DUTTON, W. A.

DUTTON, STARK, WORDEN, BAMSEY, CAMPBELL, DITTSWORTH, ADAMS, MONTGOMERY, FRANBACH

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 4/28/2004 at 15:47:55

Biography reproduced from page 90 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Conspicuously identified with the business and civic interests of Algona is W. A. Dutton, senior member of the firm of Dutton & Sorenson, proprietors of a large grocery business in Algona. Mr. Dutton is also secretary of the Algona Tile Factory, and is interested in the Algona Manufacturing Company and in the Algona Ice Cream Factory. He was born in McHenry county, Illinois, August 9, 1871, being a son of J. R. and Kate C. (Stark) Dutton. The father was born in Connecticut and when he was a year old his parents removed from there to the state of New York. At the age of twenty-one years he removed to Illinois, where he resided three years and the came to Kossuth county, Iowa, settling three miles south of Algona on a farm, where he died in 1903. He was a successful farmer and a public-spirited man, having held several township offices, and moving in the most respected circles of his community. He was of New England parentage. The mother of the subject of this review was born in New Jersey and at a comparatively early age removed with her parents to the Prairie state and here her demise occurred in 1907. Both she and her husband are buried at Irvington, Iowa. In their family were fourteen children: Arthur, deceased; Ada, the wife of J. B. Worden, of Ledyard, Iowa; L. R., of Algona; Kate, the wife of Russell Bamsey, of Montgomery county, Iowa; Cora, now Mrs. C. E. Campbell, of Algona; C. J., of Omaha, Nebraska; W. A., of this record; O. H., of Ledyard, Iowa; Nancy, now Mrs. A. E. Dittsworth, of Bancroft, Iowa; Mary, the wife of W. W. Adams, of Algona; Jennie M., the wife of C. D. Montgomery, of Burt; O. J., of Algona; and two, who died in infancy.

W. A. Dutton received his early education in the common schools of Illinois, later attending a commercial college at Keokuk, Iowa. He remained with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age and then started out to begin his business career. His first employment at other than farm work was in the grain business at Whittemore, Iowa, after which he entered the employ of the E. B. Higley Company at Algona and he then bought a stock of groceries and established the firm of Dutton & Sorenson. Mr. Dutton’s active business life has been crowned with more than average success so that now, in addition to the exacting demands upon his time and attention by his grocery business he is secretary of the local tile factory and has a large interest in the Algona Manufacturing Company as well as the local ice cream factory. The firm of Dutton & Sorenson also owns one hundred and sixty acres of improved farm land in Kossuth county, and beside these various interests Mr. Dutton owns four residences in Algona, which he had erected under his own supervision.

In 1894 Mr. Dutton was married to Miss Margaret Franbach, who was born in Cassville, Wisconsin. Politically he is a democrat but has not aspired to any public positions. Religiously both Mr. Dutton and his wife are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church of Algona, where they are earnest members, assisting in the upkeep and advancement of that denomination. His fraternal relations include membership in the Masonic order, the Modern Woodmen of American and the Yeomen, being identified with the local lodges of these crafts. The bustling little city of Algona owed much to Mr. Dutton, who for many years has been a factor in the upbuilding of its various interests. He has long been considered one of its most public-spirited citizens and, having climbed to a position of affluence by hard work, ability and close application to business, he is doubly entitled to the enviable position which he holds in local business circles and among Algona’s citizens generally.