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.