NORTHWESTERN IOWA
ITS HISTORY
AND TRADITIONS
VOLUME II
1804-1926
P
C. E. PALMER
Charles E. Palmer, who as president of the Palmer
Fruit Company was a widely known business man of Sioux City and
enjoyed an extensive acquaintance in jobbing circles throughout the
state, had been a resident here for a period of forty-five years
when he passed away at his home at No. 1807 Grandview avenue on the
11th of August, 1924, at the age of fifty-six. He was born in St.
Joseph, Michigan, in 1868, being the eldest son of Edward Cook and
Louise T. (Lightbody) Palmer, both of whom are deceased. The
father, who was elected mayor of Sioux City in 1890, figured
prominently in business circles in the early days, establishing a
wholesale grocery enterprise under the name of E. C. Palmer &
Company in 1879. Three years later, in 1882, the firm extended the
scope of its operations, becoming commission merchants and wholesale
dealers in fruits.
The following biography of Edward C. Palmer, father
of Charles E. Palmer of this review, appeared in a history of
Woodbury and Plymouth counties which was published in 1890: "Edward
Cook Palmer was born in Gloversville, New York, April 25, 1844. His
parents, Edward and Melinda (Devereux) Palmer, were natives of New
York state, of English and French lineage, respectively. Sylvanus
Palmer, father of Edward Palmer and the grandfather of Edward C.
Palmer, was early left an orphan. He became a preacher in the
German Reformed church and did missionary work almost all his life
among the Indians about Rochester and Buffalo. When he first
visited these settlements they contained only six white families
each. He continued to ride and preach with the aid of an
interpreter until eighty-seven years old and died at the age of
eighty-eight years. He was widely known and beloved and his funeral
procession was over a mile long. He mastered eight languages,
including several Indian tongues. His wife was as member of the Van
Rensselaer family and they reared eleven sons. The last of these
sons, the father of Edward Cook Palmer, was still living in
Clarissa, Todd county, Minnesota, at the age of eighty years in
1890. In 1847 he removed from New York to Janesville, Wisconsin,
where his wife died in 1854.
"Edward C. Palmer, in 1863, entered the store of his
uncle, Andrew Palmer, to learn the drug business and continued with
his uncle for some fifteen years. In 1878 he came to Sioux City and
bought the wholesale grocery business of H. D. Booge & Company,
which he sold after conducting for nine years to The Tollerton &
Stetson Company. He then became the head of the firm of
Palmer-Willey & Company, wholesale dealers in dry goods. Mr. Palmer
built and was the chief owner of the Sioux City and Nebraska pontoon
bridges. He was president of the Citizens Bank of South Sioux City
and director of the Commercial National Bank of Sioux City. He was
heavily interested in several subdivisions of Sioux City and South
Sioux City and was a large landowner in Nebraska, Dakota and Iowa.
In 1890 he grew over seventeen hundred acres of crops in the last
named state. In 1885 he was the democratic candidate for congress
from the eleventh district and was elected mayor of Sioux City in
1890, being the first democrat elected to that office on a partisan
ticket. Mr. Palmer was a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the
Protestant Episcopal church, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and
the Hawkeye Club. In 1867 he married Miss Louise T. Lightbody, an
English lady, who died in 1883, leaving two sons, Charles E. and
William B. Mr. Palmer was again married in 1885, this time to Mrs.
Kate C. Elliott. They had one daughter, Ethel E."
Charles E. Palmer, whose name introduces this
article, was a lad of eleven years when in 1879 he came to Sioux
City, Iowa, where he continued to reside to the time of his death.
He was a graduate of the Sioux City high school and for a number of
years attended Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. As early as
1885, when a youth of but seventeen years, he became associated with
his father in business as an active member of the firm of E. C.
Palmer & Company, commission merchants and fruit dealers. From that
time until his death, with the exception of a few years spent in
college, he remained an active factor in the business circles of his
adopted city. From 1885 until 1889 the firm of E. C. Palmer &
Company was conducted by E. C. Palmer and Charles E. Palmer,
commission merchants and dealers in grocery specialties. In 1890
the name of the enterprise was changed to Martin & Palmer (wholesale
fruits), the proprietors of the business being George Martin and
William B. Palmer, brother of Charles E. Palmer. Two years later,
in 1892, the firm became Palmer & Company, a whole sale fruit
concern owned by Edward C. Palmer and his sons, Charles E. and
William B. Palmer. Succeeding his father in 1893 as senior member
of the partnership firm of Palmer & Company, Charles E. Palmer
continued the business together with his brother, William B. Palmer,
for twenty-one years, engaging in the wholesale fruit and candy
manufacturing business. In 1914, on account of the growth of both
departments of the business, Palmer & Company was incorporated into
Palmer Fruit Company and Palmer Candy Company. Charles E. Palmer
was president of the Palmer Fruit Company and also continued as vice
president of the Palmer Candy Company until January, 1923. His
brother, William B. Palmer, occupied the vice presidency of the
Palmer Fruit Company and the presidency of the Palmer Candy Company.
In January, 1923, on account of failing health, Charles E. Palmer
sold out his interest in the candy firm to his brother, William B.
Palmer. Besides being active in business circles Charles E. Palmer,
who was a familiar figure in the Sioux City trade territory, was
identified with the Masonic fraternity as a member of the local
Tyrian lodge and belonged to the County Club and the Sioux City Boat
Club.
In 1906, at Harrisonburg, Virginia, Mr. Palmer was
united in marriage to Miss Mary Vance Clary. Besides his widow, he
is survived by three daughters and one son, namely: Virginia, Mary,
Mildred and Charles V. The last named is a student at Princeton
University. Following her graduation from the Westlake School for
Girls in Los Angeles, California, Virginia Palmer attended Hollins
College for Young Women at Hollins, Virginia. She subsequently
began studying under the direction of the A. Y. Cornell Studio of
Music in New York city and on the 2d of November, 1926, left for
Europe in company with her mother to finish her musical education in
England and France, where she will spend a year. Mary Palmer is
preparing for Vassar College and will tutor in Florence while
abroad. Her study of music is devoted to the harp.
Mrs. Mary Vance (Clary) Palmer, the mother of this
talented family, is a graduate of the Peabody College for Teachers
in Nashville, Tennessee, and is not only possessed of social graces
and accomplishments but is an exceptionally able business woman.
She manifests a helpful interest in the various club and social
activities of Sioux City, and as trustee of her husband's estate she
handles all investments and business transactions pertaining
thereto. She has been conspicuous in Red Cross work as chairman of
the organization committee when it was founded in Sioux City and as
purchasing agent for the organization during the period of the World
war. Mrs. Palmer is serving on the city planning commission of
Sioux City, having the distinction of being the only woman member of
that board. Her name is on the membership rolls of the Women's
Club, the American Association of University Women, the Strollers,
the Portfolio Club and the Golf and Bridge Club. She is also
chairman of the Women's Golf and Bridge Club, which is a part of the
Sioux City Country Club, and she belongs to St. Thomas Episcopal
church and is a member of St. Margaret's Guild and of the Altar
Guild. Mrs. Palmer is widely known as one of the prominent, capable
and cultured women of Sioux City, where the circle of her friends is
constantly expanding.
G. L. PAULSEN
One of the best known and most popular citizens of
Dickinson county, Iowa, is George L. Paulsen, who is now serving his
second term as sheriff of that county. His official career has been
characterized by faithful and conscientious attention to the duties
of his office, while his private life has been such as to gain for
him the respect and good will of his fellow citizens to an eminent
degree. Mr. Paulsen was born in Scott county, Iowa, on the 18th of
September, 1870, and is a son of John F. and Achristine (Paulsone)
Paulsen, who, though of the same family name, were not related.
Both were natives of Germany, whence they came to the United State
in early life, he in 1865 and she in the following year. They had
been sweethearts in the old country and on coming to the new world
they both settled in Davenport, Iowa, where they were married
shortly after her arrival there. They then went to Wolcott, Scott
county, Iowa, where the father engaged in teaming for a time but
later turned his attention to farming, which vocation he followed
during the remainder of his active life. The mother died in 1890
and the father on Thanksgiving day, 1921, at the age of eighty-one
years.
George L. Paulsen was educated in the public schools
at Walnut, Iowa, and then learned the butchering business. He
opened a meat market at Manning, Iowa, which he conducted for a
number of years, or until 1900, when he began traveling for the
International Harvester Company, which he represented throughout the
state of Iowa for about six years. Later he engaged in farming in
Dickinson county, following that occupation until 1922, when he was
elected county sheriff. As an evidence of his personal popularity
throughout this county it is worthy of note that, though he ran on
the democratic ticket and though the vote is normally four to one
republican, he was elected by a majority of fourteen votes. In 1923
he was reelected to that office by a handsome majority and is the
present incumbent of the position.
In 1898 Mr. Paulsen was united in marriage to Miss
Christiana Becker, of Manning, Iowa, and they became the parents of
two children, a daughter who died infancy, and Herbert B., who took
his preparatory course of two years in Iowa State University, and is
now a student in the medical school of Creighton University, at
Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. Paulsen is an earnest member of the Lutheran
church, to which he gives generous support. He is a man of fine
social qualities, easily makes friends, and is true and loyal in all
the relations of life. He is a most competent official and the
prestige which he enjoys among the voters of Dickinson county is
well merited.
H. G. PIERCE
Howard Gilpin Pierce, senior member of the firm of
Pierce & Gamet, has been successfully engaged in the conduct of a
livestock commission business in Sioux City during the past third of
a century. His birth occurred at Ercildoun, Pennsylvania, on the
31st of December, 1859, his parents being Caleb and Susan
(Darlington) Pierce, both of whom were natives of Chester county,
Pennsylvania, and were representatives of the Quaker faith. For a
considerable period the father was connected with public service and
was a most patriotic and public-spirited citizen. During the period
of the Civil war he served for two terms as a member of the
Pennsylvania legislature, taking part in the settlement of many
momentous questions which came up during that time. In the latter
years of his life he was superintendent of the capitol grounds and
buildings at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, occupying that position to
the time of his death, which occurred in 1882.
Howard G. Pierce was educated according to the
religious faith of his ancestors, attending the Friends school in
Philadelphia until graduated with the class of 1877. He then
entered the employ of john B. Ellison & Son, jobbers of cloth and
trimmings in Philadelphia - a business that was established in 1823
and still exists. He remained with the firm for about twelve years,
gradually working his way upward, his energy, ability and
trustworthiness winning him advancement from time to time. In the
spring of 1888, however, he left the east, hoping to find still
better business opportunities in the middle west. Arriving in Sioux
City, Iowa he determined to continue his residence there and through
the succeeding year was engaged in the real estate business. He
then became a paying teller in the Union Stock Yards Bank and so
remained until 1893, when the institution failed and he turned his
attention to the live-stock commission business, in which he has
since engaged. Success had attended his efforts in this direction
and he is now senior member of Pierce & Gamet, which is one of the
leading firms in this line in the city. Prior to the 7th of May,
1923, on which date he formed his present connection, he was a
member of the Fitzsimmons, Pierce & Frick Live Stock Commission
Company. He is thoroughly acquainted with every phase of the
business, keeps in close touch with market values and by reason of
his careful management has won substantial success for himself and
his firm. He is also a director of the Conservative Life Insurance
Company.
On the 18th of September, 1890, in Sioux City, Mr.
Pierce was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ely Weare, a daughter of
George Weare, one of Sioux City's pioneer bankers and business men.
Mr. and Mrs. Pierce became the parents of two sons and a daughter,
as follows: Howard Gilpin, Jr., who passed away in October, 1918;
Susanna Weare, the wife of Richard Adrain Zwemer, who was secretary
and traffic manager of the Sioux City Live Stock Exchange and is now
associated with the law firm of Huff & Cook, of Chicago, Illinois;
and George A. Richard A. and Susanna Weare (Pierce) Zwemer have one
son, Howard Adrain Zwemer.
Howard G. Pierce and his wife hold membership in St.
Thomas Episcopal church, of which the former has been junior warden
for many years. They take an active interest in church work and are
generous in their contributions to its support. In politics Mr.
Pierce is a republican and he is identified with various fraternal
and social organizations. He belongs to Tyrian Lodge, No. 508, A.
F. & A. M., of which he is a past master; To Sioux City Chapter, R.
A. M., of which he is a past high priest; Zadok Council, R. & S. M.,
of which he is a past thrice illustrious master; Columbian
Commandery, N. 18, K. T., of which he is a past commander, Abu-Bekr
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of which he has been illustrious
potentate, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a
member of the T. S. Parvin Consistory, Sioux City. Mr. Pierce is at
present a director of the Masonic Building Company, which has built
and furnished the Abu-Bekr Temple at a cost of five hundred and
fifty thousand dollars since he became a member of the board. He is
likewise identified with the benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, and that he possesses the qualities of leadership - ability,
fairness and initiative - is indicated in the fact that he is
honored with office in almost every organization with which he
becomes connected. He is a charter member and past president of the
Sioux City Boat Club, is a member of the Sioux City Country Club,
the Knife and Fork Club, and is a past director of the Chamber of
Commerce. A contemporary biographer said of him: "He is at all
times public-spirited and progressive in his citizenship and, while
conducting a prosperous and growing business, has always found time
to cooperate in measures which are of essential value to city and
state."
F. M. PELLETIER
To the careers and activities of such men as Frank
M. Pelletier is Sioux City indebted for its present high standing
among the cities of the middle west, for he has contributed in a
large way to its material prosperity and its financial standing.
Beginning life here is a modest way, he gradually forged ahead and
in the course of time became one of the leading business men of his
community, a position which he has held for many years, so that
today few in this city command to as great a degree as he the
respect and admiration of the people. Frank M. Pelletier was born
in St. Anne, Kankakee county, Illinois, on the 11th of December,
1864, and is a son of Abram and Helen (Martin) Pelletier, the former
a native of Rouse's Point, New York, and the latter of Three Rivers,
Quebec, Canada. They were married in 1848 in St. Anne to which
place the mother had been taken when a child of four years. Abram
Pelletier was a farmer by occupation and his son Frank was reared
amid rural surroundings. He received his education in the public
schools of his home town but left school at the age of thirteen
years to enter a dry goods store as errand boy. A year later he
went to Chicago and secured a position in Marshall Field's store,
remaining there a year, when, desiring to fit himself for a business
career, he entered Byant & Stratton's Business College, at the same
time securing a position as night clerk in a business concern which
paid his board and incidental expenses. He graduated from the
business school in 1879 and then secured a position with the Chicago
branch of the A. T. Stewart Company, of New York. James H. Walker,
who later organized the Burke-Walker wholesale dry goods firm, took
over the Stewart business there and Mr. Pelletier remained in the
credit department of the Burke-Walker Company for three years. In
1882 he started for Huron, South Dakota, but on reaching Sioux City
was so impressed with the town that he decided to locate here. He
bought a grocery store, which he conducted from October to the
following June, when, deciding that he was not adapted to that line
of business, he sold the store and went to work for the T. S. Martin
Dry Goods Company, with which he remained about six months, when he
resigned and entered the employ of C. G. Culver & Company, the
founders of the business of which he is now the head. Some three
years later he acquired a working partnership in the firm and in
1894, after the death of Mr. Culver and the liquidation of the firm,
it was succeeded by the Parsons-Pelletier Company. In 1896 the
Parsons brothers withdrew and Mr. Pelletier, in association with
John Claflin, of the H. B. Claflin Company, New York city, formed
the Pelletier Dry Goods Company, of which he became president. In
1904 the store was entirely destroyed by fire and, Mr. Claflin
withdrawing from the firm, Mr. Pelletier founded the present
Pelletier Company, which has since handled the business. The
Pelletier store has thus served Sioux City and contiguous territory
for forty-five years, excepting the interruption at the time of the
fire. From a small dry goods store, the business through the years
has grown in scope and volume, until today it is one of the largest
department stores in the state of Iowa. Over four hundred and fifty
people are employed in the store, which contains practically every
line of merchandise, each department being a store within a store,
the home furnishing department alone covering sixty-one thousand
feet of floor space. The Pelletier Company covers a trade territory
that would do justice to many wholesale houses. They receive mail
orders almost daily from as far west as the Black Hills, while to
the south they go fifty miles, north one hundred and fifty miles and
east one hundred miles. Besides Mr. Pelletier, who is president,
the other officers are, W. J. Hayward, vice president, and H. F.
Norris, secretary and treasurer. In 1915 Mr. Pelletier was asked by
a New York city bank to go to Topeka, Kansas, and look over the
store of the Mills Dry Goods Company, of which the bank was a heavy
creditor. This firm had but recently erected a new and modern store
building, seven stories high and one hundred by one hundred and
fifty feet in size, being one of the group of modern structures
comprising the Capitol section. Mr. Pelletier made favorable report
on the business and the bank was willing to continue but Mr. Mills
found himself unable to raise necessary funds and Mr. Pelletier was
then asked to take over the business, which he did and has since
continued it under the firm name of The Pelletier Stores Company,
which is operating the best equipped and most modern department
store in the state of Kansas. The addition of the second store has
given Mr. Pelletier stronger buying power in the world's markets,
the company maintaining unusually strong buying connections in New
York and Paris.
Mr. Pelletier is a director and vice-president of
the Iowa Joint Stock Land Bank, is a direction and vice-president of
the Farmers Loan and Trust Company, a director and vice-president of
the Toy National Bank, director of the Terminal Grain Corporation,
and president of the War Eagle Corporation, which owns the War Eagle
building, as well as other valuable real estate holdings.
In 1886 Mr. Pelletier was married to Miss Mary
Oliver, daughter of Judge Addison Oliver, of Onawa, Iowa, and to
this union have been born three daughters, namely: Helen, the wife
of J. B. Walker, who is vice-president an manager of the Pelletier
Stores Company, of Topeka, Kansas; Joanna, who is the wife of H. F.
Norris, secretary and treasurer of the Pelletier Company, of Sioux
City; and Mary Addison, who was graduated in 1924 from Mt. Vernon
Seminary, at Washington, D. C. Fraternally Mr. Pelletier is a
member of Landmarks Lodge, No. 103, Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons; Sioux City Consistory No. 5, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite;
Abu-Bekr Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine; Sioux City Lodge No. 112, Benevolent Protective Order of
Elks, and he also belongs to the Sioux City Country Club, the Sioux
City Boat Club, the Knife and Fork Club and the Morningside Country
Club. He is a director and vice-president of the Bureau of Social
Agencies, which takes care of Sioux City's various charities, and is
an active member of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce and the
Traffic Club. He is a member of the board of trustees of
Morningside College and takes a keen interest in everything
pertaining to the material, civic, religious or moral welfare of the
community. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and has served
on its board of trustees for the past twenty-five years. Always
calm and dignified, never demonstrative, his life has been a
persistent plea for right principles and wholesome character.
Distinctly a man of affairs, he has long filled a conspicuous place
in the public eye, and no man in this community holds a higher place
in the esteem of all who have in any way been associated with him.
H. A. POWERS
One of the most successful and best known physicians
of northwestern Iowa is Dr. Henry A. Powers, who has practiced his
profession in the same office in Emmetsburg, Palo Alto county, for
forty-one years. During this period he has risen in the esteem and
affection of the people of that locality until today no man in the
county stands closer to the hearts of the people than he. Dr.
Powers was born in Dubuque, Iowa, March 15, 1856, and is a son of P.
H. and Catherine (Harrigan) Powers, both of whom were natives of
Ireland. They were reared and married in that land and directly
after their marriage came to America, settling first in Canada, but
shortly afterwards coming to the States. After living in various
places they finally located on a farm in Buchanan county, Iowa. The
father was a cooper by trade and while the boys looked after the
farm he worked at his trade. He had charge of the cooper shops in
Waterloo, Iowa, during the Civil war, and continued to work at his
trade until near the close of his life.
Henry A. Powers was reared on the home farm and
attended the district school, later graduating from the Jessup high
school. He taught school in the winter months for four years and
later was employed in the State Insane Hospital at Independence.
While there he took up the study of medicine and in the fall of
1879 entered the medical school of the Iowa State University, where
he graduated in 1882, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. That
same year he engaged in the practice of medicine at Emmetsburg and
has remained here continuously to the present time, a period of
forty-four years. He possesses to a marked degree the happy faculty
of inspiring confidence on the part of his patients and in the sick
room his genial presence and his conscious ability to cope
successfully with disease have contributed much to the enviable
standing which he has long enjoyed. He is also a director of the
Farmers Trust & Savings Bank.
Dr. Powers has been married twice, first, in 1885,
to Miss Anna Roberts, of Emmetsburg, to which union were born two
children, namely, Catherine Mildred, who is the wife of W. S.
Buckhart, a produce merchant at La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Henry
Roberts, physician and surgeon, who is associated with his father
and who is referred to in a personal sketch on other pages of this
work. The mother of these children died in 1895 and in 1898 Dr.
Powers was married to Miss Sarah Catherine Lamborn, of Jackson
county, Iowa, to which union has been born a son, Harold Wayne, who
is now a student in the medical school of Iowa State University.
Dr. Powers is a member of Earnest Lodge, No. 399, A. F. & A. M.;
and he and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star.
The Doctor was made a Mason in 1878. He is a member of the Palo
Alto County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the
American Medical Association. Keenly awake to the welfare of his
community, he has always cooperated with his fellow citizens in all
efforts to advance the prosperity of the locality and to secure
better moral and social conditions. Because of his long and useful
career and his splendid personal character, he is deserving of the
high place which he holds throughout his community.
H. R. POWERS
Among the younger members of the medical profession
in northwestern Iowa who are rapidly gaining distinction because of
ability and success, none takes precedence over Dr. H. Roberts
Powers, of Emmetsburg, who is receiving marked recognition because
of his remarkable skill in surgery, in which branch of the healing
art he specializes. Doctor Powers is a native of Emmetsburg, born
on the 15th of October, 1892, and is a son of Dr. Henry A. Powers,
who has long ranked as one of the leading physicians of this section
of the state.
Pursuing his early education in the public schools
of Emmetsburg and graduating from high school in 1910, Dr. H.
Roberts Powers then entered Iowa State University, where he was
graduated, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1915, He next
matriculated in Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he was
graduated with the class of 1919. His university work was completed
the previous year, but Rush required a year of intern work before
issuing a diploma. Doctor Powers then went to the General Hospital
and Medical College, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served eighteen
months. On January 1, 1920, he began the practice of his profession
at Emmetsburg, in association with his father, but in 1922 he went
to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took two years of post-graduate
work in surgery in the Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine,
where he was awarded the degree of Master of Medical Science of
Surgery. In 1924 he returned home and again took up his practice,
giving his attention almost wholly to surgical work, while his
father gives his attention to internal medicine. The Doctor has
already distinguished himself as a surgeon, having successfully
performed a number of extremely difficult and dangerous operations,
and by older members of the profession here is held in very high
regard. He is a member of Ernest Lodge, No. 299, A. F. & A. M., and
throughout the range of his acquaintance is held in the highest
measure of confidence and esteem, both for his professional success
and for his worth as a man and citizen.
L. W. POWERS
One of the best known men of Crawford county is Leon
Walter Powers, an able and successful attorney at Denison, who
during a residence of twelve years in this county had risen steadily
in the esteem and confidence of the people and is today regarded as
one of the representative men of this section. Mr. Powers is a
native son of Iowa, having been born near Fort Dodge, Webster
county, on the 12th of June, 1888, his parents being Walter and
Catherine (McIntyre) Powers. The father, a native of Maine, came to
Webster county in 1852 with his parents, who engaged in farming,
which pursuit he also followed during his active life. He became a
man of prominence and influence in his locality, held a number of
township offices and was township trustee for forty years. The
mother was a native of Wisconsin, from which state she came with her
family to Iowa, settling in Spencer. Walter Powers was a member of
the famous Northern Border Brigade, which took part in the historic
Spirit Lake Indian massacre. His death occurred December 19, 1923,
and he is survived by his widow, who still lives in Fort Dodge.
They became parents of three children: May, who resides in
Chicago; Aileen, of Fort Dodge; and Leon Walter.
The last named attended the district schools of his
native county and Tobin College, at Fort Dodge, where he was
graduated in 1908. He then pursued the classical course at Iowa
State University, where he was graduated, with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, in 1912, after which he entered the law school of
the University of Chicago, where he received the degree of Doctor of
Jurisprudence in 1914. Immediately upon being admitted to the bar,
Mr. Powers engaged in the practice of his profession in Chicago,
where he remained about six months and in October, 1914, came to
Denison, Iowa, and entered the office of J. P. Conner, with whom he
later formed a law partnership under the name of Conner & Powers,
which soon became recognized as one of the strong and able legal
firms of the local bar, building up a large and representative
clientele. This association was ended by the death of Mr. Conner in
1924, since which time Mr. Powers has been alone in practice. As a
lawyer he evinces a familiarity with legal principles and a ready
perception of facts, with the ability to apply the one to the other,
which has won him the reputation of a sound and safe practitioner.
Years of conscientious work have brought not only increase of
practice and reputation, but also that growth in legal knowledge and
that wide and accurate judgment the possession of which constitutes
marked excellence in the profession. He is attorney for the First
National Bank and the Crawford County State Bank, both at Denison.
In 1916, in Denison, Mr. Powers was united in
marriage to Miss Blainid Marie Lally, daughter of the late P. C.
Lally, a prominent attorney and member of one of Denison's old
families. Mr. and Mrs. Powers have three children, Mary Catherine,
Genevieve and James Perry. Mr. Powers has been a lifelong supporter
of the democratic party, and takes an active interest in politics,
being a member of the state central committee from the tenth
district. He was honored by election to the state legislature,
representing his district in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth
sessions of the general assembly. He was a delegate to the
democratic national convention held in New York in 1924. During the
World war he took a leading part in local war activities, being
county chairman of the Four-minute speakers during the Liberty loan
and Red Cross drives, and was a member of the county legal advisory
board. He is a communicant of the Roman Catholic church and belongs
to the Knights of Columbus and the Denison Kiwanis Club. He
maintains professional affiliation with the Crawford County Bar
Association, the Iowa State Bar Association. Socially, he is a
member of the Denison Golf and Country Club. Eminently public
spirited, he has at all times evinced a commendable desire to
cooperate in all movements for the advancement of the county along
material, civic or moral lines and has been an important factor in
the public life of the community. In manner genial and friendly, he
is deservedly popular among his acquaintances.