CHARLES B. LAMKIN , 1861-??

LAMKIN, CHAFFEE, LAKE, BEDLAKES, ALDEN

Posted By: Bahnson
Date: 4/24/2002 at 18:11:58

CHARLES B. LAMKIN.
Charles B. Lamkin, the owner of one of the large elevators for grain in Inwood, with a capacity of nearly fifteen thousand bushels of grain a day, has been engaged in its operation since 1902. He purchased it that year, when it was known as the “Skewis Moen Elevator Company,” and in connection with its management has also bought hogs and cattle. A portrait of Mr. Lamkin will be found on another page of this volume.
Mr. Lamkin occupies a large and commodious house of eleven rooms as his home, and has it located on a lot 100 by 150 feet, making it one of the most desirable residences in Inwood. He was born in New York December 6, 1861, and when he reached the age of thirteen years came into Iowa, and made his home on a farm in Winneshiek county. When he was seventeen he accompanied an uncle into Lyon county, for whom he worked until he was twenty-one. For a few years after this he was employed by the neighboring farmers, when he bought a quarter section of land for himself, on which he made his home for the ensuing ten years. Twice he suffered from crop failures more or less complete, but from his records he computes that the farm netted him yearly over eight hundred dollars. His oat field yielded him an average of ninety-one bushels to the acre; his barley gave him as high as fifty-five bushels to the acre, and his corn over sixty bushels.
When Mr. Lamkin bought land in 1875 he paid forty dollars per acre for it, being the first man in the county to pay so high a price for plain farm land. Every one thought it a poor purchase and criticized his lack of judgment at the time. The land, however, has since reached seventy-five dollars, which is indeed the common price at the present time for Lyon county farm land, and even higher prices are proposed for the near future. Mr. Lamkin still owns a quarter section within a half mile of Inwood.
In 1887 occurred the wedding ceremony of Mr. Lamkin and Miss Etta Lake. They adopted two children: Bessie V., and Charles L., who they adopted when the children were each three years old. Mr. Lamkin and his family are associated with the Presbyterian church, in which he has officiated as an elder for ten years or more. In the erection of the new temple of worship for that denomination he was very active. In politics he is a Republican, and has served as town trustee for three terms, assessor, two terms, and at present is county supervisor and a member of the village board of Inwood. He has received the Republican nomination for representative in the state legislature for the district composed of Lyon and Osceola counties.
Benjamin Lamkin, the father of Charles B., was born in New York where he died at the age of forty-seven years, his death being the result of disease contracted in the Civil war. He was a member of Company H, Eighth New York Heavy Artillery, for nearly three years. His birth occurred in 1825, and his death in 1872. Isaac Lamkin, the grandfather of Charles B., served in the Continental army, and was captured by the British during the war of the Revolution. As a Methodist preacher, he was gifted in song, and at one time when a prisoner he escaped in his stocking feet from his captors. It was in the depth of winter, and his feet were severely injured by the time he had reached a place of refuge. The Lamkin family descended from Bedlakes, and John Alden of the “Mayflower.” It is said of Bedlakes, that on one occasion, while engaged in splitting a log he was surprised by six Indians. Four of them he bantered into trying to hold the log open with their hands. Suddenly knocking out the wedge he had them fast. The other two escaped, but the four he quickly sent into the happy hunting ground. Polly Chaffee, the mother of Charles B. Lamkin, was a member of an old Puritan family, long settled in Vermont.