Senator John Simpson Woolson View All Years

JOHN S. WOOLSON was born in Erie county, New York, December 6, 1840; he died in Des Moines, Iowa, December 4, 1899. His parents resided in Erie county until 1856, when they removed to Iowa and settled in Mt. Pleasant, Henry county, where he grew up to manhood and began the study of the law. In March, 1862, he was appointed assistant-paymaster in the navy, and assigned to service on the sloop-of-war Housatonic. He was on board this ship at the time she was sunk by a torpedo near Charleston, South Carolina. The officers and crew took to the water and he was picked up with others, uninjured. He was present at the attack on Fort Sumter, and at both attacks on Fort Fisher. He was also on the James river at the capture of Richmond. He retired from the naval service in December, 1865. Returning, he completed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He was for several years the law partner of Judge W. I. Babb. In 1875 he was chosen to the State Senate to fill a vacancy, and re-elected in 1877 for the full term of four years. He proved himself an able and influential senator. He was secretary of the Mt. Pleasant school board several years, and in 1870 became chairman of the State Board of Commissioners of Insanity. Upon the death of James M. Love, U. S. Judge of the Southern district of Iowa, Mr. Woolson was appointed to the place. In this position he became one of the leading jurists of the Middle West, distinguished for his legal knowledge, his promptness in expediting the business of the court, and for the certainty with which the penalties of the federal laws were enforced upon incorrigible transgressors. He always dealt most leniently with youthful offenders, and with men who came before him charged with a first offense. In a case where the plea of guilty was entered, before proceeding to pronounce sentence, he made the most thorough investigation into the man’s character and standing up to the time he went astray, anxious to give him the benefit of every mitigating circumstance. It was always a terrible strain upon him to pronounce a severe sentence, as he sometimes had to do, in the presence of a weeping wife. Whenever he felt that the ends of justice had been reached he was always ready to ask for the offender’s pardon. When Judge Woolson signed a petition it was deemed safe to follow him in the plea for mercy. He was a man of the highest personal character, the soul of honor, an always upright Christian gentleman, well known throughout the State, and universally esteemed. In the maturity of his mental powers, and with the prospect of many useful years before him, he seemed but a short time ago to be singularly fortunate in his position and surroundings. But he fell a victim to overwork and passed away when his career of usefulness seemed fullest of promise.