Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/456

 foundation for the upbuilding of one of the most beautiful and substantial cities of Iowa and no paper in its day contributed more largely toward the material development of all that is most desirable by good citizens, in the growth of a State. Alfred Sanders never sought office and held steadfastly to the career of journalism which he had chosen in youth; was an active member of the Christian Church and died at the early age of forty-six, on the 25th of April, 1865.  JAMES H. SANDERS was born on the 9th of October, 1834, in Union County, Ohio. He received a liberal education in the schools and academies of that section and in 1852 came with his father to Keokuk County, Iowa. The son was an active Republican and was elected county clerk. In 1860 he came to Des Moines at the assembling of the Legislature and secured the position of Secretary of the Senate. He was a good writer on agricultural topics and in 1869 established The Western Stock Journal, the first publication of the kind in the United States. It was conducted with ability and grew into a wide circulation. Seeing the advantages of having the Journal issued from a large city, he removed it to Chicago where it attained a national circulation. As the live stock interests of the west developed he saw an opening for a weekly publication devoted to the growing branch of farming and selling his interest in the monthly Journal, established the Weekly Breeders' Gazette in 1881. This proved to be a profitable enterprise and grew into a valuable property, circulating over the entire country where stock raising was carried on extensively. Mr. Sanders was a member of the United States Treasury Cattle Commission and a special agent of the Department of Agriculture in Europe in 1885 and was the author of several publications relating to stock. He died on the 22d of December, 1899, at the age of sixty-seven. JAMES P. SANFORD was born in Seneca County, New York, November 11, 1832. When thirteen years of age he went to South America and spent four years in that country, Mexico and the West India Islands. In 1851 he located in New Orleans where he remained until 1855 when he removed to Iowa, taking up his residence at Bentonsport. The following year he became a Universalist minister, preaching his first sermon at Big Rock in Scott County on the 22d of March, 1856. He was a public speaker of unusual ability and eloquence and rose rapidly in the profession until in a few years he became one of the most famous ministers in Iowa. Early in the Civil War Mr. Sanford enlisted in the Second Iowa Cavalry and was commissioned first lieutenant and was afterwards promoted to captain. Upon the organization of the Forty-seventh Infantry he was commissioned colonel of that regiment. In 1864 he retired from the service and went to Europe, making an extensive tour of the countries of the old world. Upon his return he lectured on foreign lands and people