandably indignant over this slight, Howe is mentioned by the New York Herald as "telling all around the assembly chamber about how badly he felt" being ignored by the newly elected speaker (Hamilton Fish) and despite this case of double-dealing, quietly served out the remainder of his assembly term. 
   Epenetus Howe's term in the assembly concluded at the end of 1895 and several years after leaving office experienced a bout of ill health which eventually necessitated a stay at the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, from which he emerged "greatly improved in health" in March 1906. While he may have left the sanitarium in better health than when he had entered, Howe continued to be plagued by health troubles for the remaining years of his life, and on September 20, 1909 died at his home in Candor at age 73. His wife Sarah Amanda survived her husband by two years, dying in 1911, and following her death was interred alongside him at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Candor. This cemetery is also the resting place of Howe's parents, Epenetus Sr. and Emeline Cooper Howe.

A great example of 19th century facial hair.......Epenetus Howe (from the 1895 New York Red Book.)