US Congressman, Journalist. He was born one of nine children (Josiah Titus Young was born in 1831, Samuel Herriott Young was born in 1836, John Newton Young was born in 1838, Margaret Young was born in 1842, Louisa J. Young was born in 1843, William Jasper Young was born in 1845, John Henry Young was born in 1851, and Parthena Helen Young was born in 1851) to John Wiley Young and Rachel Titus Young in Albia, Iowa. He was educated in local common public schools and then set out to learn a journalism trade and was educated in printing offices in his hometown of Albia, Iowa, and in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1870, he married Josephine Bolton and the couple would have three children together (Nellie Brown Young was born in 1871, Harold Young was born in 1875, and Lafayette Young Jr. was born in 1877). He later relocated to Atlantic, Iowa, where he established his first publication, The Telegraph Newspaper, and it was published from 1871 to 1890. During this time he decided to enter public service and he was elected as a Member of the Republican Party to a seat in the Iowa State Senate representing Adair County, Iowa, Adams County, Iowa, Cass County, Iowa, and Union County, Iowa, from 1874 to 1880, and again following a six-year absence from 1886 to 1888. In 1890, he then established the publication of the Des Moines Capital located in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1893, he was an unsuccessful Candidate for the Republican nomination for the office of Governor of Iowa, when he lost to Frank Darr Jackson. in 1898, he served as a war correspondent during the Spanish-American War conflict. Following the war, he returned to Iowa and resumed his public service and journalism duties. He then served as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention from Iowa in 1900 and again in 1908. A member of the Republican Party, he was appointed as an immediate successor by then-Iowa Governor Beryl Franklin Carroll to the United States Senator Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver who had passed away while still in office on October 15, 1910. Following his appointment, his position was up for election in the Iowa General Assembly the following year, where the Republicans held a large majority but were deeply divided among a long list of candidates for his seat. The inability of any candidate to receive the required majority of the 76 legislators forced the Iowa General Assembly to take a re-vote each morning of the session. He was the principal Republican opponent of prominent Fort Dodge, Iowa, lawyer William Squire Kenyon until the 23rd ballot when he lost most of his support to other candidates. His opponent Kenyon was ultimately elected on the final day of the session on the 67th ballot. He held the office of United States Senator from Iowa from November 12, 1910, to April 11, 1911. Following his time in the United States Senate, he returned to Des Moines, Iowa, to work on his Des Moines Capital Newspaper. A few years later, he went to Europe and again worked as a war correspondent. He traveled through Southeastern Europe and covered the Second Balkan War beginning in 1913. He then returned home to Iowa. He later returned to Europe and covered the early parts of World War I, even before the United States' entry beginning for four months in 1915. He was later detained by authorities in Innsbruck, Austria-Hungary, but was later released, and once again returned home to Iowa. He later served as Chairman of the Iowa State Council for Defense, following the declaration of war by the United States in 1917. As Chairman of the Iowa State Council for Defense, he campaigned against the teaching of any foreign language in any public school or college, and for the imposition of English literacy tests for voting. He also said that disloyal persons should be impoverished and imprisoned. He argued stating, "Any man who has lived under the protection of our laws and has accumulated wealth and is now disloyal should be deprived of every dollar he possesses and he should be interned in a stockade until the end of the war and at that time his fate should be considered carefully." After finishing with politics, he continued in his newspaper pursuits in Des Moines, Iowa, until his death. He passed away from sudden heart failure on November 15, 1926, at the age of 78, in Des Moines, Iowa, and was buried in the Woodland Cemetery in that city. His wife Josephine passed away a month later on December 16, 1926, at the age of 82, and was laid to rest beside her husband. He was made a Knight of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium in recognition of his work in raising funds in Iowa for the children of Belgium.