BREWSTER, Thomas Kelsey, of Oskaloosa, one of the oldest and best established dentists of southeastern Iowa, was brought up in Ohio, where his ancestors were among the very earliest settlers.  His father, Francis Brewster, was born in Green county, Ohio, November 29, 1795, and was a carpenter by trade. During the later years of his life he owned and operated a farm near Bell Brook, Ohio, where he resided until his death in 1874. He was an abolitionist, and stood for the right in all reforms that required great moral courage and perseverance. At the time of his death he was in comfortable circumstances, and was always held in great respect by the community in which he lived.  Dr. Brewster's mother was Sarah Kelsey, who was born in Kentucky, May 5, 1802, and was married to Francis Brewster, August 15,1822, near Centerville, Ohio. She was an exceptionally brave and patient woman, bearing with fortitude and courage all the many trials of early frontier life. She became the mother of eight children, of whom Thomas was the third. Mrs. Brewster died in 1853 at Bell Brook, Ohio. Both parents joined the Methodist church very early in life.

Dr. Brewster was born June 11, 1828, at Bell Brook, Green county, Ohio. His early life was spent on a farm, working in the fields during summer and attending district school in the winter. In 1840, he attended the high school at Bell Brook. In 1850 and 1851 he studied medicine and dentistry under Dr. A. S. Talbert, at Dayton, Ohio, and in the fall of 1851 entered the Ohio Dental college in Cincinnati, returning home in March, 1852. The same year he located at Dayton, Ohio, where he enjoyed a good practice for twenty two years. In 1874 he moved to Iowa, locating at Oskaloosa, which he has made his home ever since. During his twenty three years of residence in this place, he has continued to practice dentistry, and he has certainly been successful.

The doctor enlisted May 14, 1864, in the 100-day service with the One Hundred and Thirty-first Ohio National Guards, at Dayton, and served for five months. His regiment was stationed at Baltimore, Md., and was mustered out September, 1864.  He identified himself with the whig party early in life, and voted with it until 1856, when the republican party was organized.  Since that time he has always been a republican. His first ballot was cast in 1852, when he voted for Gen. Winfield Scott, for president. He is a member of Phil Kearney Post No. 40, G. A. R., and formerly belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. At the age of 12 years he united with the Methodist church, and remained a member until 1874, when he and his wife brought their letters from the Grace M. E.  church, of Dayton, Ohio, and united with the First Congregational church of Oskaloosa.

Dr. Brewster was married, April 12, 1858, to Mary E. Snowden, in Green county, Ohio. Three children were born to them, James B., Bertha B., and Kate S.; Bertha died in 1864 and Mrs. Brewster on the 3d of June, 1898.

HAMBLETON, Albert F. N., a prominent real estate, loan and insurance broker and examiner of titles, living in Oskaloosa, was born in Forest Home, Poweshiek county, Iowa, September 4, 1857. His father, Levi Hambleton, also a real estate and loan broker, and president of the Central Iowa Loan and Trust company, living in Oskaloosa, came to Iowa from Ohio in 1855, and settled in Poweshiek county, where he laid out the village site of Forest Home. He was engaged in the mercantile and stock business for over twenty years, and in the present business in Oskaloosa for the past eighteen years.  His father was a strong anti-slavery man, belonging to the Friends' society, and aided actively in conducting the "under-ground railway " which carried so many slaves to freedom. He married Ann Hanna, an aunt of Marcus A. Hanna, chairman of the republican national committee in the campaign of 1896, and United States senator from Ohio. Our Mr. Hambleton's mother, whose maiden name was Mary H. Hall, is a native of Pennsylvania.  Her ancestors were owners of a large tract of land, now that part of the city of Philadelphia known as Hestonville. She is a great-granddaughter of the well-known Judge Heston, of Philadelphia. 

Albert F. N., spent his first school days in the district school during the days of slab benches, and when "lickin' and larnin' '' were almost inseparable. At the age of 13 years he spent one year in the preparatory department of Iowa college, at Grinnell. A year later, he entered the high school in Oskaloosa, to which place he had removed with his parents. He entered the first freshman class in Penn college in 1873, that institution having been organized that year. On account of financial losses by fire, of his father, he gave up his college education in the sophomore year, and at the age of 17 entered into employment as a bookkeeper in a retail dry goods store in Oskaloosa, where he remained for three years. He invested his savings in a local building and loan association, and at the end of three years he entered a partnership with his brother, in the general merchandise, coal, grain and livestock business at Springville, Iowa.  They did a very successful business for a period of seven years, when Albert sold out his interest and returned to Oskaloosa and engaged in the abstract business as examiner of titles, making a study of real estate law. He has been in the abstract, loan, real estate and insurance business in Oskaloosa, from that time up to the present, with the exception of three and one-half years spent in like business in Des Moines, and six months in Chicago during the World's fair, looking after business there.  He is at present treasurer of the Central Iowa Loan and Trust company of Oskaloosa, organized in 1878, and a member of the firm of Cowan & Hambleton, abstract, real estate, loan and insurance agents. 

Mr. Hambleton has been a republican since becoming a voter, and has been actively connected with the work of his party as committeeman and delegate to county and state conventions. He was city clerk and secretary of the public schools of Springville for several years.  He united with the orthodox branch of the Friends' church, when 12 years of age, and has always been an active member of the church. He is a trustee of the Iowa Annual Meeting of Friends, and clerk of the representative or executive session of that body, and has acted as its railway secretary for three years. He is also a trustee of the Wells' fund, connected with the church, and has for a number of years been one of the board of trustees of Penn college, having acted as treasurer of that institution, and is now one of the endowment trustees. He was president of the Oskaloosa Y. M. C. A., for a number of years, and secretary of the Mahaska County Sunday School association, of which he is the present treasurer. He is an earnest temperance worker and was very active during the campaign in 1882, in support of the prohibitory constitutional amendment, and was chosen as a member of the directory, and a delegate to the national convention of the American Anti-Saloon league, from Iowa Friends, at their last session. 

Mr. Hambleton was married to Miss Josephs Roberts, September 3, 1879. She is a daughter of Dr. Rueben L. Roberts, now deceased, who was for several years United States Indian agent of the Shawnee tribe. They have one child living, Alma R., aged 6 years. A son died in infancy.

HOFFMANN. Phil., one of the most deservedly popular young newspaper men in the state, was born and reared in the town in which he now lives and works, the city of Oskaloosa. He was born August 16, 1868, and is the son of Philip Hoffmann, Sr., and Eleanor Addy Hoffmann. He received a good education in the public schools of Oskaloosa, and in Penn college in Oskaloosa, graduating from the high school in 1885. He afterwards spent a year in Penn college.

He began his newspaper career as a correspondent for the Oskaloosa Messenger on the Iowa editorial excursion to Oregon in 1885. He was then offered a position on the Oskaloosa Herald, where he worked five years, the last three as city editor. In 1892 Mr. Hoffmann, with his brother, Charles W. Hoffmann, the present postmaster at Oskaloosa, went into the steam laundry business, and the Oskaloosa Steam laundry, under their management, became one of the largest in Iowa and was spoken of by leading trade journals as a model plant They sold the laundry December 1, 1896, and purchased the Oskaloosa Daily and Weekly Herald, then owned and edited by Col. Albert W. Swaim, now consul to Uruguay, and his talented wife, Pauline Swaim. The newspaper, under the management of Hoffmann Brothers, has gone steadily on, and in circulation and influence it is among the recognized leading papers of Iowa. It was established in 1850 and has been a power for good, growing in popular favor with increased patronage. While Mr. Hoffmann has been much occupied with business interests he has not neglected the fine literary talents which he possesses and which have been developed in the direction of writing verse.  He has earned a creditable reputation in this line. Rolla M. Kendrick, one of the editors of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, recently published a discriminating criticism of Mr. Hoffmann's work, in which he said: "It is a matter for general regret, particularly on the part of his personal friends, that Phil. Hoffmann mounts his Pegasus so seldom. In his nature the muses certainly implanted "the divine spark;" but it has been allowed to glow too infrequently. His accomplishments, when he has essayed to enter the field of poetry, have been a source of delight to his readers. Phil. Hoffmann has the poet's nature-gentleness and geniality itself; purity of mind and life; the soul of honor; fertility and strength of imagination.  Coupled with these attributes are abundant common sense and a genius for practical affairs. Possibly, it is these latter qualities that have kept him in the routine of a business man's life and out of a Bohemian or a dreamer's career. For ten years Mr.  Hoffmann has represented the Des Moines Register and other newspapers as correspondent. His poems have chiefly been contributions to Iowa and Chicago newspapers, and to the magazines. Of late years he has written but occasionally, as the inclination comes to him and as he can spare the time from his engrossing business cares.

Mr. Hoffmann was married May 3, 1893, to Julia Hammond, daughter of Col. J. W.  Hammond, cashier and principal owner of the Oskaloosa Savings bank.

PRESTON, Byron Webster, of Oskaloosa, recently county attorney of Mahaska county, ranks well among the lawyers of central Iowa, and has earned a wide reputation for fearlessness and honesty. His father, Silvester S. Preston, a native of Vermont, was born December 7, 1832; graduated from Harvard college, and for a time read law. He came to Iowa in 1857 and settled on a farm in Jasper county, near Newton. He enlisted in the army at the breaking out of the war, and after its close continued farming in Jasper county four years, when he moved to Marseilles, 111., and engaged in the mercantile business one year; then established himself in business at Grinnell, where he continued until 1885, since which time he has retired from active business. Mr. Preston's mother, Amelia M. Wilde, was born in New Hampshire, May 18, 1836, and died July 6, 1883.

Byron W. Preston is a native of Iowa, and was born February 13, 1858, in Newton, Jasper county. He began his education in the country schools and continued it in the public schools of Grinnell, whither he moved with his parents when he was about 14 years old. He attended, also, the Grinnell academy, and in 1876-7 was a student at Eastman's Business college, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

In 1877 he engaged in the mercantile business at Grinnell with his father, under the firm name of S. S. Preston & Son, at the same time conducting a store in Newton. In 1881 he purchased his father's interest, and for two years carried on the business alone. He came to Oskaloosa July 31, 1883, and read law in the office of Judge L. C. Blanchard. He studied day and night, and was admitted to the bar of the Mahaska county circuit court in March, 1884. Soon after his admission to the bar, the law was changed so as to require a two-years' course of study, but, though Mr. Preston had prepared in eight months, he had really done two years' work in that time. He was employed by Judge Blanchard a few months, and they then formed a partnership, which lasted until 1891. In 1890 Mr. Preston was elected county attorney of Mahaska county, serving as such for two terms. During his administration he won the applause of all law-loving people by his fearless prosecution of crime, gaining the reputation among the district judges as being one of the most fearless prosecutors in the state. He prosecuted four murder cases, securing conviction in all of them. Since retiring from office, in January, 1895, Mr. Preston has practiced alone, and has been retained in many of the most important cases tried in the county, including defense in four murder cases, in all of which his clients were acquitted.

Politically Mr. Preston has always been an enthusiastic republican. He was chairman of the county central committee in 1888-89, and in 1891 was a member of the state central committee. In 1892 he was a candidate for nomination as district judge, but was defeated by Hon. Ben McCoy, who had a small majority over him, Mr. Preston standing second, with five in the field. He was dissatisfied with the St. Louis platform of 1896, as he is a strong bimetallist, but he remained loyal to his party, nevertheless.  He is a member of the Masonic, Elks, Odd Fellows and Woodmen lodges. With the Masons he is a Knight Templar, and as an Odd Fellow he belongs to the encampment.  He is not a church member, but his people are Congregationalists and his wife an Episcopalian. He was married October 6, 1880, at Newton to Nellie Blanchard. They have two children: Edith, born May 24, 1882, and a son, Blanchard W., born September 23, 1892.

Mr. Preston is just reaching the period of his greatest usefulness, and is destined to fill still more important places.

RICE, Hon. James A. The Hon. James A. Rice, of Oskaloosa, was born in the city where he now resides, September 30, 1855.  He is the son of Gen. Samuel A. Rice, who was attorney-general of Iowa from 1856 to 1860. General Rice was mustered into service as colonel of the Thirty-third Iowa Volunteer infantry, October 1, 1862, and on August 4, 1863, was promoted to brigadier-general. He was wounded at the battle of Jenkin's Ferry, Ark., April 30, 1864, from the effects of which he died July 6, 1864, at Oskaloosa. A beautiful monument was erected to his memory by the regiments of his brigade.

The mother of James A. Rice was Louisa M. Alexander, daughter of Rev. James Alexander, D.  D., of Virginia, a Presbyterian minister of great prominence, who for more than fifty years preached in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. He wa9 a trustee of Washington and Jefferson colleges for thirty years, as well as a director of the Western Theological seminary. A large number of the 67 years of her life have been devoted to the rearing of a large family, five of whom are now living. Or late years, she has directed herself to the work of the Woman's Relief corps. She organized the present corps at Oskaloosa, and has been its president for three terms. Samuel A. Rice was of Scotch-Irish descent, a graduate of Union college, New York, and was selected to deliver the address of welcome to Henry Clay on that illustrious patriot's visit to the college.

James A. Rice attended the public schools at Oskaloosa and then completed a classical course at Washington and Jefferson college in Pennsylvania. He graduated from the law department of the Iowa State university in the class of 1877. He was a member of the Zethagathian society, and the Union society at Washington and of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.

His first dollar was earned in the trial of a case before a justice of the peace in Oskaloosa, since which time he has been engaged in the practice of law in that city.  He was elected mayor in March, 1878, and served two terms. During his second term he was largely instrumental in securing for the city its present fine system of water works. He was elected city solicitor in 1881, and, as in the case of the mayoralty, was re-elected at the close of his first term.  While solicitor he tested the right to assess resident agents of foreign loan companies on moneys and credits at the residence of agent, and was successful in maintaining the statute in the supreme court; also tested the powers of corporations to grant long-term franchises with exclusive right to occupy streets, his position being that such powers were not granted by law, and were void on grounds of public policy. This position was also sustained by the supreme court in the case of the Oskaloosa Gas Light Company v. City of Oskaloosa; also carried to the supreme court the right to assess the property of telephone companies where the office was located, and the case of Iowa Union Telephone Company v. City of Okaloosa, settled the mooted question of the law as applied to these assessments.  He also tested the power of school boards to purchase maps and charts when there were no funds on hand to pay for same, claiming that any indebtedness incurred under such circumstances was ultra vires and could not be collected. In this position also he was sustained by the higher courts.  He revised the city ordinances of Oskaloosa in 1885.  and the revision is still in force.

He is a republican, but an ardent advocate of bimetallism. He was a delegate to the republican state convention at Cedar Rapids in 1891, and also to the one which nominated Frank D. Jackson in 1895, in which last he served as chairman on the committee on credentials. He was a member of the executive committee from the Sixth district in the republican state league in 1893, and was a delegate from Iowa to the republican national league at Louisville, Ky., the same year. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans and captain of Gen. S. A. Rice Camp. He has served as chief mustering officer of the United States for that organization and as delegate to its national meetings.

He was married September 10, 1895, to Miss Belle Gray, of Washington, Iowa, eldest daughter of Capt.  J. H. Gray. She is a lady of high culture.  She has held the position of national president of the Ladies' Aid society for two terms, and is now president of the King's Daughters, and in October, 1898, was elected state secretary of the international order of this society. They have one son, Samuel Allen Rice. Mr. Rice is an orator of wide reputation. He was chosen to deliver the address on General Grant in Oskaloosa in 1885, the centennial address, "Our Youth the Hope of America;" another on Lincoln before the meeting of Lincoln league of Iowa, held at Washington, Iowa, and many others on patriotic and war subjects in many cities throughout the country.

ROSENBERGER, Absalom, A. B., LL.B., president of Penn college, Oskaloosa, has, by persistent hard work, made a place for himself in life where he is able to help others, and that is his highest aim. Through a busy life he has held out the hand of strong and helpful friendship to those he has been associated with. A natural leader and teacher, with keen sympathy, well grounded principles and an even temper, so he has made a lasting impression for good upon the young people who came to him for instruction. He has filled them with an ambition to go farther, giving them what only a few teachers are ever able to do, the desire to know more, the inspiration to dig and find the treasures of human knowledge. The serious training of his youth started young Rosenberger into the right path and furnished the foundation, strong and enduring, upon which the superstructure of a well-proportioned and useful life is built.

Born December 26, 1849, in a log cabin near Thorntown, Ind., he did not have much of an educational start in his boyhood, for the nearest school was in a log schoolhouse in a dense forest five miles from Thorntown, where the privileges were very meagre. But the boy went to the little school, attended the meetings of the Mortonian Literary society and debating club, and there became filled with the desire to get an education. His parents were of the kind to encourage this ambition. 

His father was James Henry Rosenberger, a farmer by occupation and a man of limited circumstances. He was for many years a devout elder in the Friends' church, to which the son has always remained true.  His mother was Elizabeth Mills Rosenberger, a quiet, pious woman, whose family came from England and helped William Penn in founding Pennsylvania. She was much attached to her home. The father's family came from Germany. The mother died when Absalom was 13 years old and the father when he was 16, leaving him to support himself.

In 1872, Mr. Rosenberger entered Earlham college, in Richmond, Ind., graduating from the classical course in 1876. He was one of the editors of the college paper for three years, and served as assistant proctor for two years. With him attending college was serious business, for he earned his own way and maintained a manly independence that left him with few debts to pay at the end of the four years' course. It is said of him by Dr. Joseph Moore, president of the college at that time, that "He furnishes another proof that the youth in college whose first and highest work is to build up a character is pretty sure, later in life, to build something else. Now well fitted for teaching, Mr. Rosenberger entered the work of education and spent ten years as an academic teacher, most of the time in Union high school, a Friends' institution in Westfield, Ind., and it was in that field that he did some of his best work. He was fresh from his own struggle for an education and he keenly sympathized with every boy and girl who was trying to make something of himself. He inspired them with some of his own ambition, and by patience and forbearance and respect for the opinion of his students, and an absence of dogmatism and pedantry, exerted a powerful and lasting influence upon their lives. He helped them in every possible way, to help themselves, finding them places where they could earn their board, when necessary.  In 1885, Mr. Rosenberger went to Ann Arbor, Mich., and took the law course in the University of Michigan, graduating in 1887, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Wichita, Kan., where he remained three years, returning to the teaching profession in 1890 as president of Penn college, the place he now fills with so much credit.

While in the university in Ann Arbor, Mr. Rosenberger enjoyed the privilege of being in the classes of President Angell in international law and history of diplomacy, constitutional law and history, under Judge Thomas M.  Cooley, and economics under Dr. Adams.  His previous training and mental equipment made him a prominent figure in the class, and he was persuaded to act as class historian, a duty requiring much labor, which the class felt sure he would perform. He was known as a plodder and one of the faculty has said of him that "He soon won the good will of his fellows by his candor and cordiality, by his culture and character." For five years Mr. Rosenberger was a member of the board of trustees of Earlham college, and has twice been appointed a representative from the Iowa yearly meeting of Friends to the quinquennial conferences of Friends of America held in the city of Indianapolis in 1892 and 1897. He was a delegate from Iowa to the national arbitration convention held in Washington, D. C. in April, 1896. President Rosenberger is a member of the republican party.

He was married September 5, 1877, to Miss Martha Ellen Kendall, of Thorntown, Ind. They have five children, Homer G., born January 17, 1880; Ethel C., born July 8, 1882; Lucile, born March 10, 1885; Frank Kendall, born September 18, 1890, and Helen, born June 23, 1895.

SEEVERS, George W., of Oskaloosa, general counsel of the Iowa Central Rail-way company, came to Iowa when a boy, in 1853, and settled on a farm. He is the son of Robert and Ellen Bryan Seevers.  He was born September 23, 1846, in Coshocton county, Ohio. He received his education in the public and private schools of the state and in the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1865. His first business partnership was with Col. P. Gad Bryan in Indianola, Iowa, in the year 1868.

In 1888 he removed to Oskaloosa and formed a partnership with Judge William H. Seevers after the latter had retired from the supreme bench.  The partnership continued until the judge's death in 1894. George W. Seevers continued in the general practice until 1897, when he was appointed general counsel of the Iowa Central Railway company, which position he still holds. He acquired his position in his profession by constant, hard work, and by declining to be led away from it by side attractions. He determined to make the practice of law exclusively and solely his life work, and with a rich, natural, intelligent endowment his habits of industry have brought him distinguished success. He is an earnest republican and a close student of politics in the higher sense, but has never held an office, and declares that he will not so long as he practices law. Mr. Seevers is regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in the state, and his practice demonstrates that this is the public estimate of his ability. He was married in February, 1868, to Mary L. Bryan. They have five children, four sons and one daughter.