Hanover Osgood Wells (1828-1898), Hanover Dickey (1775-1843)

Portrait courtesy of "The Descendants of Samuel Osgood".  

   Following three profiles on oddly named political figures from Connecticut we journey to the Granite State's northern neighbor New Hampshire to highlight the life of Hanover Osgood Wells, an obscure resident of Epsom who served a term in his state's house of representatives. A son of Capt. Samuel and Eleanor (Dickey) Wells, Hanover Osgood Wells was born in Epsom on May 29, 1828. Little information is available regarding Wells' early life in Epsom or his education, and he married in that town in February 1856 to Mary Sarah Brown (1834-1897). The couple were wed for over four decades and had five children, Edward Eugene (1856-1926), Ida (1858-1909), Etta (1860-1910), Clarence Oscar (1862-1937) and Alice (1874-1903).

   As a farmer in Epsom, Hanover O. Wells was deeded his father-in-law's 114-acre farm in 1870, continuing to operate it until his death nearly three decades later. Following his death in 1898 ownership passed to his sons Edward and Clarence. 

   Active in the religious and political life of Epsom, Hanover O. Wells was a founding member of the First Christian Society of Epsom in 1861 and entered into local politics in 1867 when he was elected to the Epsom board of selectmen. He would serve back to back terms in 1868-1869 and again from 1872-73, and served another term in 1885. In 1886 he was elected as Epsom's representative to the New Hampshire House of Representatives and during the 1887-89 term was a member of the committee on Claims. Little else is known of Wells' life after his legislative service. Widowed in 1897, he died one year after his wife Mary on August 25, 1898, in Epsom. Both Wells and his wife were interred at the Rye Cemetery in that town. 

From the Epsom Town Register, 1909.

  In addition to Hanover Osgood Wells' political service to Epsom, attention must also be given to Hanover Dickey (1773-1845), his maternal grandfather. Even more obscure than his grandson, Dickey served Epsom as a member of the board of selectmen on multiple occasions and was also a two-term state representative. Born in 1773, Hanover Dickey was the son of David and Rachel (Hanover) Dickey. He married in 1799 to Lydia Osgood (1781-1866) and the couple's marriage saw the births of three children, Eleanor (mother of Hanover Osgood Wells), David (1806-1877) and Hanover (1807-1873).

  Hanover Dickey served as first selectman for Epsom from 1819-1825 and was a board of selectmen member in 1817 and 1826. He was elected to the state legislature for the first time in 1818 (serving from 1819-21) and was returned to that body on two further occasions in 1829 and 1842. Dickey died in Epsom on May 13, 1845, aged 72, and was buried at the McClary-Epsom Center Cemetery.

Mayo Smith Purple (1860-1942), Mayo Cabell Brown (1874-1936)

From the East Hampton News, February 12, 1937.

  The name would be Mayo Purple. If that name conjured up images of a large jar of purple mayonnaise, you are not alone! Possessing a name that's guaranteed to give you a case of the giggles, Mayo Smith Purple served his first term in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1885 and is recorded as the youngest man to serve in that session of the legislature. Purple would be returned to government service nearly 50 years later for another stint in the legislature, this time serving four consecutive terms. The son of John Percival and Marian (Markham) Purple, Mayo Smith Purple was born on July 28, 1860, in Haddam Neck, Connecticut.

  Purple's early life saw him attain a limited education. He attended the East Greenwich Academy in Rhode Island until age thirteen and was later briefly tutored at the Wesleyan Univerity in Middletown. He would leave his studies behind to work on his family's farm, "dropping corn and hoeing corn" and later took employment at the Tibbals Company general store in Cobalt, Connecticut. After attaining maturity Purple and a fellow worker, Harvey Brainerd purchased the store and continued operations under the name Brainerd and Purple. After purchasing his partner's interest, Purple entered the lumber industry, selling lumber to brickyards in Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York. This business later foundered when an employee absconded with $6,000 worth of lumber, forcing Purple out of business.

   In the mid-1890s Purple joined the Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Co. of East Hampton, a bell foundry that still exists today. Purple's first years with the company saw him as a chore boy, tending a smelting furnace on company property. He would serve with that business for over three decades and following a stint as company secretary "assisted in the reorganization" of the Gong Bell Manufacturing Company, a bell and toy manufacturer also located in East Hampton. Purple would subsequently serve as that company's president for over two decades, and in addition to the above offices held the presidency of the Watrous Manufacturing Company, was the manager and treasurer of the East Hampton Bell Company, and in the mid-1920s served as the treasurer of the Bevins and Wilcox Line Company.

  Mayo S. Purple married in April 1883 to Gettine Louise Arnold (1861-1935), a resident of Haddam Neck. The couple's fifty-one-year marriage saw the births of four sons, Nelson Arnold (died in infancy), Norman William (1887-1946), Ansel Arnold (1892-1967), and Nathaniel Markham (1903-1987).

From the East Hampton News, October 2, 1942.

  One year after his marriage Mayo Purple made his first foray into Connecticut politics, winning election to the state house of representatives in November 1884. Taking his seat at the start of the 1885-86 session, Purple is acknowledged as the youngest man to serve in that session, being just 24 years old at the time of his election. This term saw him sit on the committee on the Sale of Lands and was also acting postmaster of Cobalt, Connecticut during his term. One should also note that Purple had some oddly named company during this session, his fellow representatives being Eleazur Bingham Kingsbury, Peleg Sherman Barber, and Victory Clark Beers (1832-1920), the last named being profiled on this site in July 2011.

  After leaving office in 1886 Purple returned to his earlier mentioned business dealings and through the succeeding years held several local political posts, serving as a registrar of voters for Chatham in 1899 and in 1919 served as East Haddam's commissioner for the superior court for Middlesex County. In November 1932 Purple won a second term in the Connecticut legislature, 48 years after his first. Garnering 684 votes on election day, Purple served on the committee on Manufactures during the 1933-35 session and was elected as a Democrat, having quit the Republican party after fifty years in July 1932. In a small write-up on his change of political faith featured in the East Hampton News, Purple remarked that

"He had been dissatisfied with the actions and policies of the Republican Town committee for some time and that it was only a ''square deal'' for himself to quit the party."

From the East Hampton News, July 15, 1932.

  In November 1934 Purple won a third term in the statehouse and was elected to his fourth term in 1936. The 1937-38 term saw him as the dean of the house, being the oldest man serving in that session, and this session also saw him come out as one of four Democrats opposed to President Franklin Roosevelt's court-packing plan. Purple won his fifth and last house term in 1938 and during the 1939-40 term sat on the committees on Humane Institutions and Public Health and Safety.

  After leaving office in 1940 Mayo Purple followed his favorite leisure activities (hunting and fishing) until health concerns forced him to become housebound. He celebrated his 81st birthday in July 1941 (being honored on the front page of the East Hampton News) and kept up to date with town affairs via newspapers, radio, and friends. Mayo Smith Purple died at his East Hampton home on September 29, 1942, aged 82. His wife Gettine had predeceased him in 1937 and he was later interred alongside her at the Lakeview Cemetery in East Hampton.  

From the East Hampton News, July 25, 1941.

From the 1919 Virginia House of Delegates composite.

   Another "Mayo" that made his name known in politics is Mayo Cabell Brown, a two-term member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Lynchburg. Born on February 17, 1874, in Nelson County, Virginia, Mayo Cabell Brown was the son of Robert Lawrence and Margaret Balwin (Cabell) Brown. Brown's early education took place in Osage City, Kansas, a private school in Charles Town, Virginia, and the Episcopal High School in Alexandria.

  After deciding upon a career in law, Brown studied at the University of Virginia, earning his law degree in the class of 1904. Soon afterward he opened a law practice and prior to his legislative service was the chairman of the Lynchburg draft board during World War I. Brown entered the political life of his state in 1919 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of sitting representative Preston H. Bailey. Brown's first term in the legislature saw him named to the committees on Claims; Finance; Military and Police; and Special, Private, and Local Legislation. He was returned to the statehouse for a second term, and from 1922-23 served on the committees on Militia and Police, and Moral and Social Welfare.

  Little is known of Brown's life following his legislative service, except that he remained a lifelong bachelor and by 1928 was serving a prison term for embezzlement! The particulars of the case as reported in the Roanoke World News note that:

"Brown, acting as an attorney for the Y.M.C.A., was entrusted with a check for $2,275.30 payable to him to settle a judgement against the association in a a suit for an automobile accident. It was charged that Brown used the funds for his personal uses."

 The events surrounding Brown's alleged malfeasance continued to snowball through 1928, with an order to revoke his law license being handed down by Judge Frank Christian of the Lynchburg Corporation Court. In June Brown (by then disbarred)  was indicted by a grand jury, and on June 12, 1928, pleaded guilty to embezzlement in the Lynchburg corporation court. He was handed a five-year prison sentence and was shortly thereafter taken to a Richmond prison to serve out his term.

From the Norfolk Ledger Star, June 12, 1928.

  No newspaper reports could be found detailing Brown's time in jail. He died sometime in 1936 and was later interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Leumas Hoyt Pease (1845-1919)

Portrait from the Hardware Dealer's Magazine, 1919.

  For many years a leading citizen in New Britain, Connecticut, Leumas Hoyt Pease was a one-term mayor of that city who devoted over five decades of his life to the Stanley Works, the famed tool manufacturer which later merged with the tool company Black and Decker. A former director, secretary, and treasurer of the Stanley Works, Pease also cultivated a reputation as a leading banker in Hartford County, serving as the vice president and director of three banks in that county. The firstborn son of Julius and Mary (Hotchkiss) Pease, Leumas Hoyt Pease was born on January 20, 1845, in Winsted, Connecticut.

  Removing to New Britain with his family at age two, L. Hoyt Pease (as most sources record him) attended school in that city and graduated from the local high school in 1862. In 1864 he took work at the Stanley Works in New Britain, with which he would be affiliated for the next five decades. Founded in 1843 as Stanley Bolt Manufacturing, the company manufactured door bolts, hinges, and other pieces of hardware from wrought iron, and by 1853 had incorporated as the Stanley Works. The company later designed and built hand planes, saws, chisels, screwdrivers, and other tools, and by the early 20th century had become an industrial powerhouse in New England. In 2010 the Stanley Works merged with Black and Decker and continues operations today, with over 50,000 employees.

   L. Hoyt Pease's early tenure at Stanley Works saw him as an office boy and after several years had advanced to paymaster. He was later placed "in charge of the sales department" for the areas of Boston and Philadelphia and in 1887 was elected as secretary and director of the company. After stepping down from that office, Pease served as company treasurer from 1905 until his death.

  Pease married in New Britain in 1880 to Julia Lillian Sawyer, to whom he was wed until his death. The couple would have three children, including Herbert Hoyt (1881-1967), Maurice Henry (1883-1983), and Dorothy Sawyer (1887-1980). Of these children, Maurice Pease would live to the age of 99, dying one month short of his 100th birthday in August 1983.

Portrait from the Iron Age, May 28, 1896.

  Active in other areas of New Britain business, L. Hoyt Pease was a founder of the Burritt Savings Bank in that city, which had been incorporated in 1889. Pease would serve as a director of that bank and upon the death of bank president Valentine Burt Chamberlain in 1893 succeeded to its presidency. He held that post until his death in 1919, and in addition to that post occupied the office of director of the Mechanic's National Bank and was vice president of the New Britain Trust Company.

  L. Hoyt Pease first entered the political life of New Britain in 1884, when he was elected to the city council. Following a two year term, he successfully ran for city alderman (serving from 1886-87) and was later chairman of the New Britain Republican Town Committee. In 1890 he announced his candidacy for mayor of New Britain and was later elected, serving until 1892. Pease's term was later favorably reviewed in his 1919 obituary, which remarked that he had:

"Clothed the office with an atmosphere of calm, dignity and judicial wisdom that elevated it above the plane of political position. He discharged the duties of the post graciously, always with the interests of New Britain in heart and mind, and his administration was regarded as a model stewardship, worthy to be patterned after by succeeding executives."

  One year after leaving office L. Hoyt Pease was elected to the New Britain school board, where he would serve for twenty-six years. During his lengthy tenure, he chaired that board's finance committee and died in office of heart failure on March 20, 1919, aged 74. He was survived by his wife and children and was later interred at the Fairview Cemetery in New Britain.

Pease's obituary from March 1919.

Fiske Holcomb Ventres (1906-1991)

From the Farmington Valley Herald, September 13, 1945.

   Two-term Connecticut state assemblyman Fiske Holcomb Ventres was for many years an insurance dealer in the city of Avon, and while there is a dearth of resources mentioning him, enough information has been found to compile a small biography for him. Born on June 30, 1906, in East Hartford, Connecticut, Fiske Holcomb Ventres was the son of Ernest and Essie (Holcomb) Ventres. 

   A student at the Holcomb School, Fiske Ventres graduated in 1920 and later took work as a traveling salesman with the Prentice Manufacturing Company of Berlin. Ventres would later decide upon a career in the insurance business, becoming a representative for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co. This line of employ later saw him stationed in Chicago, and by the mid-1930s had returned to Connecticut to serve as Fidelity Mutual's supervisor of agents for Northern Connecticut.

  Remarked as an "ardent and enthusiastic Republican worker", Ventres served as a member of the Avon town Republican committee, was a Grand Juror for Avon, and was a past president of the Avon Republican Club. In 1940 he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the Connecticut State Assembly from Hartford County, and in November narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Phillip Hewes, 557 votes to 521. Taking his seat at the start of the 1941-43 session, Ventres would sit on the house committees on Aviation and Insurance.

   In November 1942 Fiske H. Ventres won a second term in the statehouse, defeating Democrat Otto Mathews by a vote of 583 to 259. During the 1943-45 session, he chaired the Insurance committee and in December 1943 was appointed as executive secretary to state insurance commissioner W. Ellery Allyn. The mid-1940s proved to be a busy time for Ventres, and in addition to the above posts was named as Hartford County chairman for the Life Underwriter's War Bond Committee, Division of Salary Savings in 1942.

   Ventres would further aid the war effort by chairing Avon's U.S.O. War Fund Campaign in 1942 and 1945 began a year-long stint in Europe as an "accredited correspondent" for the Hartford Courant, visiting American and British occupied zones in Germany, as well as Switzerland, France, Austria, Belgium, Poland, and Italy. Following his return in August 1946, Ventres undertook a lecture tour throughout Connecticut where he detailed his experiences, as well as giving "his opinion on the significance of current political activities overseas."

   Fiske H. Ventres' life following his political service remains largely unknown. He would marry late in life at age 57, taking Verna May Lloyd (1922-2009) as his bride in 1963. Through the 1960s he continued in the insurance business and also dabbled in real estate and land sales. In the early 1980s, he undertook the development of a large tract of land in the vicinity of Taine Mountain, an area that, following a court suit that saw Ventres emerge successful, developed into a "subdivision of five lots." Ventres died in New Britain, Connecticut on March 1, 1991, aged 84 and was survived by his wife Verna. A burial location for both remains unknown at this time.

Anglo Saxon Pfrimmer (1898-1981)

From the Chariton Leader, October 26, 1954.

   One of the few men in recorded history to receive their name in honor of a period in world history,  Anglo Saxon Pfrimmer was a lifelong resident of Lucas County, Iowa, where he was a farmer and prominent citizen. Undoubtedly one of the more intriguing names to be featured here in recent months, Pfrimmer earns a spot here on the site due to his being a two-time candidate for the Iowa State House of Representatives in the early 1950s, running as a Democrat. One of twelve children born to Albert Clay (1860-1923) and Martha Ellen (Lipe) Pfrimmer (1866-1941), Anglo Saxon Pfrimmer was born in Lucas County on March 20, 1898.

  Bestowed the names Anglo Saxon upon his birth, the reasons as to why he received this name remain unknown. Anglo Saxons (a historic term) describes the group of Germanic people that resided in what is now Great Britain beginning in the 5th century and is also used as the name of a historical period in that area dating from Roman Occupation to the Norman Conquest during the 11th century.

   Referred to by most sources as Saxon Pfrimmer, little is known of his early life or education, excepting notice of his being a student at the Wren Hill school. In 1917 Pfrimmer left his native county for a brief residence in Minnesota, where he was employed on a farm. He married in Chariton, Iowa on January 31, 1921, to Edna Roe (1903-1995), to whom he was wed for sixty years. This lengthy union saw the births of five children, Sherman (1922-1998), Robert (1924-1991), Francis Marion (1926-2011), Macel Marie (1932-2010), and a daughter who died in infancy in 1925. Following their marriage, Pfrimmer and wife resided on his farm near Ottercreek Township, and he would follow farming for the remainder of his life. In 1941 he purchased a "farm of 80 acres from his mother's estate" and took up residence there, and would later purchase an additional forty acres of farmland.

  In addition to operating these farms, Saxon Pfrimmer gained distinction in Lucas County agricultural groups, being head of the Ottercreek 4-H Club, a director of the Lucas County Purebred Swine Breeders Association, and a member of the Lucas County Sheep Improvement Association. In 1952 Pfrimmer made his first run for political office, announcing his candidacy for the Iowa House of Representatives from Lucas County. Following his win in the June 2nd Democratic primary (where he polled 279 votes) Pfrimmer faced off against Republican nominee Raymond T. Pim, and throughout the latter part of 1952 election advertisements for Pfrimmer appeared in various Lucas County newspapers.

From the Chariton Leader, October 21, 1952.

From the Chariton Leader, June 15, 1954.

  When Lucas County voters went to the polls on November 4, 1952, it was Republican Raymond Pim who emerged triumphant, polling 3, 744 votes to Saxon Pfrimmer's 2,154. Not one to let a loss get the best of him, Pfrimmer announced in early 1954 that he'd be seeking the Democratic nomination for state representative for the second time, and his candidacy was profiled in a small write up in the January 26th Chariton Leader (shown below). Along with his background as a farmer and his previous candidacy, Pfrimmer would state that:

"I don't belive the people of Iowa approve of the actions of the last legislature. Certainly we can't continue to live on the state surplus as we are now--it's dangerously low. If elected I pledge my best efforts to represent all the people of Lucas County."

From the Chariton Leader, January 26, 1954.

   In a repeat of the 1952 contest, Pfrimmer's Republican opponent was again Raymond Pim, running for reelection. Unfortunately for Pfrimmer, the vote count on November 2nd again brought defeat, with Pim garnering 2, 427 to his own total of 1, 908. Following his loss, Pfrimmer returned to farming and in January 1957 was injured in a car accident in Lucas County that necessitated brief hospitalization for "head lacerations and shock." He continued to farm and reside in Lucas County until his death at a Des Moines hospital on April 1, 1981, at age 83. He was survived by his four children and wife Edna, who, following her death aged 92 in 1995, was interred alongside her husband at the Norwood Cemetery in Norwood, Iowa.

From the Chariton Herald-Patriot, April 9, 1981.

Coello Orland Boling (1867-1934), Coello Merriman (1846-1937)

From the Cedar County, Iowa Atlas, 1902.

   Another oddly named Iowan discovered in these past few months is Coello Orland Boling, a transplant to that state from Holmes County, Ohio. While little information could be located on Mr. Boling, his political qualifications (that of Prosecuting Attorney for Cedar County, Iowa) and his being an alternate delegate to the 1908 Republican National Convention, more than earn him a place here.

   Born in Holmes County, Ohio on August 28, 1867, Coello Orland Boling was the son of John and Harriet (Hoyman) Boling. At the age of two, he relocated to Cedar County, Iowa with his family and during his youth resided on a farm and attended school in the town of Stanwood. He would go on to study at the Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa and later studied law at the Northwestern University in Illinois, graduating in 1893. Two years following his graduation, he entered into a partnership with Robert Gordon Cousins in Tipton, Iowa. A prominent figure in his own right, Cousins (1859-1933) was a former Iowa state representative and in 1893 was elected to the first of eight terms in Congress from Iowa's 5th congressional district.

  Coello Boling began his political career in 1896 when he was elected as Prosecuting Attorney for Cedar County, and served in that post from 1897-1902. He married in June 1904 to Tipton native Mary MacNamara (1866-1944), who survived him upon his death in 1934. The couple would have two daughters, Mary Katherine and a daughter who died in infancy.

  In the years following his time as county prosecuting attorney, Boling served Tipton as its city solicitor for eight years and in 1908 was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in Denver that saw William Howard Taft nominated for the presidency. A former chairman of the Cedar County Red Cross chapter during WWI, Boling continued to practice law until a week prior to his death on June 20, 1934, at age 66. He was later interred at the Masonic Cemetery in Tipton.

 From the Muscatine Journal and News-Review, June 21, 1934.

Portrait courtesy of Find-a-Grave.

  Even more obscure than the preceding gentleman, Coello Merriman had fleeting involvement in the political life of his adopted home state of Minnesota, being elected to that state's house of representatives in the late 1870s. A son of Hyra and Lucinda (Marsh) Merriman, Coello Merriman was born in Friendship, Allegheny County, New York on December 2, 1846. His birth year is also variously given as 1848 and 1849. Little is known of his early life or education in New York, and by 1866 had relocated to Minnesota.

   A resident of Hennepin County early in his Minnesota residency, Merriman engaged in the insurance and real estate business and married on New Year's Eve 1871 to Julia Tomlinson (1848-1909). The couple's near four-decade marriage saw the births of several children, Clara Belle (1872-), Hyra L. (1875-1941), Sophronia "Frona" (1879-1972), Josephine Estelle (1882-), and Ralph Coello (1884-1921).

  By 1876 Coello Merriman was residing in Carver County and in that year was elected as a Democrat to the Minnesota House of Representatives. Serving in the session of 1877-78, Merriman's (whose first name is misspelled as Coellos in several legislative documents from the period) time as a state representative proved to be quiet, with notice given as to his introducing one bill "to provide for reduction in salary of judge of probate in Carver County" and serving on the committee on Public Buildings.

  Following his legislative service, Merriman was a resident of Watertown, Michigan in Sanilac County, where he is recorded as a druggist. The remainder of Merriman's life is equally as obscure, with little information available as to what he may have been up to in the years prior to his death. Widowed in 1909, Merriman spent the twilight of his life in Rooks County, Kansas, where he died November 3, 1937, his age being variously given as either 91 or 88. He was subsequently interred at the Woodson Cemetery in Rooks County.

Tuillar Jacques Davis (1864-1931)

From the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, November 28, 1931.

  This past August Iowa fielded a number of unusually named political figures, several of whom were profiled on the site in the latter part of that month. One of those discoveries not featured back in August is Tuillar Jacques Davis, a native Mainer who found distinction in Linn County, Iowa as a lumber dealer, banker, and leading Mason, amongst other activities. Davis earns placement here on the site due to his 1908 candidacy for the Iowa state senate, as well as being an alternate delegate to the 1928 Democratic National Convention from Iowa. Born in West Newfield, York County, Maine on July 26, 1864, Tuillar Jacques "T.J." Davis was the son of Albion K. and Octavia (Challis) Davis. 

   Removing to Iowa with his family at age 12, Davis and his family settled in Marion, where Tuillar attended public school. At age sixteen he left school to join the workforce, and in 1881 joined the staff of R.D Stevens' First National Bank of Marion. His time there extended six years, during which time he was a teller, and left in 1887 to join W.J. Collar in establishing a grocery store in Marion. Operating under the firm name of Collar and Davis, their store continued until 1889, whereafter Davis sold off his interest in the business. Tuillar J. Davis married in December 1887 to Nellie Elliott (1868-1911), with whom he had several children, including Esther Primrose (1891-1977), Laverna Elliott, Priscilla Mayflower, J. Elliott (1900-1976), and Donovan Albion (1907-1927). 

  Following his marriage T.J. Davis saw lucrative opportunities in Iowa's lumber industry, and, alongside his father-in-law, Johnstone Elliott, formed the Eliott and Davis Lumber Co. Their firm would be acknowledged as 

"One of the most important in Marion, being heavy dealers in lumber, coal, wood, tilling, etc. This firm does an extensive trade not only in Marion but throughout Linn County."

  After several years of partnership, Johnstone Elliott retired from the business in 1895, and in that year Davis took on J.C. Fulkerson as a partner, the firm continuing under the name Davis & Fulkerson Lumber Co. Fulkerson too would later retire and Davis continued operations under his own name.

   In addition to success with his lumber interests, Tuillar Davis' name became one of the most prominent in Marion business circles, and through the 1890s and 1900s added additional titles to his resume, including service as secretary-treasurer of the Young Men's Business Association of Marion, and president of the Marion Building and Loan Association. In 1894 Davis helped to organize the Farmers and Merchant's Bank in that city. In the year following he assumed the post of bank vice president, and remained connected to its operation until 1909.

From the Marion Sentinel, December 24, 1908.

From the Marion Sentinel, October 29, 1908.

   In 1908 Tuillar Davis made his first move for political office, announcing his candidacy for the Iowa State Senate from the 26th district. Remarked by the Marion Sentinel as a "worthy citizen" with "gentlemanly instincts", Davis' candidacy was featured prominently in the Marion Sentinel throughout the 1908 election year. Running as a Democrat, Davis' opponent that year was two-term Republican incumbent Willard Coldren Stuckslager (1869-1931). When voters went to the polls that November it was Stuckslager who won out, garnering 6,421 votes to Tuillar Davis' 4, 888. Following this win, Stuckslager would be elected to two further terms in the state Senate and was later named to the Iowa state board of education in 1915. 

   Despite his loss at the polls in 1908 Davis achieved a measure of consolation that year when he was named as president of the First National Bank of Marion, entering into office in January 1909. He continued in that role until his resignation in 1917, and for several years afterward dabbled in real estate. During WWI he served as a Liberty Loan drive director and member of the county examining board and returned to banking in 1921 when he accepted a position of the Federal Land Bank of Omaha, being its secretary for Linn and Jones County, Iowa.

  Long an active Mason in Linn County, Tuillar Davis was first initiated in the Molay Lodge in 1889 and would serve as grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Iowa in 1903. Davis was also a past master of the Marion Lodge No.6 of Free and Accepted Masons, a high priest in the Marion Lodge No. 10 of Royal Arch Masons, and a commander in the Patmos Commandry, No. 27 of the Knights Templar Lodge.

   Widowed in 1911, Tuillar Davis never remarried following his wife Nellie's death and suffered further tragedy in 1927 with the death of his twenty-year-old son, Donovan. In 1928 Davis was an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in Houston, Texas that saw New York Governor Alfred E. Smith nominated for the Presidency. Tuillar Jacques Davis died at his home in Marion on November 27, 1931, aged 67. He was later interred at the Davis family plot at the Oak Shade Cemetery in that city.

Davis (with fancy hat), from the Grand Lodge Bulletin of Iowa, 1902.

From the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, November 28, 1931.

Chipman Churchill Bull (1934-1996)

Bull during his 1984 congressional candidacy.

  We continue our stay in Maine to highlight the life and career of Chipman Churchill Bull, a longtime leader in Maine agriculture who had fleeting political notoriety in 1984 when he entered into the race for U.S. Representative from Maine, his opponent being then Congresswoman (and future U.S. Senator) Olympia Snowe. Nicknamed "Chip", Bull was for several years the executive director of the Maine Potato Council, a fact (given Bull's nickname) that gave this author a good laugh!

  Born in Washburn, Maine on September 5, 1934, Chipman Churchill Bull was the son of Ralph and Leilla Bull. A student in the public schools of that area, Bull graduated from the Washburn High School in 1952 and later attended Springfield College in Massachusetts and the University of Maine. For a period of two years, he served in the U.S. Army and in 1957 made his first foray into agricultural work, becoming a field reporter in Presque Isle for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS). He would quickly rise through the ranks of that organization, and by 1959 had been promoted to performance supervisor. 

  In June 1958 Chipman Bull married Ardis Carmichael (1938-2003), to whom he was wed for nearly 40 years. The couple would have four children, Mary Jo, Michael John, Matthew Joseph, and Melissa Jane.

  After three years as a performance supervisor with the ASCS Chip Bull advanced to a county office manager for the ASCS offices in Hillsboro and Coos County, New Hampshire. His time in that post would be brief and after a year returned to Maine, and following his return worked as an operations assistant and program specialist for the ASCS until 1968, when he was named as Maine state director for the ASCS. Bull's time in that post also proved to be short-lived, and upon Richard Nixon's presidential win in late 1968, he resigned.

   A few years following his departure from the ASCS, "Chip" Bull joined the Maine Potato Council, a body dedicated to overseeing the state's potato industry. By the following year, he had assumed the post of executive director of the Maine Potato Commission, and served in that capacity until his appointment in 1976 as Northeast area director of the ASCS in the administration of Jimmy Carter. This post would necessitate Bull's removal to Washington D.C. in 1977 and during his tenure oversaw "federal farm programs in 13 states."

Chipman C. Bull in 1984, from the Fort Fairfield Review.

  Through the remainder of the 1970s, Bull continued with the Department of Agriculture as a "senior executive" and briefly continued his work following Ronald Reagan's presidential win in 1980. Despite a long, successful career in agricultural work at both the state and national levels, Bull found himself in a quandary by the early 1980s, being referred to by the Washington Post as a denizen of the capital's "boneyard", or, to be more precise, a high paid Washington employee with few duties and plenty of free time. Bull would later remark that in his downtime he polished off several Robert Ludlam and Leon Uris novels and grew to be adept at finishing the New York Times and Washington Post crossword puzzles in short spans of time.

  This time period also saw Bull's government salary increase, an action that subsequently drew his ire. Acknowledging his own predicament and the government's touting of curbing wasteful spending, Bull remained on the job until resigning in March 1984, and in that year decided to return to Maine to launch his bid for the U.S. House of Representatives. Bull's candidacy would later receive support from Democratic Maine senators George Mitchell and Edmund Muskie, and the candidate himself later remarked:

"People asked why I would want a job that pays only $5,000 more than what I was making at USDA...Well, I feel things can be done in the legislative branch, and I think I know where the skeletons are at the USDA. I intend to be on the agricultural committee."

From the September 5, 1984 Old Town Orono Times.

    Bull's opponent in that year's congressional race was three-term incumbent Republican Olympia Snowe, who had earlier served several terms in the Maine state house and senate. When voters went to the polls that November it was an overwhelming win for the Republicans, with Snowe besting Bull by a wide margin, 192,166 votes to 57, 347. Following her win Olympia Snowe was elected to four more terms in the house of representatives and in 1994 won election to the U.S. Senate, where she would serve until her retirement in 2013.

  After his congressional defeat, Chipman Bull resided in both Maine and Florida, being a country club chef in the latter state. By 1991 he had returned to Washington D.C., and from 1991-1994 held the post of deputy postmaster and superintendent of mails for the U.S. Senate Post Office. He retired in 1994 and on January 29, 1996, died at a Virginia hospice of cancer at age 61. He was survived by his wife and children and a burial location for him remains unknown at this time.