Palo Alto County, Iowa
Biographies

T. J. Duffy

Duffy, T. J., mayor of Emmetsburg, Iowa, was born March 27, 1847, in Galena, Ill. He was educated in the public school. He is a member of the Republican party; is engaged in the real estate business and connected with the Iowa Realty Company of Emmetsburg; and is prominently identified with the business and public affairs of his community. For a number of years he served as a justice of the peace; in 1908-10 was mayor of his city; and resides in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

[Herringshaw's American blue-book of biography: prominent Americans of 1912, submitted by Cathy D.]

Elden J. Hartshorn

Elden J. Hartshorn, soldier and legislator, was born in Lunenburg, Vermont, June 16, 1842. He was educated in the public schools and St. Johnsbury Academy where he prepared for college.

In 1862 he enlisted in Company E, Fifteenth Vermont Volunteers, and was soon promoted to second lieutenant. He was offered a West Point cadetship, but declined to leave the service. In 1864 Lieutenant Hartshorn was promoted to captain of Company G, Seventeenth Vermont Infantry and joined Burnside's Ninth Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The regiment was in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Tolopotomy Creek, North Anna River, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and the fall of Richmond.

At the close of the war Captain Hartshorn studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1869 and coming west the following year, located at Emmetsburg, in Palo Alto County, Iowa. Here he was land agent for the Milwaukee Railroad and represented many non-resident land owners.

In 1873 he was elected Representative in the House of the Fifteenth General Assembly from the district consisting of the counties of Pocahontas, Buena Vista, Palo Alto and Emmet. He was elected to the Senate in 1875 serving in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth General Assemblies. In 1898 Captain Hartshorn was appointed to a position in the Interior Department at Washington.

[History of Iowa, 1903, submitted by Cathy D.]

Col. Edwin S. Ormsby

Col. Edwin S. Ormsby, of Emmetsburg is the pioneer banker of Palo Alto county. He also has the distinction of being the first national bank president in the county. His parents were born in Massachusetts. The father, Lysander Ormsby, is still living in Deerfield, Mich., and is 82 years of age. The ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides were prominent New England families and each branch was represented in the Lake Erie or Toledo war. A great-grandfather, Nathaniel Ormsby, was killed in the revolutionary war.

They emigrated to Michigan about 1840, and there, on a farm in Monroe county, Edwin S. was born April 17, 1842. His early education was acquired in a little log schoolhouse that stood in the timber near his home.

When he had reached his eighteenth year he responded to the call for troops to defend the integrity of the nation, and on September 21, 1861, was made a "high private in the rear ranks" of the Eighth Michigan Volunteer infantry. Having served out the term of enlistment he was, in 1863, discharged, but he immediately proceeded to raise a company and in 1863 again took the field, this time with the First Michigan Engineer corps, receiving his discharge October 1, 1865.

He then engaged in insurance for a time, then conducted a general merchandise business, but finally disposed of the last named to enter upon a study of the law. Since that time he has been engaged constantly in banking, law and real estate, a portion of the time in Michigan, but since 1872 in Emmetsburg.

He is a strong advocate of republicanism. His father assisted in the organization of that party and the son regards it as representing those principles which, if put in practice, will result in the greatest good to the whole people.

He was the mayor of Emmetsburg at the time of incorporation and had much to do with the readjustment of assessments made necessary thereby. Because of the interest he at all times manifests in school affairs, he has been called upon to serve on the board of education, acting at times as its president. He is at present one of the trustees of Cornell college.

Colonel Ormsby has been one of the recognized leaders of the republican party in Iowa for many years, and has been mentioned for the governorship and other offices. He is actively identified with the Republican League, and was a delegate from Iowa to the national convention in Detroit in July, 1897. He has recently added to his business a new bank, known as the Farmers Savings bank, of which he is president.

For thirty years he has been active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a high order Mason and member of the society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

He was married July 4, 1862, to Miss Mary A. Bateman, an accomplished and most estimable lady. They have had three children, only one of whom is living. She is the wife of George J. Consigny, of Emmetsburg. The grandchildren are Venita Ormsby, and Reginald Ormsby Consigny.

[Biographies and portraits of the progressive men of Iowa: leaders , Volume 1, 1899]
Submitted by Cathy Danielson