History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Horace Boies
HORACE BOIES, thirteenth Governor of Iowa, was born on a farm in Erie County, New York, on the 7th of December, 1827. He received but a common school education and when sixteen years of age removed to Wisconsin and worked some time on a farm; returning to his old home he decided to study law. He opened an office in Hamburg, near Buffalo, and practiced there some years. In 1865 he was elected to the New York Legislature on the Republican ticket, serving but one session. He afterwards removed to Buffalo where he practiced law until 1856 when he came west and located at Waterloo. In 1880 Mr. Boies left the Republican party on the ground of its adoption of the policy of a protective tariff and the prohibition of the liquor traffic. Becoming a Democrat in 1889 he was nominated by that party for Governor. After a vigorous campaign in which Mr. Boies made powerful assaults upon the prohibitory liquor law, advocating license, he was elected by a plurality of 6,573 in a vote of 360,623. In 1891 he was renominated and reflected upon the same issue, receiving the votes of several thousand license Republicans. At the close of his second term he was again a candidate but the Republican party having abandoned prohibition and declared for a law permitting the establishment of saloons upon petition of a majority of the voters of cities, the saloon Republicans returned to the party and defeated Governor Boies by a plurality of 32,161. In 1896 Governor Boies was a candidate before the Democratic National Convention for President and upon one ballot received a very complimentary vote. During his four years' administration as Governor he used his influence to secure the repeal of the prohibitory liquor law but was unable to accomplish it.