Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed by Sharon Elijah July 15, 2020

William A. Collison, one of the progressive and enterprising young business men of Carroll county, is the local manager of the Halbur (Ia.) yards of The W. T. Joyce Company. His birth occurred in the village of Blackstone, seven miles southeast of Streator, in La Salle county, Illinois, on the 22nd of January, 1875, his parents being Joseph and Annie (Wolfe) Collison, the former a native of Yorkshire, England, and the latter of Ireland. The father, who was born in 1846, was brought to America when but four years of age. He located in Chicago before any railroads entered the place. When a youth of sixteen he removed with his parents to La Salle county, Illinois, locating on a farm which his father rented. At the age of twenty-eight he came to Iowa, settling on a farm four miles west of Carroll, in Carroll county, when our subject was a babe of six weeks. Here he has resided throughout the intervening thirty-six years, devoting his attention to general agricultural pursuits with excellent results. Both he and his wife still enjoy the best of health and are well known and highly esteemed throughout the community. The record of their children is as follows: William A., of this review; John R., who wedded Miss Cora Maloney, of Arcadia township, and follows farming in that township; Joseph B., at home; Daniel A., who is a practicing dentist of Marshalltown, Iowa, and married Miss Edna Gilford, of Platteville, Wisconsin; Frederick P. and Mary E., both at home; Morris L. and Frank L., twins, who are also still under the parental roof; and Arthur V., who died at the age of thirteen years.

William A. Collison was reared under the parental roof and assisted his father in the operation of the home farm until twenty-seven years of age. His preliminary education, obtained in the rural schools, was supplemented by a two years’ course of study in the old Normal Business College of Carroll. Subsequently he followed the profession of teaching for six years, acting as an instructor in the different districts near his home. In 1903 he entered the employ of The W. T. Joyce Company at Carroll, Carroll county, as second man. After ably filling that position for one year he was made local manager of the Lidderdale yards, serving in that capacity for four years. On the expiration of that period he became local manager of the Halbur (Ia.) yards, the duties of which position he has now discharged for two years. Competent and faithful, he has proven a valued representative of The W. T. Joyce Company, and has contributed to the success of the concern in an appreciable degree.

Mr. Collison is a democrat in politics and while at Lidderdale served as city clerk for two years. He is a faithful communicant of St. Joseph’s Catholic church at Carroll and an honored member of Charles Carroll Council, No. 780, of the Knights of Columbus at that place. A young man of social, genial disposition, he is very popular and enjoys a wide acquaintance throughout the county in which practically his entire life has been spent.

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