Edward G. Squires

SQUIRES, BOYNTON, GIBSON, KNOWLES, ESQUE, HYDE, SISSON

Posted By: S. Ferrall (email)
Date: 2/8/2005 at 11:05:36

Edward G. Squires, superintendent for the Grand Rapids district of the Prudential (life) Insurance company of America, whose headquarters are in Newark, N.J., has his office in Nos. 310 to 315 Houseman block, corner of Pearl and Ottawa streets, Grand Rapids, and is probably the busiest, and certainly one of the most energetic, insurance men of the city.

Mr. Squires was born near Manchester, Delaware county, Iowa, November 29, 1869, and is a son of Uriel John and Emma J. (Boynton) Squires, both natives of the state of New York, but, who settled in Delaware county, Iowa, about 1863, where the father died on his farm about 1877, his widow being now a resident of Madison, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis, Mo. Their family consists of three sons and three daughters, all
of whom have reached the years of maturity and have been named, in order of birth, as follows:
Cora B., who is the wife of Charles W. Gibson, a railroad employee in Madison county, Ill.; Minnie V., living with her mother; Edward G., the subject; Ernest Dwight, a car-builder, at Madison, Ill., and Arthur Jerome, a bookkeeper in a railroad office in Venice, Ill.

The mother of this family remarried and is now Mrs. Knowles, although a second time a widow, and to her second marriage was born one child, Maude, now the wife of Albert Esque, a car-builder of Jerseyville, Ill.

Edward G. Squires, the subject of his biographical notice, received his early education in a common school of his native county, and his attendance thereat was of brief duration, as, at the age of eight years, he was bereft by death of his father, but, being a bright lad, managed to educate himself for the activities of business life. When sixteen years old he ventured forth on the "road" as a solicitor of orders for the enlargement of photographs. After three years thus spent, he learned the photographic business in Alabama, whither the family had removed in the meantime, and for five years traveled with a portable gallery of his own. He then came northward as far as Cairo, Ill., where, for a year he acted as a superintendent of a fruit farm, and then accepted a position in St. Louis, Mo., as foreman of grade work for the Chicago & Alton Railroad company, which position he retained one year, returning to Delaware county, Iowa, and was employed for a year by the C. & G.W. Railraod company. He next went into the meat-market business for a year at Dubuque, Iowa, then sold out and bought an interest with N.H. Hyde in a photographic gallery at Manchester.

About November, 1894, Mr. Squires went to St. Louis and continued in the photograph business until November 11, 1895, when he became agent and collector for the Prudential Insurance company, and April 6, 1896, was promoted to the position of assistant superintendent at East St. Louis, Ill.; two year later he was advanced to the superintendency of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) district, took up his residence here, and has since established a reputation of being one of the most active and energetic insurance men in the state -- a fact which is duly appreciated by his company. He has direct charge of all the company's agents in the district, the direct payment of all liabilities caused by the death of the insured in the company's industrial branches, and the supervision of the interests of the company generally. In this class small weekly payments on premiums are accepted and infantile insurance as low as five cents per week, and in case of death the full amount of the policy is promptly paid; and in one instance, it is related, the policy onthe life of a child accidentally killed by a street car was paid within fifty minutes after death.

[next followed a table of insurance statistics, that were not transcribed]

Mr. Squires was joined in matrimony at Strawberry Point, Clayton county, Iowa, September 1, 1894, with Miss Minnie A. Sisson, a native of Delaware, Iowa, and a daughter of Hiram Sisson, an early settler of that county and a prosperous farmer. This union has been crowned by the birth of two children, vis:
Elva Mildred, born September 20, 1895, and Edna Cora, July 4, 1897. Mrs. Squires is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to the teachings of which Mr. Squires also strongly inclines, and to which he liberally contributes financially. In politics Mr. Squires is a republican, and socially he and wife enjoy the esteem of many of the best citizens of Grand Rapids.

-source: The City of Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan, up to date; A.W. Bowen & Co., 1900; pg. 426-427
-transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall (not related to subject)