History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Moses M. Ham
MOSES M. HAM
MOSES M. HAM, journalist and Senator, was born at Lyman, York County, Maine, on the 23d of March, 1833. He removed to the State of New York where his early education was acquired at Lima Seminary. He then entered Union College at Schenectady where he graduated in 1855. In 1857 he engaged in journalism, which became his life work. He came to Iowa in September, 1863, locating at Dubuque, where the following year he purchased an interest in the Dubuque Herald, one of the leading Democratic journals of the State. The Herald was always a live paper which could give and take hard blows in political conflicts. Mr. Ham was one of the leaders of his party and for sixteen years was a member of the National Democratic Committee for Iowa. He took a deep interest in education and was for a long time president of the Dubuque school board and one of the regents of the State University. In 1877, he was elected to the State Senate for a term of four years, serving in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies. In March, 1890, Mr. Ham contributed to the Annals of Iowa the most valuable historical article on Julien Dubuque, “The First White Man in Iowa,” that, so far as I am informed, has ever been written. It contained many heretofore unpublished facts relating to that settlement which, dating from soon after the close of the War of the American Revolution (1788), must be for all time of deep interest to Iowa people. In 1899, Mr. Ham disposed of a large interest in the Herald establishment and retired from its management after thirty-live years of continuous service. His son, Colonel Clifford D. Ham, succeeded to the editorial control of the daily Herald. Mr. Ham died at his home in Dubuque on the 25th of December, 1902.