G. A. Lee.
LEE
Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 1/8/2014 at 16:34:14
G. A. Lee was born in Grove township, Worth county, Iowa, on the 7th day of August, 1867. He is a son of Ole A. and Tona Lee, pioneers, who moved to Northwood in 1854. When he was seven years of age his parents moved to Bristol township, where he attended the public schools and grew to manhood. In 1885 he entered Luther academy, at Decorah. where he remained for one and one-half years.
At the age of twenty he emigrated to Bottineau, N. D., which was at that time the extreme frontier. After remaining there one year he returned to Worth county. In 1880 he went to Chicago and was soon chosen a member of the police force, a position which he held for 6 1/2 years. In 1897 he returned to Worth county and in 1899 he became a candidate for sheriff on the republican ticket. He was elected and has been retained in that office ever since. At present he is serving his fourth term, at the conclusion of which he will have been sheriff for 11 years, the longest term that office has remained in the hands of one man in the history of Worth county.
There is a reason for all things, and the reason for Sheriff Lee's popularity as an official is not far to seek. At the time he was inducted into office a tough gang of horse thieves was preying on the community. He established a local rogues gallery and soon had some notorious criminals headed for the pen. In his work he has always kept two points in view. 1st the safety of the community and 2nd the least possible expense to the tax payer consistent with public safely. In both of these aims he has succeeded for today. Worth county is a place shunned by rogues and the expense of administering the criminal law is less in Worth county than in any other county in the state.
Mr. Lee was married on the 11th day of May, l901 to Miss Andreana Mellem, danghter of one of Worth county's earliest pioneers. The ceremony was performed at the old Mellem homestead two miles west of Northwood. Mr.Lee has six sisters and one brother, all of whom grew to maturity in this vicinity. Their names and addresses are as follows: Mrs. K. O. Burtness. who was the first white child born in Mitchell county, now of Fertile; Mrs. T. I. Kaasa, of Hanlontown; Mrs. Torger Johnson; Miss Julia Lee and Mr. Allen Lee, all of Joice; Mrs. Ed. Henderson, wife of a prominent merchant of Lake Mills and Mrs. O. H. Urstad, whose husband is a physician at Kiester, Minn.
Source: The Semi-centennial Souvenir of Northwood, Iowa, 1907, page 12.
Worth Biographies maintained by Karon S. Velau.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen