Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/575

 were very limited, but he mastered the few books at his command and acquired a good general education. He studied medicine, and in 1829 received a license to practice from Dr. Drake of Cincinnati. In 1840, Dr. Elbert removed to Van Buren County, Iowa, where he lived until his death in 1866, at the age of sixty years. As a surgeon he acquired an extensive practice in Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri, and his reputation was such that he was given honorary degrees by the Universities of Pennsylvania and Missouri. Being a man of unusual energy and force he took prominent part in the development of the country and was a leader in promoting and forwarding public enterprises. He took great interest in politics and was a member and president of the Territorial Council of Iowa in 1842-4. Few men during his residence in Van Buren County were better or more favorably known. He married Achsa Hitt, a daughter of Rev. Samuel Hitt, a Methodist minister, in 1829. Several of their sons became prominent men, one of them, Samuel Hitt Elbert, being at one time Governor of Colorado, and for many years a judge of the Colorado Supreme Court. EDWIN MANNING, one of the pioneer settlers in Iowa, was born February 8, 1810, at South Coventry, Connecticut He was educated in the common schools, and at the age of sixteen became clerk in a store. In 1836 he emigrated to the "Black Hawk Purchase," first stopping at Fort Madison. In 1837, with two companions, he went up the Des Moines River to Horse Shoe Bend, where a claim was made and a town platted, which became Keosauqua. In 1839 Mr. Manning opened a store in a log cabin he had erected in his new town. In 1842 he built the first brick court house in the Territory, which was still standing in 1900. He ran the first loaded steamboat from St. Louis to Des Moines in 1843. The next year he built the first flat boat that floated down the Des Moines River. In 1856 he was appointed by the Governor Commissioner of the Des Moines River Improvement, serving two years. He was an enterprising business man and for half a century was closely identified with many of the most important interests of that part of the State, accumulating a large fortune. ROBERT SLOAN is a native of Ohio, where he was born October 21, 1835. At eighteen years of age he came to Iowa with his parents, having been reared on a farm. His educational advantages were meager, being confined to the district schools and one year in the New Lisbon High School. After coming to Iowa he taught school until 1860 when he enter the law office of Judge George G. Wright at Keosauqua. So rapidly did advance in his studies that he was admitted to the bar the following year. Mr. Sloan was in 1868 chosen Judge of the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District, serving twelve years. In 1894 he was elected Judge of the District Court, and has been repeatedly reëlected, still holding that position.