Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 491
JAMES G. CAVE

What a wonderful training school the farm is. Even a cursory review of the biographies of the men who have exerted the widest and most beneficent influence upon the destinies of this nation convinces the student of such forms of research that a great majority of these men have secured their basic training in youthful days spent close to the soil, taking from beneficent nature, right at her fountain sources, the lessons most useful in the creation of a character fitted for the best constructive work in the business of the world.

This fact has been demonstrated so uniformly as to be accepted without cavil and it almost has come to be regarded as a truism that the "boys from the farm" are the men who later are called on to exercise the controlling and decisive voice in the conduct of affairs in the cities and towns of the nation. There are several notable examples of this sort to be found in Harrison county, not the least conspicuous of which is found in the career of the gentleman whose name forms the caption of this interesting biographical sketch.

James G. CAVE, who occupies the important and responsible position of cashier of the Persia Savings Bank of Persia, Harrison county, Iowa, was born on a farm in Union township, this county, January 6, 1874, the son of James C. and Jane (CLARK) CAVE, being the second in order of birth of the five children born to this union. Mr. CAVE's father was a native of England, where he was born in the year 1847. Believing better opportunities offered themselves to the energy and initiative of mankind in America, the senior CAVE left England in 1870 and came to this country, locating in Harrison county, Iowa. He engaged in farming in both Union and Washington townships and remained on the farm the remainder of his life, his death occurring in April, 1914. His widow, who also was born in England, is now living in Persia, Iowa.

To James C. and Jane (CLARK) CAVE five children were born, in order of birth as follows: Infant (deceased); James G., of whom this biographical sketch treats in further detail below; Beatrice, wife of W. A. SMITH, who resides in Yoder, Colorado; Augustus F., a prosperous and progressive farmer of Washington township, Harrison county, Iowa; Victoria, wife of Peter LARSON, who resides at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

James G. CAVE was reared on the paternal acres in Washington township, Harrison county, and received in his early youth such education as the district schools of the township afforded. The course of instruction here followed, he later supplemented with a course in the Woodbine Normal School, following which he took a course at Highland Park School, preparatory to entering the ranks of the public school teaching force. Thus equipped, Mr. CAVE, in 1894, began teaching, his first work in this line being performed in the district schools of Boyer township. For nine years he continued as a teacher, his important duties in that direction being ever performed with thoroughness and attention to the basic educational needs of the youth who thus came under his charge. In this relation Mr. CAVE established many friendships with his pupils in this county, who, in earnest recognition of the service rendered by him in the school room, maintain toward him a feeling of enduring regard and sincere esteem.

Upon leaving the schoolmaster's desk, Mr. CAVE entered the bank of Persia and in 1904 was made assistant cashier of that institution. In 1910 the Persia Savings Bank was organized and Mr. CAVE was made cashier, he being the director and one of the chief stockholders. In addition to his activities in the bank, Mr. CAVE gives much attention to his large farming interests. He owns a highly-cultivated farm of five hundred acres in Washington and Union townships, besides an attractive modern home in Persia.

In 1912 Mr. CAVE was united in marriage with Grace PATTERSON, who was born in 1889, daughter of A. C. PATTERSON, a well-known and prosperous retired farmer of Harrison county, who now resides in Magnolia. One child, a daughter, Grace Verdene, has come to bless this union and Mr. and Mrs. CAVE are supremely happy in the delightful home they have established in Persia. In the social activities of the town they take their proper part and no couple in this part of the state is any more popular, and deservedly so, than they. In the business affairs of Persia, Mr. CAVE ever is found taking his proper part in promoting the best interests of the community and he is very properly recognized as one of the most forceful and aggressive units in the upbuilding of this section of Iowa. He is a member of the Masonic order, his affiliation being with the lodge of Persia, in whose affairs he takes an active interest. Though deeply interested in civic affairs, Mr. CAVE, politically, is not a partisan of the extreme type, believing that the voter of an independent mind often is able to wield a larger and more beneficent influence upon the public weal, in which belief he is yearly being supported more and more by many of the most thoughtful elements of the life of the nation.

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