Frederick B. SHELDON

SHELDON, STEVENSON, ENGLEKING, MCCOY, COULTER, SCHROEDER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 10/19/2016 at 23:38:09

Frederick B. Sheldon

The career of F. B. Sheldon, a native son of this county, is one of individual and unaided effort, and indicates the success to which the American boy can climb when he possesses within himself the necessary qualifications. Mr. Sheldon descends from a family whose members have inspired admiration and respect for several generations, and his father set for his children an example which they have followed, an example of bravery and loyalty, for he was a Civil War veteran.

F. B. Sheldon, who has occupied a conspicuous place in local banking circles, was born on December 16, 1866 in Vernon township, of this county, and is the son of Charles P. and Isabel (Stevenson) Sheldon. They were natives of Essex county, New York, where they were married. The father, a farmer, came to this state in 1854, and when the life of the nation was threatened, he enlisted, in the Second Kansas Cavalry, from Clayton county, Iowa, remaining in service from the fall of 1861 until the close of the war. In order for him to enlist from Kansas, it was necessary for him to go there from Clayton county. Charles P. Sheldon was married in New York, and came from there to Iowa about 1854. In the spring of the year following the close of the war Mr. Sheldon came to Wright county and soon began improving the eighty acres of land which he obtained as a homestead. Here he lived until 1876, when he sold the property and bought an adjoining farm, where he lived until about four years before the time of his death, which occurred on February 26, 1912. He was a resident of Dows the last four years of his life.

His devoted wife passed away in February, 1913. They were the parents of five children as follow: Frank R., of Williams, Iowa; Mrs. Minnie A Engleking, of Winnepeg, Canada; Charles A., who lives in Wisconsin; F. B., the subject of this sketch; and Mrs. Hattie McCoy, of Spooner, Wisconsin.

After his schooling was completed - this consisting of a thorough public-school training - F. B. Sheldon taught for nineteen terms and followed the plow during summer vacations. Until his marriage he lived at home, and after his marriage moved to a farm in Vernon township where he lived until his removal to Rowan in 1901. Here he succeeded L. K. Powers, who was at that time cashier of the Bank of Rowan, which was a privately owned banking institution. Eight years later the institution was incorporated as the State Savings Bank, and Mr. Sheldon continued as its cashier. The bank was incorporated with a capital of fifteen thousand dollars.

The marriage ceremony which united in holy matrimony F. B. Sheldon and his wife occurred on December 24, 1890, in this county. Mrs. Sheldon being before this event, Blanche Coulter, and was born in February. 1872, in Coshocton county, Ohio. She was the daughter of J. R. and Jennie Coulter, natives of Ohio, they having come to Wright county about the year of 1885. One child has blessed this union, he being Guy R. Sheldon who was born on June 3, 1892. Having graduated from the local high school he later graduated from the Belmond school. He married Edna Schroeder. Their only child, Maxine, was born in March, 1915.

Mr. Sheldon is affiliated with the Republican party and although not an office seeker, has held a number of minor offices. He is a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his family also arc members. He is also trustee of the telephone company and of the school board. As cashier of the bank he acts as agent for several insurance companies.

HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY IOWA ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS BY HON. B.P. BIRDSALL, B. P. Bowen & Co., Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, 1915, pp 430-432.