Lon William MacDOWELL, Jr.

MACDOWELL, BURGESS, MCCALLUM

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:43

15 August 1916 ---- 26 May 1957

Funeral services for Lon MacDowell, Jr., 40, will be held today Wednesday, May 29 at 2 p.m. at the Sacquety Funeral Chapel, Rev. Maurice Mullan will be in charge and burial will be in Rose Hill cemetery.

MacDowell, a prominent young Eagle Grove business man, succumbed to a heart attack at his home about 2:30 p. m. Sunday. MacDowell suffered his first heart attack in May a year ago and has been in a convalescent condition much of the time since. He had just returned from his second period in the hospital last week Tuesday.

Formerly an International Harvester dealer in Eagle Grove and Manson, MacDowell was at present employed as sales manager for Silbaugh Mfg. Co. of Humboldt. The firm makes farm implements.

MacDowell was born in Watertown, South Dakota, August 15, 1916. Mr. MacDowell started his business career as manager of shoe departments for J. C. Penny stores in Utah and Idaho.

He was married to Virginia Burgess in Utah in 1938 and soon after came to Iowa where he entered the farm implement business in Fort Dodge and Manson. During this period he invented and developed the first hydraulic check tractor seat. The Horn Manufacturing Company of Fort Dodge made and marketed the seat for him on a commission basis.

In 1947 he sold his interest in the implement firm in Manson and moved to Eagle Grove. He engaged in the small loan business for a time and then accepted a position with the Ford tractor company and was for sometime a district sales manager for that firm. He and his family lived briefly in South Dakota at that time.

He entered the retail implement business in Eagle Grove with E. E. McCallum as a partner in 1951. McCallum retired soon after and MacDowell operated the firm alone until his heart attack last year. He sold the business to Leonard Helgevold on January 1, 1957.

MacDowell had been a very well known and popular young business man in Eagle Grove and his death was a shock to everyone.

He is survived by his wife, two sons Terry and Nickie, and his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Lon MacDowell, Sr. of Hartley, three brothers Robert of Spencer, Terry of Guthrie Center and William of Hartley.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE -- Eagle Grove, Iowa
May 30, 1957