Hon.
Frank Davis Bayless. Among those who have been
residents of Clayton County since the close of the Civil
War, there is perhaps no one who has wielded a greater
influence in its business and political affairs, or has
achieved greater success in business pursuits, than has
the subject of this sketch. He was born in Pendleton,
Madison County, Ind., October 9, 1840, and with his
widowed mother, a younger brother and two younger sisters
came to Iowa in 1853, settling near Postville. There he
was a student in the common school, and commencing at the
early age of fourteen years, he displayed his aptitude
for business as a clerk in general stores in Postville
and Monona.
In 1855 Mr. Bayless emigrated with the family to Dodge
County, Minn., where he assisted in opening and operating
a farm. In the fall of 1856 he returned to Indiana and
for nearly two years devoted his attention closely to
study in the high school. In 1858 he again went to
Minnesota, and his time until the breaking out of the war
was occupied in farming, teaching school and studying
medicine. Patriotic in spirit and in response to duty, he
promptly enlisted in 1861 in the Second Minnesota
Infantry, and marched to Kentucky to assist in putting
down rebellion and preserving the integrity of the Union.
He served with credit in the Kentucky and Tennessee
campaigns, but his health being impaired, he was
honorably discharged and returned to Minnesota, where he
was happily married in February, 1863, to Miss Harriet
Dresser.
His health being re-established, Mr. Bayless could not
remain at home in peaceful pursuits while his comrades
were braving the dangers of the battlefield, and the
following winter he re-enlisted in the Third Minnesota
Infantry. Until March, 1864, he was engaged in the
recruiting service, and with over two hundred recruits,
joined his regiment in Arkansas early in April of the
same year. Soon afterward his knowledge of medicine and
drugs caused his assignment to the medical department,
where he served faithfully until the close of the war,
receiving his final discharge September 21, 1865.
During the winter of 1865-66, Mr. Bayless was employed as
clerk in a drug store at Manterville, Minn., and in May,
1866, removed with his family to Iowa, settling in
Elkader, Clayton County, where he bought an established
drug business, and where he has since made his home. With
the necessary push and activity of a thorough business
man, he soon enjoyed a large and lucrative business, and
in time established branch stores at several points. A
feature of these ventures is the fact that all his
business partners were young men who had served a long
apprenticeship in the home store, and we may add, that
all have been faithful and successful, and are rated of
high credit in the commercial reports.
Although he has sold some of his business property, Mr.
Bayless continues the senior member of three drug firms,
and is also the owner of bank stocks, business and
residence buildings for rental in Elkader, and much
property outside, and altogether is recognized as a
thououghly successful business man. While his prosperity
is largely due to his own unaided exertions, yet he
attributes much of his success to the advice and counsel
of his loyal and good mother, who died at the old home in
Minnesota in 1878. Four sons have been born of his
marriage, of whom the two eldest are enterprising
business men of Waukon, Allamakee County, Iowa, and the
two youngest are at the Elkader home.
In his youth an Abolitionist opposed to slavery, Mr.
Bayless joined the Republican party upon its
organization, and continued to support its candidates and
measures until 1872. He then allied himslef with the
Democratic party, in which he has since been a leader and
a tireless worker. For twelve or more years he was
Chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, and
was noted as a thorough organizer and successful leader.
Being a business man, he refused for years to accept a
nomination for a political office, but in 1883 he was
prevailed upon to accept a nomination for State Senator,
and being elected and re-elected four years later, he
held the position for a period of eight years.
In the Iowa Senate the record made by Mr. Bayless was
that of a statesman of more than ordinary ability. His
career was characterized by such close attention to
business that he soon gained a large influence, and
during his incumbency he was the author and champion of,
or assisted in passing, some of the most salutary laws on
the Iowa statutes. He was a close attendant to committee
work, and for several sessions (though a Democrat and his
party in the minority) his worth was recognized by his
being made Chairman of important committees. He was a
member of the Elkader School Board continuously from 1870
until 1894, a period of twenty-four years, during all of
which time he was zealous in educational work and the
improvement of our schools. As a member of the Town
Council and of the Committee on Streets and Alleys, he
has contributed to the permanent improvement of Elkader.
His culture and genial manners have won for him many
friends among the people of the state of Iowa.
~source: Portrait
and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton
Counties; Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1894; pg 361-362
-transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall
|
