Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/85

 Baltimore and nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President. At the extra session of the Legislature in May, 1861, called by Governor Kirkwood to place the State on a war footing, Cyrus Bussey was among the Democrats who gave a warm support to the war measures. At the close of the session he helped raise the Third Iowa Cavalry Regiment of which he was commissioned colonel. He was a gallant officer and in 1864 was promoted to Brigadier-General. After the war he located at New Orleans and became President of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated General Grant for President. In 1880 he was again a delegate to the Republican Convention and was one of the famous three hundred six delegates who voted for Grant for a third term. In 1889 General Bussey was appointed by President Harrison Assistant Secretary of the Interior where he served until 1893. General Bussey left the Democratic party early in the Civil War and became a Republican, often taking an active part in the national campaigns as a public speaker. WALTER H. BUTLER was born in Springboro, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of February, 1852. He came to Iowa in 1875, making his home at West Union in Fayette County. In 1890 he was nominated for Representative in Congress by the Democrats of the Fourth District and was elected over J. H. Sweeney, Republican, by a plurality of 1,949. He served but one term, being defeated for reëlection, in 1892. EBER C. BYAM was born in Canada in 1826. He came to Iowa, locating in Linn County. He was for many years a minister of the Methodist church and at one time presiding elder. In the organization of the Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood its colonel. He did not prove adapted to military command and resigned his commission on the 30th of June, 1863. In 1871 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Fort Dodge and remained in that city several years in the real estate business. He finally moved to Rochester, New York, where he died many years ago.  HOWARD W. BYERS was born in Woodstock, Wisconsin, on Christmas Day, 1856. His education was acquired in the public schools of Wisconsin. In 1873 he came to Iowa, first locating on a farm near Garner, in Hancock County. Subsequently he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1888. He removed to Shelby County, where in 1893 he was elected Representative in the Twenty-fifth General Assembly, on the Republican ticket. He was reflected in 1895 and chosen Speaker of the House of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly. In 1899 Mr. Byers was again elected Representative, serving in the Twenty-eighth General 