Heflin, B. J.

HEFLIN, BROWN, GARRETT

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Date: 4/15/2003 at 21:57:18

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

PROFESSOR B. J. HEFLIN.

In this age of intellectual activity, when success in business depends not upon mere physical prowess, but upon mental activity, the work of the educator has become of even greater importance than ever before, and one of his most important functions is in connection with the department in which the young are trained for the practical duties of the commercial and industrial world. Prominent among the educators of Iowa who are devoting their time and attention to this special branch of the profession is B. J. Heflin, president of the Clinton Business College.

A native of Illinois, he was born in Galesburg, Knox county, December 23, 1863, and is a son of Alexander and Matilda (Brown) Heflin, who are also natives of the Prairie state and are still residents of Galesburg. Our subject began his education in the public schools of that city, and later attended the Dixon Normal School in 1887, after which he successfully engaged in teaching school in Knox county for two years. Subsequently he took a business course at Davenport and was graduated in 1891. He taught there for a year, and for about a year and a half engaged in bookkeeping in Davenport.

At the end of that time, in 1892, Professor Heflin came to Clinton, and entered the Clinton Business College, which was incorporated the following year and re-incorporated in 1894, the officers being B. J. Heflin, president; M. S. Jordan, secretary and treasurer; and A. S. Burge, vice-president; all of Clinton. The present officers are B. J. Heflin, president; J. C. Wohlenberg, secretary; and Anna M. Jordan, vice-president. For the past eight years the college has been located at the corner of Third avenue and Second street. The yearly enrollment is about two hundred and over five hundred have graduated from the school, the class of 1901 containing fifty-two. Both bookkeeping and stenography are taught, the Munson system of shorthand being used, and a single course, either the commercial or shorthand, requires six months to complete and the double course ten months. The school occupies the second story of the Frahim and Geiger blocks, with a floor space ninety by eighty feet, which is divided into offices and class rooms for practical work. In the management of his school Professor Heflin has been eminently successful. With a correct appreciation of the responsibility that devolves upon the teacher, he has ably prepared himself for his profession and is making continual advancement along lines of educational progress, each year witnessing an improvement in his methods of instruction. Professor Heflin was married in 1897 to Miss Gertrude Garrett, of Clinton, and to them has been born one son, Garrett.