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

At the age of thirty-two years Frederick H. Culbertson, of Carroll, has attained a gratifying measure of prosperity and is regarded as one of the substantial business men of the city. It is mainly through his own well directed energy that he has reached this condition of comparative financial ease. He was born in Richland township, Carroll county, May 16, 1879, a son of Robert Y. and Etta A. (Bell) Culbertson, the former a native of Philadelphia and the latter of Boston. She came west with her parents to Chicago, Illinois, when a child and he came with his parents to Princeton, Scott county, Iowa, in his boyhood. They were married at Princeton and there were three children in their family: Frederick H., the subject of this review; Frank, who died at the age of five years; and Clara Bell. Mr. Culbertson, Sr., came to Carroll county in 1875 and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in Richland township to which he later added forty acres. In 1887 he moved to Carroll and went into partnership with Herbert A. Junod in the grain and coal business. In 1901 he and his son Fredrick H. engaged in the same line of business under the title of R. Y. Culbertson & Son. They built a new elevator in 1903. The father passed away May 9, 1904, at the age of fifty-two years, and the mother is now living with her son at Carroll. David Culbertson, the paternal grandfather, was a native of Pennsylvania. After spending several years at Philadelphia, he located permanently in Scott county, Iowa, where he raised stock on a large scale. He was over eighty years of age at the time of his death. His wife was Mary Linn and she also lived to be more than eighty years old. Eight children brightened their home: Stephen D.; William, L., now deceased; Robert Y., deceased; J. Augustus, deceased; James C.; Harry L.; Mary, now the wife of John H. Darrah; and Elizabeth C. Grandfather Bell on the maternal side was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and his wife was Eliza A. Fairbanks. They lived in Maine and also in Boston, following his profession as a physician and taking up their home in Chicago before the great fire of 1871. Dr. Bell died in Chicago at the age of sixty-eight. His wife came to Scott county, Iowa, where her death occurred in 1909, having arrived at the advanced age of ninety-four years. They had seven children namely: George, deceased; Leonard F.; Frank H., deceased; Josephine, now the wife of Charles Pinneo, Princeton, Iowa; Martha, deceased; Etta A.; and Adelaide, the wife of Albert F. Solbery, of Evanston, Illinois.

Frederick H. Culbertson was reared in Carroll from the age of seven years. He attended the public schools and graduated from the high school in 1897. Going to Omaha, he took a business course in one of the institutions of that city, after working for a while at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. His first employment was with the Union Pacific Railroad as a stenographer, but he gave up this position and went into business with his father at Carroll in 1901, continuing in the same line after the death of the latter, in partnership with William E. Parsons, under the title of Culbertson & Parsons. In June, 1910, he purchased Mr. Parsons’ interest and has since continued the business in his own name.

On the 16th of June, 1909, Mr. Culbertson was united in marriage to Miss Marian E. Park, a native of Carroll and a daughter of David H. and Edith C. (Vette) Park. One daughter has blessed this union, Helen Adelaide. The father of Mrs. Culbertson was born in Scotland and came to America when he was about seven years of age. The mother was born near Marengo, Iowa, and has been a resident of Carroll for about thirty years. Mr. Park died in December, 1910, having then arrived at the age of sixty years. There were three children in the family: Marian E., now Mrs. Frederick H. Culbertson; Helen U.; and Fairybell, who died in infancy.

Mr. Culbertson is not identified with any religious denomination but his wife is a member of the Swedenborgian church. Fraternally he is prominently connected with the Knight of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America and politically gives his support to the republican party. He has strong military proclivities and is a member of Company D, Fifty-sixth Iowa Infantry, being now second lieutenant of that organization. He is genial and pleasing in manner and possesses traits which attract friends wherever he is known, while as a business man he ranks among the foremost in the community.

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