NORTHWESTERN IOWA

ITS HISTORY AND TRADITIONS

VOLUME II

1804-1926

G's

W. F. Gilchrist

On of the most important and valuable scientific attainments of the present century was the discovery of an effectual means of combating that dread animal scourge, the hog cholera, through the ravages of which the farmers of the United States lost millions of dollars, and in years like those of 1913-14 the loss was so great as to be almost incalculable.  The Sioux City Serum Company is now the largest manufacturers of anti-hog cholera serum and hog cholera virus in the world and the business is now numbered among the prosperous and substantial enterprises of this city.  In 1912 C. I. Peters came to Sioux City from Kansas City, Missouri, with a view of establishing an anti-hog cholera serum plant here, and became acquainted with William F. Gilchrist, who agreed to join him in the venture.  They founded the Sioux City Serum Company as a partnership concern, and in October, 1913, the business was incorporated, with Mr. Peters as president, and Mr. Gilchrist vice-president and treasurer.  In 1913, the business was incorporated, with Mr. Peters as president, and Mr. Gilchrist, vice-president and treasurer.  In 1913 Sylvester F. Cusack, of Kansas City, Missouri, came to Sioux City and became connected with the company.  In 1915 Mr. Gilchrist and Mr. Cusack acquired Mr. Peters' interest in the business, and in the readjustment which followed, Mr. Gilchrist was made president of the company, and Mr. Cusack was made vice-president and manager.  The Sioux City Serum Company manufactures anti-hog cholera serum and hog cholera virus and are jobbers of a complete line of veterinary biologic and other specialties.  The Spring Valley Farm Company, owner of four hundred acres of land abut eight miles from Sioux City, is a subsidiary corporation, the farm being operated by the company for the purpose of growing and fattening hogs to be used for the production of anti-hog cholera serum.  They always have on feed and pasture at this farm from three to five thousand head of hogs.  During the great cholera scourge of 1913-14, the worst in the history of the country, the company bought many thousands of pigs, which they treated and placed on their farm, and after the cholera had practically depopulated the country of hogs, they were in a position to restock hundreds of farms in the middle western country, a service of inestimable value to the farmers.

William F. Gilchrist, president of the Sioux City Serum Company, was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on the 9th of April, 1878, and is a son of Richard and Mary Ellen (Hanna) Gilchrist, the former a native of New York, while the mother was born in Illinois.  They were married in the latter state and settled in Monmouth, where they resided until 1887, when they moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where Mr. Gilchrist became one of the early livestock commission men, with which business he remained identified to the time of his death.

William F. Gilchrist attended the public schools, graduating from high school in Omaha, after which he took a course in a business college.  He then went to work for his father in the livestock commission business and in 1900 he accepted a position with Armour & Company as hog buyer in the Omaha yards.  In 1904 he was transferred to Sioux City as hog buyer for that company,  with which he continued until July, 1919, when he resigned in order to be able to give his entire time and attention to the serum business, which had grown to large proportions.  He has since given his undivided attention to it, the splendid growth of the business being in a large measure due to his indefatigable and well directed efforts.

On September 19, 1904, Mr. Gilchrist was united in marriage to Miss Lulu J. Kelly, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they are the parents of a daughter, Jocelyn Ann who is now attending school at Brownell Hall, in Omaha.  Mr. Gilchrist is a member of Sioux City Lodge, No. 112, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and also belongs to the Sioux City Country Club, the Sioux City Boat Club and the Chamber of Commerce.  He and his family are members of the First Congregational church.  He is a broad-minded, public spirited man, of sterling integrity and fine address, and enjoys the unbounded esteem of all who know him.

C. W. Goltz

Among the younger members of the Woodbury county bar who have achieved marked success in the practice of law, specific mention should be made of Carlos W. Goltz, who maintains his offices in the Davidson building.  He was born in Taylorsville, Kentucky, on the 28th day of January, 1894, and is a son of Alexander C. and Katherine (Wakefield) Goltz.  His father was a native of Russia, though of German parentage.  In May, 1875, at the age of fourteen years, he came to the United States with a young cousin, L. C. Mittlesladt, and located in Stillwater, Minnesota, after being in Sioux City and Yankton, Dakota Territory, a short time.  His uncles, Louis E. and Gus A. Torinus, had come to this country some time in the '50s and had established a lumber business in Minnesota, founding the St. Croix Lumber Company, with headquarters at Stillwater.  They owned a number of mills and extensive timber interests, with a string of yards through Minnesota, Iowa and Dakota Territory.  Louis E. Torinus became a multimillionaire and was an intimate friend of James J. Hill, Weyerhaeuser and other men of prominence and influence in the western business world.  On his arrival here, Alexander C. Goltz went to work for the St. Croix Lumber Company, first in the yards, but later in the mills at Stillwater.  Subsequently he spent several years in the woods, so that he became intimately familiar with every phase of the lumber business.  Coming out of the woods, he again entered the mills but was afterwards made manager of the yards.  His people in Russia possessed property and in the latter part of the '80s he inherited from relatives some money.  With this, he engaged in the lumber business in Beaver Creek, Minnesota, later removing to Spencer and Salem in Dakota Territory.  He became one of the founders of the town of Laurel, Nebraska, owning eighty acres on which a part of the town was built.  In 1918 he founded the State Bank of Lauel, but later sold his banking interests and is now living retired.  He was also the founder of the First Bank of Spencer, Dakota Territory, which is still in operation.  While on a timber cruising trip through Kentucky, Mr. Goltz met Miss Katherine Wakefield, who was a granddaughter of Matthew Washington Wakefield, whose parents came to the United States prior to the Revolutionary war, settling in Pennsylvania.  Later they moved to Kentucky, then part of Virginia, and the great-grandfather of Katherine Wakefield was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.  His son, Matthew Washington Wakefield, was a veteran of the War of 1812, and the latter's son, Matthew Washington Wakefield, Jr., grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born on a plantation near Wakefield (so named for his father), in Kentucky, in 1822.  Six or seven generations of the Wakefield family have lived in Kentucky.

Carlos W. Goltz attended the public schools and then entered the Chattanooga College of Law, where he was graduated, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, in 1917, and was admitted to the bar the same year.  He then came to South Dakota, and entered the law school of the University of South Dakota, where he received the same degree in 1918 and was admitted to the bar of that state and of Nebraska.  He engaged in the practice of law at Laurel, Nebraska, one year, and in 1919 moved to Sioux City and was admitted to practice in the Iowa state and federal courts, and has since been actively engaged in practice here.  In 1920 he was the candidate of the democratic party for district judge, but was defeated by Judge C. C. Hamilton.  In 1922 he was appointed judge of the police court, serving one term of two years.

Mr. Goltz has been twice married, first, in 1914, at Crown Point, Indiana, to Miss Marie Gilmore, of Sioux City, to which union was born a daughter, Helen Marie.  In 1923 Mr. Goltz was married to Miss Grace Nordenson, of Sioux  City, and they are the parents of a daughter, Carol Christine.  Mr. Goltz is member of the Delta Theta Phi law fraternity and of the Theta Nu Epsilon society.  He belongs to Sioux City Lodge, No. 112, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and Woodbury Lodge, No. 98, Knights of Pythias.  He is a member of the Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters, the Isaac Walton League of America, the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, the International Penal Institute for the Study of Crime, the Woodbury County Bar Association, the Iowa State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and International Law Association.  Mr. Goltz in his practice of law in Sioux City has won and retains the respect and good will of all who know him.

G. A. Gorder

George A. Gorder, a product of the west, is a successful lawyer and one of the highly respected members of the Sioux City bar, with which he has been identified for a period of ten years.  He was born July 24, 1888, in Deadwood, South Dakota, and his father, Carl O. Gorder, was a native of Norway.  He came to the United States when a youth of seventeen and lived for a time in Minnesota, filling the position of clerk in a mercantile establishment.  He went from that state to South Dakota and for many years was engaged in the fire insurance business at Deadwood, where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away May 2, 1925, at the age of fifty-eight years.  He had married Anna M. Johnson, who was born in the city of Chicago and survives her husband.

Mr. Gorder attended the public schools of his native city and Woodworth Academy in Denver, Colorado.  He entered the employ of the government and became acting forest supervisor of the Black Hills national forest of South Dakota and later of the Battlement Mesa national forest of Colorado.  In the meantime he read law during his leisure hours and in 1913 came to Sioux City, Iowa, to continue his studies.  He was admitted to the bar on October 7, 1915, and has since practiced in this city except during the legislative session of 1916-17, when he was employed in a professional capacity in the governor's office at Des Moines.  Mr. Gorder was assistant city attorney of Sioux City in 1918 and 1921, while during 1919 he acted as assistant county attorney.  He is a strong and able lawyer, well qualified to handle important litigation, and his clientele has steadily increased as he has had opportunity to demonstrate his legal acumen.

On October 14, 1912, Mr. Gorder was united in marriage to Miss Esther Sarah Larson and they now have three daughters:  Helen, whose birth occurred on September 11, 1913; Mildred, who was born October 27, 1916; and Elizabeth, born February 17, 1919.  Mr. Gorder is influential in local political circles and has served as secretary of the republican organization of Woodbury county, acting in that capacity from 1922 until 1924 inclusive.  He is state reporter for the Knights of Pythias lodge and is also connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  He belongs to the Riverside Boat Club and is a Presbyterian in religious faith.  Mr. Gorder is a young man of studious nature and natural talent and acquired ability have brought him rapidly to the fore in his profession.