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Permanent LinkSenator John Meyer View All Years
JOHN MEYER was born near Bellefonte, Pa., Feb. 26, 1824; he died in Newton, Iowa, May 14, 1902. His early years were spent on his father’s farm. In 1847 he entered Oberlin college, and graduated from that institution in 1853. In 1856 he removed to Newton, Iowa, where he taught for a year in Williamsburg academy and then engaged in merchandizing. He represented Jasper county in the regular and extra sessions of the 9th general assembly. When the war broke out he helped to organize three companies and was elected captain of company K, 20th Iowa Infantry. His military record was a brilliant one, including service in many of the most noted battles. He was discharged with a lieut. colonel’s commission at the close of the war. Soon after reaching home he was elected State senator, serving in the 11th and 12th general assemblies, and again in the 17th and 18th. For years he was a trustee of Iowa college at Grinnell. In early days he was an abolitionist and all his life an advocate of the temperance cause. A year after the war the brevet of colonel was conferred upon him.