Representative Washington Irving Babb View All Years

WASHINGTON IRVING BABB was born October 2, 1844, near where Sperry Station, Des Moines County, Iowa, now stands, and died at St. Charles hospital near his residence at Aurora, Illinois, September 4, 1925. Burial was at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. In 1860 he entered Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant. On August 24, 1863, he enlisted in Company E, Eighth Iowa Cavalry, was promoted to regimental quartermaster sergeant July 1, 1865, and mustered out August 13, 1865. He resumed his studies at Iowa Wesleyan, and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1866. In 1869 he received the degree of A. M. and in 1898 that of LL.D. from the same institution. He also received the degree of LL.D. from the State University of Iowa in l907. He read law with Henry Ambler of Mount Pleasant, was admitted to the bar and joined his former preceptor in the firm of Ambler & Babb January 1, 1868. This partnership continued until 1873, when he joined with John S. Woolson as Woolson & Babb, which partnership terminated in 1891 when Mr. Babb went on the bench. In 1883 he was elected representative and served in the Twentieth General Assembly. In 1890 he was elected a district judge in the Second Judicial District, and served from 1891 to 1894. He then resumed practice, entering partnership with W. S. Withrow as Babb & Withrow. In 1895 he was the Democratic nominee for governor, and in the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, which met in January, 1896, received the vote of his party for United States senator. In August, 1896, he was both temporary and permanent chairman of the Sound Money Democratic State Convention, and was a delegate at large from Iowa to the National Convention of that party, which met at Indianapolis and nominated John M. Palmer for president. When Judge Withrow went on the bench in 1897 Judge Babb and his son, Max W., associated together in the practice as Babb & Son. In 1907 he became legal adviser of the Western Wheeler Scraper Company at Aurora, Illinois, and in 1910 became president of that company, and vice president of the Austin Manufacturing Company of Chicago. He spent the later years of his life at Aurora. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the State University of Iowa from 1898 to 1906, and a member of .the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University from 1872 until his death.