accord in 1876. During his service he collected millions for the government, and not a dollar was misappropriated. Mr. Boardman was the first collector that discovered the secret and fraudulent methods of the distillers, and from his reports to the department at Washington began the exposure of the gigantic whiskey frauds of 1874. After resigning the collectorship, he gave the rest of his years to his personal affairs. He held his interest in the welfare of his State and Nation until the day of his death, and did not cease his activity in their behalf until old age made it necessary.

Mr. Boardman was married to Lydia George, of Try, Vermont, in 1843. She died in about three years. In 1848 he married Lois B. Knight, of St. Lawrence county, New York. She made his home joyous and happy for nine years, and died at Lyons, Iowa. In 1858 he married his present widow, Sarah M. Knight, of Gardner, Massachusetts. The only children of Mr. Boardman that grew to manhood are Homer C., William K. and Charles D., and they are children of his second wife.

Mr. Boardman was an indulgent, kind and generous father, and gave all his children a good academical education, and the youngest a college training. They have all been prosperous and successful in life.

H. C. Boardman is State Senator from the thirty-first district, Story and Boone counties. W. K. Boardman is State Dairy Commissioner, and C. D. Boardman has just retired from a six years' term as trustee of the Iowa Agricultural College.

HON. SAMUEL MCNUTT.

SAMUEL MCNUTT was born November 21, 1825, in the north of Ireland, twenty miles west of Londonderry, and is the son of Samuel McNutt and Hannah nee Stuart. The family is of Scotch origin, and descended from a somewhat noted ancestry in the history of the soul-trying events of Covenanter times. While he was yet a child the family came to America, and after a brief stay in Philadelphia settled in New Castle county, Delaware, near the village of Newark. His mother was now a widow with seven children, of whom Samuel was the oldest. She never married again and for forty years devoted her life and energies to the education and interests of her children, three boys and four girls, and had the happiness to see them all honorably settled in life. Her second son, Robert, became an eminent physician in Louisiana; but taking the side of the Union at the time of the rebellion, he escaped to the North, losing all his property in Louisiana, and Governor Kirkwood appointed him assistant surgeon to the Thirty-eighth Iowa Regiment. Her third son, James, also joined the Union army, being attached to the medical department of the regular army, and for more than a year had medical charge of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Phillip, below New Orleans. At the age of eighty-five years she died in Iowa, December 24, 1874.

Our subject, Samuel, passed his boyhood working on the little farm in Delaware. By the time he was fourteen years of age he had committed to memory the Shorter Catechism, most of the Psalms of David in meter and Proverbs of Solomon, much of the "Scotch Martyrs" and Weems' Life of Washington. At this time his books were few and those here named laid the foundation for his character and have influenced his whole life. He first attracted attention by his poetical compositions published in The Temperance Star, of Wilmington, Delaware, over the signature of "Harmony

Plowboy," Harmony being the name of his school district. Delaware College is located in the neighboring village of Newark, and Dr. J. S. Bell, one of the professors, being attracted by the published articles, offered the "Plowboy" the use of bis library and other literary assistance. He soon after entered Delaware College, where he obtained a liberal education. In those years he contributed to Peterson's Magazine, Neal's Gazette, Godey's Lady's Book, Saturday Courier, etc. Some of his pieces had a wide circulation in their day. Leaving college he engaged in teaching and was soon after elected president of the New Castle County Teachers' Association, which position he held three consecutive years by election. In the meantime he studied law under the direction of Hon. Daniel M. Bates, then Secretary of State of Delaware, afterwards Chancellor. In 1851 he came west to Milwaukee, was admitted to the bar and located there to practice. But being offered a professorship in a collegiate institute at Hernando, Mississippi, he went to that state, remaining there some two years. In 1854, he returned to the west and located in Muscatine county, Iowa. In 1856 he was principal of the First Ward public school, and in that year he and D. F. Wells, who was principal of the Third Ward school, originated the first educational magazine in Iowa, namely The Voice of Iowa, published by Dr. Enos at Cedar Rapids. At the close of 1856 he became editor of the Musca tine Enquirer, having purchased a half interest in that paper. On the 14th of April, 1857, he was married to Miss Anna E. Lucas, of Portsmouth, Ohio, a niece of Ex-Governor Robert Lucas, afterwards first governor of Iowa Territory. He became associate editor of the Dubuque Herald, then under the management of Joseph B. Dorr (afterwards Colonel of Eighth Iowa Cavalry), and remained in that capacity until 1860, when “Dorr & Co.” transferred the Herald to "Mahony & Co."

Up to this time Mr. McNutt had been a Democrat in politics and a friend and supporter of Stephen A Douglas. But when the Southern States began to secede and war seemed imminent, he announced himself in favor of the constitutionally elected administration of Abraham Lincoln, and in favor of every means that could be used to put down armed rebellion. The course of the Herald under Mahony & Co.” being opposed to the measures of the administration, Mr. McNutt was induced by a number of his Democratic friends, the war Democrats," to start a paper, The Daily Evening Union, at Dubuque, to counteract the teachings of the Herald. During his publication of the Union in that time of excitement and passion he passed through some stirring scenes, and his bound volume of the Union he prizes highly. and has deposited it with the Historical Department of lowa. The publication of the paper was a serious pecuniary loss to him, when he discontinued it and became one of the editors of the Dubuque Times. But in the fall of 1862, intending to go into the army, he removed his family back to his farm in Muscatine county where he has since resided

In 1863, while recruiting for the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, he was nominated by the Republicans of Muscatine county for representative to the Tenth General Assembly, and he was elected by a handsome majority. His acts in the Legislature so pleased the people that he was re-nominated and re-elected to the Eleventh General Assembly and also to the Twelfth General Assembly, being thus returned three times in succession to the same house, an honor never before conferred by Muscatine. At the close of his