John Brayshaw Kaye

There, his mind appeared to receive remarkable impressions from the witchery and beauty of the lake, and the splendid scenery which formed part of its associations.

In April, 1863, he joined a wagon train and, on the 27th of the following July, he arrived at Virginia City, Nevada, where he remained for three years, doing varying sorts of labor such as burning charcoal, carpentering, etc.

In 1872 he became a member of the bar of Winneshiek County and at once located in Calmar, Iowa, which remained his home until his death.

Single handed he prosecuted all cases until the attorneys of the liquor dealers were so wearied that they were glad to cry quits.

[2] The following appeared in Past and Present of Winneshiek County (1913), Others who joined the ranks of the attorneys about that time were John B. Kaye, who located at Calmar in 1872.

The family settled near Geneva, Wisconsin, in 1848, and in 1863, Mr. Kaye went to Nevada where he spent four years in gold camps.

He was a student, not only of law, but of the Bible and all other good literature, and possessed a poetic nature that first found expression in numerous bits of miscellaneous verse.

He won distinction in his defence of John Cater of Burr Oak, charged with the killing of his wife, and in his assistance on the side of the state in the Gifford-Bigelow murder trial.

[Note 1]Early in life Mr. Kaye began writing fugitive verses, and in time these became so numerous that in 1874, they were brought together and published in a volume entitled, Facts and Fancies.