Senator Jonathan Prentice Dolliver 1858 - 1910

DOLLIVER

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 12/12/2019 at 14:12:54

Source: Twice-A-Week Plain Dealer Oct. 18, 1910, LP, C1 - 3

SEN. DOLLIVER DIES SUDDENLY

SENATOR STRICKEN BY HEART FAILURE AT FORT DODGE, IOWA.
HELD HIGH PLACE AS STATESMAN
Campaign is Upset.—Blow Dealt Insurgents by Death of Ardent Champion of Their Cause.
Fort Dodge, Oct. 17. — Jonathan Prentice Dolliver, senior United States senator from Iowa, died at his home here Saturday evening, while a physician stood over him making an examination of his heart with a stethoscope.
Death came without a moment’s warning, and Dr. E. M. Vanivetten, who was making the examination, when the instrument stopped, thought the stethoscope had been broken. He looked up into the face of the senator to find that, silently and with tragic suddenness, the death messenger had called the soul of the statesman.
Heart trouble was alone the cause of the death, and the minor ills which have been bothering the senator during the last three weeks had little effect on his passing. Although Senator Dolliver had been ill for three weeks or more, during the last few days he had been up and around, even as late as 2 p. m. today.
The colleagues of the dead senator were early to offer their condolence, and there were many words of sympathy from the statesmen and diplomats of Washington.
Mrs. Dolliver, her two daughters, Margaret and Frances, and her son George were in the room when Senator Dolliver died. A sister, Miss Gay Dolliver, is dean of women at Morningside college in Sioux City, Iowa; R. H. Dolliver, brother, is a minister in the Methodist church, but has not been in Fort Dodge during the Illness of the senator.
Funeral services will be held Thursday at 2 o'clock. The obsequies will be in charge of Rev. W.H. Spence, pastor of the First Methodist Fpiscopal church of Fort Dodge. Bishop Newell Dwight Hillis of New York City Frank Gunsaulus of Chicago, Dr. Newel Dwight Hillis of New York City and Gov. B. F. Carroll of Iowa, were invited to make funeral orations. If the weather is good the services will he held on the lawn of the Dolliver home. If this is not feasible, the orations will he delivered in the First Methodist church. Burial will be in Oakland cemetery, Fort Dodge, by the side of Senator Dolliver’s parents.
Politics in Chaos.
The political situation in Iowa is in chaos. The thought that death would end Mr. Dolliver’s term had never been entertained. It had been expected that he would not only complete his term, but be given another term. The campaign had been carried on wholly without thought of the senatorship. If Dolliver had died a week ago it would have been possible to submit the senatorship to the voters as a primary proposition on the day of election. It is too late now. The governor has the power of appointment.
Governor Carroll is a candidate for re-election and is standing as favoring neither faction of the republican party, and it is believed, he will not care to appoint anyone until after election. He may announce an appointment after election, but it is considered more likely that he will wait until the legislature meets in about three months and allow it to elect.
Among the available men among the progressives are former State Senator A. B. Funk, of Spirit Lake; Attorney General W. H. Byers, of Harlan; former Governor Warren Garst of Coon Rapids, and Congressmen Hubbard and Haugen. Among the standpatters former Congressmen Hepburn and Lacey and Congressman Walter I. Smith of Council Bluffs are considered.
An ability to talk—an oratorical ability which stamped him a leader wherever men congregated—made Senator J. P. Dolliver a central figure and brought him from the seclusion of Fort Dodge, where he was practicing law in 1889.
Blaine Hears of Dolliver.
Blaine heard of Dolliver when the former was running for president back in 1884, against Cleveland. Dolliver was then but 26 years old. Blaine made up his mind to secure the oratorical services of the young orator, sent for him and he and Dolliver stumped the east. Dolliver seemed to be destined to become a public figure and would have been heard from much sooner if Blaine had been elected. But although Cleveland won out, the young man from Iowa had accumulated some fame as an orator. Shortly after that memorable campaign and after Dolliver had gone back to his law practice at Fort Dodge, the "boys” began to run him for congress. He did not take this running seriously until 1890, when he got out and carried his district. From that time he grew in prominence and his oratorical powers carried him to leadership.
Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver was born near Kingwood, W. Va., Feb. 6, 1858. His ancestors were of good old New England stock, sailors and fishermen. Mr. Dolliver's father was a circuit riding preacher in the old dominion, a strong Methodist and a vigorous speaker.
Senator Dolliver was graduated from the University of West Virginia in 1875 and was admitted to the bar in 1878. Previous to this time he had already begun to interest himself in politics, and as early as 1870, when he was but 18 years of age, he made a political speech at Clinton Furnace, W. Va., which was thought notable. During the Hayes-Tilden campaign he spoke at Morgantown and various other places and already began to be looked upon as a promising man. Shortly afterward he removed to Iowa, was elected to the fifty-first congress from the tenth Iowa district and was re-elected to the fifty-second, fifty-third, fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth congresses. He was appointed United States senator to fill a vacancy in 1900 and was elected to the same office in 1902. He was re-elected in 1907 and was chairman of the committee on education and labor.