HAMLIN GARLAND, poet and novelist, was born at West Salem, Wisconsin, September 16, 1860. His parents removed to Iowa when he was a child and his early education was acquired in the district schools of Mitchell County. He attended the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, where he graduated in 1881. When not in school he worked on the farm and later taught school in Illinois. He took a claim in Dakota, where he remained but a short time, when he went to Boston and began to write stories which at once attracted attention. In 1893 he returned to the west, making his home in Chicago. Mr. Garland is a writer whose articles and stories have appeared in the leading magazines of the country. He has also published a number of strong stories in book form. The first which brought him into general notice, and which, in the opinion of his Iowa friends, he has not surpassed is “Main Traveled Roads,” a vivid picture of the West as he knew it immediately after the war. Mr. Garland has also written a series of tales of Iowa political life, among them the “Spoil of Office.” “Rose of Dutchess Coolie” and the “Captain of the Gray Horse Troop” are his latest stories. Mr. Garland has also written a number of poems which have appeared under the title of “Prairie Songs.”
JOHN A. GARRETT, a native of Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana, was born on the 15th of November, 1824. He was a graduate of Hanover College and of the Indiana University. During the War with Mexico he enlisted as a private in the Fourth Indiana Infantry and was in the army of General Scott which captured the City of Mexico. In the fall of 1857 Mr. Garrett came to Iowa stopping for a time in Des Moines and at Leon. In 1859 he became a resident of Newton in Jasper County where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. When the Civil War began he enlisted in the military service; in August, 1861, he recruited a company which was incorporated with the Tenth Iowa Infantry of which he was appointed captain. He took part, in several engagements, where he distinguished himself and in August, 1862, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-second Iowa Infantry. Soon after he was commissioned colonel of the Fortieth Infantry and commanded that regiment in the campaign against Little Rock and in the Battle of Jenkin's Ferry, remaining in command to the close of the war.
CONDUCE H. GATCH was born near Milford, Ohio, July 25, 1825. He grew to manhood on his father's farm attending the common schools during winters and laboring on the farm through the working season. After becoming of age he took a regular course in Augusta College, Kentucky, and then studied law at Xenia, Ohio, where he was admitted to the bar. He settled at Kenton where he was chosen prosecuting attorney and later member of the State Senate. Mr. Gatch was a delegate to the first National Republican Convention which nominated General John C. Fre-
