Senator Edward Holcomb Stiles View All Years

EDWARD H. STILES was born at Granby, Connecticut, October 3, 1836, and died at Pasadena, California, May 9, 1921. He removed to Wapello County, Iowa, in 1856 and taught school the following winter. He studied law with Colonel S. W. Summers of Ottumwa, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and formed a partnership with Colonel Summers. In 1858 he was elected a member of the Ottumwa City Council and in 1859 became city counsel. The fall of 1860 he stumped for Douglas but after the Rebellion commenced he became a Republican. In 1863 he was elected representative and served in the Tenth General Assembly. In 1865 he was elected senator and served in the Eleventh General Assembly, but resigned as senator in 1866 as he had been nominated by the Republican state convention for reporter of the Supreme Court, and elected, the first to be elected to that position, his predecessors having been appointed by the court. He was re-elected two years later, served in all four years, and published sixteen volumes of reports. With his predecessor, Thomas F. Withrow, he prepared and published in 1874-79 in four volumes a “Digest of Decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa,” from the earliest territorial times down to the date of publication. In 1883 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Sixth District against General James B. Weaver, who defeated him by a few votes. For some twenty years he was the local attorney for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company. In 1886 he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, and for several years was a partner of ex-Governor Thomas T. Crittenden in the practice of law. In 1892 he was appointed master in chancery for the western division of Missouri of the United States Circuit Court. He retired from practice in 1911 and removed to Pasadena, California. After going there he prepared and published in 1916 “Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa,” an amdirable and carefully written volume of several hundred pages.