History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Horace E. Deemer
HORACE E. DEEMER
HORACE E. DEEMER was born on the 24th of September, 1858, at Bourbon, Marshall County, Indiana. In 1864 his parents, who were Quakers, removed to Iowa, making their home near the Quaker colony of Springdale, made famous by harboring John Brown while he drilled his band for the Harper's Ferry raid. Here the young man began his education in the public schools, taking a course later in the High School at West Liberty and finally graduating from the State University at Iowa City. He first engaged in the furniture business at West Liberty but later took up the study of law and removing to Red Oak, entered upon the practice of his new profession. He met with marked success and was chosen chairman of the Republican county committee and secretary of the county agricultural society. In November, 1886, he was elected a Republican judge of the Fifteenth Judicial District and at the close of the term was reflected but, before the expiration of his second term was appointed by Governor Jackson, Associate Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1898 he became Chief Justice, one of the youngest men who has attained that position in Iowa. In 1898 he was reëlected. Judge Deemer has been one of the Lecturers at the Law Department of the State University, author of Synopsis of Legal Subjects; member of the State and American Bar Associations. He has written several opinions involving constitutional questions.