POTTER, HON. Levi Franklin, banker Pottawattamie county, and one leading members of the legislature, he was born in Wauwatosa, Milwaukee county, WI, March 27, 1855. His father, Levi Bingham Potter, who settled in Wisconsin in 1839, was of New England stock, and prominent in municipal and church affairs.  "His mother, Hitty Wenzel Potter, was a woman of marked ability and of great influence in her community. Ebenezer Potter and Col. Levi Brigham, great grandparents of the subject of this sketch, were veterans of the great struggle for the independence of the colonies.

Levi Franklin Potter completed his education in Ripon and Beloit colleges, and after teaching three years came to Oak-land in 1879 and there engaged in mercantile business. In March, 1884, he became partner and cashier in the Citizens bank, now the Citizens State bank, of that town, which position he now occupies. He is a prominent member of the Iowa Banking association, having served as a member of the executive council and on the legislative committee of that body.

Prominent in municipal affairs, he has twice been mayor of Oakland. Always affiliating with the republican party, he was elected by a flattering majority to represent the county in the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, which met in 1896, and in extra session in 1897, to complete the codification of the laws of the state. He was re-elected to the same representation in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly, which met in 1898. Mr. Potter's record as a legislator is one in which his constituency have just pride. During his first session he was chairman of the committee on telegraph, telephone, and express, and member of the committees on ways and means, code revision, banks and banking, municipal corporations, police regulations, and labor. His work on the ways and means committee of that session so attracted the attention of its chairman, Hon. J. H. Funk, that when Mr. Funk was elected speaker of the Twenty seventh General Assembly one of the first chairmanships he determined was that of ways and means, which went to Mr. Potter. In this session Mr.  Potter was also member of the committees on railroads and commerce, banks and banking, telegraph, telephone, and express, municipal corporations, rules, and labor, and a member of the joint committee on retrenchment and reform.

At this session Mr. Potter introduced and secured the passage of several important bills, among which were House file 199, providing shorter forms for assessment rolls and assessors' books, an important act that will save hundreds of dollars every year to each county; House file 165, appropriating $25,000 (in addition to the $10,000 appropriated at the previous session) for the Iowa exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi exposition; House file 101, extending the term of school treasurers from one to two years (a measure the merit of which is appreciated by those who have noticed the efforts of banks for control of school funds); House file 147, providing severe penalties for the adulteration of candy.

At his first session Mr. Potter had charge of, and secured the passage in the house, of the senate bill taxing express companies 1 per cent on the gross amount of business done by them in the state, and in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly he supplemented this work by introducing and securing the passage of House file 284 doubling the taxes so paid by these companies. He was also deeply interested in the encouragement of the beet sugar industry, and the value of his work on these lines ranks him among the pioneers of this important enterprise.

Mr. Potter was married in 1881 to Miss M. J. Wood, and has established a delightful home in Oakland, where he and his wife are important factors in all local matters tending to advance the education, morals, and well being of the community.

ROBERTSON, James Carson, M. D.  One of the leading physicians and member of the board of education at Council Bluffs is Dr. J. C. Robertson, who well deserves a place in this work as one of the progressive men of the state. He is the son of John Denny and Eliza Carson Robertson, the former a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born December 25, 1815, and the latter, born in County Tyrone, Ireland, October 9, 1813. The sire is of Scotch descent. He removed to Iowa in 1842, and in 1844 settled on a farm nine miles westward from Washington, Iowa, where he still resides. Eliza Carson came to America with her parents in 1833, and located in Stark county, Ohio, where, in 1841, she married the father of this subject.  She was the mother of seven sons, six of whom grew to manhood. Three sons still survive, but the good mother was called to her reward March 11, 1897.

Dr. Robertson was born June 6, 1845, in the little village of Dutch Creek, Washington county, Iowa. His initial course of educational training was received in a log schoolhouse where a typical old-time school master was master of the situation, if not of the studies attempted to be taught.  He entered the Iowa State university in the spring of 1868, taking the classical course, and in 1870 matriculated in the medical department of the same institution, receiving the degree of M. D. at the end of three years.

He taught school during the time, and in that way earned money with which to defray the expenses of his education. In April, 1873, he commenced the practice of medicine at his old home in Washington county, where he built up a large and lucrative business. Although receiving practically the whole of the patronage of that section he found that the field was a limited one, and not being satisfied to be forever a "country doctor" concluded to seek a location in city practice. October 1, 1877, he visited Council Bluffs, and became at once satisfied that the place offered the field he desired, so made arrangements immediately to remove to the new location.  Events have proved the wisdom of the move, for he has not only a paying and constantly growing practice, but has made a neat sum in real estate investments, the last of which, at least, would have been out of the question in a small country town offering no opportunities whatever for speculation.

He spent the winter of 1882-3, in Bellevue hospital, N. Y., receiving the degree of M. D. November 14, 1883. He also in the same institution took a course in operative surgery under Prof. Joseph D. Bryant, and a private course in physical diagnosis under Prof. Ed. G. Janeway. He has been visiting physician to the W. C. A.  hospital and St. Bernard's, being at this time president of staff of the last named; is a member of the American Medical association, Iowa State Medical society, Missouri Valley Medical society and Council Bluffs Medical society. He takes a keen interest in all matters pertaining to education, and is at this time serving as President of the board of education in Council Bluffs. He is a member of the Masonic, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Woodmen of the World and St.  Andrews orders.

The doctor was married in 1875 to Miss Helen S. Houck, of Washington county, Iowa. They have two sons: Andrew A., born April 6, 1878, and Ralph D., born March 19, 1885, who are attending the public schools of their home city. The doctor owns a modern home at 1006 Fifth avenue, and may be considered one of the fixtures of the city of Council Bluffs.

ROBINSON, Lyman Bartlett, at Oakland, Iowa, is a lawyer of recognized ability, who holds the respect and esteem of all who know him. He was born in Broome county, N. Y., July 6, 1852. His mother was an Osborne, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of that state.  His father, Russell Robinson, was a native of Massachusetts, and of Puritan stock. He was a farmer for some years in New York, but moved to Illinois in 1853, going there with a small colony of New York people. He remained there in the village of Bristol, until the spring of 1865, when he came to Iowa, settling on a farm near Belle Plaine.

Thus it will be seen that Mr. Robinson lived in three states before he was 18 years of age. Up to this period his education was obtained at the village of Bristol, in the public school.  This school is described as being exceptionally good, and during the period that young Robinson attended there, the teachers were men and women of high character and attainments. Such teachers do not really know how much they impart to their pupils, of helpful strength and moral character. The facts are, that in the early school day period, the boy and girl absorbs and assimilates more from their surroundings than they get in any other way.  Again, they are largely engaged in imitating those with whom they are associated, and this doubly applies to their instructor.  In this regard Mr. Robinson's education was good and of a high order, when he removed with his father's family to Iowa in 1865.

From 1865 to 1874 he lived on the farm near Belle Plaine, receiving only such advantages as came to a country boy in those days in Iowa. In 1874 he entered the Agricultural college at Ames, from which institution he graduated in 1877.  During this time he taught school every winter vacation, and came out with such standing as to make him one of the class speakers when he graduated. After graduation, he entered the law office of Johnson & Scrimgeour at Belle Plaine, and was admitted to the bar in 1879. He came to his present location in 1880, with a stock in trade, consisting of a thorough education, a clear analytical mind, a good ancestral influence and early environment.  He is and always has been a republican, and he has been active in the support of the doctrines of the party, although not a politician. He was married in 1879 to Miss Lucy A. Lamb, of Bridgewater, Vt. Their children are Melvin, Harold and Rodney Potter.

Mr. Robinson is one of the trustees of his alma mater, the State Agricultural college, and in that capacity renders valuable service to the state and to the cause of industrial education.

SAUNDERS, Charles George, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, is a man who by hard study, natural business ability, energy and willingness to work, has won for himself a place among the most successful lawyers of the state.  His parents, George W. and Mary E. (Walker) Saunders, were born in England, the father coming to this country at the age of 14 and the mother at the age of 5 years. They with their parents settled in Oneida county, N. Y., and were married at Westmoreland, in that county, April 21, 1860, and here Charles G. was born April 10,1861. After his marriage, George W. Saunders followed the occupation of a farmer until the spring of 1868, when he removed to Iowa City, Iowa and entered the employ of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway company as the foreman of a large gang of construction men. Having a family of five sons and two daughters and not wishing to rear his boys in town and about a railroad, he resigned his position and moved upon a farm near Stuart. In the fall of 1875 he removed to Vail, Crawford county, and in the fall of 1870, bought a half-section of land near the town of Manilla. To this tract he made addition and at the time of his death, which occurred May 19,1896, he was regarded as one of the leading citizens, most prominent and wealthy farmers of his county. He was a member of the Methodist church and lived a consistent and charitable Christian life and died universally mourned in the community where he lived. Mrs. Saunders, a devout Christian woman, whose chief object in life was to hold the love of her husband and children, now resides in Manilla.

Charles G. attended the village school at Westmoreland, N. Y., one year before his parents came west, and after that attended the ordinary country schools for some time. From a mere child he was consumed with a desire for books and before he was ten years old had read Harriet Beecher Stowe's work, "Dred, a Tale of the Dismal Swamp," Greeley's "American Conflict" and several other works of a similar character. While his parents were residents of Vail, he had access to the carefully selected private library of Mr. James P.  Fitch, and there obtained a stock of information that has always been of great benefit to him. He attended the public schools of Vail from two to three months during the winters of 1878, 1879 and 1880, riding on horseback a distance of three to four and one-half miles. During the winter of 1880-81, he took care of a team of horses and taught country school three miles away. When he received his order for 135, his first month's wages, he felt richer, he says, than he ever can again. That winter he saved $100 and the next winter taught again and saved another $100. The next spring, 1882, he was 21 years of age and September 15th, of that year, he entered Drake university, at Des Moines. He had $350 and one suit of clothes. He remained in that school four years, partly working his way through and graduating in the classical course, June 15th, 1886. During his senior year he was editor of " The Delphic," the organ of the university and was one of the active members of the Philomathean society while in school. In his sophomore year he was chosen by the faculty as chairman of the oratorical delegation that went to the state oratorical contest, and acted in the same capacity the following year. After leaving school, and in the summer of 1886, he commenced to read law with Judge C. C. Nourse, of Des Moines, and in the fall of that year became principal of one of the schools in south Des Moines, but kept up his law work, reading nights and Saturdays. He taught school nine months, and in September, 1887, entered the law department of the State university and graduated in June, 1888. The committee appointed by the supreme court to examine the class, said he passed the best examination of any member of the class. He entered upon the practice of law in Council Bluffs in October, 1888. In December of the same year he entered the law office of Stone & Sims, a firm composed of Jacob Sims and John Y. Stone, one of the leading firms in the city. In August, 1890, he formed a partnership with Jacob Sims. The firm dissolved in 1892, since which time he has been alone. In November, 1894, he was elected county attorney of Pottawattamie county, and was re-elected in 1896, running several hundred votes ahead of his ticket both times. In 1898 he was tendered the nomination for a third term, but declined. He has been very successful as a prosecutor and has lost very few cases. He is the attorney for the Burlington & Missouri Railway company and represents several other very Important Interests.

Mr. Saunders has been a very enthusiastic republican all his life, and an active campaigner. He has the reputation of being one of the best public speakers and orators in the western part of the state, having been very active in convention work and having presided over several county conventions and also over the congressional convention in that district, in 1894. February 1, 1896, he was appointed by Governor Drake as a member of his personal staff with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He also received the appointment of judge advocate general from Governor Shaw. He has twice been elected a trustee of Drake university by the alumni of that school.

Mr. Saunders is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows lodge, is a Knight of Pythias and chancellor commander of the local lodge, a Mason and a very active member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He has been delegate to the head camps of that order for several years, serving as state consul and a member of the board of auditors of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is an active member of the Methodist church. Mr. Saunders was united in marriage to Miss Flora Newkirk, at Delta, Iowa, July 2, 1890. The marriage was the result of an acquaintance formed when both were students at Drake university. They have two daughters, Vera, born September 25, 1891, and Marian, born September 24, 1894.

SCHMIDT, Harry. Among all the arts none have advanced more during the last quarter of a century than that of photography. So perfect is the work of today, so highly proficient must be the operator, that the photographer who is behind the times stands no show whatever in competition with the man who is up to date. The subject of this sketch is of the last named class. He began at the bottom and through close study of the best authorities possessed himself of a perfect theoretical knowledge of his art. To this was added the knowledge which comes of years of actual experience in the operating room, and the result is that he stands at the very head of the list of Iowa's noted artists.  Harry Schmidt was born April 24, 1865, in the city of New York. Here he attended private German schools and later the pubic schools. At the age of 14 he entered a photograph gallery on the munificent salary of one dollar per week, where he remained for three years, then started west in search of more remunerative work.

Arriving in Council Bluffs on March 10, 1883, he visited the different art studios in search of employment, but met with severe disappointment. Not wholly discouraged, he started in business for himself, on a small scale, of course, for his means were very limited. The people of that city were not slow to appreciate his work, however, and the business continued to prosper until now he has secured the reward which his conscientious efforts and close application to business deserve.

He is the son of Daniel Schmidt, who came to America when a boy, and earned name and fortune as a large contractor.  He owns real estate interests in the city of New York, from the income of which he was enabled to retire and live comfortably in his remaining days. He is a native of Germany, as was his wife, whose maiden name was Anna Marie Saltsman.  Harry Schmidt was married in Council Bluffs, Iowa, November 30, 1895, to Miss Lillian M. Shepard, eldest daughter of Mr.  and Mrs. S. S. Shepard, of the same city.  They have one child: Helen Marie Schmidt.

SHINN, Frank, of Carson, is of Quaker ancestry, and was born October 28, 1843, near Jackson, Adams county, Ohio. His grandfather, George Shinn, was a Virginian, and married Elizabeth Woodrow. Both were Quakers, and in the year 1800 emigrated to Highland county, Ohio. Allen Shinn, the father of Frank, was born in Hillsborough, Ohio, January 14, 1812.  When Allen was 15 his father moved with his family to a farm three miles north of Winchester, Adams county, Ohio. Allen T. married Malinda Fenton, who was born July 9, 1812, near Winchester. Her father, John Fenton, was a native of Pennsylvania, and her mother was Sarah Field, a Virginian. Soon after marrying, Allen T.  Shinn became a Methodist preacher and joined the Ohio conference. His brother, Moses F. Shinn, was also licensed to preach, and joined the same conference, in 1844 he was sent by the bishop of that church to Iowa as a missionary, and after preaching at Burlington, Keokuk, Keosauqua and Mt. Pleasant, was, in 1850, sent to Council Bluffs. He had charge of all the territory in Iowa west of Des Moines, and built the first church in Council Bluffs and also the first Methodist church in Omaha, in 1855. He was not only a preacher but an excellent businessman; became quite wealthy and died in Omaha in 1886.

Allen T. Shinn was transferred from the Ohio conference to the Kentucky conference, where he preached for four years. He was a strong abolitionist and had trouble with pro-slavery members of his church.  He rigidly enforced the rules of the Methodist discipline, prohibiting the selling of slaves, and when any member of his church sold a slave he would arraign him for trial and expel him from the church. The feeling became so intense against him in Kentucky on account of his radical anti-slavery views, that the church deemed it advisable to transfer him to the Iowa conference.  He was sent to Marshalltown, arriving there with his family on the 28th day of October, 1856. After preaching there eighteen months his health failed, and his brother, Moses Shinn, asked him to move on a large farm near Macedonia, Iowa.  His health continued to decline and he died November 6, 1858. Mrs. Shinn was left with a family of six boys, and remained on the farm near Macedonia. Her father, who was quite wealthy, living in Ohio, insisted upon her coming back where he could provide for her and her children, the father having left his family with but little property. This request she refused to comply with, saying that western Iowa was as rich a country as there was upon the face of the earth, and that she could give her sons no better heritage than to settle them in the rich valley of the Nishnabotana. 

In June, 1861, the oldest brother, Asa P. Shinn, enlisted in Company A, First Nebraska Regiment volunteers, he being the first volunteer to enlist in Pottawattamie county. He went into Missouri with his regiment and was taken ill with typhoid fever and died November 14, 1861, and is buried in an unknown grave at Jefferson City. After his death, Frank, being the oldest of the brothers, remained at home with his mother until he was 24 years of age. During that time they were able to purchase a home, and at the time he left his mother's home her property was worth $3,500. In the meantime he had earned money enough to buy eighty acres of wild prairie, which he afterwards improved with his own hands.

Frank's education was obtained in common schools before he was 15 years of age.  He began trying lawsuits in justice courts in 1864, and continued to try such cases until 1873, when an old pioneer lawyer at Glenwood, Henry C. Watkins, prevailed upon him to read law, loaning him books which he carried out to the farm home, and, by reading through the winter nights, and rainy days in the summer, was finally able to pass an examination and was admitted to regular practice April 16, 1877.  In 1884 Mr. Shinn conceived the idea of enjoining saloons. Having made an effort to enjoin the saloon under the statute at Hastings, the court refused him the right and he at once prepared House File No.  481 r Session Laws of the Twentieth General Assembly, a record of which will be found in the house journal of the Twentieth General Assembly, page 295. He tried to get the representatives from Mills and Pottawattamie counties to introduce this bill, and they declined to do so, but Capt.  J. A. Lyons, of Guthrie county, consented to, and did, introduce the bill.

In his younger days Mr. Shinn was a democrat, but left the party in 1880 on account of prohibition. He has been an active prohibitionist, having canvassed western Iowa and made thirty-two speeches during the campaign of 1882. He has been an active worker of the republican party since that time and has been on the platform making speeches in the interest of that party every year since. He has never aspired to official positions, but did, at one time, accept the nomination from the republican party and ran for state senator in Pottawattamie county district. The county was then hopelessly democratic. He was defeated but ran ahead of his ticket. Having had a very lucrative practice for the past twenty years, Mr. Shinn has accumulated considerable property. He owns valuable lands in the Nishnabotana valley, besides much other property. When he was 14 years of age when he cut his knee with a corn cutter in the field on which now stands part of the city of Marshalltown, and was rendered a cripple for life.  He was married January 25, 1869, to Almyra Schenck, at Council Bluffs. She was the daughter of James A. Schenck, a farmer who resided near Macedonia. There were born to them five children, namely:

Addie, born October 28, 1869; Linnie A., born April 16, 1871; James A., born January 18, 1872; Kate, born October 15, 1874, and Myrtle, born October 21, 1880. James A. and Addie died in the fall of 1882; Kate married C. C. Johnson, a druggist of Carson, and Linnie A. married Ira R. Stitt, an attorney of Carson.

SQUIRE, James W., a leading citizen of Council Bluffs was born in New York February 1, 1847. His father, Daniel Squire, was a boot and shoe merchant in Rockford, 111. His mother was Mary Keeling Squire. James was educated in the public schools of Rockford and is a graduate of the high school. He earned his first money in the harvest field, but his first self-supporting work was that of a teacher at McGregor, Iowa, where he spent two years.

At the age of 16 years he joined the Sixty-seventh Illinois infantry volunteers and went to war. After an honorable discharge he enlisted in the Forty-fifth Illinois volunteers, which is known as the old "Lead Mine regiment," where he remained until the close of the war.

Mr. Squire removed to Council Bluffs on April 1, 1871, and worked in a real estate office and in the savings bank and in the Pacific National bank for four years.  Under the firm name of Squire & Walker, a real estate and abstract office was opened during the year 1875. Mr. Squire after-wards purchased Mr. Walker's interest and took his brother, E. L. Squire, into the firm. Soon after, however, he purchased his brother's interest, and with a force of efficient clerks has ever since continued the same line of business.