Governor one of the Supreme Judges of the State, serving until 1855, with marked ability. During his term he reported the decisions of the court which were published in four volumes and known as “Greene's Reports.” In 1851 Judge Greene removed to Cedar Rapids where he engaged in banking and was one of the most active citizens in promoting manufactures, education and railroad building. He was largely instrumental in securing the construction of the Chicago & Northwestern and the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern railroads through Cedar Rapids. In politics he was a Democrat until 1872, when he became a Republican.
JAMES W. GRIMES, third Governor of Iowa, was born at Deering, New Hampshire, October 20, 1816. At the age of sixteen he entered Dartmouth College where he graduated and began the study of law. In 1836 he came to the “Black Hawk Purchase,” stopping at Burlington. He served as secretary to Governor Henry Dodge in September at a council held with the Sac and Fox Indians at Rock Island, in which these tribes ceded to the United States a tract of land on the Iowa and Missouri rivers. In 1837 Mr. Grimes was admitted to the bar and was soon after appointed city solicitor. He entered into partnership with W. W. Chapman, then United States District Attorney for Wisconsin Territory. When the Territory of Iowa was established in 1838, Mr. Grimes was elected a member of the House of the First Legislative Assembly at the age of twenty-two. He was appointed chairman of the judiciary committee and was one of the leaders in a conflict which the majority had with Governor Lucas over the respective powers of the executive and legislative branches of the Territorial government. He was the Whig candidate for member of the Council of the Third Legislative Assembly but was defeated. In 1843 he was again elected a member of the House. In 1852 he was elected to the House of the Fourth General Assembly and was the recognized leader of the Whig minority. He took an active interest in the improvement of the school system, the encouragement of railroad building, the promotion of temperance and opposition to the extension of slavery. In 1853 he helped to establish the first agricultural journal in the State and was one of its editors. It was named The Iowa Farmer and Horticulturist and was published monthly at Burlington by Morgan McKenny. Mr. Grimes had attained such prominence in the State that in 1854 he was nominated by the Whigs for Governor. His well-known antislavery views rendered him acceptable to all who were opposed to the extension of that institution. That issue was then becoming intense and while many conservative Whigs united with the Democrats, all classes who favored “free soil” united in the support of Grimes and he was elected. It was the first defeat for the Democrats since Iowa was organized into a Territory. In January, 1856, Governor Grimes wrote the call for the convention which, at Iowa City on the 22d of February, founded the Republican party of Iowa. After
