J. E. Sollitt

SOLLITT, MARSH, ROWNTREE, FAUBER, BULLINGTON

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 11:35:07

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

J. E. SOLLITT.

It is often remarked in these days that the tendency of modern education is to draw the young men away from the farm, and it is interesting to note that there are many exceptions to this current belief. J. E. Sollitt, whose life history is here presented is a man of excellent education, being trained in the best high schools of Chicago, yet he is a contented farmer of Osceola County, Iowa. It is true he is not content to farm exactly in the same manner as all of his neighbors, because he has removed from the beaten path and devoted his energies proudly to the raising of live stock. However, he is as successful in the cultivation of the crops of this locality as he is in his stock raising. He is actively interested in all the phases of the civic, moral and intellectual life of the community and is rightly regarded as one of the representative citizens of his locality.

J. E. Sollitt, the son of Charles W. and Clara E. (Marsh) Sollitt, was born November 19, 1880, at Sollitt, Illinois. His father was the son of John and Anna (Rowntree) Wilson Sollitt and was born in Chicago.

John Sollitt, the grandfather of J. E., whose history is here presented, was a building contractor and built the first court house in the city of Chicago. He also built the first Illinois Central depot in that city. At the time the present magnificent court house was built in Chicago he was honored by having his picture put in the corner stone. John Sollitt acquired about two thousand acres of land in Kankakee County and Will County, Illinois. The station of Sollitt was laid out and named after him. Charles W. Sollitt, the father of J. E. Sollitt, with whom this narrative deals, owned one hundred and sixty acres in Will County, Illinois, where he lived until 1903. He then sold it and purchased three hundred and twenty acres in sections 22 and 28 of East Holman Township, Osceola County, Iowa. Here he lived until the spring of 1914 when he moved to Sibley and left the management of his farm to his son, J. E. J. E. Sollitt graduated from the English high school at Chicago, later from the Manual Training School in that city. He then took up farming and stock raising as his life work, rather than going into any of the learned professions. It is a satisfaction to feel that an increasing number of our best young men are trained to agriculture, a basic occupation to all occupations. He makes a specialty of full-blooded, registered Hereford cattle and now has about forty head of as fine a cattle as can be found in the state. He also keeps full-blooded Duroc Jersey swine, as well as full-blooded Plymouth Rock chickens. He is interested in all phases of farm work and for several years has been an officer of the Farmers Institute in his county.

Mr. Sollitt was married October 10, 1906, to Verna R. Bullington, who was born in Illinois March 7, 1889, the daughter of Samuel M. and Mary C. (Fauber) Bullington. Samuel Bullington was a farmer and moved to Iowa in the spring of 1893, buying one hundred and sixty acres in section 34 in Viola Township, Osceola County. Mr. and Mrs. Sollitt have two children, Kenneth and Zelda, both of whom are still with their parents.

Politically, Mr. Sollitt is a stanch Prohibitionist and gives his aid to the temperance cause on all occasions. He and his wife are loyal members of the First Baptist Church of Sibley and take an active part in the work of the church and Sunday school. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while both he and his wife are members of the Daughters of Rebekah. Mr. Sollitt is still a young man and has a long and useful career before him. He has the training and the natural talent to become an influential member of his county and state, and the record he has made so far indicates that the future holds much for him.

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