Representative James Elerick View All Years

JAMES ELERICK

MR. PRESIDENT—Your committee named to prepare a fitting memorial to commemorate the service of Captain James Elerick to this state and this nation reports as follows:

Captain James Elerick was born April 6, 1836, in Belmont county, Ohio, and died August 7, 1922, at Monrovia, California.

The parents of James Elerick were pioneers of Iowa. They came to the state in 1849, settling in Van Buren county at a place near where Douds, a little village on the Des Moines river, now stands. Here the boy of thirteen developed the strength of character and those qualities which afterward assured him of leadership among those with whom his lot was cast. Here he received the narrow training afforded by a country district school. Here was his home until a few years ago, when, having no cares and no family ties to prevent the change, he took up his abode with his daughter and only living child, Mrs. George Selmon, residing at Hinkley, California.

The life of Captain Elerick embraced that period of dissension which threatened the dissolution of the Union. In those days of trial, discouragement and disaster, he bore a courageous part. Like the great majority of the young men of the time who had breathed the free air of Iowa, he responded with fervor to Lincoln’s call for troops. On July 17, 1861, at Knoxville, Illinois, when he was in the employment of a milling company, he enlisted in Company A, 59th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. In December, 1862, he was promoted to its captaincy. He served for a time on the staff of Major General T. Wood. For more than four years he was in active service. To follow him through all the vicissitudes of the war would be to tell a story of wondrous interest. He took part in twenty-seven battles. A mere list of the important engagements alone is impressive. He was at Pea Ridge, Corinth, Storm River, Perryville, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, where he was twice wounded, Mission Ridge, Rocky Ford, Resaca, Burnt Hickory, Kenesaw Mountain, Rough Station, Jonesborough, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville. In that mighty struggle he shared the honor of that lowly host, the common soldiers, by whose heroic efforts the final victories were won and the Union preserved. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1865, at San Antonio, Texas, he received an honorable discharge from the army, a gift that meant his sword was no longer needed. Willingly he returned to the paths of peace and cheerfully took up anew the duties of a private citizen.

In 1880, Captain Elerick was chosen to represent Van Buren county as a member of the House in the Nineteenth General Assembly. In 1889, he was elected sheriff, an office he continued to hold for four years. In 1903 and again in 1905, he was sent to the Senate from the district composed of the counties of Jefferson and Van Buren, serving in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first General Assemblies and in the regular and the extra sessions of the Thirty-second General Assembly. He was a careful and painstaking legislator, appreciated for his conservatism, good judgment and wise counsel. He was watchful of the interests of his constituents, but guarded always the interests of that larger constituency he recognized as his in the people of the state.

In private as in public, Captain Elerick stood foursquare to the world. Modesty cloaked his virtues, which were not absent but only concealed. His heart was warm and ready in need and in secret to do kind acts. His honesty was unquestioned. His word required no discount. In all the relations of life he so carried himself as to command universal respect. As a soldier, as a husband and father, as a friend, as a neighbor, as a private citizen, and as a public official, he was true to the trusts which rested upon him.

Captain Elerick rests beside his wife in Zion Lutheran cemetery near Douds, Iowa.

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, That the Senate of the Fortieth General Assembly recognizes that in the death of Captain James Elerick there has been lost one who in the flush of his young manhood dedicated his strength, even life itself, to the preservation of the Union, and afterward in public office was a faithful servant of the state.

Be It Also Resolved, That this memorial be spread upon the journal and that an engrossed copy be transmitted by the secretary to the daughter of the deceased.

C. J. FULTON,

FRANK SHANE,

JNO. R. PRICE.

The resolutions were adopted unanimously.