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Progressive Men of
Iowa
1899
 CARR,
Edward M., is a native of New York; born June 28,
1850, in Cattaraugus county. John Carr, his
father, was born in Ireland and came to this
country when quite young. He became a prosperous
farmer in New York state, and was a soldier in the
Mexican war. He married Anna Keane in New York
city, who was a well educated lady, and a sister
of Captain Keane, of the British navy.
In 1856 the family
removed from New York to Iowa and located on a
farm in Buchanan county. At that
time the county was very new and there were no
school facilities near them, but his mother, who
was a ripe scholar, taught him the rudiments of a
good education in their Iowa prairie home. Afterwards
he attended several winter terms of a district
school, and the graded school at Independence,
helping his father on the farm summer seasons.
This he continued to do until he was 17 years of
age, when he began teaching school, giving the
very best satisfaction wherever he was employed.
In April, 1871, be entered the State university at
Iowa City, and three days before attaining his
majority graduated from the law department,
receiving the degree of bachelor of laws and a
certificate of admission to practice before the
supreme court. Immediately thereafter he located
at Manchester and became a member of the law firm
of Griffin, Crosby & Carr. This partnership
lasted until 1875, when he aided in establishing
the Manchester Democrat. In 1877 Charles E.
Bronson and himself became sole owners and editors
of the paper. Messrs. Bronson & Carr have been
partners since that date in nearly all their
business enterprises. A lucrative law practice has
enabled the firm to purchase, among other things,
a large stock farm near the town, where some good
horses and choice herds of Shorthorns and Jerseys
are kept. Mr. Carr is a director of the First
National bank or Manchester, and is identified
with several other business enterprises in the
place.
Ever since he commenced
the practice of law, Mr. Carr has taken an active
interest in politics, and, during that time, has
attended, as a delegate or alternate, nearly every
national and Iowa state convention held by his
party. For nearly a score of years he has served
continuously upon political committees, but has
never sought or desired a political office for
himself, and, with the exception of a few
positions which did not interfere with his law and
editorial work, he has refused to allow his
friends to nominate him for any place Although at
all times an uncompromising democrat, his
political battles have been waged in such a spirit
of fairness that, at no time, has he forfeited the
confidence or respect of those who were opposed to
him.
Reference to a few
instances will show the extent of this feeling. In
May, 1879, Governor Gear commissioned him "major
and judge advocate of division, Iowa National
guard," at that time one of the most prominent
positions in the Iowa militia. This
appointment came without solicitation, or even
knowledge on his part that such a step was
contemplated. And, again, about eighteen years
ago, the republican judge of his district
appointed him a commissioner of insanity, an
office which, through successive appointments, he
still continues to hold. But it was not until the
city election of 1891, in his own town, that he
was made the recipient, in a small way, of about
as gracious a compliment as is ever passed "over
the garden wall" of politics. Manchester has
always been a republican stronghold. Twenty years
ago the vote of that party was nearly unanimous,
and even now its supporters out-number the
democrats nearly two to one.
Notwithstanding this, Mr. Carr's neighbors,
who know him as a wise adviser and able defender,
laid aside their politics long enough to
unanimously elect him to the office of city
attorney, a position which he continued to hold
for three successive terms. This much can be said
of Mr.
Carr: He has made a success of every
business he has undertaken and has given good
satisfaction in every position of trust which he
has held. Mr. Carr was permanent chairman of the
democratic state convention, held in Dubuque in
1896, and secretary of the democratic state
committee in the memorable campaign of that year,
and, on account of the illness of the chairman,
almost the entire burden of the work was thrown
upon him.
He was married to Miss
Emma Preussner, October 18, 1873. His only son,
Hubert Carr, is now 21 years of age, and married
to the youngest daughter of Hon. Lore Alford, of
Waterloo.
 KENYON, Willard Gibbs, one
of the prominent citizens of Manchester, is a
native of New York. He was born in Jefferson
county, near Sackett's Harbor, August 3, 1836. His
father, John Kenyon, was a farmer, and was born in
Vermont in 1808. He was the youngest of a large
family, all of whom moved to Jefferson and Oswego
counties, N. Y., and became farmers, when that
part of the state was very new. They were
industrious, sober and law-abiding citizens and
usually lived to a good old age. The mother,
Sophronia Jenne, was born in Jefferson county, N.
Y., in 1818. Her grandfather came from England to
America and her father was a brave soldier in the
war of 1812.
Willard's early education was limited
because of his having to assist his father with
the farm work, but he attended the district school
for several winters. In 1857 he started west and
May 12th reached Dubuque, Iowa, with only a few
shillings in his pocket. He secured work in the
wholesale grocery house of Munn, Clough, Merriam
& Tucker, who were all from his own state of
New York. Later he was in the employ of Smith
& Stevens, manufacturers of confectionery, and
he remained in Dubuque for nearly three years.
Early in the year 1860 he started for Colorado,
and while on his way, at a point in Kansas,
opposite to the city of St. Joseph, he saw the
first railway train which entered that state.
Having contracted rheumatism by working in the
mines he returned in December, 1862, to
Manchester, Iowa, and opened the first exclusive
grocery store in that town. About two
years after his return from Colorado he had a
chance to sell his claim in Lake Gulch and sent to
his attorney a deed of the property for that
purpose. The attorney died soon after getting the
deed and the administrator of his estate sold Mr.
Kenyon's claim for $20,000 and kept the money, he
never being able to recover a
dollar.
Mr. Kenyon started in life as a democrat
but the war of the rebellion made him a republican
and he has remained with that party until this
day. He has never held any office or allowed his
name to go on a ticket as a candidate. He is a
Mason of long standing and a member of the
Methodist church. He was married December 31,
1862, to Mary Elizabeth Marvin, and they have
three children: Annie R., born January 21, 1864;
Harry M., born May 22,1873, and Mary E., born July
18, 1876.
In February, 1896, Mr. Kenyon sold his
grocery business to Messrs. Cobb & Cobb, and
he is now president of the Manchester Lumber
company and takes an active part in the management
of the business. Mr. B. H.
Keller and W. G. Kenyon laid the first sidewalk in
Manchester. It consisted of two planks, one foot
apart, where now stands substantial brick blocks
and cement walks.
 NORRIS, William Henry, of
Manchester, is a native of Massachusetts, although
he came to Iowa as early as 1861. He has
been prominent in political affairs of the state
for a number of years, having been elected a
delegate to the republican national convention at
Chicago in 1884; more recently a member of the
Twenty-fourth General Assembly, and in 1890, a
member of the state central committee. This position
he occupied for four years and during the last two
was chairman of the executive committee. In 1894
he was chosen a member of Governor Jackson's
staff, with rank of lieutenant colonel, and served
in that capacity during the governor's term of
office.
Mr. Norris was born at
Stoneham, Mass., February 3, 1857, and is of
Scotch Irish descent. His father, Thomas Norris,
was a farmer, and in 1861 removed to Delaware
county, Iowa, with his family. In 1864 he removed
to Linn county. William secured his early training
in the public school and completed a course of
study at a business college in Davenport. From
there he went to Cornell college and finally to
the State university, where he graduated from the
law department in 1882. Here he was chosen by the
faculty as one of ten members, out of a graduating
class of about 130, to represent the class in the
commencement exercises. One year after graduation
he chosen by the faculty as one of ten members,
out of a graduating class of about 130, to
represent the class in the commencement exercises.
One year after graduation he was chosen a member
of the examining committee, selected to pass upon
the fitness of the members of the class of 1883,
for graduation, and in 1892 was again selected by
the supreme court of Iowa to act as a member of
this committee. While a student at Iowa City he
was a member of " Irving Institute, " one of the
old literary societies of the university. Mr.
Norris commenced the practice of law in 1882,
locating at Manchester, and soon after formed a
partnership with Judge A. S. Blair, with whom he
was associated for a number of
years.
In 1893 Judge Blair was
elected district judge and Mr. Norris associated
himself with George W. Dunham. Although actively
engaged in the practice of law, he is a director
in the First National bank ofManchester, and is
interested in many other enterprises. Prior to
1891 Mr. Norris held the office of city solicitor
for two terms and that year he was elected mayor
of Manchester, which position he resigned when
elected to the legislature. While a member of the
Twenty-fourth General Assembly he was made
chairman of the house committee on appropriations,
an unusual honor for a first term member. At
this
session of the
legislature he introduced the Australian ballot
bill which was passed and became the law of the
state. Mr. Norris is a prominent Mason, having
taken all the York rite degrees, and the
Scottishrite up to and including the thirty-second
degree, being a member of DeMolay Consistory No.
1, located at Clinton. He is a "Shriner," K. of P.
and a member of the I.
O. O. F. He has been master of Manchester
Lodge No. 165, A. F. and A. M. H. P. of Olive
Branch Chapter No. 48, R. A. M.; E.
Com. of Nazareth Commandery No. 33, K. T., and is
now grand patron of the Iowa Grand Chapter, O. E.
S., and grand captain-general of the Grand
Commandery of Iowa Knights Templar.
March 15, 1886, Mr.
Norris was married to Martha B. Toogood, of
Manchester.
They have three children, Carleton Howard,
born July 2, 1887, Laura Marie, born August 16,
1889, and Thomas Toogood, born June 21, 1898. Mrs.
Norris has always taken an active interest in club
and society affairs. She is a member of the
P. E. O.
sisterhood and has been president of the local
chapter of Manchester. She
is now P. W. Matron of
Orient Chapter No. 15, Order of
the Eastern Star.
 SEEDS, Edward P., former
associate justice of the supreme court of New
Mexico, and professor of law in the State
University of Iowa, was born in Wilmington, Del.,
on August 1, 1855.
His father, William H.
Seeds, was of a family that had been identified
with the history and development of Wilmington,
Del., for nearly a century. Commencing life as a
carpenter, William H. Seeds
availed himself of the opportunities then afforded
by the new west, and early removed to Manchester,
Iowa. Here, after a few years, he accumulated
means and engaged in the banking business, In
which he continued to be interested until his
death. Sarah T. Paxson, whom he married, came of a
good, old Quaker family, of eastern Pennsylvania.
An uncle of hers was one of the executors of
Stephen Girard's will, and a cousin, Edward
M.
Paxson, was for a score of years chief
justice of
Pennsylvania.
Edward P. Seeds was
educated in the public schools of Manchester and
at the State University of Iowa, graduating from
the law department of the University in June,
1877. His early tastes may be judged by the fact
that, when about 15 years old, he worked out poll
tax on the public road for two days in order to
secure money to buy a copy of " Mill's Logic, "
which his father had refused to buy him. After
grad-uating he began his practice of law with
Calvin Yoran, of Manchester, remaining with him
for three years, and afterwards practicing alone
for two years. Then he went into the railway
postal service and continued until 1885, when Mr.
Cleveland displaced him and appointed a
democrat.
Mr. Seeds then returned to the practice of
law, at Manchester, and was soon after elected
city solicitor, which position he held until he
resigned, during his second term, to become state
senator for Delaware and Buchanan counties in the
Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies.
He resigned this
position in August, 1890, to become associate
justice of the supreme court of New Mexico, a
position to which he was appointed by President
Harrison, upon the recommendation of Senator
Allison and Col. D. B. Henderson. He was judge of
the First judicial district, with headquarters and
residence at Santa Fe, the capital, and served for
the full four-years' term. Before the termination
of his official term, Mr. Cleveland again became
president, and an unsuccessful attempt was made by
some of the judge's opponents to have him removed.
In 1890 and 1891, during his judicial term in the
supreme court, some election cases which came
before Judge Seeds attracted wide attention and
produced considerable excitement locally. The
democratic county commissioner of Santa Fe and
Taoso counties undertook to control the result of
the election for territorial legislators by
refusing to canvass the vote, in a strong
republican precinct, upon a technicality. The
commissioners were summoned before Justice Seeds
to show cause why they should not count the whole
vote. After hearing the case the court ordered the
commissioners to canvass the whole vote, and, upon
their refusal to do so, committed them to jail for
contempt. They had no sooner been imprisoned than,
upon an order signed by three justices of the
peace, sitting as a court, they were liberated by
the sheriff, under alleged authority given by a
territorial statute. This was a seeming conflict
of authority between local and federal courts, and
was finally appealed to the United States supreme
court, which sustained the decree of Justice
Seeds.
At the expiration of his term, Judge Seeds
returned to Manchester, where his family had
preceded him, with the intention of visiting for a
while and then returning to the west. The
unexpected death of his father, shortly afterward,
caused a change in his plans and he remained in
Manchester.
In 1895 he was elected professor of law in
the State university.
On December 6, 1877, Judge
Seeds was married to Miss Willa Holmes. She is a
native of Kingston, N. Y., and the families of
both her father and mother are known and honored
in New York and the New England states. They have
two children: Sarah Ethel, born October 23,1878,
who is now at Oberlin college in Ohio, and Bertha
Willa, born May 24, 1882.
 TIRRILL,
Hon. Rodney W., department commander of Iowa, G.
A. R., is a native of New Hampshire. His father,
Timothy Tirrill, and his mother, whose maiden name
was Mary Drew, were born in the same state, where
they grew up and were married. In 1850 they
removed to Wisconsin, locating first at Prairie Du
Sac, and later at Lodi, where the mother died in
1866 and the father in 1880.
They were plain, substantial people,
whose lives were passed in the peaceful avocation
of agriculture. He was a
man of considerable public note, however, and
conspicuous for his acquaintance with the great
men of his day, as well as his work for the
abolition of slavery. As an illustration of the
interest he took in the promulgation of
anti-slavery doctrine the instance may be related
where he drove forty miles to see Fred Douglass
and Drevail upon that gentleman to return with him
and deliver a lecture in the community where Mr.
Tirrill resided. This was shortly after Douglass
was freed, and so strong was the sentiment or
prejudice against the negro, that no church or
public building could be obtained in which to hold
the speaking. But Mr. Tirrill was not to be
outdone. He threw open the doors of his own home
and the lecture was delivered. To the subject of
this sketch the distinguished freedman some years
ago said, with considerable
emotion:
"Timothy Tirrill was one of my first
benefactors and as good a friend to the colored
race as has ever
lived."
Hon. Rodney W. Tirrill is the third
child of a family of nine. He was born December
22,1835, in Colebrook, N. H., where he lived until
15 years of age, removing to Wisconsin with his
parents at that time. To a common school education
was added a scientific and literary course in the
Wisconsin State university, and then, under the
direction of his father, be began the study of
law. When he was on the point of being admitted to
the bar the war broke out and, for the time,
changed all his plans for the future. He enlisted
in October, 1861, in Company F, Twelfth Iowa
Infantry, and going immediately to the front, saw
his first active service at Ft. Donelson, which
was followed by the more serious engagement at
Shiloh. He was wounded in the last named battle
while his brigade was being taken prisoners. This
was about 6 o'clock in the afternoon of the first
day, Sunday, and he was left on the battle field
until the next Tuesday morning at 3 o'clock,
before being removed to the hospital boat. He was
then sent to the Mound City, 111., hospital, where
he remained for six weeks, and as the wound in his
thigh proved stubborn, because of neglect when
first inflicted, he was given a furlough. The
injury proved more serious than was first
supposed, and he was accordingly discharged
January 3, 1863.
In 1863 Mr. Tirrill was elected
superintendent of schools of Delaware county, at
which time he settled permanently in Manchester,
and, in addition to his duties as superintendent,
turned his attention to real estate, insurance,
loans and the securing of pensions for soldiers
and their heirs. The official position he held for
four years, declining a re-election in 1867, and
the other lines he still follows. It has
been one of the settled rules of Mr. Tirrill, not
to sacrifice the fruits of his labors for the
uncertainty of political honors, yet it could
hardly happen that a man of his talents should not
have been called on to fill some positions of
public trust. He was a
member of the school board of Manchester for
twenty-one years, refusing further election, and
has in no small measure contributed to the
educational interests of the county. While county
superintendent, he introduced the first map
drawings, and in many other ways rendered signal
service.
In the fall of 1879, without
solicitation on his part, Mr. Tirrill was
nominated by acclamation for the state senate, was
elected and served for four years. He declined a
re-nomination. Representing a district where the
dairying interests had reached considerable
proportions, his mind was early drawn to the
necessity for the passage of certain measures for
the protection of that industry, and one of his
first acts was the drafting of a bill requiring
that all packages of oleo margarine in the state
be branded as such; and he succeeded by his
personal efforts and influence in having it
enacted into a law, which from all information he
has been able to obtain was the first law of the
kind ever enacted in any state of the nation. He
served on the committees on schools, congressional
districts, insurance, suppression of intemperance,
fish and game, the relocation of the girls'
department of the state reform school,
penitentiary and boys' reform school.
He was married December 30, 1860, to
Miss Eliza J. Weeks, then of Delaware county, this
state, but a native of Massachusetts. She is a
lady of fine literary attainments, having
matriculated for a two-years course in
the State university at the same time her husband
entered upon a course of similar length in the law
department of that institution. While he was
securing the degree of B. L. she was earning
honors in German, French and English literature.
Two children were born to them, a son and
daughter, L. Claire and John R. W., but both were
taken by death in
1878.
Mr. Tirrill is a thirty-second degree
Mason, an Odd Fellow and a member of the G. A. R.
He was elected department commander for Iowa G. A.
R. in 1898.
 WILSON, Andrew Gordon,
president of Lenox college, at Hopkinton, comes of
Scotch-Irish lineage, on both his father's and
mother's side. Rev. James L. Wilson, his father,
one of the pioneer Presbyterian ministers of Iowa,
was born in York county, Pa., January 20, 1824. He
attended Muskingum college, Ohio, and graduated at
Jefferson college, Pennsylvania, in the class of
1851; he also graduated at the Theological
seminary at Allegheny in 1854. He preached for two
years in Indiana and for twenty-nine years in
different parts of Iowa, mostly in Jones and Linn
counties. He was prominently identified with
pioneer church and educational work in the
northeastern part of the state. In the spring of
1855, he was married to Ellen Gordon, also a
native of York county, and educated at the Ladies'
seminary at Washington, Pa. The following year
they made their home in the then far western state
of Iowa, buying a farm at Scotch Grove, Jones
county. Mr. Wilson had the year before, with the
aid of the government surveyor, taken up two
farms, one in Sac and one in Harrison county.
At Scotch Grove, April
5, 1861, Andrew G. Wilson was born, and his life
has largely been spent in educational work in the
state of his birth. The country schools furnished
the first rudiments of his education and at the
age of 14 he entered Lenox college. From there he
went to Wooster university, Ohio, where he
graduated with the class of 1884, being one of the
honor men. After graduation he spent two years in
post graduate work at Wooster. President
Wilson was, during his college work, especially
interested in the literary societies of both Lenox
and Wooster. While at Lenox he was one of the
founders of the Clay Literary society, which is
still in a flourishing condition, and at Wooster
was of member of the Irving society, and one of
the founders of the Webster Debating club. At
Lenox he gave evidence of marked ability in
mathematics and oratory, winning cash prizes in
both these branches.
With the exception of
one term as county surveyor, President Wilson has
devoted his entire time to teaching and literary
work. His first teaching was done in the country
and town schools, but in 1884 he was elected
professor of natural science in Lenox college, and
continued in that position until elected president
of the same in 1897. Although a widely read and
thoroughly educated man, his especial studies have
been in the line of geology, and be is well known
among scientific men by his articles on that
subject in the American
Geologist.
President Wilson has
always kept thoroughly abreast of the times in
regard to his profession, having attended five
sessions of the National Educational association,
and been for four years a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science.
In 1894 he helped to
organize, and was elected president of, the Armour
Irrigating company, which has its headquarters at
Armour, S. D., and which is extensively engaged in
farming, stock-raising and fish
culture.
His first vote was cast
for the Iowa prohibitory amendment and he has
always voted the republican ticket. In 1890 he was
united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth McKean of the
class of 1889, of Lenox college. She is a daughter
of Capt. F. C. McKean, of the Ninth Iowa infantry.
Her uncle, Rev. J. W. McKean, was president of
Lenox college in 1863, when it was closed and he
went as captain of a company, organized from the
students of the school, to fight for his country
in the war of the rebellion. He was afterwards
made chaplain and died in the hospital at
Memphis.
President Wilson has
been a member of the Presbyterian church since his
20th year and for six years an elder in the
same.
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