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Permanent LinkSenator Lewis Miles View All Years
LEWIS MILES was born in Marion County, Ohio, June 30, 1845, and died at Corydon, Iowa, November 10, 1921. He was brought by his parents, William and Emily Miles, in their removal to Wayne County, Iowa, in 1853. He attended school at Corydon, was one year at a school in North Scituate, Rhode Island, and was graduated from Bryant & Stratton’s Business College in Chicago in 1865. He taught school two years in Corydon, read law there with General Samuel L. Glasgow, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. About this time he also assisted in editing the Corydon Monitor. In 1869 he was elected representative and served in the Thirteenth General Assembly. From 1869 to 1871 he was engaged in the mercantile business, first as clerk and later as proprietor. In 1872 he began the practice of law, associating first with J. N. McClanahan, and in 1873 with W. H. Tedford. This partnership continued until 1879, when it was dissolved and he joined with J. W. Freeland. In 1894 he associated himself with C. W. Steele, continuing until Mr. Miles’s death. He was a presidential elector in 1880, on the Garfield ticket. In 1883 he was elected senator and served in the Twentieth and Twenty-first general assemblies. In 1889 he was appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, and served until 1893. President McKinley appointed him to the same position in 1898 and President Roosevelt reappointed him in 1902, and he served until 1907. He was a successful business man, a lawyer of unusual ability, was cultured and well read, was patriotic, and exerted much influence for good in his town, county and state.