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CHARLES A. HACKE is one of the progressive newspaper men of the younger
generation in the Hawkeye State and his residence is maintained in the thriving
little City of Lone Tree, Johnson County, where he is editor and publisher
of the Lone Tree Reporter.
Mr. Hacke was born at Barnes, Washington County, Kansas, September 27, 1895,
and is a son of John William and Ellen Jane (Wray) Hacke, whose marriage
was there solemnized and who passed the closing years of their lives in Iowa,
where the death of the former occurred February 28, 1925, and that of the
latter on the 3rd of April of the following year, their surviving children
being three sons: Frederick C., of Indianola, Iowa; Charles A., immediate
subject of this review; and James E., of Athens, Georgia.
John W. Hacke was born near Nichols, Muscatine County, Iowa, a representative
of a pioneer family of that section of the state and of staunch German and
English ancestry. Conditions of time and place were such that he received
only a common-school education, but his appreciation of the value of education
was such in later years that he accorded college advantages to each of his
three sons. His active career was one of close association with farm
industry, and he was a young man when he became a farmer in Washington County,
Kansas. Thence he eventually returned, accompanied by his wife and
children, to his native county in Iowa, and in this state he and his wife
passed the remainder of their lives, secure in the high regard of all who
knew them. In coming from Kansas to Iowa they made the overland journey
with team and covered wagon, thus reverting to the transportation system
that was more common in the earlier pioneer period of western history.
Charles A. Hacke was a child at the time of the removal from Kansas to Iowa,
and here his early education was acquired through the public schools, including
the high school at Lone Tree, in which he was graduated in 1913. He
was president of his class in his senior year, was a member of the track
team and otherwise active in the student athletics, besides having been a
member of the debating team and the dramatic organization of the high school
in his home community. After teaching in one of the rural schools of
Johnson County about a year Mr. Hacke, in 1914, entered Coe College,
in the City of Cedar Rapids where he pursued an academic or liberal arts
course and was a member of the College Glee Club. In 1915 he again
taught rural school, and in the following year he became a student in the
University of Iowa. His studies were interrupted when he volunteered
for World war service, in May, 1917. He enlisted and qualified for
the officers training camp at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, but soon afterward
he met with an accident that resulted in the fracturing of the bones of one
of his legs, so that he was incapacitated for immediate patriotic service.
In December, 1917, however, he enlisted in the ordnance department
of the United States Army and was stationed at Camp Dodge, near Des Moines,
until, as a casual, he was assigned to duty at Camp Hancock, Georgia, near
Augusta. Thence he proceeded, July 4, 1918, with his command to Camp
Mills, Long Island, and on the 9th of that month they sailed, on the transport
steamship America, for overseas service. After landing at Brest,
France, Mr. Hacke attended the machine-gun school at Saint Jean de Mons,
and thence, in January, 1919, he was assigned to duty at Saint Nazaire, where
he was stationed after the time the armistice brought the war to a close.
He returned to the United States on the steamship Manchuria and
at Camp Funston, Kansas, he received his honorable discharge February 8,
1919.
After the termination of his World war service Mr. Hacke resumed his studies
in the University of Iowa, and from the same he received in 1920 his degree
of Bachelor of Arts. In September of that year he became superintendent
of the public schools at Stanton, North Dakota, where he remained until 1922,
and where he organized the Parent-Teachers Association and also the first
high school basketball team, besides which he was superintendent of the Union
Sunday School at that place, became a member of the local post of the American
Legion and was otherwise prominent in community affairs. He so raised
the standard of the Stanton schools as to gain to the high school a place
on the accredited list. Upon leaving that assignment Mr. Hacke returned
to Iowa and became superintendent of the public schools at Volga City, where
he likewise made a record of successful pedagogic and executive achievement.
In February, 1923, he purchased the plant and business of the Lone
Tree Reporter, of which he has continued editor and publisher and which
he makes a most loyal and effective exponent of general news and communal
interests. In this connection he had to acquire practical knowledge
of the printing art and business, and that he made a characteristic record
of success in his new field of endeavor is attested by that fact that in
1925 he was awarded a silver loving-cup on the basis of his conduction the
best newspaper published in a town of less than 1,000 population in the entire
State of Iowa. In his home town he is secretary of the Community Club,
president of the Parent-Teachers Association, superintendent of the Sunday
School of the Reformed Church, and a member of the consistory of this religious
denomination. Mr. Hacke is a past master of the local lodge of Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his wife have affiliation with the local
chapter of the Eastern Star. He is past commander of the American Legion
and functioned as systematizer of its flag ritual or usage.
June 23, 1920, marked the marriage of Mr. Hacke to Miss Alice Day, daughter
of the late Dr. G. L. Day, of Lone Tree, who was successfully engaged in
practice as a physician and surgeon during a period of nearly thirty years.
Mr. and Mrs. Hacke have three children: Joyce Elizabeth, born
August 31, 1921; Day Frederick, born July 3, 1925; and Madelyn Jane, born
July 22, 1927.
~~~~***~~~~
DAVID E. HADDEN, of Alta, former member of the Iowa State Pharmacy
Board, was born in Ireland, October 22, 1866, son of George and Mary Hadden.
In 1881, when he was fifteen years of age, he accompanied his family
to the United States. After a short residence at Le Mars, Iowa, they
moved to South Dakota, then part of Dakota Territory. Dr. George Hadden
performed the service of a pioneer physician in South Dakota for twelve years.
He then established his home at Alta, Iowa, where he continued the
practice of medicine for many years.
David E. Hadden had school advantages in Iowa and had been a student for
two years in Wesley College at Dublin before coming to the United States.
In 1893 he became a member of the firm of C. E. Cameron & Company,
druggists at Alta, and it was his permanent business connection. Later,
in 1903 he entered Morningside College at Sioux City, and graduated Bachelor
of Science in 1904, having majored in chemistry and pharmacy.
Mr. Hadden was appointed a member of the State Pharmacy Board in 1909, by
Governor Carroll, to fill a vacancy and was reappointed by the same governor
in 1911, by Governor Clarke in 1914, and by Governor Harding in 1917.
Mr. Hadden married in September, 1889, Miss Emeline Dier, of Le Mars, Iowa.
Their two children were Lola E. and Edward A. Mr. Hadden began voting
as a Democrat, is a Methodist, member of the Masonic fraternity and Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. For ten years he was a member of the Alta board
of education, and among various civic interests the schools always made first
claim upon his attention and effort. His hobby has been astronomy and
meteorology, and at his home he built a small but excellent observatory,
and some of the work he did there has been highly commended by professional
astronomers. He has been a frequent contributor to astronomical
publications, and in December, 1929, delivered a detailed report on "Noteworthy
solar disturbances observed at Alta during the past forty years," before
a convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
held at Des Moines.
~~~~***~~~~
CHARLES H. HALL, a lawyer and a member of the Story County bar, has
practiced law at Nevada, Iowa, since July, 1909. He was born at the
old inland town of Peoria, in the northern part of Polk County, Iowa, on
October 25, 1880, and is the son of James M. Hall and Mary J. (Bell) Hall,
both of whom were natives of the State of Indiana and came to Iowa with their
parents when children. The grandparents on his father's side were Henry
and Dinah (McClay) Hall, who settled near the town of Mitchellville, Polk
County, Iowa, in about 1855. The grandparents on his mother's side
were Henry and Margaret (Grabel) Bell, and were early settlers in the northern
part of Polk County, Iowa. The Halls, as a family, might be considered
as a family of merchants, the grandfather, Henry Hall, having conducted a
general merchandise business in the old town of Peoria about the time of
the Civil war, Peoria then being a village of no little consequence in that
section of the country and a very important inland trading center. James
M. Hall, the father of the subject of this sketch, was also a merchant, as
well as his brothers, and started his son Charles out in the same line of
business. They engaged in the general merchandise business as a branch
store in the town of Colo, Iowa, from about 1902 to 1906, the general management
of this store being in the hands of the son Charles.
In the fall of 1906 Mr. Hall took up the study of law at Drake University
and graduated from that institution with honors in June, 1909, and immediately,
in the month following, put out his shingle in the county seat of his home
county, Nevada, Iowa, where he has been engaged in the general practice of
law ever since. He has never had political ambitions and the only office
of a political nature that he has ever held was that of mayor of Nevada for
a period of three consecutive terms, and it is generally conceded that he
acquitted himself i that position with credit. He has, during the period
of years engaged in the practice of law, attracted to himself one of the
largest law practices in story County and, in fact, of Central Iowa, and
is well-known through-out the state among the legal profession and is recognized
as a practitioner of high standing, who adheres strictly to the ethics of
the profession. From a very early age in his life he has been recognized
by his acquaintances as having particular ability along the lines of public
speaking, and during the course in his practice of the law has developed
a reputation as an outstanding public speaker and a master of the English
language. While his preliminary education was somewhat limited, he
having graduated from what was called the Collins High School in 1899, which
was at that time only about an eighth grade education, he has been a student
all of his life and has gained for himself a knowledge of most of the branches
which would be considered a part of a college curriculum. His law practice
is of a general nature and he is considered, by those who know, to be successful
in all of its branches, the most lucrative portion of it being, however,
what is called the office practice and the probate division.
He has one son, Oscar L. Hall, born July 31, 1910, at Nevada, Iowa, who is
a graduate of the Nevada High School and makes his home with his father in
Nevada, Iowa. Charles H. Hall has one brother, L. M. Hall, residing
at Collins, Iowa, and three sisters, Clara Denniston, of Collins, Iowa; Grace
Smith, of Toledo, Iowa, and Jennie Biddick, of Marion, Iowa.
Mr. Hall is a member of Nevada Masonic lodge No. 99, and also of the Twentieth
Century Club, an ole-time club which has existed for about forty years, and
also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
~~~~***~~~~
WILLIAM U. HAMMER, Doctor of Dental Surgery, is a native of Iowa,
and for over forty years has been a leading representative of his profession
at Atlantic, Cass County.
Doctor Hammer was born in Johnson County, Iowa, October 6, 1872, son of John
and Catherine Hammer. His parents were natives of Germany, his father
a Bavarian and his mother a native of Wurttemberg. John Hammer came
to the United States in the early '50s, and enlisted and served five years
in the regular army, including a portion of the Civil war period. He
was discharged before the close of the war on account of ill health. He
and his wife were married at West Point, New York, his wife having come to
this country when fourteen years of age. After the war they moved to
Johnson County, Iowa, and lived out their lives there and are buried in that
county. The father, who died in 1875, followed the business of stone
mason and farmer. Of their eleven children Doctor Hammer and one other
son survive. His brother is Charles Hammer, a retired farmer at Iowa
City.
William U. Hammer attended country schools and as a youth taught for three
years. Part of his education was acquired in the Iowa State Teachers
College at Cedar Falls. In 1898 he entered the University of Iowa,
dental department, and was graduated in 1901. He first practiced at
Grundy Center and since 1907 has been established at Atlantic and is one
of the busiest professional men of that city. Doctor Hammer is a member
of the Xi Psi Phi dental fraternity, is a Knight Templar Mason, and he and
his family are members of the Christian Church. His wife is a past
grand officer of the Eastern Star of Iowa.
Doctor Hammer married, August 22, 1900, Miss Vinnie Ream Murphy, of Oxford,
Iowa, daughter of J. W. Murphy, a pioneer farmer of Johnson County. Mrs.
Hammer is a graduate of the Oxford High School. They have one son,
Code L. Hammer.
Code L. Hammer, one of the younger professional men of Atlantic, was born
at Oxford, August 14, 1902, graduated from the Atlantic High School in 1920,
and took both the liberal arts and dental courses in the University of Iowa.
He graduated with the degree Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1925 and remained
at the university as assistant demonstrator in the dental school until 1927,
when he joined his father in practice at Atlantic. He is a member of
the Xi Psi Phi dental fraternity, belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the
Presbyterian Church. He married August 22, 1925, Miss Lucille Dufford,
of Omaha. She is a graduate of the Atlantic High School and obtained
her A. B. degree at the University of Iowa in 1927. She taught school
at Omaha before her marriage.
~~~~***~~~~
FRANK HANNA, M. D., is one of the veteran and honored physicians and
surgeons of Pottawattamie County, where he has been established in the practice
of his profession in the attractive little City of Walnut during a period
of more than half a century and where he has made his influence large and
benignant both as a citizen and as a physician and surgeon whose able
ministrations have here constituted a communal asset. The doctor has
been identified closely with the development and progress of his home community
and is one of its best known and most revered citizens.
Doctor Hanna was born in Licking County Ohio, October 16, 1846, and is a
son of Andrew G. and Lavina (Sharp) Hanna, who became the parents of four
sons and two daughters. Of the surviving children Dr. Frank Hanna of
this review is the eldest; Andrew has long been identified with mining operations
and is now a resident of Colorado; Ruth is the wife of J. M. Dinwiddle, president
of the Cedar Rapids Savings Bank, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Andrew G. Hanna
was born in Pennsylvania, and was engaged in the milling business in Richland
County, near Mansfield, Ohio, many years. Both he and his wife came
to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1852, and resided in this state up to the time of
their death. Both were earnest members of the Presbyterian Church,
and he was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party.
One of the sons, the late Col. John T. Hanna, served during the entire
period of the Civil war, and gained prominence as a sharpshooter. He
was advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and he continued in service
after the close of the war, in command of a negro regiment, his honorable
discharge having been accorded in the latter part of the year 1866.
The early education of Dr. Frank Hanna was acquired in Iowa City. He
was a youth when he came to Iowa and gained his measure of pioneer honors.
In preparing for his profession he profited by the advantages of the
medical department of the University of Iowa and took further studies in
a leading medical school in the City of Chicago. During the first tow
years of his professional career he was engaged in practice at Iowa City,
the seat of the University of Iowa, and on the 9th of April, 1873, he established
his residence at Walnut, Pottawattamie County, which place was at that time
a mere hamlet. Here he has continued in the practice of his profession
during the long intervening years, and in years of continuous practice he
is now the virtual dean of his profession in this county. He is an honored
member of the Pottawattamie County Medical Society, the Cass County Medical
Society and the Iowa State Medical Society.
Doctor Hanna has ever been loyal and progressive as a citizen, is a staunch
Republican in political allegiance, is affiliated with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his wife
is an active member of the Presbyterian Church in her home community, where
likewise she has long been a loved personality in the communal social life.
In 1880 Doctor Hanna was united in marriage to Miss Huldah Vanderburg, who
was born in the State of New York, and who was reared and educated in Iowa,
her father, James D. Vanderburg, who had been a tanner in the old Empire
State, having become one of the pioneer farmers of Iowa, where he and his
wife passed the remainder of their lives. Doctor and Mrs. Hanna have
no children, but during the long years of their residence in Walnut the children
of the community have been numbered among their most loyal and appreciative
friends, as one generation has followed another.
~~~~***~~~~
EDWARD ALBERT HANSKE, past president of the Jackson County Medical
Society, is a resident of Bellevue, and that community has known him in the
capacity of a skilled and experienced physician and surgeon for nearly thirty
years.
Bellevue is his native town. He was born there July 4, 1872, son of
Frank and Mary (Hassig) Hanske. His father was born in Baden and his
mother in Saxony, Germany, and were brought to America when children.
After their marriage, at Galena, Illinois, they moved across the river
to Bellevue, Iowa, where the father was in business as a general merchant.
Frank Hanske died in 1880, at the age of forty-two. He was survived
by his widow until 1926. They had a family of four sons and one daughter:
William J., Frank F., Lee, Bertha and Edward Albert.
Edward Albert Hanske was eight years of age when his father died. As
a boy he was under the necessity of providing at least in part for his
own living, and he achieved the goal of his ambition not without overcoming
many obstacles in the way. In 1891 he was graduated from the Bellevue
High School. After a course in the School of Pharmacy in the Highland
Park College at Des Moines he returned to Bellevue in 1895 and for two years
had charge of the drug business of Ahlers & Son. In 1897 he entered
the Medical College at Louisville, Kentucky, was graduated M. D. in 1901,
and in March of the same year returned to his home town qualified for the
practice of medicine and surgery. Doctor Hanske has measured up to
the ideals of a very capable doctor. The opportunities of his own
experience have been supplemented by post-graduate work. He attended
Harvard Medical College at Boston in 1907 and the Johns Hopkins University
College of Medicine at Baltimore in 1912. Doctor Hanske is a member
of the Iowa state and American Medical Associations, and during the World
war was chairman of the local Red Cross Chapter. He is a Presbyterian,
a Republican, and his Masonic affiliations are with Bellevue Lodge No. 51,
A. F. and A. M., Bath Kol Chapter No. 94, Royal Arch Masons, at Maquoketa,
Tancred Commandery No. 40, Knights Templar, at Maquoketa, and Kaaba Temple
of the Mystic Shrine at Davenport.
Doctor Hanske married, November 23, 1910, Miss Anna Fetzner. Her parents,
Valentine and Elizabeth (Roster) Fetzner, formerly lived at Brownsville,
Minnesota, and later at Bellevue, Iowa. Doctor and Mrs. Hanske have
one son, Edward A., Jr., born December 16, 1922.
~~~~***~~~~ p. 205
REV. JOSEPH M. HANSON. In the life and work of Rev.
Joseph M. Hanson, pastor of the Church of the Visitation in Des Moines, is
exemplified the high standards in spirituality and scholarship of the Catholic
clergy, and probably no man of his sacred calling stands any higher in popular
esteem. He was born in Iowa County, Iowa, August 13, 1866, a son of Joseph and
Bridget (Morrin) Hanson, natives of Ireland. Both came to Iowa, he about 1850,
and she about 1852. They are now deceased, but for many years were farmers of
Iowa County. Nine children were born to them, of whom seven are living, and
Father Hanson was the second child in order of birth. One sister became a nun,
and was known as Sister Presentation, but she is now deceased. The parents were
Catholics and the father was a Democrat. A man of liberal education, Joseph
Hanson attended the country schools in Ireland and the schools of Iowa City,
after his arrival in Iowa, and later taught country schools for a time. He also
learned the carpenter trade, and worked at it as well as farming. His father,
Michael Hanson, was also an early settler of Iowa County, where he died, and his
remains were laid to rest in the Catholic Cemetery at Iowa City. The maternal
grandfather, Peter Morrin, was one of the pioneer farmers of Iowa County, to
which locality he came from Ireland, and where he spent the remainder of his
life.
Rev. Joseph M. Hanson attended the country schools of Iowa
County, and later Saint Ambrose College, Davenport, Iowa, from which he was
graduated in 1892, after which he entered Kenrick Seminary, Saint Louis, and
completed his studies at Saint Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland, where he
was ordained to the priesthood in June, 1897, by Cardinal Gibbons, after which
he taught for one year in Saint Ambrose College at Davenport, Iowa. His first
parish was at Avoca, Iowa, and he remained there for six years. While at Avoca
he built the rectory and remodeled the church. He was then transferred to
Dunlap, Iowa, which position he held for sixteen years. During the period he was
at Dunlap, Father Hanson erected a beautiful school and Sisters' home. From
there he went to Stuart, Iowa, and during the four years he was there he
purchased additional property for the church and erected the parish school. With
this excellent record behind him as an executive, he came to Des Moines January
10, 1924, and took charge of the Church of the Visitation at East Ninth and
Garfield.
The parish was established in 1882 and was then located at
East Ninth and Walnut streets. This property was purchased by the state in 1914
in order to establish a park surrounding the capital. At the same time the
parish had grown to such large proportions that the Right Reverend Austin
Dowling, then bishop of Des Moines, divided the parish in 1915, the east half
being given to the new Saint Peter's parish, while the remaining portion
constituted the new Visitation, ground was purchased and the new parish school,
rectory and basement church were erected at the present location. In 1926 the
church and Sisters' home were built. There is an excellent school, with 240
pupils enrolled. The church has a membership of about 1400 souls. Father Hanson
is a fourth degree Knight of Colombus, and in the smaller towns in which he has
lived he has served his order as chaplain. A man of energy, enthusiasm, devoted
to his work, and determined to advance his people, Father Hanson is never weary
in doing well. He does not confine his work to hose of his own creed, but is
ever willing to assist in promoting all worthy measures for the advancement of
his city, and is one of the leading citizens of Des Moines.
KEITH C. HARDER, superintendent of schools at Woodbine, began his
career as an educator in his native State of Ohio and has ben an Iowa school
man since 1922.
He was born at Radcliff, Ohio, December 11, 1897, son of Herbert R. and Emma
Ethel (Fitzpatrick) Harder. His parents are residents of Wilkesville,
Ohio. Mr. Harder had his first advantages in country schools in Ohio,
and after graduating from high school in 1916 entered Ohio University.
During 1917-18 he taught at Zaleski, Ohio, and left the school room
to join the colors, enlisting in the Naval Aviation Corps. For two
and a half months he was in training at the Dunwoody Institute at Minneapolis,
Minnesota. After the armistice he returned home, was high school principal
four months, and for five months attended the Municipal University of Akron,
Ohio. He was paying his way while in this school by work in the Goodrich
rubber factory. He then returned to Ohio University and in 1920 graduated
Bachelor of Science in education. In Ohio he was principal of the high
school at Fayette, principal of the high school at Fairfield, and of the
Fairfield Centralized at Columbiana, Ohio.
On coming to Iowa Mr. Harder served as principal of the school of Lamoni
from 1922 to 1924. During 1924-25 he was in Iowa State College at Ames,
doing work that earned him the Master of Science degree. In addition
to his college degrees Mr. Harder is a man eminently qualified by character
and personal temperament for the work of an educator. He belongs to
various teachers organizations and is a member of the fraternities Phi Kappa
Phi and Gamma Sigma Delta at Ames, and the Lambda Delta Sigma of Graceland
College at Lamoni.
Mr. Harder from 1925 to 1929 was superintendent of schools at Bonaparte,
Iowa, and left there in September, 1929, to take up his duties as superintendent
at Woodbine. His first year's work has made a very favorable impression
on the community. Mr. Harder is a member of the Orphans Friend Lodge
of Masons at Wilkesville, Ohio, and belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter at
Bonaparte, Iowa. In religion he is a member of the Latter Day Saints
Church. He married Myra B. Nelson, a native of Cherry County, Nebraska,
and their two children are Keith Cyril, Jr., and Doris Elaine.
~~~~***~~~~
MARTIN HARDSOCG has proved himself a man of thought and action, progress
has been his watchword, courage and determination have been his constructive
implements, and his genius and his powers have worked not only to his advantage
but also to the industrial prestige of the State of Iowa and its City of
Ottumwa, the judicial center of Wapello County, where he has developed
manufacturing establishments and enterprises of major importance. Further
interest attaches to the career of this honored and self-made captain of industry
by the reason of the fact that he was reared in Wapello County, where his
parents established the family home in the early pioneer days and when he
was a lad of but five years. Work and service indicated this man of
thought and action, and he has not only won but also merited the substantial
success that has attended his well ordered efforts. Though he has passed
the psalmist's span of three score years and ten Mr. Hardsocg still functions
as the executive head of the three great industrial concerns that he has
built up in the City of Ottumwa - the Hardsocg Manufacturing Company, the
Hardsocg Wonder Drill Company and the Hardsocg Well Drill Company. He
is president of each of these corporations.
Martin Hardsocg, inventor and manufacturer, was born in Germany, April 20,
1852, and is a son of Christopher and Caroline Hardsocg, who, with their
son and daughter, came to the United Stats in 1857, they having disembarked
in the port of New York City and having thence continued their westward journey
to Iowa. From Burlington, this state, they drove overland to Agency,
Wapello County, where they established a new home in a new land.
Christopher Hardsocg had been identified with linen manufacturing in
his native land, but his implacable objection to the enforced military service
demanded in Germany led to his immigration to the United States and to the
initiation of his pioneer experiences in Iowa, which state was then on the
virtual frontier. His limited financial resources were exhausted at
the time of his arrival in Wapello County, and both he and his wife worked
at such odd jobs as they could find, the absence of flax having precluded
their working at linen-making, in which they were skilled. Mr. Hardsocg
constructed a rude wheelbarrow with which to haul wood for fires in the log
house that he rented at Agency, where he later erected for the family a
substantial brick house. Christopher Hardsocg struggled valiantly against
adverse conditions, and by hard work made provision for his family. He
assisted in construction of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad, and later
worked as a section man on its line. The passing years brought him
a greater degree of independence, and he never regretted having come to the
United States and to the Hawkeye State, where he died at the age of seventy-nine
years, his wife likewise having died at a venerable age and the subject of
this review being their only son.
Martin Hardsocg was reared under the conditions and influences that marked
the pioneer days in Wapello County. Here as a boy he learned the English
language, and here he received limited training in the pioneer schools. At
the age of fifteen years he began his apprenticeship to the trade of blacksmith,
his compensation during his three years of apprenticeship having been fifty
dollars a year and his board. He liked working in metals and became
a skilled artisan. He worked at his trade at Smoky Hollow, a coal mining
camp near Ottumwa, and there he established a shop of his own, in a building
constructed from waste strips from a saw mill. He was nineteen years
of age when he there married Mrs. Malinda Edwards, a widowed stepdaughter
of his former employer, George Thornton, and thereafter he followed his trade
at other points in Wapello County, his rather negative success having led
him to find employment in a stone quarry one summer, and his experience in
this connection having been of value to him when he later invented his now
celebrated Little Wonder drill. He was employed in coal mines about
four years, and for a time he was employed at the Grimes Wagon Works, Ottumwa,
and in this city he established permanent residence in 1880. In the
meanwhile he had engaged in the manufacturing of his hand-power drill for
use in coal mines, and had sold the drills personally at various mines in
this section of the state. Study, experimentation and experience enabled
him to make improvements in drilling devices and tool hardening, and his
Wonder drill eventually became known and was used in mining operations throughout
the United States, as well as in foreign lands. His first factory,
one of most modest order, was at Avery, Monroe County, and after centering
his interests at Ottumwa he here built up the great manufacturing concerns
that perpetuate and honor his name and the products of which find demand
far and wide. He became one of the nation's successful manufacturers
of well drills, mining tools, etc., and the factories have kept pace with
the march of improvement and progress in the passing years. The Hardsocg
industries at Ottumwa have contributed greatly to the commercial prestige
of Iowa, and stand as enduring monuments to their honored founder. Mr.
Hardsocg has recently sold his interest in large part to his sons, but he
still continues to be financially and in an executive way connected with
the splendid concerns that were developed by him.
Mr. Hardsocg has been one of the world's constructive workers, a reliable
and successful business man and a loyal and appreciative citizen. He
has had no desire for participation in so-called practical politics, but is
well fortified in his convictions and gives staunch allegiance to the movements
of the day.
The year 1871 recorded the marriage of Mr. Hardsocg to Mrs. Malinda (Webb)
Edwards, and their children are six in number, two of them being of the first
marriage of Mrs. Hardsocg, whose first husband had been a loyal soldier of
the Union in the Civil war, his death having occurred within a comparatively
short time after the close of that conflict.
~~~~***~~~~
CONREID R. HARKIN, physician and surgeon, is the professional man
through whose vision and enterprise the community of Osceola is indebted
for a hospital service and facilities equal to the best in this section of
Southern Iowa.
Doctor Harkin was born in Jefferson County, Iowa, December 18, 1884, son
of Walter D. and Mary (Jones) Harkin. As a youth he set his mind on
a professional career, and his earnestness and natural qualifications have
enabled him to realize a worthy ambition in his chosen calling. After
finishing high school he spent a year teaching. He then entered the
State University of Iowa, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1907.
Since graduating he has accepted many opportunities to improve his
technique and skill in surgery, taking post-graduate work and attending clinics
all over the United States.
The Harkin Hospital, at Osceola, was founded in 1911, under the supervision
and ownership of Doctor Harkin. It has become an institution of high
standing, thoroughly quipped and with a personnel of staff of the highest
type available. The institution's growth and development has frequently
required the investment of new capital to meet the increasing demands.
Doctor Harkin is a member of the Des Moines Academy of Medicine, the
County and Iowa State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association.
He married, in 1909, Miss Edna M. Emery, who was born in Clarke County, Iowa,
daughter of Fred and Esther (Jones) Emery. She is a graduate of Des
Moines University and was a teacher in Iowa schools before her marriage.
They have two sons, Dwight Emery and Walter Alden. Dwight completed
his premedical work in Harvard University, graduating with the class of 1931,
while Walter Alden recently graduated from the Osceola High School and expects
to enter premedical training.
~~~~***~~~~
PAUL N. HARKSEN has been one of the most constructive factors in the
business and civic affairs of the town of Gooselake, Clinton County, where
he has lived most of his life. Among other affiliations that mark him
as an outstanding citizen of that community is his position as postmaster
and as head of the lumber and hardware firm of Paul N. Harksen & Son.
Mr. Harksen was born in Germany, September 18, 1877, and four years later
his parents, Ludwig and Paulina (Petersen) Harksen, came to America and settled
in Clinton County, Iowa. The family for nearly half a century have
been well known for their industry and thrifty habits. His father was
a wagon maker by trade, and worked in that line for two years near Lyons,
then lived two years at Bryant and for eight years had his home at Gooselake.
he then rented a 160 acre farm near Low Moor and was engaged in farming
on that place until his death in 1912. The widowed mother now lives
with her daughter, Mrs. Henry Peterson, of Low Moor. The children of
the parents were Paul N., Peter, Johannas, Alvin, Louis, Harry, Alfred, Ida,
who became the wife of Hugo Reimer of Elvira, and Lena, wife of Henry Peterson,
of Low Moor.
Paul N. Harksen had the advantages of the public schools at Gooselake.
When he was eleven years of age an arrangement was made with a neighboring
farmer that he should live with him and work for him for three years at a
salary of $6.25 per month. When this contract was finished at the age
of fourteen he began an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade. Mr.
Harksen has been a factor in the building industry of this locality ever
since. Form journeyman work as a carpenter he entered into the business
as a general contractor, and still carries that on. For the purpose
of facilitating his work in this business of contracting he started a lumber
yard in 1901. In 1914 an addition was made to his enterprise by the
purchase of Charles Buech's hardware store. This combined the lumber
and hardware business, together with general contracting, all three of which
lines are embraced in the business of the firm of Paul N. Harksen & Son.
Mr. Harksen has continuously officiated as postmaster of Gooselake since
1914. The post office is housed in his store building. He owns
two other town properties. Mr. Harksen has given much other public
service to his community, having served six years as mayor and for six years
as president of the school board. He is a Republican in politics, a
member of the German Lutheran Church and is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity and Woodmen of the World.
Mr. Harksen married, February 5, 1902, Miss Ida Kruse, daughter of Peter
and Lena (Glese) Kruse. Her parents were natives of Germany and her
father came to this country when about fifteen years of age and spent his
active life on a farm near Gooselake. Both her parents are now deceased.
The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Harksen is Harold, now business partner
with his father. Harold Harksen married Emma Dimesley, of Keota, Iowa.
~~~~***~~~~
PHILANDER L. HARPER, retired banker living at Chariton, is a native
son of Iowa, and a citizen of whom the state may well be proud, because of
his career as a business man and citizen with a rich and varied experience
and a long record of constructive activities both in his home state and in
the adjoining State of Nebraska.
Mr. Harper seems to have inherited the instincts of the pioneer, the urge
to explore new countries, and help carry on the work of civilization, the
founding of new communities. In a way he had some satisfaction of these
instincts in Iowa, but more so in Western Nebraska, where he is still remembered
as a town builder and one of the outstanding men of prominence in Lincoln
County.
Mr. Harper was born at Knoxville, Marion County, Iowa, February 20, 1852,
son of John W. and Salina (Dixon) Harper. His parents grew up near
Crawfordsville, Indiana. The Dixon family came originally from Kennett
Square, Chester County, Pennsylvania. John W. Harper in 1848 established
his home at Knoxville, Iowa, and was a merchant in that town until his death
in 1855. His widow survived him many years and passed away at the age
of seventy-one, while visiting her daughter at Portland, Oregon.
In 1861, when Mr. Harper was nine years old, his mother settled on a large
farm near Osceola in Clarke County, Iowa. Through this region passed
the great emigration bound for the western states and territories, and furnishing
supplies to stock shippers and westward bound emigrants was a very important
part of local commerce, and it was through a working connection with these
interests that Philander L. Harper acquired his fundamental business training,
a knowledge that proved of increasing value to him in his later years.
At an early age was impressed upon him the significance of the growing West.
In 1867, when he was about fifteen years old, he rode out over the
country on horseback to the place that later became Corning, Iowa. He
recalls his thoughts as he rode over this high country, covered with tall,
wild grass. He endeavored to vision for himself the future, wondering
if he would ever live to see this district under cultivation and improved
with farms and village communities. As a matter of fact it was not
many years before this anticipation was realized, and in its realization
he had the personal satisfaction of knowing that he had helped bring about
the upbuilding of Corning as a thriving little city. Mr. Harper had
completed his education in the public schools at Osceola in 1868 and then
graduated from the Bryant and Stratton Business College at Burlington.
Returning to Corning, he was associated with his brother-in-law, Mr.
Sigler, in the mercantile business, and after a few months he assisted Mr.
Sigler in organizing the Bank of Corning, and became cashier of that bank,
which for a number of years was the only banking institution in Adams County.
He held that position for ten years, ill health finally compelling
him to give up his duties as a banker in the fall of 1879.
He then moved to a large farm near Osceola, where he and his mother owned
a section of land, operating it as a stock farm. During the next
four years he lived outdoors and took part in a rather strenuous program
as a farmer and stock man, and in the fall of 1883 moved into Osceola and
for two years was engaged in a horse and cattle business, shipping stock
in all directions.
In 1886 Mr. Harper transferred his active interests from Southern Iowa to
what was then a thoroughly typical western community, Lincoln County, Nebraska.
As an associate member of the Lincoln Land Company he established the
town of Wallace and also founded the Wallace Security Bank of Wallace, Nebraska.
Following the panic of 1893 he liquidated the Wallace Security Bank
by paying the depositors in full and surrendering its charter to the banking
board, after which he established the Citizens Security Bank of Wallace and
served as its president, while Z. S. Harper was vice president. The
history of this thriving and progressive Nebraska community could not well
be written without repeated references to Mr. Harper's activities and influence.
In addition to being the leading banker, he established, in 1895, the
Wallace Elevator Company, and for over forty years has been interested in
farming and ranching lands in that vicinity. Some of his lands are
located in Perkins County, Nebraska. For many years he gave his personal
supervision to his live stock holdings in that state. Mr. Harper has
always been a stanch Republican in politics, and most of his political activities
were in the State of Nebraska. He was a member of the first town board
of Wallace, served as treasurer of the school board, was vice chairman of
the Lincoln County central committee and because of the absence of the chairman
presided over the committee in most of its meetings. He was a delegate
to numerous county and state conventions, and in any list of influential
Republican leaders of Nebraska during the past forty years the name of P.
L. Harper would be included. He was a member of the building committee of
the Methodist Episcopal Church at Wallace and has always derived a great
deal of satisfaction from the fact that the church building was paid for
in the panic year of 1893, when churches and nearly all other institutions
in the West were having a difficult struggle to exist at all. He served
for a great many years as a trustee of the church of Wallace, and from 1890
to 1896 was a trustee of the Nebraska Wesleyan University of University Place,
Nebraska, and contributed of his wisdom and experience as a financier and
business man to solving many of the problems confronting that splendid school.
Mr. Harper married at Chariton, Iowa, in January, 1889, Miss Zora Stewart,
who was born at Albia, Iowa, and was about a year old when she was taken
to Chariton by her parents, George Judson and Amanda (Cramer) Stewart. The
Stewart family have lived in Iowa since territorial times. Mr. and
Mrs. Harper have two daughters. The older, Eloise, is the wife of Robert
V. Evans, of Wallace, Nebraska, and has four sons, Stewart Harper, John Robert,
Frederick Smith and Donald Evans. The daughter Helen is the wife of
Peter M. LaVelle, also of Wallace, Nebraska, and their three children are
Franklin Harper, Peter Clayton and Barbara Ann.
Mr. and Mrs. Harper now occupy the fine old homestead at Chariton which for
many years, was the home of Mrs. Harper's parents. It stands as a landmark
of an old generation in Iowa affairs and is one of the very beautiful places
in Chariton. Mrs. Harper is a woman of intellectual attainments and
business ability and is a fine representative of the pioneer element of Iowa
citizenship.
While Mr. Harper has been active in politics his ambition has not been satisfied
by the rewards of public office, but by the broad constructive service he
could render through his qualifications as a business man. In this
way he has been able to wield an influence in the changing destiny of several
prosperous localities in the Middle West, and in a career that has in every
way reflected material success he has also enjoyed those intangible rewards
given to a man in the form of the honor and respect paid by a community to
those who exemplify integrity, the high character of public honesty and
responsibility. Now dividing his time between the two states, his career
reflects credit on his native State of Iowa, and on the newer State of Nebraska,
where his children and grandchildren are active citizens today.
~~~~***~~~~
JOSEPH LAWRENCE HARMAN was a resident of Ottumwa for over forty years.
That community came to know and respect his business judgment, his
helpful spirit in all civic matters, and his earnestness and probity in all
the varied relationships of life.
Mr. Harman was born in Highland County, Ohio, July 21, 1840, a son of David
and Esther (Lawrence) Harman. David Lawrence was a native of the Shenandoah
Valley, Virginia, and after living in Ohio for many years came out to Iowa
and spent his last years in Wapello County. Joe L. Harman was reared
and educated in his native state, and joined an Ohio regiment for service
in the Civil war. He was a brave and dutiful soldier until the end,
coming out with the rank of first lieutenant.
Shortly after the war closed he came west and settled at Ottumwa and engaged
in the insurance business. He was well educated, had a superior knowledge
of accountancy, and he brought his skill and judgment to an increasingly
successful business career. Mr. Harman passed away December 16, 1907.
He married, September 10, 1867, Miss Maggie Zollars, who survives him and
resides in Ottumwa. Mrs. Harman was born in Carroll County, Ohio, January
17, 1846, daughter of Danile and Mary Ann (Druckemiller) Zollars. Her
father was a native of Pennsylvania, lived in Ohio for some years and in
1854 came out to Iowa and settled on a farm on the outskirts of Ottumwa in
Wapello County. He afterwards accumulated a large body of land, and
eventually turned the farm into additions to the City of Ottumwa, numbering
six additions in all. The Zollars home in early days was widely known
for its hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Zollars were devout Christians, members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mrs. Harman for forty years has been an earnest member of the Christian Science
Church. She is a recognized practitioner, and she spent a great deal
of time in Boston as a student in the Christian Science institution there.
Mrs. Harman was the mother of two children. Her daughter, Lillie,
who has passed away, was the wife of Ben S. Benson, and is survived by a
daughter, Mary Katherine, who has always lived with her grandmother, Mrs.
Harman. The son of Mrs. Harman is J. Frank, who married Flora Kurtzaborn,
of St. Louis, and has two daughters, Dorothy and Marjory.
~~~~***~~~~
FRANK L. HARRINGTON is a native son of Dewitt, Clinton County, and
has made a successful record there in business affairs and in devotion to
the best interests of the community.
He was born at Dewitt November 11, 1893, son of James S. and Harriet (Naylor)
Harrington. His father was also a native of Iowa, while his mother
was born in New York State and came to Iowa in 1890. His parents are
farmers near Dewitt. Their four children are: Mary, wife of Herbert
E. Wilkinson, of Dewitt, Chauncey S., George A. and Frank L.
Frank L. Harrington after graduating from the Dewitt High School, in 1912,
spent two years in Iowa State College at Ames. For two years he was
associated with his brother in operating the home farm and for five years
engaged in farming on his own account. In the meantime he had his military
experience during the World war. He served in Battalion No. 122 of
the Engineers Corps and went to France in September, 1918. He was overseas
nearly a year, returning home in 1919.
Mr. Harrington's experience as a practical farmer gave him a solid basis
on which to build a business career when in January, 1926, he started the
Frank L. Harrington Implement Company. He has a store building and
two lots at 513 Eighth Street, affording him room for carrying on his business
as representative of the John Deere and Rock Island lines of implements and
machinery.
Mr. Harrington married, January 29, 1918, Miss Mina M. Mulky, daughter of
Daniel B. and Margaret Mulky, now deceased. Her father for many years
was located at Knoxville, Iowa, as horse buyer for the eastern market. The
two children of Mr. and Mrs. Harrington are Dorothy and Robert.
Mr. Harrington in the spring of 1929 was elected a member of the Dewitt
School Board. He is a Republican, is a thirty-second degree Scottish
Rite Mason, member of the American Legion, the Dewitt Community Club and
the Congregational Church.
~~~~***~~~~
GROVE W. HARRIS, M. D. Included among the men who are prominently
identified with the medical profession of Iowa is Dr. Grove W. Harris, who
has been engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery at Marshalltown
since 1911. Known as a capable diagnostician, an able practitioner
and a careful and skilled operator, he has attracted to himself a large and
representative practice and has won his way fairly to a leading place among
the members of his difficult and humane science.
Doctor Harris was born at Lamoille, Marshall County, Iowa, July 24, 1882,
and is a son of George W. and Ella S. (Burgess) Harris. George W. Harris
was born at Batavia, New York, where he was educated for the medical profession,
and practiced there until 1874, in which year he moved to Lamoille, Iowa,
and continued his professional work with added success until 1887, at that
time taking up his permanent residence and headquarters at Marshalltown,
where he lived until his death in 1921. He became well and favorably
known in his profession, was a progressive practitioner and a close student,
and a member of all of the medical organizations. In 1873, at Batavia,
he married Ella S. Burgess, who was born at that place in 1838, and who still
survives, and they became the parents of the following children: Dr.
Grove W., of this review; Mrs. Harry Belmore, secretary of the Halsey Stewart
Bonding Company of Chicago; Florence G., private secretary to the vice president
of the Halsey Stewart Bonding Company of Chicago; and George W., who died
at Lamoille, Iowa, when two and one-half years of age.
Grove W. Harris attended the public schools of Marshalltown, and after his
graduation from high school entered Marion Sims College, Saint Louis, Missouri,
now Saint Louis University, which he attended from 1900 until 1904, graduating
in the latter year with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He commenced
practice in that year at Ferguson, Iowa, where he remained until 1911 and
then became a permanent resident of Marshalltown, where he has since built
up a large practice in general medicine and surgery, and occupies offices
at 106-8 East Main Street. Doctor Harris is a member of the Marshall
County Medical Society, the Iowa Medical Society and the American Medical
Association and occupies a recognized position in his profession. Although
he centers the greater part of his interest in his professional duties he
has never been indifferent to the duties of citizenship and has always been
a supporter of the measures which have contributed to the betterment and
advancement of Marshalltown, its institutions and its people. He is
a consistent member of the Congregational Church.
On April 29, 1908, at Marshalltown, Doctor Harris was united in marriage
with Miss Clara B. Ketchum, daughter of Nathaniel S. Ketchum, manufacturer
of the Ketchum wagon, the first wagon made west of the Mississippi River.
He also served as railroad commissioner of Iowa with Dwight Lewis until
his death. To Doctor and Mrs. Harris there has been born one child:
Helen Elizabeth, born October 28, 1916, a student at the Marshalltown
High School. The pleasant and attractive family home is at 533 West
Third Street.
~~~~***~~~~
IRVING C. HASTINGS has been a member of the Iowa bar since 1910, and
his chief work as a lawyer and citizen has been done in Garner, Hancock County.
Mr. Hastings is a native of New England, but has lived practically
all his life in Iowa.
He was born at Corinth, Vermont, May 9, 1886, son of Charles C. and Louise
A. (Avery) Hastings. Both the Hastings and Avery families were represented
by soldiers in the Revolutionary war, and Mrs. Louise Hastings was eligible
for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Hastings
family in America was founded by four brothers who came over in Colonial
times, two settling in New England and two in Virginia.
Charles C. Hastings was a merchant and business man all his life. In
1888 he brought his family to Iowa and for four years conducted a general
mercantile business at Cherokee. His next location was Spencer, and
after he sold his local interests as a merchant he was on the road as a traveling
salesman for Chicago wholesale grocery house until his death on March 4,
1925. His wife died March 11, 1911. He was a Republican and at
one time was a candidate for the Iowa State Senate. Irving C. Hastings
has two children: Glee L., wife of Z. M. Dervend, of New York City,
and Ruth J., wife of W. J. Wiese, of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Irving C. Hastings was educated at Spencer, and after one year in high school
there entered Culver Military Academy in Indiana, where he was graduated
in 1905. For two years he pursued the academic course in the University
of Iowa and then entered the law school of the university, from which he
was graduated LL. B. in 1910. Mr. Hastings practiced at Algona, Iowa,
until 1914, when he removed to Garner. Here he was associated in
partnership with J. E. Wichman until the latter's death on March 28, 1929,
and he is now conducting an extensive law business alone. He served
as county attorney of Hancock County during 1915-19 and during the World
war was local appeal officer and in 1918 entered the Officers Training School
at Camp Pike, Arkansas. The armistice came before he received a commission.
Mr. Hastings has been a member of the Garner School Board. He is a
Republican, is a charter member of the local post of the American Legion,
belongs to the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and Council of Masons, is a
member of the Lions Club, Sigma Chi and Alpha Delta Phi.
He married, September 8, 1914, Miss Emma K. Miller, of Spencer, Iowa, daughter
of Albert W. and Emma S. (Lamar) Miller. Her father was a banker, having
organized the First National Bank at Spencer and was its president until
his death. Mrs. Hastings has three sisters and one brother: Laura
A., Mrs. J. A. Gilbreath, Jessie B., wife of N. Legsbeth, Albert W., of Spencer,
and Bessie G., who is Mrs. J. A. Wilson, of California. Mr. and Mrs.
Hastings have a son, Charles A., born July 16, 1915.
~~~~***~~~~
IRA PAGE HATCH was one of the prominent citizens of Lyon County, an
early settler, for many years a practical farmer, and his progressiveness
and intellectual interest were widely recognized. He was a man very
successful and influential.
He was born at Knightstown, Indiana, in 1853, son of Harry and Hester Ann
(Muzzy) Hatch. In 1861, when he was eight years of age, the family
came out to Iowa and settled at Tipton in Cedar County. Here he attended
public school, completed a course in the Davenport Business College in 1873,
and during the following four years his work was in the lumbering business.
He was a farmer near Tipton from 1877 to 1881.
Mr. Hatch in 1881 moved to Lyon County and bought a half section of land.
From 1881 for about twenty-eight years his chief business in Lyon County
was farming. His home place was situated four miles northwest of the
town of George. As a citizen, whether living in the country or in town,
he always took an active part in Republican politics. Mr. Hatch in
1909 moved to the town of George, after which time he continued the direction
of his farm lands and other interests.
Mr. Hatch died December 6, 1927, after a long and very useful career. He
was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Modern Brotherhood
of America, and gave his generous support to both the Methodist and Presbyterian
churches. He married January 4, 1877, Miss Ellen Miller, daughter of
Charles and Roseanna Miller, who survived her husband only five months, having
died May 3, 1928. Mr. and Mrs. Hatch had a family of five children:
Grace, who was born in 1878 and died in infancy; Betha May, born in
1879, married A. E. Anderson and lives in New Orleans; Harry Charles; Sidney
Raymond was born in 1885 and is a mining engineer in Old Mexico, at Cananea,
Sonora; and Vera Blanche, born in April, 1897, died in November, 1919
Harry Charles Hatch, who was born September 7, 1881, grew up on the home
farm in Lyon County and has devoted his active life to electrical engineering,
farming and the supervision of the family landed interests. He was
educated in local common schools and high schools, spent one year in Drake
University at Des Moines, followed by four years at the State College at
Ames, graduating in 1911, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In
1912 he built the electric power plant at George, and operated the plant
until 1926, when he retired. He is a man of intelligence and broad
outlook. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity
and Knights of Pythias and a Presbyterian.
He married in June, 1912, Miss Pansy Horsefall, daughter of William and Emma
Horsefall. They have one daughter, Harriett M., born January 18, 1919.
~~~~***~~~~
HORACE M. HAVNER has been engaged in the practice of the law for more
than a quarter of a century, and has a secure place as one of the able and
successful members of that profession, having served his native state for
two terms as attorney general. He is now established in practice in
Des Moines, where his law business is one of a substantial and representative
nature. He has given special attention to corporation law and has won
standing both as a trial lawyer and counselor. Besides being a lawyer
of note he has achieved marked success as a business man. He has dealt
largely in real estate, especially Iowa lands, and now owns and operates
several Iowa farms. He also has large interests in Iowa as an executive.
His offices are maintained in the Insurance Exchange Building.
Mr. Havner is a representative of the third generation of the Havner family
in Iowa, and was born on a farm in Wayne County November 22, 1871. David
Havner, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born and reared in
Lincoln County, North Carolina. From North Carolina he came with his
family to the West and numbered himself among the sterling pioneer settlers
in Washington Township, Wayne County, Iowa, where he obtained a quarter-section
of land and reclaimed the same into a productive farm. On this pioneer
homestead he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives.
Horace M. Havner is a son of John D. and Rachel (Moore) Havner, the former
of whom was born in North Carolina and the latter in Ohio. The marriage
of the parents occurred in Wayne County, Iowa, both having been young when
the respective families there made settlement in the early '50s. The
father of Rachel Moore Havner was Burris Moore, who was born in Pennsylvania,
later became a resident of Ohio, and finally numbered himself among the pioneer
farmers in Wayne County, Iowa, where he and his wife remained until the close
of their lives. John D. Havner assisted in the reclaiming and developing
of the pioneer home farm in Wayne County, and there he eventually engaged
in farm enterprise in an independent way. He represented the Hawkeye
State as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he served
from 1862 until the close of the great conflict between the North and the
South in 1865. He was a member of Company I, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, and
the history of that command constitutes a virtual record of his active military
service. He was a Republican in politics, and he and his wife were
zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, both having continued
to maintain their home in Wayne County until their death and he having been
long and actively affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. Of
the five children three survive the honored parents: Frank holds a
position with the Pershing Coal Company at Pershing, Marion County, Iowa;
Horace M., of this sketch, is the next younger; and Nellie is the wife of
M. T. Brewer, M. D., who is a representative physician and surgeon engaged
in practice in the City of Des Moines. It may be noted in this connection
that Doctor Brewer was for a number of years a resident of Mexico, and there
served as an official surgeon for the Mexican Central Railroad. In
the World war period he served as a member of the Medical Corps of the United
States Army.
The district school near the old home farm in Wayne County afforded Horace
M. Havner his preliminary education, and thereafter he continued his studies
four years in Simpson College, this state. In June, 1899, he completed
his course in the law department of the University of Iowa, and his reception
of the degree of Bachelor of Laws was forthwith followed by his admission
to the bar of his native state. At Marengo, the county seat of Iowa
County, he initiated the practice of his profession and there became the
junior member of the law firm of Popham & Havner, in which his coadjutor
was the Hon. R. G. Popham, who is now serving on the bench of the Eighth
Judicial District of the state. This partnership alliance continued
until January, 1917, when Judge Popham took his position on the district
bench, and his partner, Mr. Havner, entered service as attorney general of
Iowa, both having been elected in November of the preceding year.
Mr. Havner reached the position of attorney general by very natural processes.
He had become an outstanding trial lawyer, his practice being varied
and general. He had evinced resourcefulness and skill, and had achieved
large success in prosecuting leading violators of the prohibitory laws of
the state. Mr. Havner tried the cases t put the open saloon out of
Iowa County, his home county, Johnson County, Mahaska County and Polk County,
the county which included the capital of the state, Des Moines, in which
were located eighty-six open saloons at the time the judgment of Ouster was
entered. The people thought they saw in him not only the efficient
lawyer, but a man of courage, and a man who had the will and ambition to
succeed in the position. His friends think they were not mistaken.
In the position of attorney general he gave a characteristically loyal and
efficient administration, was the incumbent of this office from January,
1917, until January, 1921, and thus he was in service during the entire period
of the nation's participation in the World war and consequently had to deal
with many problems and questions of exceptional importance. While thus
maintaining his executive headquarters in Des Moines, the capital city, he
continued to keep open his law office at Marengo, as senior member of the
law firm of Havner & Hatter, which became the virtual successor to the
business of the original law firm of Popham & Havner. After retiring
from the office of attorney general Mr. Havner resumed his law practice at
Marengo, but since June, 1923, he has maintained his home and professional
headquarters in Des Moines. During his term as attorney general of
Iowa he prosecuted some of the most important cases in the legal annals of
the state, among which were the Villisca Ax Murder case, in which eight people
were killed on the night of June 9, 1912; the famous Rathburn and O'Meara
rape case at Ida Grove, Iowa, in connection with which occurred the impeachment
proceedings with reference to Gov. W. L. Harding. In the trial of this
case a suit was brought by Mr. Havner as attorney general to cancel the pardon
issued by Governor Harding to Ernest Rathburn. This last suit established
for the first time in the judicial history of Iowa the right to cancel by
legal procedure a pardon issued by the governor where there was fraud used
by the person procuring the same.
In retrospection-while serving as attorney general of Iowa Mr. Havner derives
much pride and satisfaction that he had as assistant attorney generals some
of the most prominent men in the state today, namely: Judge Horace
H. Carter of Corydon, Iowa, Judge Freeman C. Davidson of Emmetsburg, Iowa,
Justice James W. Kindig of the Supreme Court of Iowa, Sioux City, Iowa, Judge
Shelby Cullison of Harlan, Iowa (now deceased), W. R. C. Kendrick, insurance
commissioner of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa, Hon. J. W. Sandusky of New Hampton,
Iowa, B. J. Powers of Des Moines, Iowa.
The political allegiance of Mr. Havner is given to the Republican party;
he has been influential in its councils in Iowa, has done his share in speaking
in many political campaigns, and from this state he was a delegate to the
Republican National Convention of 1912, which met in Chicago. On retiring
from the office of attorney general he was a candidate for the Republican
nomination for governor, and although he failed to reach the goal he made
a most creditable showing both in the primary and in the convention,
which had to select from the four aspirants. He is affiliated with
both York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and while a
student in the University of Iowa he there became affiliated with the Phi
Delta Phi law fraternity. He and his wife are earnest members of the
Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, and he is serving as
a member of its Board of Trustees. While living at Margeno his prominence
as a lay member of the church was signalized by his being elected four times
to membership in the General Conference, the conferences of 1908, 1912, 1916
and 1920, and by his being a member for eighteen years of the Book Committee,
the directing functionary when the General Conference is not in session,
of that great world religious organization. As a young man Mr. Havner
upheld the military honors of the family name by volunteering for and entering
service in the Spanish-American war. He enlisted soon after war was
declared, in 1898, and became a member of Company I, Fiftieth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry, his command having been stationed at Jacksonville, Florida, at
the time the war closed, and he having soon afterward received his honorable
discharge.
On the 3rd of January, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Havner and
Miss Ada Dean, who was born in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, daughter of the
late Warren Dean, who was born in the State of Rhode Island and who came
to Iowa about 1856 and established himself as a pioneer farmer in Pottawattamie
County, he having been one of the substantial and honored pioneer citizens
of the Hawkeye State at the time of his death, and having represented this
state as a loyal soldier of the Union during three years of the Civil
war. Mrs. Havner and her daughters are members of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, gaining their membership on the maternal side.
Mrs. Havner is a daughter of Georgianna (Hardenburgh) Dean, who recently
passed away at the age of eighty-five. She was a pioneer of Iowa, and
was descended from an early Dutch family who emigrated from Holland to Germany,
then settled in America, coming to Pine Bush, Ulster County, New York, from
whence her parents journeyed West in the early 1850's, settling in Cass County,
Iowa. Mrs. Havner passed the period of her childhood and early youth
on the home farm, and she supplemented the discipline of the public schools
by four years of study at Simpson College. Ada Dean, elder of the two
children of Mr. and Mrs. Havner, was graduated from the home economics department
of Iowa State College at Ames, and she is now the wife of Kenneth Jones,
a landscape architect, their home being in Davenport, Iowa. Rachel
Moore Havner, the younger daughter, remains at the at the parental home,
she having received the advantages of the celebrated Ward-Belmont School
in the City of Nashville, Tennessee, and is now a student in her Junior year
in the home economics department of Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa.
~~~~***~~~~
RUSSELL R. HAYES, manager of the Denison poultry and creamery products
plant of Armour & Company, has a knowledge of the business based upon
constant working experience since boyhood, and he not only knows the working
of the establishment but has the important asset of knowing personally
practically every patron of the business in the rural district around Denison.
Mr. Hayes was born at Denison, April 3, 1891. His father is Joseph
H. Hayes, who was born in Illinois, came to Crawford County, Iowa, when a
young man and was a successful farmer and stock raiser. For a time
he was in the commission business at Omaha. He and his wife are now
living retired at Denison. His wife was Mary Evans, who was born in
Wales. They are members of the Presbyterian Church.
Russell R. Hayes, one of a family of six children, was reared on a farm in
Crawford County and has an understanding of farm life and its conditions.
He attended public schools and completed a commercial course at the
old Denison Normal Business College. The first work he did away from
home was with the Fairmount Creamery Company of Omaha, where he remained
two years.
Returning to Denison, he joined the Nichols Produce Company. This was
an old organization, a collecting and buying agency for poultry, eggs and
cream, and Mr. Hayes worked in every department, getting a personal proficiency
that afterwards stood him in good stead as an executive. In 1915, when
the business was taken over by Armour & Company, one of the most valuable
parts of the purchase by the larger organization was Mr. Hayes himself.
Since July, 1927, he has held the post of manager of the business,
which is one of Armour & Company's main stations in Iowa for the collection
of Armour standard products of poultry, eggs and cream.
Mr. Hayes, on February 18, 1922, married Marian L. Johnson, who was born
in Crawford County, Iowa, daughter of D. O. and Katherine (Maloney) Johnson.
Her father, now deceased, was a Crawford County banker. Her mother
resides at Denison. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have three children, Mary Katherine,
Russell Robert, Jr., and Marian Lucille. Politically he is a Republican,
is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, Improved Order of Red
Men and American Legion Post No. 8 of Denison.
During the World war Mr. Hayes served with Headquarters Company No. 350,
Infantry, of the Eighty-eighth Division, and served with the A. E. F. in
France.
~~~~***~~~~
HON. W. C. HAYWARD left a strong impress upon the commercial life
of his home City of Davenport and over the state at large. He is recalled
for his leadership in the Republican party and particularly for his service
as secretary of state for many years.
W. C. Hayward died September 17, 1917, at the age of seventy years. He
was born in Cattaraugus County, New York, November 22, 1847, and was of English
and Scotch ancestry. In 1864, when he was seventeen years of age, his
parents moved out to Hancock County, Iowa, and in 1867 the family settled
in Winnebago County.
W. C. Hayward had the school advantages such as most boys of the Middle West
in his generation were able to secure. His experience included farm
work, clerking in a store, teaching two or three terms of school. At
the age of twenty-one he enrolled in the first class at the opening of the
Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames and remained
in that institution until the middle of his junior year.
After leaving college he had a career of varied and increasingly useful service.
He was surveyor of Winnebago County, was a half owner of the Winnebago
Press, and in 1873, at Garner in Hancock County, bought the Hancock
Signal and was editor of the paper and postmaster for eleven years. He
helped organize the City Bank of Garner and became its cashier. This
was later merged with the Hancock County Bank, becoming the First National
Bank.
W. C. Hayward subsequently became associated with William Finch in the firm
of Finch & Hayward, dealers in grain, coal and live stock. In 1886
the firm moved their headquarters to Davenport, and that was the home and
business center of Mr. Hayward the last thirty-five years of his life. The
firm operated a line of twenty-five stations in Iowa, Minnesota and South
Dakota. Mr. Hayward also helped organize and was one of the officers
of the company that built the so-called "Slippery Elm" railroad from below
Eldora to Iowa Falls and Alden. He was one of the organizers of the
Union Savings Bank of Davenport, served as its president for some years and
was president of the Davenport National Bank.
He was a member of the Davenport school board nine years, serving as president
of the board for seven years of this time. A staunch Republican, he
enjoyed the confidence of party leaders and his presence was regarded as
indispensable in all the councils of the state party. In 1897 he was
elected a member of the State Senate, and reelected in 1901, serving in the
Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eight, Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first General
Assemblies. In 1906 he was called to the responsibilities of the office
of secretary of state at Des Moines, and was twice reelected to that office.
After retiring from politics Mr. Hayward concentrated his attention
upon his business affairs, giving his attention largely to the Davenport
Ladder Company, of which he was president and principal owner. His
son Verner E., is now president and treasurer of this company.
W. C. Hayward married at Forest City, Iowa, May 1, 1872, Miss Della M. Draper.
They became the parents of four children. The son Roy F. Hayward
was an attorney at Bremerton, Washington, and died in 1928. Another
son, Burt W. Hayward, is in the real estate business at Long Beach, California.
Verner E. Hayward, who now represents the family at Davenport, was born in
that city, was well educated and as a young man became associated with his
father in the Davenport Ladder Company. He became president of the
business in 1917, after his father's death.
Mr. Verner Hayward married, in 1904, Kate Ford, a native of Manchester, Delaware
County, Iowa, and daughter of John Ford. They have three children:
William Ford Hayward, vice president of the Davenport Ladder Company;
Katherine B. now Mrs. Vernon W. Furrow, of Witten, South Dakota; and
John.
Verner E. Hayward has many of the social and civic characteristics of his
honored father. He has attained the supreme honorary thirty-third degree
in Scottish Rite Masonry, was master of Davenport Lodge No. 37 in 1911, is
a member of Davenport Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, St. Simon of Cyrene Commandery,
Knights Templar, and has been presiding officer of Zarephath Consistory.
He is a member of Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine and was president
of the Masonic Temple Association during the construction of the splendid
new temple at Davenport. He has for several years been a member of
the Davenport school board, of which he is now president. Mr. Hayward
is a past president of the Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, Outing Club,
Contemporary Club. He and his family are Methodists.
~~~~***~~~~
JOSEPH L. HECHT is vice president of French & Hecht, Inc., conducting
one of the outstanding industrial organizations of Davenport. The founders
of the business were Colonel French and Judge French. It was first
known as the Bettendorf Metal Wheel Company, starting in 1890. Since
1909, although without material change of ownership, the business has been
operated as French & Hecht. The plant and facilities largest exclusive
manufacturing of metal wheels in the world. The development and production
of the steel-spoke wheels are largely credited to the enterprise and originating
genius of this Davenport organization.
~~~~***~~~~
AGNES E. HEIGHTSHOE has made a record of long and successful service
as a teacher in the Iowa public schools, and in character, scholarship and
executive ability is admirably qualified for the administrative and supervisory
office of which she is now the incumbent, that of superintendent of the public
schools of the City of Perry, metropolis of Dallas County.
Agnes E. Heightshoe was born at Boone, judicial center of the Iowa county
of that name, and is the daughter of Samuel and Serena (Allen) Heightshoe,
who were respectively natives of Indiana and Ohio. Early in life they
moved with their parents to Wisconsin, and their marriage was solemnized at
Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1857. Both were successful teachers in the
schools of Wisconsin in the pioneer days.
Mr. and Mrs. Heightshoe likewise gained their quota of pioneer honors in
Iowa, for they came to Boone, Iowa, in the year 1864 and passed twenty years
of their lives there, Mr. Heightshoe engaging in the occupation of contractor
and builder. Early in the '80s the family moved to Perry, where they
continue to make their home. Mr. Heightshoe passed away August 16,
1916, when he was eighty-four years of age, and his widow's death occurred
April 7, 1926, at the venerable age of eighty-nine years, the names of both
meriting an enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Iowa, where
they lived and wrought to worthy ends and where they were held in unqualified
esteem.
Miss Agnes E. Heightshoe, the fourth in a family of five children, after
completing her high school course in Perry, Iowa, entered Iowa State Teachers
College at Cedar Falls, an institution then designated as Iowa State Normal
School, and from the same she received in 1893 the degree of Bachelor of
Didactics and later, in 1903 the degree of Master of Didactics. She
has been an enthusiast in her profession and has insistently kept in touch
with the advances made in educational service and system. Miss Heightshoe
availed herself of the summer sessions of the University of Iowa, from which
she received in 1911 the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Through graduate
work in the University of Chicago she gained, in 1928, the degree of Master
of Art with her major in education.
Miss Heightshoe began her services as a teacher in the public schools of
Perry, her first work having been in the primary department, from which she
was advanced to the intermediate grades and finally to the high school, of
which she was eventually made the principal. In 1922 she was elected
superintendent of the Perry public schools, and in this executive position
she has since continued the efficient, popular and valued incumbent; her
supervisory administration being over sixty-one teachers, one-third of the
number having been added to the staff since she assumed her present office.
It is a remarkable record that Miss Heightshoe has made in her thirty-six
years of consecutive service with the Perry public schools, and few have
equaled this duration of service in any one city. She has been insistently
the apostle of progress, has brought all departments of the Perry schools
to a high standard and has gained to them membership in the North Central
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and also obtained for the high
school a place on the list of cooperating schools with the University of
Chicago, a distinction that can be claimed by few cities of the same relative
population as that of Perry. Miss Heightshoe is a member of the O.
E. S., No. 142, Perry, and a charter member of Chapter D E - P. E. O; a member
of the Business and Professional Woman's Club of Perry, of the State and
National Education Associations and last, but not least, of the Presbyterian
Church.
~~~~***~~~~
ARAM GARABED HEJINIAN, M. D., F. A. C. S. Intrinsic individual
powers and talents have been worthily and effectively developed in the
personality of Doctor Hejinian and have given him secure place as one of
the representative physicians and surgeons of the Hawkeye State. His
high standing in his profession is attested by the fact that he is a Fellow
of the American College of Surgeons, the most distinguished professional
organization in the United States. Doctor Hejinian has been established
in the successful practice of his profession at Anamosa, judicial center
of Jones County, during a period of more than thirty years, and here he has
gained specially high reputation as a skilled and resourceful surgeon.
Doctor Hejinian was born at Arabkir, in the province of Harpoot, Armenia,
on the 25th of July, 1863, and is a son of Garabed A. and Suromaly Y. Hejinian.
Garabed Jejinian was a representative of one of the old, aristocratic
and influential families of Armenia and his life was one of honor and influential
service. During the period of the Crimean war he was local agent for
the province of Harpoot, under appointment by the English government, and
he retained this important pot until the close of that historic conflict.
For several years he was the civil head of the Protestant community
of Harpoot, which province he represented before the Turkish government.
He gave prolonged service as a member of the municipal council of Arabkir,
and held, during a period of about ten years, membership in the Court of
Commerce in Constantinople, besides which he held for more than seven years
the office of judge of the Court of Commerce at Van, province of Van. He
was influential in the Christian Church in his native land, was prominent
also in the advancing of education and was one of the foremost citizens of
his city and province. His death was the sequel of the severe mental
shock he received at the time of the Armenian massacre of 1895, he having
lost the old family home and estate through fire and pillage at that time,
and having met with a supreme loss in the death of one of his sons in that
massacre, this son having been a distinguished lawyer and linguist and having
been recognized as an advocate in various important courts, including the
English courts of Cyprus. The wife of Garabed Hejinian was a member
of the old and influential Yaqubyan family of Arabkir, and representatives
of this family are now bankers in Cairo, Egypt.
The more rudimentary education of Dr. Aram G. Hejinian was acquired in the
schools in his native city and in a virtual high school at Harpoot. In
1885 he was graduated in Euphrates College at Harpoot, and prior to his
graduation the president of this college, the late Rev. C. H. Wheeler, D.
D., had chosen the future Iowa physician and surgeon to teach higher mathematics
at the college, in the absence of the regular incumbent, who returned to
the United States for further study. After thus teaching at the college
during a period of two years Doctor Hejinian matured and carried into effect
his plan to come to the United States. He left Armenia September 17,
1887, passed the winter with a brother and sister in Cairo, Egypt, and May
22, 1888, he arrived in the port of New York City. On the 4th of the
following month he arrived in Chicago, and in 1890 he was graduated in the
Chicago Theological Seminary. Immediately thereafter he there entered
the celebrated Rush Medical College, and he was chaplain of his class at
its graduation, in 1893. He served as inspector for the Chicago health
department during the World's Columbian Exposition, after having received
his degree of Doctor of Medicine. The summer of 1893 marked the beginning
of the atrocious Armenian massacres, and Doctor Hejinian thus found it out
of the question to return to his native land, as he had planned. He
accordingly took a post-graduate course in Rush Medical College, in 1893-94,
and he then, through the influence of the late Dr. Nicholas Senn, head professor
of surgery at the college and long one of the foremost of American surgeons,
gained appointment as resident physician and surgeon in St. Joseph's Hospital,
Chicago, where Doctor Senn was in charge of the surgical department.
Doctor Hejinian was thus favored in maturing his skill as a surgeon
and diagnostician under the virtually personal preceptorship of that eminent
surgeon, and after remaining at the hospital about two years Doctor Hejinian,
on the 4th of August, 1896, established his residence at Anamosa, Iowa,
where he has since continued in the active practice of his profession and
also had charge of the local hospital. The Doctor has recognized rank
as one of the most skilled surgeons in the State of Iowa and he has insistently
kept in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science. He
did post-graduate work in surgery in London, Berlin and Vienna in 1902-03,
while abroad with his wife and daughter, with whom he made an extended European
tour at that time, besides going to Alexandria and Cairo, in Egypt. After
an absence of nearly nine months the Doctor returned to Anamosa, where he
has since continued his earnest and able professional activities, and where
he has done many notable operations in both major and miner surgery. In
addition to his hospital work and private practice he has been local
medical examiner for leading life-insurance companies and also for the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Mystic Workers of the World. The Doctor
has entered fully and loyally into the civic life of his home city and is
president of the Citizens Savings Bank, of which he became a stockholder
at the time of its organization.
Doctor Hejinian is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party,
and is a deacon of the Congregational Church in his home city. He has
active membership in the Jones County Medical Society, Iowa State Medical
Society and American Medical Association, besides having, as previously noted,
the distinction of being a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In
the World war period he was a member of the Jones County exemption board
and also gave zealous service in the furthering of local patriotic movements.
His Masonic affiliations are with Anamosa Lodge No. 42, A. F. and A.
M.; Mount Sinai Chapter No. 66, R. A. M.; Olivet Commandery No. 36, Knights
Templar; and Moriah Chapter No. 16, Order of the Eastern Star and he is a
Rotarian. He maintains affiliation also with Modern Woodmen of America
and the Mystic Workers of the World.
On the 14th of September, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Hejinian
to Miss Bertha S. Stacy, daughter of the late Judge John S. and Charlotte
A. K. Stacy, of Anamosa. Judge Stacy was one of the most honored and
influential citizens of Anamosa during the course of many years and his wife
was a direct descendant of the Colonial Governor Bradford of Massachusetts.
Mrs. Hejinian was graduated in the art department of Cornell College
and her exceptional talent was further developed through her attending the
Chicago Art Institute and the Cowles School of Art in the City of Boston.
Prior to her marriage she served several years as head of the art
department of Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa. Lucea M., elder of
the two children of Doctor and Mrs. Hejinian, was born June 18, 1899, was
graduated in Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, with the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, and later she received from the University of Chicago the degree
of Master of Arts, and from the University of Iowa the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, she being now (1929) assistant professor of nutrition at the
latter institution. John S., who was born July 2, 1904, was graduated
in historic Yale University and now holds a position with the Chase National
Bank of New York City.
~~~~***~~~~
HON. OLE J. HENDERSON, judge of the Eleventh District Court of Iowa,
is a resident of Webster City, where he has been a member of the bar in good
standing for over twenty-eight years.
Judge Henderson is a native of Hamilton County, Iowa, born there March 8,
1878, and is of Norwegian parentage and ancestry. His grandparents
all died in Norway. His father, Lars Henderson, came from Norway and
settled in Illinois in 1848, and ten years later moved out to Iowa. he
was with a group of Norwegian colonists who acquired land and developed one
of the important pioneer communities of Hamilton County. Lars Henderson
was a man of much business ability, a thoroughly practical agriculturist,
and acquired a large amount of land in the county. He was one of the
trusted leaders of the colony of Norwegians in Scott Township. On going
there he helped put up the first school, known as the Sheldall School.
This old school is still standing at the same site, and contains a
very interesting selection of pioneer relics, constituting museum. Lars
Henderson was a Republican in politics and a devout Lutheran. His second
wife was Sarah Johnson, also a native of Norway. They had a family
of seven children, all of whom are living, Judge Henderson being next to
the youngest child.
Ole J. Henderson was reared in a rural district, attended country schools,
and in 1898 graduated with the degree Bachelor of Science from the Iowa State
College at Ames. He had several years of experience as a country school
teacher and deputy clerk, and in the meantime was studying law. In 1902
he graduated LL.B. from the University of Minnesota Law School, was admitted
to the bar the same year, and has been continuously in practice at Webster
City, Judge Henderson acquired a reputation as an able lawyer and had a large
private practice before he was willing to accept any of the honors of politics.
His interest in public office has been in the line of his profession. He
served two terms as county attorney, and in March, 1928, was appointed judge
of the Eleventh Judicial District. In the fall of 1928 he was elected
by popular vote to that office, succeeding Judge G. D. Thompson.
Judge Henderson is a member of the Iowa State and American Bar Associations.
He is a deacon in the Congregational Church and is a Republican. He
married, in 1906, Miss Mary Brown, who was born and reared at Vinton, Iowa.
Her father, James A. Brown, for many years was secretary of the Iowa
School for the Blind.
~~~~***~~~~
EDMUND D. HENELY, M. D., has for over thirty years been established
as a physician and surgeon, enjoying a very extensive practice at Nora Springs
in Floyd County.
Doctor Henely is a native of Iowa, born at Monticello, July 14, 1873, son
of Michael and Mary Jane (Kirkley) Henely. His mother was born in Ohio,
of English ancestry. Michael Henely was a native of Southern Ireland
and was left an orphan. When about fourteen years of age he came to
the United States, found work as a farm hand in Ohio, and after his marriage
at Springfield in that state came to Iowa. He devoted his entire life
to farming, and acquired a farm in Jones County, Iowa, where he lived until
his death in 1893. The widowed mother passed away at Clarion in 1918.
Michael Henely had only his hands as his capital, but was hard working,
thrifty, a man of good practical sense and made ample provision for his family.
Of the eleven children only two are now living, William, a retired
farmer at Clarion, and Doctor Henely. One son, Eugene, became a prominent
Iowa educator, being a school superintendent for over twenty years, and in
that capacity was head of the schools of Oxford, Brooklyn and Grinnell.
Edmund Henely graduated from the Monticello High School. Farm work
and other jobs gave him money that enabled him to go on with his high education
and qualify for a professional career. He was graduated from Rush Medical
College of Chicago in June, 1899, and at once located at Nora Springs, a
community that has learned to trust and rely upon his sure skill both as
a physician and surgeon. He has kept himself fit by attending clinics
at Rochester, Minnesota, and other places, and has given special attention
to surgery. He is local surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad Company
and for a number of years was city health officer. Doctor Henely is
a member of the Floyd County and Cerro Gordo County Medical Societies, the
Austin Flint Medical Association, the Iowa State and American Medical
Associations.
He married, on Thanksgiving Day, 1899, Miss Bessie S. Shaw, daughter of H.
B. Shaw, of Nora Springs. They are members of the Catholic Church.
Doctor Henely is a member of the local Lions Club and in politics votes
for the man rather than the party.
~~~~***~~~~
EUGENE HENELY. The death of Eugene Henely on September 11, 1928,
closed a career of remarkable service as an Iowa educator. Mr. Henely
had been a school superintendent for thirty-eight years, all of this time
being divided among just three localities. For twenty-three years before
his death he had been superintendent of the Grinnell public schools, and
that city and community in particular appreciate his unusual qualities as
a teacher and man.
He was a native of Iowa, born near Monticello December 15, 1867, and passed
away in his sixty-first year. He was a son of Michael and Mary Jane
(Kirkley) Henely, both natives of Ohio. His parents came to Iowa in
a covered wagon in 1853 and settled near Monticello, where his father devoted
the rest of his life to farming. Michael Henely died in 1902 and his
wife in 1918. One of their sons is William E. Henely, of Clarion, Iowa,
and another is Dr. Edmund Henely, of Nora Springs, Iowa.
Eugene Henely grew up on a farm, attended the grade and high schools of
Monticello, and in 1890 was graduated from the Iowa State College at Ames.
The first community to which he was called as head of the schools was
Oxford, Iowa, where he remained nine years. For six years he was
superintendent of schools of Brooklyn, Iowa, and in 1905 became superintendent
at Grinnell. He gave Grinnell schools an enviable standing among the
school systems of the state. As a result of his work Grinnell has a
reputation for its public school system as well as for its splendid college,
and is an all around educational center. As a teacher it is said that
no slightest detail was ever too small to be missed or slighted by Mr. Henely.
Each pupil was known and called by name, and he felt a deep interest
in his or her welfare not only in school days but through later years. His
graduates of long ago still consulted him upon their plans and work. Some
of the most splendid tributes paid him during his illness and since his death
came from former students. He served in various capacities in the State
Teachers Association and in other educational organizations. He was
an active member of the Methodist Church for twenty-eight years, was long
identified with the Men's Bible Class of the church at Grinnell, and was
steward of the church and a consistent member of the Sunday School.
Fraternally he was a member of the Masonic fraternity, B. P. O. Elks,
Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen
of America, and was a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Fortnightly Club.
He was for twenty years a member of the city library board, and a member
of the Social Service League Board from the time of its organization.
Among other organizations that paid tribute to his life of service one was
the Board of Control of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, of which
he was one of the founders. The board of control said: "Eugene
Henely's death came as a distinct shock to all of us. While his health
had not been good for some time there was no thought of anything but his
ultimate recovery. He left a unique and an enviable record of service.
For twenty-three years he served his community, and the splendid school
system of Grinnell is a monument to his ability as an organizer and an educator
as well as to his tireless energy and industry.
"He served the Iowa High School Athletic Association as a member of the Board
of Control for over twenty years, and the scope and influence of this
organization is due in a very large measure to his sound sense, his good
judgment and his clear vision. His interest in the affairs of the
association was unflagging and the amount of time and labor he gave to it
was enormous. He was eminently fair, and he abhorred trickery. He
was outspoken in his opinions, he truckled to no one. He could have
sharp differences but he bore no grudges. There was no rancor in his
makeup."
Superintendent Henely married, in 1892, Miss Louise Miller, who was born
near North Liberty in Johnson County, Iowa, June 9, 1872. Her father, Alexander
James Miller, was a native of Pennsylvania, was brought to Iowa by his parents
in the early 1850s, and the family has lived in Johnson County for over
three-quarters of a century. Her father gave his life to farming and
stock raising and later became editor and publisher of the Oxford
Journal. He died in 1910. He married Mary Louise McColm,
of Baltimore, Maryland, who died in 1925. Of their seven children four
are now living: Jesse A. Miller, an attorney and former district judge
at Des Moines; Mrs. Henely; Oliver H. an attorney at Des Moines; and Mrs.
Laura Miller Metcalf, at Hawarden, Iowa.
Superintendent Henely is survived by Mrs. Henely and two daughters: Inez
Louise, of Grinnell, and Mrs. Margaret Henely Black, of Mountain Lakes, New
Jersey, and one grandson, Eugene Charlton Black.
A very fine and lasting tribute to Professor Henely has been erected on the
local high school campus by the State Board of Athletic Control in the form
of a bronze plaque on a native granite boulder with the following inscription:
Eugene Henely
Faithful Service
Member Board of Control
1908-1928
~~~~~~~~
Erected by
Iowa High School
Athletic Association.
~~~~***~~~~ p. 236
JAMES HENNESSY, physician and surgeon at Emmetsburg, has
practiced medicine there longer than any of his contemporaries. Doctor Hennessy
has done his professional work well, and no citizen has a larger body of loyal
and devoted friends. He is a splendid specimen of physical manhood, tall and
straight, six feet, four inches high and the lines on his face indicate his
kindly character and a disposition for helpfulness which has been manifested in
all his work.
Doctor Hennessy was born in County Limerick, Ireland,
September 24, 1875. He comes of a remarkable family, being the youngest of
sixteen children of Roger and Catherine (Russell) Hennessy. His parents lived
all their lives in Ireland. Dr. James Hennessy is the only representative of
this family to come to America. A number of his nieces and nephews are older
than himself. Five sons took up medicine as a career. The oldest son, after
qualifying himself for practice, encouraged the younger brother to go to school.
Roger Hennessy died when his youngest child, James, was two and a half years
old.
Doctor Hennessy received his education in Queen's College of
Medicine at Cork and the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians at Dublin, and
after coming to America he graduated from Keokuk Medical College at Keokuk,
Iowa, in 1906. For a quarter of a century he has been in practice in Palo Alto
County, for a short time at Graettinger, and since then at Emmetsburg. Doctor
Hennessy for the past ten years has served as county coroner He is a member of
the Palo Alto County, Upper Des Moines and Iowa State Medical Associations. In
politics he votes as a Republican and is a member of the Catholic Church and the
Emmetsburg Council, Knights of Columbus.
He married Miss Birdie Davis, a native of Canada. They have
two children, Russell, born November 14, 1904, and Catherine Louise, born
February 14, 1908, graduated from State University of Iowa with A. B. degree in
1929 and is now employed in the office of Ayers Lumber Company of Iowa City.
~~~~***~~~~ p. 145
ALBERT V. HENNESSY, surgeon, Council Bluffs, has won
many distinctions in his profession in his home city and throughout the Missouri
River Valley.
Doctor Hennessy was born in Iowa City, October 15,
1884, son of Richard and Ellen (Maher) Hennessy. Both parents were born in
County Tipperary, Ireland, and were young people when they came to the United
States. His mother died December 30, 1906. Richard Hennessy settled in Iowa City
more than half a century ago and is now a resident of Chicago. At one time he
carried mail in Iowa, was a carpenter, architect and builder. He is a Democrat
in politics and a devout Catholic. There were ten children, seven of whom are
living. Two brothers are associated in practice at Council Bluffs, Dr. Albert V.
and Dr. Maurice C. The latter was born April 18, 1891.
Albert V. Hennessy attended parochial and public
schools and graduate from the Iowa City High School in 1902. He received his
medical degree at the University of Iowa in 1906, and also had the benefit of
six months of work as an interne in the Mercy Hospital at Council Bluffs. He
entered private practice there June 13, 1906, and for a number of years his work
has been entirely in surgery.
Doctor Hennessy married in September, 1909, Miss Marie
L. Cornelius, who was born in Freeport, Illinois, October 15, 1887. She attended
school at Council Bluffs. Her father, Charles R. Cornelius, has been for many
years a railway conductor with the Milwaukee Railway System. Doctor and Mrs.
Hennessy have had three children: A. V., Jr., attending school; Charles Richard;
and Cornelius, who died in 1913.
Doctor Hennessy and family are members of St. Francis
Catholic Church. He is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, member of the B.P.O.
Elks, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Fraternal Order of Eagles. During the
World war he had the rank of major in the Medical Corps and was assigned duty as
chief of surgical service at Department Hospital, Honolulu, and also served as
surgeon member of the medical advisory board, Hawaiian draft. He was discharged
December 31, 1918. His brother served overseas in the United States army as an
officer in the medical department in the late war.
Doctor Hennessy has been president of the Council
Bluffs and Pottawattamie County Medical Societies, was second vice president of
the Iowa State Medical Association in 1928, and is also a member of the American
Medical Association, the Missouri Valley Medical Society and the Iowa Clinical
Surgical Society. He is a member of the Phi Beta Pi medical fraternity. Doctor
Hennessy is chairman of the executive committee of Mercy Hospital at Council
Bluffs and his brother is a past president of the staff of the hospital. He is
president of the McGee Investment Company, vice president of the Automobile
Finance Company, is on the board of directors of the Bennett Building and the
Broadway Theatre, and is a former member of the board of the Greater Council
Bluffs Chamber of Commerce, and a past president of the Kiwanis Cub. He was
formerly a director of the First National Bank of Council Bluffs. Doctor
Hennessy was a member of the National Guard of Iowa for a number of years and is
a former director of the Council Bluffs Country Club and councilor of the Iowa
State Medical Society for the Ninth District.
~~~~***~~~~ p. 188
MAURICE C. HENNESSY is a Council Bluffs
surgeon, associated with his brother, Dr. Albert V. Hennessy, in practice, with
offices in the Bennett Building, and they are also associated in several
business activities.
Doctor Hennessy was born at Iowa City, April 18, 1891. His
parents, Richard and Ellen (Maher) Hennessy, were born in County Tipperary,
Ireland, and came to the United States when young people. His father located at
Iowa City more than half a century ago and in early life carried mail for
several years, later became a carpenter, architect and builder. He is now a
resident of Chicago, and his wife died December 30, 1906. Of their ten children
seven are living.
Maurice C. Hennessy, the youngest of the children, attended
school at Iowa City and the University of Iowa there, and graduated in medicine
at the University of Illinois in 1913. He had one year of interne
experience in the Mercy Hospital in Davenport and has been practicing with his
brother at Council Bluffs since 1914. Like his brother his attention is directed
to surgery.
He married in 1919 Miss Ruth Banks, who was born in New York
City, but was reared and educated in Earling and Council Bluffs, Iowa. She is a
graduate nurse. They have four daughters: Mary Ellen, Ruth Kathleen, Patricia
Irene and Natalie Ann.
Doctor and Mrs. Hennessy are members of the Catholic Church.
He is affiliated with Lodge No. 351, B. P. O. Elks, and the American Legion, of
which he was a former officer. Both he and Mrs. Hennessy saw active service
during the World war. She was a Red Cross army nurse at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
four months, and he entered the service in July, 1917, and went overseas as
surgeon of the Ninth Aero Squadron and later was assigned for duty at Liverpool
with the American Red Cross Military Hospital No 4. He was in England from
November, 1917, until January, 1919, during which time he was a member of
Disability Board Base Section 3, S. O. S., A. E. F. He received his honorable
discharge on February 1, 1919.
Doctor Hennessy is a member of the Pottawattamie County, Iowa
State and American Medical Associations, and the Phi Beta Pi fraternity. He was
president of the Mercy Hospital staff at Council Bluffs for two years. He is a
director of the McGee Investment Company and of the Mercy Hospital staff and of
the City Medical Society and president of the Pottawattamie County Medical
Society.
~~~~***~~~~
THOMAS J. HENNESSEY maintained his home at Missouri Valley, Harrison
County, more than thirty years, and during that period he was continuously
identified with the undertaking and funeral directing business, in which
he was engaged in an independent way during the last twenty years of his
life. In his character and his communal service he meant much to this
city, and in his chosen sphere of business he maintained the utmost loyalty
and highest ideas, while his ministration in the hours of sorrow were ever
marked by abiding human sympathy and kindly consideration. The death
of Mr. Hennessey occurred in February, 1927, and it is fitting that in this
publication he entered a tribute to his memory.
Mr. Hennessey was born in Clonmel, Ireland, November 21, 1867, and his death
occurred in the Nicholas Senn, Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, February 3, 1927,
he having gone from his home to the Nebraska metropolis to receive treatment
at the hospital mentioned. The rudimentary education of Mr. Hennessey
was acquired in the schools of his native land, and he was a lad of but fourteen
years when he severed the home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in
the United States. From the port of his disembarking he forthwith proceeded
to Des Moines, Iowa, where he learned the upholstering trade in the establishment
of the Harbusche Furniture Company, with which he was thus connected a few
years, his arrival in Des Moines having occurred in the year 1882. In
that city likewise he advanced his education by attending night school, and
there also he learned the undertaking and embalming business under the direction
of a man named Nelson, who was connected with the Newlen furniture and
undertaking establishment and who was one of the first licensed embalmers
in Iowa. After his marriage Mr. Hennessey continued his residence in
Des Moines until January, 1893, when he removed to Missouri Valley and found
employment in the undertaking establishment of T. Foss. While thus
engaged he ingratiated himself deeply in the confidence and esteem of this
community, and this fact proved an asset when, in 1907, he here engaged
independently in business as an undertaker and funeral director. For
his new place of business he obtained the building that had up to that time
been occupied by the T. M. Gilmore Grocery Company, at 507 East Erie Street,
and this he fitted up consistently for the uses to which it was to be applied.
Here later additions and improvements to the building were made, and
here the business has been continued since the death of Mr. Hennessey, who
had brought his establishment up to the best standard in equipment and service.
His gracious and devoted wife proved his faithful and efficient assistant
in conducting the business, and in 1925 he admitted to partnership Darwin
A. VanCleave, whereupon the present firm title of Hennessey & VanCleave
was adopted. Mr. VanCleave is represented in the following sketch and
has continued in the management of the business since the death of his honored
partner. Mr. Hennessey continued his active association with the business
he had founded until death set its seal upon his mortal lips, and it is pleasing
to record that his nephew, Harold Hennessey, has been connected with the
business since 1927 and is ultimately to be admitted to the firm, as the
virtual successor of his uncle, whose widow still retains the latter's interest
in the firm, though she now maintains her home in Sioux City. The religious
faith of Mr. Hennessey was that of the Catholic Church, of which he was an
earnest communicant, as is also his widow, and he was affiliated with the
Knights of Columbus as a fourth-degree knight, and also with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights and Ladies of Security, the Brotherhood
of American Yeomen, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of the
Maccabees.
On the 27th of November, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hennessey
to Miss Nellie E. Schultze, of Chariton, Lucas County, and after his death
she removed to Sioux City, which likewise is the home of their only child,
Alonzo J.
Mr. Hennessey was true and faithful in all the relations of life and his
name shall long be held in gracious memory by the people of the city in which
he maintained his home many years - until the time of his death.
~~~~***~~~~
JOHN G. HERRON, D. D. S. Among the men who through the possession
of natural and acquired abilities have contributed to the prestige and lent
dignity to the dental profession in Union County, few have established a
better record than Dr. John G. Herron, of Creston. During the more
than forty years that he has been engaged in practice at this place he has
held the confidence and esteem of the entire community, now only because
of his recognized professional abilities, but because of his public spirit
and personal integrity.
Doctor Herron was born in 1864, at New Lisbon, Ohio, and is a son of Rev.
Samuel and Jane (Gaylord) Herron. His grandfather was a native of Ireland,
who immigrated to the United States in young manhood and passed the remainder
of his life on a farm in Pennsylvania. Rev. Samuel Herron was born
at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and acquired a college education in Ohio, where
he entered the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church. He spent
the rest of his life in ministerial work and for thirty-five years held one
pastorate in Ohio. He was a member of the Masons and the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and in young manhood was a Whig in his political views,
and a delegate to the first Whig national convention, but later switched
his support to the Republican party, which he supported actively, although
not a seeker for public office. He married Jane Gaylord, who was born
at Akron, Ohio, and they became the parents of six children, of whom three
are living: Mattie, the wife of George A. Evans, a retired citizen
of Lincoln, Nebraska; John G., of this review; and Mary, the wife of
Joe O'Neal, a retired citizen of Omaha, Nebraska. All are members
of the United Presbyterian Church.
John G. Herron attended the public school at Mount Pleasant, and graduated
from the high school at Corning, Iowa, at which times he found himself without
funds. Having decided upon a professional career, further educational
training was necessary, and this he acquired through money earned after he
was fourteen years of age by clerking for three years in a store at Carbon,
Iowa, and by working as a farm hand for three years. Even so, his younger
years were ones of the strictest economy and self-denial. He entered
the office of Doctor Scranton at Corning, where he completed his studies
and in 1885 passed the examination of the state board of dentistry. He
immediately opened an office at Corning, where he practiced for two years
moving then to Afton, where he spent one year, and in 1888 took up his permanent
residence at Creston, where he is now the dean of dental practitioners and
one of the leading men of his profession in Southern Iowa. He keeps
fully abreast of the constant changes and advancements being made in his
calling, is a conscientious student, and a former member of the Union County
Dental Society, the Iowa State Dental Society and the American Dental
Association. Doctor Herron is fraternally affiliated with the Masons
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while his political convictions
make him a Republican.
Doctor Herron was united in marriage with Miss Florence Norris, who was born
and educated in Illinois, and died without issue. For his second wife
Doctor Herron married Nellie Temple, who was born in Iowa, and died in 1922,
and in 1924 he married Grace Avrill, who was born at Corning, Iowa, where
she received her education. They have no children.
~~~~***~~~~
EDWIN R. HICKLIN, former county attorney of Louisa County, was graduated
from law school in 1917. He assisted in the organization of his county
for all the allied war work and established a county war chest. In
1918 he joined the colors and was in the service with Company E, Second United
States Infantry. He has been steadily engaged in law practice for the
past ten years.
Mr. Hicklin was born at Wapello, March 1, 1895. His father, Edwin Hicklin,
is also a native of Wapello, where he was reared and educated. He educated
himself for the law, but during most of his active life has carried on an
abstract business at Wapello and for eight years served as clerk of the District
Court. For four years he was postmaster of Wapello. Edwin Hicklin
married Miss Milicent Richley, of Letts, Iowa, and eight children were born
to their marriage.
Edwin R. Hicklin attended school at Wapello, graduating from high school
in 1911 at the age of sixteen years. In high school he was a member
of the debating team and valedictorian of his class. During the following
four years his studies were pursued in Drake University at Des Moines, where
he graduated with the A. B. degree in 1915. At Drake he was a Phi Gamma
Lambda, and a participant in many student activities, being in the class
play and was desk editor of the Drake Daily Delphic. From Drake
he entered the law department of the University of Iowa and won the LL. B.
degree in 1917. He was a phi Alpha Delta at the university.
Mr. Hicklin joined the colors with Company E of the Second United States
Infantry, was trained at Camp Dodge and was made line sergeant. He
received his honorable discharge in January, 1919, and is a member of the
American Legion Post. After the war he returned to Wapello, and practiced
law with his father until 1922, when he was elected county attorney, holding
that office tow terms. Since leaving office he has resumed his active
connection with his father. Mr. Hicklin has been a member of the Wapello
city council, is a member of the Lions Club of Wapello, the Masonic fraternity
and Knights of Pythias and has been a member of the Republican state central
committee of Iowa for eight years and was its secretary for two years. He
is now serving as state senator from the Twentieth Senatorial District of
Iowa.
He married, October 8, 1919, Miss Irene Anderson, of Dayton, Iowa. They
have three children, Edwin Anderson, born in 1922; Martin Dale, born in 1924,
and Charles Willis, born in 1928.
~~~~***~~~~ p. 133
WILLIAM F. HIGGINS, a popular business man of Waterloo, is
a native of Iowa and was born on a farm in Carleton Township of Tama County,
where his people were early settlers.
His father was Thomas Higgins, a native of Whiteside County,
Illinois, and his grandfather, Michael Higgins, was born in County Cork,
Ireland, as was the only member of his family to come to America, locating in
Whiteside County, where he bought a farm. Thomas Higgins lived in Whiteside
County until 1864, when he came out to Iowa and settled in Tama County. At that
time a railroad was in process of construction, but it was never completed, and
after putting in a summer working for the construction company he had to go
without his pay for his labor. He then became a farmer in Carleton Township, and
for several years devoted his labors to his land. After leasing his farm he
moved to Garwin, where he is now living retired. He married Harriet Smith, who
was born in Iowa. Her father, John Smith, was a native of Germany. He came to
the United States when a young man, in 1847 returned to his native land, and in
1849 came again to this country and joined a company that started in a covered
wagon across the plains for California. He was quite successful in his search
for the precious metal on the Pacific Coast and after returning east bought 320
acres of Government land in Tama County, Iowa, at $1.25 an acre. Tama County,
like other counties in Western Iowa, was then sparsely settled and he was among
the pioneers in starting development. He improved 240 acres, erected good
buildings and lived there until his death at the age of eighty-one. Thomas
Higgins and wife reared a family of five children: William F.; Margaret, who
married Olin Ruff of Tama County, Iowa; Walter; Roy; and Ruth, who married Ralph
Irons, of Tama County.
William F. Higgins was born February 25, 1881, and grew up on
the home farm in Tama County, was educated in rural schools and did his share of
farm work. When he was nineteen years old he began clerking in a general store
and six years later went to Des Moines and was employed in a cleaning and
pressing establishment, and during the next four years closely studied this
business with a view to setting up independently. After leaving Des Moines he
was at Cedar Rapids, and in 1911 he came to Waterloo and established what is
known as the Unique Cleaners, at 401 West Fourth Street. By close personal
attention he has made this a business that draw customers not only from waterloo
but many surrounding towns, and the plant has been steadily improved and
increased in respect to modern facilities. There are now twenty-three skilled
workers employed. Since 1920 Mr. Higgins has served on the short course
committee which has charge of a dry cleaners' course in connection with the
winter convention which is held each year at the Iowa State College at Ames.
Mr. Higgins is a member of Helmet Lodge No. 188, Knights of
Pythias, and is a Mason. He is a member of the Optimist Club and the Chamber of
Commerce and a past director of the latter. His church affiliations are with the
Westminster Presbyterian Church of Waterloo. He married, November 11, 1917, Miss
Anna Fry, daughter of George and Nell (Smith) Fry. Nell Smith was born in
England. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins adopted two children, a brother and a sister,
named Eleanor Jean and Arnold Edward. Mrs. Higgins by a former marriage has a
son, named Harold Blank of Waterloo.
~~~~***~~~~
LAFE HILL, Iowa newspaper man for over thirty years, member of the
Legislature, has since 1916 been editor and publisher of the Nora Springs
Advertiser in Floyd County.
Mr. Hill's activities and experiences make up an interesting record. He
has been fighting his own way since he was a boy of fourteen. He was
born at Diagonal in Ringgold County, Iowa, his birthplace being a farm where
his father had settled in 1856, after having lived one year in Monroe County.
His parents, Samuel and Winifred (Bennett) Hill, came to Iowa from Shelby
County, Indiana. Samuel Hill was an Iowa soldier in the Union army,
serving in the Ninth Iowa Cavalry. In politics he was successively
a Douglas Democrat and a Lincoln Republican, and was a devout Methodist and
all his sons went regularly to Sunday School. Samuel Hill had
qualifications that brought him a number of relationships with the pioneer
communities where he lived. He was a farmer, a country school teacher, one
of the old fashioned type who ruled with the rod, served as justice of the
peace, was township trustee and county coroner. After the war he was
a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was born in 1832 and
lived to be eighty-two years of age. His wife, who died when fifty-five
years of age, by a previous marriage had a son, David Brant, who became widely
known in Iowa journalism. David Brant was born in 1850 and died at
the age of sixty-nine. He was editor of the Iowa City Republican
and was a contemporary of the young and Clarksons and served in the Legislature.
Of the children of Samuel and Winifred (Bennett) Hill the oldest, William
F., also was a representative of journalism. He was an editor at
Westmoreland, Kansas, for forty-two years and served in the Legislature of
that state. The other children were: Albert R., a farmer in
California; Charles, a resident of Ringgold County, Iowa; Elizabeth, wife
of William Durland, of Carter, Oklahoma; Alice, widow of A. J. Wray, of El
Reno, Oklahoma; Sarah, wife of W. F. Hunter, of Irving, Kansas; Winifred,
wife of Charles H. Mills, of Decatur County, Iowa; Clinton, who was in the
railroad contracting business and died at Colorado in 1890. Three of
the family were teachers, William, Winifred and Lafe.
Lafe Hill was endowed with a sound mind in a sound body, but has had to struggle
for his opportunities and his attainments. It was his earnest ambition
and effort that enabled him to get something better than a common school
education. He attended the Tilford Academy, and while attending school
at Waterloo also taught. He taught at Troy Mills, at the Walker Agency,
was superintendent of schools at Williamsburg and Seymour. During vacations
he was fitting himself for newspaper work in his brother David's office.
Before coming to Nora Springs he established and conducted the North
English Record, published the Colfax Tribune, the New Market
Herald and the Manley Chief.
Mr. Hill represented Floyd County in the Iowa Legislature from 1924 to 1930.
He was chairman of the committee on suppression of crime and served
on such important committees as roads and highways, baking, ways and means,
printing, insurance, mines and mining, schools, cities and towns, public
health, and was the ranking member of the committee appointed to investigate
the banking situation in Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa.
Mr. Hill married Miss Florence Fay, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Fay,
were early settlers in Linn County, Iowa. They had three children.
The only child living is Fausta, wife of R. F. Tyler, who is in the
creamery and ice cream business at Villisca, Iowa. Both sons are deceased.
Brant was twenty-one when he died at the Great Lakes Naval Training
Station. Lyle also served in the Navy and was on the Japanese cargo
ship, being the only white man on board. He died in 1926, being at
the time connected with the Algonia Republican. He is survived
by his widow, Cora Damman, and three children. Thera, Flavia and Lyla.
Both sons learned the newspaper business with their father in the office
of the Advertiser. When the sons went to war Mrs. Hill took
their place in the office, operating the linotype and otherwise helping the
publication. Mr. Hill is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias
organization, with which he has been identified for forty-one years. He
is past chancellor commander of his lodge, deputy grand chancellor and grand
prelate. He is a Master Mason and was chairman of the joint board of
Masons and Odd Fellows when they built their lodge hall at Nora Springs.
Mr. Hill is a member of the State Press Association, and during the
World war was president of the Red Cross Chapter and chairman of the four-minute
men. He is a leading Methodist layman, serving as a member of the board
of trustees of the church at Nora Springs, was a lay delegate to the Upper
Iowa Conference and has made his newspaper an important medium for the upholding
of religious and moral influences. In 1928 he was a delegate to the
Mississippi Flood Control Convention in Chicago.
~~~~***~~~~
LUTHER L. HILL. The business intimates of Luther L. Hill, of
the firm of McMurray, Hill & Company, handlers of bonds, investments,
securities and stock, of Des Moines, unhesitatingly place him among the most
able of the younger generation of business men of the city. A graduate
of West Point, he resigned his commission in the United States Army to follow
civilian pursuits, and since the establishment of the present firm, in 1928,
has made steady progress in his chosen line of activity.
Mr. Hill comes of old and aristocratic southern stock. He was born
at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1896, and is a son of Dr. Luther L. and Lillie
(Lyons) Hill. His paternal grandfather, Rev. Luther L. Hill, for whom
he was named, was for many years a minister of the Methodist faith, and during
the war between the states bore arms in the Confederate army as a member
of a regiment of Alabama volunteers. Dr. Luther L., Hill, father of
Luther L. of this review, was born at Montgomery, Alabama, and received an
excellent professional training. For years he carried on a general
practice in medicine and surgery, but of later years has limited his activities
to the latter branch of his profession, in which he has gained a well merited
reputation. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama and Jefferson
Medical School of Philadelphia, in addition to which he had two years of
study abroad. Doctor Hill has been engaged in practice at Montgomery
for a period of forty-four years, and is a member of the Alabama Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. He is likewise a citizen
of public spirit and a man who has been generous in his charities. He
married at Mobile, Alabama, Miss Lillie Lyons, who was born at Pollard, that
state, daughter of Joseph Lyons, a well known lumber merchant and manufacturer
at Mobile, and they became the parents of four children: Lillian, the
wife of E. W. Rucker, a practicing physician of Birmingham, Alabama; Hon.
Lister, a well known politician and statesman of Montgomery, and member of
Congress from Alabama; Amelia, who is unmarried and resides with her parents;
and Luther L., of this review. Mrs. Hill is a member of the Catholic
Church and her husband is a Methodist. He is a likewise a veteran of
the Spanish-American war.
Luther L. Hill attended Starke's University School of Montgomery in his
youth, following which he pursued a course at the University of Alabama,
from which he was graduated in 1916. He received an appointment to
West Point Military Academy, from which he was graduated in 1919, and immediately
thereafter went overseas and served for a time with the Army of Occupation
in Germany. Returning to the United States in 1920, he was a lieutenant
in 1920, he was a lieutenant in the Fourteenth U. S. Cavalry until resigning
his commission in 1923 to give his full attention to business matters. He
was variously employed until March, 1928, when he assisted in the organization
of the firm of McMurray, Hill & Company, Inc., with offices at 214 Sixth
Avenue. This company handles bonds, investments, securities, etc.,
and within a short space of time has assumed a place of importance in its
special field. Mr. Hill devotes his entire time to his business affairs,
but is not merely a business drudge, as he enjoys the companionship of his
fellows, and is a popular member of the Des Moines Club, the Wakonda Club,
the Hermit Club and the Pow Wow Literary Club. He is a Democrat in
his political allegiance.
In 1921 Mr. Hill was united in marriage with Miss Mary Hippee, daughter of
George B. Hippee, a review of whose career appears elsewhere in this work,
and to this union there have been born two children: Luther L., born
in 1923; and Mildred, born in 1928. Mr. Hill is likewise a member of
the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and of the Phi Beta Kappa honorary fraternity.
~~~~***~~~~
OTTO HILL, vice president of the Union Savings Bank & Trust Company
of Davenport, was born in that city, has devoted the greater part of his
active life in banking, and represents one of the oldest and most substantial
of the German American families of the city.
His father, the late John Hill, whose name always commanded the respect of
his fellow citizens in Davenport, particularly the German Americans, died
February 12, 1924, at the age of eighty-four. John Hill was born in
Prussia, Germany, April 25, 1840, son of Conrad and Margaret (Ditzenberger)
Hill. Conrad Hill was an inspector for the government in Germany.
John Hill was fourteen years of age when he crossed the Atlantic to
America in 1854 and in December of the same year became a resident of Davenport,
then a comparatively small community but a growing metropolis of trade for
the country west of the Mississippi. At Davenport he learned the trade
of cabinet maker and worked at that occupation until the Civil war broke
out.
He enlisted in 1861 in Company C of the First United States Lancers, serving
nine months with that regiment. In 1862 he enlisted a second time,
in Company C of the Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry, and served as a sergeant.
On July 11, 1863, he was taken prisoner at Jackson, Mississippi, and
from that time until released, at the end of the war, he endured the horrors
of captivity at Libby, Belle Island and Andersonville.
After the war he returned to Davenport and in 1869 was made manager
of the Turner Hall and Stadt Theater, and looked after those two well remembered
institutions of the city until he retired.
John Hill married in 1867 Marie Kaehler, and in 1917 they celebrated their
golden wedding anniversary. Five children were born to their marriage
and the three now living are Otto, Mrs. Lutie H. Zoeckler and Miss Paula.
Two sons, Hugo and Carl, are both deceased.
Otto Hill grew up in his native city of Davenport, attending grade and high
school and since 1890 has been connected with some of the local banks. He
was president of the Davenport Savings Bank when it was consolidated with
the Union Savings Bank, the resulting institution becoming the Union Savings
Bank & Trust Company, and since this consolidation Mr. Hill has been
vice president of the larger bank. He is also vice president and treasurer
of the Martin Cigar Company.
Mr. Hill married in 1914 Julia F. Hefferman, who was born in Washington,
D. C. Their three children are Philip A., James J. and Elizabeth M.
Mr. Hill is a former treasurer and trustee of the Kiwanis Club, member of
the Davenport Chamber of Commerce, the Knights of Pythias, B. P. O. Elks,
Loyal Order of Moose, Improved Order of Red Men.
Mr. Hill for a number of years has been deeply interested in welfare
organizations, serving fifteen years as treasurer of the Salvation Army and
has been a leader in the Boy Scouts work since it was inaugurated. He
is a member of the executive council of this area of the Boy Scouts and has
also served as treasurer of the Buffalo Bill Council of the organization.
~~~~***~~~~
JOHN S. HILLIARD, superintendent of schools at Estherville, has the
reputation of a scholar, a hard working executive and a school man whose
work has been attended with successful results in all the communities with
which he has been identified.
Mr. Hilliard was born in Joe Davies County, Illinois, April 10, 1884, son
of Smith and Jennie R. (Strickle) Hilliard. His parents were also natives
of Illinois, and his father spent his active career as a farmer.
John S. Hilliard spent his boyhood on a farm in Benton County, adjoining
a place on which the famous "Bing" Miller, of the world's champion athletics,
was reared. After the country schools he attended high school at Vinton,
Iowa, graduating there, and in 1906 received his diploma from the State Teachers
College at Cedar Falls. He never stopped studying, and all through
his teaching career has embraced opportunities to take summer courses and
in that way he graduated from the University of Iowa in 1913 and has also
done post-graduate work in the University of Chicago, accumulating credits
towards higher degrees. The important positions he has filled in teaching
and administration of schools were: A year and a half as principal
of a grade school at Cedar Falls; three and a half years as superintendent
of schools at Lansing; three years as superintendent at Postville; and in
1922 he came to Estherville, a community whose schools have been maintained
at a very high standard during the eight years of Mr. Hilliard's superintendency.
He is a member of the Iowa State Teachers Association and a life member
of the National Education Association.
He married Miss Florence Thompson, who was born at Vinton, Iowa. Their
daughter, Virginia, completed three years at the Iowa State College at Ames
and in September, 1930, married Don King editor of Civil Engineer,
published by the Society of Civil Engineers of America at New York City.
Their son, Vance, is in the class of 1931 at Estherville High School,
where he is active in forensics and business manager of the school paper,
published every two weeks. Mr. Hilliard votes as a Republican, is a
Methodist, a Knight Templar Mason, member of the Knights of Pythias and B.
P. O. Elks. He finds diversion from his school duties in the game of
golf.
FRED A. HINRICHSEN is president of the Fred A. Hinrichsen Advertising
Agency in Davenport, and is giving through this medium the highest grade
of metropolitan service, as is attested by the fact that his agency has been
placed on the accredited list of the Associated Business Papers, Inc., the
approval of which is a veritable assurance of superior service on the part
of agencies thus listed. Specializing in the manufacturing field, the
Hinrichsen agency functions as advertising executive for a large group of
representative manufacturing and industrial concerns of Davenport, including
the Bettendorf Company, the Micro Machine Company, the Westco-Chippewa Pump
Company, the Davenport Locomotive & Manufacturing Corporation, the Optical
Industries Corporation, the National Sales & Manufacturing Company,
Burgess-Perr Company and Williams-White Company of Moline, Illinois, and
other important concerns for which the agency has done remarkably successful
advertising exploitation. Mr. Hinrichsen and his cooperative staff
have made close and intensive study of modern advertising methods and policies
and have devised many that have the stamp of originality. The substantial
business controlled by his agency is the best voucher for the efficiency
of its service.
Fred A. Hinrichsen was born in Davenport, on June 29, 1890, and his loyalty
to his native city is unstinted in appreciation and helpful expression. He
is a son of John and Anna (Westphal) Hinrichsen, both of whom likewise were
born in Davenport, where they still maintain their home, their respective
parents having been born in Germany and having been numbered among the early
pioneer settlers in Iowa, where they established residence in the '40s.
The public school advantages of Fred A. Hinrichsen included those of the
Davenport High School and in 1913 he was graduated in the department of business
administration in the University of Illinois. Concerning his
activities after that time the following has been written: "For nine
an done-half years he was identified with the Gordon-Van Tine Company, serving
during the last three years in the capacity of sales manager. During
his years of service with this widely known company he received an excellent
practical business training that has stood him in good stead in his present
business."
Mr. Hinrichsen established his independent advertising agency in 1922, has
directed its policies and service with consummate discrimination and judgment,
and his administration, marked by loyalty and inviolable integrity of purpose,
has gained to him and his agency unqualified confidence and approval on the
part of those whom the agency has served. As a result the business
has shown a constantly cumulative tendency in both scope and importance.
The well appointed and equipped offices of the Fred A. Hinrichsen
Advertising Agency are established in the American Bank Building, and Mr.
Hinrichsen maintains his home at 3005 East Eighteenth Street.
The political alignment of Mr. Hinrichsen is with the Republican party, he
is a loyal and valued member of the Davenport Chamber of Commerce, has membership
in the Outing Club, and is affiliated with the Delta Upsilon and the Beta
Gamma Sigma college fraternities, the latter being an honorary commercial
and scholastic organization. Mr. Hinrichsen is loyal and public-spirited
as a citizen and takes specially deep interest in all that touches the welfare
and progress of his native city and state. He has served as president
of the Tri-Cities Art League and has been influential in connection with
other civic organizations and movements.
In August, 1923, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hinrichsen to Miss Helen
McDonald Johnson, who was born in the City of Springfield, Illinois, and
who is a representative of old and honored American families, on both the
paternal and maternal sides. Her father, Emmet Johnson, gained prestige
as one of the prominent newspaper men of Illinois, he having been for
some time editor of the State Register, in the capital city of
Springfield, that state, and having been the Springfield political correspondent
for the Chicago Daily News, besides which he served on the staff of
Gov. Richard Yates. Mrs. Hinrichsen was graduated in the celebrated
Chicago Art Institute and as a specially talented artist has proved notably
successful in portraiture. She is a gracious and popular figure in
the representative social and cultural circles of Davenport. Mr. and
Mrs. Hinrichsen have two children: Virginia Stith and Barbara Gail.
~~~~***~~~~
GEORGE B. HIPPEE was a veteran banker and business man of Des Moines,
with an experience running back for over forty-five years at the time of
his death, January 2, 1930.
He was a native son of Des Moines, born there January 1, 1860, son of George
M. and Eliza (Page) Hippee. His father was born in Canton, Ohio, son
of George Hippee, a native of Pennsylvania, who followed his trade as cabinet
maker at Canton for many years. Eliza Page was born in Tuckerton, New
Jersey, daughter of William Page, who spent his life in New Jersey, was a
ship owner and lost his fortune through the sinking of a vessel. The
Pages were represented in the Revolutionary war and as holders of numerous
Colonial offices. George M. Hippee came to Iowa in 1856, and later
went east and married at Camden, New Jersey, and brought his bride west in
1859 by way of the Mississippi River. George M. Hippee was a pioneer
druggist of Des Moines, but after 1865 was engaged in the banking business.
He was the organizer and founder of the Valley National Bank, still
one of the strong institutions in the financial district at Des Moines. He
died in 1911, and his wife reached the great age of ninety-five, passing
away in 1925. Both were active members of the Episcopal Church, and
he was affiliated with the Masonic Order and was a Democrat in politics.
For a number of years he was a member of the Des Moines school board.
Mr. George B. Hippee grew up at Des Moines attended public schools there,
and graduated from Wooster University of Ohio in 1882. His first business
service was as collector for the Valley National Bank of Des Moines at
twenty-five dollars a month. From 1882 until October 1, 1889, he was
in partnership with Simon Cassidy, following which he was general manager
and later president of the City Street Railway Company until 1911. Mr.
Hippee put up the Hippee Building in 1912, selling it to the Southern Surety
Company in 1924. He and Mr. Simon Cassidy were for some years owners
of the controlling interest in the Iowa Loan & Trust Company. Mr.
Hippee had a large amount of real estate and other private interests that
required his active attention. He was a York Rite Mason and Shriner,
member of the Des Moines Club and Wakonda Country Club, and a Republican
in politics.
He married, in 1887, Mildred Polk, a daughter of Jefferson S. Polk and member
of an old and honored family of Des Moines. They had two sons and two
daughters. George Polk Hippee, who is engaged in teh insurance business
in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Herndon Page Hippee, who is dong electrical
research work in Des Moines, Iowa are the sons. Mildred is the wife
of Phineas M. Henry, a Des Moines attorney, who is a grandson of Judge Cassidy.
Mary, the second daughter, is the wife of L. L. Hill, president of
McMurry, Hill & Company.
COL. FREDERICKS HIRD, United States marshal for the Southern District
of Iowa, is one of the substantial men of the state, and one who is held
in high esteem as a man of honor, courage and resourcefulness. He was
born at New Diggings, Wisconsin, December 6, 1879, a son of William and Hannah
(Redfern) Hird, the latter of whom was born in Pennsylvania. William
Hird discovered the Avenue Top Mines in 1878, and worked these mines until
the World war, when he sold them to a syndicate, after many years of successful
operation. However, the syndicate, an Eastern group, only operated
for the war period, then closed down. The mother died April 12, 1910,
but the father survives and is living at Dubuque, Iowa. While he has
always voted the Republican ticket and worked for his party, he has never
run for any office. He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and the mother was also a member and devoted much time to it. Of
the ten children born to the parents, Marshal Hird is the second in order
of birth, and the eldest now living.
After he had completed his school work in Dubuque Marshal Hird had two years
in a business college, after which he began earning his own living. His
first work was done as an employee of the Adams Company at Dubuque as bookkeeper
for two years, after which he was assistant department manager of the H.
B. Glover Company, which position he resigned in 1905 to come to Des Moines
and enter the state adjutant general's department, where he had charge of
all military supplies, camp grounds and target ranges.
His admirable work in this connection was interrupted by the call to arms,
and he went to the Mexican border in June, 1916, but upon his return home
he resumed his official duties. After a few weeks, however, he once
more responded to his country's call, and entered the army July 29, 1917.
He was assigned to duty in the construction division of the quartermaster's
department, Camp Logan, Houston, Texas. upon completion of this project
he was transferred to Fort Worth, Texas, and as assistant construction
quartermaster remained at gas plants 1 and 2 until completion, but was later
sent to gas plant 3 at Petrolia, Texas, there being constructing quartermaster.
From there, after the work was completed, he was sent to the construction
office, Washington, District of Columbia, as assistant to the supervising
constructing quartermaster and as supervising constructing quartermaster,
and continued to serve in that capacity until after the armistice was signed.
At that time he was sent to the Chicago district to assist in adjusting contracts
with different contractors, and when that work was completed he visited different
camps, gathering war materials and supplies for Mexican border projects.
After he had handled this clean-up work for some time in a masterly manner
he was assigned to duty as construction quartermaster, A. G. S. D., Little
Rock, Arkansas, upon completion of which he went to Quantico, Virginia, to
train for the United States Olympic Rifle Team in the 1920 Olympic games,
and finished in sixth place in the tryout. He finished his training
at Neuweid and Weissenthurm, Germany, and participated in the Olympic games
at Antwerp, Belgium. In 1912 he was a member of the United States Olympic
Rifle Team in the Olympic games at Stockholm, Sweden, in which he won the
fifty meter individual match, for which he was presented with the Olympic
wreath diploma and gold medal by the King of Sweden. He also won a
number of team medals. In October, 1920, Colonel Hird was honorably
discharged from the army, and, returning to Des Moines, took up general
construction work, but later began manufacturing brooms, which business he
sold July 19, 1926. In the meanwhile he had served as deputy sheriff
of Polk County, and February 17, 1928, was appointed United States marshal.
He now holds rank of lieutenant colonel, Ordnance, Thirty-fourth Division,
Iowa National Guard, to which he has risen from that of private at the age
of twenty. He passed through the different grades, including those
of captain and major, to his present rank. Colonel Hird was a shooting
member of the Iowa State Rifle Team during the years of
1903-04-05-06-07-08-13-14-15; team coach, 1909-10-11-29-30; team captain,
1921-22-23-24; team captain National Guard, United Service Team, 1921-22;
team coach, 1923-24.
On October 14, 1907, Colonel Hird was married to Mary Helen Cosgrove, born
in Decatur, Illinois, reared and educated at Des Moines, and they have three
children: Fred S., Junior, who was born August 1, 1908, a graduate
of the electrical engineering department in Ames College; Theodore L., who
was born June 7, 1911; and Wilbur E., who was born December 29, 1913. The
two younger sons are in the public schools. Mrs. Hird is a member of
the Roman Catholic Church. Colonel Hird belongs to the American Legion,
and both he and Mrs. Hird are very prominent socially.
~~~~***~~~~
PETER GEORGE HITCH JR. It is not given to every man to make
a success in life, nor are all fitted for the same kind of work; but when
the work fits the man, then is success much more apt to result. Peter
George Hitch, Junior, assistant manager of the American Fork & Hoe Company,
of Fort Madison, is one who has always displayed an aptitude for his kind
of work, and in his present company he is receiving the appreciation to which
his abilities entitle him. He was born at Godmanchester, England, in
Huntingtonshire, October 28, 1872, a son of Peter George Hitch, also a native
of Huntingtonshire, England.
Educated in the common schools of England, and taught the miller trade, the
elder Peter George Hitch came to the United States and located at Fort Madison,
Iowa, in 1873, with the idea that he could easily secure employment, but
the first year he was here he was forced to work at anything he could find
to do. In 1874, however, he secured steady employment with the Morrison
Plow Company, and continued with that concern for a quarter of a century,
becoming foreman of the blacksmithing department, which position he was holding
when he resigned, and leaving industrial life, devoted the remainder of his
years to farming until 1919, when he retired. Several years ago he
served as a member of the city council of Fort Madison. He married
Miss Ellen Thackray, of Huntingtonshire, and the following children were
born to them: Peter George, Junior, who was the third born; Tanjore
T., who is vice president of the American Fork & Hoe Company; Benjamin
James, who resides at Pontoosue, Illinois; Mrs. Nelle T. Brown, who resides
at Revere, Missouri; William H., who resides at Fort Madison. The father
of these children died in 1926 at his residence in Fort Madison.
In April, 1873, Peter George Hitch, Junior, was brought to this country by
his parents, and he was reared at Fort Madison and attended the common schools,
which he completed in 1886, after which he began working in the Iowa Farming
Tool Company, and continued with that company for a year, after which he
took a commercial course in the Johnson Business College; and in 1889 and
1890 he attended the Iowa Commercial College in Iowa City, from which latter
institution he received his diploma. While attending college he earned
his own way by working. Returning to Fort Madison after he felt prepared
for a business career, he entered the Fort Madison Iron Works Company as
stenographer and bookkeeper, but in 1891 left to become stenographer for
the Iowa Farming Tool Company, with which he has since remained. After
reorganization the concern became the American Fork & Hoe Company, and
he is its assistant manager as well as one of its stockholders. The
business is in a flourishing condition and the trade territory for the produce
is a wide-spread one. Mr. Hitch is a thirty-second degree, a Knight
Templar and Shriner Mason, holding membership in the Shrine in Kaaba Temple,
of Davenport, Iowa. He also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks. In religious connections he is an Episcopalian. For
about twelve years he served on the school board, for five years of that
time being its president. For two terms he was a member of the city
council of Fort Madison, and he has served as president of the Boy Scouts.
On May 19, 1898, Mr. Hitch married Miss Ellinor C. Dickie, and she died in
November, 1902, having borne him three children: Mrs. Emily H. Cole,
of Prophetstown, Illinois; Peter James, who is a resident of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania; and Mrs. Dorothy H. Foglesong, of Fort Madison. In August,
1905, Mr. Hitch was married to Miss Emily Dickie, of Montrose, Iowa, and
they have three children: Gilbert D. who is a student of the Iowa
State College, Ames, Iowa, Ellinor, now Mrs. Levert McGee, of Redvers,
Saskatchewan, Canada; and Mary Helen, who is a student of the Iowa University,
Iowa City.
Personally Mr. Hitch is a man of strength of character, and is recognized
as one of the most reliable and highly-esteemed business men of Lee County,
and one who has yet many years of usefulness before him.
~~~~***~~~~
FRED N. HOBSON is a native Iowan and since 1913 has carried on a very
successful practice in his profession as a dental surgeon at Griswold in
Cass County.
Doctor Hobson was born in Montgomery County, Iowa, January 13, 1887, son
of William M. and Cora Viola (Nelson) Hobson. His parents live
at Red Oak. His father was born in Indiana, in 1860, came to Iowa about
1880, and has been a successful farmer and real estate dealer. He owns
several farms in Pottawattamie County. The parents are members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor Hobson's mother was born in Illinois,
in 1864, and came to Iowa at the age of seventeen. She and her husband
were married February 14, 1883. They were the parents of five children:
Mrs. W. S. Van, born January 16, 1884, is a graduate of the Red Oak
High School and lives at Huron, South Dakota; Dr. Fred N.; Mrs. Guy Latham,
born November 30, 1893, graduated from the Red Oak High School and lives
at Elliott, Iowa; Mrs. Bessie Brown, born December 23, 1896, is a resident
of Des Moines; and Dale C., born November 29, 1905, graduated from the Red
Oak High School, studied medicine for a time in the University of Iowa, and
is now with the wholesale department of Marshall Field & Company at Chicago.
Fred N. Hobson attended the Elliott High School and was graduated from the
dental department of Northwestern University at Chicago in 1912. For
six months he remained in Chicago practicing his profession, and in 1913
located at Griswold, a community that has shown a fine appreciation of his
professional abilities and has welcomed him into its citizenship. Doctor
Hobson is a member of the Lodge and Knight Templar Commandery of Masons and
Za-Ga-Zig Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Des Moines, the B. P. O. Elks, and
is secretary of the Greater Griswold Club.
He married October 25, 1916, Miss Ina Cardio, of Atlantic. She is a
graduate of the Atlantic High School and finished a musical course in Cleveland,
Ohio. Her father, M. C. Cardio, was born in Naples, Italy, and as a
boy crossed the ocean as a stowaway. He was landed in New York, and
later was traveling with a show that landed at Atlantic, Iowa. He remained
at Atlantic, sold papers on the street, worked in a restaurant, later conducted
a saloon and hotel, and made himself respected as one of the most substantial
citizens of that community. He acquired considerable property. While
he never went to school, he was well informed and saw that his children were
well educated. He died in Atlantic in December, 1918, having been taken
ill at New York while awaiting the arrival of his four sons who had been
in France with the American Expeditionary Forces. His son Frank, who
was with the Dental Corps of the army, is now practicing in Chicago.
Doctor and Mrs. Hobson have three children: Patricia Jane, born
at Griswold March 6, 1918; Fred N. Jr., born at Griswold July 25, 1920;
and Robert L., born at Griswold October 25, 1922.
~~~~***~~~~
PHIL HOFFMANN, who is editor of the Oskaloosa Herald and an
executive officer of the Oskaloosa Herald Publishing Company, has reason
for marked satisfaction in being identified with a newspaper which, as weekly
and daily, has been a power in connection with civic and material development
and progress in Mahaska County during a period of eighty years, which statement
connotes that the Herald had its inception when the present county
seat was a little more than a frontier village. Further interest attaches
to Mr. Hoffmann's alliance with this pioneer paper by reason of the fact
that he is a native son of Oskaloosa and a representative of one of the old
and honored families of this section of the state.
The Oskaloosa Herald is the lineal descendant of the Iowa Herald,
which was established July 2, 1850, as the first newspaper in the aspiring
little village of Oskaloosa. The founders of the Iowa Herald
were Hugh McNeely and John R. Needham, the former of whom came from
Ohio to Oskaloosa in the early part of the year 1850. Mr. McNeely,
a practical printer, assumed charge of the mechanical and operative affairs
of the new paper and Mr. Needham functioned as its editor. The plant
of the paper was brought from Cambridge, Ohio, where it had previously been
utilized in the publishing of the Cambridge Times. Additional
material was purchased in Saint Louis, Missouri, and thus it was with no
meager equipment that was initiated the publishing of the pioneer newspaper
that was destined to become one of the leading journalist vehicles of the
Hawkeye State. The Herald supported the principles of the Whig
party until the birth of the Republican party, since which time it
has continued a vigorous supporter of the cause of the latter party. The
first issue of the Herald came from the press July 2, 1850, and on
the first of the following November the Herald, after the purchase
of new type and other material, initiated its publication under the present
title of Oskaloosa Herald. It was no minor problem that faced
the publishers of this pioneer paper, as Iowa was without railroad facilities
at that time and the machinery and other accessories of the newspaper plant
had to be shipped by boat up the Mississippi River to Keokuk or Burlington
and thence transported overland to Oskaloosa. In November, 1852, Mr.
McNeely sold his interest in the Herald to John W. Murphy, and in
the spring of 1855 the latter sold to James H. Knox who remained but a short
time. Thereafter Mr. Meedham continued in full control of the property
and the business until he gained the collaboration of James M. Brown.
January 1, 1858, Dr. Charles Beardsley purchased the interest of Mr.
Brown and assumed editorial management of the paper. Doctor Beardsley
remained at the helm until March 9, 1865, the Herald having proved
equal to the unwanted emergencies and vicissitudes that it was called upon
to face during the period of the Civil war, even to the issuing of small
special editions when reports from the war front were thus conveyed to the
attention of the people of the community, though such news was conveyed only
by the pony news express, by way of Eddyville, and the celebrated Burlington
Hawkeye likewise having depended upon this frontier service. It
is a local tradition of virtually authentic order that on four different
occasions in the war period every employee of the Oskaloosa Herald left
to enter the military service of the Union, leaving the publishers to issue
the paper as best they could. Mr. Needham retired from his association
with the enterprise after fifteen years of loyal and effective service, and
March 16, 1865, the Herald was issued under the management of Col.
C. W. Fisher and W. E. Sheppard, who had purchased the plant and business.
On the 16th of the following November Mr. Sheppard sold his interest
to his coadjutor, Colonel Fisher, who at this time admitted H. C. Leighton
and W. H. Needham to partnership. January 30, 1868, Capt. W. A. Hunter
purchased an interest in the paper and assumed editorial control. November
11, 1869, H. C. Leighton purchased the Needham interest, but March 17, 1870,
W. H. Needham acquired the Hunter interest. George Lee later became
identified with the business and he sold his interest to Albert W. Swalm,
a talented newspaperman of high reputation and one who had been previously
connected with the Des Moines Register, he having been widely known
as a vigorous and influential newspaper writer. August 1, 1889, Mr.
Swalm and his wife Pauline, became the sole owners of the Herald by
purchasing the interests of Charles and William Leighton, who had been connected
with the paper thirty years, in various ways Mrs. Pauline Swalm, a woman
of exceptional culture and executive ability, brought efficiency into the
business management of the Herald, and of the various persons who
were connected with the Herald prior to its passing to its present
management she is now the only one living.
On the 31st of December, 1896, Charles V. and Phil Hoffmann purchased the
plant and business of the Oskaloosa Herald, and they maintained this
pioneer newspaper at the best modern standard, making its service effective
in the advancing of local interests, good government, educational promotion,
news purveying of general order, and in vigorous support of the principles
and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. The Herald
is issued as a morning daily and has also a weekly edition. It
is a leader in the directing of communal sentiment and action, and its every
policy is marked by loyalty and cleanness.
January 1, 1905, as a matter of expediency in the handling of the business
of this metropolitan and influential newspaper, the Oskaloosa Herald Company
was organized and incorporated, and the interested principals were Charles
V. and Phil Hoffmann, Charles S. Walling and Miss Maggie Hoffmann. In
1922 occurred the death of Charles V. Hoffmann, and shortly afterward A.
K. Walling became a stockholder in the company. Phil Hoffmann is president
of the company; A. K. Walling is its vice president; C. S. Walling is general
manager and Miss Maggie Hoffmann is secretary and treasurer, she being a
talented woman of marked administrative ability and having been actively
concerned with the advancement made by this progressive newspaper corporation
since 1905.
Charles V. Hoffmann, whose death occurred in March, 1922, was born in Oskaloosa,
Iowa, January 28, 1860, a son of Philip and Eleanor (Addy) Hoffmann. He
received the advantages of the public schools of his native city and was
about seventeen years of age when he here, in 1877, in the Herald office
initiated his apprenticeship to the printer's trade and in the general newspaper
business. In 1889 he was elected treasurer of Mahaska County, and in
this fiscal office he gave two terms of loyal and efficient service. In
December, 1896, as previously noted, he became one of the owners of the
Oskaloosa Herald. In the following year he initiated his service
as postmaster of his native city, his appointment having been made under
the administration of President McKinley and his original term having expired
in 1901, while his second term ended in 1905. Thereafter he gave his
time and attention mainly to the affairs of the Oskaloosa Herald until
the time of his death, and in his character and his achievement he honored
and was honored by his native city and state. May 20, 1890, marked
his marriage to Miss Grace Seevers, daughter of Hon. W. H. Seevers, of Oskaloosa,
and she survives him, as does his son, Guilford. Gladys, a daughter,
died in her twentieth year.
Phil Hoffmann, whose name introduces this review, was born in Oskaloosa on
the 16th of August, 1868, and is a son of Philip and Eleanor (Addy) Hoffmann.
Philip Hoffmann, Sr., was born in Steinweiler, Kingdom of Bavaria,
Germany, October 13, 1830, and was a son of Peter and Anna (Pflatzgroff)
Hoffmann. He was reared and educated in his native land, and there
learned the trades of cabinetmaker and glazier. He was twenty-two years
of age when he came to the United States in 1853, and in 1855 he gained pioneer
honors in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he, was long engaged in his trade and in
the mercantile business and where he continued as an honored and influential
citizen until his death, July 10, 1902, his wife having preceded him to eternal
rest.
Phil Hoffmann, immediate subject of this review was graduated from the Oskaloosa
High School as a member of the class of 1885, and in this city he attended
Penn College during a period of eighteen months, he having in the meanwhile
been employed in a local drug store evenings and in vacation periods. He
learned at first hand the intricacies and mysteries of the "Art preservative
of all arts," as he served a practical apprenticeship in the offices of the
Oskaloosa Herald, where he initiated his service in the dignified
and autocratic position of "printers' devil." He won advancement through
his ability and loyal service and finally became identified with the editorial
department of the Herald. In 1892 he found another department
for clean service, as in that year he and his brother Charles V. purchased
the Oskaloosa steam laundry, which they successfully conducted under the
firm name of Hoffmann Brothers until December, 1896, when they sold the plant
and business and purchased the Oskaloosa Herald from Mrs. Pauline
G. Swalm. Under the Hoffmann management the Herald expanded
its influence and service and gained its present rank as one of the leading
newspapers of Iowa, with a plant of the best metropolitan facilities and
with all departments of service maintained on a high plane of efficiency.
Phil Hoffmann is one of the representative business men and loyal and progressive
citizens of his native city, his political allegiance is given to the
Republican party, and he has been influential in its local councils. He
and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which
he is a member of the vestry of the local parish. He was president
of the local Rotary Club in 1928, and he is affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Hoffmann was an active member
of the Iowa National Guard during a period of five years, and became a first
sergeant of company F. Third Infantry Regiment. He is a member of the
Iowa State Press Association and also of the Chicago Press Club, a representative
organization in the great western metropolis.
On the 20th of September, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hoffmann
and Miss Anna M. Glaze, daughter of Frank W. and Lily (Lloyd) Glaze, of
Oskaloosa, her father having been one of the leading merchants of this city.
Mrs. Hoffmann is affiliated with the Order of the Eastern Star and
the P. E. O. Sisterhood, is a member of the local Woman's Club, and is a
popular figure in the social, church and cultural affairs of her home city.
Mr. and Mrs. Hoffmann have one daughter, Eleanor, who was born August
8, 1908, and who graduated from the University of Iowa in June, 1930.
Phil Hoffmann has become known as a versatile and representative newspaper
editor in his native state and also as the author of an interesting and valuable
work entitled Roustabout, this being a history of Mahaska County told
with marked effectiveness through the medium of many humorous descriptions
of life and manners, the little volume having met with marked popular approval.
~~~~***~~~~
THE HOLLEY FAMILY. The mercantile business of the L. W. Holley
& Sons Company, stationers, printers, binders and marking device
manufacturers, and dealers in office and bank supplies, located at 100 E.
Grand Avenue, Des Moines, since 1921, was established in 1899 in Madison,
Wisconsin, by L. W. Holley. About three years later a branch was started
in Des Moines. Both businesses grew, but as the territory covered was
largely west from Des Moines the tow houses were consolidated in 1909.
LeRoy W. Holley was born at Stoughton, Wisconsin, August 11, 1850. His
father and mother at that time operated the Village Tavern. His father,
Hollis Holley, and mother, Laura Jane Finch-Holley, had migrated from Moravia,
Cayuga County, New York State, a few years before that. His father
was Michael Holley, who had a brother, Justice Holley.
Hollis Holley was a joiner or cabinet maker by trade, and afterwards settled
on one of the finest prairie farms near Janesville, Wisconsin, where he lived
almost up to the time of his death in 1893.
During the Civil war he was very active in stimulating enlistments and supporting
the Union, he himself being crippled in one foot, and rather too old for
military service. As only son, George, by a former marriage was badly
wounded in the throat, and captured in the first battle of Bull Run. He
was confined in Libby Prison, where he died.
L. W. Holley grew up on the farm, from which he migrated at maturity to Iowa,
and spent two years here in various employments. He wished to homestead,
however, and moved to Orleans, Nebraska, where he homesteaded a valley farm.
He afterwards engaged in contracting and building, also well drilling.
It was while in Orleans that he met and married Allie Newton, a school teacher,
who, with her parents, had located in that section, going there from the
Muskingum Valley in Southern Ohio. Her father was Abel S. Newton (July
23, 1832-July 11, 1884). Her mother was Marie Jane (Forsythe) Newton,
who was born August 28, 1836, and is living in 1930 at the age of ninety-four.
His father was Gideon Newton, born June 26, 1804, and was the first
white male child born in Ohio. The birth occurred in the block house
at Marietta when settlers were there for protection during an Indian uprising.
Gideon Newton's father was Sylvanis Newton, who was born in New York
State. His wife was Elizabeth Stacy, born March 2, 1766, a daughter
of Col. William Stacy, of Massachusetts, who commanded a regiment during
the American Revolutionary war, and was buried at Marietta, Ohio.
Abel S. Newton himself, served with the Seventy-eighth Ohio Infantry during
the latter part of the American Civil war, and was with General Sherman on
his march to the sea. Several of his brothers also served in the war.
During the pioneer days in Western Nebraska all of the crops were taken clean
by the grasshoppers for two seasons; and at one time the early settlers were
threatened by an Indian uprising, which, fortunately, did not reach their
section of the state. Buffalo, antelope and other wild game were very
plentiful in the early days, and were depended on by the early settlers for
their meat supply. L. W. Holley, being an excellent shot, always provided
plenty of meat for their homestead farm. The carcass of an animal could
be hung high up in the tree and would not be molested by flies, they being
unknown in the early days.
There were three children born to L. W. and Allie (Newton) Holley; Claud
C., October 23, 1883; Mabel A., April 25, 1887, and Harold H., September
26, 1889. In 1890 the family moved to the Puget Sound section of the
State of Washington. Here the mother, Allie Newton-Holley, died in
1893. The grief stricken father and children then returned to Nebraska
for a short time and then to his old home in Southern Wisconsin, where they
spent some years.
As mentioned above, L. W. Holley moved to Des Moines about 1901, and it was
here that he married Lula Steele, and they have lived here since. No
children were born to the second marriage. He retired from active
management of the business in 1910, and the three children, Claud, Mabel
and Harold, have been in charge ever since. The firm employs from fifty
to sixty people, besides about forty traveling salesmen who cover territory
from Ohio to the Pacific, and from Wisconsin on the north to Alabama on the
south.
Claud C., manager of the business, is a member of the Des Moines and the
National Chambers of Commerce, the Grant Club, the Conopus Service Club,
and is also affiliated with the First Methodist Church, of which he is a
trustee. He is a member of the Pioneer Lodge No. 22, A. F. and A. M.,
in Des Moines; also a Scottish Rite Mason, Shriner and a Knight of Pythias.
July 2, 1912, he married Grace Brown, daughter of Dallas M. and Eliza
Brown, of Greenville, Indiana. They have one child, Helen Marjorie,
born October 13, 1914.
Mabel A. acts as treasurer and office manager of the company. She is
a member of the First Methodist Church, of the Woman's Rotary Club and of
the Kappa Tau Delphian.
Harold H., superintendent of the printing department, is a member of Pioneer
Lodge No. 22, A. F. and A. M.,m a York Rite Mason, Shriner and a member of
the Grotto. He married Caroline Myer November 29, 1911. They
are both affiliated with the Christian Science Church. They have two
sons, John, born July 10, 1913, and LeRoy, born September 27, 1917.
~~~~***~~~~
ELLIS J. HOOK. Among the reliable and substantial members of
the Winneshiek County bar, one who has been engaged in a successful practice
since 1912 at Decorah, where he has gained a well-merited reputation for
sound ability and broad knowledge of his calling, is Ellis J. Hook.
Commencing his career as a teacher in the public schools, he thus earned
the means wherewith to gain his professional training, and in addition to
being a prominent attorney has also been active in public life and financial
affairs, having served in the Iowa Legislature and as mayor of Decorah.
Mr. Hook was born on a farm near Hopedale, Tazewell County, Illinois, December
5, 1870, and is a son of George W. and Catherine (Nanker) Hook. The
Hook family originated in England, whence the progenitor made his way to
America prior to the war of the Revolution and took up his home in North
Carolina. Subsequently members of the family moved into Kentucky and
Ohio, and it was in the latter state that George W. and Catherine Hook met
and were married. George W. Hook was reared on a farm and educated
in th country schools, and was still a young man at the outbreak of the war
between the states. Volunteering his services to the Union, he became
a member of the Company D, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain
Van Winkel, and with this command was detailed to service on the western
plains, where he participated in a great deal of Indian warfare. At
the close of his service he went to Tazewell County, Illinois, where he was
engaged in farming until 1892, in that year coming to Iowa and establishing
his residence in Grundy County, where he was a successful and substantial
farmer until reaching the age of seventy years. He then retired and
moved to Grundy Center, where his death occurred in 1921, Mrs. Hook having
passed away in 1911. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom
seven are now living, Ellis J. having been the sixth in order of birth.
Both parents were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church
and people who were greatly esteemed in their community because of their
many sterling qualities of mind and heart.
Ellis J. Hook attended a private school at Decorah, and after graduating
from Decorah Institute, in 1894, prepared himself for teaching by attending
summer sessions at the University of Iowa. He taught school for several
years and in 1899 was elected superintendent of schools of Winneshiek County,
a position which he occupied until 1909. At that time he commenced
the study of law at the University of Iowa, from the legal department of
which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912 and was
admitted to the bar. He immediately began practice at Decorah, in
partnership with C. S. Brice, and this partnership continued until
Mr. Brice's death in 1922, since which time Mr. Hook has practiced alone.
He carries on a large and lucrative law business of a general character
and is admittedly one of the most reliable, energetic and capable men of
his profession in the county. Mr. Hook is a member of the Winneshiek
County Bar Association, the Iowa Bar Association and the American Bar
Association, in all of which he has a high standing and numerous friends.
He has always been prominent in public affairs and Republican politics,
served three terms as chairman of the Republican central committee, was a
member of the Thirty-eighth General Assembly of Iowa, and in 1917-18 was
mayor of Decorah. During the World war he was a four-minute man and
likewise a member of the legal advisory board of his district. He was
one of the original incorporators of the Decorah State Bank, in 1906, and
is still a member of the board of directors of that institution. He
is serving as president of the local public library board, belongs to the
Decorah Chamber of Commerce and the local lodge of the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and supports the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1898 Mr. Hook was united in marriage with Miss Minnie M. Reed, of Decorah,
the only daughter and youngest child of the four children of Daniel A. and
Mary L. (Topliff) Reed. Mrs. Hook comes of a long line of legal men,
both her paternal and maternal grandfathers having been county judges. Her
father, a farmer, died in 1910, and her mother in 1927. Mr. and Mrs.
Hook have no children.
~~~~***~~~~
BUSH HOUSTON, physician and surgeon, practicing at Nevada in Story
County, grew up in the State of Iowa from early childhood, and has earned
a very enviable record in his profession in this state.
He was born at Wamego, Kansas, September 4, 1885, son of James and Lucy (Barrett)
Houston. His father went to Kansas at an early date and was a builder
and contractor who did a great deal of work for the Union Pacific Railroad.
He died in Kansas in 1891 and his wife passed away in 1888.
Dr. Bush Houston was only three years old when his mother died, and he was
then sent to the home of his uncle, E. E. Barrett, at Montezuma, Iowa, where
he grew up and received his early education in the grade and high schools.
In 1908 he graduated in medicine from the University of Iowa, and for
five years remained in Montezuma in general practice. Doctor Houston
gave up his work there in order to prepare himself for larger service in
the profession. He pursued a special course in anatomy under Doctor
Prentiss at the University of Iowa and spent a year in Chicago under the
instruction of a famous surgeon, Dr. Emil Ries. Then, in February,
1913, Doctor Houston located at Nevada, and while engaged in a general practice
he had limited his work to the town, and for the most part specializes in
surgical cases. He has been honored with election to the American College
of Surgeons and is a member of the Story County, Iowa State and American
Medical Association.
Doctor Houston married, in August, 1912, Miss Rachel Smith, of Montezuma,
who was born there and was graduated from the Cumnock School of Chicago in
1910. Doctor and Mrs. Houston have had two children: Florabel
H., born at Nevada, April 10, 1916, a junior in high school; and Virginia
L. born at Nevada, November 28, 1919, who passed away May 5, 1930.
Doctor Houston is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of
the Knights of Pythias, a member of the Rotary Club, is a Methodist and belongs
to the Indian Creek Country Club.
He has membership in the American Legion. In July, 1918, he enlisted
at Des Moines, was sent to the Medical Officers Training School at Fort Riley,
Kansas, for six weeks, joined the Eighth Sanitary Train of the Eighth Division
at Palo Alto, California, and was under overseas orders, en route when the
armistice was signed. He was honorably discharged June 23, 1919, with
the rank of first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, at Newport News, Virginia.
~~~~***~~~~
RAYMOND E. HOYNE. Among the youngest generation of lawyers
practicing at the Iowa bar, one who has gained well-merited preferment in
his calling is Raymond E. Hoyne, of Hamburg. Coming to this thriving
community in 1924, he soon formed an alliance with Robert F. Hickman, and
the firm of Hickman & Hoyne is now accounted one of the strong and reliable
law concerns of the country. Mr. Hoyne has participated in much important
litigation that has been brought into the courts in recent years, both as
a private practitioner and as city attorney of Hamburg, an office in which
he served efficiently for four years.
Raymond E. Hoyne was born at Newell, Buena Vista County, Iowa, May 8, 1900,
and is a son of William S. and Clara (Gregg) Hoyne. His paternal
grandfather, N. H. Hoyne, was born in Denmark, and in young manhood came
to the United States, taking up his residence in pioneer days in what is
now South Dakota. There he hewed out a farm from the wilderness, developed
a home and reared his family rounding out his career as a good citizen and
a man who had the confidence and esteem of the community. William S.
Hoyne was born at Racine, Wisconsin, where he was reared and educated, and
in young manhood went to South Dakota, where he remained until 1898. In
that year he came to Buena Vista County, Iowa, and for a time resided at
Newell, but subsequently established himself in the shoe business at Clarinda,
Page County, where he still makes his home. He is one of the reliable
merchants of his community and has built up a profitable business through
legitimate methods. Mr. Hoyne is a Republican in his political allegiance,
but has not sought public office. He belongs to the Masons and the
Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mrs. Hoyne is also a member, and both
are active in the work of the Presbyterian Church. By a former marriage
Mr. Hoyne had one son: Dr. Kenneth, who is engaged in the practice
of dental surgery at Centerville, South Dakota. The present Mrs. Hoyne
was born at Chariton, Iowa, and is a daughter of Elisha Gregg, a pioneer
settler and agriculturist of that part of the state.
The only child of his parents, Raymond E. Hoyne attended public school at
Indianola and high school at Clarinda, and then enrolled as a student at
the University of Iowa, from which he was duly graduated as a member of the
class of 1924, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Law. Selecting the
thriving community of Hamburg as the scene of his professional activities,
he practiced alone here for two months, at the end of which time he became
associated with Robert F. Hickman, a review of whose career will be found
elsewhere in this work, under the firm name of Hickman & Hoyne. Mr.
Hoyne has displayed a complete mastery of the law in a number of important
cases, and is soundly grounded in principles and precedents. He is
a member of the Fremont County Bar Association, the Phi Alpha Delta legal
fraternity and the Delta Upsilon fraternity, and is likewise a Mason. A
Republican in politics, he has taken an active part in public affairs, and
for four years served the community of Hamburg in the capacity of city attorney,
in which office he gave a good account of his abilities and his ideals of
public service. With his fellow-members of the Kiwanis Club he has
constantly assisted worthy movements of a civic nature. He has belonged
to the Presbyterian Church since young manhood, and is a member of the board
of trustees of the local church.
In 1923 Mr. Hoyne was united in marriage, at Davenport, Iowa, with Miss Julia
Thompson, who was born at Tobias, Nebraska. She is a graduate of the
University of Iowa, and prior to her marriage taught home economics at Fremont,
Tipton and Hamburg, this state. They have no children.
~~~~***~~~~
FREDERICK C. HUBBELL , who is one of the substantial capitalists and
influential citizens of his native City of Des Moines, is a representative
of a family that has been established in Iowa more than seventy years and
that has stood as one of major prominence and influence in connection with
development and progress of the Hawkeye State - especially its fine capital
city.
Frederick C. Hubbell was born in Des Moines on the 29th of April, 1864, and
is a son of Frederick M. and Frances (Cooper) Hubbell, the former of whom
was born in Connecticut, January 17, 1839, of Colonial New England ancestry
and the latter of whom was born in Pennsylvania, she having been eighty-three
years of age at the time of her death in 1924, and having been one of the
gracious and loved pioneer women of Des Moines.
Frederick C., immediate subject of this review, is the eldest of the three
children of Frederick M. and Frances (Cooper) Hubbell; Beulah is the wife
of Carl Watchmaster, who is now retired from active business, and they reside
in the City of Paris, France; Grover C. youngest of the children, is individually
mentioned in the following sketch.
Frederick C. Hubbell, whose name initiates this sketch, received the advantages
of the Des Moines public schools, and after completing his high school course
he was a student in the Albany Law School in the capital city of New York.
Though he was not engaged in the active practice of law he has found
his technical knowledge of great value in his management of business. Upon
his return in Des Moines Mr. Hubbell became actively associated with his
father's varied and important business interests, and about 1890 he assumed
executive management of the Des Moines Western and the Des Moines Union
Railroads, the former of which was sold in 1898. Mr. Hubbell thereafter
became extensively engaged in real estate operations, and at the present
time he is executive head of the Des Moines Terminal Railroad, the Des Moines
Western Railroad and of F. M. Hubbell, Son & Company, Inc., besides being
identified with other important corporations. His political allegiance is
given to the Republican party.
In the year 1889 Mr. Hubbell was united in marriage with Miss Mary Windsor,
who was born in Chicago, but who was reared and educated in Des Moines, where
her father, James H. Windsor, was a pioneer in the meat-packing industry,
as owner of the business conducted under the title of Des Moines Packing
Company. The death of Mrs. Hubbell occurred January 30, 1923, and she
is survived by two sons: Frederick W., who received the advantages
of Harvard University and who is now vice president of the Equitable Life
Insurance Company of Iowa, married Miss Helen Clarke, and their two children,
Frederick Windsor and Helen Ann, are representative of the fourth generation
of the Hubbell family in Iowa. James W., the younger son, likewise
attended historic old Harvard University, and he is now associated with
administrative affairs in the offices of his father, he being the subject
of a personal sketch elsewhere in this publication. He married Miss
Harriet Cox, and they have three children: James Windsor, Jr., Mary
and Crawford.
~~~~***~~~~
FREDERICK M. HUBBELL at the age of ninety had the fortune to see his
plans and efforts of more than seventy years come to complete fruition.
Mr. Hubbell as a lawyer, business man and financier has probably been
more intimately connected with the projects and enterprises that have made
Des Moines a modern city than any other man now living.
Mr. Hubbell, who arrived at Fort Des Moines May 8, 1855, was then sixteen
years of age. He was born at Huntington, Fairfield County, Connecticut,
January 17, 1839, and was educated in district schools and had three years
of high school work before coming west. On this journey to the Mississippi
River Valley he accompanied his father, who was a farmer and stone mason.
They traveled by railroad as far as Rock Island, took a steamboat over
to Muscatine, and by stage coach came to Des Moines. The following
day Frederick M. Hubbell began employment as clerk in the United States land
office under receiver P. M. Cassidy, at a salary of a hundred dollars a year,
and in March, 1856, he removed to Sioux City, taking a position in the land
office there, and later appointed deputy clerk of courts, a special act of
the Legislature removing his minority qualification for his position later
was passed to assure the legality of his acts. In the meantime he studied
law, was admitted to practice April 24, 1858, this also before he had reached
his majority, and in the spring of 1860 he became one of the organizers of
Sioux County. After five years at Sioux City Mr. Hubbell returned to
Des Moines, in 1861, was a clerk in the law office of Cassidy & Polk,
and on January 1, 1862, was admitted to partnership, his seniors in the firm
being two other distinguished pioneer Iowans, Phineas M. Cassidy and Jefferson
Scott Polk. Judge Cassidy retired in 1865, and from that time until
January 1, 1887, the firm was Polk & Hubbell. It was a law firm
with a large volume of practice, but it was the business and financial operations
of the firm that are of most importance in the history of Des Moines and
the state.
Polk & Hubbell supplied not only legal counsel but a great deal of finance
and business ability in the development of transportation lines in and out
of Des Moines. They promoted the beginning of a street railway system
in 1866. They were large stockholders in the Des Moines & Minnesota
Railroad Company when it was constructed from Des Moines to Ames. Later
this road was sold to the Chicago & Northwestern. In 1879 they
acquired the property and the assets of the Des Moines, Adel & Western
Railroad, which was started in 1871. In January, 1888, Polk & Hubbell
sold their interest to the Des Moines & Northwestern Railway Company,
which had been organized in 1887, and of which F. M. Hubbell was president,
Gen. G. M. Dodge, vice president, and J. S. Polk, secretary and treasurer.
Eventually this line became a part of the Chicago & Milwaukee &
Saint Paul system.
Mr. Hubbell with Mr. Polk and B. F. Allen incorporated the Des Moines Water
Works Company, and secured a franchise in 1871. This company built
the water system, and Polk & Hubbell owned and controlled the company
for a number of years, Mr. Hubbell serving as secretary of the company. Mr.
Hubbell was also one of the organizers of the Des Moines Union Railway Company
and was its first secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Hubbell was the man perhaps primarily responsible for instituting Des
Moines as a center in the western insurance world. He helped organize
in 1867 the Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa, became its first secretary,
in 1888 was elected president, and was head of the company until 1907, after
which he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees. He is still chairman
of the board and is a trustee of the Frederick M. Hubbell estate. Mr.
Hubbell has been a Democrat in politics, and for many years a communicant
of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church at Des Moines.
He married Frances Cooper, whose father, Isaac Cooper, was an early day building
contractor in Des Moines. Mrs. Hubbell is deceased. There are
three children. The sons, F. C. and Grover C., are Des Moines citizens
whose careers are sketched individually elsewhere. The only daughter,
Beulah C., is the wife of County Carl A. Wachtmeister, and they live in Paris
and have a son, Frederick.
~~~~***~~~~
FREDERICK W. HUBBELL must find a definite measure of pride and
satisfaction in being an executive officer of the Equitable Life Insurance
Company of Des Moines, of which he is vice president, for this substantial
and well conducted concern, the history of which covers a period of more
than sixty years, had as one of its founders his paternal grandfather, Frederick
M. Hubbell, who has been one of the foremost figures in the march of development
and progress of Des Moines, where he established residence in 1855 and where
he now maintains his home, having celebrated in January, 1930, the ninety-first
anniversary of his birth. Of this patriarchal and honored citizen more
specific mention is made on other pages of this publication, in the personal
sketch of his son Frederick C., who is, in turn, the father of Frederick
W. of this review. By reason of such reference to the careers of the
grandfather and the father no further record of the family history is here
demanded.
Frederick W. Hubbell was born in Des Moines on the 24th day of November,
1891, ad here his early education was acquired in the public schools, including
the high school. It was thereafter his privilege to become a student
in historic old Harvard University, and in that institution he was graduated
as a member of the class of 1913 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Upon his return to his native city he became assistant treasurer of
the Equitable Life Insurance Company, with which he has since continued his
executive association and of which he is now the vice president. Mr.
Hubbell is one of the representative business men of the younger generation
in his native city, is vitally interested in all that touches the welfare
and advancement of that city, is a Republican in politics, and he and his
wife are communicants of St. Paul's Church Protestant Episcopal.
On the 19th of June, 1915, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hubbell and
Miss Helen L. Clark, who was born in Sioux City, this state, and who received
the advantages of the University of Minnesota and of the exclusive Finch
School in New York City. Rufus B. Clark, father of Mrs. Hubbell, was
an executive of the Queal Lumber Company, which maintains establishments
in Sioux City and Des Moines, Iowa, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr.
and Mrs. Hubbell have two children: Frederick W., Jr., born June 15,
1921, and Helen Ann, born September 13, 1924.
~~~~***~~~~
GROVER COOPER HUBBELL is interested prominently in leading manufacturing
industries and other important corporations in his native City of Des Moines,
where the Hubbell family had stood exponent of large influence since the
early pioneer days. Mr. Hubbell has rank as one of the substantial
capitalists and representative men of affairs in Des Moines, where his birth
occurred February 3, 1883, and he is a son of Frederick M. and Frances (Cooper)
Hubbell, concerning whom, and the family history as well, adequate record
appears on other pages of this publication, in the personal sketch of his
only, and older, brother, Frederick C. Hubbell. The venerable father,
now ninety-two years of age, still resides in Des Moines, where he first
established residence in 1855, and his large and worthy achievement constitutes
an integral part of the history of development and progress in Iowa and its
fair capital city.
The Des Moines public schools afforded Grover C. Hubbell his earlier education,
which was advanced by his attending the Culver Military Academy, Culver,
Indiana, and Lawrenceville School, at Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He
was graduated at Lawrenceville as a member of the class of 1902, and in 1905
he was graduated in Yale University, with the degree of Civil Engineer. He
has since been actively concerned with the affairs of the large and important
estate developed by his father in Des Moines, besides having many and varied
capitalistic interests of independent order, including his association with
manufacturing enterprise of major importance, his large real-estate holdings
and operations, and his association with the Equitable Life Insurance Company
of Des Moines, of which he is a trustee, his father having been one of the
two founders of this substantial and well ordered corporation.
Mr. Hubbell takes loyal and liberal interest in all that concerns the welfare
of his native city and state, his political alignment is with the Republican
party, he is affiliated with both York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic
fraternity, as well as the Mystic Shrine, has membership in the Des Moines
Club and the Wakonda Club, and he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant
Episcopal Church.
On the 27th of September, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hubbell
to Miss Anna Ramsey Godfrey, a daughter of Col. George L. Godfrey, who was
colonel in the United States army in the Civil war and who thereafter held
various Governmental positions of importance, he having been at one time
United States collector of customs in Des Moines. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbell
have three children: Frances Cooper Hubbell, eldest of the three daughter,
was born October 18, 1906, and was graduated in Smith College as a member
of the class of 1928. Helen Virginia, the second daughter, was born
February 12, 1908, attended Columbia University, New York City, also student
modeling and art in New York, and married Niblack Thorne, of Chicago, May
17, 1930; Mary Belle, who was born December 15, 1911, attended the "Andre
Brook" School at Tarrytown, New York, and is now attending a finishing school
in Munich, Germany, conducted by Miss Weaver of "Andre Brook."
~~~~***~~~~
JAMES W. HUBBELL, is manager of the F. M. Hubbell estate, which is
one of the most important in the City of Des Moines, he having been born
in this city on the 5th of June, 1895, and here being a scion of the third
generation of a family whose name has been one of major prominence in
connection with the history of Iowa's capital city during a period of nearly
three-quarters of a century. Of the history of the Hubbell family adequate
record is given on other pages of this publication, in the personal sketch
of Frederick C. Hubbell, who is the father of James W. of this review and
a son of Frederick M. Hubbell, who remains as one of the most venerable
and honored pioneer citizens of Des Moines and of whose large estate the
subject of this sketch has general executive management.
After completing his course in the West High School of Des Moines James W.
Hubbell entered historic old Harvard University, in which institution he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1917 and from which he received
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At the university he was a popular
member of the representative student organization known as the Fly Club.
In the year that marked the graduation of Mr. Hubbell from Harvard University
the nation entered the World war, and it was his to represent Iowa as one
of the gallant young soldiers in that great conflict. After his enlistment
he received preliminary training at Camp Dodge, Iowa, where he won commission
as first lieutenant. He went overseas as a member of the Eighty-eighth
Division, and with the American Expeditionary Forces he was in active service
in France at the time the historic armistice brought the war to a close.
He later returned with his command to the United States, and he received
his honorable discharge on the 6th of June, 1919.
After his return to his native city Mr. Hubbell became a trustee of the F.
M. Hubbell estate - that of his grandfather, and he now has the active management
of this estate, the holdings and interests of which are many and varied and
include valuable Des Moines real estate. Mr. Hubbell is a member
of the Board of Trustees of the Equitable Life Insurance Company and in his
home city is likewise a director of the Bankers Trust Company. His
political alignment is with the Republican party, he and his wife are
communicants of Saint Paul's Church, Protestant Episcopal, and he has membership
in the Des Moines and the Wakonda Clubs.
In 1921 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hubbell and Miss Harriet Cox,
who was born and reared in Sacramento, California, and who is a daughter
of Crawford Cox. The three children of this union are James W., Jr., Mary
Windsor and Crawford Cox, aged respectively, at the opening of the year 1929,
seven, five and three years.
~~~~***~~~~
SIMON A. HUBER is a physician and surgeon whose services have made
him one of the best loved and most respected and valuable citizens of Charter
Oak, Crawford County.
Doctor Huber was born at Columbus, Nebraska, April 2, 1882, and, owning to
the early death of his parents, had to make his own way in the world.
Getting an education was a considerable struggle and entailed a great
deal of hard work and privation on his part. His parents, Simon and
Margaret Huber, were natives of Switzerland. Doctor Huber was only
three months old when his father died and was seven years old when his mother
passed away at Columbus, Nebraska. As an orphan boy he made the best
use of his opportunities, attending public schools, studied in the State
Normal School at Wayne, Nebraska, and in 1908 graduated from the Creighton
University School of Medicine at Omaha. Doctor Huber for three and
a half years practiced at Minneola, Iowa, and in 1914 established his home
at Charter Oak. The only interruption to his continuous service as
a physician and surgeon came during the World war, when he was overseas in
France. He served, with the rank of captain, in the Medical Corps for
a year with Base Hospital No. 2 at Beau-Desert.
Doctor Huber is a member of the Crawford County, Iowa State and American
Medical Associations, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner,
a Republican, a Presbyterian and a member of the American Legion Post Homer
Hall of Charter Oak. His pastime is fishing.
He married Miss Clara Hartje, a native of Iowa. They have two children,
Genevieve M. and Robert A.
~~~~***~~~~
CHARLES CLYDE HUNT. The Masonic fraternity is possibly the oldest
organized institution known to civilized man. Its present organization
is some 250 years old, but back of that the order can be traced in one way
or another to the days of early Egyptian dynasties, and through many countries
and during many centuries it has ben doing a highly beneficent work. It
is the only international society and is the only human institution that
has no boundary lines and enters into every country where a measure of
civilization prevails and one God is recognized.
In the United States the membership of more than 3,300,000 comprises the
cream of our citizenship. From George Washington down to our present
day our greatest and best men have felt honored in being affiliated with
this ancient and yet vigorous institution. Never soliciting membership,
never answering criticisms, moving along in the even tenor of its way, doing
good to humanity, with the advance of civilization it grows stronger year
by year, and men wonder why. The reasons are not far to seek. In
a world of rapid change it is reasonable and conservative. In a world
of political unrest, no politics comes within its portals. In a world
of many social strata, it is absolutely democratic, and upon the floors of
its lodges all members meet upon an equality. The widow and the orphan
know it but to bless, the distressed brother in a far country meets something
even beyond charity. That it lives and thrives and waxes more vigorous
with the centuries is a just tribute to its work, worth and merit. In every
large city and in every state of the Union there are found men who are to
the Masonic fraternity of their jurisdiction what great generals are to great
armies, and among these is Charles Clyde Hunt, of Cedar Rapids, grand secretary
of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, A. F. and A. M.
Charles Clyde Hunt, was born at Cleveland, Ohio, November 9, 1866, and is
a son of Dr. William George and Mary A. (Chase) Hunt. His father, born
in England, August 7, 1803, was a picture frame molder in his native country
as well as at Cleveland, and then took up the study of medicine. In
1869 he came to Iowa, and was engaged in the practice of his profession at
Monticello until his death in 1886.
Charles C. Hunt had only the advantages of a public school education as a
lad, for it was necessary for him to go to work and assist in the support
of the family. He worked in a creamery at Monticello for seven years,
during which time he studied nights, and, desiring to secure the benefits
of a good education, moved the family to Grinnell, this state, and worked
his way thorough Grinnell College, from which excellent institution he was
graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of
1892. He commenced his career as a school teacher at Northfield, Minnesota,
and for one year was also principal of the school at Cherokee, Iowa, but
at the end of that time returned to Grinnell, where for twelve years he served
as deputy county treasurer and for six years as county treasurer of Poweshiek
County, being nominated by his party without opposition and in his last term
being elected without opposition. As county treasurer he was appointed
to serve on the commission to prepare blanks and forms used in all county
treasurers', auditors' and assessors' offices. Because of the efficiency
and painstaking care which Treasurer Hunt used in the conduct of his own
affairs, he was selected to serve as state examiner in 1913, but resigned
from this office to remove to Cedar Rapids in August, 1917, to become deputy
grand secretary of the Grand Lodge, A. F. and A. M., of Iowa. At the
time of the decease of the late N. R. Parvi, January 19, 1925, Mr. Hunt became
grand secretary, a position which he has since filled with great efficiency.
As a Masonic student and because of his writings on Masonic subjects
as editor of the Grand Lodge Bulletin, Grand Lodge of Iowa, A. F.
and A. M., he is known not only all over the United States, but in foreign
countries as well. Mr. Hunt has been active in Masonry since 1900,
having served five years as master of Lafayette Lodge No. 52, A. F. and A.
M., at Montezuma; is a past high priest of Hyssop Chapter, R. A. M., at Malcom,
Iowa; a past eminent commander of Appollo Commandery, K. T., at Cedar Rapids,
and grand high priest of the Grand Chapter, R. A. M., of Iowa in 1919-1920.
He was a member of the committee on Cryptic History of the Iowa Grand
Council, R. and S. M.; and the General Grand Council, R. and S. M.
Index Grand Commandery Code of Iowa. He is a charter member of
th National Masonic Research Association, in which he has been active since
its organization in 1914, in which year he served as secretary, and
has assisted in the preparation of articles for the Masonic Encyclopedia.
In 1922 he was called by the United States Government as an expert
witness at the trial at Salt Lake City in the famous Thompson Masonic fraud
case. Mr. Hunt is a member of the Scottish Rite, A. A. S. R., and a
life member of Kaaba Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Davenport. He likewise
has other fraternal affiliations, being a past noble grand, a past chief
patriarch and a past major canton in Odd Fellowship, and a past chancellor
commander of the Knights of Pythias. He was elected for the term of
1929-1930 as president of the Grand Secretaries Association of the United
States. Politically Mr. Hunt is a Republican. He is an active
member of the Presbyterian Church and has served twice as chairman of the
pastoral committee of the Westminster Presbytery of Iowa. One of Mr.
Hunt's favorite recreations is the game of chess, in which he is accounted
an expert player.
On June 30, 1897, while deputy county treasurer, he was united in marriage
with Miss Catherine Knapp, who was born at Smithfield, Minnesota, of pioneer
parentage. After completing her education at Winona, Minnesota, she
became a teacher at Northfield, Minnesota, until her marriage to Mr. Hunt.
They are the parents of four children: Lucien Francis, a graduate
of Coe College, Bachelor of Arts, and of the University of Ohio, Bachelor
of Science, who is now teacher of chemistry at the Northern Michigan Normal
School, at Marquette, Michigan; George Albert, a graduate of Coe College,
Bachelor of Arts, Northwestern Michigan Normal School, Master of Chemistry,
and Doctor of Bacteriology, Yale University, where he was an instructor of
medicine in 1929-1930, when he went to Europe in the interests of a large
manufacturing concern to do research work in bacteriology at the prominent
clinics; Evelyn Knapp, a graduate of Coe College, who was an instructor in
physical training in the high schools of Marion and Cedar Rapids until her
marriage to Eldo S. Reid, of Laurens, Iowa; and Catharine Leona, a student
at the Powers School of Spoken Word, Boston, Massachusetts.
~~~~***~~~~
WILLIAM A HUNT is one of the brilliant and resourceful members of
the Ottumwa bar. He has enjoyed a large patronage as a lawyer, and
is a man of many interesting connections and associations with his home community
and state. The Republican party organization regards him as one of
its ablest young leaders and speakers.
Mr. Hunt was born in Davis County, Iowa, December 17, 1887, a son of Charles
E. and Clara B. (Colston) Hunt, and grandson of Thomas A. Hunt, who came
from Virginia to Iowa in the early 1850's and served with an Iowa regiment
in the Union army. The maternal grandfather, William Colston, was born
in England, came to the United States and located in Iowa prior to the Civil
war, and during the war was a member of the Sixth Iowa Cavalry. Before
leaving the military service he participated in several Indian campaigns.
Mr. Hunt's father, Rev. Charles E. Hunt, was also born in Davis County,
Iowa, and devoted his active life to the ministry of the Christian Church.
He and his wife had two sons, William A. and Elmer, the latter of whom
was also an attorney, located at Creston, Iowa.
William A. Hunt was graduated in 1906 from the Southern Iowa Normal School
at Bloomfield in Davis County. He then spent over six years in the
University of Iowa. He was graduated from the liberal arts course in
1910, completed the work of the college of law in 1912 and remained for a
year in the graduate school. Mr. Hunt was admitted to the bar in 1912
and for three years practiced in the State of Ohio. He then returned
to Iowa, and has since been located at Ottumwa. He was city solicitor
from 1919 to 1925, inclusive, and since 1926 has been chairman of the Wapello
County Republican Central Committee. He is a member of the Wapello
County, Iowa State and American Bar Associations.
Mr. Hunt came in for some unusual honors in the political campaign of 1928,
being made temporary and permanent chairman and keynote speaker in the Iowa
Republican State Convention at Des Moines on July 18, 1928. In the
same campaign he was presidential elector at large from Iowa. Mr. Hunt
is a director of the Ottumwa Y. M. C. A., a member of the Chamber of Commerce,
a past president of the Kiwanis Club, is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite
Mason and Shriner and a member of the Knights of Pythias, B. P. O. Elks,
Moose and Yoemen. During the World war he was chairman of the Wapello
County four-minute speakers. Mr. Hunt and family are members of the
First Christian Church and take and active part in that organization.
Mr. Hunt married at Des Moines in 1911 Miss Grace Toulouse, daughter of Joseph
H. and Priscilla (Wayne) Toulouse. Mrs. Hunt is of French ancestry,
and her mother was a direct descendant of the family of the famous "Mad Anthony"
Wayne. Mrs. Hunt is a prominent factor in social and civic organizations,
being a past matron of the Eastern Star Chapter, is a member of the Ottumwa
Woman's Club and has given much time to the work of the home beautiful and
gardening movement. Her own home is a contribution to the ideals
of this movement. It is known as Torbin Hill, being located on the
summit of one of Ottumwa's heights, commanding a fine view of the Des Moines
River Valley and surrounding country. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt have spent
a great deal of time and labor in landscaping the grounds. They have
three children: William A., Jr., who graduated from the Ottumwa High
School in 1929 and is now an Iowa representative in the United States Military
Academy at West Point; Dorothy, who graduated from the Ottumwa High School
in 1929 and is a student in the University of Iowa at Iowa City; and J. Paul,
attending high school.
~~~~***~~~~
HON. MARK WILLIAM HYLAND, mayor of Tama, has practiced law in that
city since 1911. It was both an honor and responsibility when Mr. Hyland
was elected mayor, and the people of Tama have fallen into the habit of looking
to him for able leadership in any form of community undertakings.
Mr. Hyland was born in the City of Des Moines, September 26, 1886, son of
William and Mary (Dowd) Hyland. His grandfather was Mark Hyland, an
Iowa pioneer who came from Worcestershire, England. He was a brick
mason by trade, but in Iowa lived on a farm at the village of Campbell in
Polk County. He was an English Lutheran, but his son William and Mary Dowd
Jyland were Catholics. William Hyland learned the trade of brick mason,
and through his trade contributed to the construction of some of Des Moines'
buildings. For a number of years he acted as straw boss for the two
prominent construction firms of Youngermann Company and Weitz Company. He
was born at Campbell, just west of Des Moines, in 1853, and his wife was
born at Davenport, in 1851. These parents have three children, Mark
William being the oldest, John for many years was manager of the Des Moines
Gun Stock Company, and since that was merged with the Penrod Jordan &
Clarke Company he has had charge of the Kansas City branch. The daughter,
Mayme, is the wife of Roy Peterson, with the Des Moines Gun Stock Company.
Mark William Hyland did not lack the average comforts and privileges of an
Iowa boy growing up in the capital city, but the circumstances of the family
were such as to encourage him to early efforts for himself, and after the
local schools he won his education through college and university. He
attended the Crocker School in Des Moines for his grade work, graduated from
the West Des Moines High School in 1905, and later entered the University
of Iowa. While he paid his expenses in university, he took a prominent
part in athletics, going to the university with the record of a good performer
in the high school teams. While at the university he was for a time
stenographer to the Dean of Pharmacy. He played football and basketball,
and also had charge of the ticket sales at various athletic events. His
interest in athletics was continued after he left the university and for
a time he played professional ball, and even yet he finds his week ends taken
up by duties as a referee. He was graduated LL. B. from the University
of Iowa in 1911, and at once came to Tama to engage in practice. He
was associated with S. C. Huber until the later was appointed United States
judge in the Hawaiian Islands by President Wilson in 1916. Since then
he has practiced alone and has enjoyed a large business in the local courts
and as a counselor.
Mr. Hyland was a member of the Tama school board and chairman of the board
from 1922 to 1928, and in the latter year was elected mayor. His
administration has been one of efficiency in all departments, but perhaps
his chief emphasis has been directed toward giving Tama adequate streets,
and connections with the outside world through paved highways. He has
been an advocate of good roads ever since he came to Tama, and exerted his
influence toward bringing two of the Federal Aid Highways through the city,
the Lincoln Highway and Route 59. In politics Mr. Jyland is a Democrat,
and has served his party well in the county and has attended a number of
Democratic conventions. He is a member of the Tama County, Iowa State
and American Bar Associations, is a member of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity,
the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and is secretary of the Tama Commercial Club.
During the war he had charge of the Third Liberty Loan Drive, was district
chairman of the National Council of Defense, and is today chairman of the
local Red Cross.
Mr. Hyland married Miss Elizabeth Hruska, daughter of Lueis Hruska, of Cedar
Rapids. They have two children, John, born in 1915, and June, born in 1920.
John has the athletic propensities of his father and in high school
is on the basketball and football teams and one of the junior players in
the local tennis club.
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