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Progressive Men of Iowa
1899
 GORRELL, Hon.
J. R. Dr. Gorrell, who was a member of the state senate
from Jasper county in 1897, is his own biographer.
Although the silken skein of humor runs through and
through the doctor's story, the intent that much shall
be read between the lines is quite evident:
In the beginning, I was born.
The incident happened so long ago that I have quite
forgotten it, but I have the fullest confidence in the
statements of my mother, who has openly admitted being
present on the occasion. My mother always had a good
memory of some things, of which I am
one.
I was always an object of
special interest to my mother, because of my capacity
for everything in reach. To tell the truth, I was a born
sucker. As I was quite young at this time this frailty
ought to be excusable, especially as I was at a
disadvantage in beginning business for myself among
entire strangers, who talked in a strange
language.
Ohio has the honor of being
my birthplace-the state that boasts the motherhood of
other great men, also. When I was yet an infant I
persuaded my parents to remove with me to a Hoosier
wilderness, far from the maddening crowd, as it
were. With
possums for my playmates I grew up a genius, strong as
Hercules and as handsome as Apollo. My picture is ample
evidence of this, but even my face utterly fails to do
me justice.
My extraordinary advantages
of environment and exceptional beauty of form and
feature determined my parents to prepare me for a
ministerial career. I was accordingly sent to the
Presbyterian college at Fort Wayne, where I soon
absorbed the entire curriculum, which consisted of
Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,
Baxter's Saints' Rest and the Presbyterian Confession of
Faith-all books of rare interest and unequaled
humor. Soon
realizing the temptations of a theological career and my
inability to resist the same, I determined to pursue the
study of medicine. I graduated from the medical
department of the University of Buffalo in 1859, good
Dean Rochester kindly admitting that my class record was
incompatible with my early associations in the Hoosier
jungles.
From the spring of 1863 to
the close of the "late unpleasantness," I was giving
special attention to the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth
Indiana regiment, as surgeon, my efforts resulting in
the death or total disability of thirty-four percent of
the entire regiment. I happened to remain among the
sixty-six percent of the living. After looking
round for a congenial location for practice I settled in
Jasper county, Iowa, where the good people have since
kindly permitted me to remain. In 1892 I was sent to the
national convention of republicans at Minneapolis to do
what I could for Blaine and silver. My efforts in this
direction resulted later in the election of Grover
Cleveland. The next year I was sent to the state senate,
the single gold standard contingent since petitioning in
vain for my resignation.
My ancestral pedigree is
traced with difficulty through the long vistas of the
primeval past. I am the only one of the genus and
species that ever became preeminent. If my name means
anything to the paleontologist, it means that my
ancestors must have cracked cocoanuts in the wilds of
Borneo. Even the pronunciation of my name reveals a
strong guttural sound and an orthographical resemblance
to the names of the present denizens of that birthplace
of genus who saunter around among their grinning
neighbors dressed in a bobtail and a sickly
smile.
I have the hereditary honor,
through my mother, of being a lineal descendant of the
Scottish hero, Sir William Wallace. As Sir William
has been a long time dead, he is able to resent the
above implied reflection of a common ancestry. The Tam
O'Shanter inn, where the genial Robert Burns used to
drink Scotch toddy and see serpents, is still a family
heirloom and hereditament.
Everything that ever happened
worth mentioning has occurred since I was born. My birth must
have occurred under a lucky star. Taking into
consideration the wonderful happenings and the date of
their occurrence, it is evident that I must have lived
for about sixty summers-as the old maid would say. Of
course I could not be expected to remember all that has
occurred.
There was a set-back by a blunder of legislation
in 1873, from which we have not yet recovered. It was
done without my knowledge or consent. It continues
against my will and in spite of my protest. At one time in
my life, I felt like leaving a monument to my memory,
and I wrote a book. To be sure it would be published I
paid for it myself. Its success has been indeed
monumental. It made an awful pile, and still makes an
awful pile. Good people, to console me, have said many
lovely things about the book. They have said that it was
a thrilling and dramatic war novel and one that would
not make the world any worse for its having been
printed, even should it chance to be read. Several have
voluntarily told me that they read it entire without any
disastrous results. It contains some opinions for which
I am responsible, some truths for which the war was
responsible, and some pathos for which the facts were
responsible. All are tied together by a thread of my own
weaving that would seem homespun to the critic looking
for flaws, but old comrades seem to like it. I would not
think of taking advantage of this opportunity of
advertising it or I would tell you to send me fifty
cents for a sample copy of "Sins Absolved." You will
never get your sins absolved any
cheaper.
Taking it all in all, I am
proud of the record the world has made since I have
assisted in its direction. It. has become, for the first
time, a decent place in which to live. Slavery has been
forever abolished and material development has reached
its climax. Electricity has been harnessed and space
vanquished. Distance has been overcome and the human
voice has been borne by unknown force to distant
lands.
Human action has been photographed and reproduced
like a miniature puppet show. Photographs have
been conveyed by wire Gigantic telescopes have readily
brought us to a realization of the stars. The
spectroscope has demonstrated that some of the remote
nebulas are now being evolved into solar systems.
Scientific men, generally, have accepted the hypothesis
that the only difference between heat, light and
electricity, consists in the length of the waves in the
ether of space and that the sun is the great central
dynamo of our solar system. Solid bodies have been
penetrated by rays of wondrous light, and human ills,
once hidden from the view, have been exposed to
searching eyes. Chemistry has unlocked forces, analyzed
elements, formed new compounds, traced new effects and
made the science of medicine something more than the
plaything of the ignorant and the slave of the
superficial. The microscope has at last revealed the
causes of disease. The measly microbe is no longer
concealed and his comings and goings are mapped and
platted for the information of the
race.
Just to what extent I have
been responsible for all this, I will leave the
indulgent reader to determine, confident in the belief
that impartial history will give even the devil his
due.
VAN HAVESKERKE, Andrea was born in
the harbor of New York city, August 31, 1854, while his
parents were on a two-years' wedding journey, and little
thought their child would one day be a prominent
American citizen.
His father is Baron Jean
Louis Van Haveskerke, viscount of Leland, estate owner
and attache at the court of the king of Belgium at
Brussels, officer of the Legion of Honor, etc. His
family have been titled noblemen for 400 years,
distinguishing themselves in political and religious
wars, under the French and Spanish or Austrian
governments, always on the side of the Roman Catholic
church. The family has been recognized in French,
Austrian and Spanish courts as staunch and incorruptible
for the Flemish race. Although of the Catholic faith,
they fought unwaveringly against the Spanish-Austrian
yoke during the inquisition. His mother was Cecilia De
Lafoulllade; her ancestors were French noblemen, and
were liberal patrons of the arts.
As a child, young Haveskerke
was taught by a private tutor and afterwards was a pupil
of the Royal Atheneum at Antwerp. At the age of 4 years
he entered the conservatory of music in Antwerp, where
he was taught musical notation and sight-reading by
Professor Schermers, and violin playing by Prof. Victor Bacot.
The latter was a pupil of the celebrated violinist,
Chas. De Berlot, under whom Mr. Haveskerke was
afterwards a pupil. At the age of 14
he graduated from the conservatory of Brussels, having
completed all branches, including composition by
Director Petis, whom he considers the greatest theorist
of the age in music. When the Franco-Prussian war broke
out, young Haveskerke was attending the Catholic
university of Louvain, Belgium. He promptly joined the
French army, in com-pany with others of his countrymen,
and stood by the cause till after the surrender of Paris
and the fall of the commune, attaining the rank of
adjutant of the Chasseurs. The result of his devotion to
the French cause was banishment from his own country and
home. Coming to America, he made use of his unusual
musical talent and thorough education. Having had as
line a musical education as Europe affords, and learned
German French, Flemish, some Italian, Latin, Spanish,
Greek, Hebrew, and Arabian, he was well qualified to
support himself. In fact, his youth was spent almost
entirely in the company of tutors, for he lived at
school and saw his parents but two or three times in a
year. After a residence of a year and a half in New
York, he came to Independence, Iowa, where he taught
music in the convent of the Sisters of Mercy, and
organized a cornet band composed of young men who had
never played before. He next resided in Columbus
Junction, where he also taught music and organized a
band. Five
years later he came to Pella and took charge of Cox's
Light Infantry band, and taught music in Central
university.
After five years of hard work
there, he removed to Newton, his present home, where he
has been devoting his energies to educating the people
to a higher standard of music. The towns he has
worked in show that he has been successful in developing
a taste for the music of the masters, and he has been
handsomely remembered for his efforts, both by handsome
gifts and appreciative newspaper comments. His services
to the public have always been freely given, and thus he
hopes to lay up treas-ure in the world to come.
Professor Haveskerke is now organist of the Catholic
church in Newton, which is famous for its music and
orchestral accompaniment, said to be better than any in
the larger cities of the state. Since coming to America,
the young nobleman has supported himself, and takes
pride in doing so.
He was married October 24, 1886, to
Hattie Snyder, of Columbus
Junction. They had two children, one of whom died when 5
days old, and the other at the age of 7 years. Since
then they have adopted a 15-months-old child, which is
now 3 years old, and is cherished as a true offspring.
Professor Haveskerke is a member of the Newton Masonic
lodge, No. 59, and Gebal chapter, No. 12. He joined the
Congregational church a few years ago, but is not a
regular attendant.
 WINSLOW, Horace S., of Newton, ex-judge of
the Sixth judicial district, is a native of Vermont,
having been born in Pittsford, Rutland county, July 18,
1837. He is
a direct descendant, eight generations removed, from the
band of Pilgrim fathers who landed on the Massachusetts
coast from the Mayflower. His father, Elhanan Spencer
Winslow, was a farmer in modest circumstances, managing,
however, to give his large family of children a fairly
good education. His mother, Elmina Winslow, nee
Kingsley, was a native of Connecticut and a descendant
of the Robinson family of that
state.
Young Winslow attended the
common schools of his neighborhood, and the academy of
his native town and afterwards the seminary at Brandon,
Vt. Prom here he went to the State and National Law
school at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., graduating from the Ohio
State and Union Law college at Poland, Ohio. He was less
than 19 years of age at the time of his graduation. The
laws of Ohio required that an applicant for admission to
the bar should be 21 years of age, and his diploma under
those laws, entitled him to admission to the bar. His
face was as smooth as a girl's and he looked even
younger than he was. The situation
worried him and at last he laid his troubles before
Professor Leggett, afterwards General Leggett, who
taking out a pencil, wrote the figures "21 " on a piece
of paper, and handed it back to the boy saying, "Put it
in your shoe, and if anyone asks you about your age,
tell them you are over 21. The boy received his diploma
July 1, 1856, and was afterwards duly admitted to the
practice. At the graduation exercises, he was given a
place in the commencement law trial, the place of
honor.
Immediately after graduation,
Winslow started for Newton, reaching there July 5, 1856,
with only five cents in his pocket. On the first day
of September thereafter, he opened a law office and hung
out his shingle as a practitioner. In the spring of
1857, he formed a partnership with Thomas H. Miller,
which continued until the fall of 1862, Mr. Miller
enlisting as a volunteer in the war of the rebellion. In
1863 he formed a partnership with Hon. S. N. Lindley,
which continued until January 1, 1869, Judge Lindley at
that time having been appointed judge of the second
circuit of the Sixth district. In 1870, Col. J. W. Wilson became
his partner and this business arrangement continued
until Mr. Wilson's health gave way and he was compelled
to give up all professional work. During his many
years of professional life, he has occupied a prominent
position at the bar and it has fallen to his lot to have
charge of a greater number of cases of importance than
usually comes to the city
practitioner.
He was elected district
attorney in 1862 and served in that capacity for four
years. In
1868 he was elected judge of the second circuit of the
Sixth district, resigning however, at the end of one
year's service.
In 1874 he was elected judge of the Sixth
district, leaving the bench, after four years' service,
with the reputation of disposing of more business in a
given time, and doing it well, than any other judge in
the state.
He was one of the code commissioners to revise
and codify the laws; receiving his appointment from the
supreme court in 1894. Politically, he is and always has
been a republican.
He is a member of Newton Lodge No.
59, A. F. and A. M., of Gebal Chapter No. 12, R. A. M.,
of Oriental Commandery, No. 22, Knights
Templars and a charter member of Newton Chapter No. 100,
O. E. S. In
1877 he was elected grand high priest of the Grand
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Iowa, and served in that
office two years. In 1880 he was elected grand commander
of the Grand Commandery, Knights Templars, of Iowa, and
was in charge of the Iowa knights at the Grand
Encampment of the United States, held in Chicago, in
1880, at which 1,500 Iowa people were in attendance and
encamped on the lake shore. He is an Odd Fellow and has
served as the presiding officer of his local lodge;
being unable, however, to give it proper attention, he
some years ago took a clearance card from the
order.
Judge Winslow was married to Sarah E. Dunkle, at
Pittsford, Vt., November 7, 1858. They have two
children, Kate E., now the wife of J. F. Cavill, who is
now, December, 1898, steward of the Iowa State college
at Ames, and Jessie L., residing at home. He is a member
of the Congregational church.
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