Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/428

 was a prominent member of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association and was a life-long Democrat. He died on the 15th of November, 1900. JOHN W. RANKIN was born on the 11th of June, 1823, and was a native of the State of Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Washington College and after teaching a few years, studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practice in Wooster in partnership with Judge Sloan. He came to Iowa in 1848, locating at Keokuk, where he practiced his profession. In April, 1857, he was appointed judge of the First Judicial District to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Ralph P. Lowe. In October of the same year he was elected to the State Senate on the Republican ticket for a term of four years. At the beginning of the War of the Rebellion he was appointed Quartermaster of United States Volunteers. In the winter of 1861-2 he was authorized to raise a regiment of volunteers and in a little more than a month had enlisted a regiment, which was mustered into the service as the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry. Rankin was commissioned by Governor Kirkwood colonel of the regiment and it at once entered the service. Colonel Rankin was wounded at the Battle of Iuka and resigned in September, 1862. LEVI B. RAYMOND, soldier, journalist and politician, was born in Allegany County, New York, on the 3d of July, 1836. His parents removed to Wisconsin where he spent his boyhood years acquiring an education at Beloit College. He learned the printer's trade and came to Iowa in 1864, locating at Hampton. Mr. Raymond became editor and publisher of the Hampton Recorder in 1837 and, with the exception of four years, from 1872 to 1876, has continued to publish that paper up to the close of the Nineteenth Century. During this period of four years Mr. Raymond was instrumental in establishing weekly papers in the northwest portion of the State. The new towns desiring newspapers, Mr. Raymond, pioneer-like, undertook to supply the demand. The papers established by Mr. Raymond from 1872 to 1875 were the Sheldon Mail, Cherokee Leader, Sioux County Herald, O'Brien Pioneer, Newell Mirror and Doon Republican. Colonel Raymond has been superintendent of schools, a trustee of the Clarinda Insane Asylum, also of the Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown, where he was instrumental in establishing the cottage system whereby the wives and widows might receive the benefits of that institution as well as the disabled and infirm Union soldiers. He has been an active Republican during his entire residence in Iowa, having served as a delegate in thirty-three State Conventions and was chairman of the Republican committee of Franklin County for thirteen years. From 1883 to 1886 he was Special Examiner of the United States Pension Department and postmaster of Hampton from 1889 to 1894. He served two years on the Republican State Central Committee. Before coming to Iowa and when a young man, Mr.