Born on December 19, 1815, in Webster, Worcester Co., Massachusetts, he was the only child of Susan (Cortis) and Lyman Negus. Charles graduated in 1838 from Wesleyan College in Middletown, Connecticut, and then for a year taught privately near Dinwiddie Courthouse in Virginia. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, and came the following year to Fairfield, Iowa, where he practiced law for the next 36 years. In 1844 Charles was a trustee of the Methodist Mission in Fairfield; that same year he married Martha Eleanor Smith of Richmond, Virginia. Fairfield rewarded Charles for his energy and diligence; he served as county judge of Probate Court in 1844-1846 and 1856, representative to the General Assembly in 1850, president of the Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant Plank Road Company in 1852-53, and treasurer or president of the Jefferson County Agricultural Society from 1852 for ten years. During the antebellum years Charles Negus continued to excel, serving as West Point visitor in 1855, and as the county's prosecuting attorney in 1857. But Negus was a dedicated Democrat, and when the Civil War erupted in 1861, he was the only attorney in Fairfield who refused to take the oath of allegiance to support the U. S. Government: an oath moved by Democrat George Acheson and seconded by Republican James F. Wilson. During the War Acheson became a Republican, but Negus remained ever a Democrat and "Copperhead," and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1864. During those difficult years, Negus was reviled as a traitor by many former friends. Charles's honor was not permanently stained by the war; he served as president of the Iowa Railroad Company from 1865 to 1877, and as president of the City Board of Education from 1868 to 1877. He held the first meeting in 1874 to encourage Parsons College to come to Fairfield. Source: Rory Goff, Fairfield, Iowa http://fairfieldiowahistory.com/negus-charles-lawyer/
If you would like to get the permanent link to a url other than the page you are currently viewing you can paste
a url inside of the destination box and hit regenerate
Print
Permanent Link