Linn, G.P.

PAULGER, ROBERTS, WILSON, DAWSON

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/22/2009 at 09:49:30

George Percy Linn was editor of the Sumner Gazette for twenty-seven years, and during that time made it a popular and influential newspaper, with the leverage of which he became a force in the political, social and business life of the locality. He is now living in retirement in a comfortable home in Sumner after a well earned rest from the cares of business. He was born in Winnebago county, Illinois, August 30, 1849, a son of George and Adaline Linn, natives of Maine. The parents entered land in Fayette county, this state, to which they removed in 1852, and the father engaged in farming there until his death.

G.P. Linn spent his childhood and youth upon his father's farm, and acquired his education in the district schools and in the Upper Iowa University at Fayette, from which institution he was graduated in 1876 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Following his graduation he taught school for five years in Butler county. In association with his brother, Charles S. Linn, he bought the Sumner Gazette in June, 1881, then only a few months old, and was also elected to the principalship of the Sumner schools, which position, in addition to the editorial duties connected with the publication of the Gazette, he stood up under for a little over a year, when he resigned as school principal so that he might give his whole and undivided time to the Gazette.

G.P. Linn was elected to the position of superintendent of schools for Bremer county, which position he held and which office he conducted during the years 1884 and 1885. In 1890 he bought his brother's interest in the Gazette and continued as its editor and publisher till near the close of 1907, when the loss of the use of his left hand, through neuritis, compelled him to part with the Gazette.

In 1878 Mr. Linn was married to Miss Grace E. Paulger, of Butler county, born in England, which union was blessed with two children: Louis P., who was graduated at the Upper Iowa University and for the past seven years has served as superintendent of schools in North Dakota; and Grace Madge, the wife of Richard B. Roberts, who is also a graduate of the Upper Iowa University and who is engaged in scientific farming in Montana. In 1899 Mr. Linn lost by death the mother of his children. He subsequently married Mrs. Catharine M. Wilson, but this union was broken by death in less than four years. A third marriage was contracted with Miss Mary Dawson, a veritable comforter and home-maker for Mr. Linn in his advancing years.

Mr. Linn has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since he was sixteen years of age, and he is connected fraternally with the Masonic order, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Order of the Eastern Star. He is well known in Sumner and vicinity, for he has contributed largely to the general growth and development of the same, and possesses, moreover, personal characteristics which have gained for him the respect and high regard of all with whom he comes in contact.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914