Lufkin, Albert

LUFKIN, POTE, GRIFFIN

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 9/19/2009 at 17:11:41

Lufkin, Albert

A notable example of the successful self-made man was the late Albert Lufkin, and as such he made his influence felt among the people of Jasper County, where he cast his lot in pioneer days and labored for his own advancement and that of the locality as well, thereby earning the right to be classed among the leading citizens of his day in the community honored by his citizenship. His life was a long and interesting one, fraught with much work and much good; indeed, it is doubtful if any man of a past generation was so intimately intermingled with the history, of the city of Newton and Jasper County as was Mr. Lufkin and his career may well be studied with profit by the youth standing at the parting of the ways whose career is yet a matter for future years to determine, for it was not only successful from a material viewpoint, but it was wholesome in every avenue, exemplary in every relation and a model worthy of emulation by all who would be counted among those who win in the battle which we commonly call life and leave behind us the greatest of all heritages, an honored name.

Mr. Lufkin was born on a farm situated on Casco Bay, Maine, about twenty miles from Portland, at the town of Freeport, on January 7, 1831. He was the son of Benjamin and Eliza (Pote) Lufkin, both of English extraction and both natives of Freeport, Maine. His parents and all four of his grandparents are buried in the cemetery at that place. The farm on which the subject was born was partly cleared for the purpose of using the wood in boiling down sea water in making salt, and in his boyhood he plowed up fragments of the old salt kettles, interesting relics of a pioneer industry. His early education was obtained in the public schools. In addition to the common branches taught, he began the study of algebra and while yet at home he took up the study of geometry and trigonometry without a teacher, using an old work on navigation, published in 1758. He learned the use of logarithms and commenced the study of navigation from this book. He finished his course in Bowditch's Navigation unaided, after which he entered the North Yarmouth Academy, which he attended several terms. He followed teaching for several years, after leaving school, specializing on mathematics, which branch he taught one term in Yarmouth Institute. He then attended a school of engineering at Providence, Rhode Island, under Prof. William A. Norton. The latter being called to Yale, the subject, with most of his class, followed and entered the school of engineering at Yale University, taking a course of scientific engineering and chemistry. Leaving New Haven, Mr. Lufkin went to work for H. T. Walling at map making. In 1853 he took a position with the Pennsylvania Railroad as topographer. After making the surveys on the north branch of the Susquehanna River, he went to Philadelphia and spent the winter drafting for this road and while there he attended sixty lectures, having joined the Franklin Institute and the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

In the spring of 1855 Mr. Lufkin came west and located in Jasper County, Iowa, purchasing a farm in what is now Richland Township, for himself and his brother William, who came out in the fall of that year.

On October 9, 1855. Mr. Lufkin was married to Catherine Griffin, of Freeport, Maine. In the spring of 1858 he was elected County superintendent of schools and moved to Newton in August of that year. During his term of office he succeeded in having built many better school buildings. He held the office two terms and made many friends among the people, teachers and pupils. He then began the first set of abstracts of titles in Jasper County, in 1869, in company with Gen. James Wilson, he established the Jasper County Bank, in which Mr. Lufkin was interested for over ten years. While yet in the bank he bought an interest in the foundry and machine shop of James Edgar & Company and with J. H. Lyday and James Dutot continued the business under the name of the Newton Machine Works. Later he became sole proprietor. While he was in the machine shop, Rev. D. H. Rogan came to him with sewing machine plans, and in a room of Mr. Lufkin's stable was built the first sewing machine ever manufactured west of the Mississippi and the first ever run with a thread for a belt. This was later sold to the Singe Sewing Machine Company.

The death of Mr. Lufkin occurred in 1907, and that of his wife in 1880. Their family consisted of one daughter and two sons namely: Mary, Arthur K. and Herman, all of whom are married, and the sons are successful businessmen and influential in their communities.

In 1881 Mr. Lufkin married Fannie E. Derbyshire, and one child was born to this union, which died in infancy.

Mr. Lufkin traveled extensively in this country, having visited all the states but four, and Canada repeatedly, also old Mexico.

Mr. Lufkin was for over twenty years a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was one of the leading men of his day and generation and to him Jasper County owes much and here his memory will long be cherished. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 646