HON. WILLIAM S. BAIRD.  In a log house on Broadway in the City of Council Bluffs, them little more than a village, the birth of William S. Bard occurred June 3, 1863, and on that same thoroughfare he has maintained his home during the long intervening years save for a few years passed in Nebraska.  This fact has less of significance, however, than his personal achievement  through which he has conferred honor upon the family name and upon the city and state of his birth.  The father of Senator Baird was one of the pioneer clergymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Iowa, and thus the future Iowa state senator was reared in a home of culture and high ideals, though he depended almost entirely upon his own resources in advancing his education along academic and professional lines and in so ordering his course as to gain success and prestige in the practical affairs of life.  Senator Baird had been engaged in the practice of law in his native city forty years, has served three terms in the Iowa State Senate, and for fully thirty years he has served as vice president and trust officer of the State Savings Bank of Council Bluffs, an institution that began business as the smallest bank in this community and that has now gained secure status as the largest in resources and communal service in Southwestern Iowa.

William S. Baird is a son of Rev. Samuel and Matilda (Hanks) Baird, who were born and reared in Pennsylvania, where their marriage was solemnized.  Rev. Samuel Baird became a Methodist circuit-riding clergyman of the old-school regime, and as such traveled through Virginia, through Pennsylvania and many western states in the pursuing of his mission as a zealous preacher of the Gospel.  He and his wife were thus pursuing a diverse itinerary that had covered a period of nearly twelve years prior to their arrival in Iowa, where Rev. Samuel Baird long continued his zealous and earnest service of Christian consecration and where both he and his wife gained pioneer honors, they having been residents of Council Bluffs at the time of their death, and their arrival in Iowa having occurred in 1862.  Of their two children the subject of this review is the one survivor.

After having been graduated in the Council Bluffs High School William S. Baird continued his studies in Cornell College, at Mount Vernon, this state, until he was there graduated, as a member of the class of 1884 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.  He still has vital interest in Cornell College, his revered alma mater, and is a member of its board of trustees.

As a young man Senator Baird was for several years a cattle rancher among the sand hills of Western Nebraska, and while thus engaged he did not abate his ambitious purpose, as shown by his having devoted his leisure hours to the intensive study of law, the year 1887 having marked his admission to the Nebraska bar, in Wheeler County, where he continued to be engaged in the practice of his profession five years, during two of which he served as county attorney.  At the expiration of the period noted he returned to Iowa, where he was forthwith admitted to the bar of his native state, in 1892, and where he has continued in the active practice of his profession in Council Bluffs during the long intervening years - years that have marked his advancement to a place as one of the representative members of the bar of this section of the Hawkeye State and involved his participation in much of the important litigation of the various courts.  He has long been known as a resourceful trial lawyer and well fortified counselor.  He has given expression to his civic loyalty by communal and political service along varied lines, and has shown abiding interest in all things touching the welfare and progress of his native city.  He has had much of influence and leadership in the civic affairs of Council Bluffs and has been a liberal supporter of organized charities and benevolences.  His association with banking affairs has already been mentioned, and in this field he has become influential likewise, through his long and constructive connection with the State Savings Bank of Council Bluffs.  As a member of the building committee of the Council Bluffs Public Library Senator Baird gained major credit for the raising of about $70,000, as the leading and most active worker in behalf of this important communal institution.  Through his efforts was obtained the appreciable donation from the Carnegie Library Fund, and thus was made possible the erection of the present and beautiful library building in Council Bluffs.

Senator Baird has been a stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party, has been influential in its councils and campaign activities in his native state, and was thrice elected to represent his district in the State Senate.  In the Upper House of the State Legislature he was  given assignment in important committees, and was chairman of the ways and means committee in the sessions of 1927 and 1929.  In the session of 1929 he introduced the banking bill of which he was the sponsor and staunch advocate, and which he ably championed to passage by the  Legislature, this being considered the most consistent and valuable bill ever passed by the Iowa Legislature as touching the matter of banking operations.

Senator Baird has been a close and appreciative student of the history and teachings of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, and has been influential in its various bodies with which he is affiliated. Thus it may be noted that he is a past A. M.; a past high priest of Star Chapter No. 47, R. A. M.; super excellent master of Joppa Council No. 15, R. and S. M.; and a past commander of Ivanhoe Commandery No. 17, Knights Templars, besides which, in the City of Omaha, Shrine.  In a professional way he has membership in the Pottawattamie County Bar Association and the Iowa State Bar Association.

The year 1895 recorded the marriage of Senator Baird to Miss Anna e. Wood, who was born in Harrison County, Iowa, a daughter of John W. Wood, a farmer and banker.  Of the six children of this union three survive.  The eldest is Dr. John W., who is engaged in the practice of dentistry in Council Bluffs; Robert Michael, a graduate of the law department of the University of Iowa, is one of the representative younger members of the bar of Council Bluffs, where he is serving also as assistant trust officer of the State Savings Bank; Donald Patrick, the youngest of the sons, is, in 1930, a student in the University of Iowa.

The second marriage of Senator Baird was solemnized February 3, 1930, when Miss Cecilia B. Mulqueen became his wife.  Mrs. Baird was born and reared in Council Bluffs, Iowa, a daughter of John and Mary (McNerney) Mulqueen, who were born in County Limerick, Ireland, and who have been sterling and honored citizens of Iowa many years.  Mrs. Baird is an earnest communicant of the Catholic Church, is executive head of the Catholic Daughters of Iowa, and is a gracious and popular figure in the representative social and cultural circles of her home city.

Senator Baird has indulged himself in extensive travels, and in 1930 he made his second trip to Europe and the first around the world, he having been accompanied on this tour by his wife and two of his sons, and they having traveled through Europe and the Orient, much of the time with automobile, after their arrival in Alexandria, Egypt.  The alert and receptive mind of Senator Baird has enabled him to gain the maximum values from his travels, and his reminiscences are as instructive as is the information of the Baedeker world-travel guides.

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HON. GEORGE T. BAKER, civil engineer, president of the Iowa State Board of Education, former mayor of Davenport and former state representative of Iowa, is one of the most prominent men of the state, honored alike by his community, his state and his nation.   He was born on a farm in Iowa County, Iowa, July 9, 1857, and educated in the district schools of Iowa, Hall's School for Boys at Ellington, Connecticut, McClain's Academy at Iowa City, Iowa, and the Iowa State University, which latter institution he left after one year, and, going to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, there completed four years of special work in civil engineering, in 1879.

With his graduation from Cornell Mr. Baker entered upon ten years of active railroad construction work, being engineer of location, construction and maintenance on the C. R. I & P., Walbash and Santa Fe Railways, and had charge of the building of the high bridges built across the Mississippi River at Muscatine and Clinton, Iowa.  He was consulting engineer of the high bridge at Winona, Minnesota, and in all of his work displayed ability of a rare order.  From 1893 to 1910 he was engaged  in general construction work on railways, paving, sewerage, water works and heavy building construction.

Always a very staunch Democrat, he has served his party well, and has been honored by it most signally.  Elected to represent his district in the Iowa State Legislature, he served during the Twenty-sixth and a special session, and secured much constructive legislation for Scott County and the state at large.  In 1898 he was elected mayor of Davenport, and during the two years in office he gave great satisfaction to the people of his city.  In 1900 he was sent to the Democratic National Convention as delegate at large.  From the inception of the Davenport Park System, of which the people are justly proud, to the present he has been identified with it as engineer, member and president of the park board.  He has been a member of the Iowa State Board of Education since its organization in 1909, and is now its president.  His business interests are diversified, and embrace lumber and farm interests in the South, and oil lands in Oklahoma.  Instrumental in organizing the Davenport Industrial Commission, he has been its president since 1925.  He is a member of the board of directors of the Davenport Public Museum.

On September 29, 1928, President Coolidge appointed Mr. Baker a member of an emergency board under the terms of the railroad labor act, to investigate and report to him within thirty days regarding the rail dispute among railroads in western territory.  Associated with him on this board were:  James R. Garfield, of Cleveland, Ohio' Walter P. Stacey, chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court; Davis R. Dewey, professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Chester H. Howell, of Berkeley, California, the latter formerly a member of the California Railroad Commission, and now an editor.

The local press in commenting on the appointment of Mr. Baker said in part:

"This is the first time that an emergency board for the settlement of railroad wage disputes has seen appointed by the President.  The recently enacted railway labor act, which supplants the old railway labor act, which supplants the old railway labor commission, provided a permanent Federal board which shall settle all disputes.

"Failing to settle a dispute, however, the Federal board must report to the President, who then may appoint an emergency board.  The law provides that while this board is investigating neither party in the dispute may make any changes in original conditions for thirty days.  This provision has been taken to mean that there can be no strike during that time.

"It is generally believed that appointment of such a board will defer a strike for a least sixty days.  The conductors and trainmen on the roads affected had voted to  strike, subject to the call of the proper offices."

The work of this emergency board is a matter of history, and is especially interesting as being the first efforts made along a new line.

In 1879 Mr. Baker was married to Miss Clara I. Poole, now deceased, who was born in New York, and three children were born to their marriage, namely:  Ethel, who is the wife of L. H. Brandt; Georgie E., who is the wife of R. E. Risley; and Sue, who died in 1919.  Mr. Baker is an Episcopalian.  He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and has always been zealous in behalf of his order.  So long a leader in state politics and development projects, Mr. Baker's scope of usefulness has been broadened, and his future is looked forward to by those who have long recognized his superior abilities and attainments, both as an engineer and citizen.

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HORACE W. BAKER during his many years of residence at Wapello has come in contact with many interests and activities, has been a school teacher, a practicing lawyer, merchant, public official and is at the high tide of his success today.  Mr. Baker is a great-great-grandson of Robert Williams, one of the earliest residents of Louisa County.  This family enjoys the distinction of being perhaps the only one in the state with members of the seventh generation living in Louisa County, where the ancestor Robert Williams, is buried.

Horace W. Baker was born at Wapello, February 2, 1873.  His father, William L. Baker, was born in Greenwich, New York, and was a child when his parents came out to Iowa in 1850 and settled at Wapello.  He grew up there, attended local schools and finished his education in the University of Iowa.  He was one of the capable early-day educators of Iowa,  a profession he followed for a number of years.  He died in 1925 and his wife, Matie I. Jones, a native of Wapello, died in 1878.  Their two children were Horace W. and Mrs. Abbie A. Yakle, the latter now deceased.

Horace W. Baker was educated at Wapello, and graduated from high school at Morning Sun in 1893, having taught two terms of school before finishing high school.  For four years he was superintendent of schools at Winfield, Iowa, remaining there until 1898, when he entered the University of Iowa for the law course.  The LL. B. degree was given him in 1900, and on returning to Wapello he practiced law in association with Arthur Springer until 1905.  Mr. Baker was elected and served five terms, ten years, as county auditor of Louisa County and in 1918 was called upon to take up further work in connection with this office, acting as county examiner for the state auditor's department.  This was his official relationship until 1925, when he resigned to engaged in the business of collector of delinquent taxes and other accounts due the counties.  Mr. Baker has some valuable farming interests, real estate investments, and is one of the owners of the Commercial Hotel at Wapello.  He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Davenport, thirty-second degree, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America and a Republican in politics.

He married Miss Katharine H. Pierce of Winfield, Iowa, March 16, 1897.  They have four children, Kenneth B.; Vern M.; William H. and E. Pierce.  Three of their four children, Kenneth B., William Horace and E. Pierce, are members of the firm H. W. Baker Company, and are engaged in collecting accounts, having had contracts in nearly one-third of the counties of Iowa.  Vern M. is connected with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, now located in New Mexico.

Mrs. Katharine Pierce Baker is a daughter of Lyman Beecher and Lea Ann (Bandy) Pierce, who were early settlers of Des Moines County, Iowa.  Mrs. Pierce came from Indiana with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Bandy, in 1838.  Mrs. Baker represents a long line of educators, both her father and mother having been teachers in Des Moines and Louisa counties and both were students in the Yellow Springs Academy when the Civil war broke out.  Lyman B. Pierce served all through the war as a member of the Second Iowa Cavalry and afterwards he wrote and published a history of his regiment.  Following the war he took his family out to Kansas and for five years was superintendent of schools at Manhattan.  Later he homesteaded a claim in Dickinson County, near Solomon City, Kansas.  In 1876 the Pierce family returned to Iowa again located at Kossuth in Des Moines County.  In 1882 they moved to Winfield, Iowa, where L. B. Pierce was active in civic and church matters.  Mrs. Pierce died June 14, 1918, ad Mr. Pierce on February 20, 1922.  Besides Mrs. Baker their children were:  C. H. Pierce, an engineer with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, living at Winfield; Grace, wife of William Price, a merchant at Winfield; J. Ed., owner and manager of one of the largest tile manufacturing plants in Iowa; and Mrs. Mary Pierce Van Zile, dean of women of the State Agricultural College at Kansas at Manhattan, a position she has held for the past twenty years. 

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AREND BALSTER was born at Scotch Grove, Jones County, Iowa, May 9, 1894, and is regarded as the most conspicuously successful business man in that prosperous little farming community.

Mr. Balster's father, John C. Balster, was also a native of Iowa and was of the substantial farmers of Scotch Grove Township, where he lived until his death in 1914.  He married Gesine Heyen, a native of Germany, who came to Iowa when a girl.  She is still on the old homestead farm.  With her is her oldest daughter, Mary, who during the World war, while her brother Arend was in training camp, took charge of his business at Scotch Grove.  Anna Balster married George Moenk, a farmer in Castle Grove Township, Jones County, Louise is the wife of Edward Stadtmuller, a farmer in Wayne Township.  Hannah married Ernest Heiken, a farmer in Scotch Grove Township.  Robert H. is in the implement business at Monticello.  Louis is deceased.

Mr. Arend Balster made good use of his advantages in the country schools of Iowa.  When he left school, at the age of seventeen, he farmed for two years and at the age of nineteen began his business career at Scotch Grove, handling  farm implements.  He started with one small building and is today owner of a complete establishment, comprising three main buildings, which house stocks of hardware and implements, groceries and dry goods, and also provide quarters for the post office.  Mr. Balster has held the office of postmaster of Scotch Grove for the past ten years.  He also has the wholesale agency for repairs and cutting parts for the Adriance and Moline Grain and Corn Binders and other implements, and ships these parts to all the western states except California.  He is also manager of the Scotch Grove branch of the Eclipse Lumber Company.

In his first year in business Mr. Balster sold goods to the value of about $11,000.  The past year his volume of business has exceeded $110,000.  This is a remarkable showing for a town numbering only sixty-one population and is an evidence of Mr. Balster's enterprise and his reputation for integrity.

On May 10, 1918, during the World war, he was drafted into the Twenty-first Infantry and was sent out to San Diego, California.  He was also in training at the Rockwell Flying Field at North Island near that city, and later was sent to Camp Kearney, where the Sixteenth Division was still in process of formation when the armistice was signed.  He was made a corporal.  He returned home January 9, 1919, and since then has given uninterrupted attention to his business.  Mr. Balster is a member of the Monticello Post of the American Legion and is a Lutheran.  

He married, December 12, 1917, Miss Minnie Hedden, daughter of Henry and Mary (Hausman) Hedden.  Her parents are well-to-do farmers of Scotch Grove Township.  Mr. and Mrs. Balster's only son, Leslie, is attending school at Monticello, Iowa.

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JOSEPH S. BARLEY.  The thriving community of Eldon, Iowa, has its quota of men who have stepped aside from the path of labor to let pass the younger generation with their clear-cut hopes and unrealized ambitions, and to whom life is still a vast and unexplored country.  This turning aside may mean much or little to him whose business tasks are finished, but if he has come from a modest beginning and has an optimistic look on life there will always be those who would exchange with him success, as represented by a mere aggregation  of wealth.  Among the honored and venerated citizens of Eldon now living practically in retirement is Joseph S. Barley, who was for many years engaged in hotel and mercantile enterprises, and who has always been interested in public affairs, at present holding the office of justice of the peace.

Judge Barley was born at Newry, Blair County, Pennsylvania, February 5, 1857, and is a son of Josiah and Eliza Ann (Shannon) Barley.  His father, who was born in Pennsylvania, of a Holland Dutch family, came to Madison County, Iowa, in 1864, and was engaged in building and contracting throughout a long and honorable career.  He married Eliza Ann Shannon, also born in Pennsylvania, originally of a German line, although her father was born in Ireland and her mother in Scotland, and both spent the greater part of their lives in the United States.  To Josiah and Eliza Ann (Shannon) Barley there were born five children:  Samuel M., a resident of Wayne, Nebraska; Joseph S., of this review; Charles C., deceased Milton H., of New York City; and Harry T., of Fairfield, Iowa.

Joseph S. Barley was seven years of age when he accompanied his parents in Madison County, Iowa, where he grew up on his father's farm and attended the district schools.  In his youth he learned carpentry, and for a number of years worked in association with his father in the elder man's contracting and building business, but in February, 1880, took up his residence at Eldon and established himself in a modest mercantile business, which, through industry and good business ability, he developed to important proportions.  He was also for many years prior to his retirement the proprietor of a hotel, and earned a well-merited reputation as a man of high character and straightforward methods.  Always interested in civic affairs, he served his community as city clerk and member of the city council, and for three terms was mayor of Eldon, giving his fellow citizens an excellent and business-like administration.  At present he is acting in the capacity of justice of the peace, and is noted for his impartiality and excellent sense of justice.  With his family he belongs to the Christian Church, in which he is an interested worker, and his fraternal affiliation is with the Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1888, at Eldon, Judge Barley was united in marriage with Miss Lucy E. Hollenbeck, a member of an early Jefferson County (Iowa) family, and to this union there was born one daughter:  Katherine M., who married K. C. Finney, of Eldon, and has two children, Richard W. and Margaret E., both of whom are attending public school.  Mrs. Barley, who died in 1924, at Eldon, was a daughter of William and Catherine (Volgamot) Hollenbeck, of German ancestry.  Integrity and fair dealing have been pillars in Judge Barley's business life, and these same qualities have drawn to him the enduring esteem of a community in which he has lived for a half a century.

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MARION HAMILTON BARNES, the postmaster of Wapello, is one of Iowa's native sons who may be said to have graduated into the world of affairs through the experience of the World war.  He was born at What Cheer, Iowa, February 1, 1897, son of Joseph V. Barnes.  His father was born in Ohio, came to Iowa when a child with his parents and grew up at West Branch, had a common school education and has devoted all his active career to railroading.  He has been railroad agent at a number of places in Iowa and he and his wife now reside at Thornburg.  He is the present mayor of the town and is a member of the Masonic fraternity.  He married Miss Antoinette Sale, of Iowa City, and of their four children two are living, Marion H. and Frances Josephine.

Marion H. Barnes was educated in schools in the different towns where his father was representing the railroads, including Little Rock, West Branch, Columbus Junction, and was graduated from the Wapello High School in 1917.  While in high school he was a member of the football, basketball and track teams, and he also gained his first knowledge of the postal service while still in school, working in the local postoffice on afternoons and Saturdays.  For about a year he was clerk at Wapello for the Rock Island Railroad.

Mr. Barnes in May, 1918,  joined the colors, was in training for a time at Fort Leavenworth and went to France, unattached, in the Fourth Depot Brigade.  He was stationed at Clermontferr and, France, and in May, 1919, returned to America and was discharged at Camp Dodge.

After the war he was again an employee of the Rock Island Railroad at Wapello, until 1924, when he received an appointment as postmaster.  He is now serving his second term in that office, and has given a very prompt and energetic administration of the office.

He is a member of the Iowa and National Postmasters Associations, belongs to the American Legion and for two years was adjutant of his local post.  He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is treasurer of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Wapello.  Mr. Barnes married, November 25, 1919, Miss Ella M. Drake, of Columbus Junction.  They have one son, Joseph M., born July 26, 1920.

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LYDIA MARGARET BARRETTE is librarian of the Mason City Public Library.  This library is an interesting index of cultural interests in this very progressive commercial center of Northern Iowa.

The main library building was erected in 1903, and is a Carnegie library.  The management of the library is entrusted to a board of trustees of five members.  Miss Barrette has a staff of ten assistants.  The library in recent years has made many improvements in its service, with a view to bringing its facilities to the people, and at the present time the registration of borrowers is about forty-two per cent of the population.  Four-teen library stations have been established over the city where books may be borrowed.  The Book Pilot, published by the library staff and the book review department of the Woman's Club, have done some valuable work in improving the quality of community reading.

Miss Barrette was born in Rock Island, Illinois, daughter of George M. and Martha (Wells) Barrette.  Her father was born in Louisiana and died in 1915, and her mother was a native of Vermont and died in 1928.  Her father was a business man.

Miss Barrette, the oldest of three children, attended school at Rock Island, graduated from the Davenport High School in 1900 and in 1903 took the Bachelor of Arts degree in Cornell College of Iowa.  Her first work as librarian was in the Davenport Public Library, where she remained four years.  Following that she was at Jacksonville, Illinois, and in 1921 was called to take charge of the Carnegie Library at Mason City.  Miss Barrette completed her professional training in library work in the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio.  

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OTTO F. BARTZ.  A resident of Sheldon for a quarter of a century, Otto F. Bartz has witnessed and participated in the consistent growth and development of this thriving community of O'Brien County, in which part of the state he has a wide acquaintance as a newspaper man.  At the time of his arrival here, in 1907, he became part owner of the Sheldon Sun, and since 1913 has been the sole proprietor, publisher and editor of this weekly, which he has developed into a journal that wields a strong influence throughout the part of the state in which it circulates.

Mr. Bartz was born at New York City, New York, December 4, 1880, and is a son of August F. and Barbara (Kieleis) Bartz.  His father, a native of Germany, was educated in his native land, where he learned the trade of tailor, and when still a young man immigrated to the United States, seeking broader opportunities, and settled in New York City, where he followed tailoring for some years.  Eventually he was attracted to the West and came to Worth County, Iowa, where he bought a farm near Grafton, but was unable to leave his business to move onto the farm, as he had planned, so he returned to New York City, where he was engaged in the merchant tailoring business until his death, March 31, 1889.  His wife was born December 13, 1845, in Bavaria, Germany, and died January 10, 1911, at Grafton, Worth County, Iowa.

Until he was nine years of age Otto F. Bartz attended the public schools of New York City, and at that time accompanied his mother and sister to Iowa, which state has continued to be his home and the scene of his success.  After attending public school at Northwood he pursued a business course at the Commercial College at Nora Springs, Iowa, and secured his introduction to the printer's trade and the newspaper business on the old Northwood Anchor, with which he was connected until reaching the age of twenty-seven years.  In the meanwhile he had carefully saved his earnings, and in 1907, when he came to Sheldon, he formed a partnership with Bert Hamilton and invested his modest capital in buying the Sheldon Sun, which had been founded about 1895.  Messrs. Hamilton and Bartz continued to publish the paper together until 1913, in which year Mr. Bartz acquired his partner's interest by purchase, and since then has been the sole owner of this weekly paper, which he has built up to important proportions.  The paper is Republican in its political policy, but Mr. Bartz endeavors to give his readers a fair and unbiased view of all public questions, irrespective of party lines or influence.  The paper, which is published each Thursday, is well edited and well printed and contains reliable news of community, state and country, presented in an interesting and readable manner.  Mr. Bartz possesses an easy literary style, and his long newspaper experience not only makes him a good editorial writer but also assists him in getting the real heart of the news.  His editorials are frequently quoted by the Des Moines and other Iowa newspapers.  The plant, located on Third avenue, near Main street, is modern in character and is fully equipped for high-class job printing work.

He votes the Republican ticket, but has never sought public office or political favors, but is an aggressive and progressive citizen of enlightened tendencies and views who knows the value of beneficial civic movements and supports them both personally and through the columns of his newspaper.  He has been actively identified with the Sheldon Commercial Club for many years, serving as its president one year, secretary two years, treasurer five years, and director fourteen years.  In hid religious affiliation Mr. Bartz is a Methodist.  He served as Sunday school superintendent fifteen years; church secretary and treasurer sixteen Years; and member of the church official board over twenty years.  In all of his fifteen years of service as secretary of the Northwest Iowa Laymen's Association he has not missed a single meeting.  In 1920 he was a delegate to the Methodist General Conference, the law-making body of the church, meeting every four years.  This is the highest honor accorded a layman or clergyman in the gift of the church.  This conference was held at Des Moines.  Four years later he was given the privilege of attending the conference at Springfield, Massachusetts, as a first reserve delegate, but was prevented from going.

He is a thirty-second degree Mason and has been through all the chairs of the Blue Lodge, of which he is now secretary of Sheldon, and is also identified with the Order of the Eastern Star.  He was patron of the local chapter for four years and is serving his second term of three years each as a member of the Grand Chapter Printing Committee.

Mr. Bartz married Miss Minnie Warren, a native of Greenleaf, Kansas, and they are the parents of two sons:  Warren, born March 18, 1913, graduated from Sheldon High School in 1930 and is now attending the Sheldon Junior College in the freshman year; Otto, Jr., born April 24, 1916, is in the class of 1934 at Sheldon High School, and was one of six Scouts in the first group to be awarded the Eagle Scout rank in Sheldon.  This is the highest educational rank offered by the Boy Scout Movement.  Mrs. Bartz is interested in the work of the Methodist Church and is a member of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, in which she has numerous friends.

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NEWTON BATTIN, of Bloomfield, at the age of ninety-one was one of the surviving veterans of the Civil war.  He was a member of an Iowa regiment.  For many years he had been one of the highly respected citizens of Davis County.

He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, January 2, 1839, son of Ezra and Julina (Keith) Battin, and grandson of John Battin, who was of old Quaker Pennsylvania ancestry.  In 1856 the Battin family moved to Davis county, Iowa.  Newton Battin grew up on a farm, and in August, 1861, enlisted at Bloomfield in Company E of the Third Iowa Cavalry.  He went all through the war, being commissioned a second lieutenant.  He was a participant in the Wilson raid through Alabama and Georgia, and was in many campaigns and skirmishes, being twice wounded.  He received his honorable discharge at Atlanta, Georgia, and returned home to Iowa, where he engaged in farming until he reached the age of seventy.  Mr. Battin has always shown a disposition to work with others and assume duties and responsibilities in a public way.  For three years he was a member of the county board of supervisors and has held other offices.  During the World war, though nearly eighty years of age, he was made head of the Davis County war organization work.  His chief hobby and recreation in recent years has been gardening.  For many years he has been commander of Elisha B. Townsend Post No. 100 of the Grand Army of the Republic and has also been president of the Third Iowa Cavalry Association.

In December, 1865, he married Matilda E. Modrell, of Davis County.  She died in 1870.  Her daughter June died in 1869.  In February, 1871, Mr. Battin married Harriet Modrell, a sister of his first wife.  She passed away in 1911, at the home in Bloomfield, where he continued to reside.  She was the mother of seven children:  John E., a Davis County farmer, Fred E., of Pierre, South Dakota, who is married and has two daughters, Lala and Blanche; Margaret E., the wife of L. G. Senseney, of Bloomfield; Lenora, a graduate nurse, served as army nurse in France during the World war and is superintendent of a hospital at Monterey Park, California; Jason E., of Davis County, is married and has a daughter, Pauline:  Newton Elmer; and Harriet Ruth, wife of E. F. Bandel of Denver, Colorado, and mother of a daughter, Bernice E.

Since the writing of the above sketch Mr. Battin died, February 19, 1931.

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CHARLES W. BEEBY.  The position by which Charles W. Beeby is best known in the business affairs of Clinton County is that of president of the Charlotte Trust & Savings Bank.  Mr. Beeby has lived in this county all his life, and for forty-five years has been identified with its substantial agricultural interests, both as a practical farmer and stock man.

Mr. Beeby was born in Clinton County February 13, 1864, son of David and Pernina (Reed) Beeby.  His father was a native of Northamptonshire, England, and grew up in that country, coming to America when about thirty years of age.  He married after coming this this county Miss Reed, who was a native of Pennsylvania.  They lived out their lives on a farm near Charlotte, Iowa, the father passing away February 2, 1908, and the mother on February 20, 1900.  They were the parents of a family of five sons and one daughter:  Sylvester, Francis, Harry, John, Charles W. and Alice.

Charles W. Beeby supplemented his advantages in country schools by attending the Dubuque Business College for six months.  His has been a life of working experience from the time he was twelve years of age.  As a boy he picked corn an did other chores on the farms.  In 1885, when he was twenty-one years of age, he located on a farm east of Charlotte, and his home was in the country until 1904, in which year he moved to Charlotte.  From his town home he gave active supervision to his farming and stock feeding interests, and he still owns a 120 acre farm near Charlotte.  Mr. Beeby was made president of the Charlotte Trust & Savings Bank in 1910, but gave only nominal attention to the duties of the office until June 1, 1920, since which date he has been the actual and active head of the institution.

Mr. Beeby has played the role of an interested and public spirited citizen.  For eight years he held the office of mayor.  For eighteen years he was township clerk and gave twenty years to duties as a member of the school board.  He is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.  Mr. Beeby married, February 29, 1892, Miss Louise Denoma, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Denoma.  Her parents came from Canada and settled  on a farm in Clinton County, where they lived all their lives.

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EDWARD F. BEEH is a native Iowan who has become a distinguished surgeon, and in that field his name is held in very high respect in Fort Dodge, and that section of the state.

Doctor Beeh was born at Belle Plaine, Iowa.  October 15, 1888.  His parents, Henry and Frances (Nowotny) Beeh, were also natives of Iowa, and both are living at Belle Plaine.  There is some interesting family history regarding the Beeh and Nowotny families.  Before coming to America these families lived on the border between Germany and Hungary, Doctor Beeh's grandfather, Henry C. Beeh, living about fifteen miles from the Bohemian line, while John Nowotny was a Bohemian about ten miles from the German frontier.  These two men knew each other, in fact, were quite intimate, and they both decided at the same time to come to America.  They made the voyage across the ocean on the same boat.  It was during the 1850's that they settled in Iowa, which was then a raw and new western state.  Henry C. Beeh selected as his location some land in Benton County, while John Nowotny went to Iowa County.  The oldest son of the Beeh family married the oldest daughter of the Nowotny family and later the oldest son of the Nowotny household claimed as a bride the oldest daughter of the Beeh family, and thus the friendship that had started in the old country was cemented by closer family ties.  In Germany and Bohemia neither family had owned a great deal of land or other possessions, and the trip across the ocean required most of the money that they had, so that they started in Iowa as poor as the poorest of the pioneers who came to this side of the Mississippi River in search of new homes and new opportunities.  They were thrifty and industrious, and both families owned large and  well-improved farms before the first generation had passed from the scene of the living.

The father of Doctor Beeh spent all his active life as an Iowa farmer and was enjoying the comforts of retired life in Belle Plaine at the time of his death, November 15, 1929.  He held some township offices, was an independent voter and had no church affiliations, but his wife is a loyal Catholic.  Of their three children two are living, Edward F., and Bernadine, wife of C. F. Feller, a farmer at Victor, Iowa.

Dr. Edward F. Beeh was reared on a farm, learned its routine of work while attending school and in 1908 graduated from the Belle Plaine High School.  From there he entered the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, took his Bachelor of Science degree in 1912, doing his pre-medical work while there, and in 1914 he was graduated with his medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago.  He spent his internship in a hospital in Denver, Colorado, and there came under the direction of the eminent surgeon Dr. Leonard Freeman.  Doctor Beeh in 1917 located at Fort Dodge, and practically all of his time has been taken up with his practice as a surgeon.  He is on the surgical staff of one of Fort Dodge's hospitals.  He is a member of the Webster County, Iowa State and American Medical Associations, the Austin Flint Surgical Society and is a charter member of the International Surgical Assembly.

He spent one year in the war service, being stationed at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later at Camp Lee, Petersburg, Virginia, where he was on the Base Hospital staff.  He gave his professional care to a great many of the returned veterans from overseas.  He was discharged, with the rank of first lieutenant, March 1, 1919.

Doctor Beeh married, in 1919, Miss Ann Barrett.  She was born at Macomb, Illinois, was educated in Illinois schools and colleges and was teaching at Iowa City when she and Doctor Beeh married.  They have one son, Edward F., Jr., born February 15, 1928.  Doctor Beeh is a member of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church of Fort Dodge, is a member of the Knights of Columbus, B. P. O. Elks, Rotary Club of Fort Dodge and in politics votes independently.

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REUBEN H. BEIL, owner of the Beil Studio and Beil Photo Supply House at Clinton, is a native son of that city and is one of its most active and public spirited younger citizens.

He was born in Clinton April 26, 1885, son of Thomas A. and Clara (Stukas) Beil.  His father was a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of Illinois, and the former came to Iowa when a young man.  Reuben H. Beil was educated in the Clinton grade schools.  When he was sixteen years of age he was working as a clerk in a grocery store.  After a year he entered the rug business, which he followed for eight years.

Since then he has been a photographer, and since 1912 the Beil Studio has enjoyed a reputation and a business that ranks it among the leading studios of the Mississippi Valley.  The Beil Photo Supply House is a general retail business well known in the Clinton trade territory.  Mr. Beil's studio is located at the corner of Second street and Second Avenue, South.

He married, July 20, 1909, Hansine Christensen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Christen Christensen.  Her father came from Denmark when a young man and for many years worked as a wagon maker in Clinton.  Mr. and Mrs. Beil have two children, Edna and Mildred.  Mr. Beil is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Woodmen, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Chamber of Commerce and the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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p. 81
    J. HENRY BENDIXEN is vice president and general manager of the Bettendorf Company at Bettendorf, Davenport. He has been closely associated with the founders of the business for a number of years, and since 1906 has held the office of vice president and manager of sales.
    He was born in Germany, June 12, 1870, son of Henry and Martha (Johanssen) Bendixen, who a few months after his birth came to America and settled at Davenport. J. Henry Bendixen was educated in public schools, learned the trade of machinist, and worked at his trade in davenport and Chicago for fourteen years. For four years he had charge of the machine shop of the Illinois Steel Company.
    Mr. Bendixen on returning to Davenport in 1894 was made assistant superintendent of the Bettendorf Axle Company, the world's largest manufacturer of steel railroad car equipment. Mr. Bendixen proved a very able ally of W. P. Bettendorf, the inventor and founder of the business since he was exceptionally well qualified in both mechanical and sales department of his business. In 1906 he became vice president and sales manager and he has continued in the same post since the death of W. P. Bettendorf and the reorganization of the company in 1913. Mr. Bendixen is also vice president of the Bettendorf Improvement Company and a director in the Bettendorf Water Company, Bettendorf Light & Power Company and the Westco-Chippewa Pump Company.
    His brother, Peter Bendixen, is another of the men who have through their mechanical or business genius contributed to the making of the Bettendorf Company, one of the greatest industries of Iowa. Peter Bendixen has been with the company thirty-five years, and successively as machinist, shop foreman, assistant superintendent and since 1917 as general superintendent of the company.
    J. Henry Bendixen is a member of the Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club, the Spring Brook Golf Club, and the Treadway Rod and Gun Club. His brother Peter is a member of the Treadway Club, the Davenport Country Club, is a director of the Davenport Chamber of Commerce and is secretary of the Iowa Manufacturers Association.
    J. Henry Bendixen married in 1894, Johanna Kramp, who was born in Germany. They reared their nephew, Harry Kleeburg. Harry Kleeburg is married and has two children, Johanna Kleeburg and Henry Bendixen Kleeburg.
    Peter Bendixen married Margaret Mumm, a native of Germany. They have two children; Harold Henry, a graduate of Purdue University, now a metallurgist with the Bettendorf Company, and Harriett, who is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

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CLARENCE H. BENSON has given to his native State of Iowa a well ordered and valuable educational institution by establishing in the City of Waterloo, Blackhawk county, the Corn Belt Business College, of which he is the executive head and the facilities and service of which he has brought to high standard.

Mr. Benson was born in Maynard, Fayette County, Iowa, October 6, 1876, and is a representative of an honored family that was founded in that county more than half a century ago.  He is the younger of the two sons and his brother, Arthur C., is a resident of Oelwein.  Mr. Benson is a son of Henry H. and Zulema Benson, the former of whom was born near Rutland, Vermont, in 1840, and the latter of whom was born at Mount Hope, Pike County, Pennsylvania, in 1843, the name of her first husband having been Bingham and one son having been born of that union.

Henry H. Benson was born near Rutland, Vermont, as previously stated, in that locality occurred also the birth of his father, Wesley Benson, the family having been founded in New England in the Colonial period of American history.  In the early '40s Wesley Benson moved with his family to Wisconsin Territory and became a pioneer farmer on Rock Prairie, near Johnstown.  Near the present City of Fort Atkinson, that state, he reclaimed a productive farm from a veritable wilderness, and he continued his residence in the Badger State until 1876, when he came to Fayette County, Iowa.  He had natural talent along mechanical lines and became a skilled artisan, his services having been much in demand in connection with carpentry and in the making of farm implements, wagons, etc., before the time of the establishing of regular factories in Wisconsin.  He was eighty-six years of age at the time of his death, and his wife, whose maiden name was Sophia Chapman, died at the age of sixty-five years, their children having been Henry H., Nellie and Emma.

Henry H. Benson was little more than an infant at the time of the family removal to Wisconsin, and there he was reared under the conditions and influence marking the early pioneer period.  In 1863 he went forth as a loyal young soldier of the Union in the Civil war, he having become a member of  Company A. First Wisconsin Cavalry, and with this command he saw active service at the front, he having taken part in various engagements, including a number of major battles and having been in the vicinity of Savannah, Georgia, at the time of the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee.  His company was then assigned to duty in the pursuing of Jefferson Davis, and was in cooperation with the Michigan command that effected the capture of the fleeing president of the Confederate States.  He soon afterward received his honorable discharge.  While participating in a spirited cavalry raid he had been thrown from his horse, and from the injuries he thus received he never fully recovered, though he lived to attain the age of seventy-six years.  He remained in Wisconsin  until 1876, when he came to Iowa and purchased land near Maynard, Fayette County.  There he continued his successful farm operations several years, and he then retired, the remainder of his life having been passed in that county, where as before noted, he died at the age of seventy-six years, July 22, 1915.  His widow died September 8, 1924.

As a boy Clarence H. Benson attended school in a little schoolhouse of one room, at Maynard, Fayette County, and later he was not only graduated but also took a post-graduate course in the high school at that place.  After teaching for a time in the rural schools he was engaged in business at Oelwein until 1908, when he became the administrative head of a business college in the City of Keokuk, where he was thus engaged until 1912.  He then established a business college at Oelwein, and this he conducted until 1922, when he moved to Waterloo.  In September, 1924, he established his present Corn Belt Business College, which under his progressive management has gained rank as one of the leading institutions of its kind in this section of Iowa.  The college has spacious and well equipped quarters in the Waterloo Building & Loan Block, Fifth and La Fayette, and each successive year has shown an increase in its number of students.

Mr. Benson is a Republican in political adherency, he and his wife are members of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, and he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics.

August 4, 1923, recorded the marriage of Mr. Benson to Miss Edna J. Hill, who was born and reared in Waterloo and who is a daughter of Edward E. and Eva (Reed) Hill.  The one child of Mr. and Mrs. Benson is a winsome daughter, Elaine, born September 13, 1926.

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J. FRED BESCO, the popular and efficient county treasurer of Taylor County, has proved his versatility and resourcefulness in various other lines of endeavor as well, and has so ordered his course as to retain at all times the confidence and good will of his fellow men.  He has been long active and influential in connection with political affairs in Taylor County, and is known and valued as a loyal and public-spirited citizen.

Mr. Besco was born in Wapello County, Iowa, August 28, 1870, and is a son of Joseph E. and Isabelle (Steele) Besco, the former of whom was born near Portsmouth, Ohio, and the latter at Bridgeport, Iowa, where her parents were early settlers.

Joseph E. Besco came to Taylor County, Iowa, from Wapello County, in the spring of 1871.  He ranked among the substantial citizens and farmers of the county many years, and here he and his wife remained until their death.  He was a youth at the time of accompanying his parents to Iowa, in the late '50s, and both he and his father represented this state as gallant soldiers of the Union in the Civil war, he having served during virtually the entire period of conflict and after being captured by the enemy passed ninety days in a Confederate prison at Milen, Georgia.  He was a stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party and was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic.  His father, Henry Besco, who had been in the foundry business at Portsmouth, Ohio, came with his family to Iowa in the later '50s and here passed the remainder of his life, his Civil war service having been with the Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, the old flag of which is now displayed in the rotunda of the state capitol.  Scott Steele, maternal grand-father of the subject of this review, was a native of Scotland and became a pioneer farmer in Iowa, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives.

J. Fred Besco was an infant at the time of the family removal to Taylor County, where he was reared on the home farm and received the advantages of the public schools of the period.  He here continued his active association with farm industry until he was about twenty-five years of age, and he supplemented his education by eighteen months of study in a normal school in Des Moines.  He made a record of five years of successful service as a teacher in the public schools, and in the period of the Spanish-American war he held the position of deputy treasurer of Taylor County during an interval of fourteen months.  By successive elections he held the office of county auditor from 1903 until 1905, and he was engaged in the dry-goods business at Bedford about four years.  He thereafter was employed thirteen years in the Citizens State Bank of this city,  in which he won advancement to the position of assistant cashier.  In 1926 he was elected county treasurer, and the popular estimate placed upon his administration was significantly shown when he was reelected, with no opposing candidate, in November, 1928.  Mr. Besco has long been influential in the Taylor County councils of the Republican party, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church in their home city.   Mrs. Besco, whose maiden name was Lillie Cooper, was born in Texas and reared in West Virginia, and their marriage was solemnized in 1927.

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ALBERT DE BEY has to his credit a long and honorable service record as a physician in the State of Iowa, where he has practiced medicine for over forty-five years in Sioux County.  He is still active in his chosen work, is a hospital owner and a leading citizen of the community of Orange City.

Doctor de Bey was born in Holland, March 25, 1861.  From France his parents his parents, John G. and Angelina (de Youngue) de Bey, immigrated to America in 1869 and settled in Chicago.  Doctor de Bey had attended school in Holland and was a pupil in the public schools of Chicago until he was thirteen.  After that he was earning and making his own way, getting his opportunities by attending school, and in time had carried on his studies sufficiently and had earned the money to enter Rush Medical College of Chicago, where he was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1884.  After three years of practice in New York he returned to the West and in 1887 located at Orange City in Sioux County, where he did the work of a pioneer doctor in the early days and has remained one of the most honored members of his profession in that section of Iowa.  A number of years ago he established and has maintained a well equipped private hospital.  Doctor de Bey has been a leader in advancing the standards of his profession and in promoting public health.  He was Government medical examiner during the World war, was a member of the state board of health and its president in 1909, being appointed by Governor Cummins and serving until 1915.  For twenty years he was commissioner of insanity for Sioux County.  Doctor de Bey is a member of the various medical organizations, is a Republican and a member of the American Reformed Church.

He married in 1882 Miss Anna Elizabeth Van Der Wolf, now deceased.  By that marriage there were two sons, John Gerhardus, born June 17, 1883, who is a graduate in medicine from Des Moines Medical School of Drake University, 1910.  He has since been associated with his father for twenty years in the hospital at Orange City.  He married in June, 1911, Miss Nina Creger, of Des Moines, and they have two children, Albert Lee Gerard and Della Beth.  Cornelius, born April 23, 1885, a graduate of Iowa State University, at Iowa City, and is one of the leading dental surgeons at Denver, Colorado.  He married in September, 1911, Miss Blanche Gibboney, of Lisbon, Iowa, and they have one daughter, Leanore.

Doctor de Bey on September 18, 1890, married Gertrude Johanna Bolks, daughter of Gerrit Bolks, an educator and later a business man, and son of Rev. Seine Bolks, a pioneer minister of the Reformed Church at Orange City, having established the first church of the Dutch Reformed faith in Sioux County, and was founder of Northwestern Classical Academy.  The three children of this marriage are Marcia Angelina, born June 24, 1896, is a graduate of the State University at Iowa City in 1919.  She taught school in Sioux City before her marriage to George W. Dempsey on September 6, 1924.  Mr. Dempsey has been with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company for fourteen years and is now located at Omaha as manager of the exclusive truck tire department.  Albert Bevan, born May 20, 1906, graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1928.  He is now employed by the telephone organization but hopes to enter a medical course later.  Dirk Ian, born February 11, 1910, is now a student at the University of South Dakota at Vermilion, class of 1932.

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JAMES BISGARD, M. D. has been practicing medicine at Harlan in Shelby County for over thirty-five years.  His name is an honored one in medical circles there, and since a son has joined him it is probable that Harlan will have the benefit of the special talents and skill of the Bisgard family for many years to come.

Doctor Bisgard is a native of Denmark, born in the City of Copenhagen, April 5, 1868.  He grew up there, attending common schools and completing a two-year literary course.  He was twenty years of age when he came to America.  Some relatives of the family had come out to Shelby County, Iowa, and their presence here attracted him.  After coming to Iowa he began the study of medicine and in 1894 was graduated from the medical department of the University of Nebraska.  He immediately located in Harlan, and his professional qualifications, his attractive personality and his reputation for earnest and serious work attracted to him a practice which has steadily grown through all the years.  Doctor Bisgard has three times pursued post-graduate courses in Chicago.

Three years ago, when his son returned from his studies in Europe, they established the Bisgard Hospital.  This is an institution that has meant a great deal to the people of Harlan, who are probably proud of having a modern, up-to-date hospital.  It is a ten-bed hospital, and is owned and operated by the Doctors Bisgard.  Doctor Bisgard also owns two farms, comprising over 500 acres, these being operated by tenants on the share basis.  He is a member of the Shelby County, Iowa State and American Medical Associations, is a Republican and a Knight Templar Mason, and he and his family attend the Congregational Church.

Doctor Bisgard married Mary Mortenson, who was born in Shelby County.  They have three children:  J. Dewey, Mrs. L. C. White, of Harlan, and Carl D., who graduated from medical college in 1928 and has received special training in the Columbia Hospital of New York City.  J. Dewey Bisgard graduated from Harvard Medical College in 1922, had two years of training as an interne in the Massachusetts General Hospital and for six months was abroad attending clinics and doing hospital work in Rome, Florence, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris and other centers.  He then returned to Iowa and joined his father in practice and in the management of the hospital.  Dr. Dewey Bisgard married Miss Dowling, daughter of H. P. Dowling, president of the Shelby County Savings Bank.

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GROVER J. BITTNER.  One of the oldest business firms and establishments in the town of Bellevue, Jackson County, is the Bittner Lumber Company, a partnership of which Mr. Louis Bittner is the senior member, with his son Grover J. associated with him for over twenty years.

Mr. Louis Bittner was born at St. Augustine, July 22, 1848, and was seven years of age when his parents came to Iowa in 1855 and settled in Clayton County.  He had the advantages of the country schools there, and remained at home with his father on the farm until he was twenty years of age.  He then began an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, and has to his credit over six years of experience in building work, contracting and as a dealer in building materials.  In 1881 he moved from Clayton County to Bellevue, and carried on his business as a contractor from that point.  Something of his standing  in the community is indicated by the fact that he was awarded the contract for all the principal buildings erected in Bellevue.  He carried on the business alone until 1908, when his son Grover joined him.  The Bittner Lumber Company today handles all classes of building material and supplies.  Mr. Louis Bittner has been a lifelong Democrat.  For three years he was mayor of Bellevue, was a member of the City Council four years, and for the past twenty-eight years has held the office of justice of the peace.

In 1876 he married Miss Mary G. Niemeyer, who was born in Clayton County, Iowa, daughter of Henry G. Niemeyer, who came from Germany.  Mrs. Mary Bittner died in 1915, the mother of seven children, Clara, Arthur, Ella, Grover J., Vinson, Chester and Rhoma.

Mr. Grover J. Bittner was born at Bellevue, August 23, 1885.  He attended the grade and high school, and when sixteen years of age began work for his father and had a thorough training and experience in all branches of general contracting and building.  In 1908 he was made a partner.  The business has steadily grown during the past twenty years.  In 1914 they erected a brick office building, and their own structures and sheds for the housing of materials occupy ground 190 by 120 feet.  

Mr. Grover Bittner is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the St. Joseph Catholic Church, and is a Democrat in politics.  He married, September 29, 1915, Frances Ernst, daughter of Louis and Frances Ernst.  Her parents, now deceased, were well known residents of Bellevue.

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EMMA K. BLAISE.  No history of Iowa and its prominent citizens would be considered at all complete did it not contain a review of the somewhat remarkable career of Mrs. Emma K. Blaise, superintendent of accounts and finances of the City Council of Des Moines.  It is true that in these modern times it is not an uncommon thing to note a woman holding high public office, but Mrs. Blaise's career in municipal and state work stretches back over a period of more than thirty years, during which time she  has been connected in one or another capacity with many governmental departments.

Mrs. Blaise was born near Sigourney, Iowa, on a farm, in 1868, and is a daughter of Charles and Albertina Killmer, the latter a native of Germany.  Her father, a native of Missouri, came to Iowa at an early day and here spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits.  He and his wife, who is also deceased, were faithful members of the Lutheran Church, and the parents of five children, of whom Emma K. was the second in order of birth.

Mrs. Blaise received her education in the public schools of her native community, and since then has taken several correspondence school courses, including shorthand and law, and in addition has prepared herself for her line of reporting conventions.  In this connection it may be stated that she has reported banking, agricultural and other large and important conventions.  In 1889 she was united in marriage with J. Phillip Blaise, who was born on a farm near Sigourney.  He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but did not practice, preferring instead the calling of court reporter, which he followed for many years.  He was a man of excellent abilities and attended the University of Iowa.  Mr. Blaise passed away in December, 1922, leaving one son:  Karl P., of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, now assistant secretary of the Inter-Ocean Reinsurance Company of that city.

Following her marriage Mrs. Blaise joined her husband in a general court reporting business for some years, during which she became acquainted with many of the prominent men of the city and state, and gradually drifted into politics.  The State Board of Control was established in 1898 and Mrs. Blaise was actively connected with the board during its organization period.  Since then she has been continuously engaged in convention reporting, political headquarters service or the incumbent of some state or city position, in all of which she has established a remarkable record for energy, efficiency and judgment.  In 1913 she entered the capitol as pardon clerk, and held that position until 1919, when she was made secretary to the governor, being the first woman to secure such an appointment under the statutes.  She remained in the governor's office during three different administrations, and in January, 1925, was appointed reporter to the Grand Jury.  In November, 1927, she was appointed to the Des Moines City Council as finance commissioner or superintendent of accounts and finances, and was elected to this office in March, 1928, and reelected in March, 1930.  Mrs. Blaise is a staunch Republican in her political views, and since girlhood has been greatly interested in state, city and national affairs.  She  has read extensively and is probably one of the best informed persons in Des Moines on subjects of this nature.

Mrs. Blaise is a member of the Lutheran Church and active in its work.  She is also a member of the Women's Club, the Business and Professional Women's Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Women's Rotary Club.

HON. GERALD O. BLAKE.  In the career of Hon. Gerald O. Blake is proved the fact that the man who is ambitious for success in the law must unreservedly  and unremittingly submit himself to the eternal work demanded  by the most jealous of all mistresses - the law, for he has not only risen to an enviable position in private practice, but now holds that of assistant attorney general of the State of Iowa, a high honor, an done in which he is proving his ability in a marked degree.

The birth of Gerald O. Blake occurred at Hamilton, Iowa, April 8, 1892, and he is a son of James M. and Minnie (Brown) Blake, both of whom were born in Iowa.  The father is deceased but the mother survives and resides at Webster City, Iowa.  A prominent  attorney, he was engaged in the practice of his profession at Webster City for forty years, and for three terms served as county attorney, and at his death was dean of his calling.  Only one child was born to him and his wife.  They attended religious services held by the Universalists, and he was a member of the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Yeomen.  Always a Republican in politics, he was active in his party, and one of its leaders locally.  The paternal grandfather, James Blake, was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, but moved to Michigan, and in 1849 started for California, but stopped in Iowa and was so pleased with conditions here that he abandoned his original intention and remained here, becoming a prosperous farmer.  The maternal grandfather, Sam H. Brown, a native of Michigan, came to Iowa prior to the war between the states, and devoted himself to mercantile pursuits.

Gerald O. Blake attended the public schools of Webster City, Wentworth Military Academy, the University of Missouri and Drake University, and he was admitted to the bar in 1923 and entered upon the practice of law at Des Moines, in which he continued until his appointment as assistant attorney general January 1, 1927.

On May 14, 1925, Mr. Blake married Miss Gertrude Levey, born at Des Moines and educated in its schools, a daughter of Henry Levey, a furniture dealer.  Mr. and Mrs. Blake have no children.  They attend the Episcopal Church, but are not members of it.  He belongs to the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and Phi Delta Kappa Greek letter fraternity.  As he devotes all of his time and attention to the duties of his office, Mr. Blake has found no opportunity for any outside distractions, nor has he desired them, preferring to concentrate on professional work, although there is no doubt but that he would succeed in almost anything he would care to undertake, for he is a man of fine ability, painstaking and thorough, and with a thorough grasp of the realities of life.  It is a fine thing for the state when young men of the caliber and attainments of Mr. Blake can be induced to devote themselves to the work of the attorney general's office.

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JOHN L. BLANCHARD, judge of the Municipal; Court at Council Bluffs, in charge of the civil, criminal and juvenile work, has had a distinguished career both in the law and in the ministry.

He was born at Princeville in Peoria County, Illinois, December 21, 1859, a son of John L. and Esther (Bliss) Blanchard.  His grandfather, William P. Blanchard, was born in Kentucky, in 1796, and moved to Illinois about 1830.  He left Kentucky because of his hatred of slavery, and he was an active abolitionist until the slaves were freed.  He was the son of a North Carolinian, a planter and slave owner who moved to Kentucky.  The Blanchard family is of French Huguenot ancestry.  Judge Blanchard's maternal grandfather, Henry Bliss, was born in Western New York and moved to Illinois in 1835.  He was a minister of the Christian Church.

John L. Blanchard, the father of Judge Blanchard, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, and spent his active life as a farmer in Illinois.  He was a Republican in politics, served as master of his lodge of Masons for twenty-five years, and was interested in religion, although not a member of any church.  His wife was active as a Presbyterian and he attended and supported that denomination.  He and Esther Bliss were married in Illinois.  Both had been married before and each had two children.  One son by the previous marriage, William B. Blanchard, was a soldier in the Civil war.  Esther Bliss was born in Chautauqua County, New York, at Jamestown.  By the second marriage of the parents there were six children, three of whom are now living:  Maria L., of Hansford, California, widow of Allen Wilson; John  L.; and Horace M., a painting and paper contractor at San Jose, California/

Judge John L. Blanchard was educated in Illinois and attended the Union Christian College at Merom, Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash, and after graduating studied law in the offices of James, Jack & Moore at Peoria, Illinois.  In 1882 he removed to Nodaway County in Northwestern Missouri, where he practiced law five years.  He turned from the law to the ministry of the Congregational Church and alternated between the work of the two professions for a number of years.  He completed a four year course in theology, receiving a degree and was also awarded the degree of D. D. by Tabor College of Iowa.  His last pastorate was a Congregational Church in Council Bluffs.  From 1896 for five years he practiced law at Avoca, Iowa, then resumed the work of the ministry.  In 1918 he came to Council Bluffs, and after three years in the ministry resumed law practice in 1921 with W. H. Kilpack for two years.  After that he carried on a practice alone until appointed judge of the Municipal Court, and now gives his entire attention to the duties of this office.  He was elected judge in 1926, and reelected again in 1930 for a four year term.

Judge Blanchard married in 1882 Byrd Battell, who was born in Missouri and was reared and educated in that state.  She died in 1904, and of the three children of their marriage the only one living is Arnold C. Blanchard.  The son's active experience has been chiefly in the field of banking and he is now connected with the Iowa state banking department.  He married in 1905 Nellie M. Thompson, who was born at Rock Rapids, Iowa, and was educated there and in the Teachers College at Cedar Falls.   Judge Blanchard is a York Rite Mason and a Republican in politics.

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ALBERT R. BLUHM.  The banking interests of a community are necessarily among the most important, for financial stability must be the foundation stone upon which all great enterprises are built, and it is upon the banks of the country that rest the possibilities of all progress.  The men in charge of these institutions must be carefully selected, for it is from their wisdom, sagacity and foresight that the strength of a bank is drawn.  One of the men of Ottumwa whose efforts are given to the continuance of the solidity of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of this city is Albert R. Bluhm, a man of high standing and unquestioned probity, who holds the position of assistant cashier.

Albert R. Bluhm was born in Illinois, in 1878, a son of Godfrey and Henrietta (Shultz) Bluhm.  Godfrey Bluhm was born in Germany, and came to the United States from Berlin, in 1871, and settled in Tazewell County, Illinois.  From that state he came to Iowa in 1907.  At the time he came to this country he was a married man, and had served in the German army as a member of the Second Company of the Kaiser Franz Regiment of the Royal Guards, his captain being Count von Velou, afterwards chancellor of Germany.  While serving in his regiment Godfrey Bluhm was on guard at the royal palace at the time of the reception given in 1855 to the then Crown Prince Frederick William and his bride Princess Victoria of England.  Both in Germany and in this country the family is a well known and highly esteemed one, and Albert R. Bluhm, of this review, is living up to the high ideals of those who have gone before him.

Growing to manhood in Illinois, Albert R. Bluhm attended the local schools and Valparaiso College, Indiana, and in 1907 he was graduated from the law school of the University of Illinois.  Following his graduation he came to Wapello, Iowa, and engaged in farming, but several years later established himself at Ottumwa, where he was state organizer for the Grange.  He was also one of the prime movers in organizing the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Ottumwa, the youngest of the seven banks of the city, which has forged ahead until it is recognized as one of the strongest in this section.  In 1916 he became its assistant cashier, and still holds that position.  In 1926 Mr. Bluhm was accorded signal recognition by being appointed bank examiner by Supt. L. A. Andrew, of Iowa.  Fraternally Mr. Bluhm is a Mason.  He is a staunch Republican and served for two years as secretary of the Wapello County Republican Central Committee, and for the last fourteen years he has been treasurer of this committee.

In 1912 Mr. Bluhm was married in Wapello County to Miss Maud Elizabeth Baker,  born in November, 1888, in Wapello County, and for some years a teacher in the public schools.  Mr. and Mrs. Bluhm have one son, Albert, Junior, who was born February 23, 1917.  The family are members of the First Presbyterian Church of Ottumwa, and are active in the various departments of its work.

Mrs. Bluhm is a daughter of Frank D. Baker, and a granddaughter of Taylor L. Baker, the latter one of the first six to settle in Richland Township, Wapello County.  He was a farmer, a progressive man, helpful in many ways, and he continued to reside there from the time of his settlement, in 1844, to his death.  On her father's side of the house Mrs. Bluhm is descended from John Hill, an Englishman who came to the United States from Gloucester, in 1841.  He, too, located in Richland Township, coming here in 1843, and he brought with him a violin which was made in the latter part of the seventeenth century, a remarkably fine and valuable instrument, now in the possession of Albert Bluhm, Junior, a student of the violin.  Frank D. Baker, father of Mrs.  Bluhm, was born in Wapello County, in 1860, and he still owns the farm on which his father, Taylor L. Baker, settled in 1844, although for some years past his home has been at Ottumwa.  He married Miss Ellen Neil, who was born at Ottumwa, in 1860, daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Wilson) Neil.  The Bakers and the Hills belonged to that pioneer stock so closely identified with the progress and development of Iowa.  The young son of Mr. and Mrs. Bluhm has a splendid heritage from fine people on both sides of his family, and this, combined with the watchful training and home atmosphere given him by his parents, no doubt will result in the development of a citizen that will be a credit to all concerned.

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JOHN BODENHOFER is not lacking in a full measure of popular confidence and esteem in his native city and county, as is evidenced by the fact that he served two terms as a member of the county board of supervisors and was then, in 1921, appointed county sheriff, in which office by successive reelections, he has been retained to the present time.  He is thus an efficient and popular member of the governmental official family of Jones County and has his executive headquarters in the courthouse at Anamosa, the county seat, in which city his birth occurred April 11, 1872.

Sheriff Bodenhofer is a son of the late Jacob and Rebecca (Soisbe) Bodenhofer, with whose names is associated a distinct measure of pioneer prestige in the Hawkeye State.  Jacob Bodenhofer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1832, was reared and educated in the old Buckeye State and was about seventeen years of age when, in 1848, he severed the home ties and came to Iowa, where he found employment on a pioneer farm.  He later studied law and gained admission to the Iowa bar, he having thereafter been engaged in the active practice of his profession at Anamosa for many yeas and having been one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of Iowa at the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1906, his wife having died in 1897, and having been a sister of Samuel Soisbe, who served as a representative in the Twenty-eighth Iowa Legislature.  Rev. George Bodenhofer, grandfather of the present sheriff of Jones County, was a clergyman of the Christian Church and after coming to Iowa was here associated in the establishing of Cornell College, which is now one of the important and well ordered educational institutions of the state.

In the Anamosa public schools John Bodenhofer continued his studies until he was graduated in the high school and thereafter he was actively engaged in farm enterprise in his native county for a period of thirty years, he being at the present time the owner of two well improved farms in Jones County and this landed  estate having an aggregate area of 300 acres.  While still residing on his farm Mr. Bodenhofer served two terms as representative of his township on the county board of supervisors, and this office he resigned at the time of his appointment to that of county sheriff, in 1921.  As sheriff he has given a signally loyal, circumspect and effective administration, and the popular estimate placed upon the same is shown in his continued retention of the office since the year mentioned.

The political allegiance of Mr. Bodenhofer is given to the Republican party, he and his wife have membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, and the Wapsipinicon Country Club claims him as one of its appreciative and popular members.

October 26, 1893, marked the marriage of Mr. Bodenhofer to Miss Emma L. Manley, daughter of the late Thomas and Alice (Hannum) Manley, who were honored citizens of Jones County at the time of their death, Mr. Manley having been here the owner of a fine farm estate of 720 acres.  Mr. and Mrs. Bodenhofer have three children:  Helen is the wife of Roy Simpson, of Cedar Rapids, this state; Hazel is the wife of Philip Hammond, of Lisbon, Linn County; and Hylah is the wife of Ernest Towne, their residence being maintained on the old home farm of Sheriff Bodenhofer, near Mechanicsville, and Mr. Towne being in active charge of the place.

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FREDERICK O. BOHEN,  president and general manager of the Meredith Publishing Company at Des Moines, is a comparatively young man, but with a veteran's experience in the newspaper field, particularly in advertising work.

He was born at Waseca, Minnesota, May 25, 1895, son of Thomas and Amelia (McLaughlin) Bohen.  His father was born in Rome, New  York, of Irish parentage, while his mother was born in Minnesota.  Thomas Bohen gave the active years of his career to the insurance and real estate business at Minneapolis, and about  twenty years ago he organized a hail insurance company at Cherokee, Iowa.  He and his wife were members of the Catholic Church, and he was a Democrat in politics.  All of their eight children are living, Frederick O. being the  youngest.

Frederick O. Bohen attended high school at Minneapolis and later was a student in New York University.  When he was about twelve or thirteen years of age he and his brother Mark were associated in the operation of a small newspaper at Trempeleau, Wisconsin.  From the rural weekly type of newspaper he progress to metropolitan journalism and for about eight years represented a group of newspapers, including the Minneapolis Journal, in handling special syndicated advertising.

Mr. Bohen first became identified with the Meredith Publications as Chicago representative during 1921-22.  In the latter year he was called to the head office at Des Moines and became advertising director of the Meredith Publications.  On the death of E. T. Meredith on June 15, 1928, he was appointed general manager of the Meredith Publishing Company.  He is also president of the Agricultural Publishers Association; a director of the North West Bank Corporation; director of the Iowa Des Moines National Bank; member of the Des Moines Rotary Club; Des Moines Chamber of Commerce; director of Greater Des Moines Committee; and a trustee of Drake University.

Mr. Bohen married in November, 1919, Miss Mildred Meredith, a daughter of the late E. T. Meredith, founder and head of the Meredith Publications and one of Iowa's great men of the modern era.  Mrs. Bohen was educated in the Des Moines High School and attended the Ely Girls School at Greenwich, Connecticut.  They have one daughter, Barbara, born in March, 1923.  Mrs. Bohen is a member of the Junior League.  Mr. Bohen is a Democrat, a member of the Des Moines Club, the Wakonda Club and Hermit Club.

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RALPH P. BOLTON was a life long resident of Des Moines, and represented the third generation of a family whose name will always have worthy relations with the capital city.  The late Mr. Bolton was a good business man, measured up to his responsibilities in all the normal departments of life, but above all stood his loyalty to his home city.  It was this characteristic that caused a Des Moines editor to single out his career for an unusual tribute when he wrote that of Ralph Bolton the term "public spirited" could be correctly applied.  To quote this editorial further:

"Des Moines, like every other city, no doubt has need of public spirited men.  There is never the slightest danger of having too many.  Reduce to its basic meaning, the public spirit referred to is that which leads a man willingly to take part in projects aiming at broad betterment of the whole community, whether it grow out of intelligent recognition that this will serve private interests best and most largely in the long run or out of good will toward his neighbors.  it is practically always both, because the man with intelligence enough to see the broader advantages in invariably big enough to be kind.  Fine personal qualities of course could be emphasized in referring to Mr. Bolton's passing.  The community-spirited life is well worth giving the main stress, for this once, however."

Mr. Bolton was not yet fifty-seven years of age when he passed away March 15, 1929.  He was born in Des Moines July 23, 1872, and was a son of Leander Bolton and grandson of Evan and Phoebe (Hanna) Bolton.  Evan Bolton was a native of Kentucky, who settled in Des Moines before the Civil war and was a lumberman in that city until his death in 1873.

Leander Bolton was born in Fayette County, Indiana, October 10, 1838, and was eighteen years of age when he came to Iowa and established his home at Des Moines in 1856.  When the Civil war broke out a few years later he enlisted in the Union army and performed garrison service until the close of hostilities.  In 1871 he entered business as a hardware merchant, and was a successful figure in the commercial affairs of Des Moines for thirty years, until his death in 1901.  He married Miss Belle Palmer, who was born at Ithaca, New York, April 3, 1853, and continues to reside in Des Moines at the age of seventy-seven.

Ralph P. Bolton graduated from the East High School and took his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1892.  He was admitted to the bar, although he did not practice, most of his attention having been given to business interests.  For twelve years before his death he was associated with the Ankeny Linseed Company, of which he was president.  At the time of his death he was also secretary of the Des Moines Coliseum Company.  He was a charter member and for many years president of the Hyperion Club, also a member of the Des Moines and Wakonda Clubs.  Mr. Bolton is survived by Mrs. Bolton and two daughters, Berene and Ruth.

The late Mr. Bolton from 1911 to 1921 served as secretary of the Greater Des Moines Committee.  It was through  this committee that he found the opportunity for the most noteworthy of his services to his home city.  He is credited with having done most to secure the location of Camp Dodge at Des Moines early in the World war.  After the war he was presented with a testimonial signed by the thirty members of the committee, including many of the most prominent business men of the city, and their tribute at that time is a fitting close for this brief sketch:

"The members of the Greater Des Moines Committee feel a very deep sense of gratefulness to you for the unusual character of your service during the year 1917.

"We are most anxious to have you know that we gladly recognize that it was your genius for organization that brought Des Moines the Cantonment, and that it was the high order of your capacity and tact that has handled the great camp to the satisfaction of the War Department, the commanding officers, and the people of Des Moines.

"You have been tireless and true.  You have earned the praise of all of our citizens, and the members of the committee desire to subscribe themselves as your admiring supporters, co-workers and friends."

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JESSE L. BONAR is in point of continuous service one of the oldest members of the Kossuth County bar, having practiced at Algona for thirty-five years.  He has been a resident of Iowa since 1874.

Members of the Bonar family are widely scattered over the United States.  It is a family with relationships as American citizens since the late Colonial period.

The founders of the American family were three brothers, Bernard, John and William Bonar, whose early home was near Belfast, Ireland.  They were of Scotch ancestry, what is known as Scotch-Irish, and Presbyterians in religion.  In the year 1740 these brothers came to America, landing at Baltimore.  One of them, Bernard, went to South Carolina and was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, under Gen Francis Marion.  Later he established a home in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Washington County, where he died in 1805.  The second brother, John, went to Kentucky, and some of the Kentucky Bonars are probably descended from him.

The third brother and the ancestor of the Iowa attorney, William Bonar, was born in Ireland in 1722.  After landing at Baltimore he moved to Southwestern Virginia, at what is now Roanoke, and lived there the rest of his life.  He and his oldest son, James, were soldiers in the Revolution, and both were present at the siege of Yorktown, ending with the surrender of Cornwallis.  This son, James, was born at Roanoke, Virginia, in 1759, and later moved to what is now Moundsville, West Virginia.  He was grandfather of the Iowa attorney.

Mr. Jesse L. Bonar was born at Moundsville, West Virginia, October 24, 1865, son of Jackson and Eveline (Trueman) Bonar.  Jackson Bonar, who was born in Marshall County, West Virginia, was a farmer and stock raiser.  In 1874 he brought his family to Iowa and settled near Nevinsville in Adams County, and resumed the occupation he had followed from early manhood.  He passed away March 17, 1904, when eighty-three years of age.  His wife, Eveline Trueman, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, November 1, 1834, and died at Nevinsville, Iowa, December 27, 1921, aged eighty-seven.  Of the six sons of these parents two, Trueman and Jackson, died in infancy.  The four living are George Nelson, of Creston, Iowa, James Robert, of Fargo, Oklahoma, Jesse L., and Charles Abel, of Long Beach, California.

Jesse L. Bonar  spent his early life on a farm in Adams County, Iowa.  After the common schools he entered Iowa Wesleyan College at Mount Pleasant, and from that institution transferred to the University of Iowa, where he took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893.  In the meantime he had made the decision of the law as his life work and in 1894 was graduated LL.B. from the University of Iowa School of Law.  On January 12, 1895, he established his home at Algona, and has always enjoyed an enviable reputation as a safe and resourceful attorney.  He has given his time to a general law practice, and in connection therewith has held the office of city solicitor continuously since 1897, except for two years.

Mr. Bonar married, June 30, 1906, Miss Florence Lusk, daughter of T. A. Lusk, of Milwaukee.  She died July 24, 1908, and their only son, Howard, died in infancy.  Mr. Bonar in 1914 married Rhoda Lee Crull.  They are very proud of their daughter, Bonnie Lee.  Mr. Bonar has filled all the chairs in Lodge No. 174, Knights of Pythias, and has been a delegate to the Grand Lodge.  He is also a member of Prudence Lodge No. 205, A. F. and A. M., and the Kiwanis Club.

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ARTHUR A. BOWMAN is editor and publisher of the Bettendorf News, the official paper of Scott County and the reliable medium of publicity for Davenport's chief industrial suburb.

Mr. Bowman, who has been in the newspaper business practically all his life, was born on a farm in Clay County, Iowa, December 11, 1880, son of R. C. and Jennie (Lockey) Bowman.  His father was born in Pennsylvania and died in Iowa, in 1918, and his mother, who died the same year, was a native of England.

Arthur A. Bowman attended country schools in Clay County and for a time was a student at the Chicago Art Institute.  as a boy he served his apprenticeship at the printing trade, and his newspaper experience has taken him to many localities in Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa.  He started several papers in Iowa, including newspapers at Prairieburg, Central City, Ionia.  He is founder and for four years has been publishing the Bettendorf News, a weekly paper,  which tells all the news not only of the locality but is an index of state and national events and carries the official publications of the county government.

Mr. Bowman married, in October, 1905, Pearl De Lancey, who was born at Prairieburg, Linn County, Iowa.  They have two children:  Lucile M., who assists her father in the newspaper; and Arthur A., Jr., a senior in the Davenport High School.  The son, Arthur, is a youth of brilliant promise.  He is editor-in-chief of the Blackhawk, the Davenport High School paper, and will continue his education in the school of journalism of the University of Missouri under Dean Walter Williams.

Mr. Bowman is a member of the Bettendorf Chamber of Commerce, is affiliated with Harbor Lodge No. 554, A. F. and A. M., at Lost Nation in Clinton County, and is a member of Trinity Cathedral of the Episcopal Church.  Mrs. Bowman while they lived at Lost Nation was president of the Clinton County Federation of Women's Clubs.

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ED D. BRADLEY was sixteen years of age when he first came to Missouri Valley, Harrison County, and found employment with the mercantile firm of Butler & Bradley, the junior member of which was his older brother, John Bradley, who was long one of the leading business men of this city, where he still maintains his home and where he is now living retired.  Ed D. Bradley was later employed for a time in the City of Omaha, Nebraska, but Missouri Valley has represented his home the greater part of the time since he came as a youth to Iowa.  On the 1st of March, 1903,  he here organized the firm of Ed D. Bradley & Company, and in the corner building still occupied was opened a large and select stock of men's and boys' clothing and furnishing goods.  The establishment has the largest and most complete stock of this kind in Harrison County, and progressive policies and effective service have gained and retained to the firm a large and representative supporting patronage.  Mr. Bradley has proved himself a resourceful, reliable and enterprising business man, and his well ordered methods have been the potent force in the upbuilding of the substantial business of his firm.   Though he continues to appear daily at the store, he has abated his activities to a large extent, though still maintaining a close supervision of the establishment that he founded.  He has pronounced himself "retired," but the community still looks upon him as one of its leading business men and honored and influential citizens.

Mr. Bardley is a director of the State Savings Bank of Missouri Valley and is the owner of 960 acres of valuable land in the southern part of the Province of Alberta, Canada.  He has been at all times loyal and liberal in his civic attitude, and while he has never consented to accept political office he has been a staunch worker in behalf of the principles of the Democratic party.  He was for several years a member of the board of education, and for thirty years he was assistant chief of the Missouri Valley fire department, besides serving a short period as chief, until a regular incumbent could be selected.  In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, in the Consistory at Des Moines, an was a Noble of the Mystic Shrine he has membership in Tangier Temple in the City of Omaha.  In the York Rite he is a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Missouri Valley, and the Council of Commandery at Council Bluffs.  He has membership also in the Modern Woodmen of America.  He and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church in their home city and he has been a deacon in the same many years.

Having given an outline of the business career of Mr. Bradley it is now consistent to touch briefly upon earlier phases of his life history.  He was born in the fine little City of London, Ontario, Canada, May 10, 1863, as one of the ten children of James and Mary Jane (Flynn) Bradley, who were born in Ireland.  James Bradley was reared and educated in his native land and was a young man when he came to America and established his residence in Canada, where he engaged in the work of his trade, that of cooper, and where he passed the greater part of the remainder of his life, though his death occurred in the City of Chicago, Illinois, in 1888, his wife having passed away in 1873, when her son Ed D. was a lad of ten years.  The public schools of his native city afforded Ed D. Bradley his early education, and as before noted, he was sixteen years of age when he came to Missouri Valley, Iowa, a city that has since gained much through his business activities and civic liberality.

In the City of Waterloo, Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bradley to Miss Nellie McDermott, in the year 1880, and she continues as the gracious and popular chatelaine of their attractive home in Missouri Valley.  They have no children, but their adopted son, Elmer Bradley, is now a leading young business man of Missouri Valley, where he is a member of the firm of Ed D. Bradley & Company.  Elmer Bradley married Miss Irene Ryan, of Omaha, Nebraska, and their son, Ed, was named in honor of the subject of this review, who takes true grandfatherly pride in the youngster.  The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Bradley was a daughter, who died in infancy, in the late summer of 1929.

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HON. GEORGE E. BRAMMER.  Earnest application and patient industry invariably precede success and distinction in the practice of law.  The legal profession is exacting of those who enjoy its favors.  The successful lawyer must have not only a comprehensive knowledge of legal principles and precedents, but a thorough familiarity with modern business methods and practices as well.  Judge Brammer has won a broad and well merited reputation  in his chosen field, and his success in the practice of law, in business and as a member of the district bench is indicative of his ability and versatility.

Hon. George E. Brammer was born March 4, 1886, at Dedham, Iowa, and is a son of William H. and Martha (Edwards) Brammer.  His father was born in Kentucky, where he was reared to young manhood, and then came to Iowa and for many years was engaged in merchandising at Dedham and Coon Rapids.  A man of good business judgment, integrity and industry, he was a successful merchant and is now a substantial, retired citizen of Shenandoah, this state.  Mrs. Brammer, a native of Pennsylvania, also survives, and both are consistent and active members of the Presbyterian Church.  Mr. Brammer is a Republican in his political convictions, and is a thirty-second degree Mason.l  There are three children in the family:  George E., of this review; Winnifred, the wife of John W. Leavitt, a banker of Cedar Falls, Iowa; and Neta, the wife of Glenn F. Leacox, a merchant of Shenandoah.

The public schools of Dedham furnished George E. Brammer with his early education.  In 1903 he entered Drake University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws as a member of the class of 1908.  Three years later the same institution conferred upon him the degree of Master of Laws.  Commencing general practice at Des Moines in 1908, he soon assumed a place among the rising young attorneys of the community, and in 1914 was elected to the Thirty-sixth General Assembly from Polk County, and served one term in that body, his record being one worthy of commendation because of his adherence to the interests  of his county and constituents.  In 1922 he was appointed district judge by Gov. N. E. Kendall to complete the unexpired term of Hon. John D. Wallingford, and served in that capacity until January 1, 1923, at which time he returned to the practice of his profession.  In his short term of service on the district bench Judge Brammer conducted  his court in a dignified and efficient manner, winning high praise from attorneys appearing before him.

With the exception of a brief interruption when Judge Brammer was on the district bench he has practiced law continuously in Des Moines since 1908.  He has served as counsel for large corporations, and in his profession has gained unqualified success.  He is recognized as a safe counselor and an able trial lawyer. He was vice president and general counsel of the Merchants Life Insurance Company at the time of its amalgamation on January 1, 1929, with the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana, which company he serves as counsel.  Judge Brammer is interested in various business and financial enterprises.  He is president of the Iowa State Bank, Jefferson, Iowa, and is president of the Central Broadcasting Company, owner and operator of radio stations WHO at Des Moines and W. O. C. at Davenport.  He is senior member of the law firm of Brammer, Brody, Charlton & Parker, with offices in the Valley National Bank Building, and is a member of the Polk County Bar Association, Iowa State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Judge Brammer, with his family, belongs to the University Place Christian Church, to the activities of which he has been a generous contributor.  He is a public spirited citizen and a supporter of every worthy civic movement.  Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason, Knight Templar and a Shriner, and is a member of the sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, Delta Theta Phi law fraternity, the Des Moines Club and the Wakonda Country Club.  Politically he is a Republican

On June 21, 1911, Judge Brammer was united in marriage with Miss Mary F. Gilliland, of Bloomington, Illinois, who was educated at Eureka College, Hamilton College and Drake University, and to this union there have been born two children:  Mary C., born in 1914, and James W., born in 1916, both of whom are attending Theodore Roosevelt High School.

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L. A. BRAMSON is one of the younger men in the newspaper business in Iowa, a man whose abilities and work so far give promise of a career that will keep him an important man in any community where he elects to live for a long time to come.

Mr. Bramson, who is editor and proprietor of the Charter Oak Times in Crawford County,, was born at Ute, Iowa, June 5, 1903.  He is a son of Christopher Bramson and is a brother of Otto E. Bramson, of Dunlap, another Iowa editor, whose career is referred to on other pages.  His brother Edward T. Bramson, is also identified in the newspaper field, as editor and publisher of the Pierson Progress.  L. A. Bramson attended public schools at Ute and was graduated from high school in 1921.  During the next five years he worked for his brother on the Dunlap Reporter, learning the trade of printer and acquiring a general knowledge of the newspaper business.

When he left Dunlap he bought the Charter Oak Times, and has brought to its management his skill, experience and enthusiasm as a newspaper man.  The Charter Oak Times is one of the oldest newspapers in this section of the state, being now in its fiftieth year.

Mr. Bramson gained the gratitude of the people of Charter Oak for another accomplishment.  Several years ago the town had a theater which had been a losing proposition financially and was rendering no service that would increase its patronage.  Mr. Bramson bought the place, reorganized its management as the New Royal Theater, and has developed it into a thriving picture house.  Mr. Bramson conducts his paper on an independent political basis.  He married Miss Leoda Reynolds, of Dunlap, daughter of J. W. Reynolds.

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MISSES CLARA & EMMA BRANDT.  Misses Clara and Emma Brandt, always referred to as the Brandt sisters, were for years, until the death of Miss Emma Brandt in 1927, closely associated in all their interests and activities.  These interests and activities have meant a great deal in Davenport and in Muscatine County.

Their father was Conrad Brandt, who was born at Hamburg, Germany, and was left an orphan at the age of fourteen.  For five years he pursued the apprenticeship of a wood carver in Germany.  When he came to America, alone, he landed at New Orleans without money, worked at hi trade as a carver and cabinet maker and came up the Mississippi until he arrived in Muscatine County.  Not being in robust health, he desired to live as much as possible in the open air, and after a short time he bought a heavily wooded tract of land in Muscatine County.

In 1850 Conrad Brandt married Mrs. Ernestine Ziegler, who came to Iowa in 1849.  By her first husband, Franz Ziegler, she was the mother of two children:  Frances, now deceased, and William Ziegler, who is also deceased.  Mr. Conrad Brandt died in 1906 and shortly after his death his widow left the old homestead and moved to Davenport.

William Ziegler, of this family, is remembered as one of America's most successful manufacturers.  He grew up in Iowa, walked several miles to school, and for a time was employed in a drug store at Muscatine at $100 a year.  He was ambitious and energetic, and as a young man began experimenting with chemicals and he produced a formula for baking powder and began its manufacture and exploitation, being the founder of the Royal Baking Powder of New York.  Long before his death he was a multimillionaire.  He was always deeply interested in his old home community of Iowa, and was a generous benefactor in the Philanthropic enterprises of his half-sisters, the Brandt sisters.

To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Brandt were born the following children:  Miss Emma, who died in 1927; George W.  now deceased, who was in the baking powder business in Chicago; Edward, a farmer, now deceased; Miss Clara, who now resides at Davenport; and Arthur C., who has charge of the old farm near Muscatine.

Miss Emma Charlotte Brandt was born in Muscatine, October 8, 1850, the oldest child of her father and mother.  She attended a private school in Muscatine, and for several years taught in rural schools.  She also spent some time in New York with her brother, William Ziegler.  For many years the Brandt sisters devoted their time between the Brandt farm home in Muscatine County and their residence at 308 East Fourteenth Street in Davenport.

In 1892 the Brandt sisters became interested in the task of regenerating the old home community near the farm.  Along in 1840 Benjamin Nye, the first settler of Muscatine County, had constructed a mill on Pine Creek, and that became the center of a community which in after years became notorious for its indifference to educational, religions or cultural interests, and was frequently called "the devil's half-acre."  Day schools and Sunday Schools did not flourish in that community.  The Brandt sisters secured the cooperation of their brother William Ziegler and they went to work with the handful of serious people in the locality and founded a church, Mr. Ziegler donating the money for he erection of a building.  That was the beginning of a new era for the community and the Brandt sisters subsequently adopted the name New Era for the church.  It has since been known as the Ziegler Memorial Lutheran Church.  The Brandt sisters did more than establish a church for Sunday services.  They interested some religious leaders who started a day school, taught domestic science and other arts, and endeavored to make the church as much as possible a community center.  Then, in 1910, they erected a building to serve as a gymnasium and community center, and in 1927, the year Miss Emma Brandt died, the building was completely remodeled and dedicated as the New Era Community House.  The other building is the home of the pastor.

New Era clams the distinction of having the first rural gymnasium in Iowa and the community house is a center for a great range of activities.  Annual agricultural festivals are held there, dramatics and athletic sports are regular parts of the season's program, and there are many other musical and social entertainments.  The leader of the church and the pastor in recent years has been Reverend Mr. Lack.

The Brandt sisters were inseparable for many years and together worked in the New Era community.  In addition to what they did in establishing the community center there they were generous contributors and workers in behalf of the Lutheran Hospital at Moline, to which they gave both time and money.

The Misses Brandt have done something for the entire State of Iowa.  They shared their father's enthusiasm for nature, and some years ago, in order to do their share towards the conservation movement in Iowa, they deeded sixty-seven acres of the old homestead farm to the State Board of Conservation.  The board subsequently purchased additional acreage, constituting over 200 acres, all within about a mile of the New Era Church.  This park is popularly referred to as the Wild Cat Den Park, near Muscatine.

At the time of the death of Miss Emma Brandt one of the local newspapers said:  "Her home was her chief attraction.  She not only loved her own home but many times made a home for those who were without one.  She had a strong sense of justice and a determination to finish a task which she had once started.  This trait was evidenced more than once in the long struggle with the work at New Era.  She was of reserved nature and enjoyed wild plant life and flowers at Wild Cat Den and for many years she kept a custodian on the place whose duty it was to car for and conserve the flowers, shrubs and trees."

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ORLANDO MITCHELL BROCKETT is a member of one of  Des Moines' leading law firms, Porter, Brockett & Porter, the senior member of which is the Hon. Claude R. Porter, at present a member of the  Interstate Commerce Commission.  Their offices are in the Capitol Theatre Building.  Mr. Brockett has been a member of the Iowa bar for nearly half a century, and has shared in more than a usual routine of responsibilities and the public relationships of his profession.

He was born in Polk County, Iowa, March 11, 1858, and his people on both sides were Iowa pioneers.  He is a son of Calvin and Rowena (Hall) Brockett.  His grandfather, Benjamin Brockett, was a native of Tennessee, owned a plantation and slaves, but moved to Southern Illinois, first to White and later to Effingham County, in an early day, and was an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln.  Calvin Brockett was born in East Tennessee, and at the age of ten was brought by his parents to Southern Illinois, and came out to Iowa in the early spring of 1848 and acquired a previous settler's claim to 325 1/2 acres of land near the river town of Lafayette, for which patents were issued to him by President Fillmore April 3, 1851.  To this a few years later eighty acres adjoining were added by purchase and the price fully paid from the proceeds of the first year's crop.  For several years he operated a general mercantile business at Lafayette, Iowa, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Riley Howard.  He spent the greater part of his active life on this farm, and was living retired at Runnells when he died in his ninetieth year.  His wife, Rowena Hall, was born in Ohio, daughter of John Hall, a native of Scotland, who on coming to this country settled in Pennsylvania and then in Ohio, and later in Effingham County, Illinois, where Rowena married the father of the subject of this sketch, and in 1848 moved to Iowa in a covered wagon with his daughter and her husband and their two eldest children.  Calvin Brockett and wife had a family of five sons and five daughters, and of the five now living Orlando is the youngest.  Both parents were members of the Christian Church, the father was a member of the Masonic fraternity, was a Republican and held the office of justice of the peace.

Orlando M. Brockett attended public schools and the West Des Moines High School, also had the training of a teachers' institute, and for a number of years taught in country school districts.  He was for a short time a student in the Agricultural College at Ames, then entered law school at Des Moines, graduating June 8, 1880, and was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court the following day.  For one year he practiced at Carlisle, Iowa, spent one summer at Huron in Dakota Territory, and he served as mayor of Carlisle and as county attorney of Boone County and city solicitor of Boone, and during the last seven years of his ten years' residence there was junior member of the law firm of Jordan & Brockett.  Mr. Brockett has been an active member of the bar at Des Moines since 1896, and has been a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States since March 16, 1906.  The first year he practiced with Charles McKenzie, then as junior member of the firm of Bowen & Brockett, successors to the firm of Bishop, Bowen & Fleming, a relationship which was dissolved after eleven years.  Mr. Brockett then practiced alone for a time, sharing offices with the firm of Carr & Carr, and in 1917 became senior member of the firm of Brockett, Strauss & Shaw, and in 1928 joined his present partnership of Porter, Brockett & Porter.  They handle a general civil practice, chiefly corporation, important contested litigation and Appellate Court work.

Mr. Brockett is a member of the First Baptist Church of Des Moines, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and has always been active in Republican politics.  He was vice president of Hoover for President Club in 1920.l  However, since his removal to Des Moines he has never been a candidate for public office.  For many years he has been a member of the Grant Club, is a member of the University Club, the Polk County, Iowa State and American Bar Associations, and is a member of the Drake Law Club.

He married in 1880 Miss Ella Mahan, who was born at Carlisle, Iowa, daughter of Andrew B. Mahan, an Iowa farmer and a stationary engineer.  They have two children:  Louise, wife of Edward Weitz, member of the general contracting firm of Charles Weitz' Sons and secretary of the Century Lumber Company at Des Moines; and Ralph W. Brockett, a member of the Jones-Brockett Insurance Agency.  Ralph W. Brockett was at one time chief examiner for the Iowa Insurance Commission and is a World war veteran, serving in France and on the firing line with the Eighty-ninth Division as a top sergeant of an outpost signal corps company.

WILLIAM H. BROERMAN, steward of the Mahaska County Home and Asylum, is a noble hearted Christian, who carries into his office the religion he professes, and treats the unfortunates under his charge as his brothers and sisters in the Lord.  I would have been difficult to get anyone better suited for this exacting work than Mr. Broerman, and he is greatly beloved by his charges.

The birth of William H. Broerman occurred in Mahaska County, October 24, 1878, and he is a son of Charles and Eliza (Cox) Broerman, the father of English and Irish descent.  During the boyhood of William H. Broerman the family spent a few years in Oregon, Nebraska and Western Kansas, and then returned to Mahaska County, he at that time being sixteen years old.  Since then he has continued to live in this county.

After reaching maturity Mr. Broerman engaged in farming and raising fine show stock, his horses attaining to national repute, and winning many prizes and honors.  He raised and owned Banner M, one of America's celebrated horses, which turf papers called the best horse ever raised and raced west of the Mississippi River.  Mr. Broerman also raised other pacers and trotters of creditable record and performance.

On February 4, 1904, William H. Broerman was married in the present Mahaska County Home to Miss Nettie Williams, whose parents were at that time superintending it.  She was born in Mahaska County, and is a daughter of Thomas and Sophia (Nelson) Williams, the father being of Scotch-Irish stock, and the mother belonging to a Danish family.  Mr. and Mrs. Broerman have had six children born to them, namely:  Rozella, who married Paul Phillips, and lives at Des Moines, Iowa; twins, Dorothy, who is a student, and Doris, who is deceased; and Beatrice, Leo W. and Elaine, the last three of whom are with their parents.

For the last twenty years Mr. and Mrs. Broerman have superintended the Mahaska County Home and Asylum, of which for nine years Mr. and Mrs. Williams were superintendents, as already stated.  Aside from their care of their fine family Mr. and Mrs. Broerman have given their life interest to the care and welfare of the insane.  Both are students of mental diseases, both theoretically and practically, and they have acquired a sympathetic understanding of the varied forms of the dread malady.  They have put into practice theories of their own with regard to treatment and care, and as a result have a comfortable, contented household, of which the people of Mahaska County are rightly proud, it ranking high nationally among the institutions of its kind.  There are on an average thirty in the home and forty in the asylum.  These people all enjoy a freedom very seldom accorded in similar institutions.  The farm is beautifully located in the rolling country adjacent to Oskaloosa, seven miles west of the town, and comprises 320 acres devoted to livestock, farming and gardening.  From its confines there are beautiful scenic effects.  Everywhere is there evidence of comfort and kindly Christian feeling, the spirit of which pervades the home.

Mr. Broerman is a Democrat in principle, but reserves for himself the privilege of voting independently.  He belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.  Long a member of teh Oskaloosa Chamber of Commerce, he is an active force in that body.  For six years, during the period of its reorganization, he was chairman of the executive board of the Southern Iowa Fair and Exposition Association, and he has ever been public spirited, the type of booster that goes far in the work of putting his town on the map.  Mr. and Mrs. Broerman are consistent members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Oskaloosa, and are splendid types of citizenry, builders, in the real sense of the word, of ideals and institutional interests.

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THOMPSON L. BROOKHART has been engaged in the practice of law at Washington, judicial center of Washington County, since 1911, save for the interval of his World war service, and here he was junior member of the representative law firm of Brookhart Brothers, in which his coadjutors were his two brothers, Smith W. and James L., until November 11, 1926, at which time the firm was dissolved by the death of J. L. Brookhart.

Mr. Brookhart, who is of German Swiss lineage, was born on the parental home farm near Selma, Van Buren County, Iowa, March 14, 1886, and is a son of Abram C. Brookhart, who was born in Ohio and there acquired his early education, and who, in 1850, accompanied his parents on their removal to Missouri, where the family gained pioneer precedence in Scotland County, and whence he later, went forth as a loyal young soldier of the Union in the Civil war, he having served three years as a private in the Seventh Missouri Cavalry and having taken part in the various engagements in which this command was involved.  After the close of the war he returned to the old home in Scotland County, Missouri, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Cynthia A. Wildman, and they came to Iowa and established their home in Jefferson County, whence they later removed to Van Buren County.  Abram C. Brookhart was a farmer by vocation during virtually his entire active career, his political allegiance was given to the Republican party, and after coming to Iowa he served several terms as township trustee.  He was long and actively affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic.  The death of Mr. Brookhart occurred in 1920, when he was venerable in years, his wife having passed away in 1916.  Of the ten children all survived the honored parents:  Smith W., who was senior member of the law firm of Brookhart Brothers, of Washington, Iowa; Newton D., of Pocatello, Idaho; James L., of Washington, Iowa, now deceased; Odes E., of Des Moines, Iowa; Miss Della E., of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Myrtle Poole, of Washington, Iowa; George W., of Nampa, Idaho; Mrs. May Quinn, of Columbus Junction, Iowa; Miss Lillian E., of Pocatello, Idaho; Thompson L., immediate subject of this review.

Thompson L. Brookhart passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the old home farm in Van Buren County, and there he attended the public schools until 1903.  He then came, in 1904, to his present home City of Washington, and here he was graduated in Washington Academy, as a member of the class of 1909, he having in the meanwhile served as clerk and student in the local law office of his brothers, Senator Smith W. Brookhart and James L. Brookhart, his former law partners.  In 1906-7 he taught in the rural schools of Washington County, and in 1909 he entered the law department of the University of Iowa, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1911, his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws having forthwith been followed by his admission to the bar of his native state and by his admission to partnership in the law business of his brothers at Washington, where he continued in the active practice of his profession, as junior member of one of the strongest and most influential law firms in this part of the Hawkeye State.  He is serving as United States referee in bankruptcy for the southern district of Iowa, and is an active member of the Washington County Bar Association and the Iowa State Bar Association.

While a student in the law college of the University of Iowa Mr. Brookhart was a member of the Zetagathian Society, and in 1910 was a member of the 'varsity football team.  In his junior year at the university he supplemented his financial resources by serving as janitor of the law building.

Mr. Brookhart is a stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party and has been influential in its Iowa councils, though he has manifested no desire for official preferment.  His Masonic affiliations include his membership in Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of Davenport; Des Moines Consistory No. 3, Des Moines, Iowa, and the York Rite bodies at Washington, Iowa.

When the nation formally entered the World war Mr. Brookhart was one of the first Iowa volunteers.  May 12, 1917, he enlisted in the United States army, and he attended the Officers Training Camp at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where, August 19, 1917, he received commission as second lieutenant and was assigned to the Motor Transport Corps.  In May, 1918, he was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant, and in the following July he accompanied his command to France, where he was stationed at Tours in the office of director of Motor Transport Corps, under Gen. M. L. Walker.  He was thus placed at the time the armistice brought the war to a close, and at Camp Dodge, Iowa, he received his honorable discharge in January, 1919.  He was one of the organizers and is an honored and popular member of Leon Beatty Post of the American Legion, in his home city, and he served two years as a member of the executive committee of the Iowa State Department of the American Legion.  He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

August 11, 1924, marked the marriage of Mr. Brookhart to Miss Winifred Virginia Anderson, of Cedar Rapids, and she is the gracious and popular chatelaine of their pleasant home, at 936 South Iowa Avenue.  They have no children.

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ARTHUR ALFORD BROOKS, pastor of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church at Des Moines, one of the largest and most flourishing churches of the denomination in the state, has had a wonderfully successful work in the ministry.  His calling has been justified by his individual attainments and service, and also is in accord with the traditions of the Brooks family.  He represents the third successive generation of that family in the Methodist ministry.

Rev. Dr. Brooks was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, in 1879, son of L. C. and Lina (Alford) Brooks, and a grandson of James L. Brooks.  James L. Brooks was a native of Virginia, was a determined opponent of slavery and moved to Ohio, where in addition to preaching as a minister of the Methodist Church he conducted a station on the underground railway to aid the escape of slaves to Canada.  Rev. L. C. Brooks was born in Ohio, and devoted many years to the ministry.  He died in 1893.  He was a Republican in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  Rev. L. C. Brooks married Lina Alford, who was born in Ohio, daughter of Robert P. Alford and his wife,  Ann Kilgore.  Robert Alford was an Ohio farmer.

Arthur Alford Brooks is one of a family of eight children, six of whom are living.  His father by a first marriage had two other children, J. L. Brooks, a contractor at Lancaster, Ohio, and William McKendree Brooks, who is pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Audubon, Iowa.  The children of L. C. and Lina (Alford) Brooks are:  R. A. Brooks, of New York City; M. C. Brooks, a Methodist minister and district superintendent of the Liberal District of  the Southwest Kansas Conference; Arthur Alford; W. G. Brooks, superintendent of schools at Burlington, Iowa; F. D. Brooks, assistant professor of psychology in Johns Hopkins University.

Arthur Alford Brooks was educated at Cornell College in Iowa, graduated with the A. B. degree from Baker University of Kansas, and after his ordination to the ministry and some work as a preacher he attended the University of Chicago.  Rev. Mr. Brooks had his first pastorate in 1907 at Davenport, Nebraska, where he remained three years.  Following that came one year at Superior, Nebraska, six years at Hastings, five years at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and three and a half years at Lincoln, Nebraska.  These terms each represented a calling to a larger and more important service, and in 1925 he accepted assignment to Grace Methodist Episcopal Church at Des Moines.  Here his ministry has been exceedingly fruitful, and one of the largest and most beautiful churches in the capital city has been erected for his congregation, which now has a membership of 2,400.

Rev. Mr. Brooks has done a great deal of Chautauqua and Lyceum work while in the ministry.  He is a fine speaker, a man distinguished by depth of thought and high purpose and ideals.  He is a member of the University Club at Des Moines, the Kiwanis Club and the Prairie Club, and served four years as national chaplain of the Travelers Protective Association.  He is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and served as grand orator of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Nebraska, and also as grand prelate of the Grand Commandery of Nebraska.

Rev. Mr. Brooks married in 1910 Clara Ml. Mason, of Brookvale, Colorado.  Mrs. Brooks finished her education in Hardin College at Mexico, Missouri.  She is a daughter of Robert and Emma L. (Burger) Mason.  Her father spent many years as a freight and passenger agent for the Frisco Railway Company.  Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have a family of three children:  Arthur A., Jr., born in 1913, Lee Culver, born in 1916, and  Theodore Lincoln, born in 1919.

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ADELBERT W. BROWN has spent over forty consecutive years in the service of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in the State of Iowa.  He is one of the older men in point of service with the oldest life insurance organization in America, and has one of the most successful records of the thousands of representatives of the company.

Mr. Brown, who is manager of the Davenport office of this company, was born on a farm in Eastern Maine, July 28, 1871, son of Samuel H.  and Ellen (Herrick) Brown.  The Herrick family was one established in Maine in Colonial times, and of English ancestry and Revolutionary stock.  Mr. Brown was four years old when his father died.  Six years later his widowed mother brought her family out to Iowa and settled at Charles City in Floyd County.  She lived to the advanced age of eighty-nine, passing away in 1928.  The only brother died in 1922.  Adelbert W. Brown attended public schools at Charles City and at the age of seventeen began work as office boy for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, and has now rounded out forty-two years of consecutive employment in the company.  From office boy he had a steady promotion in responsibilities, eventually became cashier, leaving that to engage in field work.  He has been connected with some of the largest and most productive agencies of the company in the Middle West, including those at Omaha, Milwaukee and Chicago.  For thirteen years he was located at Des Moines, later accepting the position of manager of the Des Moines office and in 1911 came to Davenport as manager of the Davenport office, with jurisdiction of Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa.  This is one of the best fields in the country and has steadily produced great volumes of business for the Mutual Life.  The president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company is now David Franklin Houston, former secretary of agriculture and secretary of the treasury in President Wilson's cabinet.  The Davenport office under Mr. Brown's management has been getting double the volume of business of many other agencies in the Middle West.

Mr. Brown was one of the organizers of Davenport Association of Life Underwriters, serving as the first secretary, and has also been its treasurer and president.  He is a member of the Davenport Country Club, Davenport Outing Club, and is a vestryman of Trinity Cathedral of the Episcopal Church.  Mrs. Brown is a member of the Davenport Woman's Club and active in church organizations.

Mr. Brown married, in 1900, Miss Gertrude T. Fairchild, who was born at Ames, Iowa, moving to Clinton in 1893.  Her father, Dr. David S. Fairchild, who died March 22, 1930, was one of the eminent surgeons of Iowa, for many years a division surgeon for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, a former professor in Iowa State College, dean of Drake Medical College and editor of the Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society for eighteen years.  Doctor Fairchild was a resident of Clinton.  He practiced medicine in Iowa for over half a century, and was author of a valuable historical book, entitled Pioneer Practice.  His large library of over 7,000 volumes was left to the Iowa Medical Library at Des Moines, forming a nucleus for further growth.

Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two children and three grandchildren.  Their son, Robert Fairchild Brown, entered the insurance business under his father.  He married Virginia Gault Murphy, of Sterling, Illinois, and his son is Robert Fairchild Brown, Jr.  The daughter, Margaret Fairchild Brown, is the wife of Chester Day Salter, of Davenport; their son is named Chester Day Salter, Jr., and they have a daughter, Susanne Salter.

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CECIL W. BROWN, M. D.  One of Clinton County's leading physicians and surgeons, and a sound thinker who is deeply interested in medical research, is Dr. Cecil W. Brown, of the City of Clinton, former president of the Jane Lamb Hospital and still a member of its operating staff.  He is widely known professionally in the field of internal medicine, and, as a learned member of representative scientific bodies, has contributed valuably to medical knowledge in the realm of research work.

Doctor Brown was born November 13, 1876, at Strathroy, Ontario, Canada, and is a son of Joseph and Sarah (Gott) Brown.  His father, who was for a long number of years a well known and successful breeder of Shorthorn cattle in Canada, is now living in retirement at Strathroy, at the age of eighty-six years, Mrs. Brown also surviving, at the age of eighty-one years.  They have been the parents of five children:  George, Olive, Russell, Alma and Cecil W.

Cecil W. Brown, after receiving his early education in the schools of Strathroy, entered the University of Western Ontario, graduating from the medical department of that institution as a member of the class of 1906 and receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine.  He then served an internship of one and one-half years at the Provincial Hospital at London, Ontario, Canada, and in 1907 came to Clinton to engage actively in the practice of his calling.  While he is familiar with every branch of his calling, he is probably best known in his specialty of internal medicine, in which he has gained a reputation that extends far beyond the limits of Clinton and in which he has done much interesting, effective and successful work. At Clinton, where he maintains modern offices, fully and appropriately equipped, at 503 Wilson Building, he is justly accounted one of the leaders of his profession.  He is a member of the Clinton County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, being a past president of the county society.  He likewise is a past president of the Jane Lamb Hospital and a member of its staff, and was one of the original donators of the Tri-State Medical Association.  He is also prominent for his activities in research work and is a member of the Anesthetic Research Society and the Mid-West Anesthetic Society.  Doctor Brown is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Commandery at Clinton and the Mystic Shrine at Davenport.  He is a charter member of the Kiwanis Club, of which he was the first president, and belongs to the Clinton Country Club and the Wapsipinicon Club.  He is a Republican in his political views, without aspiration for political honors, and his religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian Church.

On December 11, 1907, Doctor Brown was united in marriage with Miss Anna E. Whiddon, daughter of John and Mary (Ross) Whiddon, the former a native of England and a general merchant at Bayfield, Ontario, Canada, and the latter a native of Nova Scotia.  Doctor and Mrs. Brown have no children and reside at 432 Fifth Avenue, South, at Clinton.

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JOSEPH BROWN, M. D.  A man of broad outlook, a deep and abiding love for his calling, and a warm and tender compassion for those in need of his services Dr. Joseph Brown, of Des Moines, is held in high regard by all with whom he is associated.  He was born in England, August 11, 1886, a son of Samuel and Sarah (Sinson) Brown, both of whom were natives of England.  His death occurred in 1927, but she survives and is now a resident of Denver, Colorado.  In 1896 they came to the United States, and located in Massachusetts.  For years engaged in the shoe business, he was handling his retail shoe shop at the time of his demise.  Of the nine children born to him and his wife eight are living, and Doctor Brown is the third in order of birth.  The parents were members of the Jewish Synagogue, and he was a Republican.

Doctor Brown attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and later entered Baltimore, Maryland, Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1910, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.  He then interned in the General Hospital, Lawrence, Massachusetts.  His years of preparation ended, he entered upon a general practice in his native state, and remained there for three years, then, in 1914, came to Des Moines, and here he has found the environment that is congenial to a man of his capabilities.  His practice is still a general one, although about every two years he takes post-graduate work on the different subjects then most interesting to him.  Doctor Brown is on the staffs of the Lutheran Methodist and Mercy Hospitals, and his work in this connection brings him much approbation.

His life has at all times been characterized by unfaltering adherence to those principles which, aside from professional or social distinction to which he has attained, win for the individual the unqualified respect and trust of his fellow men, and this is admitted by his colleagues as well.

Doctor Brown was married to Miss Sarah Edith Law, born in Massachusetts, and educated in that state.  She is a daughter of Abraham Law, a shoe manufacturer of Lawrence Massachusetts.  Both Doctor and Mrs. Brown are members of the Jewish Synagogue.  He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and he also belongs to the Mystic Shrine, and is a past master of Ancient Craft No. 647, of Des Moines, which he organized, and of which he was first master.  The Polk County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Des Moines Academy of Medicine all hold his membership.

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CAPT. KENDRICK W. BROWN, pioneer Ames business man and an Iowa citizen widely known and loved, was born in Jefferson County, New York, July 4, 1842, and died at his home in Ames, April 30, 1926, when nearly eighty-four years of age.

In 1861 he entered the Union army and served four years, being in the first battle of Bull Run and in the final scene of the war, the surrender of Appomattox.  He was mustered out with the rank of captain of Company K, One Hundred and Eighty-sixth New York Infantry.  In 1866 he married Lydia Ann Gates, a daughter of Napoleon B. and Catherine (Smith) Gates.  She was born in Jefferson County, New York, and died in Ames, Iowa, in 1885.  Soon after the marriage of Captain Brown and Lydia Ann Gates they came to Iowa and settled at Ames, where Captain Brown was the first grocery merchant.  In 1872 he went on the road as a traveling salesman for a hat and glove house, and was a commercial salesman forty years, building up a wide contact with business men and personal friends all over the state.  He was one of the organizers and for many years a director of the Union National Bank of Ames.

His home was in that city nearly sixty years an he always took the greatest pride in the community.  He was a charter member of the First Baptist Church and secured the ground on which the church buildings stand.  Captain Brown was not only one of the leading Baptist laymen of Iowa, but was known as a pioneer temperance worker, and was twice nominated for governor on the Prohibition ticket, and was a leader in the national party.

His first wife died February 6, 1885, leaving four children.  On March 2, 1886, Captain Brown and Miss Margaret Mitchell were married at Mapleton, Iowa, the marriage ceremony being performed by Rev. Samuel H. Mitchell, father of the bride.  Rev. S. H. Mitchell was the first resident pastor of the Baptist Church of Ames.  Captain Brown was one of the founders of that church.  Both families have been prominently connected with the Baptist Church of Iowa since early days.

Rev. S. H. Mitchell was born in Washington County, Indiana, February 20, 1830, and died at Ames, Iowa, December 7, 1910, at the age of eighty years.  He acquired his education largely through his own efforts.  In 1855 he moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, taught school there, and in 1859 he and his wife united with the Baptist Church.  He soon began preaching and in 1862 was licensed, and in January, 1864, ordained.  For seven years he was general missionary and financial agent of the Iowa Baptist State Convention, and in 1870 became pastor of the newly organized church at Ames.  Five years later he was made financial agent for Des Moines College, and subsequently served pastorates in different parts of the state.  In 1891 he went to Indian Territory for missionary work as pastor of the Delaware Indian Church.  He held pastorates later in Iowa, and was supply pastor at the Ames Church when his career in the ministry closed.  He gave forty-five years of his life to the ministry and had friends throughout the state and the Middle West.

On September 30, 1852, he married Mary A. Hollowell, and their married companionship continued for fifty-eight years.  They were the parents of five daughters, one dying in infancy:  Mrs. A. E. Lucas, who died in Des Moines, leaving two daughters, one a business woman at Des Moines and the other in Burma, India; Miss Cassie E. Mitchell, who died at Ames in 1918; Mrs. K. W. Brown; and Mrs. C. H. Maxson who, with her husband, Charles W. Maxson, of Marshall, Texas, went to the Philippine Island in 1901 with the first corps of American teachers, taught there five years, and in 1907 became a teacher in the Bishop College at Marshall, Texas, and labored among the colored students of that institution for twenty years, and is now retired.

Margaret Mitchell was born at Oskaloosa, Iowa, August 3, 1860, and attended school there and at Ames and Nevada, Iowa, and from 1880 to 1886 was bookkeeper and cashier for the firm of Bigelow, Huntington & Tilden at Ames.

Mrs. Margaret Brown is a member of the First Baptist Church of Ames, with which her family has so many intimate associations.  Her father was author of a book, The Historical Sketches of Iowa Baptists, and out of his experience in Indian Territory he also wrote a book on one of the prominent Indian chiefs, Chief Journey Cake.  Mrs. Brown wrote a complete history of the first Baptist Church of Ames, which was read at the sixtieth anniversary celebration of the church.  Mrs. Brown has been a worker in the Sunday School and has held many other church offices, having been state secretary of the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society.

Captain Brown was the father of five children and was also survived by ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  The oldest child, Mrs. S. L. Loughran, widow of Stephen L. Loughran, now of Chicago, is the mother of six children, five of whom are living:  Mrs. Dean H. Corlette, of Chicago; Stephen L., born in 1895, a business man of Ames, married, in 1919, Mary Byrnes; Kendrick W. Loughran, born in 1897, a resident of Detroit; Dorothy Loughran, born in 1900, was married in 1918 to Capt. Harold Major, of the Marine Aviation Corps; and Edmund L. Loughran, born June 17, 1906, a resident of Chicago.

The second child, Dr. Gates M. Brown, a physician and surgeon and a resident of Dayton, Iowa, was married in 1901 to Inez Patterson, of Des Moines, and has two children:  Sarah Ann, born in 1901, a teacher at Cedar Rapids; and Kendrick Wade, born in 1905, an insurance underwriter in Jefferson, Iowa.

The third child, Harry Farwell Brown, one of the leading insurance underwriters at Ames, on December 16, 1908, married Mary L. Tilden, a daughter of Major George G. and Lydia (Cooper) Tilden, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this publication, and their children are Farwell Tilden, born in 1910, and Josephine Louise, born in 1916.  Mr. Brown was for many years a director of the Commercial Savings Bank and associates as vice president with the Tilden Store Company.  Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been actively associated with the work of the Congregational Church at Ames.

Miss Daisy D. Brown, the fourth child, attended Iowa State College, is a graduate of Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy and the University of Chicago.  She went to China for one term as a missionary under the American Board and later with the National Board of the Y. M. C. A., being in charge of religious education.  She remained there from 1912 to 1927 and is now connected with the Divinity Library of the University of Chicago.

The youngest child, Lydia Belle, daughter of Capt. K. W. and Margaret Mitchell Brown, was a graduate from Oberlin Conservatory in 1917, after which she spent three years in Ginling College at Nanking, China, returning home on a furlough in 1920.  In 1921 she was married to Rev. J. B. Hipps, who had been in China six years.  They went back to Shanghai, where Mrs. Hipps taught music in the Baptist College and was dean of women.  Mrs. Hipps died December 19, 1924, and is buried in China.  She left a son, Robert Owen Hipps, who is now in Shanghai with his father, dean of the theological seminary of the Shanghai Baptist College.

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MARION BRUCE is editor and publisher of the Rolfe Arrow, a paper he established in 1910.  On February 12, 1914, he consolidated with it the Reveille, which had been founded in 1888, by his father, James Joseph Bruce.

Newspaper work was only one of the manifold activities of the late James Joseph Bruce, undoubtedly one of the most useful men and strongest characters in the life and affairs of Pocahontas County.  He came to Pocahontas County in 1866, when it was almost a frontier community, with only about two hundred population.  He was born in Oswego, New York, November 6, 1843. His parents, Thomas and Mary (Auld) Bruce, had landed a short time before after a voyage from County Monoghan, Ireland, and were on their way to Simcoe County, Ontario.  James Joseph Bruce when eighteen years old taught his first term of school, in Simcoe County, continued that work for several years, and when he left Canada he brought with him a first grade teacher's certificate as his recommendation for work in the new country, where he intended to establish a home.  From Chicago he traveled over the Illinois Central Railway, crossing the Mississippi River at Dubuque and going on to what was then the terminal of the road, Ackley, Iowa.  From there he traveled by stage coach to Iowa Falls, and there joined a fellow Canadian, and they walked seventy miles or more to Lizard Township, Pocahontas County.  In the entire county there were only four school houses and J. J. Bruce was chosen to teach the Walsh School in Lizard Township.  In 1867 he was elected county superintendent of schools and because of his unusual mental equipment was also elected justice of the peace and county supervisor.  In 1869 he was elected county treasurer, the duties of that office taking him to the county seat, Old Rolfe, where he lived until the new town of Rolfe was founded, in 1882, on the railroad.  In many activities he was associated with W. D. McEwen, who had been county superintendent of schools when he came to Pocahontas County.  They started a general store at Old Rolfe, and the postoffice was located in the store.  In fact the store was a real community center.  J. J. Bruce was a man of wonderful versatility of talents.  He had a sound mind in a sound body, was a man of strong character, with a constant willingness to serve and help others.  It was perhaps as much a matter of necessity as of desire that he gained a practical knowledge of medicine in his early years in Pocahontas County and used his knowledge to treat the common ailments in the absence of a regular physician, whose services could only be obtained in emergency from a distance.  He also conducted a drug store.  In 1869 he established the first newspaper in Pocahontas County, the Pocahontas Journal.  This paper was printed at Fort Dodge, and the reason for its existence was to carry official and legal notices.  The law with regard to such notices having been changed, the paper was discontinued in 1872.  In 1888 J. J. Bruce established at New Rolfe the Rolfe Reveille and was its editor for several years.  Even these activities did not include the full story of his services.  He studied law, and in 1882 was admitted to the bar.  He was interested in real estate, and with the construction of the Des Moines Valley Railway Company he secured the right-of-way from Tara to Ruthven, and organized and became president of the Northwestern Land Company, which owned town sites along the town.  He took an active part in organizing the Pocahontas County Mutual Insurance Company, of which he was secretary.  He was chosen the first mayor of the new town of Rolfe, was president of the school board and justice of the peace, was a member of the State Legislature in 1886-87, and for nine years was on the county board of supervisors, most of the time as chairman.  At one time he owned over two thousand acres of Pocahontas County land.  For all his diversity of service and business interests he was satisfied with a very modest share of material wealth.  He really spent a fortune in behalf of the advancement of his community.  He was active in reform work and during his later years was a prominent prohibitionist.  He knew the Scriptures thoroughly, and his talks were not only inspirational, but a call to practical action in moral and civic reform.

James Joseph Bruce died September 29, 1927, at the age of eighty-four.  He married, March 4, 1867, Miss Mary J. Price, who had come to Pocahontas County in 1865.  They had an ideally happy married life of over sixty years.  Of their ten children, eight sons and two daughters, those who survived the father were William U., Marion, Robert, James, John E., Bertha Belle Wilcox and Harold C.  He was also survived by nineteen grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.

Marion Bruce, one of the older children of his parents, was born in Pocahontas County September 21, 1870, and has lived in the county all his life.  After attending the local schools he learned the printer's trade, and in his many years of work as a newspaper man he is exemplifying one of the special talents that marked his father.  He is independent in politics, as is also his newspaper.  He is a Presbyterian, a member of the Masonic Lodge and Knights of Pythias, and for sixteen years was postmaster of Rolfe.

Marion Bruce married Gussie Wilcox, of Green County, Wisconsin.  They have one daughter, Mrs. J. D. Kent, whose husband is manager of the Des Moines Grain & Elevator Company at Des Moines.  Mr. and Mrs. Kent have two children:  Donna Jean and J. Dolliver.

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DR. PHILLIP W. BRYSON, Doctor of Osteopathy, with offices in the First National Bank at Clear Lake, is a native of Iowa,  member of a prominent family of the state, and is not only a leader in his profession but has cultivated many other interests, particularly wholesome forms of sports.

Doctor Bryson was born at Iowa Falls, March 6, 1903, a son of Cassius A. and Jessie (Reasonier) Bryson.  His grandfather Bryson was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war, and the Brysons came to America from England in Colonial times.  Cassius A. Bryson was also born in Iowa, is an attorney by profession and served several terms as city attorney and county attorney.  He is also well known over the state as a newspaper man.  He is a past commander of the sons of Veterans and during the World war was a four-minute speaker and was lieutenant in the Home Guard, assisting Early Ellsworth in training and drilling recruits for the United States army at Iowa Falls.  He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias.  He and his wife have three children, Helen, wife of P. E. Jones, of Los Angeles, Dr. Phillip W. and John Robert.

Phillip W. Bryson graduated from the Iowa Falls High School in 1923.  He prepared for his profession in the Still College of Osteopathy at Des Moines, graduating in 1927, and has already built up a very satisfactory practice at Clear Lake.  He is a member of the Atlas Club, the national Osteopathic fraternity.  His love of outdoor activities has made him a participant in many sports, including golf, archery, baseball, tennis, fishing and hunting.  Doctor Bryson married, August 28, 1926, Miss Lucille Evelyn Berry, of Albia, Iowa, daughter of Henry S. and Sarah (Franklin) Berry.  Her father is a farmer.  Mrs. Bryson has a brother, Maxwell I., and a sister, Mary Elizabeth.

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JOSEPH LANCASTER BUDD gained foremost position and marked distinction in connection with scientific horticulture in America, his technical and definite originality, and in his chosen profession he gained international reputation.  Professor Budd was long one of the most valued and popular members of the faculty of Iowa Stare College, at Ames, which institution was formerly known as the Iowa State Agricultural College, and his was large and significant contribution to the service and prestige of this college, of which he was a professor emeritus at the time of his death.  His character, his high attainments, his splendid achievements in the forwarding of horticultural development and advancement, and his status as a scion of one of the old and honored families of the nation-all these tend to make not only consistent but also imperative a tribute to him in this history of Iowa.

In a preliminary way will be offered a brief outline of the genealogical record of the Budd family in America.  This record traces back to John Budd, who was born in 1600 and died in 1673.  He was born and reared in England, where was solemnized his marriage to Katherine Brown, and they came to America in 1632. John Budd was engaged ten years in agricultural enterprise near New Haven, Connecticut, and with the Young family he and his wife thence removed to Southhold, Long Island, where town records show that several members of the Budd family lived up to the time of the Revolution.  John Budd was appointed from Southold a deputy to the general court at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1653.  He was lieutenant in the militia at Southold until 1660, when he resigned.  The ancient Budd mansion remains as one of the landmarks of Southold at the present time.  From Long Island John Budd eventually removed to Westchester County, New York, and there established the town of Rye, thirty acres of timber land there owned by him being now included in Greater New York City.  His children were John, Joseph, Judith and Jane.

John Budd II, son of John and Katherine (Brown) Budd, was born in England, in 1620, and was thus about twelve years old at the time of the removal of the family to America, his death having occurred November 5, 1684.  Records show that he became an influential merchant and importer, with residence at the old family home in Southold, Long Island, his honored father having died at Rye, Westchester County, in 1673.  John Budd II married Mary Horton, and their children were:  John III, Joseph, Mary (Mrs. Christopher Young), Sarah (Mrs. Benjamin Conkling), Ann (Mrs. Benjamin Horton), and Hannah (Mrs. Jonathan Horton).  Capt. Joseph Budd, younger son of John II, died in the year 1722.  He married Sarah Underhill, October 11, 1695, and their children were:  John IV (married Mary Strong), Joseph (married Ann Nicholas), Hannah (Mrs. Henry Plumer), Wlisha, Underhill (born April 26, 1708, died May 13, 1755), Sarah Ann, Tamar and Mary.

Capt. Joseph Budd was born at Southold, and thence he eventually went to Rye, Westchester County, to take charge of the large estate inherited through his father and grandfather.  He laid out White Plains, the present county seat of Westchester County.

Joseph Budd, son of Capt. Joseph and Sarah (Underhill) Budd was born in October, 1702, and died in May, 1763.  He was born at White Plains, and in later years he lost much of the Budd property through confiscation of the Harrison patent.  He removed with his family to Manor Cortland, in the present Dutchess County, and there are to be found records concerning him and other members of the family.  He married Ann Nicholas, and their children were Joseph, Nicholas, Underhill, Ann, Sarah (Mrs. John Gue) and Jemima.

Joseph, son of Joseph and Ann (Nicholas) Budd, died July 6, 1772.  He married Elizabeth Griffen, daughter of John Griffen, who was a patriot soldier in the Revolution, and the children of this union were Joseph, Griffen, Elijah, Jerusha, Tamar, Ann and Elizabeth.  Griffen Budd, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Griffen) was a soldier of the Revolution, and their children were:  Joseph, Hiram (married Maria Hicks), Elijah, Maria (Mrs. Silas Mead), Bailey and Betsy.

Joseph, son of Griffen and Katherine (Sutton) Budd, was born November 14, 1796, and died January 6, 1864.  He married Maria Lancaster, July 19, 1819, and her death occurred September 18, 1879.  They were the parents of the honored subject of this memoir, and the following is a brief record of their children:  Eliza Ann became the wife of Asbury Clark; Katherine died January 15, 1890; Charlotte B. was born June 11, 1824, and died in February, 1917; David was born March 25, 1827, and died September 3, 1830; Abigail was born October 3, 1829, and died in September, 1830; Mary A. was born July 8, 1833, and died November 12, 1908; Joseph Lancaster, of this review, was next in order of birth; Andrew Pell was born April 24, 1837, and is deceased; John Henry was born May 24, 1840, and died December 2, 1884; Ruth Etta was born April 4, 1845, and died February 2, 1880.  The daughter Mary A. married Gardner Reynolds, and they became the parents of two children, Minnie, wife of D. K. Harbert of Shellsburg, Iowa, the former deceased, and Dr. Myron Reynolds, who was born at Wheaton, Illinois, was graduated in the Iowa State College, as a Doctor of Veterinary Surgery, and was for many years head of the veterinary department of the University of Minnesota.  He passed away January 15, 1929, at St. Paul Minnesota.  After the death of her first husband Mrs. Mary A. (Budd) Reynolds became the wife of William H. Lewis, the family home having been at Shellsburg, Iowa, and the one child of the second marriage being Archibald Lewis.  Thus is briefly outlined the genealogy of Prof. Joseph Lancaster Budd, to whom this memoir is dedicated.  Among his ancestors who served as Patriot soldiers in the war of the Revolution were Andrew Sutton, John Griffen, David Lancaster and Joseph Budd.

Joseph Lancaster Budd was born in Putnam County, New York, July 3, 1834, and his death occurred at Phoenix, Arizona, December 20, 1904, and he was buried at Ames, Iowa.  He was a child at the time of the family removal to Monticello, Sullivan County, New York, where he was reared to manhood and received the advantages of Monticello Academy.  About the year 1855 he became the executive head of a boys' school at Galesburg, Illinois, and subsequently he was associated with H. Fuller in business enterprise at Wheaton, that state.  In 1858 he gained pioneer honors in Iowa, where he purchased a large tract of land near Shellsburg, Benton County, and developed the fine farm estate which is still owned by his family.  There he established the Benton County Nursery, and in connection therewith his studies and scientific experimentation gained to him authoritative standing as a horticulturist.  He continued to give to give his active supervision to his well ordered nursery business until 1877, when he became professor of horticulture in what was then the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames.  He retained this important chair twenty-three consecutive years, and no member of the faculty of the institution did greater service in its development and its upbuilding into one of the best of this order in the United States.  He gained international reputation  as a scientific horticulturist and made valuable contribution to the world's advancement in horticultural industry.  His research was extended to wide bounds and was loyally continued during his nearly a quarter of a century of active service with the Iowa State College, where his name and his earnest service are held in reverent memory, as none has held higher place in the confidence and affectionate regard of both students and co-workers in this institution.  Professor Budd was known as "The Columbus of American Horticulture,"  because of his great work in bringing horticulture to status as a distinct and permanent science.  The success of his work needs no further voucher than the statement that in 1900 fully 75 per cent of those filling chairs of horticulture in the various colleges and departments of agriculture in the United States had either studied directly under his preceptorship or had received their inspiration through his pioneer labors in this field.  The national department of agriculture was ever ready to give preference to men who had received training under Professor Budd.  He was a pioneer in plant experimentation and importation, and did a great work in developing Russian and other varieties of European fruits in the United States, his service along this line having been initiated at the Iowa State College as early as 1878.  In the horticultural field he was one of the nation's leading educators, and he continued in active service at the Iowa State College until 1900, when he resigned, though he was retained as professor emeritus of the institution until the close of his life.

In the summer of 1882 Professor Budd was sent by the United States Government and that of Canada to study horticultural problems and to make special investigation of Russian fruits.  Charles Downing, the pioneer pomologist of New York State, willed to Professor Budd his fine horticultural library of 300 volumes and also all of his private papers of technical and scientific order, the incidental instruction having been that all such books and documents should become a part of the library of the Iowa State College after Professor Budd was through with their use.

Professor Budd was a prolific and authoritative writer on horticultural science and its practical application, and he made valuable contributions to the periodical and standard literature of his loved profession.  From 1872 until the time of his death there was scarcely a week in which some interesting and valuable article from his pen failed to appear in the Iowa State Register, to which he had succeeded "Father Clarkson," as he was known to all students and the people of the state.  It was at the personal request of editor of the Iowa State Register.  Professor titled American Horticultural Manual, he having collaborated in their authorship with Prof. N. E. Hanson, who had been "one of his boys" at the Iowa State College.  This manual, in its two volumes, is now to be found in colleges and large libraries throughout the United States.  Professor Budd continued his loyal interest in the Iowa State College until the hour of his death, and in its annals his name shall ever have high standing.  He was one of the pioneer members of the Iowa State Horticultural Society and gave long service as its secretary, he having edited all but one of its annual reports prior to the year 1900.

At Iowa City, on the 26th of January, 1861, was solemnized the marriage of Professor Budd to Miss Sarah Martha Breed, who was born and reared at Crown Point, Essex County, New York, and who was a young woman when she came to Iowa and became a successful and popular teacher in the public schools at Cedar Rapids.  Mrs. Budd was a representative of the historic old Breed family that was founded in Massachusetts in the early colonial period, her line of descent being traced through Allen Breed, 1601-1692; Allen II, 1626; Joseph, 1658-1713; Allen III, 1707; Eliphalet, 1750 (wife Mary Johnson); Allen IV, 1778-1853 (married Judith Livingston); and Allen V, who was born in 1801 and died in 1877, he having married Barbara Baldwin, and they having been the parents of Mrs. Sarah M. (Breed) Budd.  Isaac Livingston, of New Hampshire, and Oliver Ladd, of Vermont, were Mrs. Budd's ancestors who were loyal soldiers in the war of the Revolution.  Of the two children of the honored subject of this memoir the elder is Miss Etta May, who continues to maintain her home at Ames, and the younger is Allen Joseph.  Mrs. Joseph Lancaster Budd survived her honored husband until April, 1915.

Miss Etta May Budd was born at Shellsburg, Benton County, and accompanied her parents on their removal to Ames, where she was later graduated in Iowa State College, she having thereafter pursued advanced art studies in Boston, New York City and Chicago.  Since the death of her father she had remained in the parental homestead at Ames and has had general supervision of the family estate.  She is a gracious figure in the social, church and cultural circles of her home city and is the executive genealogist of the Budd family, which maintains a family organization.  Miss Budd has been a teacher of art in the Iowa State College and also at Simpson College, Indianola.  She is an active member of the Theosophist Society.

Allen Joseph Budd, only son of Professor Budd, was born at Shellsburg, and there he is actively engaged in business, he having returned to his native place after completing his studies in the Iowa State College.  October 23, 1884, marked his marriage to Miss Nellie McBeth, and they have had seven children:  June Etta, Leila May, Joseph Arthur, Myron, Vera Nellie, Sarah Jane and Alfred, deceased.

Professor Budd was actively affiliated with the Masonic fraternity from November 14, 1863, until his death, and at Ames he built and owned the lodge building of Arcadia Lodge No. 249, A. F. and A. M., and he otherwise contributed to the upbiliding and progress of the city.  Here he erected a number of modern business buildings.  He traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, and by this means expanded his intellectual ken to a marked degree, as he was observant and appreciative and made the most of his travels.  His life was one of the high ideals and large and worthy achievement, and his circle of friends was coextensive with that of his acquaintances.

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WILLIAM J. BURKE.  In naming the men who by industry and developed ability have contributed to the business, civic and financial progress of Harrison County during a long period of years, extended mention should be made of William J. Burke, president of the Valley Savings Bank, of Missouri Valley,  Commencing his banking career at the age of nineteen years, he has developed into one of the leading financiers of this part of Western Iowa, and in the meantime has been a prominent figure in Democratic politics, having been the candidate of his party for Congress in 1928.

Mr. Burke was born September 23, 1865, on a farm in Taylor Township, Harrison County, and is a son of Edmund and Catherine (Burke) Burke.  His father was born in Ireland, where he was education, reared and married, and during the '50s immigrated to the United States.  For a time he lived in the East, but in 1860 came to Harrison County, Iowa, and in the following year purchased Government land, on which he carried on agricultural operations until 1875, then taking up his residence at Missouri Valley, where his death occurred January 2, 1892.  He was a leader of the Democratic party and for many years served as a member of the county board of supervisors.  Reared in the faith of the Catholic Church, he was always true to its teachings, helped organize the church and parish at Magnolia and assisted many other churches.  He was a man of the highest character, who was held in universal respect and esteem.  Mr. Burke married in his native land Miss Catherine Burke, of the same name but of another family, also a native of Ireland, and she died March 10, 1917, having been the mother of nine children.

William J. Burke was ten years old when his parents moved to Missouri Valley, where he attended the grade and high schools.  After his graduation from the latter he pursued a business course at Saint Mary's College, Saint Mary's, Kansas, and in July, 1884, when nineteen years of age, when into the private bank of Marcellus Holbrook, of Missouri Valley.  In 1889, with Mr. Holbrook, he founded the Valley Bank, with which he continued without interruption until 1896, when he sold his interests and established banks at Mondamin and Modale, both in Harrison County.  In 1912 he disposed of these banks and bought the Valley Bank, taking full charge January 1, 1912, at which time he renamed it the Valley Savings Bank, of which he is still president.  He is widely and favorably known in banking circles as a shrewd, conservative and successful financier an done who at all times protects the interests of his depositors.  He is a charter member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and of the Missouri Valley Council of the Knights of Columbus.  He belongs to the Catholic Church.  A leading Democrat, he has been a frequent delegate to state and county conventions, and to the national conventions of his party at Chicago in 1896, Baltimore in 1912 and New York City in 1924.  In 1928 he became the Democratic nominee for Congress, but went down to defeat in the great Republican landslide of that year.

On September 1, 1903, Mr. Burke was united in marriage with Miss Mildred C. Donahue, who was born, reared and educated at Chicago, Illinois.  Mr. Burke, at various periods in his career, has been an extensive landholder in Iowa, but at present his interests are mainly concentrated in his bank.

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HON. CHARLES GLENN BURLING is a native of Iowa and for over thirty years has been practicing law at Clarksville.  His reputation is that of a very capable and painstaking lawyer, an attorney who has given diligent attention to his law practice over a long period of years and at times has come in contact with the public through official relations.

Mr. Burling was born at West Union, Fayette County, Iowa, September 18, 1875.  His father, F. S. Burling, was a native of England, son of William Burling, and was a small child when his parents came to America  and settled at Freeport, Illinois.  F. S. Burling was graduated from the law department of Iowa University in 1872 and soon afterward established himself in practice at Postsville, a community that has many memories of him as a good lawyer and also in the capacity of mayor of the town and president of the school board.  His son, W. H. Burling, is still a resident of Postville and a practicing lawyer there, and has likewise been honored with the office of mayor of the town.  F. S. Burling was a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a member of the Knights of Pythias.  He died in 1920, when seventy-two years of age.  His wife, Flora Ketchum, was born in Chicago.  Her people had come from New York State, and when she was a small child they moved to Fayette County, Iowa.  She died at Waterloo, September 5, 1929, when seventy-nine years of age.  There were four children in the family:  Charles G.; Josephine, wife of F. L. Marquis, a real estate broker at Waterloo; Genevieve, of Waterloo, a graduate of the Chicago Conservatory of Music; and W. H. Burling.

Charles Glenn Burling grew up at Postville, graduated from high school there and then entered the University of Iowa, where he was graduated with the A. B. degree in 1896 and his degree in law in 1897.  After his admission to the bar he located at Allison, the county seat of Butler County, but a few months later moved to Clarksville, which has been his home ever since.  He is a member of the Iowa Bar Association and American Bar Association, and has practiced in all the courts of the state.  He was county attorney from 1901 to 1905 and subsequently filled the same office at other times.  He has also done his part in behalf of local education by service on the school board and has acted as city attorney.  In addition to his extensive law practice he has farming interests.  During the World war he was chairman of the County Council of Defense.  Mr. Burling is a member of Waverly Commandery of the Knight Templar Masons and a Shriner.

He married, December 30, 1903, Miss Lulu A. Ray.  Her father, J. W. Ray, was for many years a banker in Allison.  Two children were born to their marriage.  The daughter Beth Ray died in 1922, in her eighteenth year.  The surviving daughter is Irma May.

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BURT B. BURNQUIST, former Republican state chairman, has only once been a candidate for public office, but has enjoyed a participation in politics as an expression of public spirit. His full time and energies have been devoted t his profession as a lawyer at Fort Dodge.

Mr. Burnquist was born at Dayton, Iowa, May 1, 1884, son of Samuel and Caroline (Peterson) Burnquist, Dayton, Iowa, is also the birthplace of his cousin, Joseph A. A. Burnquist, former governor of the State of Minnesota and one of the leaders in the Republican party of the Northwest. Governor Burnquist was a son of John A. Burnquist. John A. Burnquist and Samuel his brother, father of Burt B., came to America together when Samuel was fifteen years of age. John A Burnquist subsequently located at Minneapolis. Samuel Burnquist was born in Sweden and came to the United States about 1869. He first located in Illinois and later moved to Webster, Iowa. He was a farmer and for a number of years was engaged in the mercantile business at Dayton. At the time of his death he was serving as a member of the Iowa State Legislature. He married Caroline Peterson, also a native of Sweden, and she resides at Fort Dodge. Of their six children only two are now living, Samuel and Burt B., the former being proprietor of his father's store. The father was member of the Masonic fraternity and active in Republican politics. He worked and paid his way through school after coming to America and was a man of good education and fine character. During the 1870s the grasshoppers ruined his crops and he had to go to work for a railroad to support his family, returning home with $100, which tided the household over this period of adversity.

Burt B. Burnquist attended school at Dayton, the Fort Dodge High School and took his two degrees from the University of Iowa, graduating A. B. in 1905 and receiving his diploma in 1907. He has practiced at Fort Dodge for over twenty years, at first as an associate of the firm Healey & Healey, which later became Healey, Burnquist & Thomas. He was in the law firm of Burnquist & Joyce and is now a member of the firm Price & Burnquist.

Mr. Burnquist married, in 1912, Miss Grace Sterns, who was born at Humboldt, Iowa, and attended high school there and Rockford College in Illinois. He taught one year at Harlan, Iowa. They have four children: William Samuel, born in 1913; Elizabeth Hope, born in 1918; Benjamin Boyd and Caroline, twins, born in 1924.

Mr. Burnquist is a York Rite Mason and Shriner, member of the B. P. O. Elks, and a Kappa Sigma. He was county from 1910 to 1914. From 1914 to 1922 he was Republican county chairman, was a member of the state Republican committee from the Tenth District from 1918 to 1926 and held the office of Republican state chairman from 1922 to 1926. He was a delegate at large from Iowa to the national Republican convention at Cleveland in 1924.

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WILBUR F. BUSBY has been a resident of Iowa since he was a child of about two years, is a scion of a family that here made settlement sixty years ago, here he was reared and educated, and in his independent career he has here given good account for himself in connection with farm enterprise, as a teacher in the public schools, as a reliable ad progressive business man, as bank cashier, and finally as postmaster of the City of Creston, judicial center of Union County, the office of which he became the incumbent on the 8th of March, 1928, and in which he is giving a characteristically loyal and progressive administration. He has been a resident of Union County somewhat more than forty years.

Mr. Busby was born at Fairmont, Vermillion County, Illinois, on the 21st of June, 1867, and is a son of Dudley F. and Elizabeth T (Walker) Busby, the former of whom was born at Pendleton, Indiana, where their marriage was solemnized, and the latter of whom was born near Wheeling, West Virginia. From his native state Dudley F. Busby moved to Illinois, and there he was a farmer in Vermilion County until his removal to Iowa. He arrived with his family in the Hawkeye State September 15, 1869, and purchased land in Adair County, where he continued his activities as a progressive agriculturist and stock-grower during a period of thirteen years. He then removed to Iowa Falls, Hardin County, where he lived for two years, the removing to Dexter, Iowa, where for three years he was engaged as a grain buyer. In 1888 he removed to Union County, living retired in Creston at the time of his death in 1912 at the age of eighty years, his wife likewise having died in that city in 1925, at age of ninety-two years. Of the eight children seven are living, and of the number the subject of this review is the only son. Dudley F. Busby was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church more than sixty years, and his wife likewise was a zealous member. He organized the first church of this denomination in Adair County, and he and James Hammer paid the salary of its pastor two years. The service of this church has been effectively continued during the long intervening years and the organization now has an attractive and modern church edifice. Mr. Busby was a stalwart Republican and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He trice volunteered for service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil warm but minor physical disqualifications caused him to be rejected on each of these occasions. He was known and valued as one of the most progressive citizens of Adair County, Iowa, in the early days, and was there a leader in popular sentiment and action. His father, John Busby, was born in Virginia, of Colonial ancestry, and became a pioneer of Indiana, where he made settlement about the year 1825, and where he reclaimed a farm from the virgin forest. John Busby removed, in 1863, from Indiana to Illinois, where he purchased a large farm near Danville, and in the early '70s he came to Iowa, where he passed the remainder of his life, he having died in 1881 and his remains being interred in the cemetery at Winterset, Madison County. He organized a regiment for service in the Mexican war, but the command was not called to the stage of conflict, he having been made colonel of the regiment. Four of his sons were gallant soldiers of the Union in the Civil war. Harper Walker, maternal grandfather of the present postmaster of Creston, is supposed to have been born in Virginia and was of Scotch lineage, his American ancestors having come from the North of Ireland. Mr. Walker eventually made settlement in the northern part of Missouri, and there he remained until his death. The maiden name of the paternal grandmother of the subject of this review was Phoebe Boggess, and she was a native of Pennsylvania. Catherine (McNeer) Walker, the maternal grandmother, was a native of Virginia.

Wilbur F. Busby passed the period of his childhood and early youth on his father's pioneer youth on his father's pioneer farm in Adair County, and after attending the rural district school he was a student one year in the high school at Iowa Falls and two years in the high school at Dexter. He was not yet twenty-one years of age when he came to Union County, in 1888, and here he purchased eighty acres of land and engaged in farm enterprise in an independent way.  He made this investment largely on credit, and the first check he ever wrote was for the $1,000 that he paid as the balance due on the purchase price of his land.  In the meanwhile Mr. Busby supplemented his income by teaching in the rural schools during winter terms, in the '90s, when his services were not in so insistent requisition on his farm.

Mr. Busby was twenty-six years of age when, in 1893, he was united in marriage to Miss Flora M. Pearce, who was born and reared at Creston, a daughter of Joshua C. and Frances (Scott) Pearce, the former of whom was a pioneer settler at Creston, who served as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war and who is now a patriarchal citizen of Denver, Colorado.  The death of Mrs. Busby occurred July 4, 1895, and she is survived by no children.  After the death of his first wife Mr. Busby was united in marriage, on April 5, 1905, to Mrs. Nellie C. (McKibben) Coffeen, who was born in Winnebago, Minnesota, and who had one son by her first marriage, this son, David A. Coffeen, being the Des Moines city passenger agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.  Mr. and Mrs. Busby have no children.  Both are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, and he is serving as a member of its board of trustees, besides which he was for three years superintendent of its Sunday School.

Mr. Busby is a stalwart in the local ranks of the Republican party and has been influential in civic affairs in Union County, where he has maintained his home at Creston since retiring from his farm, in February, 1910.  During the first year of his residence at Creston, he gave his attention to the buying and shipping of horses, and in February, 1911, he here became assistant cashier of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, the year 1916 having marked his advancement to the office of cashier of the institution and his services in that capacity having continued until he was appointed postmaster of the city, on the 8th of March, 1928.

In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Busby served as master of Creston Lodge, A. F. and A. M., in 1926-27, and his affiliations have been extended to other York Rite bodies and also to the Scottish Rite.  He has passed the various official chairs in the different bodies of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, including those of both Encampment and Canton, and he is affiliated also with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a charter member of the local camp of the Improved Order of Red Men, and has further affiliation with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.  He was a four-minute speaker and otherwise active in patriotic service in his country in the World war period.  The father of Mrs. Busby, John McKibben, was a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, as were seven of his brothers, and all of these eight brothers were members of Company I, Second Minnesota Cavalry.  All but one of the number survived the conflict and all were in service during virtually the entire period of the war.  Mrs. Busby's maternal great-great-grandfather, John Schmidt, was a Revolutionary soldier and a native of New York State.  Mrs. Busby's mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Andreas, removed from Creston, Iowa, to Santa Cruz, California, in 1905, where they lived retired, Mr. Andreas passing away in 1918 and Mrs. Andreas survived until 1929.

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LYMAN LEE BYBEE, of Knoxville, is a citizen of Marion County who has accumulated some of those distinctions that mean most in community esteem.  He has lived in the locality of Knoxville for over half a century,  has prospered as a farmer and stock raiser, has performed the duties of citizenship, including a term as sheriff of the county and member of the Iowa House of Representatives, and last but not least he and his good wife, who recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, have reared a splendid family of children, and they have around them a large group of grandchildren.

Mr. Bybee was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, April 3, 1856, son of Jacob and Anna (Mayer) Bybee, his father of English and his mother of German ancestry.  Mr. Bybee attended school in Indiana, and was twenty years of age when he came out to Iowa and settled at Knoxville in 1876.  As a young man he combined both farming and carpentry, and in the spring of 1880 he bought what has ever since been known as the Bybee Home Farm, 345 acres.  Its improvements and its system of cultivation reflect his long study and experience as a practical farmer and stock man.  He now owns altogether 665 acres.  For years the Bybee Farm has been known for its pure bred Shorthorn cattle.

Mr. Bybee while living in the country served on the school board and in township offices.  He was elected sheriff of Marion County in the fall of 1901 and for five years gave a vigorous and efficient administration to that important office.  He also served as  member of the city council for ten years and in 1911 was elected a representative of the Thirty-fourth General Assembly of Iowa.  He was also for some years chairman of the Republican central committee.  Mr. Bybee and his son Allen P. in 1906 formed a partnership to engage in the furniture and undertaking business.  He continued active as a member of the firm until the spring of 1913, when he turned over the interests to his son.  At that time he built a large garage for sales and service and had a part in the business until 1917.

Mr. Bybee married, December 11, 1878, in Marion County, Miss Elizabeth E. Bellamy, member of an old and prominent family of Marion County, where she was born, a daughter of Wiley and Sarah Eliza (Snider) Bellamy.  Mr. and Mrs. Bybee when they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on December 11, 1928, were the central figures in a great family gathering made up of thirty-four children, grandchildren and wives and husbands of their children, and another member who attended the party was Mrs. C. F. Mills, an aunt of Mrs. Bybee.  Mr. and Mrs. Bybee had a family of seven children.  Gertrude, the oldest, is the wife of O. R. Burdette, living in Montana, and their five children are Austin, Leland, Wilberta and Catherine, twins, and Chester.  Lloyd L. Bybee, a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has three children, Carroll, Rollis and Mildred.  Annie E. is the wife of W. J. Whitlach and has five children, Emaline, Lyman, Norman, June and Jewell.  Allen Bybee, of Knoxville, is married and has three children, named Lyman C., Ethel and Margery.  Erwa A. Bybee, who occupies the old home farm, has two children, Katherine and Linol.  Stella is the wife of J. J. Clarke, of Knoxville, and their three children are Margaret, Dorris and John Lyman.  Othello B. Bybee, the youngest of the family, married Russell Freeman and lives in Marion County.