LEON S. LOIZEAUX,
president of the Cedar Valley Land & Investment Company, the
important real estate business which is described elsewhere in these
pages, and of four other land companies and also president of the bank
of Crook, Colorado, is the prominent representative of a family which
has been identified with Benton county affairs from the time when the
lands of the county belonged to the government. His father was the late
J. J. Loizeaux, an emigrant from France who entered government land in
Jackson township, Benton county, in 1854, and improved his land and
lived on the homestead until his death in 1887, at the age of
sixty-seven. In France he had been a silk dealer on a large scale, and
as a result of failure in business had come to America to find better
opportunities for his family. The mother, whose maiden name was Susan
Duce. died in this county in 1892, aged seventy-three.
They were the parents of eight children, namely: Paul, an evangelist
living in New York City, and associated in business with his brother
Timothy; Timothy is head of the firm of Loizeaux Brothers, on Fourth
avenue, New York, publishers of tracts and religious literature; Louise
Jennings, wife of a retired tea broker of New York City; Dr. C. J., a
physician and surgeon of Des Moines, and a graduate of the University
of Iowa; Leon S., of Vinton; Mrs. Lydia Kechie, of Chicago, a widow,
whose husband was in the dry-goods business there; Mlrs. Mattie Acomb,
of Minneapolis, widow of the late Rev. E. Acomb, an evangelist; and J.
D., in the lumber and real estate business at Plainfield, New Jersey.
Leon S. Loizeaux was born in De Lane, France, in 1850, and was brought
to America and the homestead in Benton county in 1854. After he had
attended the country schools he had to begin life without any special
equipment and without capital. He began farming and stock raising, then
had considerable success in the buying, feeding and handling of stock,
and with the capital secured from this enterprise he engaged in the
real estate, banking and other business. For some years he has been
identified with the public-spirited citizenship of the county. In
politics he is a Republican.
He married, in Benton county, Miss Wilhelmina Geddes. She was born in
Canada, and her father, Alexander was originally from Scotland, spent a
few years in Canada, and moved to Benton county before the Civil war,
where he and his wife resided until they died during the seventies. One
of the children of Alexander Geddes was the late Gen. James L. Geddes,
U. S. A., who was Queen's Guardsman in Canada and came from there to
the United States just prior to the Civil war, enlisted, formed a
company at Vinton and served as its captain. He died in 1888, being
identified at that time with the Ames Agricultural College. Four of his
brothers also served in the Civil war, all enlisting from Benton
county. One was Colonel Andrew Geddes, now on the retired roll and
residing at Washington. Another was William Geddes, who was a second
lieutenant and now resides in Florida; Charles Geddes is a resident of
Nebraska; while John, the remaining brother of this military family,
died in the army.
Mr. and Mrs. Loizeaux have four children: Louise, now at home, attended
school in Washington, D. C.; Harry G., assistant cashier of the
People's Savings Bank at Shellsburg; and William L. and Paul A., both
in the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois.
Picture of Leon S. Loizeaux
