Representative Martin Halbert Calkins View All Years

HON. MARTIN H. CALKINS

Hon. M. H. Calkins was born near the town of Mexico, Oswego County, N. Y., Sept. 25, 1828, and died in Wyoming, Jones County, Iowa, Sept. 28, 1909. He was of Puritan descent and the second son of John and Caroline (Habert) Calkins. He was a lineal descendant of Thomas Cushman, who preached the first sermon ever printed in America.

He received an education in the rural schools of New York, and at the age of seventeen, he taught in the rural schools of Oswego County, and afterwards in the city of Oswego. He held the sixth teacher’s state certificate issued in the state of New York. He afterward read medicine in a local doctor’s office and then took a course in the College of Medicine in Geneva, N. Y., and later finished his course in the Medical University of New York City.

He was married Nov. 5th, 1855, to Miss Lucinda Lowden of North Bay, Oneida County, N. Y. Hearing of the golden opportunities of the Mississippi valley, he started westward, arriving at Maquoketa, Iowa, where he stayed a few weeks and then moved to Wyoming, Jones County, Iowa, where he resided and practiced medicine until the infirmities of old age came upon him, and he then rested from his labors.

Dr. Calkins was a man with a kind and generous disposition, a man of high ideals, and did many kind acts of generosity for the poor and sick of his own town and the surrounding community. His name was a word revered in every household in the vicinity of Wyoming.

When Wyoming was incorporated, Dr. Calkins was unanimously elected its first mayor. He was sent south during the Civil War to take the vote of the soldiers and did many patriotic acts to prosecute the Civil War. In 1881 he was elected to the office of state representative of Jones County, without opposition and served in the Nineteenth and Twentieth General Assemblies with honor to himself and to his constituency. He served as chairman on Public Health and was the author of a bill requiring a rigid inspection of illuminating oils used in mines, and regulating the sale thereof. The bill was opposed by the Standard Oil interests and they made a hard fight for its defeat, but in the meantime Senator Larrabee worked it through the Senate and it was afterwards known as Senate File 305. On the last day of the session, the bill was stolen. He immediately notified the Speaker, who had all the doors closed and a search made. It was found secreted in the northeast corner of the House. It passed the House unanimously.

In 1907 he prepared an extensive paper of recollections of the Nineteenth and Twentieth General Assemblies, which was read at a meeting of the Pioneer Lawmakers in Des Moines. As a public speaker, he was in demand for Fourth of July and Decoration Day orations. His speeches were eulogistic, witty and historical. He was the reliable historian of Wyoming and vicinity. He knew the people from the time of their childhood and seemed to them like a father, a counselor and a protector. No one will be missed more than Dr. Calkins in Wyoming.

He leaves a widow, Mrs. Lucinda Calkins of Wyoming. The children are Mrs. W. E. Briggs of St. Paul, Minn., and Mary A., the wife of Edward D. Chassel of Des Moines, Iowa.

Resolved, That in the death of this former member of the House, the state has lost a valuable citizen whose influence has done much for this state. That his family has lost a dutiful and kind husband, a loving and indulgent father.

Resolved that these resolutions be spread upon the Journal, and that the Chief Clerk of the House be instructed to mail an engrossed copy of these resolutions to the wife and family of the deceased.

W. M. BYERLY,

W. P. DAWSON,

GORDON HAYES,

Committee.

Adopted.