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Progressive Men of
Iowa
1899
 LATHROP,
Henry Warren, of Iowa City, is a man well known to the
students of history of this state. He is the author of
the Life of Samuel J. Kirkwood, and is connected with
much of the history of Iowa City and the state since he
became a citizen of Iowa in 1847. Mr. Lathrop was born
in Hawley, Mass., October 28, 1819.
His father was Zephaniah Lathrop, a carpenter and
millwright, in moderate circumstances. His mother was
Tryphenia Field, a remote relative of Cyrus W. Field.
The founder of the family in this country was Rev. John
Lathrop, who came in 1634 from England and landed at
Plymouth, but settled in Scituate, Mass., afterwards
moving to Barnstable. He was educated
at Queens college, England, be-came a preacher in the
Established church, from which he seceded and joined the
Independents, preaching sometimes in the streets of
London, for which he, with about forty others, was
arrested and imprisoned under Charles 1. He remained in
prison two years, but his wife being taken with a fatal
sickness, he was permitted to see her. and after her
death was given the alternative of returning to prison
or leaving the kingdom. He chose the latter. He preached
at Barnstable and Scituate. Mr. Otis says of him: "Mr.
Lathrop was as distinguished for his worldly wisdom as
for his piety. He was a good business man and so were
all his sons, six in number. Wherever one of the family
pitched his tent that spot became the center of business
and land in its vicinity appreciated in value." One of
his sons was captain of a company of colonial troops and
served in the expedition against the Indian chief,
Ninignet.
Of the many preachers and teachers in the family,
the most noted was Rev. Joseph Lathrop, of West
Springfield (1731-1820). He preached sixty-two
consecutive years to one congregation and was a man of
unusual talents, good judgment and tact. The most noted
educator was Prof. John Hiram Lathrop (1799-1866), who
was a professor in Hamilton college, N. Y., and was
president successively of three state universities,
Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri. The Lathrops have been
a family of original and independent thinkers. It has
been said of the Rev. John Lathrop that during his many
years preaching be never required one of his members to
subscribe to a creed or sign a covenant. Faith in God, a
consistent endeavor to keep His commandments, a pure
life and a love for the brethren were the terms of
admission to his church; with these that member retained
his freedom of belief.
The present Mr. Lathrop's grand-father served as
a minute man in the army near the close of the
revolution, and during Washington's first administration
held the office of ensign in the Massachusetts militia,
his commission being signed by John Hancock, the first
signer of the Declaration of Independence, then governor
of the state.
The Lathrop family moved to Augusta, N. Y., in
1821 and there Henry W. was educated and grew to
manhood. He attended the common schools, and an academy
at Augusta, spent a year in a classical school near
Boston, studied law in the office of John Koon, in
Albany, and was admitted to the bar in Iowa City in
June, 1847. His certificate of admission, written by
himself, was signed by Joseph Williams, T. S. Wilson and
John F. Kinney, judges. He came to Iowa City in May,
1847, and has lived there ever since. He spent the first
seven years of his residence in Iowa in teaching in both
private and public schools, and was the first county
superintendent of schools of Johnson county. He was one
of the regents of the State university and was chairman
of the committee that employed the first professors and
put the institution in operation in 1854.
Closing his school in the spring or 1854 he went
into the practice of law, at the same time doing
editorial work on the whig paper, the Iowa Republican,
and later became one or its publishers, supporting
Grimes for governor and Harlan for senator. Two years
later he sold the paper to John Teesdale, practicing law
until 1860, and then moved onto a 400-acre tract of wild
land near the city and converted it into a fruit and
stock farm on which, as he says, he "raised boys and
girls, hogs, horses and cattle, grapes and apples for
thirty consecutive years." He was the first treasurer of
the State university, and held the office for seven
years. He was mayor of Iowa City in 1863, and alderman
for several terms.
In 1889 he became librarian of the State
Historical society, and holds that office now,
1897. He
has been a contributor to the Iowa Historical Record and
the historical literature of the state for twenty-five
years. He Is a charter member of the Southeastern Iowa
and State Horticultural societies, and has been at
different times president and secretary of the former
and director and president of the latter. While
president of the state society he, with E. H. Calkins,
of Burlington, had charge of an apple exhibit at the
meeting of the American Homological society, held at
Rochester, N. Y., where a premium was awarded for the
ex-hibit.
Mr. Lathrop was an original whig and cast his
first vote for " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," and was
president of the Tippecanoe club of Johnson county,
organized during the Harrison campaign, and is a member
of the famous Tippecanoe club of Des Moines. He was a
member of the state convention that organized the
republican party in Iowa City in 1856, and in that
convention was a member of the committee, consisting of
J. B. Grinnell, Alvin 8aunders, J. B. Howell, Wm. H.
Stone, Samuel J. Kirkwood, J. A. Palmer and L. A. Thomas, to
prepare an address to the people of the state. He has
twice been a defeated candidate for the legislature in
Johnson county. He was a reporter for newspapers at
different times and also correspondent during the
legislative and constitutional convention sessions of
1857, for the Chicago Democratic Press, the predecessor
of the Chicago Tribune. He has been a member of the
order of Odd Fellows over fifty-one years, and was a
member of the Grand Lodge in 1853. He is a charter
member of the Iowa Improved Stock Breeders' association,
member of the Literary society, and president of the Old
Settlers' association for three years. He is a member of
no church, but has served as trustee in the Presbyterian
society.
Mr. Lathrop was married April 14, 1847, to Mary
Welton, of Hamilton, Madison county, N. Y. They have had
five children, of whom three are living: Willard Allen,
born in 1848, now at Wheeler, S D.; George Fred, born in
1851, living in Villa Park, Cal., and Edith May Alinnie,
born in 1861, married to W. I. Lathrop, living at Sioux
Falls, S. D. She is a graduate of the Iowa State
university.
 McCLAIN, Emlin, chancellor of the law
department of the State University of Iowa, a
distinguished legal authority, author of many standard
works, and best known in Iowa as the annotator of the
code, both old and new, is now a resident of Iowa City,
where he has been connected with the law department of
the State university since 1881.
He was born in Salem, Ohio, November 25, 1851.
Both his parents were born in Pennsylvania, of Quaker
antecedents. His father, William McClain, was of
Scotch-Irish descent and was principal and proprietor of
Salem institute in Ohio. He removed to Tipton, Cedar
county, Iowa, in 1855, where he had charge of the public
schools of the town. For a time he operated a farm in
that county and afterward owned and conducted the Iowa
City Commercial college, and in connection with it
founded the Iowa City academy. A few months before his
death, in 1877, he opened a commercial college in Des
Moines.
Emlin McClain lived on the farm until he was
about 13 years old and his early education was obtained
almost entirely at home, concluding with one year at an
academy in Wilton. In 1866, at the early age of 15, he
entered the State university and graduated in the
philosophical course in 1871, taking the classical
degree in 1872 and graduating from the law department in
1873. During his college course he was a member of the
Zetagathian literary society and one of its presidents.
He was also a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity,
and was one of the commencement speakers of his
collegiate and law classes. Upon the
completion of his law course he went at once as a clerk
in the law office of Gatch, Wright & Runnells, in
Des Moines.
He was private secretary of United States Senator
Geo. G. Wright, and clerk of the senate committee on
claims during the two sessions of the Forty-fourth
Congress, 1875-77. For the next four years, until 1881,
he practiced law in Des Moines and during that time
prepared McClain's Annotated Statutes of Iowa, which was
published in 1880 and immediately became the standard
code, regarded as an absolute necessity by every lawyer
in Iowa. In 1881 he was appointed a professor in the law
department of the State university, and removed to Iowa
City; he was made vice chancellor in 1887 and chancellor
in 1890.
Since 1881 he has devoted himself entirely to
teaching law and writing law books. His principal works
are: "Outlines of Criminal Law and Procedure." 1884;
"Synopsis of Elementary Law and Law of Personal
Property," 1884; " Digest of Iowa Reports," in two
volumes, 1887, with third volume, 1808; " McClain's
Annotated Code and Statutes of Iowa." in two volumes,
1888, with supplement, 1892;
"Criminal Law," in two volumes, 1897; "Cases on
the Law of Carriers," 1893, second edition, 1896. Besides these be
has published numerous articles in the Western Jurist,
The American Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Central Law
Journal, The Green Bag, Iowa Normal Monthly and the Iowa
His-torical Record. He has been an active member of the
American Bar association since 1889; he has been
chairman of its committee on classification of the law
and member of its committee on legal education, and in
1896 was chairman of the section on legal education. He
presided at the organization of the Iowa Bar association
in 1895 and has since been chairman of its committee on
legal education.
In 1894 Chancellor McClain was appointed one of
the commissioners of Iowa to act with commissioners from
other states to recommend uniform laws, and acted with
such commissioners in preparing a negotiable instruments
act which was adopted by the commission in 1896 and has
become a law in New York, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida
and other states of the union, and will probably be the
basis of the future commercial law in the United States.
In 1894 he was selected by the senate as one of the code
commissioners to report to the general assembly of Iowa
a revised code. Their work was presented to the
Twenty-sixth General Assembly and formed the basis of
the revised code which was adopted at the special
session of the legislature in 1897. Under the special
authority of the general assembly Chancellor McClain was
selected to prepare the annotations for the new code
which was published by the state, October 1,
1897.
Chancellor McClain was married February 19, 1879,
to Ellen Griffiths, daughter of the late Capt. Henry H.
Griffiths, of Des Moines, who was one of the early
settlers of Des Moines, and during the rebellion was
captain of the First Iowa battery. They have three
children: Donald, born April 15, 1880; Henry Griffiths,
born December 18, 1881, and Gwendolyn, born June 4,
1894.
The chancellor has received the honorary degree
of A. M., 1882, from the State University of Iowa, and
LL. D., 1891, from the same institution and from Findlay
college, Ohio. Upon the organization of the University
Chapter Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, he was one of those
selected from the previous classes on the ground of
scholarship, to be charter members. He is an honorary
member of the law fraternity, Phi Delta Phi, the
university chapter of which bears his name. His
political connection has always been with the republican
party. His father was an original and ardent republican,
having been identified in sympathy and action with the
abolitionists. Chancellor McClain is president of the
board of trustees of the Congregational church of Iowa
City, though not a member of the church.
 PRICE, Benjamin, a well-known citizen of Iowa
City, is descended from Welsh ancestors who came to
America soon after the founding of the colony of
Maryland by Lord Baltimore, and settled in that part of
the country which is now Calvert county. Robert Y. Price,
the father of Benjamin, was born in Calvert County, Md.,
in 1814, and when only 2 years old his family removed to
Belmont county, Ohio, where he resided during his life
and followed the occupation of farming. The mother of
Benjamin Price was of Welsh and Saxon descent and was
born in Arklow, Wicklow county, Ireland. Her ancestors
were among those who removed to, or were colonized in,
Ireland during the dictatorship of
Cromwell.
Benjamin was born near Barnesville, Ohio,
February 28, 1844, and attended the country school
during such time as farm work was not pressing, until he
was 12 years old. After this his help was needed to
carry on the farm up to the time he was 16, when he
attended the village academy for a while. He also taught
school for several terms and attended the Southwestern
Normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. In the early
spring of 1865 he came to Iowa, hoping to find an
opening for business where enterprise, energy and
courage might supply the lack of money, and located at
West Branch, Cedar county. He soon secured a clerkship
in the general store of Mr. Joseph Steore and was for
over two years in his employ as clerk at West Branch,
and manager of his store at Springdale. During that time
he had taken up the study of dentistry and after leaving
the store went to Iowa City and completed a course of
study in the office of Dr. N. H. Tulloss, and commenced
practice on January 1, 1868, at Wilton Junction. Finding the
business small at Wilton he remained but a short time,
and then removed to Garnett, Anderson county, Kan. Not being
satisfied with that location he returned in 1869 to West
Branch, Iowa, and in 1870 formed a partnership with
Dr. Savage
in the drug business. In 1871 he sold out his interest
in the drug store and formed a partnership with his
former instructor, Dr. Tulloss, of Iowa City, which
lasted until the doctor's death in 1882.
October 12, 1869, Dr. Price was married to
Priscilla Milnes, of Springdale, Iowa. They have five
children: Stella H., Anna Mildred, Louis R., George M.
and Ralph.
Mrs. Price was born in Derbyshire, England, and
with her father's family came to Iowa in
1856.
Dr. Price has always taken a great interest in
educational matters; has been a member of the school
board of Iowa City for six years and twice president of
the board. During these years he has, with the
assistance of his colleagues, succeeded in getting a
high school and two new ward schools built. They have
enlarged the course of study in all the grades; raised
the standard of qualifications for teachers, and
insisted on more thorough and comprehensive work by
them, until they have placed the schools of Iowa City on
as high a plane as the best in the
state.
 PRYCE, Samuel David, a patriot of the late
civil war and one of the most influential citizens of
Iowa City, Johnson county, was born in Ebensburg,
Cambria county, Penn , September 11, 1841. His father,
Samuel D. Pryce, was born in the same county, of Welsh
parents, who emigrated into the mountain regions of
Pennsylvania in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, and his mother, Elizabeth Jones Pryce, was a
native of Wales coming to this country when she was
eighteen years old. The son received a limited education
in the common schools under the stern discipline of the
grim and irascible Yankee school teacher, in the period
just prior to the war. His father was in fair
circumstances, but was compelled to yield to the
stringency of the times following the panic of 1857, and
the old homestead was sold under foreclosure, and the
family consisting of parents and four children, broken
up.
Sam D. went to Pittsburg, where he expected to
enter a law office, but concluded to try his fortune in
the west. He worked his way down the Ohio river to
Cairo, and from that point north on the river to
Burlington, and walked from there to Iowa City, arriving
in the early spring utterly destitute of means. He
worked for his board several weeks, then taught school a
few terms, returning to Iowa City in the spring of 1862,
intending to matriculate in the State university, but
yielding to his patriotic impulse, enlisted as a private
in a company being recruited by Capt. Harvey Graham,
which was assigned to the Eighteenth regiment, then in
rendezvous at Clinton.
This company war afterwards transferred to the
Twenty-second at Camp Pope in Iowa City, and became part
of one of the fighting regiments of the war, having
campaigned in nearly every southern state from Virginia
to Texas, making a complete circuit of the confederacy.
The Twenty-second first served with General Curtis in
southwest Missouri during the winter of 1862-3. It was
then transferred to Vicksburg and was the first regiment
landed at Bruinsburg, below Grand Gulf, under the
shelter of the gunboats that had run the batteries of
the city. It was the first regiment (with the
Twenty-first Iowa) that engaged the enemy on the
midnight march to Port Gibson. It participated
in the battles of Champion Hills, Black River, and led
the assault on Vicksburg on the 22d of May, 1863, losing
in killed and wounded 164 out of a little more than 200
engaged. Incidents in this charge are reported the most
daring in the history of the war on either side. General
Grant, in his report to the secretary of war, said: "The
Twenty-second Iowa was the only regiment that succeeded
in entering the enemy's works on the entire line of
Investment."
Mr. Pryce participated in all the battles and
campaigns in which his regiment was engaged, and never
missed a day's service. He was for a long time
regimental adjutant, and was promoted to the captaincy
of his company; served on the staff of General Molineux
of New York as Inspector-general, and the last year as
assistant adjutant-general of the Second brigade, second
division, Nineteenth army corps, and was one of the
youngest officers of this rank in the volunteer
service.
With thirteen officers of other regiments and
Sergeant Major George Remley of the Twenty-second, who
was killed in this battle, he is mentioned in general
orders, now published in the official register, for
conspicuous bravery at the battle of Winchester. He was
one of the first officers to meet General Sheridan on
the Winchester road on the retreat at Cedar Creek and
saw him rally the scattered remnants and heard the magic
words that turned defeat into victory. He was sent in
command of a scouting party to reconnoiter Fisher's hill
with ten picked men. and spent the
entire night, at times, inside of the enemy's lines,
returning before daylight the next morning, and made his
report in person to Generals Sheridan, Custer and the
other famous generals of this campaign. The charge was
made in a few hours and the position taken. He wrote the
reports of the regiment for the adjutant general of the
state, and a history of the regiment which was published
in pamphlet form in the name of the regimental bugler.
Ingersoll, in his history of " Iowa and the Rebellion."
refers to Adjutant Pryce's generous praise of officers
of his regiment in his reports to Adjutant-General
Baker, and says " It is for me to say, on the authority
of eye witnesses, that in this great battle where not a
single man faltered, no one acquitted himself more
handsomely than he did himself."
At the close of the war, Mr. Pryce was elected
county superintendent, but resigned to accept a position
In Chicago, where he remained two years. He returned to
Iowa City and engaged in mercantile business in the firm
of Donaldson, Pryce & Lee; and from 1868 to 1872
served on the staff of Governor Merrill with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel of cavalry. In 1874 he purchased an
interest in the Iowa City Republican and was associated
with Col. J. H. C. Wilson in the editorial management.
Pryce & Wilson established the Iowa City Daily
Republican June 6, 1876. He was at this time chairman of
the county central committee, and succeeded in the
election of the entire republican ticket, the first and
last time in the history of the county. After his
retirement from the Republican, he was for several years
president of the Republican Publishing company, and at
the same time president of the Iowa City Cutlery
company, which employed seventy-five men and was
destroyed by fire in 1880.
From 1876 to 1886 he was the senior member of the
firm of Pryce & Schell in the hardware and machinery
business.
In 1881 he was nominated by the republican party
for representative in the legislature, but declined on
account of business. He was a delegate to the first
national encampment, which met at Indianapolis for the
organization of the Grand Army of the Republic, and with
General Vandever, of Dubuque, represented the state. He
was a member of the committee on constitution and
by-laws, and with Colonel Lester, of Wisconsin, was the
joint author of the laws for the future government of
the order. He has also done much toward the good roads
movement in Iowa.
He was one of the leading contributors to the
press of the state against discriminations in favor of
living persons on the Iowa soldiers' monument, and said
if there were any distinctions to be made, they should
be made In favor of the dead heroes, who met the supreme
test of patriotism on the battle
field.
Mr. Pryce is a member of the Iowa City Lodge, No
4. A. P., Royal Arch Chapter, Palestine Commandery of
Knights Templars, Knights of Pythias, and Kirkwood Poet,
Grand Army of the Republic.
 SMALL, William Edward, of Brooklyn, was born
in Portland, Me., September 3, 1822. He is a descendant
of Francis Small, who was born in England in 1620, and
came to America about 1632 with his father, Edward
Small, and their kinsman, Capt. Francis Champernoune.
They settled in what is now the state of Maine. Edward Small,
with Captain Champernoune and others, in 1635 founded
Plscataqua, which has since been divided into the towns
of Kittery, Elliott, South Berwick and Berwick. Captain
Champernoune was a member of the famous Devonshire
family of that name who were direct descendants of
William the conqueror. The Small family is descended
from a branch of the Champernoune. In July, 1657,
Francis Small, who then lived at Falmouth, Me., bought
of the Indian chief, Skittergusett, a large tract of
land called Capislo, near the present city of Portland.
In 1668 he resolved of the Indian chief, Sundy, as
recompense for the burning of a store by the Indians, a
deed to 256,000 acres or land lying between the Great
Ossipee, the Saco, the Little Ossipee and the
Neihewonock rivers. This land now constitutes the
northern part of the county of York, Me. The original
deed signed by the Indian chief was recorded in 1773 and
confirmed by the courts as valid. It is now in the
possession of Lauriston W. Small, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Samuel Small, one of the ancestors of William E., was
active during the controversy which led to the
revolutionary war, and was at the head of the committee
of safety. One of Mr. Small's cousins, Sir John Small,
belonged to the branch of the family that remained in
England. He was chief justice of India a few years ago.
Another cousin belonging to the same branch, Col. John
Small, commanded a detachment of the British troops at
Bunker Hill.
William Small, the father of William E., was a
manufacturer of pianos and served as a soldier in the
war of 1812. He married Sarah Barnes Hatch, a daughter
of Walter Hatch, of Boston, Mass., and a descendant of
William Hatch, of Sandwich, England, who was a merchant,
and settled at Scituate, Mass., in 1633.
William E. was educated in the common schools of
Boston, Portland and Limington, and learned the
printer's trade. He gave this up after three years and
went to Bangor, Me., in 1841, where he clerked for two
years in the largest mercantile establishment in the
city. At the end of that time, when 22 years old, he
commenced business for himself by purchasing a tract of
timber land and hiring men and teams to cut the timber
and haul it to the river where it could be floated to
the mills. He next, in partnership with George H.
Herrick, purchased what was half a township, or 11,520
acres of timber land. He continued in the land and
timber business until 1854, when he came to Davenport,
Iowa, and built a planing mill in partnership with John
M. Cannon. In the fall of 1856 the firm decided to start
a lumber yard at Iowa City, and Mr. Small moved to that
place to take charge of that business.
In 1859 he was elected president of the Johnson
County Agricultural society, and built the first fair
ground and track in the county, which led to the holding
of the state fair at that place in 1860 and 1861. Mr. Small, in
July, 1861, joined the Tenth Regiment of Iowa infantry,
at Iowa City, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and
in 1862 was promoted to the rank of colonel. He
participated in the battles of Charlestown, Mo., New
Madrid, Island No. 10, Farmington, Corinth, and in the
campaigns against Vicksburg, via Holly Springs, Yazoo
Pass and Grand Gulf to Black River. Here his health
failed and he was compelled to
retire.
Colonel Small is a member of the G. A. R., and was for
several years president of the Brooklyn Veteran Union,
since merged into the John J. Drake Post. Politically,
Colonel Small was an abolitionist, and when the
republican party adopted that principle he acted with
them. When, however, it was proposed to enfranchise the
blacks, he believed it would prove a curse to both
blacks and whites and he opposed that action. Since that
time he has affiliated with the democratic party.
Colonel Small served two terms as mayor of
Brooklyn.
He was married at Bangor, Me., September 25,
1844, to Mary Quincy Chick. They have four
children: Frederick A., born at Bangor, Me.; Helen C.,
born at Bangor, and now the wife of George Neil, of
Marshalltown; Fannie P., born at Bangor, and now the
wife of John W. Conger, of Los Angeles, Cal.; Sarah L.,
born at Iowa City, and now the wife of Rev. W. C. Corbyn, of Tower, Minn.
 STEVENSON, Samuel Kirkwood, was born on a
farm in Scott township, Johnson county, Iowa, March 10,
1867. His father, John A. Stevenson, now a retired
farmer, is a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Iowa in
1857. He was a member of the board of supervisors of
Johnson county for a number of years, has always taken
an active interest in public affairs, and is an ardent
republican. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, and the
family for six generations have been steadfast in their
adherence to the Presbyterian church. Several members of
the family have been prominent ministers in that
church.
William E. Stevenson, uncle of Samuel K., was the
first governor of West Virginia. Mr. Stevenson's mother's maiden name was
Henrietta Griffiths. She was born in London, Eng., and
came to America when 18 years of age.
Samuel K. received his early education in the
schools of the rural districts of Johnson county, after
which he attended the academy at Iowa City, and
graduated from that school in 1889. He then entered the
State university, and graduated in the class of 1893
with the degree of Ph. B. He was chosen one of six out
of a class of forty-eight to deliver an oration on
commencement day. He was president of the Zethagathian
Literary society during the fall term of 1892, and was
one of the three debaters in the first joint debate
between the universities of Iowa and Minnesota, held at
Minneapolis, Minn., which debate was won unanimously by
Iowa. He was business manager of Vidette Reporter, the
university paper, during the years 1892-3. and was also
the treasurer and one of the organizers of the
University Lecture Bureau. He was just
completing the law course in the State university when
he was elected to the position of superintendent of
schools of Johnson county in November, 1893. The high regard
in which he was held by the people, and the faith they
had in his qualifications for the position, was shown
when they elected him on the republican ticket with a
majority of 725, while the head of the ticket was
democratic by 700 majority. He was re-elected in
November, 1895, and was the only republican elected in
the county. During all the time that he held his office,
nearly two terms, he devoted a great deal of attention
to educational meetings, holding them in every township
in the county. They were very largely attended, and
resulted in arousing a deep interest in school work on
the part of parents and teachers. He organized the
Johnson County Teachers' association, which now holds
four yearly meetings. He also
organized the Johnson County School Officials'
association, which is one of the first of its kind in
the state, and has a large and enthusiastic membership.
He introduced the school library movement in Johnson
county, and during the last two years he was in office,
ninety-five school libraries were established in that
county. He
raised the standard of qualification for teachers so
that the grade of teachers in Johnson county now stands
second to none in the state. He was the editor of the
Johnson County Teacher, a monthly school paper published
in the interest of education. In the spring of 1897 he
organized the Johnson County School of Methods, which
was largely attended by the progressive teachers of
eastern Iowa because of the high quality of instruction
given. At
this meeting resolutions were unanimously passed by the
teachers and others assembled there, expressing their
commendation and appreciation to Superintendent
Stevenson for making possible for them this most
excellent institute of methods. He has read
several papers on educational themes before the State
Teachers' association on "School Libraries, How to
Establish and Maintain Them," and on "School
Exhibitions, are They Beneficial?" He has organized and
held school exhibitions at the Johnson county fairs with
good results to the school work.
Mr. Stevenson was elected superintendent of the
city schools of Iowa City, April 28, 1897, which
position he still holds. The position was
tendered him without solicitation. He is a member of the
board of trustees of the Iowa City public library. He is also
secretary of the Johnson County Sunday School union, and
superintendent of the First Presbyterian Sunday school
of Iowa City. He is a member of the First Presbyterian
church, and has been a ruling elder in the church since
April, 1895. Superintendent Stevenson was married to
Miss Marcia A. Jacobs, of Cedar Rapids, on August 2,
1898.
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