Samson, James F.

SAMSON

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 7/2/2021 at 20:12:50

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.913

JAMES FINLEY SAMSON
James Finley Samson, cashier of the First National Bank of Indianola, is numbered among the native sons of Wapello County, Iowa, where his birth occurred January 5, 1858. His father, Seth Samson, was a native of Indiana and of Welsh descent. His father was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. Seth Samson became a farmer and was also a local preacher of the Methodist Church. He removed from Indiana to Iowa at an early day and settled in Van Buren County, while later he resided in Wapello County and afterward in Decatur County. He is still living at the advanced age of eighty-three years and now makes his home in Des Moines.
James F. Samson was reared to the occupation of farming and attended the country schools, but ambitious for further educational privileges, he entered Simpson College in 1878 and there pursued his studies for three years. For five terms he engaged in teaching in the country schools of Union Township and putting aside professional duties at the end of that time he turned his attention to the banking business, becoming bookkeeper in 1881 in the First National Bank of this city. For twenty-seven years he has been continuously connected with the institution and has gradually worked his way upward through successive promotions until 1898, when he was elected cashier. He is now serving in that capacity and is also one of the directors of the bank. Aside from his duties in this connection, he has some farming interests. He is a popular and obliging official, always courteous to the patrons of the bank and at the same time most loyal to the interests of the institution which he represents.
In February, 1888, Mr. Samson was married to Miss Ada E. Sandy, a daughter of Jeremiah G. and Mary J. Sandy. The father was a farmer and stock-raiser and in the later years of his life was president of the First National Bank of Indianola. Mrs. Samson was born in Union Township, this county, and by her marriage has become the mother of three daughters: Eloise, born January 25, 1889; Mary Alice, July 23, 1896; and Carrie Margaret, August 22, 1905. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, interested in its work and liberal in its support. Mr. Samsom is now serving as one of its board of trustees. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and gives his political endorsement at the polls to the Republican Party. He has never been an office seeker but has served as school director and was always interested in the progressive measures which tend to promote the interests of the county along material, intellectual, social and moral lines.