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Progressive
Men of Iowa
1899
 ROBERTS, Abel Commins,
M. D., is a native of the state of New York, and was born
January 15, 1830. His father was a farmer in that state, but
removed while Abel was a child to Lenawee county, Mich, to
secure a share of the advantages offered by the then unsettled
west.
In Lenawee county Abel attended the country school and
acquired an education which enabled him, as soon as he was old
enough, to teach school. His education from this time on was
secured entirely by his own unaided efforts. In 1850 he
entered the medical department of the Michigan university at
Ann Arbor, determined to get a first-class medical education.
Being very poor at that time, he had hard work to support
himself through the first term and subsisted for many weeks on
less than many of the other students spent for tobacco. In the spring of 1851
he borrowed money enough to pay his passage to California,
arriving there sick and destitute. After a year and a half of
the hardest kind of life, during which luck came to him, he
returned to his studies at Ann Arbor with gold enough to carry
him through college, graduating with the degree of M. D. there
in 1854. In 1876 he received an ad eundem degree of M. D. from
the Louisville (Ky.) Medical college.
He married Emily A. Cole, of Ann Arbor, and soon after
located at Otsego, Mich., where he remained until removing to
Fort Madison in 1889. Mrs. Roberts died May 19, 1898. ln 1862 be was given
the position of surgeon at the government hospital at Keokuk
and later received the army commission of surgeon, with rank
of major of cavalry, to the Twenty-first Missouri volunteers,
with whom he served three years, being mustered out in April,
1866.
Upon his return to Fort Madison at the close of the
war, he continued the practice of medicine. While never making
special pretensions as a surgeon, he was noted for his success
in this branch of his profession both during his work in the
field and in private practice, and once ligated, successfully,
the left subclavian artery. While army surgeon he was most of
the time in charge of a brigade or division, and though many
times operating during and after serious engagements, from
twenty-four to forty-eight hours almost continuously, he had
the satisfaction of never having a man die on the operating
table, though frequently that table was necessarily mother
earth, and often the work had to be done by candle
light.
He was for two terms a lecturer on theory and practice
of medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at
Keokuk. He was. while in active practice, a member of the
American Medical association, and a delegate to its meetings.
He is also an honorary member of the California Medical
society. The
doctor has always been an ardent democrat and has labored
faithfully and efficiently for the cause of true democracy. He
has the respect and confidence of his community and has been
several times honored by election to important offices. In
1860 he was selected for county treasurer and filled that
office very satisfactorily for six years. The citizens of Fort
Madison elected him mayor of the city in 1873 and he served in
that position for several terms. In 1893 he had the honor of
being commissioner to the Columbian exposition at
Chicago.
He has always been an active promoter of Fort Madison's
interests and was the originator of the Chicago, Fort Madison
& Des Moines railway, at that time the Fort Madison &
Des Moines railway, and was its first president. He was also
one of the hardest workers in securing the South-western
railway from Fort Madison to Carrollton, Mo., now known as the
Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City railroad. In all matters
connected with the prosperity of Fort Madison, he has always
worked heart and soul and has given much time, cash and energy
to promote her interests.
The doctor has not been engaged for a number of years
in the active practice of medicine, having surrendered the
practice to his oldest son, F. C. Roberts, M. D. He has been
for many years the owner and editor of the Fort Madison
Democrat and is regarded as one of the strongest and most
influential editorial writers in the state. He has made several
trips abroad and once made a trip around the world. He is an
active member of the Masons and is an Odd Fellow. His church
connection is Baptist Dr. Roberts has three sons, Dr. F.
C. Roberts, his successor in
practice; Nelson C. Roberts, a newspaper man, who, during
Cleveland's last term, was postmaster, and who is now manager
of the Fort Madison Democrat, and Edward M. Roberts, engaged
in dramatic and literary work.
 RUTH, Charles Edward, M. D. Among the eminent
gentlemen who compose the faculty of the Keokuk Medical
college, is Prof. C. E. Ruth, the subject of this
biography.
Before recording the history of the
life of the professor, it is fitting that something be said of
his antecedent. His father, Alexander Ruth, was born in Greene
county, Penn.. July 18, 1836, and came to Iowa in 1857. It was
from this state that he enlisted to fight for "old glory,"
serving with the gallant Fourteenth Iowa Volunteer infantry
for eighteen months, when he was transferred to the Seventh
cavalry, receiving his discharge late in 1864. He was a farmer
by occupation, and in 1889 had accumulated sufficient means to
enable him to leave the old homestead in Johnson county and
enjoy life in the beautiful city of Muscatine, where he now
resides. Dr. Ruth's mother, Sarah Jane Funk, was also a native
of Pennsylvania, born in 1840. She came to Iowa in 1858, was
married in 1860 and died at Muscatine July 21, 1896. The
ancestors on both sides for at least four generations were
farmers. The
founders of the family came to this country prior to the
revolution, on the paternal side, from England and Ireland; on
the maternal side, from Germany.
Dr. Ruth was born in Johnson
county, Iowa, August 17, 1861. After having finished the high
school of Iowa City, he entered the medical department of the
Iowa State university, from which he graduated March 7, 1883.
He located at Atalissa and engaged in practice until January,
1887, when he removed to Muscatine and formed a partnership
with Dr. G. O. Morgridge, which relation existed for two
years. It was severed by reason of the election of Dr. Ruth to
the chair of descriptive and surgical anatomy, in the Keokuk
Medical college. He still holds that position and has
purchased a one eighth interest in the
college.
In 1893 he was made professor of
clinical surgery at St. Joseph's hospital, and since then he
has regularly held weekly clinics there as a part of the
regular course of the Keokuk Medical college. Though now
engaged in a general practice, his surgical work chiefly
occupies his attention. His researches have given the first
published record of the resistance of the brain to penetration
by probes of given diameters, in exploring that organ for
bullets which have traversed its substance, a full account of
which appears in the report of the American Medical
association, at its meeting in Detroit in 1892. He is the
inventor of various surgical instruments and appliances,
including bullet forceps, turbinated gouges, scissors for
sectioning the second and third divisions of the fifth nerve
far from the surface in the smallest possible space, placental
detachers and a metallic rotary adjustable aseptic operating
table; also a combined rotary bookcase and desk. He performed the first
successful resection of the caecum for sarcoma in a child 5
years old, in which the Murphy button was used to make an end
to end anastomosis of the ileum to
colon.
The doctor is a republican
prohibitionist.
He is a member of Eagle Lodge A. F. and A. M., Sons of
Veterans, American Medical association, the Iowa State, being
chairman of the section in this society on obstetrics and
gynecology for 1898, Military Tract, Tri-State, of which he
was elected president in 1898, Des MoinesValley and
Southeastern Iowa Medical societies. He belongs to the
Methodist church. He was married October 3, 1883, to Miss
Adella Tautlinger, of Lone Tree, Iowa. They have three
children-Verl Alton, Una Gertrude and Zana. The doctor's
success is due entirely to his own efforts. He earned his
first dollar by binding oats for a neighbor after night, after
his work for his father was done. With the money thus earned
he purchased his first book, Webster's Academic
dictionary. He
left home at the age of 18 to complete his education with just
11 cents, a present and start in life from his mother and
sister, this being all the money they possessed. That money is one of
his most treasured keepsakes for he did not part with it Dr.
Ruth was appointed major brigade surgeon by President
McKinley, June 4, 1898, but was compelled to resign July 29,
1898, on account of illness.
 SCHUELER, Adalbert,
of Keokuk, is one of the most noted musical instructors and
musical composers of the state. He is of German stock, having
been born in Freiburg, in the grand duchy of Baden, Germany,
December 16, 1846.
His father was a manufacturer of
thermometers, barometers, and all kinds of glass vessels for
the measurement of liquids. His mother, whose maiden name was
Anna Wissert, was twice married. Her first husband was named
Sutter, a relative to the Sutter who first discovered gold in
California. To this union there were two daughters. Her second
marriage resulted in four sons, of whom A. Schueler is the
oldest but one. Both parents were born in Baden, Germany,
where their ancestors lived for generations before them. They
are distinctly a family of musicians. The boys, excepting the
eldest, were singers in the cathedral choir of Freiburg, where
the alto part is sung exclusively by boys, until the time of
changing voice. A younger brother, Otto, became a solo
violinist of considerable note. He came to Keokuk in 1869,
lived there till 1873, and later became the leader of the
orchestra and Liederkranz society in Louisville, Ky., where he
died in 1885.
In his youth Adalbert Schueler
attended the public schools for eight years, then entered upon
the study of the higher branches and the languages. At 16 he entered a
teacher's seminary, having decided to become a pedagogue. He
completed the four years' course, which included, as does the
course of every German normal school, a fine education in
music. Here he received Instruction on the violin, piano, and
organ, as well as in singing, harmony, and rudimentary
composition. In April, 1866. he received his diploma as
teacher, and was installed as such soon thereafter. This
position he held until 1867, at which time he came to America,
locating at Keokuk. He was engaged in giving private lessons
in music there for three years, holding at the same time the
position of teacher of German in the public schools, also
serving as organist of the First Baptist church. During the
following three years every dollar possible was saved from his
earnings for the gratification of an early ambition to become
a thorough teacher of music. In the summer of 1870
he went to Germany, entering the conservatory of music at
Lelpeic in the fall of that year. Here he studied under
Professors Wenzel, Cocci us, Herrmann, Paul, Papperitz,
Richter, Jadassohn, and Reinecke, organ, piano, singing,
harmony, thorough bass, fugue, counterpoint, instrumentation,
and composition.
Besides being a student at the conservatory he attended
lectures at the university on anatomy of the hand, physiology
of the throat, music in Greece, music in the middle ages,
literature and philosophy and logic under Czermak, Merkel, Dr.
Paul, Baumgartner, and Drobisch. After four years of diligent
study he returned to Keokuk, taking out at that time
naturalization papers and becoming a citizen of the United
States. He has since resided in Keokuk, where he has followed
the vocation of musical Instructor. He was organist for nearly
two years of the Westminster Presbyterian church, and filled a
like position for eighteen years with the Unitarian
denomination. In his work as private teacher he has been very
successful. The standard of music in Keokuk is a high one, for
which much credit must also be given to Mr. Charles Reps, who
came to that city about ten years prior to the time of Mr.
Schueler. Both have done good work in a period extending over
forty years. During the last twenty years Mr. Schueler has
produced compositions of all kinds-for voice, piano, violin,
violincello, trios, quartettes, and overtures and operas. His
latest composition is a song, "The Rose of Iowa," composed
since the wild rose has been declared the floral emblem of the
state. Although
taking a great interest in politics, the professor is not a
partisan, and votes for whom he considers the best man. He has
no preference among religious sects, being a humanitarian, if
that kind of religion is in need of a name.
He was married in Germany in 1876
to Miss Edeline Preuss, of Hanover, Prussia, who attended the
conservatory with him at Leipsic. They have two children
living. Irma, the
eldest, is preparing herself for the vocation of solo
violinist. She has spent five years in Germany, and for the
last three years has been staying with her parents, giving
concerts and pursuing her studies with her father. She had
studied with Isaye in Brussels, and is now studying in Belgium
under Ovide Musin. The other child, Preuss, is 17 years of age
and is attending the high school at his home, keeping up his
studies on the violin the while. The Schueler concerts are
well known, and the lovers of good music delight to gather
under the hospitable roof of the professor, where a musical
treat is always in store for them, since the family itself
forms a complete little orchestra. Mr. Schueler with his
family moved to New York city in the fall of 1898. The family
will spend the summer of 1899 in
Keokuk.
 TRIMBLE, Henry Hoffman, of
Keokuk, is one of the oldest and best lawyers in Iowa, and a
prominent leader of the democratic party. His father, John
Trimble, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in A. D. 1800. He
was of German descent, and was the son of a Virginian who
served in the revolution. In 1820 he became a pilot on a
pioneer steamboat plying between Pittsburg and Cincinnati. He
was married in 1823 to Elizabeth Hoffman, also a native of
Ohio, and of German and Scotch descent. She persuaded him to
quit boating, for she considered it demoralizing; so they
moved into the wilderness of Dearborn county, Ind., and opened
a farm. Here
Henry H. was born May 3, 1827. He memorized Noah
Webster's spelling book from beginning to end in the little
log schoolhouses of Rush and Shelby counties, which were
provided with rude furniture and ruder masters, who sat in the
middle of the room holding beech switches long enough to reach
the remotest child.
At 13 young Trimble became interested in reading,
through the influence of James Clark, an Englishman, who
organized a small circulating library nearby. The boy eagerly
read such books as "Grimshaw's History of Greece and Rome,"
Good's ''Book of Nature," and Dickens' works. He was deeply
impressed, and was filled with a desire for higher
education. At 14
he sold a horse, the gift of his grand-father, and with the
money secured six months' schooling at a small academy in
Shelbyville. He then worked a year longer on the home farm,
studying at every spare moment. At 16 he taught a six months'
term of school in Bartholomew county, near Columbus, after
which he began the study of law. He read Blackstone and Kent;
spent a year in a little college just started at Franklin,
Johnson county; and the next year, 1844, entered the State
university at Bloomington, Ind., and remained until the close
of his first term of the senior year, when he went to
Greencastle and entered the senior class of Asbury college,
graduating July 27, 1847, at the age of 20, with the degree of
master of arts. He paid all his expenses by manual labor, such
as cutting cord wood and teaching night schools. After
graduation he served a year in the Mexican war, enlisting as a
volunteer with the Fifth Indiana infantry. He spent most of the
time as a clerk in the quartermaster's department. At the
close of the war he took charge of the Shelbyville academy, at
the same time studying law under Thomas A. Hendricks,
afterwards vice-president, and E. H. Davis. He came to Iowa in
November, 1849, and in February, 1850, began practicing law at
Bloomfield, Davis county. He was county attorney four years,
beginning in 1850, and state senator from 1855 to 1859. In
1861 he was a leading organizer of the Third Iowa cavalry, and
as lieutenant-colonel had charge of the regiment during his
stay in the service. It bore the reputation of being one of
the best drilled regiments in the volunteer service. In 1862,
while leading a charge at the battle of Pea Ridge, he was
severely wounded, and in October was discharged on account of
disabilities resulting from the wound. During the same month
he was elected judge of the Second judicial district of Iowa,
and served four years. In 1866 he helped organize the St. Louis & Cedar
Rapids Railroad company, in 1868 becoming its president. A
road, now a part of the Wabash line, was constructed from
Coatsville, on the state line between Iowa and Missouri,
through Bloomfield to Ottumwa.
Before the war Judge Trimble was in partnership with a
brother-in-law, James Baker, colonel of the Second Iowa
infantry, who was killed at the battle of Corinth. After the war his
partner was S. S. Carruthers, another brother-in-law, from
1867 to 1881, when Judge Trimble removed from Bloomfield to
Keokuk.
He has been attorney for some of the leading railroads
of Iowa, and since 1882 has been employed by the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy, the St. Louis, Keokuk &
Northwestern, and the Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City
Railroad companies. The judge is a diligent, thorough student
of law, and stands in the front rank of the Iowa bar. He was
president of the State Bar association in 1877. He has organized and
is now president of three banks: the Albia State bank,
Keosauqua State bank, and the Bloomfield State bank, all of
which are prosperous institutions.
Judge Trimble has always been an active democrat but
has never asked for office except when he was elected judge of
the district court. He, however, received the support of his
party once for United States senator, twice for congress,
three times for supreme judge, and once for governor. He
repudiated the Chicago platform in 1896, and helped organize
the national democratic party, being a delegate at large to
the national convention at Indianapolis.
The judge was married May
5, 1849, to Miss Emma Carruthers. They have five children, as
follows: Palmer, Frank K., Henryette, now Mrs. O. D. May;
Hattie, now Mrs. O. S. Stanbro, and Helen Trimble. Frank is
now dead.
 WILKEN, Frank Henry, of Fort Madison, is one of the
well-known businessmen and prominent politicians of
south-eastern Iowa. He is of German parentage, his father,
William Wilken, a contractor and builder, having been born in
Soegel, Kreis Meppen, Hanover, in 1822, while his mother,
Agnes Shuette, was born in Hoerst, Bezirk, Minden, August,
1824. He comes of excellent ancestors, many of them having
belonged to the learned professions. The mayor ship of the
city of Grossen Stavern was held by the Wilken family for
eight years.
F. H. Wilken was born September 9,
1857, at Fort Madison, Lee county, Iowa. His education was
obtained in the public schools of that city, and in private
parochial schools. He began business for himself in February,
1878, several months before he became of age. He at first
conducted a small grocery store, and to this he has continued
to add year by year, until his business has increased to large
proportions, and he now owns a fine stock of general
merchandise, and enjoys a splendid
patronage.
Politically, Mr. Wilken has always
been a democrat. He was a member of the school board from 1886
to 1889, and during his term of office was an earnest worker
for the promotion of the best interests of the public schools,
securing numerous improvements in the way of better buildings
and progressive methods of training. He was elected a member
of the city council of Fort Madison in 1888, and re-elected
without opposition in 1890, serving as president of the
council during all but one year that he held the office. In
1892 he was elected to the Twenty-fourth General Assembly, as
a member of the house, and served again during the
Twenty-fifth.
While in the legislature he took an active part in
helping to repeal the prohibitory liquor law, believing that a
license system should be allowed where the former law could
not be enforced. Mr. Wilken belongs to the Catholic church,
and is a member of the German Roman Catholic Benevolent
society, serving as president during the years 1895, 1896,
1897, and 1898, having served as state vice-president of the
Central Verein in 1895. He also belongs to the Iowa Mutual
Protective association, and to the Fort Madison or St. Joseph
Benevolent society. He has served for ten years as director of
the Fort Madison Building and Loan association, being
president thereof in 1898 and 1899.
He was married May 21, 1878, to Anna M.
Luebbers, and they have four children: Margaret M., born
February 24, 1879; William F , born November 1, 1881; Clara
M., born October 24,. 1887, and Helen A., born June 27,
1890.
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