QUICK, Herbert 1861-1925

QUICK

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 10/21/2010 at 09:34:10

Herbert Quick, Famous Grundy Author, Dies

WAS BORN IN GRUNDY COUNTY AND SPENT HIS EARLY YEARS HERE

Had Visited Here Recently

Early Grundy County History Reflected in His Latest and Best Works

Herbert Quick died quite suddenly at a hospital at Columbia, Mo., last Sunday of heart disease. He delivered an address at a dinner closing journalism week Saturday evening. The heart attack came on later in the evening and he was at once taken to the University hospital.

Herbert Quick was without a doubt the most widely known and the most distinguished citizen of Grundy county. He was born on a farm in Shiloh township, this county, sixty-four years ago. A little later his parents moved to Steamboat Rock where they lived a number of years after which they returned to Grundy county and moved on a farm in Colfax township. Herbert attended country school here and at the age of seventeen he taught school for a number of years in Clay township. He remained in this county until he was twenty-one, when he became principal of a school in Mason City. He studied law while engaged in his school work and was admitted to the bar a few years later at Sioux City. In 1902 he was a candidate for supreme judge in Iowa, but being on the minority party was defeated. He was mayor of Sioux City for a number of terms and it was while he lived there that he was assured the nomination for congress with the further assurance of his election. He declined the honor and devoted his talents to literary work for which his talents were best fitted.

Included in his first literary works were "In the Fairyland of American," "Alladin & Co." in which he dealt with Iowa politics and business. "Double Trouble" was also one of his early literary productions.

His best known novels were produced during the past three years and all three of them reflect the early history of Grundy county from cover to cover. "Vandemark's Folly," "The Hawkeye" and "The Invisible Woman," pioneer stories which for months ranked among the best sellers of the country, bring back to us now the daily life and strife of the Grundy county pioneer of fifty years ago. Two years ago last August Mr. Quick spent several days with old friends here and he expected to return here again within the next month and to bring his wife with him to go over again the scenes of the author's early childhood. It was while Mr. Quick visited here the last time that he was writing his "Vandemark's Folly" and it was to refresh his memory on some of the incidents of early Grundy county life that he returned here at that time.

Under the Wilson administration Mr. Quick was a member of the federal farm loan board and was sent to Siberia in the interest of the government. It was while there that he was taken dangerously sick and he was brought back to this country and taken to the Mayo hospital at Rochester where it was not believed that he had a chance for getting well. He surprised the specialists and recovered and while his health was somewhat frail since that time he did his best literary work.

Many of the earlier settlers in Grundy county remember Mr. Quick and they have taken great pride in his literary achievements. He was without a doubt the county's most widely known and famous citizen.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 14 May 1925