Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 719
EDWIN A. DRAKE

As a member of the firm of NOBLE, DRAKE & Company, Edwin A. DRAKE has been identified with the business interests of Modale, Harrison county, Iowa, since 1904. Previous to this time he had been engaged in carpentering and contracting and in the hardware business in Bee, Nebraska. Since coming to Harrison county, he has become recognized as one of the leading business men of Modale and in all respects has merited the high esteem in which he is held by those who know him.

Edwin A. DRAKE, the son of Thomas J. and Mary (RINEHART) DRAKE was born May 31, 1876, in Green county, Iowa. His parents were natives of Ohio and Illinois, respectively, who located in Iowa about 1872, settling in Green county, where they lived until 1879, in which year they again moved west, settling in Seward county, Nebraska. They reared a family of six children, of whom Edwin A. was the second born.

The education of Edwin A. DRAKE was received in the schools of Seward county, Nebraska, he having been about three years old when his parents moved to that state. He received a high-school education and later spent one term in York College, in Nebraska. After leaving college he became a carpenter and contractor, and during the five years in which he was engaged in that business he was very successful. Seeing an opportunity to engage in business, he bought a partnership in a hardware store at Bee, Seward county, Nebraska, and remained there three years. He then disposed of his interest to his partner, E. G. BATCHELDER, and came to Modale, Harrison county, Iowa. Upon coming to this county in 1904 he was first employed as a salesman for C. MYERS, but two years later the firm changed hands and he then bought an interest in the store, the firm now being known as NOBLE, DRAKE & Company. As manager of the store he well may be classed as one of Modale's foremost business men, since in the management of the store he has manifested those qualities which are characteristic of the successful business man.

Mr. DRAKE is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Modale and of the chapter at Missouri Valley. While he is a stanch Democrat he has never cared to take an active part in political life. Mr. DRAKE is unmarried.

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