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A Narrative History of The People of Iowa
with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES
IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931
ALBERT MARCHANT, who is manager of the Iowa Canning Company's branch at Storm Lake, is a master hand in the canning industry, which has been the chief line of his business experience since boyhood.
Mr. Marchant, who has the distinction of being mayor of the City of Storm Lake, was born in Benton County, Iowa, April 16, 1882. His father, Joel B. Marchant, was born in Illinois, of French ancestry, the original spelling of the name being Marchand. Joel Marchant came to Iowa when a young man, and was a farmer in this state. Though very young, he served out a period of enlistment in the Civil war as a private in Company G of the Second Iowa Infantry. he died in Benton County in 1917, when seventy years of age. Joel Marchant married Nany Arnold, a native of Illinois, who died in 1889, at the age of forty-two.
Albert Marchant grew up on a farm, attended public schools at Garrison, and it was with the Garrison Canning Company that he received his first training in the canning business. He started as a laborer and was given increasing responsibilities until he reached the post of assistant superintendent of the plant. The Garrison Canning Company subsequently became a unit of the Iowa Canning Company.
Mr. Marchant left there in 1908 and for about a year was connected with the cannery at Dysart, Iowa, and in 1909 moved to Storm Lake to become manager of the Storm Lake branch of the Sac City Canning Company. he was also elected vice president of the company. In July, 1929, the Sac City Canning Company was merged with the Iowa Canning company. Mr. Marchant remains as manager of the Storm Lake plant.
He has been a public spirited citizen, willing to do his part in community matters and for two terms, 1911-1915, was a member of the city council. He is now in his second term as mayor, the term ending in March, 1931. He has also been a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce and vice president of the Rotary Club.
Mr. Marchant is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a Republican and a Methodist. he married Miss Ella May Graves, a native of Iowa, daughter of E. A. and Elizabeth Graves, of Garrison, Iowa. Mrs. Graves died on November 27, 1913, and Mr. Graves died January 30, 1918. One of the principal accomplishments during Mayor Marchant's administration is the cleaning of the lake of blue-green algae. Another important item is the installation of an electrolier system or white way along Lake Avenue.A Narrative History of The People of Iowa
with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC.
by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M.
Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931WILLIAM H. MARTIN is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Bettendorf Manufacturing Company. This is one of the big industries located in the Davenport district, the plant being at 2527 State Street in Bettendorf, Iowa. This company has to been in existence as long as some of the older manufacturing concerns of the district, but it has done much to extend the fame of Davenport as a manufacturing center. Mr. Martin was born at Davenport, October 5, 1882, son of Charles Dyer and Johannan (Grace) Martin. Both parents are deceased. His father was also born at Davenport, while his mother was born in Louisville, Kentucky. The grandparents on both sides come from Ireland. William H. Martin attended parochial schools at Davenport, St. Ambrose College and graduated A. B. from St. Mary's College at St. Mary's, Kansas. For several years he was connected with the Red Jacket Pump Company, but in 1910 became one of the founders of the Bettendorf Manufacturing Company. He was associated with his father and with Charles Schick in organizing the business. He has had charge of the sales and business management. The vice president of the company is Mr. J. W. Bettendorf and the president, J. Reed Lane. The manufactured products of the Bettendorf Manufacturing Company are Davenport oil engines, Schick baling presses, Midland cigar lighters and Bettendorf oil burners. The oil machines manufactured are powerful implements, which have met every test of engineering and practical efficiency and are used not only all over the United States but in many foreign countries. They have proved especially adaptable as auxiliary engines for propelling ships in the fishing fleet on the New England coast. Perhaps the largest part of the business of the company is the manufacture of the power baling presses originated and patented by Mr. Schick and known as the Schick balers. the general line of Schick power balers are extensively used by business houses, manufacturing establishments and other plants for the baling of waste paper and many lines of bulky manufactured goods and raw materials, including hay and straw, clothing, scrap metal. The present plant of the Bettendorf Manufacturing Company was erected in 1916. Mr. Martin was married, February 6th, 1929, to Miss Irene Johnson, of Davenport. He is a member of the Davenport Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club and B. P. O. Elks.
JOHN F. MERRY was born in Summit County, Ohio, March 24, 1844. He came to Iowa with his parents in an emigrant wagon in 1856, his father locating on a farm in Delaware County. The son secured an education in the public schools and became a teacher. In 1880 he entered the service of the Illinois Central Railway Company as excursion agent, making himself so useful that he was soon promoted to general western passenger agent, and finally to assistant general passenger agent of the entire system.
Captain Merry served in the Civil War, as a private first in the Twenty-first Infantry. He afterwards recruited and was elected a lieutenant in Company F, of the Forty-sixth Regiment. He was on the staff of General Fairchild in the Grand Army of the Republic, and was the originator of the law converting the battle-field of Vicksburg into a National Park. Captain Merry was a member of the Iowa Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition Commission.
He has given special attention to the agricultural and commercial development of the country traversed by the Illinois Central Railroad system and has published several works of interest among which are "Where to Locate New Factories," "The Southern Homeseeker's Guide." and the "Industrial Outlook for New Orleans."
Captain Merry has held the following important positions: assistant general passenger agent of the Illinois Central Railway Company, secretary and assistant treasurer of the Dunlieth & Dubuque Bridge Company, secretary and assistant treasurer of the Fort Dodge & Omaha Railroad Company. He is a prominent Republican, serving as delegate to the Republican National Convention at St. Louis in 1896.JOHN MEYER was born in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, February 26, 1824. He was a graduate of Oberlin College and for two years was an instructor in the institution. In April, 1857, he located at Newton, Iowa, which became his permanent home. In August, 1862, he was commissioned captain in Company K, Twenty-eight Iowa Volunteers, serving three years in the Union Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was engaged in the battles of Champion's Hill, siege of Vicksburg, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. Mr. Meyer had served in the House of Representatives of the Ninth General Assembly, both in the regular and extra sessions, and after the close of the war in the fall of 1865 was elected to the Senate, serving in the Eleventh and Twelfth General Assemblies. In 1877 he was again elected to the Senate, serving through the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies. For many years he was trustee of Iowa College at Grinnell. He died on the 14th of May, 1902.
JAMES C. MILLIMAN was born in Saratoga County, New York, January 28, 1847, and was educated in the State University, earning his way from the time he was ten years old. In 1856 he came to Iowa, locating at Missouri Valley. He served eight years as recorder of Harrison County and was one of the founders of the Harrison County Bank in 1876. For many years he was engaged in the abstract, loan and real estate business. He served in the Union Army during the War of the Rebellion until disabled in battle by severe wounds in 1864. In 1893-4 he was the Senior Vice-Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for the Department of Iowa. In 1894 he was a Representative in the Twenty-fifth General Assembly. In 1897 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor on the Republican ticket with L. M. Shaw and in 1899 was reelected, serving four years. He was a member of the Commission of Iowa for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
NOAH W. MILLS was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, on the 21st of June, 1834. He received a liberal education, having graduated at Wabash College. For several months after leaving college he was employed in an engineering corps and later had a position with the Adams Express Company. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. In the fall of 1856 he removed to Iowa, taking up his residence at Des Moines, where he entered into partnership with his brother, F. M. Mills. When the Rebellion began, Noah W. was one of the first to enter the volunteer service and was appointed second lieutenant of Company D, of which M. M. Crocker was the first captain in the Second Iowa Infantry. He received rapid promotion to captain, major, lieutenant-colonel in June, 1862, and upon the wounding of Colonel Baker, succeeded him as colonel of the regiment. On the second day of the Battle of Corinth, while Lieutenant-Colonel Mills was leading a charge he was severely wounded in the foot and a week later he was attacked with lockjaw and died on the 12th of October. Colonel Mills was a man of fine literary attainments and was an accomplished newspaper writer.
WILLIAM O. MITCHELL is a native of Iowa, born in Van Buren County, April 4, 1846. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in Company C, Thirteenth Iowa Volunteers, serving three years. During that time he was eight months a prisoner confined in the Andersonville stockade, Salisbury and Florence prisons, from the last of which he escaped. During his term of service he participated in the Vicksburg campaign and many other engagements. After the close of the war he graduated at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, and began the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1872. He located at Corning in Adams County and in addition to practicing law became largely engaged in farming. He has done probably more than any other one man to call public attention to the famous "Blue Grass Region" of southern Iowa as a stock country. He was in 1891 elected Representative in the House of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly and had the unusual honor of being chosen Speaker the first term of his legislative service. he was reelected to the Twenty-fifth General Assembly, serving as chairman of the committee of ways and means. In 1895 he was elected to the Senate, serving in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies and at the extra session.
SAMUEL A. MOORE, pioneer legislator and soldier, was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, December 16, 1821. He was educated in the log cabins of Dearborn and Bartholomew counties, and at eight years of age became an apprentice in a printing office where he remained four years. He then worked ten years on a farm, taught school and finally published a paper named the Spirit of the West, at Columbus. In 1853 he removed to Davis County, Iowa, and two years later was elected county judge. He enlisted as a private in Company G, Second Iowa Volunteers in 1861, and was soon promoted to second lieutenant and in November became captain of his company. He was in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and in the latter was so severely wounded that it became necessary for him to resign. In 1863 he was commissioned captain of the "Bloomfield Blues" and in 1864 became aid-de-camp to Governor Stone with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He served as lieutenant-colonel in the Forty-fifth Iowa Volunteers (one hundred days' service) in 1864. Colonel Moore had served in the Indiana Legislature before coming to Iowa, and in 1863 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate of Iowa, serving in the Tenth and Eleventh General Assemblies. He was one of the superintendents of the eleventh State census. In 1901 he was elected representative in the Twenty-ninth General Assembly; he has long been one of the prominent members of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association and had delivered many addresses before that body.
WELCOME MOWRY was born in Putnam County, Illinois, April 3, 1842, and was educated in the common schools and Dover Academy. In 1861 he enlisted in Company D, Seventh Kansas Cavalry, and participated in the battles of Corinth, Coffeyville, Tupelo, Iuka, Coldwater, Holly Springs, Oxford and Jackson. Mr. Mowry with four companions was sent to reconnoiter the position of the army of General Price at Abbyville and running into the camp guard, fell back in the darkness. The enemy alarmed at the encounter and ignorant of the size of the forces near at hand, hastily evacuated the town. This is probably the only instance on record where five men stampeded an army. One of Mr. Mowry's commanders has said of him: "He was frequently on duty as scout in hazardous expeditions where his unflinching bravery, quick intelligence and sound judgment were signally displayed. He was an ideal soldier." Mr. Mowry was mustered out in September, 1864, but soon reenlisted in the One Hundred Fifty-first Illinois Infantry, serving until February, 1866, and as sergeant was in command of General Jdea's headquarter guards. In 1867 he removed to Iowa, locating on a farm in Tama County, which became his permanent home where he has held many official positions. In 1883 he was elected Representative in the House if the Twentieth General Assembly, taking an active part in the business of the session. In 1896 he was one of the Republican presidential electors, and in 1898 he was elected Railroad Commissioner.
MYERS, Holland and Delano - photo and brief bio.