Iowa History Project
Harlan, Edgar Rubey.
A Narrative History of the People of Iowa.
Vol III. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1931
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.