First General Assembly, two years later elected on the Democratic ticket Superintendent of Public Instruction and was reëlected, serving six years. Mr. Benton became a resident of Council Bluffs and was chosen Secretary of the State Board of Education in 1858, serving four years. In 1862 he was appointed colonel of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, served during the war and in 1865 was brevetted Brigadier-General. In 1865 he was the Democratic and anti-negro suffrage candidate for Governor but was defeated. In 1866 he became a supporter of President Johnson after the latter left the Republican party and in August was appointed by the President Assessor of Internal Revenue in place of the Republican incumbent removed. He died in St. Louis on the 10th of April, 1879.
WILLIAM H. BERRY was born in Cass County, Illinois, October 23, 1849. Coming to Iowa in 1867, he located in Warren County, completing his education at Simpson College, Indianola, from which he graduated in 1872. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1873, entering into partnership with Judge J. H. Henderson, remaining a member of the firm until 1885. Mr. Berry has for a long time been one of the influential trustees of Simpson College. He is an active Republican and in 1895 was elected to the State Senate from the district composed of the counties of Clarke and Warren, serving in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies. He took a prominent part in codifying the laws of the State and was one of the leading advocates of the law providing for the collateral inheritance tax. In the Twenty-seventh General Assembly Senator Berry was an active promoter of the legislation which established the State Board of Control.
JAMES G. BERRYHILL was born in Iowa City on the 5th of November, 1852. His father, Charles H. Berryhill, became a resident of Johnson County in 1838, before Iowa City had an existence, Iowa Territory having been organized that year. The son attended the public schools and took the collegiate course in the State University, graduating in 1873. He then entered the Law Department from which he graduated in 1876. Removing to Des Moines in 1877, Mr. Berryhill engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1885 Mr. Berryhill was elected a Representative in the Twenty-first General Assembly, and became chairman of the committee on appropriations in which position he did excellent service. He was reëlected at the close of his term and in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly organized and led the movement which resulted in the enactment of laws exercising control over railroad corporations in the interest of the people. A full account of this legislation will be found in Volume III of this history. Mr. Berryhill is a man of affairs, having large business enterprises under his management. In politics he is an active Republi-
