Nason, W. Gerald

NASON

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 1/11/2009 at 18:30:30

W. Gerald Nason

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.42, Council Bluffs)
W. Gerald Nason, agent for the Council Bluffs Insurance Company, Council Bluffs, was born in Schenectady, N. Y., May 15, 1837; came to Iowa in 1855, and located in Boomer Township, Pottawattamie County. He farmed there until July, 1856, at which time he went to Omaha, Neb.; went to work in hotel there, and remained until November of the same year. He then came to Council Bluffs, where he drove a team until the following spring; then went back on a farm, and remained there until March, 1859. He then, in connection with his brother, engaged in the grocery business in Council Bluffs, in which they continued until December, 1859. He then went back again to the farm, and remained there until July, 1860, when he went to Colorado with his brother and engaged in mercantile business in Cottonwood Springs; he remained there three months; then returned to this county and went back on the farm, and remained there until September, 1862. He then enlisted in Company E, Sixth Iowa Cavalry, and was mustered out June 20, 1865, after which he returned to the farm. Mr. Nason was married February 10, 1866, to Miss Maggie McKenna, of Delaware, Ohio, and removed to Council Bluffs April 15, same year, and engaged in the wood and railroad-tie business. He again engaged in farming in March, 1867, and pursued that occupation till April, 1873, whe he again removed to Council Bluffs. Here he engaged in the insurance business with the Continental Insurance Company, with which he remained until January, 1880, at which time he resigned his position with that company and took the superintendency of agencies of the Council Bluffs Insurance Company. He has also been representing five Eastern insurance companies as local agent of Council Bluffs. The duties of the Council Bluffs Company keeps him almost constantly on the road. He has a brother engaged in stock business in Montana, who is very wealthy, and also a brother in Boomer Township, this county, a farmer, who has been on the same farm for twenty-seven years. He has two sisters, married, who reside on farms in Boomer Township. Mr. Nason has been one of the very few who have made a success of the insurance business. He was educated in the town of Boonville, Oneida Co., N. Y.