Had Been Failing For Several Months and End Was Not Unexpected – Was Fourth Commandant of Soldiers’ Home – Sketch of Brilliant Military Career and Public and Private life.
  

Col. C. C. Horton, late commandant of the Iowa Soldiers’ Home, died at his home at 3:15 this afternoon. The end was not unexpected, and followed an illness of three months. He has been gradually failing since Jan. 24, when he was in his office for the last time. Heart and kidney disease combined to cause his last illness.

The end came peacefully, and followed a day of practically total unconsciousness. The patient had been failing rapidly during the past few days and within that time had been irrational part of the time.

Colonel Horton’s death will be learned with deep regret not only among his many friends within the city and at the soldiers’ home, but throughout Iowa where he was exceptionally well known.

Charles Cummins Horton was a native of New York State, having been born at Goshen, Orange County, Jan. 13, 1839, a son of Dr. James S. and Mary Gamble Cummins Horton. That young Horton came of "fighting blood," and possibly was predestined to become a commander on the field of battle, is indicated from the fact that he sprang from Revolutionary stock on both sides, his great-grandfather, Capt. Jonathan Horton, serving throughout the revolutionary war, as well as a maternal grandsire, Archibald Gamble, who was an engineer on the staff of General Moultrie, who later laid out Fort Moultrie during the war of 1812.

In  1848, the Horton family came to Iowa, settling at Muscatine. For two years the Hortons remained in town, but in 1850 moved to a farm two miles distant. Young Horton had started his schooling in New York State, and continued it at Muscatine and in a district school near his father’s home in the country. In 1857 he returned to New York State and entered the Delaware Collegiate Institute at Franklin, from which he graduated in 1859.

When the first warnings of civil strife came in 1861, Horton, then a young man of 22, talked of enlisting, and at Muscatine, in July of that year enlisted as a private in Company A, Second Iowa cavalry. He was commissioned second lieutenant on Aug. 1 and promoted to first lieutenant on Nov. 2. On June 4, 1862, he was made captain, and on Sept. 20, 1863, major of his regiment. From that he rose to lieutenant colonel, on Sept. 27, 1864, and was mustered out Sept. 19, 1865, at Selma, Ala.

Colonel Horton was the last commander of the regiment. He was next in line for a brigadier generalship to the late W. P. Hepburn, who has just preceded his old comrade to the place of final muster. At the age of 23, and then a major, Horton commanded his regiment, although Hepburn had been made colonel. He, however, was on detached service, and never was in command of the Second. Horton commanded the regiment as lieutenant from the time it veteranized in 1864 until the regiment was mustered out, and for the last few months of his service was in command of his brigade.

During his four years’ service Colonel Horton participated in thirty-one engagements. His first fight was the battle of Monterey, where William Paxton, of Indiantown, Tama County, was the first man of the regiment to be killed. Horton was in the fighting at New Madrid, Island No. 10, the two battles at Booneville, in the second of which Phil Sheridan won his first star; Farmington, Iuka and Corinth, Tupelo, Jackson and Nashville. In the famous charge at Farmington, made by the Second Iowa on May 7, 1862, Horton had his horse shot from under him. He was wounded in the battle of Coldwater in September 1863 and carried a musket ball in his hip to his death.

Directly after the war Colonel Horton went to Alabama where, in company with Captain Brunton, of the Second Iowa, he engaged in a coal mining enterprise near Toledagoula. The business did not prove profitable, however, and in 1866Horton returned to Iowa and went to farming. He specialized in the raising of small fruits and fine stock, largely horses. Later, for several years, he was in the abstract business in Muscatine in company with John Kemble, under the firm name of Horton & Kemble.

Colonel Horton has been in public life practically all the time since he returned from his army service. He was made the fourth commandant of the Iowa Soldiers’ Home, taking charge of the institution in November 1897, altho his appointment was effective from Oct. 12. He has been re-appointed at the expiration of each four-year term. His last appointment became effective Jan. 1, 1915, and altho not expiring until Jan. 1, 1919, Colonel Horton gave notice of his resignation to the board of control last November, effective May 1 of this year. He took the action because of declining health. Some time after the beginning of his last illness, or on March 1, he filed his resignation with the board. On April 1 he was succeeded by the present commandant, B. C. Whitehill.

Colonel Horton has served the home as commandant longer than any other of his predecessors. The first commandant, when the home was opened in December 1887, was Col. Milo Smith, who served until October 1892. Smith was followed by Col. John H. Keatley, who served until September 1894. Col. J. Ratekin, of Shenandoah, followed until September 1897.

Colonel Horton has been a lifelong republican and was widely known in state politics during a long period of years. He was a member of Marshall Lodge, No. 108, A. F. and A. M. of this city; of Phil Sheridan Post No. 452, G.A.R. of the soldiers’ home, and of the Iowa Loyal Legion. His religious affiliation was with the Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a member a great many years.

Colonel Horton’s home life was broken three years ago last summer, when, on June 29, his wife passed away suddenly of heart disease. This proved a great shock to Colonel Horton, whose close friends and associates have watched him age rapidly since that time. Colonel Horton’s wedded life dated from Oct. 31, 1867, when he claimed as his bride Miss Isabella Ogilvie, of Muscatine. Four children born to the union are all living, in the persons of J. Lisle Horton, of Clearmont, Wyo.; Frank O. Horton, of Buffalo, Wyo.; Mrs. James Brockway, of Letts; and Miss Bertha Horton, of this city. One brother, Edwin W. Horton, lives at Muscatine, as does also a sister, Miss Sarah L. Horton.

Downtown Marshalltown Panorama -- 1907

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