JAMISON, James E.

JAMISON, HAWKINS, BLAUL, MCGUIRE, RUBEY

Posted By: Debbie Clough Gerischer, IAGenWeb Volunteer
Date: 1/14/2009 at 11:10:25

Harlan, Edgar Rubey.
A Narrative History of the People of Iowa.
Vol IV. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1931

JAMES E. JAMISON is a native of Burlington and has had many responsible connections with the business and public life of that city.

He was born in Burlington November 27, 1880, son of George S. and Ida C. (Hawkins) Jamison. His father was born in Ireland and his mother in Indiana. George S. Jamison came to America when a young man, and was on his way to Chicago when the great fire of 1871 occurred. This diverted his journey to Burlington, Iowa, where he became chief night clerk in the offices of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. He was one of the successful business men of Burlington and conducted an insurance agency in that city for many years. He died October 27, 1907, and his wife in November, 1912.

James E. Jamison was educated in teh grammar and high schools of Burlington, and at the age of nineteen was messenger boy for the First National Bank. Two years later he became an office employee of John Blaul Sons Company, wholesale grocers. He was there four years and for two years was clerk in the Merchants National Bank. This varied employment gave him a valuable experience for his subsequent business career. He then took over the insurance business of his father, and has supplemented its service to keep step with the advanced progress of insurance in its application to all forms of business and industry.

Mr. Jamison married in 1922 Juanita McGuire, who was born at Kirksville, Missouri, daughter of John E. McGuire, a native of Iowa.

Mr. Jamison was a member of the Iowa General Assembly in the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth sessions. To fill a vacancy he served three months as commissioner of finance. He has a World war record, having enlisted as a private in Company A of the Fifth Engineers and on July 30, 1918, sailed for France. He was with the Engineers in the Meuse Argonne campaign and in May, 1919, returned to the United States and received his honorable discharge as a private at Camp Dodge in the same month.

Mr. Jamison is a director representing the City of Burlington in the Citizens Water Company and was a director representing the city in the McArthur Bridge over the Mississippi River until that bridge became the property of the city. He is now one of the three jury commissioners of Des Moines County. He is a Democrat, member of the B. P. O. Elks, Loyal Order of Moose and Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is a member of the Rotary Club.