Lamb, Chancy

LAMB, BAILEY, BEVIER, GEER, SWITZER, WHITEHEAD, REEDER, WARE, YOUNG

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 1/28/2003 at 14:09:53

CHANCY LAMB. 

Honored and respected by all, there was no one in Clinton county who occupied a more enviable position in commercial and financial circles than Chancy Lamb, not alone on account of the brilliant success he achieved, but also on account of the honorable straightforward business policy he ever followed. Integrity, activity and energy were the crowning points of his success, and his connection with various business enterprises and industries were of decided advantage to his section of the state, promoting its material welfare in no uncertain manner.

Mr. Lamb was born in Ticonderoga, Essex county, New York, January 4, 1816, and was a son of Alpheus and Maria (Bailey) Lamb, natives of Connecticut and New York, respectively. On his father's farm he passed his boyhood youth, and received his education in the schools of the neighborhood, which he attended until fourteen years of age, when he commenced his sawmill career. He early had a desire to try his fortune in the great west, and in June, 1844, with his wife and family, removed to Illinois and located in York, Carroll county. As they were desirous of identifying themselves with the west his parents accompanied him on the journey. Their children were Merrette N., Emily, Lucy, Garrett and Chancy.

On taking up his residence in Illinois, our subject's cash capital consisted of twenty-five cents. He pre-empted a tract of land and rented an adjoining place which had been somewhat improved, and as a farmer he began his business career. Not being entirely satisfied with results he returned to New York at the end of seven years, and was there employed on a salary to manage a lumber business, working by the day or year, and occasionally taking contracts to saw lumber by the thousand feet.

In the meantime Mr. Lamb has retained possession of the two hundred and eighty acres of land which he had purchased in Illinois. Hearing glowing accounts of the state of Iowa, he resolved to give the west another trial with the hope of bettering his financial condition and establishing a permanent location. With this end in view he came to Clinton in 1856 and started in business with a capital of less than three thousand dollars. Purchasing an old sawmill which stood on the bank of the Mississippi river where the railroad bridge now crosses it, he put it in running order and had begun business with a fair prospect of success when the building was destroyed by fire in 1858. With characteristic energy, however, he at once re-built what was known as mill B, but that was also burned October 14, 1876. In 1868 he built the stone mill which was designated as mill A, and also purchased and remodeled a mill at Chancy, afterward known as mill D, which was also destroyed by fire January 4, 1877, but with the same persistency as before Mr. Lamb caused its reconstruction, and also acquired what is known as mill C, just below it on the Mississippi river. Two years later, May 22, 1879, he lost, by the ravages of the same element, a fine brick office, a large amount of lumber and several dwelling houses and barns. Nothing daunted, however, he continued business here uninterruptedly up to the time of his death, and his labors were at length crowned with success. He had large interests in various mills at Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Barronett, Shell Lake and White River, Wisconsin. It is estimated that his loss by fire alone in early years aggregated three hundred thousand dollars. In addition to his extensive milling transactions Mr. Lamb was largely interested in pine lands, which was a source of supply for their mills. He was also a stockholder and director of the Clinton National Bank; was president of the Clinton Water Works Company, and interested in the gas company. He did much toward building up the city of his adoption, and in Clinton alone gave employment to over nine hundred men.

On the 17th of November, 1839, Mr. Lamb was united in marriage with Miss Jane Bevier, who was born in Bradford, Steuben county, New York, March 10, 1820, and was a daughter of David and Sarah (Geer) Bevier. David Bevier was born in Ulster county, New York, and his wife, Sarah Geer, in Norwich, Connecticut. On the removal of her parents to the Empire state, they settled at Bradford, then called Jersey Hollow, where the father, who was a farmer by occupation, died in 1829, and the mother in 1847. Her father served seven years during the Revolutionary war, in the Third Ulster County, New York Regiment, and also took part in the war of 1812.  He was a man of great courage and bravery, and was an honored and respected citizen of the community in which he resided. His children were Mrs. Mary W. Gannon; Charles; Mrs. Elizabeth H. Switzer; William; George; Mrs. Sarah A. Whitehead; Mrs. Jane Lamb; Mrs. Phoebe Reeder. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Lamb were born four children: Artemus; Augusta, wife of Edward Ware; Lafayette; and Emma E., wife of William E. Young. The sons are both represented elsewhere in this volume.

During the Civil war Mr. Lamb was a stanch supporter of the Union cause, and was active in encouraging enlistments and in every way strengthening the arm of the government. After the battle of Fort Donelson, in company with Dr. A. L. Ankeny, he made a trip to Mound City on the Ohio river, from which place they started home with thirty-one wounded soldiers, bringing many to Clinton, where they rendered them such aid as was possible, being assisted in these Christian duties by their families until the recovery of the soldiers. At another time during the war they went to Memphis on the same humane and patriotic errand, but much to their regret succeeded in bringing home only a few soldiers at this time, circumstances preventing the transportation of a large number. Such acts as these can be better appreciated than described but they show the finer qualities of a noble nature of one who took great delight in aiding those in need. The Republican party always found in Mr. Lamb a stanch supporter in its principles, and he took an active interest in all enterprises which he believed calculated to advance the moral, social or material welfare of his city and county. He died July 12, 1897, and in his death the community realized that it had lost a public benefactor. His career was such as to warrant the trust and confidence of the business world, for he conducted all transactions on the strictest principles of honor and integrity, and his devotion to the public good was unquestioned, arising from a sincere interest in the welfare of his fellow men. He was a man of the times, broad-minded public-spirited and progressive, and it is but just and merited praise to say of him that as a business man he ranked among the ablest; as a citizen he was honorable, prompt and true to every engagement; and as a man he held the honor and esteem of his fellow citizens.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.