Representative Samuel Alexander Russell View All Years

HON. SAMUEL A. RUSSELL, one of the well known pioneers of Washington county, Iowa, died at the home of his son in Nebraska, September 28. He was born in Baltimore, Md., November 21, 1816, went to Ohio when a young man and read law with Edwin M. Stanton, afterwards Lincoln’s War Secretary during the rebellion. In 1846 he was elected to the Ohio Legislature as a Whig and served two terms. In 1850 he settled in Washington county, Iowa, and in 1853 was elected to the Legislature. In 1856 he was chosen one of the Presidential Electors on the Republican ticket. When the rebellion broke out he raised a company of which he was made captain and joined the 25th regiment; but was compelled to resign the first year on account of failing eyesight. He was again elected to the Legislature in 1863 and acquired an unenviable notoriety by making an abusive attack upon Annie Wittenmeyer, the grand woman who had charge of the sanitary work for Iowa soldiers in the field. The Washington Press says of this singular man: “Though a man of the most violent passions, irascible, abrupt, severe, he yet had a kind heart and lots of good streaks and traits. He was loyal to friends, a good lover and an equally good hater. One has to pity with a sore heart the sad life of the lonely old man. In his prime, he was a holy terror in debate. His wit had rattlesnake fangs, and when he struck an adversary in discussion, not even whisky could save him from the effects of Russell’s awful bite.”