JOHN L. STEVENS was born in Northfield, Vermont, on the 29th of May, 1850. He attended the common schools several years and in 1863 came to Iowa, making his home at Cedar Rapids. He entered the Iowa State College where he graduated as a civil engineer in 1872. Soon after he entered upon the study of law and began to practice in 1874, locating in Boone. In politics he was a Republican, and in 1879 was elected District Attorney of the Eleventh Judicial District, serving until 1886, when he was elected judge, holding that position until 1893. He was for several years one of the commissioners appointed by the President to adjust the long pending claims of the settlers on the Des Moines River lands.
EDWARD H. STILES was born in Granby, Connecticut, October 8, 1830. He received a liberal education in the New England schools, studied law and removed to Iowa in 1856, locating at Ottumwa, where the following year he began the practice of his profession. In 1859 he was chosen city attorney and in 1861 county attorney. In 1863 he was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in the House of the Tenth General Assembly. At the close of the term he was elected to the State Senate. In 1867 he was chosen reporter of the Supreme Court, a position he held for eight years. During his term of service he edited, compiled and published fifteen volumes known as “Stiles' Iowa Reports” which rank high among the law reports of the country. He also prepared and published four volumes of digests of the decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court from the time of its Territorial organization down to the close of volume fifty-eight of the Iowa Reports. In 1881 he began to collect the material for a “History of the Early Bench and Bar of Iowa.” In 1883 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Sixth District but by a fusion of the Democratic and Greenback parties in support of General J. B. Weaver, Mr. Stiles was defeated. In 1886 he removed to Kansas City, where he ranked high at the bar, having served as Circuit Judge and Master in Chancery of the United States Circuit Court.
LACON D. STOCKTON located in Burlington, Iowa, in 1836. He entered upon the practice of law and became one of the leading members of the bar. In politics he was a Whig but took no active part in public affairs, confining himself strictly to the duties of his profession. He was a personal friend of James W. Grimes and after the resignation of Judge Isbell from the Supreme bench, Governor Grimes on the 17th of May, 1856, appointed Mr. Stockton to fill the vacancy. In January, 1857, he was elected by the General Assembly. Under the new Constitution the judges were to be elected by the people. Judge Stockton was nominated by the Republicans and elected for a full term of six years, in October, 1859, but died on the 9th of June, 1860.
