Wentzle Aena Stewart (1897-1983)

From the 1951 Kansas State Legislative composite portrait.

   A two-term member of the Kansas State House of Representatives from the county of Kiowa, Wentzle Aena Stewart has scant information available online, and although few details could be found regarding him, the picture shown above (located via a 1951 Kansas legislative composite portrait) comes as a welcome surprise. Although a Kansan for nearly all his life, Wentzle A. Stewart wasn't born in the state; his birth occurring in Iowa on December 31, 1897. The son of Henry E. (1868-1951) and Ida Stephens Stewart (1870-1958), Stewart moved with his family to Kansas shortly after his birth, and in 1901 the family settled in Kiowa County.

    A veteran of the United States Navy, Stewart married in April 1924 to Ms. Elsie Jane Miller (1904-1994), with whom he would have three sons: Wesley Earl (birth-date unknown), Harold Alvin (died 1992), and Keith Allen (birth-date unknown). A farmer in Kiowa County for a good majority of his life, both Wentzle and his wife are noted as having been "very involved in organizing Kiowa County farming programs for men and women" and he himself was a past president of the Kiowa County Farm Bureau. 

   Before his service in state government, Stewart had extensive involvement in civic affairs in Greensburg, serving as school treasurer for 22 years and as a clerk for two. Stewart also held the posts of town clerk and trustee for eight and four years, respectively. In November 1948 he was elected as Kiowa County's representative to the Kansas General Assembly, garnering 1, 519 votes on election day. Stewart was returned to the legislature in November 1950 and served until the close of the session in 1953. Little else is known of Stewart's life following the conclusion of his term. He died at age 85 on January 3, 1983, and was later interred at Greensburg's Fairview Cemetery.

                                           Wentzle A. Stewart, from the 1950 Kansas Government Journal.

Quintillion Kepler Groves (1855-1909)

From the 1897 Indiana State House of Representative's composite portrait.

   After a few days of highlighting the lives of several oddly named Indiana political figures, we conclude our stay in the Hoosier state with one Quintillion Kepler Groves, who has one of the most unusual names I've stumbled across in quite some time! A prominent citizen of Perry County, Indiana, Groves was for many decades a farmer and merchant based in the town of Tobinsport and was also active in Republican circles within Perry County. He would serve as the doorkeeper of the Indiana State House of Representatives during the 1897-98 term and in the latter year came within a few hundred votes of being elected to the Indiana State Senate.

   The youngest son of eleven children born to Samuel and Eliza Huckaby Groves, Quintillion Kepler Groves was born in Perry County on April 4, 1855. The exact origins behind the name "Quintillion Kepler" are presumed to be connected to two historical figures, Quintilian (an ancient Roman writer) and Johannes Kepler (the famed German academic, astronomer and mathematician). Despite its peculiarity, Mr. Groves' unusual first name is also one of the most varied in spelling that I've yet seen, with several variations of it floating around online. These numerous variations (which include Quintilian, Quintillian, Quintillion, and Quintilleon) are even further compounded by Groves' gravestone, which records it as "Quintillious". With all of these spelling differences, it was a great relief to me to have found Groves' marriage certificate from 1874, and this certificate (which was presumably filled out by both Groves and his wife Nancy) records the spelling as "Quintillion", and it is that spelling that I've decided to go with in his write-up here. That certificate is shown below (click to enlarge.)

   Groves' early life in Perry County saw him receive his "academic education" in Rome, Indiana and during his adolescence worked at both farming and teaching. He married on Christmas Eve 1874 to Nancy Tobin (1856-1940), daughter of former Indiana state representative Robert Tobin (1815-1898) of Perry County. The couple would later become parents to four children:  Robert Tobin (1876-1914), Mary Jane (1878-1921), Samuel (1881-1906) and Thomas Joshua (1883-1971). 

   Following his marriage Groves farmed in an area known as "Polk's Bottom" near Tobin Township. He would later operate a mercantile firm-general store in Tobinsport and also served as a notary public and justice of the peace beginning in the late 1880s. In December 1893 he took part in the Perry County Farmer's Institute being held at Rome, Indiana and is recorded as giving an address on "Economy on Making Hay" in the Breckenridge News.

   Long active in Perry County Republican circles, Groves was tapped to serve as the Doorkeeper of the Indiana State House of Representatives in 1897 and held this post through the 1897-98 term, even being presented with a "gold-headed cane mounted on black ivory wood"; a gift from the assistant doorkeepers of the house. In 1898  "Till" Groves received the Republican nomination for Indiana state senator from the counties of Perry, Crawford, and Spencer. Squaring off against Democratic nominee Oscar C. Minor, Groves narrowly lost the election in November 1898, being defeated by Minor by just 274 votes (6, 246 to 5, 972).

A notice of Groves' Senate nomination from the Breckenridge News, June 1, 1898.

   Following his senatorial loss Groves continued to reside and farm in Tobinsport. A longstanding member of the local Masonic chapter in Perry County, Groves suffered personal tragedy in 1906 with the death of his son Robert, who succumbed to typhoid fever at age 24 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  Groves continued to be socially active in Perry County affairs until suffering a stroke and for two years "was unable to get about conveniently." The effects of the stroke later were compounded by the onset of bronchial pneumonia, which claimed Groves' life on April 19, 1909. Just 54 years old at the time of his passing, "Q.K." Groves was survived by three of his children as well as his wife Nancy, who died in 1940 at age 86. All of the Groves family (including both of Q.K's parents) were interred at the Lamb Cemetery in Tobinsport following their deaths.

From the Cannelton Enquirer, April 24, 1909.

Thollie Wilbur Druley (1879-1952)

From the 1933 Indiana State Senate composite portrait.

    In the near two hundred year history of the Indiana state senate you'd be hard-pressed to find a name funnier than Thollie Wilbur Druley, a two-term senator from the county of Wayne. A farmer and teacher in that county for a good majority of his life, Mr. Druley is also one of the more obscure Hoosier political figures I've profiled thus far, and the following write-up on Druley could not have been possible without the help of the Wayne County Historical Museum in Richmond, Indiana.  As it stands now there is but a tiny amount of information available online in regards to Mr. Druley, and I'm pleased to relate that upon the completion of the following article there will be at least one biography for him available online, and this would not have been possible without the help of Sue King and the staff at the Wayne County Historical Museum!!

  A lifelong resident of Wayne County, Thollie Wilbur Druley was one of three sons born to local farmer Joseph S. Druley and Mollie Rutter Druley, his birth occurring in Boston Township on January 2, 1879.  His early life was centered around work on the family farm as well as attending Richmond High School. He continued his education at Earlham College and Purdue University and married on November 25, 1903, to Emma Elizabeth Minneman (died 1967). The couple would later become the parents of three children: Pauline (1905-2005), Ivan (1907-1998) and Byron (1911-1984).

   Around 1910 Druley took over the operations of the family farm from his father and would continue to farm for the remainder of his life. Druley began a longstanding connection to civic and religious affairs in Richmond when in October 1910 he spoke at a rally celebrating Richmond's centennial, and in addition to farming was a school teacher and member of the Boston township school board.  As a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Richmond Druley is also recorded as having taught Sunday school classes for many years.

   Beginning in 1918 Th0llie Druley took on the position of superintendent of the Wayne County Sunday School Association and in this role was prominent in the running of Wayne County's annual Rally Day. In the October 1928 notice (shown below) Druley is also noted as being a member of the Wayne County "organization committee" that would take part in the Indiana Young People's conference being held in Richmond that month.

From the Richmond Item, Sept, 23, 1928, (courtesy of the Wayne County Historical Museum.)

    Thollie W. Druley made his first move into Hoosier state politics in 1921 when he became a candidate for the state legislature from Wayne County. As one of three Democratic candidates vying for the seat, Druley garnered only 800 votes, being defeated by Republican incumbent James M. Knapp, who polled 5, 473. Druley's political fortunes changed in 1930 when he was a successful candidate for the Indiana senate. 

    Taking his seat at the start of the 1931-33 term Druley was the primary sponsor of the so-called "Druley bill" during that session of the legislature. The bill (which "provided for diverting fees from county officials to the general fund and for placing all county officials on straight salaries to be fixed by county councils") was noted as having resulted in "much agitation", which culminated in a rather humorous incident in 1932. The Vidette-Messenger reported in its August 3rd edition that the Druley bill had been stolen from the desk of state Rep. J.W. Ellyson, and that a grand jury investigation into the theft had been announced by then-House Speaker Walter Myers. However, the brouhaha proved to be short-lived, as Rep. Ellyson (who had been in possession of the bill) had inadvertently left it in the "legislative reference bureau" a day before it was discovered missing.

    In November 1932 Druley was elected to a second term in the senate and served until the close of the session. He was an unsuccessful candidate for a third senate term in November 1934, narrowly losing the election to Republican Albert Ferris, 10,886 votes to 10,292.  Druley made one further attempt at reelection in 1941 when he was a candidate for state representative, being defeated in November by Lee J. Reynolds (1877-1955), who bested him by over 4,000 votes.

From the 1931 Indiana State Senate composite portrait.

    After his time in state government, Druley returned to his farm on the "Boston pike" and busied himself with memberships in several fraternal groups, including both the Eagles and Lion's lodges and the local Masonic chapter. The life of this oddly named state senator came to an end in rather unusual circumstances on the afternoon of March 27, 1952 as the result of a tractor accident that occurred on his farm. On that date Druley had been using a tractor to remove boulders from a field on his property when it overturned, pinning him underneath. Byron Druley discovered his father two hours  later and his death was recorded by his death certificate as being the result of a "crushed chest"

    Following funeral services at the Trinity Lutheran Church Thollie Druley was interred at the Lutherania Cemetery in Richmond. He was survived by all of his children and his wife Emma, who passed away in 1967. Pauline Druley Kaufman, the Druley's eldest child, was also the last surviving of their three children, dying in March 2005, six months short of her 100th birthday.

Druley's obituary (courtesy of the Wayne County Historical Museum), from the Palladium, Mar. 28, 1952.

McAdoo Wilson Clouser (1918-1999)

McAdoo "Mike" Clouser, from the Kokomo Morning Times, February 10, 1965.

   A prominent public figure in Tipton County, Indiana for over three decades, McAdoo Wilson "Mike" Clouser represented that county in the Indiana General Assembly for one term in the mid-1960s. A past chairman of the Tipton County Democratic Committee, Clouser also served as part of the Indiana delegation to the 1984 Democratic National Convention held in San Francisco.

   One of thirteen children born to Albert (1889-1963) and Bertha Izora Terwiliger Clouser (1892-1951), McAdoo Wilson Clouser's birth occurred in Modoc, Indiana on May 25, 1918. The origins behind his unusual first name are unknown at this time but could be connected to William Gibbs McAdoo (1863-1941), an influential political figure who served as U.S. Treasury Secretary and U.S. Senator from California. McAdoo served as the treasury secretary under President Woodrow Wilson (who was Chief Executive when Mr. Clouser was born) and it may not be a foregone conclusion that Mr. Clouser received his first and middle names in honor of those two men. While his first name is certainly unusual, Clouser was known by "Mike" throughout his life.

   A student at both Butler University and the University of Indiana, Clouser married in 1939 to Wilma Maxine Heflin (1920-2008), with whom he would have six children: Diane, Barbara, Tom, Tim, Patricia, and Merrilee. A farmer in Tipton County for many years, Clouser operated a 220-acre farm and was also active in several civic organizations within that county, including the United Auto Workers Union #685, the Federal Land Bank Association, the Elwood Masonic Lodge, and the Union 2882 of the C.I.O-A.F.L United Steelworkers. 

   In the early 1960s, Mike Clouser assumed the office of chief probation officer of Tipton County and was still the incumbent in that office when he received the nomination for joint representative from Tipton and Howard County to the Indiana General Assembly in 1964. Opposing Clouser in that year's election was Harold L. Scott Jr., a Kokomo-based realtor. Clouser would win the election that November, gaining 2,244 votes in Howard County and "carried his home county by 585".

A Clouser campaign ad from the Tipton Tribune, October 30, 1964.

    Taking his seat at the start of the 1965-67 session, Clouser sat on the house committees on  Education, the Judiciary (B), and the Organization of Courts and Criminal Code. Busy as a first-term legislator, Clouser was interviewed in the February 10, 1965 edition of the Kokomo Morning Times, which quoted this piece of advice from him: "If you keep active in civic affairs than the job of teaching your children to be good citizens becomes easy." Clouser further related in his Morning Times interview that one of the major pieces of legislation during that year's session was an attempt to repeal a then-existing "right-to-work" law that had been passed by the Republican-controlled house back in 1957. By the time of Clouser's term in the legislature, the law had been so badly received that it was indeed repealed by the legislature, with Clouser noting that: 

"It was of course part of my party's (Democrat) platform and it made Indiana look more progressive than it has been in the last few years. Actually you might think my politics are a bit conservative; maybe more so than a lot of Republicans when it comes to spending money. I fight against bills occasionally in an attempt to save a dollar."

  In 1966 McAdoo Clouser launched his campaign for reelection to the house, running against Republican nominee Elwood Haynes Hillis (1926-     ). On election day it was Hillis who emerged victorious, besting Clouser in the vote count. He would go on to serve two terms in the legislature (1967-1971) and later won election to Congress in 1970, serving here for eight terms.

Clouser's reelection campaign notice from the Tipton Tribune, Nov. 1, 1966. 

   Following his defeat for reelection in 1966, Mike Clouser continued to be actively involved in Hoosier State politics. While employed by the Chrysler Corp. in Kokomo, Indiana he continued to serve as chairman of the Tipton County Democratic committee (having held the post since 1962) and in 1970 announced his candidacy for the Indiana state senate. In the election held in May of that year, he was defeated by Republican candidate Merton Stanley by a vote of 3,526 to 1,756.  Four years later Clouser filed for nomination as U.S. Representative for Indiana's Fifth Congressional district but was unsuccessful in his candidacy.

    In the latter period of his life, Clouser continued to farm and in 1982 retired from Chrysler. Two years following his retirement he served as a delegate from Indiana to the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco where Walter Mondale was nominated for the Presidency. After many years of public service to Tipton County McAdoo W. Clouser died on September 23, 1999, at age 81 at the St. Vincent Mercy Hospital in Elwood, Indiana. He was survived by his children and his wife Maxine, who was interred alongside him at the New Lancaster Cemetery following her death in 2008.

Mike Clouser, from the April 22, 1970 Tipton Tribune.

Arcada Stark Balz (1879-1973)

                                                                   Arcada Campbell Stark Balz, 1879-1973.

   Joining an all-too-short list of oddly named female political figures who've been featured here, Arcada Campbell Stark Balz etched her name into the history books in November 1941 when she became the first woman to be elected to the Indiana State Senate. A nearly lifelong resident of the Hoosier State, Balz was active in numerous women's civic organizations in the state and gained further distinction as president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in the late 1930s.
   The daughter of James Orbin and Mary Elizabeth Stark, Arcada Campbell Stark was born in near Bloomington, Indiana on December 31, 1879. She was a student at the Manual High School in Indianapolis and would later be engaged as a teacher in that city's junior high school system, teaching history, literature, and art classes. Stark married in Marion County, Indiana on November 20, 1905, to Frederick George Balz (1875-1954), the owner of the Indianapolis-based Star Millinery Company. The couple is believed to have remained childless through their nearly fifty years of marriage.
   Prior to her time in state government, Arcada Stark Balz was a prominent figure in numerous women's clubs in Indianapolis, including service as president of the Indiana Federation of Women's Clubs from 1932 to 1935. Two years later she would assume the directorship of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, holding that office until 1939. Beginning in 1937 Balz was affiliated with the New Harmony Memorial Commission, a "voluntary commission" established by an Indiana legislative resolution that aimed to "preserve and protect" the historic New Harmony settlement, a 19th-century community that had been devoted to religious/Utopian ideals. Balz had been appointed to the commission by then Indiana Governor Maurice Townsend and served as the group's president. During the commission's existence its members:

"Diligently conducted surveys and programs in keeping with the provisions of the joint resolution. It sponsored two elaborate annual Golden Rain Tree Festivals in New Harmony....and numerous newspaper and magazine articles were published for the purpose of cultivating public interest."

From the 1943 Indiana State Senate composite portrait.

    In November 1941 Arcada Stark Balz was elected to the Indiana State Senate from the counties of Marion and Johnson. The first woman ever to win election to the state senate in its 120-year history, Balz defeated Democratic nominee Robert C. Kirby by a vote of 89,093 to 78,654 and took her seat at the start of the 1942-46 session. She would be returned to the Senate in the 1945 election year and served another four-year term. During the 1947 session, Balz was chairwoman of the Committee on Public Health and also held a seat on the Committee on Benevolent Institutions. Having set a precedent as the first female member of the Indiana senate, her government service was praised in her 1973 Kokomo Tribune death notice (shown below) which noted that she:

"Pioneered in the campaign for legislation to license nursing homes and to regulate women's working hours and wages. She was also amongst the first to push for improving school attendance requirements and establishing a merit system for state employees."

  After leaving the senate in 1950 Balz continued to reside in Indianapolis until a few years before her death. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 1969 and later removed from Indiana to Orlando, Florida, where she died at age 93 on August 18, 1973. She had been preceded in death by her husband Frederick in 1954 and was later interred alongside him at Indianapolis' famed Crown Hill Cemetery.

Arcada S. Balz, from the 1947 Indiana Senate composite.

From the Kokomo Tribune, August 20, 1973.

Venorris Raymond Taylor (1821-1904)

From the 1881 Indiana State House of Representatives composite photo.

   From Daviess County, Indiana we journey south to the county of Noble and one of that area's more oddly named public figures...Venorris Raymond Taylor. A transplant to the Hoosier state from Ohio, Mr. Norris represented Noble County in the Indiana General Assembly for one term beginning in 1881.

   Born in Burlington, Ohio on November 28, 1821, Venorris R. Taylor was the son of Philo (1796-1876) and Annebella Harmon Taylor (1795-1856). His family removed from Burlington to Portage County when he was still a child and his early education was limited to the local schools. The Taylor family relocated to La Grange County, Indiana in 1837 and Venorris would continue his studies at the La Grange Collegiate Institute in the town of Ontario. 

   Venorris R. Taylor married on his 29th birthday in Indiana to Mary Anne Rowe (1828-1873). The couple was married for over twenty years and this marriage produced three sons, Philo John (born 1852), William Lamborn (1853-1940), and George Henry (born 1858). The couple would move to Noble County sometime after their marriage and of their three children William would follow his father into politics, being elected as Indiana State Attorney General in 1898. Following his marriage, Taylor taught school for several years and also operated an eighty-acre farm. Widowed in 1873, Taylor remarried two years later to Elizabeth A. Betts, who would survive him upon his death in 1904. 

   Active in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Wolcottville, Taylor began serving as a church trustee in 1877.  He refrained from entering political life until he was nearly 60 years of age, and in 1880 he was nominated as Noble County's representative to the Indiana General Assembly. He would win election to that body that November, and in an odd twist would serve in the same legislative session as his brother Oscar, who was a representative from the neighboring county of La Grange. During the 1881-1883 session, Venorris would hold the chairmanship of the house committee on Banks, as well as serving on the committee on the Sinking Fund. 

   After leaving the legislature Taylor returned to private life in Wolcottville. Alvord's History of Noble County notes that even though advanced in age Taylor continued to be active in the affairs of his adopted hometown, and:

"Proved himself a public spirited and progressive citizen, deeply interested in the welfare of his community and all that contributes to its educational and moral advancements."

  Venorris R. Taylor died at age 82 on August 1, 1904. He would be interred at the Woodland Cemetery in Wolcottville and was survived by his second wife Elizabeth, who was buried at this same cemetery upon her death in 1909. 

Flavian Alphonsus Seal (1879-1959)

From the Washington Davies County Democrat, October 22, 1910.

   If you've followed the Strangest Names In American Political History's Facebook page you'll know that today we begin a week-long stay in Indiana to highlight a few of the Hoosier State's unusually named political figures. Today's profile takes us to Daviess County and Flavian Alphonsus Seal, a prominent local attorney who was elected to two terms as Prosecuting Attorney of Indiana's 49th Judicial District. A practicing lawyer for over fifty years, Seal was born in Barr Township, Indiana on May 13, 1879, one of several children born to William Marshall Seal Jr.(1841-1928) and the former Minerva Jane Padgett (1839-1915).

   Flavian Seal began his education in the "common schools of Barr township" and later taught school for a short period. He continued his schooling at colleges in "Mitchell and Bloomington" and graduated from the University of Indiana at Indianapolis. He married in October 1903 to Mary Graves (1881-1969) and later had seven children: Mable Afra (1905-1978), Ralph Alphonsus (1907-1966), Mildred Mary (1908-1993), Charles Alvin (1910-1971), Cecilia Alice (1910-2005), Mary Estelle (1912-1990) and Margaret Ernestine (1912-1929). 

   Having earned his law degree in 1903 Seal would open a law practice in the town of Loogootee and from 1905-1910 served that community as city attorney. In 1910 he launched a candidacy for Prosecuting Attorney of the 49th Judicial Circuit of Indiana and in November defeated Republican nominee Lewis C. McFadden by a vote of 4,703 to 4,337. Seal would be reelected in 1912 and served until January 1, 1915, being succeeded by Charles Mears, who had earlier served as county attorney from 1898-1901.

  After leaving office Flavian A. Seal was the senior partner in the firm of Seal and Seal with his son Charles Alvin, operating out of Washington, Indiana. Flavian would also serve as a "special judge of the circuit court" for the counties of Martin and Daviess "many times" and was a member of both the Daviess County Bar Association and the Daviess County Hospital's Board of Governors.

   Seal continued to be active in the affairs of Daviess County until his death, which occurred at his home in Washington on March 2, 1959, two months short of his 80th birthday. His wife and six children survived him and following her death in 1969 Mary Graves Seal was interred alongside her husband at the St. Johns's Cemetery in Loogootee, Indiana.

  

Trible Dix Sutton (1902-1987)

Trible Dix Sutton, from the 1966 Virginia House of Delegates composite photo.

    The following profile takes us to Virginia and one Trible Dix Sutton, an attorney who served three terms as Henrico County's representative to the Virginia State House of Delegates. Like Treffle G. Levesque (profiled a few days ago), Sutton's name was located via the 1967-68 edition of "Who's Who in American Politics". While very little exists online in regards to Sutton's life and time in politics, his brief biography in "Who's Who" helped out significantly in terms of gathering information!

   Born in Henrico County on May 24, 1902, Trible Dix Sutton was the son of John Trible and Florence Dix Sullivan. Inheriting his unusual first and middle names courtesy of his parents, Sutton would attend the University of Richmond from 1919-1921 and between 1921-1927 worked as a clerk in the accounting department of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (this according to the previously mentioned Who's Who In American Politics, 1967-68.) He married in Hanover, Virginia on September 19, 1922, to Bessie Bertha McAllister  (1903-1996). The couple later had three children, Howard Trible (1926-1995), Dorothy May (born 1928), and Edward Dix (died in infancy in 1936).

   Sutton began the practice of law in 1928 and would continue in this profession both before and after his time in state government. In addition to practicing law, Sutton was active in several religious and fraternal organizations in Virginia, being a secretary of the Virginia Baptist Board of Missions, moderator of the Dover Baptist Association, and a past master of the Glen Allen Lodge #131 of Free and Accepted Masons. A longstanding member of both the Virginia State and Richmond Bar Associations, Sutton also chaired the Henrico County Democratic Committee for a time. He would also author the genealogical work "The Suttons of Caroline County, Virginia" and in 1941 saw it published by the Richmond Press.

   Elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in November 1963, T. Dix Sutton took his seat at the start of the 1964-66 legislative session and would be named to the house committees on Counties Cities, and Towns, Officers and Offices at the Capitol, and Public Institutions and Welfare. As a candidate for reelection in 1965, Sutton faced an uphill battle, losing the Democratic primary in July to contested election returns. Dr. William Ferguson Reid, a prominent Richmond surgeon who won a court order placement on that year's ballot, became the Democratic candidate for the legislature and hoped to become the first African American elected to the state house since reconstruction. Even though he lost the primary, T. Dix Sutton launched a candidacy as an independent and on November 4th won the election as a write-in candidate.

From the American Jewish Outlook, September 1964.

   During the 1966-67 term, Sutton would sit on the committees on Enrolled Bills, Welfare and Game and Inland Fisheries. He left the legislature at the end of that term and in November 1971 was returned to the house for a third term. Elected as an independent, Sutton served on three new committees during this session, those being Claims, Health Welfare and Institutions, and Militia and Police. 

   Sutton's third term concluded in 1973 and in 1975 was an unsuccessful candidate for the Virginia State Senate's 34th district. After many years of public service to Henrico County Trible Dix Sutton died on March 27, 1987, at age 84. He was survived by his wife and two children and was interred at the Forest Lawn Cemetery and Mausoleum in Richmond. 

Trowbridge Clark Egleston (1857-1925), Trowbridge Hyer Ward (1851-1900)

Portrait courtesy of  www.cityofcaldwell.com

    The state of Idaho takes center stage in the following write-up on Trowbridge Clark Egleston, a resident of both Ohio and New York who found his political and business fortunes in the American Northwest. One of the first political figures from Idaho to receive a profile here on the site, Egleston served as Mayor of Caldwell, Idaho for one term beginning in the mid-1890s. 

   Born in Madison, Ohio on June 19, 1857 (or 1856, depending on the source) Trowbridge Clark Egleston was one of three children born to Russell Searle (1816-1912) and Elizabeth Trowbridge Egleston (1828-1916). A Presbyterian minister, Russell S. Egleston is recorded as having preached in both Ohio and Connecticut and would later remove to Orleans County, New York with his family. Trowbridge attended both the Oberlin College and Cornell University, later being employed at hardware businesses in both Albion and Buffalo, New York. Egleston would leave this employ to take work as a traveling salesman for the Cambria Iron Co. of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, remaining with this company for four years. Egleston eventually left the Cambria Iron Co. and headed for Missouri, where he took similar work with the Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis.

   Trowbridge Egleston married in 1878 to fellow Ohio native Sarah B. Mann (1855-1929) and later became the father to two daughters, Florence Egleston Sebree (1879-1940) and Ethel E. After several years devoted to salesmanship Egleston and his family relocated to Caldwell, Idaho, where in 1892 he purchased a mercantile store that had been established by Frank Coffin nearly a decade previously. As head of the firm (which would later be known as the T.C. Egleston and Co., Ltd.) Egleston was noted by the Illustrated History of the State of Idaho as being a "wholesale and retail dealer in hardware, stoves, tinware, groceries, provisions and farm machinery", and occupied a store that was "forty by one hundred and twenty-five feet in dimensions."

  With his name firmly established in the Caldwell business community, Egleston entered political life in 1894 when he became a Republican candidate for Mayor of Caldwell. He would win the election and served in that capacity for one term in 1895, being noted as "having taken a considerable interest always in public affairs and looking ever to the welfare of his city and country."

   In the years following his mayoralty Egleston continued to be active in Caldwell politics and business, and in 1903 was tapped by then Governor John Tracy Morrison to succeed Rees H. Davis as State Commissioner of Immigration, Labor, and Statistics. During his term in office, Egleston compiled a state "irrigation census" for Idaho, noting in May 1904 that the "state has 2,422 miles of main irrigation canals" and that "the cost of construction of these canals was $5, 446,180."

    Following his leaving the office of immigration commissioner Egleston and his wife left Idaho and relocated to Colorado, being recorded as residents of Denver in the 1910 census. They would later move to Pasadena, California, where in 1924 Trowbridge is recorded as residing at 1484 East California Street. On August 10, 1925, Trowbridge Egleston died at age 68 and was interred at the Mount Albion Cemetery in Albion, New York, the burial location of both his parents. Egleston's wife Sarah and daughter Florence would also be buried here following their deaths in 1929 and 1940.

From the San Francisco Call, June 3, 1900.

   Another "Trowbridge" who made his name known in public life was Trowbridge Hyer Ward of California. A native of Wisconsin, Ward was born in that state on September 25, 1851, a son of John Sherrill and Anna Hyer Ward. A few years after his birth the Ward family relocated to California, where Trowbridge would study law under the tutelage of his father.

  In 1869 the 18-year-old Ward achieved his first taste of political life, being appointed as an Assistant U.S. Assessor for the 4th District of California.  He would serve two years in that post, resigning in 1871 to take on the position of Assistant Register of the U.S. Land Office at Susanville, California. Ward would later learn the trade of surveying, later being appointed as a Deputy U.S. Surveyor in the late 1870s. In 1880 he was tasked with surveying for the Sierra Flume and Lumber Company, superintending construction work in the counties of Butte, Plumas, and Lassen.

   Ward had married in March 1873 to Willietta Edwards (1854-1930), with whom he would have six children. The family would remove to Los Angeles County in 1884 and shortly thereafter Ward was appointed as a deputy county treasurer and secretary of the Los Angeles County Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce. Ward would be elected as Los Angeles County Clerk in 1890 and served four years in that office. 

   In 1894 he became the Republican candidate for Clerk of the California State Supreme Court, and in the November election defeated Democratic candidate Peter McGlade by a vote of 120,007 to 89,542. Ward served as clerk until 1898 and afterward returned to surveying. A prominent Masonic leader in California, Ward had served as a Grand Master for the Knights Templar in 1897 and after his death at age 49 on June 2, 1900, was memorialized in a masonic ceremony in San Francisco. He was later cremated, his ashes being inured at the San Francisco Columbarium.

Treffle George Levesque (1896-1977)

Treffle G. Levesque, from the Nashua Telegraph, May 5, 1969.

    Anyone (politically inclined or otherwise) with a first name like "Treffle" is worthy of more than just a few descriptive lines, and in the case of Treffle George Levesque ( a two-term New Hampshire state representative), several newspaper archives have yielded a fair amount of information that will make my job of writing about him slightly easier! Unlike 90% of the folks profiled here, Mr. Levesque's unusual name wasn't discovered online but was instead located via the 1967-1968 edition of Who's Who In American Politics, a recent purchase from a local book sale. This work has helped field nearly thirty new oddly named persons, some of which will make their way onto the site here.

  The story of this oddly named New Hampshire native begins with his birth in the city of Nashua on August 3, 1896. The son of Joseph M. and Clara April Levesque, Treffle G. Levesque's education took place in the Nashua school system and following the completion of schooling was employed by the J.F. McElwain Co., a shoe manufacturing business noted as being "the largest employer of labor in New Hampshire." He married his first wife Marie Brodeur in Nashua and would later have four children: J. Gerard, Paul, Estelle, and Elizabeth.

   Both before and after his time in state government Levesque was a member (and past Governor) of the Nashua Moose Lodge and in May 1969 was honored by that organization, receiving the Pilgrim Degree of Merit. Levesque is noted as being "the first Nashuan to gain the honor" and in addition to Moose Lodge activities was a member of the Fraternal Cribbage League, becoming president of that organization in 1967.

   In November 1964 Treffle Levesque won election to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives from Nashua's seventh ward, garnering 1534 votes. He would be reelected in November 1966, serving until the close of the session in January 1969. Widowed in the mid-1950s, Levesque remarried first to Viola Duchesnes, who died in 1965. He remarried again in 1966 to Lena Dubray Doyle, and following her passing in 1972 he remarried to Blanche Berube (1898-1991), who would survive him upon his death, which occurred at a Nashua hospital on March 19, 1977.  A burial location for Levesque is unknown at this time but is presumed to be somewhere in the Nashua vicinity, where he had lived for all of his life.

                    Treffle Levesque (located on the extreme left), from the Nashua Telegraph, Dec. 5, 1975.