Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/233

 J. M. Beck, J. R. Reed and C. C. Cole. Settling in New York many years ago, his most notable portraits were Ex-President Millard Fillmore, General U. S. Grant, Henry Ward Beecher, Lyman Abbott, Nellie, daughter of President Arthur. In 1898 Mr. Gue visited the art centers of Europe, making studies of many notable places. He has attained remarkable success in marine painting. D. N. Richardson, editor of the Davenport Democrat wrote of Mr. Gue as an artist:

“It was not until he was twenty-four years old that he saw an oil painting. After twelve years of work as a portrait painter in New York, he occupies a position that many of the hardest working students of the best foreign masters have failed to attain.” EDWARD A. GUILBERT was born at Waukegan, Illinois, June 12, 1827. He studied medicine, taking up his residence in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1857, where he became one of the foremost homeopathic practitioners in the State. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed Surgeon of the Board of Enrollment of the Third District. In 1864 he recruited a company which was incorporated into the Forty-sixth Iowa Volunteers. Dr. Guilbert was especially prominent as a Mason, in which order he served in all of the high offices. For several years he edited and published a magazine called The Evergreen which was devoted to the interests of the Masonic fraternity. In 1872 he was nominated by the Liberal Republicans and Democrats for Secretary of State but was defeated. He was for many years a member of the State Board of Health and at one time its president, the first homeopathist to hold that position. He was a prominent and influential member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His death occurred at Dubuque on the 4th of March, 1900. FRANCIS GUITTAR was one of the first white men to make a home in western Iowa. He was born in St. Louis September 25, 1800, and was of French descent. At the age of fourteen Francis obtained a position on a steamer owned by the American Fur Company and made trips up the Missouri River along the west border of the future State of Iowa. He soon acquired a thorough knowledge of the fur trade and was appointed in 1827 agent at “Traders Point,” where Council Bluffs stands. Here he lived and transacted the business of that famous company for twenty-three years. On his arrival he found the trading posts to consist of two log buildings and a few tents. The country was occupied by various tribes of Indians who came with hides of deer, elk, buffalo and furs to exchange for ammunition and goods. Mr. Guittar was honorable in his dealings and never sought to defraud the Indians but won their confidence and enduring friendship. He was chosen by the Pawnees as one of their war chiefs and led them in a battle with the Sioux which was fought near where the town of Fremont stands. When the fur trade was abandoned in that