Trails-to-the-Past-Iowa-Wapello-Co-Biographies-Progressive-Men

Biographies

Progressive Men of Iowa
1899

CASTER, Dr. Paul, was born in Henry county, Ind., April 30, 1827, and lived there with his parents until he was 14 years of age. About this time occurred the death of his mother, which sad event resulted in young Paul's leaving home and going to Elkhart county, Ind., where he wandered from place to place homeless and friendless. He had a serious impediment in his speech, and some mental peculiarities which prevented him from receiving an education in the usual way and threw him entirely upon his own resources mentally.

In the year 1848 he married Nancy Hatfield, a farmer's daughter. They lived on a farm for three years, when he engaged in the manufacture of chairs, wheels and hubs, in which business he was very successful for two years, when he met with a serious accident; while carrying one end of a heavy log his foot slipped on the ice and he fell, the log falling across his chest. This accident rendered him an invalid for some nine years, and he never entirely recovered from its results. Five children were born to Dr. Paul Caster and his wife: Mary Ann, John Lewis, Samuel, Sarah E., and Jacob S., now a noted magnetic healer in Burlington, Iowa. Dr. Paul Caster removed to Decatur county, Iowa, in 1855. His wife died in 1863, and in 1864 he married Mrs. Sarah Ferrell, of Decatur county, who still survives him. To them were born four children: Margaret E., George William, Ella and Nettie.

Dr. Paul Caster, from childhood, possessed a wonderful magnetic power to heal. His first patient was a little playmate, who had what had been pronounced a cancer on her breast. One day while playing she became over heated and suffered greatly. Little Paul felt that he could take away the pain, and he was successful. The child's parents constituted him her physician until the sore healed. The little girl lived to womanhood, and raised a large family, and this was so early in life that the doctor did not remember his exact age; and his history shows that he continued to heal patients at various times until in 1866 he commenced his public career as a healer in Leon, Decatur county, Iowa. In 1869 he removed to Ottumwa, Iowa, where he remained until his death, April 19,1881. Dr. Caster commenced the erection of his magnetic infirmary at Ottumwa in 1871 and completed it as it now stands in 1875. In 1877-78 he built his private residence adjoining the infirmary. These buildings were erected at a cost of $78,000, and stand today as a monument to the marvelous success attained by only fourteen years of practice in a profession that at that time was looked upon with great disfavor by the majority-especially of western people. Nevertheless he achieved a reputation second to no other magnetic healer known, and which still remains fresh in the minds of not only the people of Iowa, but of many throughout the United States, as he treated patients from almost every state in the union.

Dr. Paul Caster was a firm believer in the deity. He also believed that his strange power was a divine gift and, unlike some of our late healers, he did not believe that it could be taught another, but must come to each one from the same high source. Before his death he became firmly convinced that his son Jacob possessed the same power, and urged him upon his death-bed to take up the work where he was compelled to lay it down, predicting that in so doing alone would lie his future success in life. His son, in 1889, carried out his father's wishes by engaging in the work as a public healer and is carrying it forward in a manner, not only creditable to himself, but also to the reputation of his noted father, Dr. Paul Caster.

LA FORCE, Dr. Daniel Alexander, of Ottumwa, is a son of Daniel G. and Margaret W. Monroe La Force, of Woodford county, Ky.; was born May 17, 1837, in Lexington, Ind. He is now one of the best known physicians in southern Iowa, enjoying a large practice, and conducting an infirmary, where many patients are cared for. After a preparatory course in the Iowa Wesleyan university, he began to study medicine in 1857, at Ashland, Iowa, under the preceptorship of Drs. James W. La Force and Samuel M. Evans. He attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Keokuk, graduating therefrom in 1863. In 1882 he took a post graduate course in the Chicago Medical college, now medical department of the Northwestern university. Dr. La Force practiced medicine in Keokuk, Iowa, one year as assistant surgeon to the United States general hospital, 1863; he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Fifty-sixth Regiment United States Colored troops, 1864, and was promoted to be surgeon of the same, May 8, 1864, serving until September 15, 1866; was surgeon in charge of the United States general hospital at Helena, Ark., 1864-66, and was medical director of the eastern department of Arkansas, 1865-66; was United States pension examining surgeon from 1888 to 1892.

He was located, in the practice of medicine, at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, 1866-68; at Burlington, 1868-71; at Agency City, 1871-84; and at Ottumwa since that time. Dr. La Force is a member of the American Medical association; of the Iowa State Medical society; of the Des Moines Valley Medical association; and of the Wapello County Medical society, of which latter he was president in 1890. He is now president of the Hawkeye hospital, at Ottumwa. While he was surgeon in charge of quarantine in St. Louis, in 1866, during the epidemic of cholera, 700 cases were treated, an experience of great interest and scientific value, which is rarely given to a physician in this country. During his residence in Agency City, Dr. La Force was a member of the school board for ten years, and of the city council for eight years. He was mayor of the city of Ottumwa from 1893 to 1897, serving two terms. He is a republican, and was elected to the legislature from Wapello county in 1885, serving in the house in the Twenty-first General Assembly, and reaching a position of influence and prominence. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Knights Templars and the Mystic Shrine, Loyal Legion and Grand Army of the Republic.

Dr. La Force was married in 1866, to Miss Mahala J. Dudley, of Mt. Pleasant, daughter of Rev. Edward Dudley. Their children are: William Brooks, Ph. B., State University of Iowa, 1890; M. D., Chicago Medical college, 1891, who also took a course of lectures in the Royal University of Vienna, Austria, in 1893, and is now lecturer on pathology and director of microscopical laboratories in Keokuk Medical college; Burdette Dudley, Ph. G., Illinois College of Pharmacy, 1891; M. D., Rush Medical college, 1893, and in 1894 took special courses in eye and ear in Moor Held's Eye and Ear hospital, in London, England; Frank E., Ph B., State University of Iowa; and Charles R., student.

MILLS, Prof. Earl, who, although but 26 years of age, is superintendent of the Eldon schools with its corps of nine teachers and 500 pupils, was born in Newton, Jasper county, Iowa, December 28, 1871. His father, Levi W. Mills, was a native of Pennsylvania, having been born in Franklin county. He enlisted in Company C, Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteer infantry, and was assigned to the ninth army corps under General Burnside. He was severely wounded at the battle of the Wilderness, but upon his partial recovery returned to his regiment and completed the term of enlistment. The Forty-fifth was sent from Virginia to South Carolina, but returned to participate in the campaigns of the army of the Potomac. Later it was ordered west to operate with the western forces, and saw service at Nashville, Jackson and the many other points that were reddened with the blood of northern men. He received an honorable discharge at the end of three years of gallant service, at which time he returned to his home and joined the family, then about to start for Iowa to locate a permanent home.

Sometime after his arrival he married Miss Margaret L. Cuthbertson, and to them was born a son, the subject of this sketch, the mother dying while he was not yet 2 years old. The home of the father and son was thereafter with the father's people. The father died July 3, 1894, at the age of 53 years, leaving his son the last of the family in the male line.

Earl Mills attended the public schools at Newton and later the high school, from which he graduated in 1888, then entered upon the profession of teaching. In 1890, he graduated from the Jasper County Nor mal institute, and then entered the Highland Park Normal college, graduating in 1893, when he resumed his former work as teacher. He served for a time as deputy superintendent of schools of Jasper county, later as principal of the schools at Olin, Jones county, and at the conclusion of his contract at the last named place accepted the superintendence of schools at Eldon, where he is now engaged. To this position Mr. Mills was re-elected by acclamation for the fourth year on April 11, 1899. He holds a teacher's life diploma granted him February 1, 1899, by the state department of public instruction.

As an educator it is safe to say that, considering his age, Professor Mills has no superior in the state. To a thorough education-he holds the degree of B. S., and a state teacher's certificate-is added a native aptness for the work and that subtle quality which governs, interests and advances the pupil under his charge. As an organizer he possesses that skill and tact and knowledge of human nature which prevents friction in any of the departments, and holds alike the friendship and esteem of teachers and pupils.

He comes of good old revolutionary stock. Two great-grand-fathers on the paternal side were soldiers in the struggle for independence, and an only uncle on the father's side carried a musket in the civil war, having enlisted in the first union regiment raised in his native state. He was never out of government service from 1861 until the close of the war. Five uncles on his mother's side marched to Dixie at the first call, and spent five years fighting in defense of the flag. Professor Mills was married to Miss D. Jessie Lamb, of Olin, Jones county, Iowa, June 17, 1897.

McELROY, Ebenezer Erskine, the well known attorney of Ottumwa, is a native of Ohio, and of Scotch-Irish descent. He was born February 16, 1849, near Greenfield, Ohio. His father, Thomas G. McElroy, was a soldier in the war of the rebellion and enlisted in the army when the subject of this sketch was only 14 years old, leaving him with his mother and five younger children to care for themselves on the farm. Before leaving home the father called the children together and told them that as Ebenezer was the oldest he should take his place and they must obey him the same as they would their father. To the 14 year-old boy he said, "There will be many things that will bother you. Questions will come up about whether it is best to break certain fields; whether the wheat has stood the winter so that it will be worth harvesting; whether the stock is fat enough to sell; what kind of crops should be put in certain fields, etc. If such things bother you it would be well for you to talk with your Uncle Hugh, or Mr. Smith about them, but when you hear what they say, I want you to do whatever you think best." Throwing this responsibility upon the boy at an early age probably had much influence on his character and after life, and prepared him for greater responsibilities.

Young McElroy attended country schools until he was fifteen; then studied for two winters in the high school of Greenfield, Ohio, then three years in the South Salem academy, and then finished his course in three years at Cornell university, New York, in June, 1872, receiving the degree of B. S. He then entered the law department of the State University of Iowa, where in June, 1873, he took the degree of LL. B.

Mr. McElroy was married July 2, 1873, to Miss Belle Hamilton, of Greenfield, Ohio, and August 18th they moved to Ottumwa, Iowa, where he has since lived, and has built up an excellent law practice. He formed a partnership with W. E. Chambers, in the law practice in 1875, which continued until the death of that gentleman in 1890. M. A. Roberts was taken into the firm in 1887, and continued with it until 1895, when he became district judge. His present partner, Mr. George F. Heindel, became associated with the firm in 1894. Their practice is now practically confined to the district and supreme courts of this state, and the United States circuit court for the Southern district of Iowa.

Although taking no active part in politics Mr. McElroy has always been a republican and has served as an alderman of the city of Ottumwa. He has been a member of the school board of that place for the last fifteen years, and president of the board for the last six years. He is a member of the Iowa State Bar association. By his first wife Mr. McElroy has five children: Thomas Clifford, now in Cornell university; Carl Erskine, now with the wholesale grocery firm of J. G. Hutchinson & Company; Walter Hamilton, Ralph Theodore and Evalyn, all now in the high school at Ottumwa. After the death of his first wife, he was married, in 1884, to Elizabeth Millner and they have two children, Edna and Edith.

WORK, W. A., of Ottumwa, Iowa, is the senior member of the law firm of Work & Lewis, and is an enthusiast in his devotion to the law, bis chosen profession. Mr. Work turns neither to the right nor left in search for honors or preferment that will not come to him as a devoted laborer in the profession which he has chosen as his life work, and which he loves so well. Mr. Work was born on the 25th day of December, 1844, on a farm in Jefferson county, Iowa. His father, Joseph Work, was a native of Clark county, Ind., and came to Jefferson county, Iowa, in 1843. The same year, before leaving Indiana, he was married to Miss Eleanor Huckleberry. They moved to Van Buren county, Iowa, near Birmingham in 1845, where young W. A. was reared on a farm and became inured to all the hardships, labor and privations incident to pioneer life. His father represented Van Buren county in the state legislature in 1872.

The subject of this sketch was educated in the old school house of pioneer days, where he attended a winter and a summer term till he was old enough to work in the field, when he was limited to a winter term for several years. In these schools every-thing learned was not from books. The wide expanse of prairie fringed with forestage, over which they roamed, gave the boy a breadth of character not attained in the limited environments of the city. Such was young Work in the latter fifties, when he entered the then well known academy at Birmingham. In 1862, he was admitted to the college course of Iowa Wesleyan university, at Mt. Pleasant. He completed one year's work there and in 1863, enlisted in the United States navy, and was assigned to the United States gunboat, Benton, flagship of Admiral Porter's lower Mississippi squadron. He served during a part of 1863 and 1864, when many of the great engagements on the Mississippi river occurred. Island No. 10; Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans had fallen when he quit the service, and commerce was restored to the great river.

When his term of service closed, he returned to the Iowa Wesleyan and finished the college course in 1867. After graduating he taught school at Keosauqua for a year, but in the meantime took up the study, of law with Hon. Robert Sloan of the Keosauqua bar, and when Judge Sloan was elected to the circuit judgeship he succeeded to his practice. Eight years later he associated himself with Judge Alexander Brown, under the firm name of Work & Brown, and in 1882, Judge Sloan, after leaving the bench, became a member of the firm. In 1883 Mr. Work came to Ottumwa and opened an office, but still continues his association with the old firm at Keosauqua, and regularly attends both the courts of Van Buren and Wapello counties. He has been successfully engaged in some of the most important litigated cases in southeastern Iowa. As a trial lawyer, either to the court or before a jury, Mr. Work has few equals. His mind is naturally analytical and logical, and whether discussing a joint of law or presenting an analysis of the evidence of a case, he is strong and convincing.

In 1895 Mr. Work became associated with John W. Lewis, and the firm ranks among the first in the Ottumwa bar. Mr. Work is a republican in politics and is a strong supporter of his party, but he is in no sense a politician, devoting his attention to his chosen profession, seeking no honors but those that strictly belong to it.

Mr. Work and Miss Hinda H. Marlow were united in marriage at Keosauqua in 1869. Mrs. Work is a daughter of Benjamin P. Marlow, and a native of Van Buren county, Iowa. They have born to them six children, three sons and three daughters. They have a beautiful home of unfailing hospitality on the corner of Court and Fifth streets, in Ottumwa. He is a member of the M. E. Church.

WYMAN, Major Willie Cutter, a well known and successful businessman of Ottumwa, comes of an old New England family. On both sides of his father's and mother's families he is descended from the earliest settlers of Massachusetts, the members of the old Bay state colony. The Wyman family came to America from England in 1684. Some of them were officers in the English army and were among those who organized the Ancient and Honorable Artillery company of Boston in 1638, the organizers being chiefly officers who were members of the Honorable Artillery company of London before they came to this country either to settle or as officers in the English army. For generations members of the Wyman family have belonged to this company, and Major Wyman holds a commission in it. His father was Edward Wyman, Jr., a Boston merchant and capitalist, and his mother's maiden name was Mary Anna Doyle, of Salem, Mass., where the subject of this sketch was born.

He received a liberal education, attending the Boston Latin school, a military academy, and other New England educational institutions of the best class. He was appointed a captain's clerk in the United States navy in 1870, and later promoted to acting admiral's secretary (rank lieutenant in the navy), and served in the North Atlantic, West Indian and European fleets, resigning in 1874. He came to Iowa the same year and located in Ottumwa, and two years later engaged in business with Mr. J. Prugh, the firm consisting of Mr. Prugh and himself, and known as J. Prugh & Co. Upon the death of Mr. Prugh some years later Mr. Wyman continued the business. They are importers and wholesale dealers in crockery, china, etc., and the concern is one of the heaviest of its kind in the state.

Major Wyman has always been a republican, as his father and grandfather on both sides were before him. He has been quite active and influential in the politics of his state. His military ancestry and training led him to take an interest in the Iowa National guard, with which he has been actively associated for fifteen years or more. He is now serving his sixth term as military secretary to the governor, which is longer than any other man in the United States ever held this position. He had previously served as first lieutenant, acting regimental adjutant, and quartermaster, and as brigade quartermaster. He is one of the best known and most popular military men in the state. Major Wyman is a thirty-second degree Mason and Knight Templar and Knight of Pythias, besides belonging to other orders. He is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is either a member of, or eligible to membership in, nearly all the colonial societies. His people held various military and civil positions. One of his ancestors on his mother's side was assistant governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, under Governor Winthrop. He belongs to the Episcopal church. Mr. Wyman was married in 1876 to Alice Prugh, a daughter of his late partner. They have one son, William Charles Wyman, born in 1882.

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright may be used in personal family history research, with source citation. The pages in entirety may not be duplicated for publication in any fashion without the permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material on this site is not permitted. Please respect the wishes of those who have contributed their time and efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank you!