Boudinot, Eugene S.

BOUDINOT, STIMSON, FISHER

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 1/17/2010 at 17:57:45

History of Hamilton County,Iowa, vol II, 1912, p.104-105.

Gradually working his way upward, Eugene S. Boudinot is now well established in the profession of civil engineering. He makes his home in Webster City, where he has lived since the spring of 1909. Although one of the more recent arrivals here, he has demonstrated his power and ability to perform difficult and complex engineering feats and has today a large professional clientage. He was born in Danville. Illinois, January 18, 1877, and is a direct descendant of Elias Boudinot, who was the first president of the continental congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, E. E. Boudinot, was a graduate pharmacist, being one of the first to complete a course in pharmacy in the University of Pennsylvania. He also won the degree of D. D. S., but never engaged in the practice of dentistry. He was likewise a graduate of Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana, completing the course in the same class with General Lew Wallace, Governor Morton and several other men who rose to distinction in public life. For many years Mr. Boudinot was a successful druggist of Danville. He became prominent in political circles of the state and was a member of the one hundred and third Illinois general assembly, which elected John A. Logan to the office of United States senator. He died in 1902 at the age of fifty-three years, while his wife passed away in 1898 at the age of forty-seven years. Mrs. Boudinot bore the maiden name of Sarah Stimson and was a direct descendant in the maternal line of Governor Braddock of Philadelphia.

Eugene S. Boudinot was educated in the public schools of Danville, the Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Indiana, and in the University of Illinois at Champaign, where he pursued the engineering course. He began working for the Illinois Central Railroad Company on their extension from Fort Dodge to Omaha, Nebraska, being thus employed until 1900, when he was elected county surveyor of Vermilion County, Illinois. He occupied that position creditably and continuously until 1907, after which he went to Red Oak, Iowa, and was city engineer there until the spring of 1909. In that year he came to Webster City, where he has since followed his profession and, while he does all kinds of civil engineering work, he specializes as a drainage engineer.

In 1903, Mr. Boudinot was joined in wedlock to Miss Margaret Fisher, her father being M. E. Fisher, a wholesale grocer of Red Oak, Iowa. Mr. Boudinot has an interesting military chapter in his life history, having been a member of Battery A of the Illinois National Guard of Danville during the strike period from 1892 until 1894. He acted as corporal of his battery and was on active duty in connection with the strikes. His fraternal relations are with the Masons of Danville and the Elks of Webster City and his religious faith is evidenced in his membership in the First Presbyterian church. His has been a well spent life, devoted to his chosen profession, the duties of which he capably and conscientiously discharges.