James Dwight Lamb 1871-1905

LAMB, ANKENY

Posted By: Michael J. Kearney (email)
Date: 8/2/2002 at 11:47:09

1911 Wolfe's History of Clinton Lamb, James D., 1030 No man has ever lived in Clinton county who left a more indelible imprint of his sterling characteristics upon the hearts of friends and acquaintances than the late James Dwight Lamb, who was summoned to close his earthly accounts and take up his abode "in the windowless palaces of rest" while in the full flush and zenith of his young manhood. His career was one of which any family should be proud, for it showed what right principles, properly directed, could accomplish and how excellent a thing it is to live up to hight ideals. Mr. Lamb was born in Clinton, Iowa, June 25, 1871, and was the second son of the late Artemus Lamb, deceased, who was the founder of the firm of C. Lamb & Sons, one of the largest lumber milling firms in the Mississippi valley and which made the name of Clinton widely known. This family has been prominent in all the relations of life in this locality since the pioneer days. Dwight Lamb, as he was familiary known, enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, having attended school at Exeter, New Hampshire, and later at Orchard Lake, Michigan. His tastes were for an active business career and while still a young man his father gave him a position in the office of mill D, the Chancy mill of the firm of C. Lamb & Sons. Mr. Lamb learned the business thoroughly and in a few years became manager of this branch of the business, retaining the active control until the close of the mill. Meanwhile he had become interested in machinery. Mechanism was not only his hobby, but became his absorbing passion. Beginning with an interest in the Clinton Separator Works, he developed the business until it grew into the Lamb Boat & Engine Company, of which he was president and promoter. The business of this firm has traveled far and wide; branch offices have been established in Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and New York City and through them the Lamb engines and his latest model, the torpedo stern launch and cruisers, have been sold in many states of the Union. With the advent of automobiles he took up this branch of mechanism, establishing the first and only garage, for some time, conducted in the city and in this portion of the state. The winter before his death saw the incorporation of the Lamb Automobile Company, with J.D. Lamb as president, and the building of a handsome permanent building for a garage and repair shop. There were other interests in Clinton with which he was more or less actively identified. These interests in Clinton with which he was more or less actively identified. These interests included a directorship in the Peoples Trust and Savings Bank, a directorship in the City National Bank, also in the Iowa & Illinois Railroad Company, of which he was treasurer, and an interest in the Clinton theater. He had a genius for organization and promoting concerns and he was very successful in whatever he turned his attention to, being a man of keen observation, a clear, analytical mind and able, with remarkable accuracy, to forecast the outcome of a present transaction. In social and lodge circles, Mr. Lamb was a prominent figure, being a member of the Wapsipinicon Club, and he was a thirty-second-degree Mason, belonging to the blue lodge, the Royal Arch chapter, the Knights Templar, the DeMolay Consistory and also a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; he was, in addition, a charter member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On October 5, 1892, James D. Lamb was married to Mollie Ankeny, daughter of Mrs. Valeria M. Ankeny and a descendent of two of the first families of the state. To them were born three children, Celeste, Valeria and Artemus, the latter being the only male minor of the name of Lamb. The home life of this paractical millionaire was one of great happiness. He had an ideal home, a beautiful and magnificent residence which he built at Woodlands, attractive, well kept, elegantly furnished and often the scene of hospitality and a favorite mecca for a large circle of admiriing friends and acquaintances. The death of this distinguished citizen was a tragic one, he having been drowned on May 12, 1905, having accidentally fallen off the cruiser "Margaret," a boat which had just been turned out by the Lamb Boat & Engine Works, the accident occuring on her trial trip on the Mississippi rover near Bellevue. His death came as a great shock to the people of Clinton, for he was a man whose personality made itself felt. He was a rich man, but not one of the idle rich, his wealth being turned to good account. He was an extensive manufacturer, and interested citizen in everything that redounded to the welfare of Clinton, and he was never too busy to listen to or assist in promoting some public measure benefit. His place in the industrial world of Clinton and eastern Iowa will be a very hard one to fill. He can be seen by mortal eyes no longer, but - thanks for the assurance of hope - upon the great ocean of eternity, his life, not in the embrace of sleep or in the apparent selfishness of rest, will be in activity of service in a higher and nobler sphere. And so another active, earnest, intellect is stilled; another toiling life ended. Helpless, we pause at its close, and then attempt to tell the story of the years of labor, ambition and success which marked an eventful career. Those left behind can only cherish his memory and emulate his virtues.