judge attorney lawyer senate official
James Wilson McDill was the son of Frances (Wilson) and John McDill, who was a graduate of Miami University and a United Presbyterian minister. He was born on March 4, 1834 in Monroe, Ohio. He was taken by his parents to Hanover, Indiana, where his father died in 1840. In 1845 the family moved to South Salem, Ross County, Ohio, where they lived with Fanny’s father, Rev. R. G. Wilson, a Quaker and abolitionist.
James McDill attended the preparatory department of Hanover College in 1844 and 1845. In that year his mother went back to Ohio to live at South Salem with her father, the Rev. Robert G. Wilson, who had been a Presbyterian minister at Chillicothe and president of Ohio University at Athens.
James McDill attended Salem Academy in South Salem (now the South Salem Academy), Ohio, and Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. He enrolled at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1851 and graduated in 1853.
Shortly after graduating, James McDill moved to Kossuth, Des Moines County, Iowa, where he taught school for one year before returning to Ohio. In 1855 he began studying law in the office of Galloway & Matthews in Columbus, Ohio. One year later he was admitted to the bar.
In 1857 James McDill began practice in Afton. He went to Iowa when pioneer conditions still prevailed and when Eastern settlers led by James Grimes were turning the state from Democracy to Republicanism on the slavery issue. In this movement, a friend and admirer of Grimes, he played his part and has left a vivid picture of the period and its leaders in "The Making of Iowa," which was published in the Iowa Historical Record for October 1891.
James McDill became a judge of Union County and during the war held minor federal offices in Washington, D. C. Returning to Iowa in 1866, he practiced law in Afton, which remained his home until his removal to Creston in 1885. After presiding over the circuit and district courts he was a member of Congress from 1873 to 1877, where he did useful service on the committees on the Pacific railroad and on public lands. Declining a third term James McDill hoped to return to the practice of law, but a new factor in Iowa politics soon brought him into public service again.
Ever since their construction, the railroads had been regulated only by the common law. Their officials regarded them "from a purely proprietary standpoint", and grave abuses had developed. Impelled by the Grange and similar organizations, Iowa in 1874 had passed a law fixing a maximum tariff and forbidding discriminations. The law was sustained by the courts, but it lacked a provision for effective enforcement. In consequence, there was substituted in 1878 a board of railroad commissioners empowered to supervise the roads, investigate all alleged violations of state laws, and modify unreasonable charges. Governor Gear desired a strong commission and appointed James McDill one of the Board.
After filling out Samuel J. Kirkwood's unexpired term in the Senate, which extended to March 4, 1883, he was reappointed to the railroad commission for another three years. In 1885 a committee, with Shelby M. Cullom as chairman, was appointed in the United States Senate to investigate the regulation of freight and passenger transportation.
James McDill died at Creston while serving in this capacity.
As an Iowa commissioner, James McDill testified that the chief objection to the Iowa method of regulation was that the commission lacked the power to enforce its decisions. He maintained that the only method by which there could be any intelligent and sufficient control would be through a federal commission authorized to lower rates when too high, while the right of appeal to the courts was reserved to the railroads only after they had complied with the orders of the commission. The result of this investigation was the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to which James McDill was appointed in 1892 by President Harrison.
In 1892 James McDill was appointed to the Interstate Commerce Commission.
As a man, James Wilson McDill was unpretentious, deliberate in thought and action. As a lawyer, he was regarded as a safe counselor, who always tried his cases on law and evidence. On the bench, he was fair and approachable though not lacking in dignity. James Wilson McDill exercised great care in considering cases and measures and had the confidence of his associates.
In August 1857, James McDill was married to Narcissa Fullenwider. They had five children.
James McDill was a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church.
(3 October 1835 - 9 October 1916)
(16 November 1858 - 5 August 1954)
