4 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



Lacey was, as you have all known him to be, a perfect 

 type of the cultured lawyer. 



Major Lacey 's career is remarkable in many respects. 

 Born in what is now West Virginia, coming as a boy to 

 Iowa at about fourteen years of age, and raised on a farm 

 in Mahaska County, he learned the trade of a bricklayer, 

 and to the day of his death he pointed with pride to build- 

 ings in our city in the construction of which he had per- 

 formed the arduous labor of carrying the hod and laying 

 bricks. 



He early determined to become a lawyer, and in the 

 time when his work as a bricklayer would permit, he read 

 law in the office of Attorney General Rice. 



On the breaking out of the Civil War, Major Lacey en- 

 listed as a private, his name being the fourth in the list of 

 names from Mahaska County when the first call came for 

 volunteers. He was captured during one of the early 

 battles and sent home as a prisoner of war, but as soon as 

 an exchange was made he reenlisted in the Thirty-third 

 Iowa. His record as a soldier was one of credit. I need 

 only say that he was promoted as a captain and was mus- 

 tered out of service as a major. As a young soldier 

 Major Lacey exhibited those traits of character which 

 endeared him to his friends later, and which is well stated 

 and set forth in a brief statement contained in a letter 

 from General Steele. At about the time of the close of 

 the Civil War, when the French invasion of Mexico was 

 being resented by our government, an expedition under 

 General Phil Sheridan was organized for the purpose of 

 moving the army to the Mexican frontier. At the time 

 of the organization of this expedition, Major Lacey was 

 serving on the staff of General Steele. He was detailed 

 to accompany this expedition. 



Immediately after the close of the war he returned to 

 Oskaloosa and took up his study of the law ; studies which 



