Isaac O. Florence

FLORENCE, BOICE, HATTEN

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/12/2010 at 04:28:13

ISAAC O. FLORENCE

Since starting out in life for himself Isaac O. Florence has been interested in the dredging business and now carries on operations under the firm name of I. O. Florence & Company with headquarters at Thompson, Iowa, where he has made his home since 1905. He was born in Wood county, West Virginia, on the 16th of February, 1876, and that state was also the birthplace of his parents, Marshall O. and Patience A. (Boice) Florence. In 1884 the family removed to Ohio, where the father engaged in farming and contracting, and he continued to reside in the Buckeye state until called to his final rest in November, 1910. The mother is still living.

Isaac O. Florence was eight years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, where he grew to manhood, in the meantime acquiring a good common school education. At the age of twenty years he left the parental roof and began to make his own way in the world. He entered the employ of the dredging firm of A. V. Wills & Sons, of Pittsfield, Illinois, at a salary of twenty dollars per month, and remained with that company for five years. The following two years he was with C. H. Sternberg & Sons of Chicago and has since engaged in the dredging business on his own account, starting in business for himself in Indiana in 1904 under the name of the Indiana Drainage Company. The following year he came to Thompson, Iowa, but continued to carry on operations under the name of the Indiana Drainage Company until 1910, when the name was changed to I. 0. Florence & Company. He has built up a good business, which is constantly increasing, and he has become widely and favorably known throughout this section of the state. His work now takes him all over Iowa and Minnesota.

On the 4th of July, 1898, Mr. Florence married Miss Maude A. Hatten, and they have become the parents of five children, the first three born in Indiana and the others in Iowa, namely: Oral, born February 12, 1900; Dale Chadwick, February 13, 1902; Fairy Fairbanks, May 19, 1904; Glee, December 20, 1909; and Marshall O., October 12, 1914.

In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Florence are Methodists, and he is also identified with the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is a republican and is now efficiently serving as a member of the Thompson school board. During his residence here he has made a host of warm friends and wherever known is held in high regard.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 372-375.