Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/282

 of Iowa. He graduated from the Law Department in 1881, and returning to Algona in 1882 he purchased an interest in the Upper Des Moines. Taking editorial charge of the paper he developed into an able journalist. He served as postmaster of Algona from 1898 to 1902. In 1892 he was elected regent of the State University, serving until 1902. Upon the consolidation of the Iowa State Register and the Des Moines Leader at the Capital, Mr. Ingham was selected by the owners as the managing editor and at once entered upon the duties of the position.  WILLIAM H. INGHAM was one of the pioneer settlers in northwestern Iowa, having lived in Kossuth County nearaly fifty years. He was born at Ingham's Mills in the State of New York, November 27, 1827. He received a liberal education in the schools of that section. In 1849 he made a trip through the eastern part of Iowa, and was so charmed with the new country that in 1851 he located at Cedar Rapids where he engaged in surveying and locating lands for incoming settlers. In 1854 he traveled through a portion of northwestern Iowa, which was then almost entirely unsettled. He determined to make his home in Kossuth County and in January, 1855, selected a claim near where Algona stands. Aa soon as the business of the new town would support a banking house he began to do business in that line. In 1870, in company with Lewis H. Smith (another pioneer), a bank was organized which three years later became the Kossuth County Bank. In 1862, after the Minnesota massacre by the Sioux Indians had begun, Governor Kirkwood authorized Mr. Ingham to organize a military company for the protection of that part of the State, and sent him a commission as captain. Other companies were raised and all were united in the Northern Border Brigade, which effectually checked the incursion of the Sioux into northern Iowa. Captain Ingham has been an active force in the development of northwest Iowa for nearly half a century. JOHN P. IRISH was born in Iowa City on the 1st of January, 1843. He received a common school education but at the early age of seventeen had made such progress as to become a teacher. When he had reached the age of twenty-one he assumed the editorial management of the Iowa City Press and developed such ability both as a writer and public speaker that he was soon recognized as one of the leaders of the Democratic party of the State. In 1887 he was elected to represent Johnson County in the House of the Eleventh General Assembly and was twice reëlected, serving six years. He had, as a teacher, seen the harm of electing members of school boards on a partisan ticket, and was the author of the law changing the time of electing school officers from the general to a special election, thus taking their election out of partisan politics. His bill also authorized the directors to choose a president outside of their own number. This