Hon. Norman Boardman, Lyons

NORMAN BOARDMAN is the son of a Vermont farmer, Ozias Boardman, and of Lydia Whitney, and was born at Morristown, Lamoille county, on the 30th of April, 1813. His father was from Connecticut, his mother from Massachusetts, and he was of genuine Puritan stock. He worked at farming, attending school and teaching until twenty-five years of age, finishing his education at the Johnson Academy, Professor Perry Haskall, principal.

Mr. Boardman read law with Harlow P. Smith, of Hyde Park, Vermont, now a resident of Chicago; attended Judge Turner's lectures at St. Albans, and was admitted to the bar at that place in September,
1839. He commenced practice immediately at Troy, Vermont ; remained there fourteen years, and during that time was deputy-collector of customs and state's attorney, being elected to the latter office in 1850, and holding it two years.

In 1853 Mr. Boardman moved to Potsdam, New York, and practiced one year with Judge William A. Wallace; and in 1855 settled in Lyons, Iowa, having previously visited the state, purchased land and selected a home. Real estate for twenty-two years has been his leading business, though he operated in the mercantile trade five years at Anamosa, Jones county; and the historian of Iowa gives him credit for aiding to lay out the thriving town of Osage, Mitchell county. For years he had business in several counties in northern and western Iowa, where he has been an extensive dealer in lands. At times he has had an interest in different kinds of manufactories. He is public-spirited, and lends a
willing hand to enterprises calculated to advance the general interests of his adopted home.

Mr. Boardman was a member of the state senate from 1862 to 1866; was chairman of the committee on schools and school lands, and was very active in securing improvement in the law for the collecting of taxes. At that period there were several hundred thousand dollars of state taxes uncollected, and it was proposed in the emergency to use the school fund for general purposes. This plan he strongly opposed, and carried his point. Soon after amending the laws, as he suggested, the state was in a good financial condition.

In May, 1869, Mr. Boardman was appointed United States collector for the second district of Iowa; held the office six years and then resigned, leaving an unblotted record. He has held a few minor offices
in the municipality of Lyons, and has always discharged his duties with promptness and fidelity.

He was a democrat until the Nebraska bill had passed in congress, when he became ashamed of his party and abandoned it. He has been one of the leaders of the republican party in Clinton county since the civil outbreak in 1861. In religious sentiment he is a Universalist.

Mr. Boardman has been three times married. The first wife was Miss Lydia Ann George, of Orange county, Vermont; she died in 1844, about three years after their marriage, leaving no children. His second wife was Miss Lois B. Knight, of St. Lawrence county, New York, chosen in 1846; she died in February, 1857, leaving three boys, all now enterprising young men, and in business for themselves. Homer C. and Willie K. are merchants in Lyons, and Charles D. graduated from the
Chicago Medical College in March, 1877; is practicing at Monticello, Iowa. Mr. Boardman 's third wife was Miss Sarah M Knight, of Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and they were married in February, 1858; she is a model step-mother, and in every respect an excellent woman.

Though not partial to secret societies, Mr. Boardman aided in organizing at Lyons the first Union League in the state, and he assisted in forming many other leagues in eastern Iowa. He is intensely patriotic, and gave much of his time, during the civil war, to promoting the cause of the Union.

Source:

The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume.

Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1878