Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/374

 Hundred Twenty-fifth New York Volunteers. He served in General Hancock's Second Corps and participated in most of the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac, receiving a severe wound at Gettysburg. He came to Iowa in 1869, making his home in Davenport. He became an active and influential Republican and has held the highest positions in the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1894 Mr. Metzgar was appointed by the Governor custodian of public buildings of the State, serving four years. In 1898 he was appointed postmaster of Davenport by President McKinley. JOHN MEYER was born in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, February 26, 1824. He was a graduate of Oberlin College and for two years was an instructor in the institution. In April, 1857, he located at Newton, Iowa, which became his permanent home. In August, 1862, he was commissioned captain in Company K, Twenty-eighth Iowa Volunteers, serving three years in the Union Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was engaged in the battles of Champion's Hill, siege of Vicksburg, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. Mr. Meyer had served in the House of Representatives of the Ninth General Assembly, both in the regular and extra sessions, and after the close of the war in the fall of 1865 was elected to the Senate, serving in the Eleventh and Twelfth General Assemblies. In 1877 he was again elected to the Senate, serving through the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies. For many years he was a trustee of Iowa College at Grinnell. He died on the 14th of May, 1902. J. FRED MEYERS was born in Oettingen, Bavaria, Germany, in 1833. His parents came to America when he was fourteen years of age and located at Adrian, Michigan, where he learned the printing business. He was a radical abolitionist in the days of slavery and became the editor of The Independent, published at Columbus, Indiana. In 1857 he was associated with S. M. Booth in the publication of The Free Democrat at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1861 he was appointed Chief of the Printing Division of the Treasury Department at Washington under Secretary S. P. Chase, serving until 1874. He was for several years editor and publisher of The Civil Service Journal at Washington and was chief editor of The Republic, a political magazine under the direction of the National Republican committee. He was twice sent by the Treasury Department to Germany to investigate emigration. During his life in Washington he graduated from the Columbian University Law School. In 1874 he removed to Iowa, locating in Crawford County, where he purchased and published the Denison Review. He was postmaster from 1877 to 1886. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison, chief clerk in the office of the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury Department. In 1891 the Bureau of Labor sent him to Germany to report on the Industrial School system