Roth, Ed (died 1945)

ROTH, SPRAY

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer
Date: 8/16/2012 at 18:06:51

Two deaths have been announced in our paper during the last week; two sons of this community and whom we have known for many years, Edward L. Roth and Adam Weir. We knew Ed Roth very well, fraternity brother and newspapering. He graduated from Wesleyan with the class of 1895, four years after this writer. Ed Roth was born in Trenton township in 1868, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Roth, well known in Trenton township. While in college, Ed worked on our newspaper as a subscription solicitor, and he was a good one. After graduation, he was elected Henry County Superintendent of Public Schools. Leaving that position, he purchased the interest of Mr. George McAdam of the Mt. Pleasant Journal, but resold in less than a year. Then to Illinois where he purchased the Cambridge Chronicle, his brother, Homer, being also interested in the paper.

In 1901, the Roth brothers sold the Illinois newspaper and established at Kansas City, a cooperage business and in which they were doing extremely well, when in 1903, the great floods, which caused so much destruction of property, swept away the Roth establishment, the loss being total. The Roth Brothers returned to Iowa, and at Ottumwa, they started over again, and where they have made their home ever since.

Here Ed Roth was permanently successful. Farming, dairying, real estate brokerage, and a large personal loan business were all managed with skill and large profits. Homer, the brother, is prominent in Wapello county politics, and for some years, was postmaster at Ottumwa. Mrs. Roth, who survives her husband, was Miss Ella Spray of Salem. They have one son, Homer, who has been closely associated with his father, and will carry on the affairs of his parents. John Roth, grandfather of Edward Roth, was one of the very early settlers in Trenton township, landing there in 1849. John Roth and his wife were natives of France, emigrating to this country in 1825.

-- “Bystander’s Notes“ by Charles S. Rogers, Publisher-Editor of The Free Press [weekly newspaper published in Mt. Pleasant, IA] Monday, January 29, 1945 p. 2