History and Genealogy of Union County, Iowa
Union County Biographies Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden Iowa is proud to claim "The Sunshine Lady," Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden, President General of the International Sunshine Society. Born in Afton in 1862, the daughter of Oliver S. and Lucinda Lewis Westover. When a child her parents moved to Colorado. She was graduated in the first class of the State University at Boulder. For years she was one of the best known newspaper women in the United States, one of the few holding the degree Master of Literature. While she was one of the editors of the Daily New York Recorder, she organized half in jest, "The Sunshine Society" among those connected with that publication. There were eighteen who promised "To do the thing that was needed whenever it was needed, whether it was a little or a big one," and to pass on any article in their possession, not needed, but might be of use to another. There are now over 3000 organized branches with 300,000 members. Headquarters are at 96 Fifth Ave., New York. With the growth of the society Mrs. Alden gave up her newspaper work and with it a yearly salary of $5,000. For ten years she was on the staff of the Ladies Home Journal and through it made the Sunshine Society known to the world. The society has done every sort of work imaginable-founded schools, playgrounds, nurseries, clothed the naked, helped the sick, buried the dead. Mrs. Alden thinks their greatest work is the homes established for blind babies and the campaign to prevent infant blindness. This work was inaugurated by them and is now far reaching in its scope. No letter from a troubled heart-rich or poor-ever failed to receive a reply from the Sunshine Lady. [The Blue book of Iowa Women, by Winona Evans Reeves, Publ. 1914, Transcribed by Rhonda Hill] Joseph T. Beebe, M. D., An eminently self-made man, whose brief biography gives but an imperfect narrative of the many exploits of his early life, to which he now in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and in a perfect condition of health, adverts with more of the subject matter of romance than of personal exploits. It is only in the western section of the United States that such subjects are to be found. The self-imposed trials through which Dr. Beebe has passed should stimulate the young men of today, who have nothing but their innate courage to help them to advancement in the social scale. Our subject was born in Knox county, Ohio, on the 27th of June, 1821. His father was John Beebe, and his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Talmage. The doctor has two brothers and two sisters now living. At the age of nine he commenced going to a district school. He worked on the farm in the summer, and went to school in the winter months until he was seventeen, when he went to Dewit Academy, where he remained for seven months. From that time he worked upon the farm in the summer, taught school in the winter, and commenced the study of the preparatory course of medicine; subsequently he read a regular course of medicine in the office of Dr. Page, at Delaware county, Ohio, with whom he remained till 1843, when he went to Cincinnati and registered at the Ohio Medical College, where he remained for two years under the faculty of said college, from which he graduated in March, 1845, then removed to Columbia City, Indiana, and commenced the practice of medicine. At the time he left Cincinnati he owed fifty dollars on his tuition fee. He took stage to Saint Mary's, from which place, with less than three dollars in his pocket, he commenced his walk of sixty miles to Columbia City; when he reached this place his finances were reduced to thirty-one cents, and he was a stranger in a strange land. He stopped at the hotel, and the next day made the acquaintance of one or two brother Methodists, to whom he explained his desire to commence the practice of medicine, but said nothing of his private impecuniousness. Receiving encouragement from them, he returned to the hotel, then started for the home of a cousin, by marriage, who lived twenty-five miles distant. He spent twenty-five of his thirty-one cents for food, begged his last meal at a farmhouse, and finally reached his cousin's, to whom he told the story of his advent into Columbia City and his prospects there, and from whom he obtained a horse and bridle and ten dollars in cash; and after resting himself for a day or two he rode back to the hotel. He continued to board at this place, and at once built up a lucrative practice. This was in March. In the November following he returned to Knox county, Ohio. Here he remained for four weeks, and married Miss Philene Helt, of Sparta. His wife's father moved them to Columbia City. The father returned to Sparta, and young Dr. Beebe and wife went to housekeeping. Here they remained until October, 1847, when Mrs. Beebe's health declining they concluded to go to Mount Gilead, where the doctor bought property, commenced the practice of medicine, and remained there for seventeen years; during which time he had born to him two boys and one girl. The latter, now Mrs. Rice, resides at Des Moines; the eldest son is in the wholesale drug business at Burlington, with the house of Reynolds and Churchill, and the youngest son is in business with his father at Afton. Though blessed with a very large and lucrative practice at Mount Gilead, Dr. Beebe conceived the idea of placing himself in such a position as better to advance the interests of his two sons, and with this in view he, together with some seven other families, determined to go to Afton, Iowa. They were thirty-two days on the road, camping out at night. Reaching Afton, then a hundred miles distant from any railway, he bought two hundred acres of land near Afton, which he commenced to improve. In January, 1865, he bought a half interest in a drug store at Afton with Dr. Roberts, whom he subsequently entirely bought out. Early in the spring of 1866 he had built and occupied his new home at the farm, intending to retire from medical practice, having sold his store during the preceding winter. But there was to be only a temporary respite from the cares of business. His old clients and new ones were continually importuning him to return to his practice. In the following October he sold his farm to good advantage, and concluded to remove to Brookfield, a division station on the Hannibal and Saint Joe railroad. Here he went into the drug business with his former partner, Dr. Roberts, and resumed his professional practice. In 1868 Dr. Beebe returned to Afton, bought out a drug store, and commenced the construction of a dwelling, into which he moved in November following. At the same time he built a business block. It was generally supposed at this time that Cromwell, sixteen miles from Afton, was to be made the, division station of the Burlington and Missouri River railway, and Dr. Beebe also built a house and established a drug store at this point; but Cromwell was not made a division station, and the doctor confined his enterprises entirely to Afton, where he now built a fine building twenty by eighty feet, and two stories high, which he fitted up as the leading drug store of the town, which position it holds to the present day. Dr. Beebe was among the first to enlist as a private on the call for three months' troops by the governor at the outbreak of the southern rebellion, but he was soon detached from the ranks and placed on the medical staff. Dr. Beebe has always taken a lively interest in agricultural matters and in the general improvement of stock. For seventeen years he has held office from secretary to president in such societies. The doctor has also given considerable attention to railway matters. At a meeting of the stockholders of the Des Moines, Afton and Missouri railroad, held in February, 1877, Dr. Beebe was unanimously chosen president of the road, a very proper choice, as the doctor has spent much of his time for the past year in raising stock for the road, and in looking after the general survey. In May, 1875, the doctor determined upon the institution of a national bank at Afton, and by constant and vigorous efforts succeeded in getting the capital stock subscribed. In January, 1876, he was elected its president, and was reelected the succeeding year. He has been often elected to the city council, and has ever been very active in the cause of popular education. In the summer of 1877 a company was organized to build the Saint Louis and Northwestern railway, to connect with the Chillicothe and Brunswick railway, to run to Storm Lake, in Iowa. From Saint Louis to Storm Lake is a distance of six hundred miles, two hundred and eighty-five miles are still to be built to complete all the connections. In this road the doctor has five thousand dollars' worth of stock. Unsolicited by him the directors of this road have also elected him president. Dr. Beebe was originally a whig in politics, then a republican. Voted for General Grant, but subsequently voted for Horace Greeley, and is now a pronounced conservative, holding the individual merits of a nominee to be above the dogmatic creed of any party. He has always been a confirmed Methodist in his religious views, and is an active member of that organization. It is to such men as Dr. Beebe that the great northwest is indebted for the giant strides it has made in developing its great natural resources. To a very active mind he adds great probity of character and a persistent will, and great energy in successful working out everything he undertakes. [United States Biographical Dictionary & Portrait Gallery of Eminent & Self Made Men, 1878, submitted by C. D.] L. S. Groves, M.D. DR. L. S. Groves, the leading surgeon and physician in Union county, was born in Perry county, Ohio, on the 20th of February, 1834. His father's name was Frederick Groves; his mother's maiden name was Harriett Selby. His grandfather immigrated from Virginia, and was one of the pioneers of Perry county, bringing with him his son Frederick, then fifteen years of age. This lad, the subsequent father of Dr. Groves, was a farmer, and young L. S. Groves worked upon his father's farm in the summer and attended a district school about two miles distant in the winter, walking the distance in all sorts of weather, intent on the acquisition of knowledge. This he continued to do till he was fourteen years of age, he then went to learn the carpenter's trade of his elder brother in a neighboring village. Here he attended a graded school during most of the winter months, dividing his time between books and the jack-plane. At the last of his four years with his brother he taught school; subsequently he attended the University of Ohio at Athens. He taught school or worked at his trade in the out-of-session months to obtain money for his tuition and board for the two first years. The last two years were passed almost exclusively at the University, he assuming the duties of janitor and otherwise assisting the faculty in lieu of tuition and board. Although he had secured position in the senior department of the graduating class, he was denied a passage at its examination on account of failing health; he therefore left the University for recreation; but his financial necessities soon compelled him to seek employment, and he commenced teaching a select school at Deavertown, Ohio, at the same time he commenced reading medicine in the office of Dr. Kennedy at that place for one year, and completed his office studies under Dr. W. H. Holden, at Millerstown, Ohio. Subsequently he attended a course of lectures at the Starring Medical College at Columbus, Ohio; this was in the winter of 1856-7. He finally graduated at the Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati, in March, 1858. He then located at Duncan's Falls, Ohio, and commenced the practice of his profession. During his first course of lectures the doctor had married Miss Mary E. Cherry, of Deavertown. He continued in the practice of medicine at Duncan's Falls until the spring of 1862, when he removed to Afton, continuing his practice until 1864, when he was commissioned by Governor Stone a surgeon in the army, where he served until the close of the war. On his return to Afton he united the drug business with his practice, and still continues both branches of business. His store is the most complete establishment of the kind in the city. The doctor's practice of medicine is large and lucrative; he has won an enviable reputation both as a physician and surgeon. Dr. Groves by no means has a winsome manner about him on first acquaintance, though upon further probing of the man one readily discovers a genial gentleman, as full of modesty as he is full of worth; a man with a well-stored mind, one who loves his profession, and at the same time loves literature for the sake of literature. He has not mixed much in the affairs of life outside his profession, though he has always manifested great interest in the cause of public education; has been long an active member of the board of education, and is now its president. Afton can boast of as good a high school as exists in the State of Iowa. Dr. Groves has had born to him three sons and four daughters. His eldest daughter is a teacher in the select school of Afton. He is an inactive Mason, though he has gone through the blue lodge. He has been a member of the Methodist church since he was seventeen years of age. He is a very intelligent and very pronounced democrat in politics. Dr. Groves is preeminently a domestic man; he is never more at heart's ease than when surrounded by his family. His residence is a model establishment, externally and internally. Beautifully situated on the outskirts of Afton, and yet within easy walking distance from his store, it is surrounded with beautiful grounds, while within are evidences of that culture and refinement which ever mark the gentleman and the gentlewoman. A fine library of first-class literature, interspersed with art treasures of various kinds, are among the many attractions of his home. Here, when not professionally engaged, this arbiter of his own good fortune can take solid comfort, and in the company of the wife of his early love, surrounded by a large and devoted family, take that degree of enjoyment known only to those who have earned the ease and luxury with which they are surrounded. [United States Biographical Dictionary & Portrait Gallery of Eminent & Self Made Men, 1878, submitted by C. D.] Hon. James Wilson McDill Hon. James Wilson McDill was born in Butler County, Ohio, March 4, 1834. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. His maternal great-grandfather served under General Marion in the Revolutionary War; his ancestors came from South Carolina to Ohio. His father was a graduate of Miami University, and was a minister of the Associate Reformed Church. His mother was the daughter of Rev. R. G. Wilson, of Chillicothe, Ohio, for fifteen years President of Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Mr. McDill's father died when his son was about six years of age, leaving a family of children to be reared by the mother, a woman of uncommon courage and ability. In 1845, she went to live with her father at South Salem, Ohio, where young McDill had the advantage of the careful instruction of his grandfather. He was admitted to Miami University in 1851, and graduated in 1853, and in the same year removed to Kossuth, in Iowa, where he became a teacher of languages; he determined, however, to study law, and returned to Ohio, where for a while he taught a district school. In 1855, he entered, as a student, the office of the Hon. Samuel Galloway, Columbus, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. He spent the next winter at Burlington, Iowa, and in the spring of 1857, removed to Afton, his present home, then a pioneer settlement in the western wilderness. Here he began to practice law. He was married, in 1857, to Miss Narcissa Fullinwider, of Kossuth. In 1858, Mr. McDill became County Superintendent, at the munificent salary of $75 per year. In 1859, he was chosen County Judge, and in 1861, on the invitation of his friend, Hon. J. W. Grimes, he visited Washington and was appointed to a clerkship of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. In 1862, he was appointed Clerk in the Treasury Department, and later, put in charge of Claims Division, Third Auditor's Department. In 1866, he returned to Afton, and resumed law practice. In 1868, he was appointed Circuit Judge, and in 1870, District Judge, Third Judicial District, to fill a vacancy, and at next election was complimented with an unanimous election to the same office, there being no opposition. In 1872, he was nominated by the Republicans in the Eighth Congressional District of Iowa, and was elected to Congress, receiving 12,675 votes, to 6,999 cast for Col. Merritt. In the Forty-third Congress, he was a member of the Committee on Pacific Railroads. [Illustrated Centennial Sketches, Map And Directory Of Union County, Iowa, 1876, submitted by C. D.] Mrs. Myron D. Smith (Madame Myron) Alice Pettit Smith (Mrs. Myron D.,) vocalist, daughter of William S. and Amelia Ray Pettit, was born in Aliance, Ohio, and came with her parents to Creston, in 1885, which city is still her home. In 1887 she was married to Myron D. Smith, cashier of the First National Bank of Creston. In 1902, while visiting in Omaha, a friend persuaded her to have her voice tested, which she did, and it was discovered that she possessed a voice of unusual power and sweetness. She studied two years in Omaha, and more than a year in New York, before going to London, where she spent ten months under George Henschel, one of the great masters. She appeared at a number of private recitals and parlor concerts given at the homes of prominent society people in London. Her first professional tour was with the Scottish Orchestra, composed of one hundred instruments. As soloist of this orchestra she adopted the stage name, Madame Myron. At the close of her tour she returned to her home in Creston, resolved that her professional career should be only secondary and incidental to her home, to this resolution she has adhered. She was for one season soloist for the George Crampton Concert Co., touring the United States and Canada, and for one year was at the head of the Lyceum Grand Concert Co. She has appeared many times in Iowa cities and elsewhere in oratorios, concerts and recitals, everywhere receiving the ovation which her art merits. Her voice is a mezzo soprano of wide range and remarkable sweetness, and back of the voice, and speaking through it, is the soul of the fine woman, of whom Iowa is proud. [The Blue book of Iowa Women, by Winona Evans Reeves, Publ. 1914, Transcribed by Dana Kraft]