Josiah Given
Josiah Given was born in August, 1828, of Irish parents, in Westmoreland County, Penn., where he was reared until ten years of age at which time the family emigrated to Holmes County, Ohio. Here young Given was employed on the farm and in the blacksmith shop carried on by his father and elder brothers, until 1846, when he entered the military service, serving for a time as drummer boy to a recruiting squad of the Fifteenth United States Army Infantry, and later to the close of the Mexican War as private and corporal in Comany G, Fourth Ohio Infantry. After returning from Mexico, he entered the office of Given & Barcroft, where he studied law and was admitted to practice in the court at Canton, Ohio, in 1851, Edwin M. Stanton being chairman of the examining committee. The next year Mr. Given was elected prosecuting attorney of his county, which position he filled for two years, acquiring notoriety by pursuing and capturing the county treasurer, who had fled with the public moneys. The capture was made in Switzerland, and the treasurer was brought back to Ohio and prosecuted to conviction. Mr. Given was married in September, 1851, to Miss Elizabeth Armor, and has seven children living.
In 1856 Mr. Given removed to Coshocton County, Ohio, where he continued to practice law until the firing on Fort Sumter. On receipt of the news he left the court-house, and did not return to it until after the War of the Rebellion. During that struggle he served as captain of Company K, Twenty-fourth Ohio, lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the Eighteenth Ohio, colonel of the Seventy-fourth Ohio, and was in the command of a brigade for a time on the Atlantic Campaign. Soon after the close of the war he was elected postmaster of the House of Representatives, XXXIXth Congress, and at the close of his term, in consummation of a purpose entertained before the war, he started for Iowa, stopping for a few months at Wooster, Ohio, to settle the affairs of his deceased brother, Judge William Given, who had died from disabilities contracted in the service. Mr. Given arrived in Des Moines, May 1, 1868, and has continued to reside there ever since, except an absence of three years while serving in the Treasurer's Department in Washington, D.C., as deputy commissioner of internal revenue under Gen. Grant's first administration.
Being nominated by the Republicans of his district for district attorney, he resigned his deputyship and returned to Des Moines. After serving a term as district attorney, he declined re-election and resumed the private practice until called to the circuit bench, January 1, 1880, having in the meantime served one term as member of the Iowa House of Representatives. After four years' service on the circuit court bench, he was re-elected, and, when the circuit court was legislated out of existence, he was elected district judge Ninth Judicial District, in which capacity he continued to serve until appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Joseph B. Reed, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa, which office he now holds.
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Wayne and Holmes, Ohio, J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1889