John M. Redmond

John M. Redmond, mayor of Cedar Rapids and a leading attorney of that place, is a man whose worth and ability have gained him success, honor and public confidence.  He was born in Syracuse, New York, on the 8th of April, 1859, his parents being Edward and Adelia (Dowd) Redmond.  The father is a native  of Dublin, Ireland, and was a child when he came alone to the United States, about 1846, locating in Syracuse, New York, where he followed the saddler's trade.  There he married Adelia Dowd, who was born in Kells, Ireland, and they continued to make their home in Syracuse until coming to Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1866.  There the father engaged in the harness and saddlery business for two years, and later followed the same pursuit in Cedar Rapids for six years; but in 1895 he returned to Syracuse, New York, where he is now living a retired life.  The wife and mother died May 14, 1891, leaving a family of six children, of whom John M. and George are still residents of Cedar Rapids.

The common schools of Mt. Vernon afforded John M. Redmond his early educational privileges, and later he was a student at Cornell College, in the same place.  He then entered the law department of the State University, and was graduated in the class of 1881, with the degree of LL. B.  The same year he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Cedar Rapids in January, 1883, as a member of the firm of Smith, Powell & Redmond, his partners being Milo P. Smith and J. J. Powell.  This connection continued about a year, since which time he has been alone and has successfully engaged in general practice before all the courts, making for himself an enviable reputation in his chosen profession.  His practice is now quite large and lucrative.  He is interested in a number of different business enterprises, and is now a director of the Peoples Savings Bank of Cedar Rapids.

On the 20th of February, 1895, Mr. Redmond married Miss Channie J. Porter, of Cedar Rapids, a daughter of J. S. Porter.  They have a fine home on First Avenue in one of the best parts of the city. Mr. Redmond attends and supports the Christian church, of which his wife is a member, and has taken an active part in supporting the charitable institutions of the city.

The Democratic party has always found in Mr. Redmond a stanch adherent, and he has been an active member of the executive committee, though he has never neglected his professional duties for politics.  In 1890 he was elected on his party ticket as county attorney, and ably filled that office two years.  In March, 1898, he was elected mayor of the city, and two years later was re-elected by a largely increased majority, which shows conclusively that his duties were most faithfully and satisfactorily performed.  During his administration there have been many important improvements made in the city in paving, sewering and financiering.  Fraternally Mr. Redmond is a prominent member of Crescent Lodge, F. & A. M., in which he has held different offices; and also belongs to the chapter and council of that order; the Odd Fellows' Lodge, No. 141; the Protective Order of Elks; and the Improved Order of Red Men.  He has passed through all the chairs in the last named society.

Hugh G. Rick

One of the busiest, most energetic and most enterprising men of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is Hugh G. Rick, a prominent contractor and builder, who has met with excellent success during his long residence here, covering over a quarter of a century. He was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, September 4, 1845, and is a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Gilliland) Rick, also natives of the Keystone state, where they spent their entire lives. The former was of German, the latter of Scotch descent. The father was also born in Crawford County, and in early life learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed for some years, but later turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. He died in 1878, when about seventy years of age. Of his seven children one son died in early childhood and a daughter died at the age of twelve years. Those living are James, a farmer of Ohio; Hugh G., the subject of this sketch; George B., who is engaged in farming on the old homestead in Pennsylvania; Uriah, a farmer of Ohio; and Ellen, wife of Henry Oates, a farmer of Pennsylvania. The children all attended the public schools of Pennsylvania, but in their younger days schools were far apart and teachers were scarce.

By the reading of good and instructive books since leaving school Hugh G. Rick has practically educated himself and has become a well-informed man. He grew to manhood on the old homestead and with his father learned the blacksmith's trade, at which he worked until the country became involved in civil war. In September, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, Eighteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, when but eighteen years of age, and remained in the service until the cessation of hostilities, taking part in over eighty regular engagements and skirmishes. These included some very important battles, such as the engagements in the Shenandoah valley, the battles of Gettysburg and the Wilderness, and the siege of Petersburg. Mr. Rick had a horse shot from under him in the battle of Gettysburg, and in the Shenandoah valley had a second horse shot and was knocked over by the force of a shell passing him. After three years of arduous and faithful service he was discharged in July, 1865, and returned to his home in Pennsylvania, where he remained for a year, his time and energies being devoted to learning the carpenter's trade.

Mr. Rick then followed that pursuit in Wisconsin and Michigan, and subsequently spent seven years in Davenport, Iowa. Having a natural tendency for the trade, he soon became a very proficient workman and for five years engaged in contracting and building on his own account in Davenport, erecting many houses in that city. In 1875, seeing a good opening for his trade in Cedar Rapids, he located here, and worked for eighteen months for the T. M. Sinclair Packing Company. Since then he has engaged in contracting and building, and has been very busy, having all the work he can attend to. His specialty is residences, and he keeps a large force of carpenters, masons and painters all the time, building from fifteen to thirty houses each year and giving employment to about fifty men. He has continued his work to the city, and is one of the best known and most successful of its contractors. On coming to Cedar Rapids it had a population of only six thousand, and he has watched with pride and interest its growth until the city now contains twenty-seven thousand inhabitants.

While at Edgerton, Wisconsin, Mr. Rick was married in 1868 to Miss Ellen O. Place, who was born in Vermont, but was reared and educated near Chicago, and was then living in the Badger state. They have two sons: Lillian, a graduate of the Cedar Rapids public schools, is now in partnership with his father and resides in Kenwood. He is married and has four children, Hugh, John, Alfred and Ellen; William E., a carpenter working with his father is married and has two children, Ray and Glenn. Both learned their trade with their father and have since been with him. He has a pleasant home at 1211 Third avenue, which he built in 1900.

Henry Rickel

The subject of this biography is one of the honored sons of Ohio and a distinguished lawyer of Cedar Rapids - a member of the well-known firm of Rickel, Crocker & Tourtellot. He was born in Richland county Ohio, August 16, 1835, and is a son of Samuel and Barbara (Smith) Rickel, both natives of Bedford county, Pennsylvania. The Rickel family is of German extraction, the first to come to America being Henry Rickel of Frankfort on the Main, who emigrated in the seventeenth century and settled in New York state. Representatives of this family bore a prominent part in the affairs of the colonies and several participated in the Revolutionary war, among them being a great uncle of our subject who was killed in the battle of Brandywine. Our subject's maternal grandmother was a Miss Walters whose family came to this country from Holland and were among the Dutch land owners of New York state in early days. On the maternal side his ancestors were from Saxony, Germany, and were also pioneers of America. His grandmother on his maternal side was a Miss Cleve, of an English family.

During his youth Samuel Rickel, the father of our subject, learned the trade of a cabinetmaker, and he continued to follow that occupation throughout the greater part of his life. In 1839 he removed from Mansfield, Richland county, Ohio, to Springfield, Sangamon county, Illinois, the latter place being a small town at that time. There he followed his trade for a few years, and then came northward to Galena, Illinois, which was the leading town of the west at that time, it being the place where the pioneers of Iowa secured their supplies before crossing the prairies of this state, and also timber from the northern pineries. In 1849 Mr. Rickel removed his family to Elkader, Clayton county, Iowa, which was then a village of between two and three hundred inhabitants. There he established a shop and with the assistance of our subject manufactured most of the furniture used by the early settlers of that section for many miles around. He died at West Union, Iowa, in 1876, and his widow still makes her home there at the age of eighty-nine years - a hale and hearty old lady, who possesses her mental faculties unimpaired, and can walk as far and easily as a woman of half her age. In their family were six children, namely: Henry, our subject; Elizabeth, widow of N. S. Fisk, and a resident of Wolf Creek, Wisconsin; Sophronia, wife of Amos White, of West Union, Iowa; and Esther, Alice and Emma, all deceased.

Mr. Rickel, of this review, was given the name of Henry, it having been a family name for centuries. He began his education in a log school house in Sangamon county, Illinois, taught by an old time pedagogue, who wore a blue coat with brass buttons, and had a strap which he never suffered to "get rusty" from lack of use. At West Union, Iowa, he attended a select school for a time, kept by Prof. J. E. Cooke, a noted educator of that day, and while there learned the cabinetmaker's and wood turner's trades, at which he became an expert.

Mr. Rickel continued to work at his trade until 1856. In 1857 he engaged in the hardware business at West Union and later, in connection with D. G. Huffman, he embarked in the book and stationery business under the firm name of Rickel & Huffman, and carried on a wholesale establishment at McGregor, and a retail store at West Union, Iowa. This business was continued until 1860, when Mr. Rickel and three other young men went to Pike's Peak with teams, being thirty days on the road. After prospecting for a time, and finding that there was nothing to be gained there in placer mining, they returned home, visiting several Indian tribes and enjoying a number of buffalo hunts on the way.

Mr. Rickel next took up the study of law with Hon. L. L. Ainsworth, later a member, 1862, when he and his preceptor raised a company, which was mustered into the United States service at Davenport as Company C, Sixth Iowa Cavalry, with Mr. Ainsworth as captain and our subject as lieutenant. This regiment did duty on the frontier among the Sioux Indians along the upper Missouri. On account of ill health Mr. Rickel resigned in June, 1864. Before his enlistment he assisted in raising twelve companies. He possesses a great deal of personal magnetism, which made him a splendid recruiting officer.

Upon his return home Mr. Rickel resumed the study of law under Judge McClintock, of West Union, and on his admission to the bar in 1866 formed a partnership with him, which lasted until 1872, although in 1870 our subject and W. V. Allen had established a branch office at Fayette, Iowa, the latter being now United States Senator from Nebraska. In 1878 Mr. Rickel came to Cedar Rapids, and became associated in practice with A. R. West and A. V. Eastman under the firm name of Rickel, West & Eastman. Two years later when Mr. West left the city, Hon. John T. Stoneman, afterward superior judge, became a member of the firm and the name was changed to Stoneman, Rickel & Eastman. This partnership was later dissolved, and in 1884 Mr. Rickel formed a partnership with E. H. Crocker under the firm name of Rickel & Crocker, which connection was continued until April 1, 1901, when P. W. Tourtellot was taken into the firm. They are numbered among the leading attorneys of the city and enjoy a large practice. Mr. Rickel is also interested in business enterprises. In 1894 on the organization of the Cedar Rapids Candy Company as successors to the Buchanan Candy & Fruit Company, he was elected president and still holds that position. They are manufacturers and jobbers of candies which they sell throughout Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and South Dakota, keeping six traveling salesmen constantly on the road, and employing from sixty-five to ninety people in their factory. He is also interested in various mining interests in Colorado, and is president of the Valley Mining Company of Custer County, Colorado.

On the 14th of October, 1857, Mr. Rickel was united in marriage with Miss Susan Brown, a native of Yates county, New York, and a daughter of Oliver A. Brown and Susan Brown, of Fayette county, Iowa. Mrs. Rickel is president, and has been for a number of years, of the board of management of the Home for Aged Women of Cedar Rapids, and to her efforts is largely due the success of that noble charity.

Mr. and Mrs. Rickel are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a Republican in politics, and served as mayor of West Union, Iowa, for several years, and as a member of the Seventeenth General Assembly, but outside of these offices he has never been prevailed upon to accept political preferment. For many years he has been active in promoting temperance reform in Iowa; has delivered many lectures on the subject in northern Iowa, and has taken an active part in enforcing the prohibitory law. As a citizen he is ever ready to discharge any duties which devolve upon him, and his honorable and well spent life has gained for him the confidence and respect of all who know him.

Samuel S. Riddle passed the days of his boyhood and youth in the county of his nativity, and is indebted to its common schools for his educaional privileges. On leaving home in 1854 he went to New York city, where he spent one year with an elder brother, and then returned to his father's farm. In 1856 he was united in marriage with Harriet Spang, who was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Rudolph and Mary (Dunarbarger) Spang. A year later they left their native state and removed to Mendota, Illinois, where Mr. Riddle conducted a store for one year, and then turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, operating a rented farm ner that place until 1861. He then came to Iowa, and after living on his father's farm for a year, he purchased land on section 1, Franklin township, this county, where he made his home for four years. On disposing of that property he located on his brother's farm, where the following three years were spent, and at the end of that time he bought a farm on section 15. Franklin township, which he occupied until 1884, when he rented it and removed to his present farm on section 14, the same township. This place is conveniently located on the main road from Mt. Vernon to Lisbon, and is one of the most desirable farms in that locality. Its neat and thrifty appearance evidences the skill and ability of the owner in his chosen calling, as well as his sound judgement in business affairs. Good and substantial buildings are surrounded by well tilled fields, and all of the conveniences and accessories of a model farm are there found.

T. M. Robinson

Among the early settlers and representative citizens of Franklin township is this well-to-do farmer, whose home is on section 25. He is a native of this state, born in Dubuque March 7, 1843, and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (McClelland) Robinson, the former of whom was born in Ireland, while the latter was born in Pennsylvania of Irish ancestry. They were married, however, in Dubuque county, Iowa, where they continued to make their home until our subject was a year and a half old and then came to Linn county, being among the pioneer settlers of Franklin township. There the father died October 30, 1850 and the mother, who long survived him departed this life February 20, 1873, the remains of both being interred in Downing cemetery. Six children blessed their union, nmely: (1) John W. enlisted for three months in Company K, First Iowa Volunteer Infantry, at the outbreak of the Civil war, and later re-enlisted in Company F Twenty fourth Iowa Regiment. Becoming ill, he was honorable discharged and returned home, at which time he weighed ninety pounds, and his mother did not recognize him. For thirty-three years he has been a telegraph operator for the Northwestern Railroad Company and now resides in Stanwood, Cedar county, Iowa. He married, first, Belle Simpson, and after her death wedded Mary Harmen. (2) T. M., our subject is second in order of birth. (3) Henry L. died at the age of ten years. (4) Margaret is the wife of J. B. Irons, who lives a mile and a half east of Toledo in Tama county, Iowa. (5) Sally D. is the wife of Frank Doe, of Toledo. (6)Lydia married Frank Barnes, a resident of Benton county, Iowa, and died in 1873, since which time he has married Lizzie Kenderdine.

When the family came to Linn county the father entered a claim on section 28, Franklin township, and upon that place our subject was reared amid pioneer scenes. Their nearest neighbor was two miles distant, so sparsely was the county settled at that time, and both life and property were often threatened by the constant occurrence of prarie fires, the prairies being covered at that time with an abundance of wild grass which in the dry season would catch fire easily. There was plenty of game, including wild hogs, deer and turkeys, and wolves would frequently prowl round the house at night. The school houses were primitive structures built of logs, and supplied with benches made of split logs with pegs for legs. During the winter the Indians would camp in this region, being engaged in hunting game and making sugar when the spring came on.

Mr. Robinson completed his education at the age of seventeen years, and then worked on the farms of either his uncle or his mother until his marriage. On the 27th of September, 1868, in Franklin township, he wedded Miss Rachel Eastlack, who was born in Ohio October 18, 1847, a daughter of John and Jerusha (McVey) Eastlack. Her parents were natives of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, respectively, and were married in Ohio, making their home in Highland county, that state, until 1854, when they came to Linn county, Iowa, and located in Franklin township, where the mother died November 15, 1859, her remains being interred in Mt. Vernon cemetery. In 1863 the father wedded Miss Mary Shattuck, a native of New York, who died December 18, 1893, and was buried in Cedar Rapids, while he died December 19, 1883, and was laid to rest by the side of his first wife in Mt. Vernon cemetery. By the first union he had thirteen children, namely: Isaac E. died at the age of twelve years; Hardy, who lives near Leesburg, Ohio; James and William both died in childhood; Abigail died at the age of seven years; Sarah is the widow of E. H. Coles and lives near Jameson, Daviess county, Missouri; Catherine is the widow of Henry Ryan and resides in Clarke county, Iowa; Anna married Washington Shantz and both are now deceased; Susan is the wife of John Stein, of Cedar Rapids; Eliza died in infancy; Rachel is the wife of our subject; John W. died at the age of four years; and Charles H. is represented on another page of this volume. By his second union the father had two daughters: Stella, wife of Lucius Walker, of Cedar Rapids; and Josephine, wife of Edward Elliott, of the same place.

Mr. and Mrs. Robinson began their domestic life on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Franklin township, which he then owned, and fifty acres of which he sold to John Blessing, it being known as the Blessing farm. In 1872 he disposed of the remainder of the place, and in a covered wagon moved to Winterset, Adair county, Iowa {note: Winterset is in Madison County, CM} where he spent four years. He then resided in Ottawa county, Missouri, for the same length of time, and in 1880 returned to this county, and soon afterward purchased the Henry Sailor farm of one hundred and fifty-two acres in Johnson county, to the cultivation of which he devoted his time and energies for fourteen years. In 1894 he removed to Lisbon, where he was engaged in carpentering for two seasons, and on the expiration of that period located upon his present farm on section 25, Franklin township, which he had purchased in 1895. This place, which was known as the Daniel Kohl farm, consists of one hundred and twenty acres of rich and arable land, which he has placed under a high state of cultivation and improved with good and substantial buildings, including a most pleasant residence. In connection with general farming he is also engaged in stock raising, and is meeting with marked success. Politically Mr. Robinson is a supporter of the Republican party, and has served as treasurer of the school board, but has never cared for official honors. He is an earnest and consistent member of the Christian church, and is held in high regard by all who know him.