Kamrar, Judge John L. (1842-1929)

KAMRAR, BEAUMONT

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 1/14/2015 at 17:32:31

Daily Freeman Journal, Saturday, December 28, 1929

DEATH CLAIMS JUDGE J.L. KAMRAR

IN ILL HEALTH FOR YEARS, HE SINKS TO DEATH

Judge Ill Two Years, Dies at His Home During Period of Unconsciousness

FUNERAL IS MONDAY

Death Followed Breakdown in Health; County's Best Known Citizen

Judge J. L. Kamrar died yesterday afternoon at 4:05 o'clock at his home on Willson avenue. He had been conscious only at intermittent periods since Sunday when he suffered a cerebral hemmorhage, but in his short intervals of consciousness, he was unable to speak distinctly. It was during a period of unconsciousness that he sank into death. He was past 87 years of age.

The funeral will be held Monday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at the home, conducted by Dr. Effie McCollum Jones, of the Universalist church. The Masons will attend in a body.

The last coherent words uttered by Judge Kamrar showed his great interest in Webster City and her people. Said he, as he lay on his death bed, "May our Heavenly Father continue to bless and prosper our city and people, is and will be my last wish."

The judge's death followed a breakdown in health that had confined him to his room for about a year. Prior to that, however, he had been in ill health for a year. It had been some five years since he had retired from the active practice of law and attending to other business duties about his (unreadable) he had spent a part of the time in his office.

His ill health during these five years was the natural breakdown that comes with age. His wonderful vitality, however, kept him active in mind, even after he was obliged to retire to his home and his remarkable hold on life was a revelation, alike to relatives and and friends.

For many years Judge Kamrar had been Webster City and Hamilton county's best known citizen. In the last years of ill health he was solaced by the visits of his many friends who came often to spend a pleasant hour with him. His keenness of intellect remained with him until stricken Sunday and he had realized for many months that the end was near. He bore his years of ill health with fortitude and was always of cheerful mind and interested in local and national affairs. This interest he maintained until stricken Sunday.

Despite the many honors that had been heaped upon him, he will best be remembered in Hamilton county as a successful and outstanding attorney and as a friend whom to know was to respect and love.

During the more than three score years John L. Kamrar lived in Webster City, he contributed much to the upbuilding of this city. His influence, however, extended beyond the city, for during his active years he easily had largest personal acquaintance of any man in Hamilton county, and a wide circle of friends throughout the state.

In 1896, he was a leading candidate for the republican nomination for governor, which was won by Francis M. Drake, who later was elected and served one term. Nearly 20 years later, Gov. George W. Clarke appointed him to the district bench.

In the congressional convention that nominated the late brilliant and silver tongued Johnathan P. Dolliver, Judge Kamrar came within just two votes of being the nominee of his party.

Until he was well past 80 years of age, Judge Kamrar was active in the community life of Webster City, in which he had been a vital influence throughout his long residence. He retired from active service when he was 83.

Of humble parentage, Judge Kamrar was born in a log cabin in Union county, Penn., on Oct. 12, 1842. When he was 13 years old, he moved with his family to Mount Carroll, Ill., where he worked on his father's farm while attending high school. He was graduated with valedictorian honors.

For a short time, he became a teacher, being principal of schools at Savannah, Ill., until he resigned to enlist in Company E, 140th Illinois infantry for service as a lieutenant in the civil war.

He came to Webster City in 1869, where he made his home until his death. A poor boy, he came here but by diligent and unceasing work became one of the first citizens of the county, a man known to residents of Hamilton county probably more generally than any other.

Two years after his arrival here, he was admitted to the bar, having studied law in the office of Judge D. D. Chase. He then started the practice of law which led to his appointment to the bench, 40 years later.

For four years, Judge Kamrar was the state senator from Hamilton county in the Iowa general assembly, serving in the 19th and 20th sessions. He served on the school board of Webster City, twice was mayor of the city, and was one of the electors from Iowa on the Benjamin Harrison presidential ticket.

For many years he was also the attorney in Hamilton county for the Chicago & North Western railroad and during all his active years as a lawyer was one of Iowa's leading barristers.

Judge Kamrar was twice married, his first wife having died. He is survived by his widow and two sons, Russel and John R., an inspector in the motor vehicle department of the secretary of state's office, of this city, a daughter, Mrs. M. H. Beaumont, of Hollywood, Calif., and Miss Alice Kamrar, a step-daughter, who lives at home and is a student at Grinnell college, and a granddaughter, Miss Frances Beaumont, of Hollywood, and Russell lives in Los Angeles. Mrs. Beaumont and daughter are spending the winter in Honolulu.

His widow was formerly Mrs. Albert Edward Headley, of Chicago, whom he married there Dec. 29, 1906. Her husband had been a prominent surgeon in Chicago.

Judge Kamrar will long be remembered in Hamilton county and its environs because of his many active years in politics, his keen interest in all public affairs, his prominence at the bar and the large personal part he always took during his more active years in all that meant advancement and improvement in Webster City and Hamilton county. He had a deep and abiding faith in his adopted state as evidenced by his generous investments in city and farm property hereabouts.

Jovial in disposition and always easy of approach, Judge Kamrar was for years Hamilton county's Grand Old Man. He loved the community and the people and in turn was loved by all, in his make-up was none of the hollow mockery of ostentation, found in some men who rise from poverty to a widespread degree of fame and who through long struggles and many hard knocks finally win the fight with poverty and accumulate a modest fortune.

Judge Kamrar was a lover of nature. Beautiful trees were his shrines. And in his own beautiful yard on Willson avenue and on many of the streets of Webster City today stand trees which he, himself, planted, now mighty monarches which will stand for many years a monument to his love of natural beauty.

Father Time dealt kindly and generously with Judge Kamrar. He was an active and oustanding influence in the community until past the alloted three score years and ten - in fact he was well past his eightieth year before he was compelled to give up many of his activities and enter into the evening of a long and well spent life. Up until that time the fire of untiring energy and constructive work had burned unquenched, a monument to a clear life, a strong moral character and a splendid mental and physical equipment, stimulated by an ever active mind.

Born on a Pennsylvania farm, he early came to know the hardships of pioneer farming, with its attendant hard work and long hours. It was in the spring of 1869 - more than 60 years ago - that Judge Kamrar came to Webster City. And during this nearly 61 years, he had seen this part of Iowa grow from a small almost-frontier section to the present vast cultivated community in the very heart of the world's best farming section. His own part in this development had been no small one. He was dowered with a vital power that made him a human dynamo whose many years of activity were a big factor in the moral and physical upbuilding of Webster City and Hamilton county. His life was an outstanding proof that America is a land of opportunity where neither humble birth nor poverty is a bar to financial success and prominence among men.

He came to this city a poor young man of 21 years. But by his own diligence and unceasing work he early became one of the first citizens of the county and wrote a record in deeds that made for a better community and marked him for high professional and political honors. He won the esteem of his fellow men and this esteem he held throughout his long and useful career.

Judge Kamrar was never a quitter. A man of strong personal convictions, often at variance politically with the dominent sentiment of the community, he always stood his ground. So widely, was his sincerity of purpose respected, however, that he always held the admiration and personal friendship of those with whom he disagreed. Nor was any resident of this community more highly honored by the people, whose full confidence he always enjoyed.

No man could have made the record he made except for abiding friendships of local, state and national scope, a high order of ability and the unanimous support of the home people - the latter of which Judge Kamrar held for two generations and which were among the greatest treasures of his life.

Judge Kamrar began his career in Webster City at real estate and abstracting in the office of the late Judge D. D. Miracle. But the law was his aim and between times he studied law and in 1871 was admitted to the bar of Iowa by the late Judge D. D. Chase.

Into Judge Kamrar's life was written a most outstanding and active record - a record that will live for many a year and will stand as his best monument in the hearts of Hamilton county people.