LEWIS ALBERT REILEY

REILEY, SPRAGUE, LARRABEE

Posted By: Deb Barker (email)
Date: 4/22/2011 at 22:27:41

LEWIS ALBERT REILEY was born in Nashville, Ohio, March 1, 1845; he died at Wapello, Iowa, December 26, 1914. He removed with his parents to Louisa county in 1853, and attended the common schools of that county and the high school at Mt. Pleasant. He ran away from the high school to join the army and remained in the South six months. He afterward spent a year in school in New York and a year in Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. He began teaching at nineteen years of age, and five years later was elected county superintendent of schools. He studied law with Judge D. N. Sprague of Wapello, was admitted to the bar in April, 1871, and formed a partnership with Judge Sprague which lasted for some years. In 1885 he was elected representative from Louisa county and served through the Twenty-first and Twenty-second General Assemblies. He devoted himself to revising the judiciary system of the State and perfecting the grand jury law. He was one of the managers of the impeachment trial of John L. Brown, auditor of state. He took active interest in legislation affecting the blind people of the State, and was appointed by Governor Larrabee a member of a commission to visit institutions for the blind in the United States and Canada.
- "Notable Deaths" Annals of Iowa. Pp. 76-7. Historical Society of Iowa. April, 1915.