Eugene Secor
SECOR, KNAPP, SPENCER, LAW, PLUMMER
Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall (email)
Date: 6/18/2009 at 08:00:52
Eugene Secor
Called to many positions of public honor and trust, Eugene Secor, of Forest City, has ever manifested his loyalty to the best interests of his community and his state and in everything that he has undertaken he has worked toward high ideals. Gifted by nature with stong mental powers, his career has been one of continued development, reaching out along those lines which make life fuller, richer and better. He was born in May, 1841, on a farm in Peekskill Hollow, New York, a son of Alson and Sarah C. (Knapp) Secor, who were farming people and spent their entire lives in the Empire state. The Secors were descended from French Huguenots who came to American in 1689.Eugene Secor attended school in his native county and in 1862 removed westward to Iowa, settling in Forest City, his elder brother, David Secor, being at that time treasurer and recorder of Winnebago county and also postmaster of Forest City. After working for a time he resumed his studies, entering Cornell College at Mount Vernon, Iowa. He had been there not quite a year when his elder brother enlisted for service in the Civil War, so that Eugene Secor was called back to take charge of his brother's office and the postoffice, as deputy, discharging the duties of those positions until the close of the war. After removing to the west he had learned the mason's trade but for many years wass active in public office. At the first election for mayor in Forest City he was chosen to that office and his administration was so satisfactory to his constituents that he was three time reelected, serving for four consecutive terms. He carefully administered the affairs of the new municipality and his administration was fraught with excellent results. Afterwards he was a member of the town council for many years. In 1869 he was elected clerk of the courts, having previously served as deputy, and filled that position acceptably for six years, being elected for the third term of two years without opposition. He was not a candidate for the fourth term. In 1876 he was called to the office of county auditor and served for four years, after which he refused to be again a candidate. He was also county coroner for two years and still higher honors awaited him in his election as a member of the twenty-ninth general assembly of Iowa, in which he served on several important committees and was chairman of the Horticultural committee. He was not a candidate for reelection. For many years Mr. Secor by appointment of the governor served as a delegate from Iowa to the Farmers National Congress. For six years he was a trustee of the Iowa Agricultural College and filled that position when it was an elective one by the state legislature. He was also a member of the board of trustees and of the executive committee of Cornell College at Mount Vernon, Iowa, for twenty years, and holds an honorary degree of M.A. from that institution. For fifteen consecutive yeras he served as a member of the board of education at Forest City and with the exception of one year was throughout that entire period president of the board. His public service has been of the greatest benefit. Thoroughly understanding the various duties that have devolved upon him, he has ever been prompt and faithful in their execution and at all times has been guided by the utmost spirit of devotion to the general good. He was for twelve years president of the Winnebago County Farmers Institute and then declined reelection. He organized the Winnebago County Agricultural Society and was its first president, and it was in his administration that the property was bought and the first building erected. In 1907 he was appointed by President Rosevelt to the position of postmaster of Forest City and occupied that office for five and one-half years. He was a charger member of the Iowa Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and was at one time president thereof.
All during the time that Mr. Secor served in these various positions of public honor and trust he also conducted a real estate and loan business in Forest City, and for the past forty years he has been widely known as a bee culturist, winning a world-wide reputation in this connection. He now has, however, only about twenty colonies of fine, pure Italian bees. Such is his standing along this line that in 1893 he was appointed the expert apiarian judge for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, a fact indictative of his wide study and knowledge of the subject. He is a member of the North American Bee-Keepers Society, of which he was at one time president, while for seven years he was its general manager and treasurer. He is a regular contributor to various agricultural and technical journals on subjects relating to bee culture and other phases of country life, and his opinions have become accepted as authority. He was editor of the bee keeper's department of the Northwestern Agriculturist of Minneapolis for many years and at one time held a similar position on the staff of a farm paper published at Cedar Rapids. He possesses considerable literary taste and talent, and his writings on various subjects appear frequently in the city papers as well as in the local press. From his pen have also come various poems of worth, and many of his songs have been set to music. Another phase of his activitiy has been in the field of horticulture, and that he has attained prominence and success in that direction is indicated in the fact that he has been honored with the vice presidency and presidency of the Iowa Horticultural Society, of which he is now a director. He has been on the program at conventions of the society for twenty years or more and articles from his pen appear in every volume of the published proceedings of the society. At the present time he is devoting his attention most largely to horticulture, making a specialty of ornamental trees and plants, particularly peonies. He owns a fine tract of land adjoining Forest City and calls his place The Shelter. His home is a beautiful residence, in front of which is a miniature park, and it indicates his artistic perception and taste in the field of landscape gardening. He is now a director of the Farm Property Mutual Insurance Association of Iowa, having its headquarters at Des Moines. He is engaged to sime extent in breeding registered shorthorn cattle and for many years he was a director of a private bank, which was organized by himself and others in 1882 under the name of Secor, Law & Plummer, and which was later nationalized as the First National Bank.
On September 17, 1866, Mr. Secor was united in marriage to Miss Millie M. Spencer, who was born in Milan, Ohio, January 29, 1848, and died April 29, 1912. They became the parents of ten children but only four survived the mother: Willard, who succeeded his father in the Secor Company of Forest City, and whose death occurred in May, 1915; Alson, who is the editor of the paper called Successful Farming, published in Des Moines; Nina, at home; and Manly, who is engaged as a horticulturist at Tama, Iowa.
In his political views Mr. Secor has always been a republican and his efforts have been an effective force in promoting party successes. He was a delegate to the republican national convention in 1892. He belongs to the Methodist church, in which he has served for a long time as an officer. In May, 1892, he was a delegate from Northwest Iowa conference to the quadrennial general conference of the Methodist church at Omaha, Nebraska. In fact, his ability has called him to leadership in many lines in which his activities have been put forth. thoroughness is characteristic of all that he does and the spirit of advancement and progress has guided him in every stage of his career, bringing him at last to a place where he stands as a recognize dauthority upon many questions that have to do with the material resources and development of the state. He has now passed the age of three score years and ten and is enjoying a well earned rest from business cares and responsibilities. Indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature, however, and he keeps busy with his horticultural investigations and literary work.
Source: History of Winnebago and Hancock counties, Iowa, 1917, Vol. II, pg 36-40
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