HODGINS, Louis A.

HODGINS, PRICE, RILEY

Posted By: Nettie Mae (email)
Date: 2/1/2019 at 12:48:52

LOUIS A. HODGINS.

Holding an important position in the service of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, Louis A. Hodgins is accounted one of the most faithful and trustworthy employes of the road in Clinton and enjoys the confidence of the officials and the respect of those who are associated with him. Since 1892 he has maintained his residence in this city, but is a native of the neighboring state of Illinois, his birth having occurred at Galena on the 21st of June, 1857. He is of Scotch-Irish lineage. His father, Abner F. Hodgins, was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, in May, 1825, and when only four years of age became a resident of Galena, Illinois, where he was reared and educated. In 1856 he removed to Winona, Minnesota, where he engaged in the lumber business as a member of the firm of Youmans Brothers & Hodgins. They were numbered among the large mill owners on the Mississippi. Previous to his connection with the firm, however, Mr. Hodgins was agent for the firm of Carson & Rand and afterward purchased their business, conducting the enterprise until 1876, when he became a partner of Youmans Brothers. As the years went by he progressed in business and eventually became well-to-do. In politics he was a Democrat and took an active part in local affairs. Elected mayor of Winona, he filled the position for four years, proving a most capable officer, his administration resulting largely to the benefit and improvement of the city. In business circles, in political and in private life he bore an unassailable reputation and left to his family not only a comfortable competence but also an untarnished name. He wedded Mary Price, who was born in Kentucky, and died in Winona in 1862, while his death occurred on the 6th of June, 1896.

Louis A. Hodgins is the fourth in order of birth in a family of ten children, seven of whom are yet living. He attended the public schools of Winona, and also pursued a twoyears' course in a college in Racine, Wisconsin, taking a complete business course. He left school when nineteen years of age and became associated with his father in the lumber business, devoting his time to that enterprise until 1878, when he entered the service of the Chicago. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, in the yards at Milwaukee, as switchman. After a short time, however, he left the yards to become brakeman and later was promoted to conductor, in which capacity he served for several years. He left the road in 1888 and made a tour of the western country. For a short time he worked for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company and later was on the Great Northern Road in Montana. In 1890 he returned to Chicago and secured employment in the yards of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, and in 1892 was sent to Clinton to take charge of the yards at this place, having entire supervision of about seventy-five men. The work which he superintends has more than doubled since his arrival here and he now has an assistant in the day and two at night. His competency has been well proven during the years of his service here, and he is highly regarded as a reliable man, never neglectful of a duty no matter how trivial it may seem.

On coming to Clinton Mr. Hodgins purchased a residence on Camanche avenue, where he has since resided with his family. He was married in 1879, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to Emma J. Riley, who was born in Milwaukee, that state, in 1859. She is a member of the Catholic church and a most estimable lady. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hodgins have been born three children: Joseph, who was employed as a brakeman by the Wabash Railroad Company and was killed by an electric car at Decatur, Illinois, in 1900, and Mary and Louis L., at home. The latter is employed as pilot in the yards at Clinton. The children enjoyed the excellent educational advantages afforded in the schools of Clinton, and Louis, who is a very capable young man, is now pursuing a course of study with the intention of becoming a civil engineer. Mr. Hodgins is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and of the Order of Railway Conductors. Such in brief is the history of one whose career has been an active, useful and honorable one, whose integrity and faithfulness are well known and who justly merits the uniform confidence which he receives.

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