Between July and December 2001 I posted the Biographical Directory from the 1879 edition of the History of Madison County, Iowa on the Rootswebs mailing list for the county (IAMADISO). The directory was organized by place of residence. The following biographies contained a Vermont connection. There were also many other residents (including my greatgrandfather from PA) listed with no biographical data Marilyn CT SOURCE: The History of Madison County, Iowa, containing A History of the County. Its Cities, Towns & C., Union Historical Company, Des Moines; !879. (reproduction 1976, sponsored by The Women of the United Methodist Church, Peru, Iowa.) CITY OF WINTERSET BOYD, O. W., dealer in groceries, queensware, etc., born in Franklin county, Vermont in 1832, his parents emigrated to Kentucky when he was very young, where he was raised; at the outbreak of the rebellion he enlisted in the 22nd Kentucky Inf.; in 1863 he removed to Tazuree county, Ill., and remained there until 1865, and then moved to Muscatine, Iowa, and as engaged as a commercial traveler in selling groceries; he came to the city in 1874 and engaged his present business; he married Mrs. Venia CAREY in 1873; has one child: Laura; Mrs. Boyd has one daughter by a previous marriage: Alice CAREY. CONGER, F. D., proprietor of the St. Nicholas Hotel; was born in Galesburg, Knox county, Ill., in 1848; previous to his coming to Iowa in 1872, he lived two years in Benton Harbor, Mich.; he came to this county in 1873; he married Miss Elia M. RIFORD in June, 1869; she was born in Vermont; have two children living: Joie R. and Alta N; lost one son: Homer R. GOODALE, CHARLES C., this gentleman, though young in years is fairly to be reckoned one of the leading men of Madison county. His career shows a wide experience of life and is an excellent illustration of what may be won by merit, faithfulness and honesty. He is a man of eastern birth and western training. Senator James G. Blaine remarked when introduced to him at Des Moines, "You come from New England stock," and the distinguished Senator was right although the ordinary observer would fail to see in Mr.Goodale any resemblance to the conventional New Englander. Mr. Goodale was born in Addison county, Vermont, December 27, 1844; when about three years old he was taken to Essex county, New York, where he remained until 1857, when he came to Clayton county, Iowa; his early years in this State were passed on a farm and in attending the common schools where nearly all his education was received; in the fall of 1863 he went to Chicago and spent the ensuing winter there as a student in a mercantile college; he returned to Iowa in the spring and in May enlisted in Co. C, of the Third Iowa infantry; Mr. Goodale had enlisted in a veteran regiment which had been terribly torn and decimated; it went again to the front and saw hard service again; Mr. Goodale was with the regiment until July 22, when he was taken prisoner in the battle before Atlanta; he was sent to Andersonville prison and remained two months in the midst of its untold horrors; at the expiration of this time he was transferred to the prison at Florence, South Carolina, where he was kept nearly three months longer; his iron constitution stood the horrors of prison life with great vigor; he was sadly reduced, however, and though his constitution was not broken and he afterward regained his health, yet he has never since had the full vigor of his splendid constitution originally; Mr. Goodale was paroled in Charleston harbor December 6, 1864, and then taken to Annapolis, Maryland, where he was granted a furlough of thirty days; after this length of time spent at home he reported in pursuance of orders at Benton Barracks, in Missouri; here he was detailed as a clerk in the assistant adjutant-general's office, and after a short time was made chief clerk; he was mustered out finally in June 1865, and returned to his home in Clayton county; Mr. Goodale's war experience lasted but a little over a year but it was filled with hard service and gave him a thorough understanding of what is meant by the horrors of war; shortly after this - in September, 1865 - Mr. Goodale first came to Madison county; he taught school in the winter and spent the summer in labor on a farm; he continued in this course until the summer of 1868 when he made a trip to California, going by water from New York by way of the Isthmus of Panama; the summer he spent in California looking for an opening convinced him that Iowa was the best State in the Union, and Madison one of the best counties; he accordingly returned in the fall and has ever since lived in the county; in 1870 he was married to Miss Sarah J. McMANUS, of Clarke county; their family consists of four children: Emma, Willie, Eva and Nellie; he was engaged as a farmer until 1873, when he was elected county auditor, and by successive re-elections has held the office up to the present time; Mr. Goodale is a very popular official and has received the largest majority ever given a candidate in Madison county; in 1875 he ran more than 500 votes ahead of his party majority; this rare popularily has been fairly and honestly won; Mr. Goodale is a thorough gentleman in manner, and treats all persons with a genial and unaffected; this added to his ability and faithful performance of duty have gained him the general esteem; in 1878 Mr. Goodale purchased a half interest in the Winterset Madisonian, of which paper he is now one of the editors and proprietors; Mr. Goodale's early educational advantages were only those afforded by the public schools but he improved them thoroughly; he has since been an industrious student and is now a widely read and thoroughly informed man; he is a public speaker of fine ability; Madison county may well be proud of Mr. Goodale and his achievements but his future career will be enacted on a wider stage than any one county can offer. KNIGHT, M. A., county treasurer; born in Vermont in 1831; came to this State in 1850, and to this county in 1868; owns 160 acres of land; has held office of county treasurer four years; he married Miss Amanda RENSHAW in 1861; she was born in Virginia; have seven children: Enolia, Wilson, Lucy, Edson, Wyman, Francis and Alice. LOTHROP, C. B., is a native of Vermont, and was born in 1815; his early life was spent on a farm; he emigrated west and settled in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1852; in 1856 he came to Des Moines, and in 1862 settled in Winterset; he has been engaged in the mail service as carrier and contractor since 1859; in 1866 he took the contract for carrying the mail from Council Bluffs to Ft. Kearney (a distance of 200 miles) daily, and continued it until the completion of the U. P. R.R.; he also had other contracts; he has been the president of the Madison County Agricultural Society for six years, but has avoided all political offices; he married Miss Jane HATCH in 1841; she was a native of Vermont; they have four children: Dwight, Charrie, Eugene, and Jennie, now Mrs. WHEDON. MOTT, FREDERICK, attorney; born in Montrose, Susquehanna county, Pa., January 14, 1828; the early part of his youth was spent with his father in a woolen factory; at the age of seventeen he entered Brown University, Providence, R. I.; graduated in 1851, and for three years was principal of the Derby Academy, Vt., and reading law at the same time; in 1854 he came as far West as Upper Sandusky, Ohio, where he had charge of the Union School two years; came to this county in 1857 and engaged in the practice of his profession, having been admitted to the bar in Vermont; in September, 1862, he was commissioned as quartermaster of the 39th Iowa Inf., and after serving a few months was made adjutant; in 1864 he was commissioned by President Lincoln as assistant adjutant general and was assigned to duty with the third brigade, fourth division, fifteenth army corps, and served in that position until the close of the war; returning to Winterset in August, 1865, he resumed the practice of law; in 1867 he was made cashier of the national bank in Winterset; in 1868 he was elected judge of the fifth judicial district of Iowa, serving the full term of four years; the qualifications of Judge Mott for the bench may be inferred from the tenor of the resolutions passed by the Guthrie county bar on his retiring, one of them reading as follows: "Resolved, that we recognize and appreciate the marked ability, impartiality and courtesy with which he has at all times presided over the circuit court of Guthrie county, and congratulate him on the extraordinary success which has attended his judicial labors; the fact that of four hundred and sixty-two cases determined in his court in Guthrie county, during his term of office, not a single one has been appealed, indicates an appreciation of his decisions on the part of the litigants in this court as exceptional and rare as it must be gratifying to the judge"; the bar of the several counties in the district passed resolutions of a similar tone, all commending his noble traits of character and his qualifications as a jurist; at the annual meeting of the Iowa Baptist Convention, held in Des Moines in 1870, he was elected its president, and the same compliment was paid him at the next three annual meetings; in 1873 the regents of the State University elected him to the professorship of pleading and practice in the law department of that institution, a position he held for two years, and then under the pressure of enthusiasm created by the Baptist denomination in favor of their higher schools of education, in connection with the centennial year of the nation, he accepted the presidency of the University at Des Moines; he held this position until the close of the centennial year, when, owing to the condition of his health, he resigned and returned to his old home and resumed the practice of law and banking; in 1856 he married Miss Emma E. DEAN, of Grayton, Vt.; she died in August, 1858; he afterward married Miss Mary J. BEST in July 1861; she was born in Ohio; has four children: Shelty, Lenny, Chester and Byram. WHEDON, W. S., deputy clerk; born in Ohio in 1848; came to this county in 868; has held offices of city and town clerk; he married Miss Jennie LOTHROP in 1873; she was born in Vermont; has three children: Maud, Eugene R. and Nellie.