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 September 20, 2020

For nearly thirty years past the insurance business has presented a congenial occupation for Frank G. Rust of Glidden, and for fifteen years he has discharged the duties of justice of the peace with a fairness and ability that have met with the approval of the entire community. He is a native of Columbia county, Wisconsin, born December 26, 1852, a son of Henry and Julia (Cameron) Rust. The father was born in Vermont and the mother in New York state. He learned the carpenter’s trade but later turned his attention to farming, with which he was identified during the greater part of his life. In 1848 he went to southern Wisconsin where he continued for eleven years, at the end of which time he removed with his family to a farm about twenty-five miles east of St. Joseph, Missouri. He was on this farm at the time of the Civil war and assisted in raising a company of Union soldiers of which he served a caption for about a year. While he was in the army his father came west and moved the family of the son to Columbia county, Wisconsin, for safety. After the close of the war Henry Rust settled in Columbia county on a farm which his father had preempted from the government. There he died about 1884 at the age of fifty-six, but his wife still survives, being now seventy-nine years of age. He was a member of the Masonic order and was republican township chairman for a number of years. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Rust were five children, three sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity, namely: Frank G.; Elizabeth, who married Alfred Ketchum of Olmstead, Michigan; Harvey, who became county clerk at Waukesha, Wisconsin, and died in 1895 while holding that office; Cameron, who is a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Rust, Parker & Martin, of Duluth, Minnesota; and Flora, who married Harry Evans and is now deceased.

The paternal grandfather of our subject was Horace Rust, a native of Vermont. He was by trade a shoemaker and removed to Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he died at the age of eighty-three years. He was twice married. His second wife was Roxina Mills. Of their children six grew to maturity, Mills, Henry, Mary, Charles, Harvey and Lucille. The great-grandfather of our subject participated in the war of 1812 and the great-great-grandfather served in the patriot army of the Revolution. The emigrant ancestor came to America about 1640 and settled in Massachusetts, descendants of the family now being found in all the principal cities of the Union. The maternal grandfather of our subject was George Cameron, a native of Scotland. He came to America and took up his home in New York state, later removing to Walworth county, Wisconsin, where he died when he was about fifty-six years of age. The maiden name of his wife was Olive Murray and she lived to be upwards of eighty years of age. She was the mother of five children, John, Darius, Henry, Mary and Julia.

Frank G. Rust was reared on his father’s farm in Wisconsin and attended the district schools, later possessing advantages of training in the high school of Randolph, Wisconsin. He began teaching at the age of seventeen and devoted his attention to this vocation several winters, working in the fields during the summer seasons. He lived at home until twenty-one years of age and then went to Rochester, Minnesota, where he was employed for two years in the wheat warehouse of Van Deusen & Company. At the close of the time named he returned to his old home in Wisconsin and was married, about a year afterwards entering the insurance business near Nielsville, in Clark county, Wisconsin, continuing there two years. Feeling the importance of seeking a more favorable location, he came to Glidden in the spring of 1882 and has ever since successfully engaged in the insurance business in this place.

On the 26th day of June, 1877, in Columbia county, Wisconsin, Mr. Rust was married to Miss Emma Brown, a daughter of Lewis Brown, and they have four children: Nellie, who died in 1895, at the age of seventeen years; George, a lawyer of Boise, Idaho, who married Maude Hubbard and has one son, Horace; Harvey, who went west about seven years ago; and Edward, who is now attending school at Buena Vista. The mother of these children died August 20, 1899, being then thirty-six years of age. In religious belief she was a Presbyterian. She was born in Columbia county, Wisconsin, her parents being pioneers of that region from New York state. They had twelve children, of whom the following are now living, Daniel, B. Webb, Hiram, Oscar, Luzerne, Emmeline, Lucinda and Sarah. On the 17th day of August, 1901, Mr. Rust was married to Miss Jennie Cook who was born and reared in Columbia county, Wisconsin, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Dooly) Cook. To this union one son, William, was born. He is now filling the position of clerk in the First National Bank of Glidden.

Mr. and Mrs. Rust are members of the Presbyterian church. He belongs to Haggai Lodge, No. 269, A.F. & A.M., and was master of the lodge for several terms, being now its secretary. He is also a member of Philo Lodge, No. 291, I.O.O.F. Politically he is a progressive republican and has taken an active interest in public affairs, having served as mayor of Glidden, and also for twenty-five years as member of the school board. He and his family occupy a comfortable home of which he is the owner in Glidden and he is also the owner of a quarter section of land in Aitkin county, Minnesota. Industrious, enterprising and thoroughly efficient in whatever he undertakes, his labors have been crowned with merited success and he ranks as one of the most useful of Carroll’s citizens—a man who is ever governed by a true sense of honor and whose record reflects undimmed credit upon himself and his adopted county.

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