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p. 395 JOHN JOSEPH FLEMING was active in
the banking affairs of the City of Burlington for over half a
century. He was a man distinguished by his interests and
associations throughout Iowa. Mr. Fleming was born at
Donaldsonville, Louisiana, March 19, 1851, son of Michael and
Virgette (Maher) Fleming. His father was born in County Cork,
and his mother in County Kilkenny, Ireland, and they were
married in New Orleans. At Donaldsonville Michael Fleming
conducted a stave and barrel factory. In 1859 he moved his
family to Burlington, Iowa, where for ten years he was in the
grocery business. He also served several years as judge of the
Municipal Court. He died in 1890 and his wife in 1888.
John Joseph Fleming was eight years old when the family
came to Burlington. He was educated in parochial and public
schools, attended Notre Dame University in Indiana, and his
first business experience was as chief clerk in the
treasurer's office of the Burlington & Missouri River
Railroad. He also acted as paymaster. About 1875 this road was
merged with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and Mr. Fleming
soon afterwards left its service to become bookkeeper in the
National State Bank. He was with that institution
consecutively for twenty-six years, becoming assistant cashier
and cashier. In 1901 he left the bank to take up his duties as
executor for the estate of Charles W. Rand and trustee for
Carrie A. Rand. He continued active in the management of the
properties of this estate for many years. In 1908 he became
vice president of the Burlington Savings Bank, after five
years was made president and from 1924 was chairman of the
board of directors. He was also a member of the firm Fleming &
Riling, insurance and real estate, a business that has been in
operation since 1910.
Mr. Fleming was president of the board of trustees of the
Burlington Free Public Library. He was a member of the
Burlington Golf Club and Burlington Rotary Club and was a
Democrat. He was one of the prominent laymen of the Catholic
Church in Iowa. He was a member of St. Paul's Church at
Burlington, and chairman of the board of auditors of the
Catholic Extension Society of America. For three years he was
a state deputy of the Iowa Knights of Columbus, was chairman
of the State Education Committee, a member of the Catholic
Club of New York City, and the American-Irish Historical
Association of New York.
Mr. Fleming married, in May, 1884, Mary Bracken, who was
born in Pennsylvania, daughter of Patrick and Esther Marie
(Braden) Bracken, her father a native of Ireland and her
mother of Pennsylvania. The oldest of the children, born to
Mr. and Mrs. Fleming is Esther Marie, now the wife of Harding
Polk, of Washington, D.C., a graduate of the West Point
Military Academy, who holds the rank of major of cavalry. Mr.
Fleming's oldest son Philip Bracken graduated from the United
States Military Academy at West Point, is now a major of
engineers and a senior instructor in engineering and graduate
manager of athletics at West Point. The daughter Agnes married
Wendell G. Van Anken, who is manager of the United States Farm
Colony at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Elizabeth Pollard Fleming
married Wilford M. Blunt, a graduate of West Point Military
Academy, a major of cavalry, with home at Baltimore, Maryland.
The youngest daughter, Mary Braden, is the wife of Henry W.
Chittendon, Jr. connected with Oliver J. Anderson & Company, a
brokerage house at St. Louis, Missouri. John Joseph Fleming,
Jr., is a graduate of Cornell University, and is a civil
engineer, connected with one of the large public utility
companies at Philadelphia. |
