Cyrus was an American governor, military officer, surveyor, teacher, and U.S. congressman.
Background
Cyrus was born on January 24, 1829, in Harford Township, Pennsylvania, United States; the son of Asahel and Amanda (Thayer) Carpenter. Asahel’s father, one of the town’s founders, secured the Carpenter family’s prominence in the community. Asahel and Amanda Carpenter’s family grew to include eight children, only four of whom survived past infancy. Asahel himself died in 1842, and Amanda died in 1843. In the wake of the death of both parents, Cyrus and his three remaining brothers lived in the homes of various relatives.
Education
By 1849 the brothers were scattered across the nation, from the California gold fields to nearby Herrick, Pennsylvania, where Cyrus was teaching school. By the close of 1849, however, Cyrus had entered the Hartford Academy. In two years he left this academy.
Career
Upon leaving the academy in 1851, Carpenter set his course westward from Pennsylvania. He stopped for two years in Johnstown, Ohio, where he taught in a nearby country school. By 1854 Carpenter had grown restless, and like many other Ohioans, he packed his belongings and emigrated to Iowa.
Carpenter would later proudly recall his journey by foot and stagecoach across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, by steamboat to Musca- tine, by stagecoach to Iowa City, and by foot to Fort Des Moines. Upon arrival at Fort Des Moines, Carpenter spent his days exploring his surroundings and pursuing job opportunities. Despite the promise of the growing community at Fort Des Moines, he found jobs scarce. After hearing of Fort Dodge 85 miles to the north, he struck out on foot for the northern fort. He found work as a surveyor on his first day in the small Iowa frontier town that would remain his home for the rest of his life.
In 1855 Carpenter won his first public office as county surveyor. In addition to his surveying work, he soon became involved in the activities of the expanding Iowa Republican Party. In March 1857 Carpenter offered his assistance to the relief expedition to aid the settlers who had been attacked by Sioux renegades near Spirit Lake. By the conclusion of the relief expedition, Carpenter had become a fixture in the community’s social and political life. In the fall of 1857 the Republicans of the district that included Fort Dodge had taken notice and nominated Carpenter as their representative to the Iowa General Assembly. Despite strong competition from Democrat John F. Duncombe, Carpenter won the election.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Carpenter was appointed Commissary of Subsistence, responsible for feeding Union troops. His orders included supervising the feeding of the Army of the Mississippi under the direction of General Pope in preparation for the advance on Corinth. He also served under Generals Rosecrans, Dodge, Grant, and Logan. On a 20-day furlough, he married his longtime sweetheart, Susan Kate Burkholder, in Fort Dodge on March 14, 1864.
At the conclusion of the Civil War, Carpen-ter was elected register of the State Land Office and served two terms dealing with public domain and land title issues. With the Republican Party well entrenched in Iowa after the Civil War, Carpenter’s political capital grew, culminating in his nomination for governor at the Republican Party State Convention in 1871. Carpenter won the election by a majority of over 40,000 votes. He was reelected in 1873. A highly popular governor, he risked alienating powerful forces in his party by promoting railroad regulation, and he signed Iowa’s Granger Law of 1874.
After he left the governor’s office, Carpenter accepted an appointment as Second Comptroller in the U.S. Treasury Department and subsequently, in 1878, as railroad commissioner. From 1879 to 1883 he served two terms as a U.S. congressman, one term in the Iowa General Assembly, from 1884 to 1885, and several years as Fort Dodge’s postmaster. As a congressman, he was a vocal supporter of an unsuccessful effort to raise the Department of Agriculture to cabinet level and a successful effort to divide Iowa into two judicial districts. Otherwise, he seldom participated in House debates. Cyrus Clay Carpenter succumbed to a recurring kidney ailment at his home in Fort Dodge at the age of 68.
Achievements
Politics
Cyrus was elected as registrar of the Iowa state land office, from 1866 to 1868. In 1871, he was run as a Republican for Governor of Iowa, winning his first two-year term. He was re-elected to a second term in 1873, serving until early 1876. At the expiration of his term he was appointed Second Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States, where he served two years, from January 1876 to September 1877. On March 26, 1878, he was appointed as a railroad commissioner of Iowa.
In 1878 Carpenter was elected to Congress to represent Iowa's 9th congressional district, which was then made up of the sparsely-settled northwestern quadrant of the state. After serving in the 46th United States Congress, he was re-elected in 1880 and served in the 47th United States Congress. He did not seek re-election to Congress in 1882. In all, he served in Congress from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1883.
Membership
Cyrus was a member of the Iowa State Legislature, the U. S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 9th district.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Carpenter's life, his biographer concludes, was “not a great life, not a life that influenced events or changed the course of history; merely a good life, an average life....Hewas...oneofthemanyminor public officers who make no outstanding mark on their time but are the warp and woof of the political fabric.”
Connections
On March 14, 1864 Cyrus married Susan C. Burkholder. Both were lovers of good literature and their home was "rich with the atmosphere of books".
Father:
Asahel Carpenter
Mother:
Amanda M. (Thayer) Carpenter
Wife:
Susan C. Burkholder
References
The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa
Iowa has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation’s affairs.