DAWSON, W. P. - 1914

DAWSON, ALEXANDER, MCKINNEY, LOCKWOOD, CHASE

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/8/2009 at 15:33:42

HISTORY OF
Cherokee County
IOWA
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1914
by Thomas McCulla

W. P. DAWSON.

W. P. Dawson, now in the third term of his able service as a member of the state legislature, is a man of enterprise and marked force of character, who throughout his life has made good use of his opportunities and thus figures prominently in the agricultural and political life of this locality. He was born in Wisconsin in 1859 and is a son of J. J. and Mary Dawson, the former of whom was born in Virginia, of Dutch and English parentage, and the latter in Ohio, of French and Welsh ancestry. Their marriage occurred in Illinois and imme .diately afterward they moved to Wisconsin, where the father operated a farm from pioneer times until his death. To their union were born ten children, five of whom still survive: S. N., of Minnesota; J. F., of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Mrs. Nettie Alexander, of Larrabee, Iowa; W. P., of this review; and Mrs. Ada McKinney, of Nora, Nebraska.

W. P. Dawson acquired a commonschool education in Wisconsin and afterward studied at home. When he began his independent career he engaged in teaching, following this occupation for a number of years thereafter. When he was twentythree years of age he came to Cherokee county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of raw prairie land in Cedar township. After operating. this for eleven years he purchased the adjoining farm and moved upon it, making his home there for nine years. When he sold this property he bought a farm near Quimby, Iowa, and in 1907 sold this and purchased the property which he now owns. He has three hundred and twenty acres on sections 9 and 10, Pitcher township, in and adjoining the townsite of Aurelia, and by able management has made the farm one of the best improved and most highly developed in the locality. In addition to raising grain Mr. Dawson also feeds stock and his interests along this line have become extensive and important. He is a stockholder in the Farmers National Bank of Aurelia and is a man of recognized business ability and prominence.

In 1885 Mr. Dawson married Miss Edith Lockwood, a native of Warwick, New York, and they have become the parents of ten children: Harry B., who is a graduate of the Palmer Business College at Cedar Rapids and who is now a banker at Carrizozo, New Mexico; Ada, the wife of L. H. Chase, of Meriden, Iowa; John J., of Aurelia; Wilfred C., who lives at home; Emma W., who is. attending business college at Cedar Rapids; Manley Roosevelt, a student in the high school; Leland S., also in high school; Wendell H. and Edith C., students in the Aurelia public schools; and Dorothy, who died in infancy.

Although Mr. Dawson is well known in agricultural circles, his interests have extended to many other fields, notably that of public service. He has given his active cooperation to many movements for the public good and his efforts in political life have been effective and farreaching. He has held various positions of public trust and responsibility and is now in the third term of his service in the state legislature. The impress of his ability and integrity is stamped upon a great deal of important legislation, for he has been chairman of the committee. on schools and textbooks and a member of the ways and means, railroad and transportation committees and the committees on insurance, horticulture, agriculture, hospitals for the insane, elections and public utilities. His official record has been varied in service and faultless in honor.