Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889 [page 406-408] HYMENEUS C. KELLOGG was born on August 15, 1824, in the town of Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont. His father, FREDERICK KELLOGG, was a native of Windham County, in the same State, and descended from an old family of South Hadley, Massachusetts. This family was of English ancestry and dates back to the colonial days of America. Mr. KELLOGG'S mother was also a native of Vermont, having been born in Windsor County. Her maiden name was SOPHIA RANNEY. HYMENEUS grew to manhood in his native county, receiving a good education, and laying the foundation for a successful career in life. He went to Poultney in the same county and commenced to read law, and was finally admitted to the bar in the year 1846. He practiced his pro- fession for a time in Vermont, but soon went to Boston, Massachu- setts, where he lived tow years variously engaged. In the same year in which he completed his legal studies he was married to Miss ELIZABETH E. WHEELER, a native of Vermont and a daughter of JONA- THAN R. and EUSEBIA (HOAR) WHEELER, of Massachusetts, the marriage taking place in Pittstown, New York. On leaving Boston he returned to his native State, where he remained until the year 1855, when, attracted by the glowing accounts of the wonderful opportunities open to young men in the newly developing West, he left his native State and removed to Quasqueton, Buchanan County, Iowa. At the time of his location in this county it had not been organized, and the country was characterized by all those features so peculiar to new- ly settled regions, and so well known to every one experienced in frontier life. Here Mr. KELLOGG lived until the year 1869, following his profession and dealing in real estate, and also being engaged to some extent in farming operations. Not being fully satisfied with his surroundings, and wishing to again change his location, he, in company with his son-in-law, Charles H. Lewis, came to Cherokee County, in this State, in early spring of 1869, with a view to lo- cating in the county if the prospects were sufficiently promising. They arrived in Cherokee, or what was then called Cherokee, on the 22d day of May, 1869, having driven for a long distance over the unsettled prairies of Northwestern Iowa. Although there was then no town in the county, yet the tide of immigration was so great, and so many were coming to take up the free, fertile lands then subject to homestead entry, and the prospect of the advent of a railroad in the coming year being so bright, Mr. KELLOGG and his son-in-law concluded that it was the place for them to settle. This they did, and their families soon followed them to the new home. Mr. LEWIS had taken a course of legal study in the Iowa Law School, and had been admitted to the bar, and a firm was formed by the name of KELLOGG & LEWIS, being the first law firm in the county. A new town, called Blair City, was started on a site about a mile north of the present town of Cherokee, and during the summer and fall of 1869 grew apace with the tide of immigration, until it numbered quite a respectable village. Here Messrs. KELLOGG & LEWIS followed their profession, and the real-estate firm also did a large business. Mr. KELLOGG'S ability and energy soon placed him in the front rank of those who were struggling to build up the interests of the town and county. The railroad having been completed through from Fort Dodge to Sioux City in the spring of 1870, and the present town of Cherokee having been located, the new firm, in common with the rest of the inhabitants of Blair City, put their homes and offi- ces on wheels and moved to the new town. Here their legal business grew and Mr. KELLOGG was soon recognized as one of the foremost law- yers of this section. While not a man who was given to the close study and investigation of legal questions, yet, from his strong, innate common sense, he was enabled to arrive at conclusions on legal problems that were usually consonant with legal principles, for the reason that law is supposed to be the perfection of common sense. In addition to this faculty of arriving at sound conclusions on legal questions he also possessed a very high order of oratorical ability, the display of which in the legal forum soon made him well known as a successful jury pleader, and his eloquence was always more feared by the other members of the bar than his knowledge of the law. In 1871 his partner, Mr. LEWIS, was elected to the office of district attorney of the Fourth Judicial District, and this fact gave promi- nence to the firm. As the county developed the business of the firm increased. In the fall of 1874 Mr. Lewis was elected by the Republi- cans to the office of judge of the Fourth Judicial District, a posi- tion which he has held ever since. This rendered a dissolution of the old firm necessary on the 1st of January, 1875, when Judge LEWIS took his seat on the bench. Mr. Kellogg carried on the law business alone until the month of May, 1875, when he formed a partnership with Mr. E. C. HERRICK, a young attorney, and the firm was from then until Mr. KELLOGG'S retirement from practice in the fall of 1882 known as KELLOGG & HERRICK. In October, 1882, having grown tired of the turmoil and strife consequent on the practice of the law, and wishing to lead a less active life, Mr. KELLOGG sold out his interest to his partner and retired to his farm near Cherokee, where he has since resided, carrying on one of the finest farms in the county. His first wife had died in Quasqueton, Iowa, in the year 1877, leaving surviving her four children: Mrs. EMMA E. LEWIS, the wife of Judge Lewis, now a resident of Sioux City, Iowa; MARY E., wife of HENRY ACKENBACK, of Spencer, Iowa; FRED. R., just entering into manhood, and residing at home, and DARWIN H., a younger son, who is at Lake Charles, Louisiana. Mr. Kellogg was married again in the year 1879, to Mrs. RACHEL S. SOPER, of Buchanan County, a lady of fine social attainments, good common sense, and possessed of business judgment far beyond the average of her sex. In poli- tics Mr. KELLOGG was a thorough Republican in the early history of the party. His father was a Whig, and supported JOHN C. FREMONT in 1856. Mr. KELLOGG remained loyal to the Republican party until recent years. Being a man of independent thought and conviction, and acknowledging no right in any one or any party to dictate his political course, he has come to be known as an Independent. He cordially supported the prohibitory movement in Iowa, and is in- clined to believe that the full efficacy of prohibition can be found only in absolute national control of the traffic. Until with- in the last few years he took an active part in county politics, and was generally regarded as the most successful politician in the county. From the beginning of its active history the county of Cherokee, like all other communities, has felt the full force of political strife and contention. these local controversies have at times in the past been exceedingly warm and sometimes rather stormy. Having an aptitude for such warfare, and being at the same time a leading man in the community, it was but natural that Mr. KELLOGG should become warmly enlisted on the one side or the other, as his judgment and personal feelings might carry him. When once so en- listed no man in the community ever had any reason to doubt where he stood or what friend he was working for. He never asked or wanted an office for himself. If a friend could get it with his help, he was satisfied. He never flinched from a public avowal of his feelings, or his political affiliations, and all a man had to do to find out where he stood was either to ask him, or watch his political actions. No man was ever truer to a friend. When he went into a campaign to work for one, it was always with a grim determination to win if possible. He hates vie and loves the good. As would be expected from such a nature, he met with opposition that at times even became bitter, and by some he was disliked. But conscious in the rectitude of his own motives, he cared little for the adverse judgment of his enemies. Knowing that he who is the friend of everybody is rarely, if ever, the true friend of anybody, he sticks to his friends and lets his enemies take care of them- selves. He is a man of most genial and kindly disposition, sympa- thetic in his nature, and has a warm and responsive heart. No man will sooner forgive a foe and forget an injury. Although not as careful in looking after the acquisition of wealth as most men, yet he has prospered in a financial sense and has a competency for his old age. He owns a beautiful farm situated close to the town of Cherokee, and seems thoroughly contented in cultivating his broad acres. He has stocked it with a fine herd of cattle and with the best breeds of hogs, and has every facility for the suc- cessful prosecution of the farm and stock business. Mr. KELLOGG is a man who is possessed of natural talents far above the usual order. While a great reader, and a well-posted man on all quest- ions of public interest, yet hard study was ever irksome to him. As before stated, he is a man of very superior oratorical ability, and he never fails to secure they sympathy of an audience and to delight those who listen to him, by his glowing eloquence and keen wit. It is not too much to say that had he cultivated his talents in this direction he would have made himself one of the leading public speakers of the day. He possesses the power of appealing to the noblest part of human nature in the most effective manner, and of stirring up the good feelings of an audience with his pun- gent and sparkling wit. Mr. KELLOGG has passed twenty years in Cherokee County, and has been thoroughly identified with its growth and history during that period. He has seen it develop from an unsettled expanse of raw prairie into a blooming garden spot of thrift and prosperity. He is an honored citizen of a happy and peaceful community, and is the recipient of the general good will of the people. ===========================================================================