ESTES, Orel P.

ESTES, BICKNELL, FARQUHAR, WALKER

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/25/2014 at 06:25:56

History of Decatur County Iowa and Its People
Illustrated, Volumne II.

Prof. J. M. Howell and Heman C. Smith
Supervising Editors

The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. pp. 353-54. Chicago. 1915.

Orel P. Estes

Orel P. Estes is prominently identified with the business interests of Leon, having conducted a garage here for the past four years, under the firm style of Estes & Company. He is a native of Decatur county, his birth having occurred in Pleasanton in 1879. His father, J, N. Estes, was born in Tazewell, Tennessee, in 1850 and was only two years of age when brought to Pleasanton, Iowa, in 1852. For some years he was engaged in the harness and implement business there but in the spring of 1895 retired and is now living on a farm in Hamilton township. He was married in 1878 to Miss Rosa Bicknell, who was born in Galva, Illinois, in 1859 and came to Iowa in 1868 with her parents, Robert and Elvira Bicknell, the family locatins in Pleasanton. To Mr. and Mrs. Estes were born one son and three daughters, the sisters of our subject being: Vee, the wife of Frank Farquhar, of Leon; and Olive and Loreta, still at home.

Orel P. Estes, the only son of the family, was reared under the parental roof and completed his education in the high school at Cainesville, Missouri. When starting out upon an independent career he engaged in the restaurant business at Pleasanton for a number of years but subsequently he conducted a grocery store in Leon. He disposed of the latter in 1914, having in the meantime opened a garage, of which he has now been proprietor for the past four years, and which now claims his entire time and attention. He is conducting business under the firm name of Estes & Company and he has one of the best equipped plants in Decatur county. He handles the Ford car exclusively but formerly had the agency for a number of other makes. He has built up a good business and in 1914 his sales numbered seventy-five new cars in addition to other cars he sold. He is just in his treatment of his patrons, never taking undue advantage in a business transaction, and all with whom he comes in contact have for him words of praise and commendation.

Mr. Estes was married to Miss Maud Walker, who was born near Milo, in Warren county, Iowa, and there lived until the time of her marriage. They have one daughter, [Fern ?]. In his political views Mr. Estes is a democrat, and for the past seventeen years he has been identified with the Knights of Pythias lodge. Both he and his wife are well known in social circles of Leon and Mr. Estes is classed among the successful business men of this section of Decatur county.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2014