Autobiography of Charles Clinton Nourse Prepared for use of Members of the Family

I promised your father that I would write you a long letter containing in detail something of a biography of myself. He assures me it is not intended for publication, but only f...

In the spring of 1850 I had determined to seek a location for the practice of law in some western state. I first thought of migrating to Oregon, but gave up that idea for the re...

The practice of law in Van Buren county did not prove very remunerative. The district court met only twice a year. The business of the term sometimes occupied only two or three...

At the close of my second term of office, to-wit, January, 1865, I resumed the practice of law. The firm of Williamson & Nourse, which had existed since my settlement in Des Moi...

It is not within the scope or purpose of this writing to enter into or discuss the merits of the various suits in which I was employed. I cannot, however, give any idea of the f...

Soon after the close of the Civil War I went to Washington, D.C., for the purpose of arguing a case then pending in the supreme court of the United States. The court made an ord...

In the summer of 1872 I joined a party of friends for the purpose of visiting Colorado. The party consisted of Judge Byron Rice, Doctor Ward, Alexander Talbott, Mr. Weaver, a dr...

In the year 1876 the patriotic citizens of the state of Pennsylvania, and especially of the old city of Philadelphia, had conceived the idea of a world's fair to commemorate the...

In giving a further account of the activities of subsequent years it will be almost impossible to preserve anything like a chronological order of events, and it will be necessar...

Leaving the subject of temperance and prohibition for the present, the next important question of a public nature in which I became interested professionally was the question of...

The next important litigation in which I was engaged during my professional career, of public interest, was my engagement by Roswell S. Burrows, one of the original stockholders...

One other case of some notoriety and public interest in which I was engaged in the latter years of my practice was the controversy between the two branches of the Ancient Order...

In the summer of 1880 James A. Garfield received from the republican national convention at Chicago the nomination as candidate for President of the United States. At that time...

The discussion of law cases and the questions of fact and of law that they involved may be a little tedious to a non-professional reader, but they constituted so large a part in...

In the summer of 1874 the city of Des Moines was thrown into a state of considerable excitement by the fact of finding the body of a murdered man on the sidewalk near the corner...

Leaving the history of political and professional for the present, it will now be necessary to revert and give in some detail matters more personal and affecting more nearly my...

My half-brother, Charles R., continued on the farm in my employment and in the care of my short-horn cattle business until the year 1889, when I sold out my entire herd. During...

On the 2nd day of January, 1875, the citizens of Des Moines were startled by the news that the Cook County Bank of Chicago, Illinois, of which bank B. F. Allen was president, ha...

In the month of November, 1889, the democratic party of the state of Iowa, for the first time since the election of Governor Grimes in 1854, succeeded in electing their candidat...

In the spring of the year 1888 I sold my home, 707 Fourth street, and built a house for my residence on my farm. We left the old home with no little regret. It had been our plac...