Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/391

 JOHN R. NEEDHAM was born on the 18th of December, 1824, in Washington, Ohio. He received a good education, studied law and was admitted to the bar at Cambridge, Ohio. In 1849 he came to Iowa, taking up his residence in Mahaska County, where he first engaged in teaching. On the 2d of July, 1850, Mr. Needham and Mr. McNeeley issued the first newspaper ever published in that county under the name of the Iowa Herald. The name was afterwards changed to the Oskaloosa Herald. In 1852 Mr. Needham was nominated by the Whigs for State Senator and elected, serving four years as one of the most influential members of that body. In 1857 he was nominated by the Republicans for member of the convention to frame a new Constitution but declined the position. In 1861 he was elected on the Republican ticket Lieutenant-Governor of the State and was an able and popular President of the Senate. In 1867 he was again elected to the State Senate for four years but died on the 9th of July, 1868. He was a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal church. C. C. NESTLERODE, pioneer educator, was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1824, where his early education was acquired. He taught school several years in Ohio, and while visiting at Galena, Illinois, in December, 1854, learned that a meeting of the State Teachers' Association of Iowa was soon to be held at Iowa City. He walked the entire distance to be present at that gathering of the teachers of Iowa, and was so deeply interested in the enthusiasm of the pioneer teachers of the new State that he resolved to remain in Iowa. In 1856 he was chosen principal of the Union School of Tipton in Cedar County, the first school of the kind established in the State. He was an enthusiastic advocate of the free school system and in connection with George B. Dennison of Muscatine succeeded in inducing the Iowa Legislature to abolish the rate bills and provide by tax for the support of the public schools. Mr. Nestlerode held one of the first teachers' institutes at Tipton, in 1856; and served as president of the State Teachers' Association in 1857-8 and again in 1862. In 1858 he was chosen by the State Association, Institute lecturer for the State and public school worker, representing the Association before the State Board of Education. During that year of educational labor, Mr. Nestlerode held twelve institutes, attended the sessions of the State Board of Education for twenty days, traveled 3,700 miles, much of the way on foot, and delivered seven hundred twelve free school talks. He died at Fostoria, Ohio, December 29, 1900. JOSHUA G. NEWBOLD, ninth Governor of Iowa, was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of May, 1830. He was reared on a farm, attended the public schools and a few terms at an academy. He taught school several winters, assisting his father on the farm during