CHARLES E. READ

Charles E. Read, for eighteen years engaged in the lumber business in Clarence, during which period his straightforward and honorable methods and earnest effort to please his patrons have secured for him the good-will and high regard of the general public, is a native of Erie county, Pennsylvania. His birth occurred December 7, 1856, his father being George C. Read, who was born in the Keystone state in 1827. His youthful days were there passed, and having arrived at years of maturity he chose Adaline S. Yost, also a native of Pennsylvania, as a companion and helpmate for life’s journey. For several years after his marriage Mr. Read followed farming in Sharon township, Clinton county. It was an improved tract of land which he continued to cultivate until 1889. In the meantime—in 1887—he had lost his wife and two years later removed to Crawford, Nebraska. There he engaged in the furniture business for twelve years, after which he sold out and returned to Ida Grove, Iowa, where he made his home with his daughter until called to his final rest on the 21st of December, 1909. There were only two sons and a daughter in his family, the brother of Charles E. Read being E. B. Read, a farmer living near Sedalia in Pettis county, Missouri. The sister, Fidelia, is the wife of E. C. Mill, a business man of Ida Grove, Iowa.

Charles E. Read was reared to manhood in Clinton county and after acquiring his early education in the common schools attended a commercial college at Davenport. Through the periods of vacation he gave his father the benefit of his services upon the home farm and after attaining his majority purchased a farm in Clinton county, Iowa. That he might have a home of his own and a companion for life’s journey he was married in Clinton county on the 19th of November, 1879, to Miss G. A. Deming, who was born in Cedar county, Iowa, and is a daughter of T. C. Deming, one of the early settlers from Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Read began their domestic life upon a farm in Clinton county but remained there only one year. Later they removed to Nebraska and he engaged in the lumber business at Crawford for about a year and a half. On the expiration of that period he sold out and came to Clarence, where he has since made his home.

In 1891 Mr. Read was called to mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 19th of October of that year and was laid to rest in Smithtown, Clinton county. There were two children by that marriage: George D., who is engaged in the furniture business with his uncle at Ida Grove, Iowa; and Maud, now deceased. In April, 1894, Mr. Reed married Miss Ida Elizabeth Dexter, who was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and was a daughter of J. J. Dexter, also a native of the Keystone state, where his youthful days were passed. He was educated at North Platte Seminary, Pennsylvania, and for a number of years was a teacher there. In the Keystone state he wedded Elizabeth J. Thornton. Removing to Iowa in 1868, they settled in Cedar county and for a number of years Mr. Dexter carried on general agricultural pursuits. Subsequently he removed to Clarence, where he was engaged in the lumber business for a number of years, or until he retired from active life in 1901. His first wife died in 1887. They were the parents of three children: Emma, deceased; Mrs. C. E. Read; and Kathryn. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dexter were active and devoted members of the Methodist church. In 1902 Mr. Dexter married Mrs. Sarah Flansburg, whose death occurred in Berne, New York, September 6, 1910, just a week prior to the death of her husband, who passed away September 12, 1910. They were visiting friends in the Empire state when called in death by apoplexy. Mr. Dexter gave his political allegiance to the republican party and manifested a progressive spirit in citizenship and loyalty to every cause which he espoused. Mrs. Read was a young girl when she came with her parents to Iowa and here her girlhood days were passed, her early education being supplemented by study in Cornell College at Mount Vernon. Prior to her marriage she engaged in teaching. Mr. and Mrs. Read have two sons, twins, Maurice Dexter and Norris Edwin, born September 15, 1899. They also lost a son, Niel Dexter, who died at the age of seventeen months.

Mr. Read has resided in Clarence continuously since 1891, in which year he purchased an interest in the lumber business with which he was connected until November, 1908. He built up an extensive trade in that line and his well directed labors were crowned with gratifying prosperity. Moreover, he contributed to the substantial progress and development of Clarence in other ways. He aided in the organization of the First National Bank, became one of its stockholders and was chosen its first vice president. He not only owns a nice residence in the town but also a farm of two hundred and forty acres in Hall township, Jones county; a farm of two hundred and fifteen acres near Clarence; and another tract of one hundred and sixty acres west of the town. The three farms are well improved properties from which he derives a substantial income. He owns altogether six hundred and fifty acres of valuable land in Iowa, together with twenty-one hundred acres in Texas, mostly timber land near Fort Worth. He started out in life a poor boy; he is today one of the substantial citizens of Cedar county. His success has its root in close application, earnest purpose and unfaltering diligence.

Mr. Read proudly cast his first vote in support of republican principles and has been a lifelong advocate of the party. He has served as a delegate to county conventions but has never sought nor desired office as a reward for party fealty. He and his wife are active and faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church and do all in their power to promote the growth and advance the interests of the church work in its various departments. They have spent several winters in the south. Mr. Read’s success enables them now to enjoy the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. In business he has improved every legitimate opportunity and as the years have gone by has gained a place not only among the prosperous residents of Cedar county but also among the progressive and public-spirited citizens who enjoy the honor and respect of all who know them.