Representative Charles Aldrich View All Years

HON. CHARLES ALDRICH.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to prepare resolutions commemorative of the life, character and public services of Honorable Charles Aldrich, late a member of this House, beg leave to report the following memorial:

Charles Aldrich was born in Ellington, Chautauqua county, New York, October 2, 1828, of the stock of George Aldrich who migrated from Derbyshire, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1631, arriving November 6th. His parents were Stephen and Eliza (Nicols) Aldrich.

He was educated in the rural schools of his native state and at Jamestown Academy which he attended for one year. In 1846 he entered the printing office of Clemment & Faxon, Buffalo, where he served an apprenticeship. He soon engaged in the newspaper field. He edited the Cattaraugus Sachem and Olean Journal. He moved to Iowa in 1857. He began his activities at Webster City, Hamilton county, as the founder and editor of the Hamilton Freeman. He was a strong force in the newspaper field of Iowa for almost the entire remainder of his life as the owner of or writer for newspapers and journals. He was at different times an editorial writer for the Dubuque Times and the Marshall Times and a special contributor to the Chicago Inter-Ocean and to many special journals particularly in the field of natural science. His most valuable writings are in the Annals of Iowa, Third Series, which he established and conducted as a branch of his work for the State of Iowa.

He had served as Secretary of the First Free Soil Convention in his native county at the age of 19. He was a partisan of the most vigorous type of his school from the day he reached Hamilton county. He was champion to men and measures embracing republican principles from the origin of the party.

He was Chief Clerk of this House by election in 1860, 1862, 1866 and 1870. He served as a member from Hamilton county by election in the Nineteenth General Assembly. He offered the first bill in the history of the state for the prohibition of free passes by railroads, and his words in behalf of the principle the bill advocated appeared in leading journals throughout the country. He induced the House of Representatives to adopt the Calendar. Its advantages soon caused its use to become permanent and to be adopted by the Senate.

He secured the passage of a law in 1858 for the publication of all new laws in county newspapers. He originated the movement in 1860 to supersede county judges by boards of supervisors. He drafted the bills which became laws requiring publication of proceedings of boards of supervisors. The statute passed in 1870 protecting harmless and useful birds was drafted by him and passed through his influence. It is with some amendments our law today.

He was the force which caused the “Granger Law” of 1874 to yield to the Commissioner or Massachusetts system. His labors through special acts and resolutions to render aid to persons and propositions that ever await the hand of a friend to be put on the way toward just recognition are traditional in this House.

He made good his counsel in support of Lincoln, closed his newspaper office and went to the front. He was commissioned First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry. Efficiency marked his service. Never of strong physique, the service reduced his health so that a promotion to a captaincy was declined in July, 1863, and the next winter required his resignation and retirement from the field. His insight into all military matters from the hearthstone of the private soldier to the orders of commanders-in-chief, his sympathy and appreciation in every phase of war is apparent in the writing he did or caused to be done, the records he preserved and the monuments and memorials he did so much to create.

He procured the placing of a brass tablet in the Hamilton county courthouse, commemorative to the men of the Spirit Lake Expedition of 1857. He participated as a commissioner in marking the spot of the Spirit Lake Massacre. He was a commissioner for the erection of the monument marking the grave of Sergeant Floyd near Sioux City. He was foremost in agitating the compilation of a Roster of all Iowa soldiers.

He served as commissioner on behalf, first of the State of Iowa and then of the United States, to investigate and report on the titles of the famous controversy over the Des Moines river lands. He was much in the city of Washington in this business and there formed acquaintances with men and activities which now make famous the Capitol of our nation for its architecture, library and museum classics. It was here he acquired a passion and devised a plan to express his soul in a work for his state like that being done on a greater scale in Washington and foreign capitals, to bring home to the Iowa public that which it should, but might never travel far to study and to see.

Charles Aldrich was instinctively a collector of information. He traveled in Europe and through the American centers under the guidance of a craving for knowledge. This he absorbed through the power of what he termed museum initiation. Observing the exteriors and contents of cathedrals, museums, art galleries and capitols, he was driven to the books and to living authorities upon these creations with an almost ungovernable passion. What he experienced he felt was the state of mind of those among whom he lived. His hunger made him long to appease the appetites of others. He brought with him into his home his best selection in art and letters. He was inspired as if with the touch or the sight of a man by the sight of his handwriting. It appealed to him with all that force with which the best evidence bears upon the judicial temperament.

He had thus in 1884 gathered about him a collection of documents noted throughout the country as an almost invaluable collection of autographs. A philanthropist by nature but modest of fortune he yielded to his impulse of putting into the hands of the people of Iowa all he had to give. So he presented his collection and offered his free services toward its installation in the state library and the further accumulation, conditioned upon their being properly preserved and displayed. The collection grew until 1888 the Legislature appropriated $1,000.00 for the care and preservation of objects in literature, art and science which should be presented to the state. This was the first recognition by the state of the popular museum principle of education. The collection tended toward objects of a historical kind to such a degree that the second reunion of the Iowa Pioneer Law Makers’ Association took notice of its value, called the attention of the legislature thereto and through a committee presented a resolution to both houses upon which an appropriation of $3,000 was made by a unanimous vote, the bill directing the collection of documents, papers, etc., relating to the earlier days of our territory and state. The work being under the direction of the Trustee of the State Library, Mr. Aldrich was engaged by them to take charge. The Pioneer Law Makers made further appeal at its next session. Leading newspapers commended the enterprise, Governor Larrabee and Governor Boies in their biennial message complimented the work. A bill was introduced by Senator Gatch in the next General Assembly which passed that body with but fourteen adverse votes which were in the House, establishing a Historical Department, incorporating the Aldrich collection as a part of the work, creating the office of Curator with a tenure of six years and placing the work under the authority of the Trustees of the Iowa State Library. Mr. Aldrich was appointed Curator and that organization remained in effect during the remainder of Mr. Aldrich’s life. In 1893 the Historical Department began the publication of Annals of Iowa, Third Series, under the direction of Mr. Aldrich, and the same has been continued as a quarterly publication. It has been devoted to two prime and invaluable objects, first collection and publication of direct testimony on men and events of Iowa’s past, and, second an exchange medium for museum and library material.

At first quarters were assigned in the Capitol building. The Twenty-sixth General Assembly made a small appropriation looking to the beginning of a building for the accommodation of the Historical Department. What was called the west wing was completed in 1890 and the rest of the building except the rotunda and corridors was completed in 1907.

The activities that Mr. Aldrich inaugurated from time to time and which continued unabated, embrace the accumulation of works containing the data of state history, as files of Iowa newspapers and magazines, early territorial and state laws and documents, works of state and western history and biography, county histories, the publications of our religious bodies and educational institutions, and miscellaneous pamphlets.

Publications of neighboring states on similar lines, so far as it has been practicable to secure them in the way of exchange.

Official, state, national and general publications relating to the slavery question and the war for the Union.

Works relating to the Indian tribes of North America, but more especially to those in the valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries.

The publications of the United States census bureau from the foundation of the government, almanacs and other statistical works.

Works of American history, biography and genealogy.

Museum materials.

Manuscripts, autograph letters and portraits—an extension of “The Aldrich Collection,” the original gift upon which the Historical Department was founded. Therefore be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-third General Assembly of Iowa: That we cherish the memory of Charles Aldrich and his efforts to preserve and perpetuate the history of our state and nation, and his eminent public service.

That his unselfish devotion to the state made manifest in so many ways, is an inspiration which must at all times be helpful to future generations.

That as a recognition of these things and of the efforts of his whole career, it is ordered that these resolutions be spread upon the official record of the House, and a copy thereof duly signed by the officers be sent to the surviving members of his family.

Most respectfully submitted,

R. M. FINLAYSON,

W. W. GOODYKOONTZ,

A. V. PENN,

Committee.