Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/212

  on the faculty and the people of the State generally which soon resulted in his restoration to a number of the positions from which he had been displaced. JAMES I. GILBERT was born in Kentucky in 1824 and removed to Iowa in 1852, making his home at Lansing, Allamakec County, where he was a commission merchant when the Civil War began. In August, 1862, he was appointed colonel of the Twenty-seventh Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He distinguished himself in the capture of Fort De Russey on the Red River, leading his regiment in a most gallant charge which captured the works. After the Battle of Nashville he was promoted to Brigadier-General for distinguished services and before the close of the war was brevetted Major-General. GILBERT S. GILBERTSON is a native of Spring Grove, Minnesota, where he was born October 17, 1863. His education was completed at a business college in Janesville, Wisconsin, and in the spring of 1879 he removed to Worth County, Iowa. Aside from farming his first employment was bookkeeping in an implement house in Forest City. In 1889 he was elected clerk of the District Court of Winnebago County in which office he was continued by reëlections until 1896 when he resigned to become a member of the State Senate from the Forty-first District. Mr. Gilbertson became a financier early in the nineties organizing a number of banks and loan companies. He was also owner and publisher of the Winnebago Summit of Forest City. For ten years he was treasurer of the city and was seven years a member of the school board, and chairman of the Republican county committee. In 1900 he was nominated and elected State Treasurer and was reëlected in 1902. EDWARD H. GILLETTE was the son of Francis Gillette, United States Senator from Connecticut and Free Soil candidate for Governor in antislavery times. Edward H. was born October 1, 1840, in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and received his education at Hartford High School and at the New York Agricultural College. After coming to Iowa he engaged in stock farming near Des Moines and became a leader in the Greenback party and in 1878 was nominated for Representative in Congress by that party in the Seventh District. He was elected, serving one term. For several years he was associated with General James B. Weaver in the publication of the Farmers' Tribune at Des Moines, the central organ of the Populist party of Iowa. He was one of the earnest advocates of the principles of that party and one of its eloquent public speakers. In 1879 he was chairman of the State Central Committee of the Union Labor party and in 1893 was the candidate of the People's party for Secretary of State.