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Progressive Men of Iowa
1899
 LAFLAR, Gordon Warren, of Manning, was born
near Lewis, Cass county, Iowa, August 10, 1855. His
father, William C. Laflar, was born at Mt. Vernon, Ohio,
October 19, 1831, and removed with his parents when a
boy to Lake county, Ind., where he lived for a number of
years. When
about 21 he came to Iowa, and August 27, 1854, was
married at Des Moines to Margaret Powers. They removed
to. a farm southwest of Lewis, Cass county, where they
resided for many years. In 1878 Mr. Laflar removed to
Kansas but returned to Iowa in 1880, and in 1882 located
in Manning, where he remained until 1891, when he
removed to Hamilton, Wash., residing there until his
death, February 17, 18$). Margaret Powers Laflar, the
mother of Gordon W., was born at Mabon, Cape Breton
Island, N. S., April 7, 1835, and removed to Lake
county, Ind., when a child. There she remained during
her early life and until nearly the time of her marriage
to Mr. Laflar, when she came to Des Moines. She had two
brothers in the war of the rebellion. The eldest, Thomas
Powers, died after being in service for two years. The
other, James K. Powers, was shot in the right arm at the
battle of Shiloh, April 7, 1862, and lost his arm. After returning
from the war, J. K. Powers became prominent in political
circles and filled many responsible positions in Iowa.
He was county clerk of Cass county for six years, from
1868 to 1874. He was appointed, by Gov. C. C. Carpenter,
as a member of the state board of immigration. He was elected register of the state land office
and served from 1878 to 1882. He was also chief clerk of
the house of repre-sentatives during the Twenty-first
General Assembly.
Gordon W. Laflar received his
early education in the public schools of Cass county and
remained upon the farm until 1882 when he moved to
Manning and engaged in the insurance business. After
four years' experience he entered the employ of the.
law, loan, real estate and insurance firm of Salinger
& Brigham, with whom he remained for three years. He
then formed a partnership with C. C. Coe and established
the Free Press newspaper at Manning July 1, 1889. After
one year's experience Mr. Coe retired from the firm and
in September, 1890, Mr. Laflar sold the office and
business to Martin Bros., of Webster City. Soon after
this he bought the loan, real estate and insurance
business of the firm of Lindsay, Salinger & Company.
In March, 1891, he formed a partnership with J. H.
Rockfellow, who bought an interest in the business, and
the firm became Laflar & Rockfellow. In January,
1893, they purchased a general store at Orillia, Iowa,
where Mr. Rockfellow
resides.
In politics Mr. Laflar is a
republican and has been an active worker for the
cause. He
was elected mayor of Manning in
1892.
He is a member of the A. O.
U. W., the I.
O. O. F., K. of P., and the Northwestern Legion
of Honor. October 13, 1876, he was married to Miss
Melessa H. Armstrong. They have had three children: Ida
May, Alma Ethel, Artie E. Of these only the son is
living.
 MOSHER, Lemuel Leigh, county attorney from
January 1, 1895, to January 1, 1899, one of the leading
lawyers of Warren county, living at Indianola, has won
high professional standing by attending to the work
before him conscientiously. He was born June
9, 1853, in Morrow county, Ohio. His father, Stephen
Mosher, was a farmer in moderate circumstances, and is
now retired from active business on account of age and
infirmities. He came to Iowa in June, 1856, and settled
in the southern part of Warren county. He is a member of
the Friends' church. The mother's maiden name was Mary
Farrington. Her parents were of Quaker parentage and
residents of Ohio. There were several ministers in the
families of both Mr. and Mrs. Mosher, but the most of
the members of their families were quiet, un-assuming
pioneers.
L. L. Mosher obtained his
early education in the most primitive schools of early
Iowa, but they were characterized by the sturdy
influence of those days and evidently made a lasting
impression upon the character of young Mosher, as he has
ever been thoroughly disgusted with the shams and false
pretenses of modern society. In after years he attended
the academy of Friends, at Ackworth, Iowa, for two
years. He
afterwards attended the school at Florence. N. J., a
suburb of Philadelphia, on the Jersey side of the
Delaware river. He then entered the law department of
Simpson college, in Des Moines, and graduated from that
institution June 8, 1880. Mr. Mosher attained
his present position as an attorney by no marked flashes
of advancement, but the growth of his practice has been
marked by steady and continued development. He has now
quite a reputation as a criminal lawyer, and has been
employed in all the criminal cases tried in his county
for years. He was prosecuting attorney in the case of
the State of Iowa v. T. P. Edgerton, indicted and tried
for murder. He secured a verdict of murder in the second
degree, being a verdict for the highest degree of
killing sustained in any like case in Iowa, namely, the
killing of another who was in the act of procuring and
carrying away the property of the
assailant.
In politics he has always
been an ardent republican, and has held the office of
mayor of his city, justice of the peace, and was elected
prosecuting attorney for his county in 1894 and again in
1896. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, having filled
all the offices in a subordinate lodge and been in
attendance at the grand lodge a number of times. He is
also a Knight Templar, thirty-second degree Mason, a
member of the order of the Knights of Phythias and the
Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. Mosher has been twice
married, the first time to Elizabeth Jones, who died,
leaving three children, Edward Everett, born August 1,
1879; Maggie M., born April 30, 1881, and Arthur A.,
born July 27, 1884. He was married again in 1888, to
Maud Young, at Beaver, Pa. They have five children
living, Lemuel Leigh, born February, 19, 1890; Wendell
W., born December 12, 1891, Donovan D., born December
12, 1895; Edith E., born March 2, 1897, and Hugh H.,
born March 14, 1899. Mr. Mosher is an active member of the Methodist
church.
 TILTON, John Littlefield, professor of
natural sciences at Simpson college, is a native of New
Hampshire, born January 11, 1863, at Nashua, in that
state. He is descended from an English family, who came
from Tilton Hill, England, in the seventeenth century
and settled in New England. Daniel Tilton, born in 1645,
was an ensign in King William's war, afterward a member
and also speaker of the provincial assembly. Joseph, son
of Daniel, was commissioned captain in 1717. Samuel and
David, also sons of Daniel, were colonial soldiers in
Queen Anne's war. At the battle of Bunker Hill, a lad 14
years of age, named Sinclair, stood with the New
Hampshire boys at the rail fence. He left his home in
northern New Hampshire when the news from Concord and
Lexington first reached his home and served with the
American army throughout the war. Others less closely
related were also in the revolution.
John Tilton, the professor's
father, was born in Sandwich, N. H., July 28, 1828. In 1859 he
removed to Nashua, where he was a member of the common
council, alderman and representative in the state
legislature. As a businessman his reputation was of the
highest order. His sagacity, promptness and sterling
integrity made his word as good as his bond. He was
benevolent and open-handed, but his good deeds were
always performed in a quiet way and many are able to
give testimony to his generous assistance. He married
Celia L. Meader in 1853. Her ancestors were from the
state of Maine, where they were prominent and highly
respected citizens. Professor Tilton has two brothers:
Frank H., who is a physician in East Boston, Mass., and
Osmon B., who is in the grain business at Nashua.
Professor Tilton's early
education was received in the graded schools. He was
converted when 13 years of age, in 1876, and joined the
Methodist Episcopal church the following year. Like many
boys of his age he was indifferent to study during the
first half of his high school course, but fortunately,
and in due time, he roused himself and at his
graduation, in 1881, received a "Noyes prize medal," for
scholarship and deportment throughout the high school
course. In September, 1881, he entered the Wesleyan
university, at Middletown, Conn., for a college course,
which he finished with the degree of A. B. in 1885. The
following year he served as principal of the public
schools at Niantic, Conn. From 1886 to 1888 he was in
the service of his alma mater as assistant in natural
history, at the same time pursuing a post-graduate
course in natural history, which was completed in 1888,
when he received his M. A. degree, and was also elected
to the chair of natural sciences of Simpson college, of
Iowa.
During the summer vacations,
he spent his time in the following places: Summer of
1885 in the biological laboratory of Annisquam, Mass.;
the summer of 1886 in the zoology department of the
Martha's Vineyard Summer institute, and the summer of
1887 as assistant in the latter place. The summer
vacation of 1888 was given to the study of quantitative
analysis at Harvard university and to special work in
electricity at Wesleyan, preparatory to his work at
Simpson the following year. The summer of
1890 he visited Annisquam, Mass., for the purpose of
collecting biological material to be used in the
laboratory. He took a special course in electrical
engineering at Harvard university during the summer of
1893. Parts of the remaining summers have been spent in
field work connected with the Iowa state geological
survey.
His leave of absence in 1895
was devoted to special courses in geology at Harvard
university. These courses were in the following
subjects: Fossils, both their biological and
stratigraphic relations; petrography, field
investigation, and, as an extra subject, physical
geography. For this work, together with the theses
connected with it, Harvard university conferred upon him
the M. A. degree. He holds a membership in the Phi Beta
Kappa, in the American Society of Naturalists, and in
the Iowa Academy of
Sciences.
The following publications will
give an idea of the work he has completed, and of the
work in which he is still engaged: "The Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Annual Reports of the Curators of the Museum of Wesleyan
University," Middletown, Conn. Several papers in the
proceedings of the "Iowa Academy of Sciences"
"Geological section along Middle river in central Iowa,"
Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. 3; "On the Southwestern
part of Boston Basin, " Proceedings of the Boston
Society of Natural History, Vol. 36, June. 1895;
"Area of Slate near Nashua," Nashua Daily Press, October
29, 1896; "The Geology of Warren county," Iowa
Geological Survey, Vol. 5. September 4,
1890, he married Ida M. Hoyt, of Nashua,
N. H. His only child, Besse, was born June 15,
1891.
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