COMFORT, Frank J.

COMFORT, COMEFORD, PENSON, BOLLOTON, HEFFNER, KENNEDY, STODDARD, STOTT, HICKS, WOODWARD, DUNLAP, JOHNSTON, WILEY, MARTIN, FULGHAM, CASEY, BITTORF

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 02:02:28

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, September 07, 1940, Page 16

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 25 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

FRANK COMFORT Demo Party Leader

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One former Mason Cityan about whom a success story could be written in two entirely disconnected fields is Frank J. Comfort, prominent Des Moines attorney and democratic party leader, who has become an outstanding figure in both politics and sports.

Mr. Comfort is national committeeman for his party from the State of Iowa and as the leading paty worker from Vice Presidental Candidate Henry Wallace's home state will play a prominent part in the now blooming crucial campaign.

Frank Comfort was born in Mason City, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Comfort, on May 30, 1890. His father was a railroad man, haviang come to Mason City from Madison, Wis., to work for the Milwaukee. Thomas Comfort's name, by the way, was originally spelled "Comeford," but his name got on the payroll here as "Comfort" and his immediate family has used it that way since, although his brothers and sisters have retained the "Comeford" spelling.

* * *
Both Frank and his brother, George, who is now a lwa partner with him in Des Moines, were born on the northeast corner of what used to be Fourth and Drummond streets northwest. Frank was a pupil at St. Joseph's academy and in seventh and eigth grades attended Garfield school. He was graduated from the Mason City high school.

While attending high school the young man was learning to work and work well. For a time he delivered papers for the George Penson news stand and then was employed by the Bolloton brothers grocery.

He also worked at the Decker packing plant and spent a summer with the "bull gang" at the Northwestern States Portland cement company plant while it was under construction. Later he worked as a conductor, motorman and in the office of the Mason City and Clear Lake railway company.

* * *
From his graduation from high school the young man was attracted to Memorial university - a local institution well remembered by older Mason Cityans - principally because of the football team, he says. The coach of that team was J. M. Heffner, who at one time was the owner of the Bijou theater here and for whom Frank Comfort had worked as a ticket seller.

In both high school an dat Memorial university, Frank played football and basketball. Among his teammates were Bruce Kennedy, Roy Stoddard, Louis Stott, Ray Stott, Marcellus Hicks, Leon Woodward, Basil Dunlap, Jimmy Johnston, Earl Wiley, Eldon Martin and "Dutch" Fulgham, who was killed in France during the war. Some of the others have also died, but their names are still familiar to Mason Cityans of that day.

* * *
An incident while the Mason Cityan was still in high school gave him a fright he never forgot. He was employed by Jacob E. Decker himself to work one Christmas vacation in the box making department. After a couple of days he was sent to the butcher who was sticking hogs in the killing room.

The butcher was of a foreign extraction, speaking quite brokenly, and naturally was anything by a pretty sight with the blood that had been spilled and carrying a big knife which which he worked. When young Frank Comfort arrived he found the rather frightening butcher in the middle of a steam-filled killing room with much confusion and squealing from pigs.

The butcher wanted him to put some flour on the pulley which shackled the hogs, but not being able to make himself understood due to his poor command of English and the considerable noise, waved the knife at the young man in an effort to show him what he wanted.

That was enough for Frank and he lit out on the run, not stopping until he had reached home. He was so frightened that he didn't return for his pay check for several days and although he was urged to do so by Mr. Decker, he never went back to work.

* * *
The young man was ambitious as well as a hard worker, however, and on another occasion went to work for the Milwaukee railroad. He'd been suspended from the high school for skipping classes and so applied to Chief Master Mechanic Casey at the roundhouse for a job as engine wiper.

Mr. Casey put him to work on the night shift and when his father came in from a run about 1 a. m. he found Frank Comfort wiping engines.

"Frank," he said, "is school dismissed?"

"No, it isn't," his son replied, "except for me. I've decided to quit school and work here until fall. Then I'm going to be a fireman."

That was all that was said on the subject at the time, but when the young engine wiper arrived home in the morning he found his father waiting for him at the door.

"Get cleaned up, son," he said. "I'm taking you back to school."

Thus Frank Comfort gave up life on the railroad for further education. Subsequent events would tend to prove that, in this instance at least, father knew best.

* * *
But he did do a little more rail work - on a minor scale - when he served as motorman and conductor on streetcars and interurbans.

Not afraid of anybody, young Frank Comfort found himself in physical conflict of varying degrees of intensity from time to time as he undertook to eject people from the streetcars when they failed to live up to the rules of conduct as prescribed by the railway company.

By this time the youth was a college student and his work here was mainly limited to summer vacations. He entered Ames college, now known as Iowa State college [present-day Iowa State University], in 1909 and a year enrolled at the University of Iowa to study law. He remained at Iowa City until January, 1913, when he moved to Drake university for the final semester of his law school work. Graduating in June, he was admitted to the Iowa bar in the same month. While at Iowa he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

* * *
For a year after his graduation the young attorney was with the firm of Cummings, Hume and Bradshaw. The senior member of the firm was Iowa's famed Senator Albert B. Cummings.

Then in February, 1914, he was appointed to the legal department of the Fidelity and Casualty company, New York. In the fall of that year he was returned to Des Moines to open a claim department for the company.

In 1915 the rising young attorney was appointed a federal referee in bankruptcy and regisnged his position with the Fiedlity and Casualty company. As a referee under Martin J. Wade, Mr. Comfort handled federal bankruptcy cases in 14 Iowa counties, including Polk.

In 1917 he began the practice of law with C. F. Wade, giving time to his federal bankruptcy work and devoting the rest to a general law pacticie.

* * *
July, 1918, found Frank Comfort in the officers' training school at Camp Pike in Arkansas. He didn't get overseas, however, and was mustered out at the close of the war. In January, 1919, George Comfort joined him in the practice of law in Des Moines after having returned from two years service overseas. The firm remained Comfort and Comfort until two years ago when James P. Irish was admitted to membership.

* * *
In 1912, Frank Comfort was married to Miss Marie Anna Bittorf in Sterling, Ill. Mr. and Mrs. Comfort are the parents of two children, Betty Ellen, a 1940 graduate of St. Mary's of the Woods at South Bend, Ind., and Frank B. Comfort, a pupil until this year at Dowling academy.

Always interested in politics, Mr. Comfort preferred to help in his party's organization efforts rather than to be a candidate for office himself. He never cared to hold a position that would take hime from the practice of law, although he has been offered political jobs during the last eight years.

In 1926, Mr. Comfort handled the unsuccessful campaign of Claude Porter against Smith Wildman Brookhart for the United States senate and in 1932 and 1934 handled Clyde L. Herring's successful campaigns for the governorship.

Then recently he was elected national committeeman from Iowa to represent his state in the political councils of the democratic party.

* * *
And that party will find him to be of unestimable value in the campaign now getting under way, for his aptitude for hard work, his ambition and his love for politics and the party will mean a good deal in the state from which the democratic vice presidential candidate and chief campaigner comes.

Liittle mention has been made of Frank Comfort's interst in and work in sports. He was active as a participant in Mason City and also won freshman numerals at both Iowa State and the University of Iowa but did not compete further.

But college and high school sports are still his hobby. He arranges most of his vacations to permit him to attend football games each fall. But what is more important, he is an outstanding track and field official, having served at the Drake relays for the past 22 years.

* * *
In 1928 he was an official in the Olympic games at Amsterdam. He has also served in a number of Big Ten track meets.

And that sums up to a small degree the story of Frank J. Comfort as it stands to date. Much of what he has done has not been in the public eye, for too often the work behind the scenes of a political election goes unnoticed while the successful candidate receives the plaudits earned by the anonymous but able party worker. And who ever watched a track meet official during an exciting mile race?

But the work is there, nevertheless. And it's work of which Frank Comfort and Mason City can be proud.

NOTE: Frank J. Comfort died in 1955. Marie Anna (Bittorf) Comfort was born in 1897, and died in 1991. Frank Bittorf Comfort, son of Frank J. and Marie, was born May 11, 1924, was a World War II Veteran, and died October 26, 2012. They were interred at Resthaven Cemetery, West Des Moines, Iowa.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen