WASHINGTON L. ELLIOTT was an officer in the regular army when the War of the Rebellion began. He had served in the War with Mexico and attained the rank of captain. Later he distinguished himself in the Indian wars of the West. On the 14th of September, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the Second Iowa Cavalry. In June, 1862, Colonel Elliott was promoted to Brigadier-General and soon after was made Chief of Cavalry in the army under General Pope in his Virginia campaign. Later he was transferred to the army of the Cumberland and became Chief of Cavalry to General Thomas. After the Battle of Nashville he was promoted to brevet Major-General for distinguished services. After the close of the war he returned to the regular army as colonel of the Third Cavalry. In 1879 he was placed on the retired list and died in San Francisco on the 29th of June, 1888.
LYMAN A. ELLIS, one of the prominent lawyers of Clinton County, was a native of Vermont where he was born March 11, 1835, on a farm near Burlington. In the public schools he acquired sufficient education to teach, thus earning his tuition at an academy and a course of law lectures. In 1801 he came to Iowa, taking up his residence at Lyons, where he began to practice law. In 1865 he was elected District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial District where he served until 1880. In 1893 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate, serving four years. He was the leader of the opposition in that body, to granting suffrage to women, making an elaborate speech against the constitutional amendment for that purpose. At the extra session of the General Assembly in 1897, Mr. Ellis was a member of the joint committee for the annotation and publication of the new code.
CHARLES J. A. ERICSON was born in Sweden, March 8, 1840. In 1852 his father emigrated to America with his family, settling on a farm near Moline, Illinois. In the spring of 1859 Charles removed to Mineral Ridge in Boone County, Iowa, where he opened a country store, the nearest railroad town at that time being Iowa City. He was appointed postmaster holding the position until 1870. In that year he removed to Boone, entering the City Bank as cashier. In 1871 he was elected Representative in the House of the Fourteenth General Assembly, where he secured the passage of a bill making settlers on the Des Moines River lands, occupying claimants, many hundreds of them living in his county. In 1895 Mr. Ericson was elected to the State Senate from the district of Boone and Story counties, and was the author of a bill which became a law taxing corporations for filing articles of incorporation. He also secured the reduction of interest on State warrants from six to five per cent. Mr. Ericson has been a successful business man, accumulating wealth which he has used liberally in building up his home city. He has also made large contributions to worthy enterprises. In 1899 he gave more than $12,000 to
