Polk-Scott-Webster County IA Archives Biographies.....Gue, Benjamin F. 1828 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 12, 2007, 12:27 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

HON. BENJAMIN F. GUE, ex-Lieutenant Governor and now secretary of the Historical
Society of Iowa, has been a resident of this State since 1852. He was born in
Greene county, New York, December 25, 1828, and is a son of John and Catherine
(Gurney) Gue. His father was born in Westchester county, New York, and his
mother was a native of Dutchess county, of the same State. The first known
ancestor of our subject that came to America was an exile from France who
settled in Ulster county, New York, about the year 1761. On the mother's side
the family was of English origin, Mrs. Gue being a lineal descendant of the Hon.
Joseph John Gurney, who was a member of the English parliament.

   The subject of this sketch was reared to manhood on a farm and educated in
the Canandaigua Academy, and at East Bloomfield. In the spring of 1851 he
emigrated to Iowa, locating in Scott county, where he was engaged in farming. He
was married in Davenport on the 12th of November, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth
Parker, who was born in Allegany county, New York, and was the daughter of
Francis Parker, who descended from an old Vermont family that settled in
Allegany county in an early day. She came to Iowa with her parents in 1840, and
taking up her residence in Scott county engaged in teaching school for several
years before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Gue are the parents of four children,-
two sons and two daughters,-Horace G., Alice, Gurney and Katherine.

   Mr. Gue continued to reside in Scott county until 1864, when he removed to
Fort Dodge and purchased the Fort Dodge Republican, changing its name to The
Northwest, which paper he edited and conducted for nine years. He entered upon
his political career in the autumn of 1857, when at the age of twenty-nine years
he was elected to the Iowa Legislature from Scott county, and served four years.
He was then called to the office of State Senator and served four years in the
Upper House, after which he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State for a
period of two years. In 1866 he was elected president of the Board of Trustees
of the State Agricultural College, and was most actively engaged in the
management, construction and organization of the college for six years. He was
the leading spirit in the establishment of that important institution, and in
connection with R. A. Richardson was the author of the bill providing for the
founding of the college, which they succeeded in having passed at the session of
1858. In 1864, while a member of the Senate, he assisted Mr. Clarkson, Sr., in
drafting a bill which provided for the sale of the lands of the Agricultural
College land grant. The lands were sold in accordance with the provisions of
that bill and the college has since then received an annual income of from forty
to sixty thousand dollars from that source. He was chairman of the commission to
visit the various agricultural colleges of the United States and examine into
their plans of organization, their success or failure, for the benefit of the
new Iowa college. For two years he gave most of his time to this important work.
In 1867 he made an elaborate report to the board of trustees, recommending a
plan of organization which was adopted and upon which the college has for
twenty-seven years been successfully conducted. He selected the first faculty,
at the head of which was that distinguished educator, President A. S. Welsh, who
for eighteen years filled the executive chair with marked ability.

   Mr. Gue continued to reside in Fort Dodge until 1872, when he sold The
Northwest and the same year came to Des Moines, where he has since made his
home. During his residence in the former place he also held the office of
Postmaster for two years. On coming to this city he took editorial charge of the
Iowa Homestead, the State agricultural paper, and continued his connection with
that journal until December of that year, when he sold his interest and accepted
the appointment of United States Pension Agent, which he received at the hands
of President Grant. He held that position for eight consecutive years, during
which time he discharged the duties of the office with fidelity and promptness.
At the close of his term in 1880, in company with his eldest son, Mr. Gue
repurchased the Iowa Homestead, which they published four years, greatly
increasing its circulation during that time and making of it a valuable
property. They sold out in the fall of 1883, and from that time until the
present Mr. Gue has devoted much of his attention to gathering the material for
an elaborate history of Iowa. He and his wife are members of the Unitarian
Church, with which they became connected in 1878. He owns a fruit farm, which is
situated about five miles east of Des Moines, and in fact has never been without
a farm since reaching man's estate.

   Mr. Gue is one of the prominent public men of Iowa, and enjoys an extended
acquaintance among its citizens. His connection with the Agricultural College
from its inception to its completion and successful operation has been
distinguished by earnest and wise forethought, while the results of his
influence, in connection with the legislation relating to that institution, will
long be felt. In manner, Mr. Gue is unassuming but earnest where duty demands an
aggressive stand. His course in public as well as private life has been
distinguished by a high standard of honor, and the strictest purity. He is an
able writer, and as a journalist ranks as a peer of the brightest in Iowa.
Correct and methodical in the dispatch of business he has proved himself
possessed of good executive ability and has discharged with exactness and
fidelity every public trust reposed in him. The forthcoming history of Iowa, on
which he is engaged, cannot fail to prove a work of great interest, and to be a
standard on the subject of the annals of the Hawkeye State, as he has given a
great deal of his time to the careful and accurate compilation of his invaluable
work. For a time he suspended work during the performance of his present duties
as secretary of the Historical Department of Iowa, but expects to soon resume
gathering material with the view to the early publication of this much needed
history.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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