Mahlon G. Hyler - 1879

HYLER, DURHAM, WEEK, LYMAN

Posted By: LuAnn Goeke (email)
Date: 8/15/2009 at 08:50:27

MAHLON G. HYLER, merchant, on Water street, Bellevue; was born Sept. 2, 1823, in Jefferson Co., N.Y. His parents were farmers, and the subject of this sketch passed his boyhood amid the healthful influences of rural scenes, and there acquired that sympathy with nature animate and inanimate, which still characterizes him in an eminent degree. When but 11 years of age, he, with his parents, removed to St. Clair Co., Ill., where both continued to reside until 1842, when he located in Bellevue, and began farming, which he continued for ten years. In 1844, he started in general merchandising at Bellevue, but carried on his farming also until 1862, since which date he has attended to mercantile matters exclusively. He is now the oldest merchant in Bellevue. June 10, 1849, he married Miss Jerusha Durham, who is a native of Broome Co., N.Y. He gallantly concedes full honor to his wife for her wise counsels and faithful co-operation. They have four children - Lucy L., Julia H., Charles G. and Benjamin. Mr. Hyler has held several minor positions of trust and honor, but is wholly unambitious for political distinction. Although a stanch Republican, he is not aggressive, but liberal. A man of strong convictions, he nevertheless has little of the spirit of a missionary. He is not contentious, but is a good conversationalist, social, frank and fluent, In all his business experience, he never had a lawsuit, preferring to suffer wrong rather than resort to the ills of litigation. His good-natured leniency has, no doubt, heavily increased the debit side of his profit and loss account. He is an intelligent user of his finely selected library. Theologically, he is broadly liberal, has faith in mankind and the present life, but is largely skeptical as to the hereafter; might justly be called, in the best sense, an humanitarian. He enters with keen zest into outdoor sports and games. He is at home either in the woods or on the water. He is the Treasurer of the Bellevue Schutzenverein, of which J.W. Week is Schutzenmeister. His equipments for shooting or boating would arouse the enthusiasm of a professional. [next page] His skiff is in form, a model, in material, sheet-iron, and its equipment is "Lyman's Patent Oars," whereby the oarsman is enabled, like other travelers, to "face forward, march." His rifle and shotgun are polished pets of first quality, and in his hands seldom fail to send the missile to the mark, whether it be the fleet game or the professional target. He is still chief salesman in his own store, and retains the customers who first gave him their patronage thirty-five years ago. Although plain spoken, his candor does not offend. Strict conformity to the law of rectitude is the duty of all men, but his neighbors and patrons declare that he is "peculiar;" and one peculiarity is that his "word is as good as his bond." His claim to unassuming honesty is unquestioned, and 'tis a pleasure to remind the reader that poetry and philosophy crown the "honest man" as one of the "noblest works of God."

1879 History of Jackson County Iowa, pgs. 662 & 665