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SAMUEL F. PARZYBOK, manager of the Iowa Hardware Company of Vinton, Iowa, came to Vinton in 1887 and entered the employ of F. T. Touney, with whom he remained two years. Then he went with the firm of McElroy & Company (including H. H. McElroy and George Gale), and after he had been with them five years he and Mr. Gale bought out Mr. McElroy's interest. Seven years later Mr. Gale sold to C. E. Fagan and the firm became Parzybok & Fagan and continued as such two years. Mr. Gale started the fourth hardware store of the town. Four, however, were too many to make it profitable for the hardware business in Vinton, and the other three, including Messrs. McElroy, Fagan, Zollinger, Alien and Hooligan, decided to consolidate, the result being the Iowa Hardware Company of Vinton, which was incorporated in 1904, and of which Mr. Parzybok has since been manager.
Mr. Parzybok was born in Posen, Germany, May 7, 1867, son of C. and Rosalie (Lubyusky) Parzybok, who emigrated to this country and settled in Iowa in 1881. They first stopped at Chelsea, where they remained a year, and from there came to Van Home, Benton county, and the subject of this sketch has been a resident of Benton county since his fourteenth year. The senior Mr. Parzybok and wife are Poles by birth. In Germany he was a tile maker, but since coming to Iowa he has been in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. In his family were six children at the time they left Germany, and since coming to this country two others were born to them. Two of the sons identified themselves with railroading, Simon being a conductor on the Illinois Central road, running between Chicago and Champaign, Illinois, and John, was a conductor on the Great Northern and was killed in the great avalanche in Washington in March, 1910. Miss Agnes is a stenographer in the office of the county superintendent at Marion, and three daughters are in Alaska — Stacia, Mary and Addie. Stacia is the wife of Paul Riekard, who is engaged in the greenhouse business; Addie married Horace Leech, a broker of Cordovia, and Miss Mary is in the employ of the telephone company at Fairbanks. One daughter, Josephine, died shortly after her marriage, about two years ago.
S. F. Parzybok received his early education in Germany, attending school there from the time he was seven until he was fourteen, and he went to school a short time after coming to this country. With this as a foundation and by careful reading and close observation he has acquired a good education. At sixteen he began learning the tinner's trade. Later he took up the plumbing business, and with these trades as stepping stones he has worked his way up to the management of a prosperous, up-to-date business.
With his wife and two children he resides in the beautiful home at the corner of Beckett and Ellis streets which he built and where they were married. Mrs. Parzybok was formerly Miss Anna Isgren. She was born in Sweden and when six years old came with her parents to this country and settled at Moline, Illinois. Their children are Frances Maurine, born April 13, 1904; Grace May, February 14, 1907; and Horace I. and Helen S. (twins), born December 21, 1909. Politically Mr. Parzybok is a Republican, fraternally, a Knight of Pythias, and both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church.
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