SIDNEY S. SWEET. — With the history of Benton
county and the city of Belle Plaine the name of Sidney S. Sweet was
inseparably identified for a period of forty years, and through all the
days to come there shall be here accorded to his memory a tribute honor
as a man of sterling integrity, pronounced business ability and high
civic loyalty, and as one who contributed in generous measure to the
progress and material prosperity of the county of which he was a
pioneer and in which he so long maintained his home. Through his own
well directed endeavors he achieved distinctive success, and he was
identified with the banking business in Belle Plaine from the time of
his arrival here, in 1869, until his death, which occurred at his
attractive home in this city on the 19th of May, 1909. He was president
of the First National Bank of Belle Plaine from the time of its
organization until a few months prior to his demise. His business
career was characterized by courage, confidence, progressiveness and
impregnable integrity of purpose; he was a dominating factor in public
affairs in his county and held various positions of trust, including
that of representative of Benton county in the state legislature, as
well as that of mayor of his thriving home city. None had a more secure
place in the confidence and esteem of the community than did he, and
there is all of consistency in entering in this work a synopsis of his
life history.
Sidney S. Sweet was born near North Granville, Washington county, New
York, on the 29th of August, 1848, and was a son of Charles Addison
Sweet and Eliza (Slocum) Sweet, both of whom were likewise natives of
the old Empire state of the Union, where they passed their entire lives
and where the father followed the vocation of farming throughout his
active career. Both families were of English extraction and were
founded in America in the colonial era. The subject of this memoir was
reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and his early
educational advantages were such as were afforded in the common schools
of the locality and period. Through active association with men and
affairs in the later years of his life he rounded out his mental
discipline and became a man of broad information and mature judgment.
As a young man Mr. Sweet left the old home state and went to Texas,
where he remained about one year, at the expiration of which he came to
Iowa. He made his advent in Belle Plaine, Benton county, in 1869, and
in this village, which was then one of but small population, he engaged
in the banking business by purchasing the bank established about two
years previously by Samuel L. Bardwell. This was the first financial
institution in the town and Mr. Sweet individually continued the
business for three years, at the expiration of which, in 1872, he
became associated with other representative men of the county in the
organization and incorporation of the First National Bank of Belle
Plaine. He became cashier of this institution and held this position
until 1877, when he was elected its president. He continued as chief
executive of the bank thereafter until January, 1909, when he resigned
the office, about five months prior to his death. In 1877 his brother,
Lewis T., became cashier of the bank, and for twenty-four years
thereafter the two were associated as the active executive managers of
the business of the institution, which now stands as one of the
substantial and representative banking concerns of this favored section
of the Hawkeye state. Lewis T. Sweet continued as cashier until his
death, in 1900, and he too was long numbered among the influential and
honored business men of Benton county. The presidency of the
institution was resigned by the subject of this memoir on the 1st of
January, 1909, by his refusal to become a candidate for re-election.
His ability as a financier was of high order and to his efforts more
than all else is due the stability and popularity of the bank over
whose affairs he so long and effectively held sway. For forty years he
was identified with the banking business in the same location, where
the present attractive and well appointed bank building was erected in
1871 and remodeled in 1894.
A man of broad mental ken, of progressive ideas and of utmost civic
loyalty, Mr. Sweet naturally became a leader in public opinion and
action in his community, and though he never was ambitious for public
office he never refused his services when called upon to assume
positions of trust. He was an influential factor in the political
affairs of his section of the state and was arrayed as a stalwart in
the camp of the Republican party, of whose principles and policies he
was a staunch and able advocate. He served as a member of the city
council, was mayor of Belle Plaine for two terms, and for more than
thirty years he served as secretary of the board of education. In 1885
he was elected to represent his county in the lower house of the state
legislature, and in this body fidelity of purpose and his forceful
personality were recognized. He was a member of the legislature that
enacted the prohibition law of 1886, and three years later he was
defeated for election to the state senate, in the turbulent maelstrom
that swept the Republican ticket in the state upon the rocks of
adversity, as a virtual result of the enactment of the previously
mentioned prohibition law. For many years Mr. Sweet represented his
county at the state and congressional conventions, and in 1904 he
represented the fifth congressional district in the Republican national
convention, which nominated Roosevelt for the presidency. He was one of
the Benton county delegates to the state conventions of his party in
1901 and 1906, and he continued to manifest a vital interest in party
affairs until the close of his life. He was identified with no
fraternal organizations except the Masonic order, in which he attained
to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. He
never asked for public office for himself, and such positions as he
filled in this line were accepted as a matter of party fealty and civic
duty. In all the relations of life he "stood four square to every wind
that blows," and upon his career as a business man and as a citizen
there rests no shadow or blemish to mar the fair face of his
escutcheon. Mr. Sweet was ever tolerant, loyal, generous and liberal,
every ready to aid those in affliction or distress, but his personal
modesty and quiet dignity made him entirely free from ostentation. He
was essentially democratic in his attitude, placed true valuations on
men and affairs and viewed life in all its phases in the correct
proportions. His was a strong and noble personality, and his name has a
place of prominence on the roll of the honored pioneers of Benton
county.
In the year 1871 Mr. Sweet was united in marriage to Miss Katharine
Brown, whose parents were numbered among the early settlers of Benton
county, whence they removed to California many years ago. Mrs. Sweet
died about a year after her marriage and is survived by no children. On
the 17th of January, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sweet to
Miss Emma Richmond, who was born at Lyons, Wayne county, New York, and
who survives him, as do also their two sons and one daughter, Sidney,
Charles Addison and Eleanor. Charles A., the second son, is now cashier
of the First National Bank of Belle Plaine and thus perpetuates the
family connection with the institution of which his honored father was
the founder, the while he is well upholding the high prestige of the
name which he bears. Sidney is the owner of a box factory in the city
of Denver, Colorado, and Miss Eleanor remains with her widowed mother
in the attractive home in Belle Plaine.
Until about a year prior to his death Mr. Sweet was a man of
exceptional vigor and strength, and his decline was the result of a
paralytic nature, affecting the arteries. He was able to be about town
until the day preceding his death, the immediate cause of which was a
hemorrhage of the brain. He was distinctively the architect of his own
fortunes, and his success was won by worthy means. When he came to
Benton county his financial resources were very limited, but he pressed
forward to the goal of success and prosperity and was one of the
substantial capitalists of the county at the time of his death. His
life record offers both lesson and incentive and it is a matter of
gratification to the publishers of this history to be able to offer
this brief review of his career.
Picture of Sidney S. Sweet
