Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/474

 owes much of its stability and high standing to the fine executive ability and unquestioned integrity of Major Sherman. In 1866, Major Sherman was a member of the House of the Eleventh General Assembly where he was chairman of the committee on railroads and a member of the committee of ways and means. In 1886 he was one of the founders of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association and has always been one of its most influential members, serving as president and long a member of the executive committee. He has contributed valuable historical articles to the Annals of Iowa on “Early Banking in Iowa,” and on the “State Bank of Iowa.” For many years he was the executive officer of the Associated Charities of Des Moines. JOHN C. SHERWIN was born at Berlin, Erie County, Ohio, February 8, 1851. His early education was acquired in the public schools and later he attended Ripon and Beloit colleges in Wisconsin. After leaving college be entered the Madison Law School from which he graduated in 1875. He removed to Mason City, Iowa, in 1876, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. He was mayor of that city in 1884-5, and the latter year was elected District Attorney of the Twelfth Judicial District. In September, 1888, he was appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy as judge of the District Court and was continuously reëlected, serving until 1900 when he became a judge of the Supreme Court, having been elected on the Republican ticket.  JAMES H. SHIELDS was born near Bowling Green, Missouri, May 8, 1842, and soon after his parents removed to Dubuque, Iowa, where his early education was acquired. He was sent to Union College, New York, where he graduated in the class of 1862. Returning to Dubuque he studied law, was admitted to the bar and followed that profession for thirty-nine years. He was elected on the Democratic ticket District Attorney for the Ninth Judicial District in 1883, serving four years. In 1889 he was elected to the State Senate, serving in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth General Assemblies. He was a delegate at large and chairman of the Iowa delegation to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1892. He has been for some time president of the Dubuque Business Men's League, an organization composed of jobbers, manufacturers, real estate owners and capitalists of Dubuque.  JOHN G. SHIELDS was born on the 22d of May, 1811, in Grayson County, Kentucky. He was one of the earliest settlers in the “Black Hawk Purchase,” long before it was organized into Iowa Territory. In 1835 he went to the Dubuque lead mines and established a store which for more than twenty years furnished goods for the early settlers in the lumber regions of Wisconsin and Minnesota. He was several terms alderman of 