Senator James Loring Carney View All Years

JAMES LORING CARNEY.

Senator Arney, from a special committee submitted the following report and moved its adoption:

MR. PRESIDENT—Your committee appointed to draft resolutions commemorative of the life, character and services of James Loring Carney, beg leave to submit the following report:

James Loring Carney, a member of the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies, 1896-1898, also the special session of the Twenty-sixth in 1897, died in Marshalltown, Iowa, September 19, 1917, age seventy, the funeral services taking place on Thursday following in Marshalltown, his home city since 1873.

Mr. Carney was a native of Massachusetts. He was born in the town of Lawrence, on July 29, 1847, and was a son of Bartholomew and Jane Graham Carney. When their son James was a small boy, Mr. and Mrs. Carney moved to Ohio, and in 1855 came to Poweshiek County, this state, settling on a farm that the elder Carney had entered from the government. In 1861 the elder Carney died, and his widow and her children moved to Grinnell.

Here James L. Carney entered Iowa College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1871. Mr. Carney then went to the State University of Iowa to study law, and was graduated from the law school of that institution in 1873.

Shortly after graduation from the law school, Mr. Carney went to Marshalltown, and entered the employ as a clerk in one of the pioneer law firms of the town, Brown, Boardman & Sears, comprising the well-known attorneys of that day, Timothy Brown, H. E. J. Boardman, and R. E. Sears. After a few years of clerkship, Mr. Carney entered the firm of Henderson and Merriman, composed of Judge H. C. Henderson and H. L. Mr. Merriman retired to become editor of the Marshall County Republican, Mr. Merriman retired to become editor of the Mashall County Republican, which he and Judge Henderson bought in January, 1879. The law firm then became Henderson & Carney, and continued as such until Mr. Carney retired and formed a partnership with Timothy Brown, known as Brown and Carney. This firm was in existence until 1898, when Mr. Carney and J. M. Holt formed a co-partnership known as Carney & Holt. After two years, this was dissolved and Mr. Carney practiced alone until 1911, when he took his son, Leonard T. Carney, into the partnership of Carney & Carney.

Mr. Carney’s entrance into politics began in 1882, when he became a candidate for city solicitor. He was elected to succeed B. L. Burritt, and served four years, being succeeded by C. H. Forney.

With this office as a stepping stone, Mr. Carney aspired to be county attorney, and was elected to this office in 1890, serving, beginning January 1, 1891, for four years.

Two years after he retired from the county attorney’s office, Mr. Carney was elected as the republican candidate for senator from Marshall County, and served in both the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh general assemblies, 1896-1898, also in the special session of the twenty-sixth in 1897. He followed George A. Turner as senator from that district, and was succeeded by John B. Classen.

In the Iowa Senate, Mr. Carney took an active and important part. He was a member of the code revision committee, which took charge of the revision of the Iowa Code in 1897. He was a leader in the movement to place the state institutions in the hands of a board of control instead of boards of trustees of each separate institution and was one of a special committee which prepared the first draft of what became the board of control bill and law.

Mr. Carney also was author of the state-wide primary bill, which he introduced as chairman of the elections committee of the Senate. In those days, however, the bill did not meet with much favor, but in later years it became a law and one of the epoch-making reforms of the state.

Mr. Carney served for several years as a member of the school board of his town, and was president of that body. He was formerly vice president of the City National Bank, and was elected as the first president of the Historical Society of Marshall County, an office he held at the time of his death.

In 1892 Mr. Carney was elected as a delegate to the national republican convention at Minneapolis, from the Fifth Iowa District. He proved to be the only delegate from the state to cast a vote for William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio, a candidate for the republican nomination for the presidency in opposition to President Benjamin Harrison. Four years later Mr. Carney was deeply gratified to see his favorite candidate become the nominee of his party and elected as the nation’s chief executive.

In 1909 Mr. Carney was chosen as vice president of the Iowa State Bar Association. The president of the association, Charles M. Harl, of Council Bluffs, died in office, and Mr. Carney became president. In 1910 he was elected president of the association.

Mr. Carney was a member of the different Masonic organizations, including the blue lodge, chapter, and commandery. He also was a member of the Odd Fellows’ lodge.

Whereas, The Honorable James Loring Carney, a member of this body in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies, has been called from this life, therefore,

Be It Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sorrow and regret of his death and that it recognizes the high character of his service to his state and in his death the state has lost a worthy and noble citizen, and,

Be It Resolved, Further, that these resolutions be spread upon the journal, that an engrossed copy of the same be sent to his widow, Mrs. Minnie Carney, at Marshalltown, Iowa, and to his son, Leonard T. Carney, at 1333 22d St., Des Moines, and to his daughters, Mrs. Lora Woodbury, at 1333 22d St., Des Moines, Ia., and Misses Gladys and Gerna Carney at Marshalltown, Ia.

W. H. ARNEY,

A. V. PROUDFOOT,

O. A. BYINGTON.

The resolution was adopted unanimously by a rising vote.