Snow, Erastus

SNOW

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 1/29/2013 at 08:43:18

The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa
Des Moines: Union Hist. Co., 1880.

SNOW, ERASTUS—Grinnell Twp—pg 924-25. The New West has hardly numbered those years which are required to bring to the front rank in society a model class of men peculiarly Western. A visitor from the Sunny South amidst the sterility and rocks of New Hampshire asked, "What do you raise up here?" to be answered, "We rear men, sir"; but they cannot all stay, and if Douglas thought Vermont a good State to emigrate from so is New Hampshire and conspicuous among those who may have had the same opinion, provided they came to Iowa, is Hon. Erastus Snow. He being quite unaware of this attempt at sketching, we are ignorant in regard to his personal history, birth-place or age, save that it was in the old Granite State life began, and the fullback beard, only slightly silvered, indicated about that mature age on the shady side of fifty, a guess confirmed by the fact that he has a son for several years a practicing attorney in northern Iowa. Mr. Snow is an accountant, having served many years as a bank cashier in his native State, removing to Davenport a reputed money loaner, where loans were easier put out than taken in. Next removing to Grinnell, where just out of the corporation he has a farm, which, regarding location, trees and tasteful house architecture, is the equal of any establishment in central Iowa. But fine stock and model grounds could not detain the owner on his fertile acres and he gravitated into public affairs, still retaining his home. As member of the county Board of Supervisors our finances were by him brought out of disorder and indebtedness, known and provided for. Once he was elected to the Lower House in the General Assembly and once State Senator holding a conspicuous place as a trusted financier on committees, without any attempt at oratory, rather being disposed to the "golden silence." Several years since, when the farmers made an alliance, under what was called the Order of Grangers, this gentleman was accorded that prominence which correctness and business habits ensure, and is now at the head of one of the largest mercantile houses, occupying one of the most spacious stores in this region, where order mirrors the man. The presidency of the Farmer’s Mutual Insurance Company, which has proved such wise economy to the insured, was also accorded to him, an office which he now holds. On the organization of the First National Bank of Grinnell, ten years ago, Mr. Snow was elected president, and on the founding, the past year, of the Grinnell Savings Bank he was also made president. In brief, if said as a business maxim, "Caution is the parent of safety," that may have been the guild of one who has neither grasped to hold, nor been ambitious for position, beyond the measure which was honorable and pleasure for friends to accord, each succeeding expression of confidence bringing evidence of those qualities which so modest a gentleman might regard as flattery by a further mention and analysis. Mr. Snow is a practical believer in the "dignity of labor," and in early life from necessity, and later from choice, has been diligent in business and faithful to the many trusts conferred upon him. He believes that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well, and his life’s history clearly demonstrates that strict integrity, persevering industry, joined to economy and good habits, seconded by a determined will, are unfailing passports to success.