Weaver, James B. (James Baird), 1833-1912

Weaver was a soldier and politician. He was born in Dayton (Ohio), the son of Abram and Susan (Imlay) Weaver on June 12, 1833. Weaver graduated in 1856 from Cincinnati Law School, and then established a practice in Bloomfield. He married Clara Vinson in July 1858. Together they had seven children. During the Civil War he served in the 2nd Iowa. Weaver was eventually promoted to Col. From 1863-1864 he served as commander of the Union post at Puaski (Tenn.), carrying out a levy on civilians for the relief of refugees. He led the 2nd Iowa during Sherman's attack on Atlanta. Weaver returned to law in 1864. In 1865 he was retroactively brevetted brig. gen. for "gallant and meritorious services." Weaver was elected to Congress as a Greenback-Democrat in 1877, becoming the leading spokesman for the party. He was nominated by his party for president in 1880, but lost. Weaver served a second congressional term beginning in 1884. He also ran unsuccessfully for other offices, including governor. Weaver died on Feb. 6, 1912. (Information from American National Biography.) The Clarke Historical Library has two books on Weaver's political career.

Epithet: of Barton, county Gloucestershire

American army officer.

James Baird Weaver was born in Ohio in 1833. His family moved to Keosauqua in 1842. James became a lawyer in Bloomfield, Iowa and married Clara Vinson in 1858. Weaver rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General while serving with the Second Iowa Infantry during the Civil War. After the war he returned to his law practice and became active in Republican politics. He served in the Iowa State Legislature and ran for president on the Greenback-Labor ticket in 1880 and as a Populist in 1892. Weaver died in Des Moines in 1912. His son, James Bellamy Weaver, Jr., was born in Bloomfield in 1861. He was a lawyer and politician in Des Moines and died in 1940.

James Baird Weaver was born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 12, 1833. He moved with his parents to Michigan and then to Iowa, where they settled on a farm in Bloomfield. He studied law in Bloomfield from 1853-1856. He apparently supported himself with clerk jobs at this time, because their granddaughter remembers the story of his meeting his wife. He was working as a clerk in Mannings store when Clara Vinson bought a spool of thread from him. He graduated from Cincinnati Law School in April 1856, and he and Clara were married on July 13, 1858 in Keosauqua, Iowa. He commenced the practice of law in Bloomfield.He enlisted as a private in the Second Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry in April 1861, where he rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers. He was mustered out of the army on May 27, 1864.He was elected district attorney for the second judicial district in Iowa in 1866 and served four years. He spent his lifetime in politics and the law, running twice for president on third party tickets -- in 1880 for the National Greenback party (for which he received 350,000 votes) and in 1892 on the People's Party ticket (for which he received twenty-two electoral votes). He served a term in Congress from 1879-1881; and again as a Democratic and Greenback-Laborite to the fiftieth congress from 1885-1889. He was unsuccessful at running for re-election in 1888. He was mayor of Colfax, Iowa from 1901-1903. James Baird Weaver died in Des Moines on February 6, 1912, following several heart attacks.