Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/314

 the State. He was born March 8, 1833, in Alsace, then a French province. He attended the schools of his native country and in August, 1853, when twenty years of age, emigrated to America, locating in Dubuque County which has since been his home. For forty-eight years he has lived on the farm he selected for his home upon his arrival in America. During that time he has served ten years as a member of the board of supervisors, was forty-three years a member of the school board, and thirty-three years a justice of the peace. In 1861 he was first elected a Representative in the House of the Ninth General Assembly, was a member of the Senate in the Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth General Assemblies. In 1877 Mr. Knoll was again elected to the House of the Seventeenth General Assembly, and in 1890 his county returned him to the House of the Twenty-third General Assembly, twenty-eight years from the time he first entered the Legislature as one of its youngest members. Few citizens of Iowa have served so long as a public official, and in every position Mr. Knoll has proved faithful, efficient and worthy. He has been a Democrat from the time he landed in America and has many times represented his party in State conventions. JOHN F. LACEY was born at New Martinsville, West Virginia, on the 30th of May, 1841. In 1855 he came with his father to Oskaloosa, near which they located on a farm. His education was limited by lack of means and he learned the trade of bricklaying. When the Civil War began he enlisted in Company H, Third Iowa Infantry, was captured at the Battle of Blue Mills but was soon released on parole. He returned home and began to read law with Samuel A. Rice, then Attorney-General of Iowa. After being exchanged in 1802, he enlisted in Company D, Thirty-third Iowa Volunteers, of which Mr. Rice was appointed colonel. He was soon promoted to first lieutenant of Company C and later was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General on the staff of General Steele, serving in that position to the end of the war. He participated in the battles of Helena, Little Rock, Elkin's Ford, Prairie d'Ann, Camden, Jenkin's Ferry and Blakely. Upon his return home he entered upon the practice of law. In 1869 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the House of the Thirteenth General Assembly, serving one term. He was city solicitor and is the author of Lacey's Railway Digest in two volumes and also of the Third Iowa Digest. He was first elected to Congress from the Sixth District in 1888 and has been repeatedly reëlected, serving to the close of the Nineteenth Century. He has taken a deep interest in the preservation of the forests and animals of the country and is the author of numerous important laws on the subject. SCOTT M. LADD was born at Sharon in the State of Wisconsin on the 22d of June, 1855. His early education was acquired in Sharon