Disastrous Fire in Milwaukee, Loss over $75,000

MILWAUKEE, March 1.

A most disastrous fire this morning destroyed the entire block, known as the Albany Buildings.  The first floor was occupied by the American Express office, Leahy’s gas fixtures, R. B. Bell’s liquor store, Wisconsin seed store, and saloons.  These stocks were mostly saved.  The second story was occupied by the law offices of Finch, Lynde & Miller, Brown & Ogden, Cory & Pratt, and several others.  Their books and papers were saved.

The large concert and opera hall covered by the third floor, which was entirely destroyed, together with scenery and stage fixtures.

The loss on the buildings is estimated at $75,000; insured for $50,000.  Other losses are not known.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

It is said to be clearly understood between the Allied Powers that a monarchy will be the result of the present invasion of Mexico, notwithstanding assurances given the United States that they did not seek any political object there.  It is believed they will say the monarchy will be established by the free will of the Mexican people, just as the empire was established in France.

Maj. Gen. Hitchcock declined his appointment on the ground that his ill health will not permit him to perform the duties of the field.

Gen. Lander died to-day at Paw Paw, Western Va., from debilitating effects of the wound received at Edward’s Ferry. – Gen Shields succeeds him.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Death of Gen. Lander

The death of Gen. Fred W. Lander, announced in our dispatches this morning, will cast a deep shade of sorrow over our whole country.  He was in truth a right gallant soldier and noble gentleman.  Few men in our army can supply his place.  He falls a victim to the Ball’s Bluff blunder, where he was seriously wounded, and from which he has never recovered.  His heroism has kept him in the field when he should have been in the hospital, and he thus dies with his harness on. – Chi. Trib.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Battery "L," 2nd Regiment Light Artillery

Organized at Chicago, Ill., and mustered in February 28, 1862. Moved to Benton Barracks, Mo., March 11, thence to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., April 8, 1862. Attached to 4th Division, Army of the Tennessee, to July, 1862. 4th Division, District of Jackson, Tenn., to November, 1862. 4th Division, 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. of the Tennessee, to December, 1862. Artillery, 3rd Division, 17th Army Corps, to April, 1864. Artillery, 1st Division, 17th Army Corps, to September, 1864. Post and District of Vicksburg, Miss., to November, 1864. Artillery Reserve, District of Vicksburg, Dept. of Mississippi, to August, 1865.

SERVICE.--Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., April 6-7, 1862. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. March to Memphis, Tenn., via Grand Junction, Lagrange, Holly Springs, Moscow and Germantown, June 1-July 21, and duty there till September. Moved to Bolivar September 6-14, and duty there till October 4. Battle of the Hatchie or Metamora October 5. Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign November, 1862, to January, 1863. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., January, 1863, thence to Lake Providence, La., February 22. Duty there and at Milliken's Bend, La., till April. Movements on Bruinsburg and turning Grand Gulf April 25-30. Battle of Port Gibson, Miss., May 1. Battles of Raymond May 12, Jackson May 14, Champion's Hill May 16.  Siege of Vicksburg, Miss., May 18-July 4. Assaults on Vicksburg May 19 and 22. Surrender of Vicksburg July 4, and garrison duty there till August, 1865. Expedition to Monroe, La., August 20-September 2, 1863. Expedition to Canton October 14-20. Action at Bogue Chitto Creek October 17. Expedition to Yazoo City May 4-21, 1864. Benton May 7 and 9. Vaughan May 12. Yazoo City May 13. Expedition from Vicksburg to Pearl River July 2-10. Near Jackson July 5. Jackson and Clinton July 7. At Vicksburg till August, 1865. Mustered out August 9, 1865.

Battery lost during service 4 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 32 Enlisted men by disease. Total 38.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1042

Keokuk National Cemetery, Keokuk, Iowa

Click on pictures to see the larger images.

Foreign Passports

NEW YORK, March 1.

A dispatch was received by Superintendent Kennedy; assistant Secretary of State, rescinding the order requiring persons leaving the country to procure passports, and further stating that foreign passports will not hereafter require to be countersigned.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Iowa Physicians At Cairo

Dr. W. H. White, of Iowa City, passed through this city yesterday on his return home from Cairo, whither he had been at his own expense to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded.  He says that he met with the following physicians from our State at Cairo engaged in the same praiseworthy work, viz: Drs. Maxwell and McCarn, of Davenport, Bell, of Wapello, Bartlett, of Marengo, Chambers and Turner of Tipton, and Hoofman, of Oskaloosa.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Mr. A. H. Clark . . .

. . . a private in company B, son of Mr. Palmer Clark of this city, it will be remembered, was one of the wounded at Fort Donelson.  We see, in a list published in an Illinois paper, that he is at Mound city, and his leg has been amputated.  This latter report we are disposed to doubt, as his father has late accounts from him, saying he was much better, and might be expected home last night or this morning.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Public Meeting

We call attention to the notice in another column for a meeting of the contributors to the relief fund.  The committee desires full attendance.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Soldiers' Aid Society

The members of this Society are reminded that to-day is the first Tuesday of the month, and as the Society is much in need of funds with which to prosecute its business, it is requested that all be in attendance and pay their monthly dues, at 2 o’clock this afternoon at the usual place of meeting.

Sec. S. A. S.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 1

Jeff. Davis’ Inaugural

The Inaugural Address of Jefferson Davis, upon his installment in the office of President of the Confederate States for the ensuing six years, reads like a funeral service, or the dying speech of a convicted criminal protesting his innocence on the gallows.  Washington’s Birthday was desecrated by the solemn farce of inauguration.  A year hence he will be hung or in exile.

It does not appear that there was any enthusiasm manifested by the crowd.  Every one must have felt in his bones that secession was well nigh played out.  Col. Lee, an exchanged prisoner, who was in Richmond, on the day of the inauguration, states that Davis received a dispatch announcing the fall of Nashville, while he was reading his inaugural to the gloomy crowd before him.  The Richmond Whig says; “In view of the past, the present, and probably the future, the pageant was a bitter mockery and a miserable compensation for the ruin of a free people.  A child with a bauble, and old man with a young wife are partial illustrations of the deplorable folly.

In the course of his traitorous harangue, Davis admits that the rebel arms are suffering sad reverses just now, but he relies upon the expectation that the North must ultimately sink under the heavy public debt incurred in maintaining the war.  He claims that the land of Secessia has grown during the past year for six to thirteen States.  But he forgets to deduct Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, embraced in this count.  Discussing the causes of the war, he names the rule of the majority as one of them.  The “proud” slaveholders would not submit, to what he terms “the despotism of numbers.”  They therefore determined to sever the bonds of the Union and set up a confederacy for themselves that would be “homogeneous,” that is, all salve States, and the absolute rule of the oligarchy.  Davis admits plainly enough that it is a slaveholder’s rebellion in which he is engaged and that slavery is at the bottom of the war.  He substitutes the usual cant phrases, “Southern rights,” “our system of Government,” &c.; but it all comes to the same thing – Slavery; for the aggrandizement of that they have waged war on the Republic.  Slavery must rule or the Union must perish is the alternative.  Davis rests his chief reliance apart from the “patriotism” and “self reliance” of the rebels – on the greatness of the National debt, and the special intervention of Providence in behalf of secession.  But he will find Uncle Sam has good credit and considerable means of his own, and that Providence will be on the side of the heaviest artillery, largest battalions and iron clad gunboats. – Chicago Trib.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

Fifteenth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry

Term of service three years.

Mustered into service of the United States at Keokuk, Iowa, Feb 22, 1862, by Capt. Charles C. Smith and Lieut. C. J. Ball, United States Army.

Mustered out July 24, 1865, Louisville, Ky.

Roster of Field, Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Staff Officers at muster in of organization, together with subsequent appointments from civil life.

FIELD AND STAFF.

Hugh T. Reid. Age 50. Residence Keokuk, nativity Indiana. Appointed Colonel Nov. 1, 1861. Mustered Feb. 22, 1862. Wounded in neck April 6, 1862, Shiloh, Tenn. Promoted Brigadier General March 13, 1863.

William Dewey. Age 50. Residence Sidney, nativity Massachusetts. Appointed Lieutenant Colonel Nov. 1, 1861. Mustered Nov. 6, 1861. Appointed Colonel of Twenty-third Infantry Aug. 1, 1862. Resigned to accept commission Aug. 28, 1862. See Field and Staff, Twenty-third Infantry.

William W. Belknap. Age 32. Residence Keokuk, nativity New York. Enlisted Nov. 7, 1861. Appointed Major Nov. 7, 1861. Mustered Dec. 7, 1861. Wounded slightly in shoulder April 6, 1862, Shiloh, Tenn. Promoted Lieutenant Colonel Aug. 1, 1862; Colonel April 22, 1863; Brigadier General Aug. 17, 1864; Brevet Major General of Volunteers March 13, 1865.

George Pomutz. Age 35. Residence New Buda, nativity Hungary. Appointed Adjutant Dec. 23, 1861. Mustered Dec. 23, 1861. Wounded in thigh severely April 6, 1862, Shiloh, Tenn. Promoted Major April 22, 1863; Lieutenant Colonel Aug. 18, 1864. Mustered out July 24, 1865, Louisville, Ky.

John M. Hedrick. Age 31. Residence Ottumwa, nativity Indiana. Appointed Quartermaster Dec. 23, 1861. Promoted First Lieutenant of company D. See company D.

William H. Barnham. Residence West Point. Appointed Surgeon Nov. 2, 1861. Not mustered into United States service by order of General Halleck.

Samuel R. Davis. Age 35. Residence Atchinson, Kan., nativity Ohio. Appointed Surgeon Feb. 22, 1862. Mustered Feb. 22, 1862. Promoted Assistant Surgeon in Regular Army Feb. 19, 1863. Resigned March 1, 1863.

John C. Johnson. Residence Keokuk County. Appointed Assistant Surgeon Feb. 18, 1865.

William Gibbon. Age 29. Residence Chariton, nativity Iowa. Appointed Assistant Surgeon Nov. 2, 1861. Mustered Nov. 30, 1861. Promoted Surgeon Dec. 1, 1863. Mustered out Dec. 22, 1864, expiration of term of service.

William W. Nelson. Age 37. Residence Utica, nativity Ohio. Appointed Assistant Surgeon Aug. 19, 1862. Mustered Sept. 14, 1862. Mustered out July 24, 1865, Louisville, Ky.

William W. Estabrook. Age 34. Residence Clinton, nativity New Brunswick. Appointed Chaplain Dec. 2, 1861. Mustered Feb. 22, 1862. Resigned April 2, 1863. See Field and Staff, Forty-fifth Infantry.

NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF.

Rufus H. Eldredge. Age 23. Residence Knoxvllle, nativity Ohio. Appointed Quartermaster Sergeant Nov. 21, 1861. Promoted First Lieutenant of company K February 1, 1862. See company K.

Robert W. Cross. Age 21. Residence Des Moines, nativity Indiana. Appointed Commissary Sergeant Nov. 4, 1861. Mustered Nov. 9, 1861. Promoted Quartermaster of Twenty-third Infantry. See Twenty-third Infantry.

Jesse P. Penniman. Age 22. Residence Lyons, nativity New York. Enlisted Oct. 3, 1861. Appointed Sergeant Major Dec. 1, 1861, from Second Sergeant of company A. Mustered Dec. 16, 1861. Promoted Second Lieutenant of company A Feb. 20, 1862. See company A.

Henry T. Felgar. Age 23. Residence West Point, nativity Ohio. Appointed Hospital Steward Nov. 15, 1861, from private of company E. Mustered Dec. 1, 1861. Died of congestive chills Feb. 20, 1862, Keokuk, Iowa. See company E.

Nathan A. Leonard. Age 43. Residence Oskaloosa, nativity Vermont. Appointed Drum Major March 15, 1862, from company B. Mustered Oct. 20, 1861. Discharged for disability July 11, 1862, Corinth, Miss. See company B.

Henry Metz. Age 19. Residence Knoxville, nativity Pennsylvania. Appointed Fife Major Oct. 24, 1861, from Fifer of company G. Mustered Oct. 30, 1861. Promoted Drum Major July 11, 1862. Mustered out July 24, 1865, Louisville, Ky. See company G.

LINE OFFICERS.

Names of company officers at master In of their companies. Service record given opposite their names in the alphabetical roster following.

COMPANY “A”

Josiah W. Kittle, Captain.

Mortimer A. Higley, First Lieutenant

William M. Swanson, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “B”

Wilson T. Smith, Captain.

Adolphus G. Studer, First Lieutenant

Christian E. Lanstrum, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “C”

James A. Seevers, Captain.

John D. Shannon, First Lieutenant.

Ebenezer E. Herbert, Second Lieutenant

COMPANY “D”

Gregg A. Madison, Captain.

John M. Hedrick, First Lieutenant.

Charles M. I. Reynolds, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “E”

Richard W. Hutchcraft, Captain.

John P. Gregg, First Lieutenant.

Hugh G. Brown Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “F”

Edwin C. Blackmar, Captain.

James G. Day, First Lieutenant.

Philip H. Good, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “G”

William T. Cunningham, Captain.

Romulus L. Hanks, First Lieutenant.

Hezekiah Fisk, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “H”

Daniel B. Clark, Captain.

Stephen W. King, First Lieutenant.

John A. Danielson, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “I”

Lloyd D. Simpson, Captain.

James M. Reid, First. Lieutenant.

Robert W. Hamilton, Second Lieutenant.

COMPANY “K”

John M. Hedrick, Captain.

Rufus H. Eldredge, First Lieutenant.

Edwin Davis, Second Lieutenant.

SOURCE: Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers During the War of the Rebellion, Volume 2, p.895-7

Debate on Adj. Gen’s Report

In the House on the 25^th inst., there arose a debate on the question of printing a larger addition of Adj. Gen. Baker’s able report.  The following were J. T. Lane’s remarks on the question, which shows that his heart is in the right place:–

Mr. Lane said he was satisfied the work was in greater demand than any other printed work.  Other reports only contained the names of officers.  The officers are reaping all the glory and they alone are mentioned in print.  He was in favor of doing justice to the private soldier who fights for his country, who goes into the war for the support of the flag, expecting neither emolument or honor.  He said the rebellion would be crushed and its old shabby flag would be only a matter of history, when the Legislature again meets.  The soldiers will be home in their shops and at their ordinary employment.

Mr. Curtiss: I would like to know where the gentleman obtained his information!

Mr. Lane:  I received it from Fort Donelson!  {Applause.}

He then went on to state the necessity of printing the Report, and urged as a matter of justice to the soldier and the friends of our brave boys in the field, it should be printed and widely distributed.  He believed the name of an Iowa soldier would become a passport of honor throughout this broad land and he wished each man would put down in the proper company and regiment that it might ever be traced out and pointed to with honor by the soldier and his friends.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

From The Second Iowa Cavalry

BIRD’S POINT, Feb. 25, 1862

FRIEND SANDERS:  The second remains here, and have got pretty well fixed up; but only for a short time.  Orders have been received from the Colonel to turn over all the tents and baggage that can possibly be dispensed with, and the expectation is, that we will soon be on the move.

On Wednesday I was over at Cairo sighting about the gun and mortar boats.  The Benton, the largest of the gunboats, and the most complete, will be finished by the middle of next week.  She carries sixteen heavy guns, and her forward guns are being taken out and replaced with those still heavier.  The mortars are grim looking monsters four feet long and forty-seven inches in diameter across the muzzle – the bore thirteen inches.  They throw a shell weighing two hundred and thirty pounds four miles.  There is thirty of them – about half of them yet on the railroad track by the river; the others are on the boats.  The boats are about fifty or sixty feet long and twenty wide with an iron bulwark extending seven feet high above the deck, of half inch iron, [loopholed] for sharp shooters – one mortar on each boat.  When they give their compliments to the enemy look out for a victory.  They are at work on them day and night, and the fleet will perhaps be ready in eight or ten days.

I saw several hundred of the “Donelson birds” going from the boat to the cars for Chicago.  In reply to the question “How is affairs at Nashville?” put to an intelligent looking Tennessean among the lot, his reply was “When you get there you will find two-thirds of them as you are.”

The steamer D. G. Taylor was loading with the Government tobacco taken up the Tennessee river, and the small arms taken at Donelson were also being exchanged from another boat.  As they passed along from one to another, one’s taste for variety in the matter of fire arms could be fully gratified – here would come an old flint lock musket, then an percussion lock, then an old fashioned U. S. rifle in use years since, then a single barrel shot gun, or a double barrel, then an old fashioned game rifle, one half were of the last named kind.  Many a poor fellow will miss his squirrel gun next hunting time.  Every man must have furnished his own ammunition as it could not be very well issued to suit so many different styles and calibers of arms.  More anon.

DIFF.

(As the remainder of our correspondent’s letter relates to the prowess of the 2^nd Iowa regiment, obtained from conversation with returning soldiers, and is a repetition of that which we have already published, we omit it. – ED. GAZ.)

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

All the steamers at the levee . . .

. . . left for the “seat of war” last night, by order of military authorities.  A number of additional steamers form other points have been detailed for the same purpose. – Cin. Com., 24th

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

Grain Prospects

The New York World, in a recent article, sums up the wants of Europe in grain to feed the people till next harvest.  From this it appears that notwithstanding the immense shipments of grain to Europe from this country, England still needs about 40,000,000 bushels to supply her existing deficiency, while France, on the 1^st of February needed 48,000,000 bushels to carry her through the spring and summer.  And such is the widespread deficiency resulting from the last European harvest that were England and France out of the question, the demand from other countries would probably overtax all our commercial facilities for shipments.

These figures say nothing of the coarser grains, for which there is also an immense demand, and a high British authority says: “America is overdone with Indian corn, * * * and so truly great a blessing will do much for our further supplies.”

From this resume, which is apparently a truthful one, there is every reason to expect high prices of grain the coming season, especially as the signs of the times appear to indicate the early raising of the river blockade, giving us access by water to the markets of the world, and freeing us from the railroad monopoly which has cramped the interests of the West for the year.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

The Grand Result of the Rebellion

The Democrat from day to day is harping on the Constitution.  It takes the ground that Republicans and all others who are not pro-slavery in their views are abolitionists, and any measure tending to a prosecution or close of the war, unless it leave slavery intact, is unconstitutional.  It interprets the proclamation of Gen. Halleck to his soldiers, “to impress upon the minds of the rebels that the object of their mission is not to violate, but to restore their laws,” to signify that the rebel States are to be restored to the Union just as they were before they seceded from it.  In plain terms, our neighbor desires to see the rebel States brought back into the Union possessing all the rights, privileges and immunities they had before they colleagued together to overthrow the Government; the rebels secured in all their possessions, and the institution of slavery standing just where it did, before with high-hand they sought to destroy our liberties.  They are to be forgiven for all the bloodshed, sorrow and misery they have brought upon our country, and the loyal people of the North are to be burdened with taxation to pay the monstrous debt these miscreants have entailed upon the nation.

We know not how many Northern sympathizers this editor finds with the abominable doctrine he promulgates, but if in the course of events such a thing should come to pass, it would be a triumph for the South that would not only disgrace us in the eyes of the world, but lay a firmer foundation for future rebellion than the South had before it.  So ineffectually sought to disrupt the government and build up a slave oligarchy on its ruins.  If we are to gain nothing by this war and to saddle upon ourselves a national debt to be entailed upon our children for generations to come, and still to foster among us the festering sore that caused all our troubles, then we would appeal to the common sense of every one, if it would not be virtually a Southern triumph.  The North would be the vanquished party, and the South would glory in an institution firmly established at the point of the sword. – We would be in a far worse condition than before the outbreak of the rebellion.

This idea may suit one who has periled nothing in the contest, who has esteemed the preservation of slavery superior to that of his country, who has looked upon the war as one waged for the abolition of slavery, and hoped in his heart that that object might not be accomplished; but it finds no approval in the minds of those who have taken more enlarged views of the subject, and thrown their lives into the scale for the preservation of the Union.  We are not fighting for slavery; but, as it caused the war, if in the contest it is eradicated, root and branch, God be praised; our republic will be planted on a basis so firm that it will stand until nations cease to exist.

We have not the remotest idea that the President, his Cabinet, Congress, or the people, have any wish to see the rebellious States come back into the Union with all the rights and privileges guaranteed them that they possessed before the rebellion.  It would be an outrage upon the North, after all it has suffered at their hands, to admit them again into the Confederacy on an equal footing. – We believe in the old principle of criminal law, that they party found guilty shall pay the costs of prosecution.  They never can be made to liquidate the tithe of the debt the Government holds against them for the loss of life and the vast suffering they have inflicted upon the country, but the property of the rebels can and should be made to pay the pecuniary indebtedness that their satanic course has entailed upon us.  The rebel States should, and no doubt will be, reduced to territories, and the property of the rebels be confiscated to pay the war debt. The settlement of the slave question will then be an after consideration, to come up when these territories again apply for admission into the Union, if not previously settled by the people, or the wise legislation of our Congress.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

Washington Irving On John Bull

In looking over Irving’s happy but truthful description of John Bull, in his “Sketch Book,” we find the following, which is so apropos to the present time that we copy it:

                                                                                     

“He (John Bull) cannot hear of a quarrel between the most distant of his neighbors, but he begins incontinently to fumble with the head of his cudgel and consider wither his interest or his honor does not require that he should meddle in the broil.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

It may be wrong to laugh at solemn things. . .

. . . but Gen. Simon B. Buckner’s complaint of the “ungenerous and unchivalrous” terms accorded his 15,000 rebels by Gen. Grant, is enough to raise a broad grin on a horse block.  Gen. Buckner had opened the correspondence by proposing an armistice till noon, with a view to arranging terms of capitulation, knowing well that noon might see Gen. Bishop Polk’s army from Columbus, or Albert Johnson’s [sic] from Bowling Green on hand.  “You must surrender unconditionally and at once, or I go in again,” says in substance Gen. Grant.  “Well, if I must,” responds the doleful Simon; “but it is very ungenerous and unchivalrous in you to ask such conditions.”  Of course it was; but what could you expect from a Yankee “mudsill” at the head of an army of that sort?  If the rebels insist on chivalry in their opponents, they must fight each other. – N. Y. Tribune.

                                                                                              

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

James Gamble Day

"One by one, who next?" These were the concluding words of the address by Judge Wright at the funeral of his old and tried friend, the Hon. W. H. Seevers. It was an address filled to the brim with all the pathos of human kindness. It was a most appropriate ending of his words upon that occasion, an appropriate opening upon this. "One by one, who next?" Shall it be you or me? It is sure to be some one, and very soon will be both you and me.

James Gamble Day was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, June 28, 1832, and died at Des Moines, Iowa, May 1, 1898. His ending came without a note of warning, silently and swiftly. That change which all human flesh is heir to, was unheralded. As it were, in the twinkling of an eye, the mortal had put on immortality and the heart which had so often beaten in sympathy for his fellow men, was stilled forever.

His father, George Day, was a native of Maryland, of English descent, and his ancestors were among the early settlers of this country. His mother, Sarah Day, nee Gamble, was a native of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, and of Irish extraction. The father in early life moved to Ohio and there married. There is nothing in connection with the early life of Judge Day which gave any prophecy of the coming man, over or beyond that which is attached to the boyhood life of the most of our American children. There is nothing in it which calls our attention to any especial mention. He received such an education as was obtainable in an academy located at Richmond and this education was supplemented by attendance upon the Cincinnati Law School, where he graduated in 1857, and immediately thereafter removed to Afton, in Union county, in this State, remaining there three years. In 1860, he removed to Sidney, and in the fall of 1861, entered the military service of the United States as a Lieutenant in Company F, 15th Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was afterwards promoted to a Captaincy of Company I, in the same regiment.

At the battle of Shiloh and in the first day's fight, he was severely wounded and although afterwards he returned to his regiment, he never fully recovered from his wound and was compelled on account of it to resign, which he did in September following.

While at the front, he was nominated as a candidate for District Judge and elected, which office he held until June, 1870, resigning only to accept the appointment of Judge of the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy occasioned by the election of Hon. George G. Wright to the Senate of the United States, and he held the office of Supreme Judge until January 1st, 1884.

At the expiration of the term of office as Supreme Judge, he engaged in the active practice of the law at the Capital of our State, and continued in such practice until the time of his death.

He married Minerva C. Manly at Jefferson county, Ohio. To them were born eight children, seven surviving both father and mother, the mother departing this life exactly six weeks prior to that of her distinguished husband. These seven children have already entered into the activities of a busy life and promise even greater things than were accomplished by their father.

Judge Day for many years had been an acceptable member of the Presbyterian church, and as layman and office-bearer therein, went out and in before the people, commanding from and retaining the respect of all with whom he came in contact, giving to the world through the life he lived, unimpeachable testimony, the verity of the Christian religion and an example worthy of our earnest emulation.

He had a commanding presence, was above the average in height, with a voice made up of deep chest tones and so was able to make himself heard by large audiences. Backed by an impulsive nature and a vigorous intellect, he was a power in any cause which he espoused. His record as a lawyer is made in our reports and in such enduring form as has become, and will continue, a part inseparable from our State's history and, that record will ever stand as the surest commendation of the man and of his life work. It will ever prove not only an incentive to the young lawyer, but a promise to him as well, that a studious life, coupled with an unblemished character, will surely bring to the possessor a fair standing in his profession and reasonable success in any laudable ambition. "One by one, who next?"

SOURCE: Iowa State Bar Association, Report of the Second Annual Meeting of the Iowa State Bar Association Held at Davenport, Iowa July 29 and 30, 1896, p.200-6