Born near the town of Mexico, Oswego County, N.Y., September 15, 1828. He was educated in the common schools and at the age of seventeen began teaching in the county schools. He read medicine in the local doctor's office while in Oswego, then took a course in the College of Medicine in Geneva, N.Y., finishing his course in the Medical University of New York City and began his practice at Constantia, N.Y. He was married November 5, 1855, to Miss Lucinda Loudon of North Bay, Oneida County, N.Y. In the spring of 1856, he moved to the new state of Iowa, stopping in Maquoketa, and on June 14, 1856, came to Wyoming, then a town of not over a dozen houses but hopeful and growing rapidly. As a physician he was eminently successful and held a very large practice. In 1862, acting as mustering officer, he administered the oath of allegiance and mustered into the state militia a company of eighty-nine men, who afterward formed Company K. of the 24th Iowa Infantry, and served their county during the civil war. Dr. Calkins had little of the politician in him and never sought office, but when the town of Wyoming was incorporated, he was unanimously chosen mayor, and in 1881, was nominated as the republican candidate to represent this county in the lower house of the state legislature; the democrats made no nomination and the doctor was unanimously elected. Two years later he was reelected. In the Legislature he was true to his party and conscience. He was one of its fifty-two members who voted for the prohibitory law. He led in the house in the matter of passage of the oil inspection law and had opposed to him on of the most active and unscrupulous lobbies, who went so far as to hide the bill after it was returned from the senate. The bill was found and put upon its passage and passed much to the surprise of the lobby who thought they had the matter over for that session. Dr. Calkins was a writer of unusual ability and everyday for many years wrote upon some subject scientific, historical or literary as a personal duty.

Born near the town of Mexico, Oswego County, N.Y., September 15, 1828. He was educated in the common schools and at the age of seventeen began teaching in the county schools. He read medicine in the local doctor's office while in Oswego, then took a course in the College of Medicine in Geneva, N.Y., finishing his course in the Medical University of New York City and began his practice at Constantia, N.Y. He was married November 5, 1855, to Miss Lucinda Loudon of North Bay, Oneida County, N.Y. In the spring of 1856, he moved to the new state of Iowa, stopping in Maquoketa, and on June 14, 1856, came to Wyoming, then a town of not over a dozen houses but hopeful and growing rapidly. As a physician he was eminently successful and held a very large practice. In 1862, acting as mustering officer, he administered the oath of allegiance and mustered into the state militia a company of eighty-nine men, who afterward formed Company K. of the 24th Iowa Infantry, and served their county during the civil war. Dr. Calkins had little of the politician in him and never sought office, but when the town of Wyoming was incorporated, he was unanimously chosen mayor, and in 1881, was nominated as the republican candidate to represent this county in the lower house of the state legislature; the democrats made no nomination and the doctor was unanimously elected. Two years later he was reelected. In the Legislature he was true to his party and conscience. He was one of its fifty-two members who voted for the prohibitory law. He led in the house in the matter of passage of the oil inspection law and had opposed to him on of the most active and unscrupulous lobbies, who went so far as to hide the bill after it was returned from the senate. The bill was found and put upon its passage and passed much to the surprise of the lobby who thought they had the matter over for that session. Dr. Calkins was a writer of unusual ability and everyday for many years wrote upon some subject scientific, historical or literary as a personal duty.