Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/148

 HORACE E. DEEMER was born on the 24th of September, 1858, at Bourbon, Marshall County, Indiana. In 1864 his parents, who were Quakers, removed to Iowa, making their home near the Quaker colony of Springdale, made famous by harboring John Brown while he drilled his band for the Harper's Ferry raid. Here the young man began his education in the public schools, taking a course later in the High School at West Liberty and finally graduating from the State University at Iowa City. He first engaged in the furniture business at West Liberty but later took up the study of law and removing to Red Oak, entered upon the practice of his new profession. He met with marked success and was chosen chairman of the Republican county committee and secretary of the county agricultural society. In November, 1886, he was elected a Republican judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District and at the close of the term was reflected but, before the expiration of his second term was appointed by Governor Jackson, Associate Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1898 he became Chief Justice, one of the youngest men who has attained that position in Iowa. In 1898 he was reëlected. Judge Deemer has been one of the Lecturers at the Law Department of the State University, author of Synopsis of Legal Subjects; member of the State and American Bar Associations. He has written several opinions involving constitutional questions. NATHANIEL C. DEERING was born in Denmark, Maine, on the 2d of September, 1827. He acquired a liberal education and taught school several winters. In 1850 he went with a party of gold seekers to California, by the Panama route. He remained there for two years and acquired a small fortune with which he returned home and established a paper mill. In 1856 his establishment was destroyed by fire. In September, 1855 he was elected to the Maine Legislature, serving two terms. In September, 1857 he removed to Iowa, locating at Osage, Mitchell County, where he engaged in the lumber business. In July, 1861, while on a visit to Washington, D. C., he was appointed to a clerkship in the Senate. In the spring of 1865 he was appointed special agent of the Post-office Department for Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, serving four years. In July, 1872, he was appointed National Bank Examiner, serving nearly five years. In 1876 he was elected to Congress on the Republican ticket, from the Fourth District and was twice reëlected, serving until 1883. ORSBORN W. DEIGNAN, the Iowa hero of the Merrimac, was born at Stuart, Iowa, in February, 1877. His father was conductor of the passenger train which was wrecked near Grinnell in the tornado which destroyed the college and a large part of the town. Young Deignan was industrious and ambitious, taking an especial interest in history. At the age of fourteen he went to the far West to make his own way in the world