|
G's
THEODORE G. GARFIELD is not only one of the representative younger
members of the bar of his native State of Iowa but also has the distinction
of presiding on the bench of the Eleventh Judicial District of the state,
an office to which he was elected in November, 1926, and the duties to which
he assumed January 1, 1927, his administration having fully demonstrated
the consistency of his selection for this important judicial position.
Judge Garfield maintains his residence at Ames, Story County, which
fine little city is the seat of Iowa State College.
Judge Garfield, who is representative of a profession that was signally dignified
and honored by the character and ability of his father, was born at Humboldt,
Humboldt County, Iowa, November 12, 1894, and is a son of George S. and Mary
(White) Garfield, both of whom were born in the State of Illinois and the
latter of whom was young when she accompanied her parents to Iowa, where
her father, Greenleaf B. White, was a pioneer in the hardware and farm implement
business at Humboldt.
George S. Garfield was born in Illinois, as previously noted, but he was
reared and educated in Vermont. He came to Iowa in 1876, and with funds
that he accumulated by teaching school in Winneshiek County he largely defrayed
the expenses of his higher academic and his professional education. In
1880 he was graduated in the law department of the University of Iowa, and
thereafter he was engaged in the successful practice of his profession at
Humboldt until the close of his life. He was an honored member of the
Iowa State Bar Association and was attending its annual convention in 1922,
at Sioux City, when he was found dead in his room at the Martin Hotel,
on the 22d of June of that year, he having passed away at the age of sixty-six
years and having been one of the leading members of the bar of Humboldt County,
even as he was one of the honored and influential citizens of the City of
Humboldt. His widow, who celebrated in 1928 her seventy-fourth birthday
anniversary, is now a loved member of the home circle of her son, Clement
W. Garfield, an attorney in Humboldt.
Judge Garfield was graduated in the high school at Humboldt in 1911, and
the year 1915 marked his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Arts from
the University of Iowa. In the law department of the university he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1917, and almost immediately after
thus receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he volunteered for service
in the World war. His enlistment took place at Ames, and he received
preliminary instruction and discipline at the Second Officers Training Camp
at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where he received commission as first lieutenant
August 25, 1917. Thereafter he was assigned to duty as instructor in
field artillery work at the School of Fire maintained at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
and he was stationed at that place when the armistice brought the war to
a close, he having received his honorable discharge on the 16th of December,
1918.
After completing his World war service Judge Garfield returned to Ames and
engaged actively, in the practice of his profession, as junior member of
the law firm of Lee & Garfield, the senior member of the firm having
been Judge C. G. Lee. This representative professional alliance continued
until Judge Garfield was elected to the bench of the District Court, in the
fall of 1926, as previously stated in this context, and on this bench he
has made an admirable record, even as had he previously in the active general
practice of law.
The political allegiance of Judge Garfield is given to the Republican party,
he has membership in the Story County Bar Association and the Iowa State
Bar Association, he is a past commander of the local post of the American
Legion in his home city, he is affiliated with the Phi Delta Phi law college
fraternity, and he is a popular member of the Ames Golf and Country Club.
In his native City of Humboldt he had membership in the Unitarian Church,
but he and his wife now attend and support the Congregational Church at Ames.
April 1, 1918, marked the marriage of Judge Garfield, to Miss Louise Keith,
and she died March 24, 1921, leaving no children. On the 30th of June,
1924, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Garfield to Miss Carolyn Crosby,
of Ames, and they have three children: Theodore G., Jr., was born June
18, 1925; David C. was born June 28, 1927; and John C. was born August 13,
1930.
Judge Garfield still maintains his law office at 323 1/2 Main Street and
he and his family have their attractive home at 1109 Ridgewood Avenue.
~~~~***~~~~ p. 177
BURGESS WILSON GARRETT. The clerk of the
Supreme Court of Iowa, Hon. Burgess Wilson Garrett, is now serving his fifth
term in this office to which he was elected in 1910. However, his public service
has extended much further back than this, for he first became a public servant
in 1901, during the administration of Governor Cummins. His record is a splendid
one and one well worthy of emulation, and stands upon its own merits rather than
upon the power of oratory, which is so great a part of Mr. Garrett's personal
equipment.
Mr. Garrett was born in a log cabin on a farm in Van Buren
County, Iowa, February 24, 1872, and is a son of William C. and Rachel (Yost)
Garrett. His paternal grandfather was Robert Garrett, a native of South
Carolina, who came to Iowa with his family at an early date and died in 1856,
during an epidemic of cholera. William C. Garrett was born in Highland County,
Ohio, and came to Iowa about the year 1849, purchasing a farm in Van Buren
County, where he resided for a number of years. Later he moved to Davis County
and finally to Decatur County, where his death occurred. Mr. Garrett was a man
of some prominence in his community and represented Van Buren County in the Iowa
Legislature during the Civil war period. He was an ardent abolitionist, and his
home was one of the stations of the famous "Underground Railway," his
worthy wife always being ready to furnish food to the fugitive slaves who were
endeavoring to make their way to the Canadian line. They were faithful members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was a stanch Republican. Of their nine
children three are living: John A., a retired citizen of Kansas City, Missouri;
Clyde W., who is engaged in farming at Ontario, Oregon; and Burgess Wilson. The
maternal grandfather of Mr. Garrett, Jacob Yost, was born in Ohio, and was an
early settler of Iowa, making his way overland from Belmont County, Ohio, where
his daughter, Mrs. Garrett, was born.
Burgess Wilson Garrett attended the public schools of his
native community, following which he pursued a course at Simpson College,
Indianola, Iowa. He was reared on the home farm and for a time taught school and
was principal of the high school at Decatur, but with the election of Governor
Cummins, in 1901, took up his residence at Des Moines, where for five and one
half ye3ars he served in the capacity of pardon secretary. He assisted in the
organization of the parole board, and was secretary thereof until 1910, when he
ran for the office of clerk of the Supreme Court, to which he was elected and
took office in 1911. He is now serving his fifth term in that capacity, and his
record has been an admirable one. Mr. Garrett has always been an active
Republican. He began making speeches in behalf of his party when only nineteen
years of age, and at the present time is called upon more frequently in this
capacity than any other man connected with the State House. In 1916 Mr. Garrett
was temporary chairman of the Republican State Convention which met in Des
Moines, and was both temporary and permanent chairman of the State Judicial
Convention at Cedar Rapids in 1928, setting a new record of speed in state
conventions by making the "keynote" speech and transacting the
business of the convention all in twenty-three minutes. For seven years Mr.
Garrett has been president of the Iowa State Christian Missionary Society and
for fourteen years has been an elder of the Capitol Hill Christian Church of Des
Moines. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and the Modern Brotherhood of America.
In April, 1863, Mr. Garrett was united in marriage with Miss
Rachael Woodmansee, a daughter of John and Mary Ann (Cook) Woodmansee, the
former born in Indiana and the latter in Missouri. Mr. Woodmansee was the third
white settler of Decatur Township, Decatur County, and his brick house, one of
the first of this construction erected there, still stands as a monument to his
memory and progressive spirit. To Mr. and Mrs. Garrett there have been born two
sons. Neil Garrett, the elder, who is now assistant attorney general of Iowa,
enlisted in the World war and was the youngest man to receive a commission at
Fort Snelling, whence he was sent to Camp Dodge and assigned to the
Eighty-eighth Division. He was promoted from second lieutenant to first
lieutenant and then to captain, and was made commander of the Nineteenth Supply
Train, with six companies under his command. At the same time he was commander
of Motor Transport Service and was to have been promoted major, but the
armistice was signed four days before he received his commission as such. He
received his degree of Bachelor of Laws from Drake University and was engaged in
the practice of his profession at Des Moines until he received his appointment
as assistant attorney general of Iowa. Julian Cummins Garrett, the youngest son,
also attended Drake University, form which he received his degree, and is now
engaged in the practice of law at Des Moines.
~~~~***~~~~
ROY B. GAULT. The increasing importance of the subject of
automobiles, with its innumerable complexities, has resulted in the establishment
in practically all states of the Union departments entirely devoted thereto.
Even the merest layman, whose only personal interest may be centered
in the ownership of a car, can appreciate the importance of the duties of
the head of such a department. Sound judgment, great tact, a thorough
knowledge of conditions, strict justice and high integrity, combined with
moral courage, are necessary qualifications for the proper handling of the
problems that constantly are arising and for the successful upholding of
such laws and regulations as already have been inaugurated. In this
connection it is apropos to sketch briefly the career of Roy B. Gault, who
since 1928 has been head of the motor vehicle department of the State of
Iowa.
Mr. Gault was born at Cromwell, Union County, Iowa, January 3, 1887, and
is a son of James and Madge (Long) Gault. His paternal grandfather,
Maria Gault, was born in Ireland, an don coming to the United States settled
near Morning Sun, Louisa County, Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his
life in agricultural operations. James Gault was born in Ireland, and
was a child when brought by his parents to the United States, his boyhood
and youth being spent on the home farm and his education being acquired in
the rural schools of his day. He became a pioneer settler of Union
County, where he was first engaged in general farming, but later centered
all of his activities in the grain and live stock business, in which he was
successfully occupied for a long period of years, but at present is living
in comfortable retirement at Creston, Iowa. He still has large interests
and is accounted one of the substantial men and good citizens of his community.
He is a Republican in politics and an active member of the Congregational
Church. In Iowa Mr. Gault was united in marriage with Miss Madge Long, who
was born in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Rev. David Long, also a native of
the Keystone State, and for many years a minister of the United Brethren
Church. Mrs. Gault died February 11, 1902, in the faith of the
Congregational Church, having been the mother of four children: Roy
B., of this review; George B., a livestock buyer and shipper at Creston;
Earl, who is engaged in the stock business at Des Moines; and Grace, the
wife of Earl Trenholm, cashier of the Gas and Electric Company, of Lincoln,
Nebraska.
The public schools of Creston furnished Roy B. Gault with his educational
training, and his first employment was with his father in the grain and livestock
business, which he followed until the United States entered the World war.
He had become a member of the Iowa National Guard at the age of eighteen
years, and in 1917 went with his command to Camp Mills. In November
of that year he went overseas with the One Hundred and Sixty-eight Infantry,
Forty-second Division, A. E. F., and remained with that outfit until March,
1918, when he was transferred to the Division Headquarters, and served until
the close of the war, with the rank of captain. On his return to the
United States he rejoined the One Hundred Sixty-eighth Infantry, but again
was transferred to Division Headquarters, and still is a member of the Iowa
National Guard.
Upon resuming the duties of civilian life Mr. Gault again engaged in business
with his father, which he followed until 1924, when he was appointed United
States marshal, following the duties of this office for one term. He
then took charge of the motor vehicle department of the State of Iowa, and
since March 1, 1928, has centered his entire abilities and activities in
discharging its responsibilities. He has established an excellent record
for steadfast and intelligent handling of the duties of his department, and
has the confidence of the public and the respect and esteem of his associates.
Mr. Gault is a member of the Congregational Church, and as a fraternalist
is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, and is also a past exalted ruler
of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a past commander
of Champaign Post, American Legion, at Creston, occupying this office for
one and one half years, and under his administration the general condition
of the post was greatly improved, and its financial affairs placed upon a
firm and substantial basis. He also served as president of the Creston
Chamber of Commerce, and took an active part on the civic welfare of the
community.
On June 22, 1922, Mr. Gault was united in marriage with Miss Maude Heflen,
who was born on a farm in Union County, Iowa, a daughter of Frank Heflen,
a railroad engineer in the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Gault have no children.
~~~~***~~~~
WILLIAM HEADRICK GEMMILL is one of the best known men in the educational
affairs of Iowa, having served since December 1, 1913, as secretary of the
Iowa State Board of Education, and in that capacity his offices are in the
statehouse at Des Moines.
He was born at White Lake, Ontario, Canada, March 14, 1871, son of John and
Sarah (Headrick) Gemmill. His parents moved to the United States when
he was a small child and he grew up and spent most of his life in Iowa.
Mr. Gemmill graduated Bachelor of Science from the Iowa State College
at Ames in 1894, and has since done work in the Highland Park College at
Des Moines and the Des Moines College and Drake University, Highland Park
College gave him the Master of Arts degree in 1911.
Mr. Gemmill has been a school man in Iowa for thirty years. He was
county superintendent of schools of Keokuk County from 1898 to 1902,
superintendent of the schools at Dallas Center from 1901 to 1911 and at Carroll
for three years before his appointment to the State Board of Education. He
is a member of the National Education Association, Iowa State Teachers
Association, is a Republican, a Methodist, and a member of the Masonic fraternity
and Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Gemmill married, August 13, 1895, Bridie D. Richards, of South English,
Iowa. She was born near Muscatine, Iowa, March 31, 1872, and was educated
in public schools. Her father, John D. Richards, was a native of Indiana,
was a soldier in the Civil war, and for many years a minister of the United
Brethren Church. Mr. and Mrs. Gemmill have four children: Agnes
is the wife of W. H. Brown, a merchant at Ames, Iowa, and has a son, William
Gemmill Brown, John D. Gemmill is a member of the faculty of history, economics
and social science in the Iowa State Teachers College at Cedar Falls. He
married Helen M. Hansen and has a son, John D. Gemmill, Helen Gemmill is
a teacher. Iva May is the wife of Robert Morris, a pharmacist at Des
Moines, and they have a son, Robert Gemmill Morris.
~~~~***~~~~
CLYDE T. GENUNG is a native son of Mills County, Iowa, a capable member
of the bar, and since the death of his father has carried on the general
practice at Glenwood in association with his brother Norman.
Clyde T. Genung was born in Mills County, October 11, 1879, son of Louis
T. and Julia A. (Anderson) Genung. His father was a Civil war veteran
and for forty years enjoyed a high place at the Iowa bar. He was born
in Rock Island County, Illinois, and at the age of eighteen enlisted in Company
H of the Fifty-first Illinois Infantry. He was one of Illinois' volunteers
and was in active service until wounded and captured at the battle of Franklin,
Tennessee, in the closing months of the war. He was held in prison
until the war ended the following spring. In 1870 he moved to Mills
County, Iowa, and while engaged in farming pursued the study of law. He
was admitted to the bar in 1875, and from that year until his death, on November
15, 1915, was actively engaged in a law practice of more than local importance,
and in fact enjoyed a reputation for skill and ability all over his judicial
district. He was a Democrat in politics and attended as a delegate
several national conventions. His wife, Julia A. Anderson, was born
at Canton, Illinois, and died February 6, 1917. Both were members of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Louis T. Genung was a member of the
Knights of Pythias, and belonged to the Iowa Bar Association. He was
well read, a man of broad information and thorough learning, though self
educated. He was extremely devoted to his family. There were
seven children: C. C. and B. L. Genung, who are together in the cattle
business at Bassett, Nebraska; L. C. Genung, a cattle man at Atkinson, Nebraska;
Clyde T. and Norman S.; Mrs. M. A. Buffington; and Georgie, wife of O. A.
Kepler, a fruit man at Fresno, California.
Clyde T. Genung grew up in Glenwood, attended public schools there, and was
graduated from the law department of the University of Iowa in 1901. After
qualifying for his profession he joined his father in practice, and for nearly
thirty years has been a lawyer in whom the people of Mills County have reposed
their confidence and trust. Mr. Genung is a member of the Congregational
Church, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, member of the Knights of Pythias,
and a Democrat. He married, November 16, 1904, Irene Kepler, who was
born in Linn County and reared and educated there.
~~~~***~~~~
NORMAN S. GENUNG is a member of the law firm of Genung Brothers at
Glenwood, and they carry on the prestige of the Genung name in association
with the law , started by their honored father.
Norman S. Genung was born in Mills County, Iowa, August 19, 1881, a son of
Louis T. and Julia A. (Anderson) Genung. His father was a Civil war
veteran and for forty years enjoyed a high place at the Iowa bar. He
was born in Rock Island County, Illinois, and at the age of eighteen enlisted
in Company H of the Fifty-first Illinois Infantry. He was one of Illinois'
volunteers and was in active service until wounded and captured at the battle
of Franklin, Tennessee, in the closing months of the war. He was held
in prison until the war ended the following spring. In 1870 he moved
to Mills County, Iowa, and while engaged in farming pursued the study of
law. He was admitted to the bar in 1875, and from that year until his
death, on November 15, 1915, was actively engaged in a law practice
of more than local importance, and in fact enjoyed a reputation for skill
and ability all over his judicial district. He was a Democrat in politics
and attended as a delegate several national conventions. His wife,
Julia A. Anderson, was born at Canton, Illinois, and died February 6, 1917.
Both were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Louis T.
Genung was a member of the Knights of Pythias, and belonged to the Iowa Bar
Association. He was well read, a man of broad information and thorough
learning, though self educated. He was extremely devoted to his family.
There were seven children: C. C. and B. L. Genung, who are together
in the cattle business at Bassett, Nebraska; L. C. Genung, a cattle man at
Atkinson, Nebraska; Clyde T. and Norman S.; Mrs. M. A. Buffington; and Georgie,
wife of O. A. Kepler, a fruit man at Fresno, California.
Norman S. Genuyng was reared and educated at Glenwood, and in 1904 graduated
LL. B. from the University of Iowa. He then joined his father and brother
in practice, and has made a success of the law through untiring devotion
to the interests of his clients. He is a member of the Iowa State Bar
Association.
He married, November 10, 1910, Miss Mariam Ridgeway, who was born in Kansas
City, Missouri, and finished her education in the University of Missouri.
They have three children: Norman Ridgeway, born in 1914; Louis
Thomas, born in 1916; and Geraldine, born in 1919. All the children
are attending school at Glenwood.
~~~~***~~~~
WILLIAM F. GHORMLEY. Of the men who are identified with the
various forms of insurance at Des Moines, the career of William F. Ghormley,
president of the Harvester Horticultural Mutual Insurance Association, is
probably one of the most interesting and unique. When he started in
this business it was as a solicitor of hail insurance in Minnesota,
at a salary of fifteen dollars a week. Today, as a result of his own
industry and business ability, he is at the head of one of the largest
enterprises of its kind in the Middle West.
Mr. Ghormley was born at Yates City, Knox County, Illinois, October 14, 1858,
and is a son of William C. and Elizabeth (Coyner) Ghormley. He is a
direct descendant of Gorm the Old, who in 920 united all the small Danish
states, and his grandson, Sweyn, who became the head of a powerful kingdom
as a result, began the conquest of Norway and of England, which was ultimately
completed by his son Canute. Gorm the Old served as king of Denmark
for forty-one years, had six sons who served as kings, and his daughter married
three kings and two of her sons were kings. Later generations changed
both the name and the habitation of the family, and Hugh Ghormley, came to
America from North of Ireland prior to 1766, settling in Pennsylvania, where
was born his son, Thomas. The latter moved to Greenfield, Ohio, the
birthplace of Hugh Ghormley, the grandfather of William F. Ghormley.
William C. Ghormley, the father of William F. Ghormley, was born at Greenfield,
Ohio, where he met and married Elizabeth Coyner, a native of the same place,
and a daughter of Robert Coyner, who was born in Virginia, but lived the
greater part of his life in Ohio. He was a slave-owner in his earlier
years, but eventually set his slaves free, and in Ohio devoted himself to
the pursuits of agriculture, in which he became very successful. He
was also a prominent and influential man in his community, where he served
in the capacity of justice of the peace. He was a son of Luther and
Susan Coyner, and a grandson of Martin Coyner, the ninth son of Jacob and
Margaret (Diller) Konadt, as the name was then spelled. Jacob Konadt
or Coyner was born in Wurttemburg, Germany, and came to America in the early
1700s, here marrying and founding the family in Pennsylvania.
William C. Ghormley came to Iowa from Illinois in 1877 and purchased a farm
in Greene County. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, a Republican,
a prohibitionist and an abolitionist. Both he and his worthy wife have
passed away. They were the parents of eight children, of whom two survive:
William F., of this review; and Rev. Newton B., a minister of the Free
Methodist Church of Butte, Nebraska.
The common schools furnished William F. Ghormley with his early educational
training, following which he pursued a course at the Omaha Commercial College,
Omaha, Nebraska. He then was engaged in farming in Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas and Colorado until he was thirty years of age, and it is recorded
that within the space of two years he owned at different times fifty-four
farms in the State of Iowa. His first work after he had given up farming
was as a solicitor of hail insurance in Minnesota at fifteen dollars a week,
and later he was advanced to eighteen dollars and then to twenty-three dollars.
Subsequently he was given a district agency, and from that time to
the present his career has been one of rapid and constant advancement. In
1900 Mr. Ghormley founded the Horticultural Insurance Company, of which he
still holds the charter, and which he operated successfully for a period
of more than two decades. In 1921 he disposed of the business of this
concern for $275,000, and in Des Moines purchased the Harvester Horticultural
Mutual Insurance Association, a strictly hail insurance business, of which
he has since been president. He has achieved a big financial as well
as personal success, and is one of the best known and most highly esteemed
men in the insurance field. His commodious offices are located in the
Valley National Bank Building.
In 1880 Mr. Ghormley was united in marriage with Miss Martha Fross, who was
born at Madison, Wisconsin, and died in 1896. They became the parents
of six children, of whom three are living; Bertha, the wife of Glen
Tidrick, an insurance man of Des Moines; Elinor, also the wife of an insurance
man of Des Moines, Charles A. Housh; and Grace, the wife of Leland Parr,
who taught at the University of Chicago, for five years, has been a teacher
of biology in Egypt for years, and is now a professor on the faculty of the
American College, Beirut, Syria. In 1900 William F. Ghormley married
Frances L. Gardner, of Leon, Iowa, and they have one son, Hugh W., who was
educated at Drake and University of Chicago, was formerly a member of the
faculty of Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, and since the
age of seventeen years has been a preacher of the Christian faith. William
F. Ghormley is a member of the Christian Church and of the Board of Elders
thereof. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Brotherhood of American
Yeomen and the A. O. U. W. Politically he is a Republican, and at one
time served as secretary of the Laymen's Civic Union.
~~~~***~~~~
LUTHER E. GIFFORD, prominent educator, is owner and president of the
largest commercial school in Iowa, the University of Commerce at Des Moines.
Mr. Gifford was born at Avoca, Illinois, in 1875, son of Garrett W. and Minerva
(Porter) Gifford, his father a native of New Jersey and his mother
of Ohio. They were married in Illinois, and on March 6, 1879, they
went to Kansas, where Garrett spent forty years as a Kansas farmer. He
is now living at Prescott, Kansas, at the age of eighty-six, and has had
a widely diversified experience in agriculture during the long period of
years since he started farming in Ohio, and later in Illinois. He is
a veteran of the Civil war, having served three years in the Union Army,
and was twice wounded. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic,
has voted independently, and as a young man was great admirer of Abraham
Lincoln. Both parents were Methodist. His wife died in 1900.
They had six children, and the three living are Luther E., Frank, a
farmer at Prescott, Kansas, and Grace, wife of S. E. Cox, a contractor in
Chicago.
Luther E. Gifford attended a country school in Kansas, also the Prescott
High School and the Kansas State Teachers College at Emporia. He had
special commercial training in the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois.
His first experience as an educator was teaching a country school in Kansas
at twenty-five dollars a month. He started teaching in 1894. He
was in country school work three years, for three years was superintendent
of schools in different towns in Kansas, was an instructor in high schools
at Saint Joseph and Omaha, and in 1916 came to Des Moines. He was an
instructor in the North High School and also special accountant for Charles
Weitz and Son three years. For a time he was house auditor at the Fort
Des Moines Hotel. Mr. Gifford in 1925 acquired some stock in the University
of Commerce, and in 1926 secured the controlling interest in that school.
Since he became owner its enrollment has more than doubled, so that with
700 scholars during the year it is the largest school of its kind in the
state.
The University of Commerce has large and well equipped quarters, employs
a faculty of eleven teachers, and much of its success has been due to the
fact that the graduates are almost assured of positions for which they are
fitted in the business world. Students have come to the university
from nine different states of the Union. It is the only school in Iowa
outside of the State University that affords a course in higher accounting.
In 1929 there was also established a new course, one for farm accounting,
running two months.
Mr. Gifford married in January, 1919, Miss Gertrude Chapin, of Grinnell,
a graduate of Grinnell College. Her father, Henry T. Chapin, was a
well known farmer and stock breeder there. Mr. and Mrs. Gifford are
members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a Mason, is
a member of the Employment Managers Club, the Advertising Club, the Highland
Park Business Club, and is vice president of the Euclid Avenue Bank of Des
Moines.
~~~~***~~~~
CHESTER JACKSON GILLETT, who is now living retired in his beautiful
home at University Park, Mahaska County, has been a resident of Iowa since
his boyhood, and here he was a progressive and successful exponent of farm
industry during a period of more than forty years prior to his retirement.
Mr. Gillett was born at Ripley, Chautauqua County, New York, September 8,
1854, and is a son of Andrew J. and Caroline E. (Stoddard) Gillett, both
likewise natives of the old Empire State, where were born their seven children,
of whom the subject of this review was the fourth. Andrew J. Gillett
was one of the substantial and honored citizens of Chautauqua County, New
York, at the time of his death, in 1866, and within a short time thereafter
his widow came with her children to Iowa and established residence in Benton
County. Chester J. Gillett gained his more rudimentary education in
the schools of his native state, and after coming to Iowa he continued his
studies under favorable conditions. By reading and study he has acquired
a really liberal education, and he has had much of leadership in community
affairs. He was actively engaged in diversified farm enterprise during
a period of forty-two years, and his activities along this line were staged
in Wright County. He has ever been loyal and progressive as a citizen,
is a Republican of public trust, including those of county commissioner
and justice of the peace. He and his family hold the faith of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. By his own ability and well ordered efforts. Mr.
Gillett has won independence and prosperity, and he is now enjoying the merited
rewards for former years of earnest endeavor.
At Vinton, Benton County, on the 13th of October, 1873, was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Gillett to Miss Phena D. Livermore, and her death occurred
at the family home in University Park April 10, 1923. Of the children
of this union the eldest is Alpha G., who is the wife of Rev. William Figge,
a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, their home being at Archer,
O'Brien County, and their children being Margaret and Elizabeth. Herbert
A. married Miss Sarah Espe, and they now reside in California, their children
being Gladys and Curtis. Dr. Francis A., next younger of the children,
is a successful physician and surgeon in the City of Oskaloosa, and in the
World war period he was a member of the Medical Corps of the United States
Army, he having been at the training camp near Hattiesburg, Mississippi,
and having not been called to overseas service. He married Miss Maude
Hamlin, and they have two daughters, Phyllis and Frances. Edith C.
is the wife of Albert H. Wilcox, of Eagle Grove, Wright County, and they
have four children - Eva, Milton, Roger and Marjory. Dr. Roy, who was next
in order of birth, is a dentist by profession and is established in successful
practice in the City of Oskaloosa. He was in his senior year in the
dental department of the University of Iowa when he was called to World war
service, he having been assigned to the Dental Corps and having thus served
at Camp Dodge, this state, until the armistice brought the war to a close.
Doctor Gillett married Miss Sarah Verla Giles, and they have one son,
Roy Giles, one adopted child, Robert F., and are guardians of Elizabeth Ellen.
Dr. Robert Milton Gillett was graduated in the medical department of
the University of Iowa, and in the World war period he served as examining
physician at the army training camp at Iowa City, he being now in professional
service in the United States Navy, with the rank of lieutenant, senior grade,
and with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. He married Miss Margaret
Hodges, of Oskaloosa, and they have one child, Dorothy.
In the year 1923 was solemnized the marriage of Chester J. Gillett to Mrs.
Elizabeth Ellen Crookham, widow of William Crookham, of Oskaloosa,
where she was for some time interested in mission work. She had three
children by her first marriage: Gertrude, who is deceased; D. H., who
resides in California; and Ben A. L., who remains in Oskaloosa, Mr. Gillett
purchased his present fine home at University Park in the year 1910, and
it is a center of gracious hospitality, with Mrs. Gillett as its popular
chatelaine.
~~~~***~~~~
ORVILLE A. GILTNER is the founder and owner of the Giltner Insurance
Service, with home offices in the security Building at Des Moines. This
is a business organization representing in a high degree the technical and
practical facilities of business in its application to insurance. Mr.
Giltner has had a rather remarkable career in business, his personal abilities
and energy having accounted for his rise from a beginning with practically
nothing.
He was born near Ottumwa, Iowa, July 23, 1881, son of William H. and Clara
(Wright) Giltner. On both sides he represents pioneers of Iowa. His
grandfather, William H. Giltner, was a native of Pennsylvania and came out
to Iowa in the early territorial period, picking out a claim and developing
a farm, on which he lived the rest of his life. Two of his sons, John
and Alexander Giltner, were Union soldiers in the Civil war. Mr. Giltner's
maternal grandfather, Thomas Wright, was another pioneer of Iowa, who took
up a claim and lived there until he retired some four of five years before
his death. He died at the Town of Agency. The wife of Thomas
Wright was a remarkable pioneer woman. She showed a great deal of hardihood
and courage for many years. In the absence of her husband she fought
the wolves away from the live stock, and she learned to meet Indians without
fear or trepidation when they came to her house to trade. She lived
to be almost ninety, and a large part of her life was passed in a log
cabin home.
Both of Mr. Giltner's parents were born in Wapello County, Iowa. His
father died in 1927 and his mother now divides her time between a winter
home in California and a summer home in Ottumwa. William H. Giltner
was for about twenty years in the automobile business. He was a Republican
in politics, and both were members of the Christian Church. Of their
four children two are living, Orville A. and Beulah. Beulah is the
wife of Arthur Lowenberg, a wholesale baker at Ottumwa.
Orville A. Giltner had a country school education and was on the home farm
until he was nineteen. He then went to Ottumwa, entered commercial
work, and from 1900 to 1914 was a traveling representative in charge of the
distributing branch of the Rock Island Plow Company. He entered the
life insurance field as a representative of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance
Company at Ottumwa, and in 1917 he started the Giltner Insurance Service.
This is one of three such organizations in the United States. Its
service consists in taking over the accounts of fraternal and assessment
societies, readjusting them according to the sound principles of insurance
finance, and at the present time Mr. Giltner has 160 field men at work, with
a branch office in Omaha and another branch at Portland, Oregon, for handling
business on the west coast. His service writes between ten million
and twelve million dollars and business monthly, and his representatives
cover practically the entire United States.
Mr. Giltner married in 1904 Florence Frey, who was born at Walnut, Iowa,
and was educated in the grade and high schools of Ottumwa. Her father,
John A. Frey, was a dentist. Mr. and Mrs. Giltner have one daughter,
Carolyn, who was educated in public schools at Des Moines, in Saint Catherine's
School at Davenport, and Saint Joseph's Academy, also attended Drake University,
studied harp and art in Chicago, and for two years lived in the home of art
students in Chicago, known as the Three Arts Club. On Saint Valentine's
Day, 1930, she was married at Hollywood California, to C. L. De Vries, and
they now reside in Des Moines.
Mr. Giltner and family are members of the First Baptist Church of Des Moines.
He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner, member of the Hyperion Club,
the Laguna Club, a hunting and fishing organization in old Mexico. Mr.
Giltner's hobby is fishing, and at his summer home at Okoboji, California,
he spends three months every year and fishes practically every day.
~~~~***~~~~
THOMAS MCCULLOCH GOBBLE. The career of the late Thomas McCulloch
Gobble, of Clinton, Iowa, was typical of the best citizenship during the
period which saw his state develop, and to its growth and expansion he gave
the best qualities of character and practical ability. The industry,
foresight and spirit of such men as he made possible a progress that carried
forward the West at a pace not equaled in any other national development.
Upon their accomplishments and in their strong faith may the present
generation build its confident hope of America's future.
Thomas McCulloch Gobble was born near Abingdon, Iowa, in a log cabin adjacent
to the site of a building afterwards erected as the permanent home of the
family. He came into the world April 2, 1846, a son of Thomas Wilson
and Mary (McCulloch) Gobble, and he was named for his maternal grandfather,
Thomas McCulloch, a pioneer of Iowa.
Tracing back in the ancestral line of the McCulloch family, Thomas McCulloch
Gobble was a great-great-grandson of Thomas McCulloch, born in Albemarle
County, Virginia, in 1735, and who died October 12, 1780. He like all
of his relatives and neighbors, was of the Scotch-Irish stock who fought
at the battle of King's Mountain, that decisive battle of the Revolution
that brought about Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. Thomas McCulloch
was a lieutenant in command of his company in William Campbell's regiment
of Virginia Militia. On October 7, 1780, he was mortally wounded, and
died from the effects of his injury five days later. His remains lie
in Little Britain Cemetery, and on the rough stone marking his grave is
this inscription: "Here lies the body of Lieutenant Thomas McCulloch
belonging to Colonel Campbell's Virginia Regiment who lost his life in and
for the honorable, just and righteous cause of liberty in defeating Colonel
Ferguson's infamous company of bandetta at King's Mountain, October 7, 1780."
He had two sons, John and Robert, and four daughters, Mrs. Rachel Jamison,
Mary, Sarah, Mrs. Martin Hagy, and Mattie, Mrs. John Newhouse.
The McCullochs are said to be of the F. F. V., First Families of Virginia.
They were always prominent in the affairs of the community. The
will of Thomas McCulloch, in which he named his wife, Isabell, as administratix,
is dated October 9, 1780, and is recorded in Abingdon, Washington County,
Virginia courthouse. In this will he gives his son Robert a tract of
land in said county. Said son Robert McCulloch was born May 2, 1764,
and died August 29, 1849. His wife, Sarah (Clark) McCulloch, was born
November 25, 1775, and died December 28, 1854. They were married in
1794, and had five sons: Thomas, born October 24, 1795, died January
18, 1858; John, Robert and two others; and four daughters; Polly, or Mary,
wife of John Dunn, Sarah, wife of Abia M. Linder, and two others.
Thomas McCulloch II was married, October 5, 1815, to Dorcas Logan, who was
born December 12, 1792, and died October 29, 1855. They came to Iowa
in 1843, laid out the town of Abingdon, Jefferson County, which was name
after the home town of Mr. McCulloch in Virginia. He was called Col.
Thomas McCulloch because of the rank given him in the Virginia State Militia,
and he became very prominent in his new home, becoming the first surveyor,
a justice of the peace, member of the Iowa State Legislature for one term,
1851 to 1852, inclusive, and county judge, and he died while holding the
latter office. He and his wife were buried in the cemetery at Abingdon,
Iowa. They had two sons and three daughters: Harriet, who was
born May 5, 1831, married James Thompson, a Methodist minister of Iowa; Mary
Smith McCulloch, who was born April 29, 1820, died May 21, 1858, married
Thomas Wilson Gobble, on October 18, 1838; Charles, born September 6, 1822;
Elizabeth, born March 16, 1824; and John, born in 1828.
Thomas Wilson Gobble was born in Washington County, Virginia, August 20,
1818. His father, Isaac Gobble, was the son of George Gobble, one of
the first settlers of the Holston River neighborhood in Virginia. His
mother was Elizabeth Musick. He married Mary Smith McCulloch, October
18, 1838. On September 5, 1844, he started for Iowa, in a two-horse
wagon, and landed safe in Jefferson County, October 9, 1844. Here he
built a log house on a tract of land in Locust Grove Township, which he obtained
from the United States Government in 1845, and held until his death. He
established a grocery store at Abingdon in 1853, in which all of his sons
were trained in the mercantile business.
The children of Thomas Wilson Gobble and Mary Smith McCulloch Gobble were
: Mary, who died in infancy, in 1840; Margaret Jane, who was born April
19, 1843, married George Schriner, and died in March, 1928; Thomas McCulloch,
whose name heads this review, married Delilah Ream, May 26, 1870, and died
January 31, 1926; John McCulloch, who was born October 10, 1849, died
in 1913; Charles Hardy, who was born July 23, died March 12, 1924.
Thomas McCulloch Gobble, the eldest son, was held in the highest esteem by
his neighbors and friends at Clinton, and when he died he was president of
T. M. Gobble & Company, although over eighty years old. Hon. Richard
N. Howes, mayor of Clinton at the time of Mr. Gobble's death, issued the
following proclamation:
"Tom Gobble has gone. His active life presented the finest type of
public service and private citizenship. He was twice mayor of our city
and a member of the police and fire commission since its inception. His
integrity was beyond question. His service to this community is worthy
of future emulation.
"Now, I, Richard N. Nowes, mayor of the City of Clinton, request that all
business houses close Tuesday afternoon from 2:30 to 3:30 o'clock that we
may pay respect to one of our pioneer citizens."
The same issue of the local newspaper which carried this proclamation also
contained an extended biography of this distinguished citizen, and portions
of it are quoted herewith because the writer knew the dead man intimately
and was consequently able to render him the honor due him as no stranger
could.
"He secured his early education in the little log and brick schoolhouses
of the locality. At the age of fourteen he became a clerk in the general
store owned by his father.
"Later he extended his education under a private instructor, as at that time
he expected to become a civil engineer and studied algebra, geometry and
trigonometry. It was an early ambition of his to follow in the footsteps
of his grandfather, Thomas McCulloch, one of the first Iowa surveyors. On
October 5, 1865, he entered Bryant and Stratton business college in Chicago.
From that institution he graduated in April, 1866.
"During the following six months Mr. Gobble was in the employ of J. V. Farwell
of Chicago. At the end of that time he returned to Iowa, and for eighteen
months kept books in a general store in Fairfield. Afterwards he was
employed as bookkeeper for John McWilliams, the first wholesale grocer in
the City of Des Moines.
"On May 26, 1870, he was united in marriage with Delilah, Ream, of Abingdon.
She was the daughter of Doctor and Mrs. Henry Ream, pioneer residents
of Iowa, who came from Hagerstown, Maryland.
"In August, 1875, Mr. Gobble moved his family from Fairfield to Muscatine.
After keeping books for six months for G. A. Garretson & Company
there he and his brother, John M. Gobble, entered into a partnership, buying
out the Garretson store. In 1884 he sold his interest in that business
and on February 21 of the same year he moved his family to Clinton."
While at Muscatine he was a member of Company C, Second Regiment, Iowa National
Guard, under the command of Capt. Fred Welker, widely known as "The Muscatine
Rifles."
To resume the newspaper account of Mr. Gobble's life after coming to Clinton:
"Here he established the now widely-known grocery house, at whose head he
remained until his death.
"This business was inaugurated about March 1, 1884, in the Harding Building.
Afterwards the store to the east was acquired and occupied. In
1891 the firm purchased two lots, at 119 and 121 Fifth Avenue, on which a
brick plant was erected. On November 17, 1915, the Gobble plant, with
several adjoining buildings, were destroyed by fire. Work was rushed
on a new building, which has been occupied since April 19, 1916.
"Mr. Gobble was on several occasions honored by the citizens of Clinton.
In 1890 he was elected mayor and served two years. After several
years of retirement from public duty his services were again demanded, and
he was elected mayor in 1896, and served another two-year term. For
many years he was a member of the Clinton police and fire commission board,
of which he was chairman.
"Mr. Gobble was a staunch Democrat all his life. He cast his first
vote for Horatio Seymour, of New York, for president in 1868. He was
a Clinton County delegate to the national Democratic convention in Chicago
in the summer of 1896, when William Jennings Bryan captured the nomination
by his famous 'Cross of Gold' speech.
"Fraternally he was a thirty-second degree Mason, having completed his Consistory
degrees with the class of December, 1891. At the age of twenty-one
he was master of the Masonic Lodge at Abingdon.
"He was long affiliated with Emulation Lodge No. 100, A. F. and A. M. and
was a long-time member of the Wapsipinicon Club, and one of the last two
survivors of the ole-time 'Hearts' Club, which once included many prominent
business men.
"Mr. Gobble was vice president and director of the Peoples Trust & Savings
Bank.
"In August, 1903, he purchased his first automobile, becoming one of the
first drivers in Iowa, and he had been a constant driver ever since.
"At the age of seventy-five he received numberous telegrams and letters from
business friends of over half a century, and yesterday and today scores of
messages of condolence reached the family expressing sorrow and sympathy.
"Mr. and Mrs. Gobble celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on May 26,
1920. It is said they had the distinguished record of being the only
wedded pair in Iowa who both were natives of Iowa Territory and who had lived
in the state their entire lives.
"Mr. Gobble had been identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church since
he was fourteen years old.
"He is survived by his wife, two daughters, Mary Nellie Gobble and Cora Gobble,
at home, a son, T. Wilson Gobble, of this city, a grandson, T. Wilson Gobble,
Junior, and a granddaughter, Bonnie Ann Gobble. He leaves also a sister,
Mrs. Margaret Schriner, of Los Angeles, and the following half-brothers and
half-sisters: Lee T. Gobble, of Fairfield; Mrs. Annie Linder,
of Fairfield; Frank Gobble, of Washington, Iowa; Wilson B. Gobble, of Colorado,
and Mrs. Mabel Hawthorne, of Abingdon, Iowa.
"Mr. Gobble's energy seemed inexhaustible, and right up to the time of his
death he was at his desk in his office at 7:30 every morning. During
his entire life, from the age of fourteen years, he had led an exceedingly
active life, bringing to his business a remarkable equipment of ability and
honesty which made his life work a great success. In Clinton's business
and public life he was honored for the integrity and fair dealing which were
the rules of his life, and among his wide circle of friends he was loved
for his candor and geniality, and his loyalty and devotion to those he admitted
to his friendship. He was always intensely interested in Clinton's
welfare, and every worthy municipal cause was sure of his loyal support.
"One of Mr. Gobble's outstanding traits of character was his love for children,
and today an old-time friend of his recalls having heard him say the day
he was first elected mayor of Clinton: 'If I can help to make Clinton
safe for children I will feel that my highest ambition has been realized.'
"At the offices of the wholesale grocery company he was regarded by all as
the father of a united family. Many of the employees had been with him
for many years, and the profound sorrow of all in his loss shows the love
and esteem in which he was held by those with whom he had surrounded himself
in the conduct of his business.
"A telegram received from John F. Baker, a former associate of Mr. Gobble
in the local business, now in Phoenix, Arizona, is characteristic of many
received yesterday and today. It follows:
" ' The passing of Mr. Gobble was a shock to me because of our close friendship
and former business relations. His example of integrity and industry
during our association in my younger days had a marked relation to any success
I have attained. As one of his family of employees and partners I join
you all in expressing my deepest sorrow.' "
The funeral services for Mr. Gobble were held at his former residence at
Clinton, Rev. J. K. Hawkins, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church
of Clinton, having charge of them. Burial was made in Springdale Cemetery.
All that is earthly of Thomas McCulloch Gobble has returned to the
dust from which it was raised, but his spirit has gone to a better land to
join those of his forbears whose noble deeds and stainless lives inspired
him to emulate them, so that he, too, could hand down to his descendants
a record of which they could well be proud.
~~~~***~~~~
FRANK MOORE GODDARD is one of the veterans in the service of the
Bettendorf Company, having been with that industrial organization for thirty-two
years. He is traffic manager and purchasing agent, and is one of the
active members of the Bettendorf Loyalty Club, made up of men who have been
in the service of the company for fifteen years or more.
Mr. Goddard represents some of the oldest families in this section of Eastern
Iowa. He was born January 22, 1873, on a farm in Clinton County, just
across the Scott County line, the postoffice of the family being Big Rock,
Scott County. His parents were James Monroe and Sarah E. (Moore) Goddard.
His father was born in the same neighborhood in Clinton County in 1849,
a son of George Goddard and grandson of Eli Goddard. Eli Goddard
in 1836 drove a team of oxen and brought his family from New York State westward,
passing through Chicago, which was unattractive as a town in the swamps,
and crossed the Mississippi River and took up a Government claim in Clinton
County. This was only four years after the Blackhawk Indian war, and the
Goddards were among the first families to venture out onto the frontier line
beyond the Mississippi. Eli Goddard became a conspicuous factor
in the early territorial life of Iowa, and represented Clinton County in
the Territorial Legislature, making the trip to the territorial capital at
Iowa City on horseback, riding directly across the country in the absence
of improved roads or railroads. James Monroe Goddard spent many years
at the old home farm and was a breeder of blooded stock and served for a
long time as president of the school board. He is now a resident
of Davenport. His wife, Sarah Moore, was born in Indiana and was two
years of age when her father, Jacob Moore, came from Indiana in a covered
wagon and settled in Cedar County, Iowa, in 1844.
F. Moore Goddard attended country schools while a boy on the farm and finished
his education in the Duncan Business College. From school he entered
the Bettendorf Works at Bettendorf, at first as a stenographer, and has enjoyed
a steady upward climb in that big Iowa industry, which he is now serving
as purchasing agent, traffic manager and general superintendent of stores.
Mr. Goddard married, in 1900, Ella T. Ficke, who is a descendant of some
of the early families of Davenport. They have five children:
Florence, a graduate of Iowa State College of Ames, married Lester
Clapp; Austin, a graduate of the University of Iowa; Robert, taking
the law course at the University of Illinois; Dorothy and James, both in
high school.
Mr. Goddard has many interesting social and civic connections. He is
former vice president of the Bettendorf Rotary Club, is a Knight Templar
and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and belongs to Zarephath
Consistory, Trinity Lodge No. 208, A. F. and A. M., Webb Council, R. A. M.,
Muscatine and Saint Simon of Cyrene Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar, at
Davenport, and Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of
the Union League of Chicago, the Davenport Chamber of Commerce and member
of its traffic committee, is a director of the Tri-Cities Traffic Club, member
of the Davenport Country Club, Davenport Outing Club, Y. M. C. A., and the
Presbyterian Church. He is also a member of the Iowa State Historical
Society, Iowa City, Iowa, and was a member of the Home Guard during the World
war.
~~~~***~~~~
JAY L. GODDARD, manager of the order department of the Bettendorf
Company, has been continuously identified with that great Davenport industry,
located in the Town of Bettendorf, for over a quarter of a century.
Mr. Goddard was born on a farm in Clinton County, and his people on both
sides were of Territorial Iowa Stock. He is a son of James Monroe
and Sarah E. (Moore) Goddard. His father, now living at Davenport,
was born in the same locality in 1849. The founder of the family was
the great-grandfather, Eli Goddard, who in 1836 drove a wagon drawn by ox
teams across the country from New York State, passing through Chicago, which
had not yet incorporated as a city, and on to the new lands lying west of
the Mississippi and which had just been opened to settlement following the
Blackhawk Indian war. Eli Goddard became a man of much prominence in
Clinton County in the early days. He was active in connection with
the founding of schools, churches, and was elected a member of the Iowa
Territorial Assembly, riding horseback from his farm to Iowa City, then the
capital. Mr. Goddard's grandfather was George Goddard, who was a child
when the family came to Iowa. Sarah Moore Goddard, mother of J. L.
Goddard, was born in Indiana and was two years of age when her father, Jacob
Moore, drove across the country in 1844 and settled on a farm near Bennett
in Cedar County, Iowa.
Jay L. Goddard grew up on the home farm, attended public schools and at the
age of fifteen became a student in the Duncan Business College at Davenport.
His first work with the Bettendorf Company was as bookkeeper. For
seven years he was with the Penn Oil & Supply Company and then returned
to the Bettendorf Company and for twenty-five years has had the management
of the order department. He is a member of the Bettendorf Loyalty Club,
made up of employees of the company who have been in the service longer than
fifteen years.
Mr. Goddard has in many ways contributed to the building up of Bettendorf
as a model industrial town, with good schools and other facilities. He
is vice president of the Kiwanis Club, is a member of the Davenport Chamber
of Commerce, and the Bettendorf Social Club and Davenport Country Club. He
is affiliated with Trinity Lodge No. 208, A. F. and A. M., Zarephath Consistory
of the Scottish Rite Masons, Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine and Mohassan
Grotto No. 22.
Mr. Goddard married, in 1907, Dorothy Stelk, of Moline, Illinois. They
have one son, Warren, now attending a military academy in Illinois.
~~~~***~~~~
GEORGE W. GODFREY has the always honorable distinction of being a
native son of Iowa. His active life in the state, covering a period
of nearly half a century, has been filled with good works, teaching, farming,
merchandising, and since 1901 his home and interests have been centered at
Albia in Monroe County.
Mr. Godfrey was born in Mahaska County, Iowa, November 6, 1861, son of Benjamin
and Ellen Jane (Reynolds) Godfrey. His father was a native of the State
of Maine, of English ancestry, and came out to Iowa from Ohio. In 1849
he entered Government land in Mahaska County. For several years he
conducted a ferry at Belfountain on the Des Moines River, and over this ferry
crossed hundreds of people bound for the California gold fields. In
1871 he purchased the Eveland Ferry, and continued its operation until 1876,
when the first bridge over the river was constructed at that point. Ellen
Jane Reynolds was a native of Ohio and came out to Iowa in 1850. She
was of German stock. Both parents possessed the qualities of the sturdy
pioneers.
George W. Godfrey grew up in Mahaska County, attended school there, and for
about ten years his time was divided between teaching in the winters and
farming in summers. In 1888 he left the farm and moved his family to
Oskaloosa, where he engaged in the wholesale fruit and commission business.
While at Oskaloosa he was honored with election to the city council
and is a member of the school board. On selling his local business
holdings in 1896 he was on the road as a traveling salesman for five years.
Mr. Godfrey in 1901 bought the Gray ice plant at Albia. To the ice
interests he added that of coal, and for a quarter of a century has been
one of the leading coal and ice dealers of Monroe County. He is a
successful man of large interests, prominent in business affairs, and always
responsive to calls upon his public spirit. Mr. Godfrey is a Knight
Templar Mason and Shriner, being a member of Kaaba Temple of Davenport. He
is a Democrat and in 1928 was chosen a delegate to the national Democratic
convention at Houston.
Mr. Godfrey built his very attractive home near the southern limits of Albia,
at 1320 South Main Street, in 1914.
He married at Oskaloosa in March, 1883, Miss Matilda E. Hoopes, member of
an early Mahaska County family and daughter of Andrew L. and Bersheba (Darling)
Hoopes. Her father's people came from Pennsylvania and her mother from
Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey have two children: Miss Lulu May and
Clarence Edward. The son, now in partnership with his father in the ice and
coal business, married Katharine Gant, of Albia, and their three daughters
are named Marian, Kathryn and Betty Lu.
~~~~***~~~~
MARY E. GOLDEN, Osteopathic Physician, is one of the outstanding members
of her profession in the State of Iowa. She has practiced in Des Moines,
has been instructor in the osteopathic college there, and widely known for
her public health work.
Doctor Golden was born at Kellogg, Iowa, a daughter of Charles Moore and
Debbie Ann (Walker) Golden. Her father was born in Indiana and her
mother at Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania. The latter came to Iowa before
railroads became the common means of transportation, traveling down the Ohio
River and up the Mississippi on a flat boat, and first located in Scott County,
where her father built a house that is still standing. Charles Moore
Golden after three years in the Civil war began his career as a farmer, later
conducted a hardware store at Kellogg, and about 1900 moved to Des Moines
and engaged in the marble and mantel business. He died in 1911 and
his wife, in 1925. While living at Kellogg he served a mayor of the
town and member of the school board, and was always active in public spirited
enterprises. Two of his brothers were soldiers in the Union army during
the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Golden were members of the Presbyterian
Church. Of their seven children six are now living. The son John
R. of the Des Moines Marble & Mantel Company, has two children, Harris
M. and Dorothy W. Golden. Emily C. of Whittier, California, is the
widow of I. L. Wright, and her three children are Charles Lincoln, Harold
David and Paul Golden Wright. Marie G. and Nan Golden were twins.
Marie is the wife of C. B. Johnson, a banker at Whittier, California,
and has two children, Mariam and Merton Johnson, while Nan is the wife of
M. L. Fuller, with the United States Weather Bureau at Peoria, Illinois,
and has three sons, Albert C., Merton and Max Fuller. Catherine M.
is the wife of J. C. Bjornian, of Whittier, California, and their children
are Debbie, Louis, Ruth and Theodore.
Dr. Mary E. Golden attended school at Kellogg, Iowa, continued her education
in the Bellevue College at Bellevue, Nebraska, and Drake University at Des
Moines. She was graduated from the Still College of Osteopathy at Des
Moines in 1912, and since that year has had an ever broadening sphere of
interests in the professional and civic life of this city. Her
time is well taken up by a round of professional duties. She is president
of the Iowa Osteopathic Woman's Association, is a member of the Des Moines,
Iowa State and American Osteopathic Associations, a member of the faculty
of the Des Moines Still College, where she lectures on pediatrics, and she
practices in the Des Moines General Hospital.
Doctor Golden is called upon practically month for an address or lecture
on some phase of public health or other subjects. She has been chairman
of the Woman's Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce, is active in the City
Federation of Women's Clubs, the Central Presbyterian Church, member of the
Eastern Star, Woman's Relief Corps and Woman's Rotary Club. Her hobby
is automobiling, and she has crossed the continent twice, driving her own
car.
~~~~***~~~~
HARVEY GOODALE was graduated from medical college in 1887 and in the
same year established his permanent location at Nashua, Chickasaw County,
Iowa, where for forty-three years his abilities have been ready to respond
to the needs of this community as a skilled professional man and as a friend
and advisor.
Doctor Goodale was born at Pierrepont, New York, April 8, 1863, son of Stephen
and Mary E. (Hubbard) Goodale. His father when a young man was clerk
in a hotel at Martinsburg, then a stage station on a plank road. In 1866
he brought his family west, locating at Farley in Dubuque County, Iowa.
There for thirty-five years he conducted a hotel and livery business,
making his activities an important factor in travel and transportation
of that day. He died in 1907 and his widow passed away when in her
ninety-fourth year. Stephen Goodale was a staunch Republican and had much
to do with party affairs in Iowa, serving as deputy sheriff and as postmaster.
He was a Methodist.
Leon Harvey Goodale graduated from the Farley High School in 1878 when only
fifteen years of age. For two years he clerked in the Farley postoffice,
his pay the first year being ten dollars a month and the second year fifteen
dollars. He boarded at home. Working in the postoffice gave him the
idea of qualifying for the railway mail service, and with that in view he
made an intensive study of the location of towns and counties throughout
the Middle West, and he still knows more of this feature of geography than
the average person. He qualified as a substitute in the service, but
after a few weeks his father was made postmaster at Farley and the son was
appointed assistant. He left that to enter the drug business, and work
as a pharmacist definitely shaped his career toward medicine. About
that time his father moved to Wessington, South Dakota, when that section
of country was thrown open to settlement, and when another postmaster was
appointed at Farley, Mr. Goodale was selected to start a new postoffice and
train an assistant for Mr. George Wright who was newly appointed as postmaster
at Eagle Grove. While working there he studied medicine at night under
the preceptorship of Doctor Wetmore. In 1884 he entered the Hahnemann
Medical College of Chicago and was graduated M. D. in 1887. On August
22 of that year he opened his office at Nashua.
September 19, 1888, Doctor Goodale married Miss Jennie M. Spear, daughter
of Milo Spear. She was born at Randolph, Vermont, and was reared and
educated there. They have a daughter, Florence S., who graduated
from grinnell College and for several years was engaged in educational work,
spending two years as principal of the high school at Staples, Minnesota.
She is now the wife of Charles E. Rundorf, a graduate of the engineering
department of Purdue University and now connected with the efficiency department
of the Buick Corporation at Flint, Michigan.
Doctor Goodale has been devoted to his chosen vocation, constantly studying,
improving his opportunities in attending medical conventions and has visited
clinics in Chicago, Rochester, Minnesota, Iowa City and elsewhere. He is
a member of the Chickasaw County Medical Society, the Austin Flint-Cedar
Valley Society, Iowa State and American Medical Associations. He
is without ambition for public office, but has done his part as a public
spirited citizen. He is a trustee of the Congregational Church, a member
of the Commercial Club, Bradford Lodge of Masons, Almond Chapter, Royal Arch
Masons, Joppa Commandery of Knights Templar, DeMolay Consistory of the Scottish
Rite, Elkahir Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and also belongs to the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
~~~~***~~~~
HON. JOHN E. GOODENOW, founder of Maquoketa, where many of his descendants
are still living, including a grandson bearing his name, arrived in
Iowa Territory in the spring of 1838. The territory was organized that
year, and the total white population was only 23,000. These people
had come in during the five years since the signing of the Black Hawk treaty
of 1833, and nearly all of them lived in towns and communities along the
banks of the Mississippi River, which was then the only highway of commerce
connecting Iowa with the outside world.
John E. Goodenow was of long lived, sturdy New England ancestry and the span
of his own life was measured by ninety years. Most of his life was
spent in pioneer circumstances, and he was one of the real builders of the
great West, his character and integrity well matching his inexhaustible industry,
his enterprise and his far reaching vision.
It is an important contribution to the history of Iowa to present the story
of his life as a pioneer, with many of the interesting details and adventures
to illustrate the obstacles and difficulties that were part of the lot of
the early settlers.
He was born at Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont, March 23, 1812. For
over sixty years his home was in Jackson County, Iowa, where he passed away,
honored and respected, in 1902. His grandfather, Timothy Goodenow,
was an early settler in Windsor County, Vermont, hewed a farm out of the
wilderness and lived to be nearly ninety years of age. Timothy Goodenow,
Jr., father of the Iowa pioneer, was reared and married in Windsor County,
and in 1820, when his son John E. was eight years of age, he himself set
an example of pioneering, moving overland by wagons and teams to Warren County,
New York. He bought timber land in Queensbury Township, and, like his
father before him, cleared up a farm. In 1847, when well advanced in
years, he came to Iowa, bought land two and a half miles south of Maquoketa,
and lived there until his death in 1850. Timothy Goodenow, Jr., married
Betsey White, who was born at Rockingham, Windham County, Vermont, being
a direct descendant of Peregrine White of the original Mayflower band of
Pilgrims. She was a descendant in the sixty generation from this famous
character. Her father, Phineas White, was a Vermont farmer and married
Jerusha March.
John E. Goodenow tested his early strength in working with his father in
clearing away the timber form the land in New York State. He was educated
in winter terms of country schools. When he left home, at the age of twenty-two,
he bought a canal boat and used it for freighting marble, lumber, wood and
farm products on the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain and the Hudson River.
After two years he employed men to operate the boat, and himself became
a clerk in the Parmenter general store at Moriah, New York. In the
latter part of 1837 he formed a partnership with his employer, having saved
a capital of a thousand dollars. Mr. Parmenter furnished a similar
amount and Mr. Goodenow, as the representative of the firm, was to come west
to that part of Wisconsin Territory now included in the State of Iowa, buy
Government land and engage in other business on the partnership basis. A
large part of the money was invested in merchandise, including ready-made
clothing, axes, harness. In January, 1838, accompanied by Lyman Bates,
Mr. Goodenow started west with a four-horse team, driving the entire
distance to the forks of the Maquoketa River, having crossed the Mississippi
River on the ice March 10th. Arriving at Cooper Creek at night, they
remained in a vacant cabin until early morning, when they constructed a bridge
of poles to cross the creek. A greater obstacle was encountered on
reaching Deep Creek, which was swollen by the spring rains. Near it
was the only family then residing between Sabula and the present site of
Maquoketa. Securing shelter with this family, they worked at putting
up a substantial bridge forty feet long, splitting logs, which were
laid with the flat side up upon the stringers. They reached their ultimate
destination after a journey of nine weeks and two days.
Mr. Goodenow at once purchased a claim, including the ground occupied by
the present City of Maquoketa. His log house stood where are now Main
and Platt streets. While breaking up the virgin sod he gradually sold off
his merchandise, reinvesting the money in improvements and in other claims.
After two years the partnership between him and Mr. Parmenter was dissolved
by a division of land and stock. In these early hears Mr. Goodenow
depended upon ox teams to plow the ground and provide transportation.
During his first year in the territory, when provisions became scarce,
he and Mr. Bates set out for Savanna on the east bank of the Mississippi,
arriving on the west bank of the river at the present site of Sabula, on
which then stood only one house, and Mr. Goodenow waded through the water,
followed by the team of oxen, finally, after three-quarters of a mile, reaching
the dry land on which stood the house. The next day Mr. Goodenow reached
Savanna and after starting his team home with a load of corn set out on foot
for Galena, where he purchased a supply of provisions, ordering them shipped
to Bellevue. He started home on foot, crossing the Mississippi at Hunt's
Ferry. He set out across the stream in a boat alone, and on reaching
land in the darkness found he was on an island and had to camp there over
night, lying underneath the boat on the wet ground. The next morning he finally
found the north bank of the Maquoketa and pursued his journey homeward. In
a cabin where he obtained breakfast he determined to call on a Mr. White,
living in the vicinity of Bellevue, and from White he bought a sow and six
small pigs, and slowly drove them, carrying the pigs part of the way, until
he reached home.
During those early years wild game was abundant and every spring and fall
the settlers would be visited by the Indians, who camped along the river,
hunting until the game became scarce. These Indians were always friendly,
but in many ways were troublesome, frequently frightening the wives of the
pioneers by their habit of coming into a dwelling without the formality of
knocking. The country around Maquoketa was a part of Dubuque County
for several years and all taxes had to be paid and other court business
transacted at Dubuque.
John E. Goodenow was a tremendously busy man in those early years. Besides
looking after his growing landed interests, the cultivation and raising of
crops, his enterprise contributed to the making of Maquoketa a trading center
for the surrounding country and the country to the west. Like other
pioneers, he entertained travelers. and later for many years conducted a
hotel. His first tavern was a log house containing four rooms and a
loft. In 1842 he secured the establishment of a postoffice at Maquoketa.
Up to that time Bellevue had been the postoffice. When he came
to Iowa his nearest mill was six miles north of Dubuque, on the Little Maquoketa.
In the summer of 1838 Mr. Goodenow had mill machinery shipped from
the East, which he set up, operating by horsepower at first, and the following
year built a dam on Prairie Creek, a mile south of Maquoketa. Here
he installed a two-foot burr stone. There was no bolting apparatus
and the flour had to be used as it came from the stones. For two or
three years this mill performed the grinding for Scott, Clinton and Jackson
counties. People came a distance of fifty miles, waiting a long time
for their grist. The mill was kept busy day and night. The hopper
held one bushel, and Mr. Goodenow, having no assistance would fill the hopper
and drop down on the sacks and go to sleep and the change in the noise of
the mill when the hopper was empty would awaken him. One time he operated
the mill seven days and nights without stopping. Since he was unmarried,
the mill was his home. His principal fare besides the wild game was
cornmeal cakes made with water and without salt. Sugar, tea, coffee
and butter were luxuries rarely seen.
In the fall of 1839 Mr. Goodenow sold his mill and returned east, and on
October 3, 1839, married Miss Eliza Wright, of Bolton, New York. On
account of sickness they did not start for the West until it was too late
to make the journey by river. Accordingly they started with a team
of horses, a sleigh and a wagon, sometimes using one vehicle and sometimes
the other. After nine weeks they arrived in Maquoketa. While
going through Carroll County, Illinois, they lost their way, night overtaking
them on the prairie, and they and a young man accompanying them all had to
sleep in the sleigh. After his return Mr. Goodenow occupied himself
with his farming interests and his hotel. About the close of the Civil
war he disposed of his hotel, and was chiefly concerned in the management
of his numerous farms and in the improvement of his real estate in Maquoketa,
where he put up several buildings. He became a man of prominence and
great influence both in business and civic affairs. At his hospitable
home in Maquoketa were entertained many of the prominent citizens of Iowa
and the Middle West. Mr. Goodenow was elected a member of the First
Iowa Legislature and had the honor of giving the names of two new counties,
Osceola and Rossuth. Three times he was elected mayor of Maquoketa.
This city in modern times has many memorials of his pioneer work and
public spirited generosity. He gave his tract of land, comprising a
block and a half square, facing on Main Street, on which stand the modern
high school and Junior College buildings.
Mr. and Mrs. Goodenow lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.
She survived him seven years, passing away in 1909. She was born
at Lake George, Warren County, New York, March 9, 1818. The Wright
family came from Scotland. Her grandfather, Samuel Wright, was a
Connecticut farmer. Her father, Miles Wright, was left an orphan at
an early age, being reared by his stepfather. His only brother, Samuel,
was for some years a missionary and teacher among the Indians of Western
New York, and spent his last years at Milwaukee. Thomas Miles Wright
when a young man moved to Shelburne, Franklin County, Massachusetts, where
he married Miss Eliza Smead. She was born there and died in Warren
County, New York, November 18, 1828. Her father, Samuel Smead, was
a native of Massachusetts, and about 1825, went to Ohio and became a pioneer
of Lake County, in the northeast part of that state, buying timbered land
which with the aid of his sons was converted into a farm. Samuel Smead
lived to be ninety-three years of age, and after the death of his first wife
married Mrs. Catherine (Griffin) Staunton, a native of Warren County, New
York. Thomas Miles Wright about 1800, with several other families,
moved to Warren County, New York, where he acquired timbered land and built
a log house. Near this homestead afterwards grew up the town of Huddle,
and his wife and the other members of the colony, except himself, being members
of the Presbyterian Church in New England, organized themselves into a society
and put up a church. Thomas Miles Wright with the aid of his sons,
cleared up three farms, established a woolen mill for the manufacture of
cloth, a smelting furnace for iron, conducted a store and a lumber business,
at one time operating two saw mills. His extensive operations brought
him a position of wealth, but he lost a large part of his property by the
signing of notes for friends. Eventually he again built up a considerable
fortune. In 1840 he came out to Iowa to visit his children and was
so pleased with the new country that he bought a farm. He lived with
Mrs. Goodenow and his son Samuel until his death, which occurred in February,
1864, at the age of eighty-eight years, four months.
The children of John E. and Eliza (Wright) Goodenow were seven in number,
Osceola, Mary L., Emma, Helen C., Alice, George E. and Winfield S.
~~~~***~~~~
JOHN E. GOODENOW at Maquoketa, grandson of the founder of that town,
is a well known business man and stock breeder whose entire life has been
spent in this community, with which the family name is so closely and vitally
identified.
He was born at Maquoketa January 7, 1878. His father, Osceola Goodenow, was
the first white child born in Maquoketa. For many years he conducted
a general store in that city and owned a large amount of farm land and real
estate. He was born in 1840 and died in 1903. Osceola Goodenow
married Fannie Cassin, who passed away in 1921. They were the parents
of three children: Carlota, widow of Fred H. Young; Mrs. Imogene McIntire;
and John E.
John E. Goodenow was graduated from the Maquoketa High School in 1895. His
talents turned toward the practical side of farming and animal husbandry,
and he remained on one of his father's farms until he was twenty-five, when
he rented a place of his own. Later he bought twenty-eight acres, then a
hundred acres, subsequently two hundred and twenty acres more, and at the
present time his stock farm comprises three hundred and forty-eight acres,
adjoining the city limits of Maquoketa on the south. This farm is widely
known over Eastern Iowa for its pure bred live stock. He raises registered
Shorthorn cattle, Chester White hogs and Shropshire sheep. In addition
to his farming and stock raising interests Mr. Goodenow is a director of
the First National Bank and the Farmers Trust & Savings Bank.
From 1920 to 1924 he was secretary of the Jackson County Farm Bureau and
for several years was secretary of the Cooperative Stock Shipping Association.
He was recently appointed an alderman from the Third Ward of Maquoketa.
He is a member of the school board and with his family worships in
the Congregational Church.
Mr. Goodenow married, January 14, 1909, Miss Myrta King. Her parents
were George W. and Harriet (Smith) King. Her father was in the meat
business and for many years lived at Maquoketa. The two children of
Mr. and Mrs. Goodenow are John E., born in 1915, and Dorothy, born in 1920.
~~~~***~~~~
ARTHUR E. GOSHORN. One of the veteran newspaper editors of Iowa,
Arthur E. Goshorn, has been publisher of the Winterset News for more
than four decades, during which long period he has been a strong factor in
the development and growth of his community. From modest beginnings
this newspaper has grown in circulation and public favor into one of the
leading country newspapers of the state, and Mr. Goshorn has always conducted
it along lines of permanent constructiveness and moral, civic and educational
advancement.
Mr. Goshorn is purely a product of the community in which he resides and
where he is held in such confidence. He was born at Winterset, September
18, 1858, and is a son of John S. and Hettie Jane (Stiffler) Goshorn. His
grandfather, Robert Goshor, was a resident of Pennsylvania, from which state
he enlisted for service during the War of 1812. John S. Goshorn was born
in Pennsylvania; where he was married, and in 1852 moved to Morning Sun,
Iowa, where he engaged in teaching school. In 1855 he came to Winterset,
where he continued to be both a public and private school teacher, and eventually
became county superintendent of schools. In 1861 he enlisted in the Union
army for service during the war between the states, and upon the formation
of Company F, Fourth Iowa Infantry, was chosen as second lieutenant. He
conducted himself with great gallantry in the numerous engagements in which
he took part, and was promoted captain of Company E, Forty-seventh Iowa Infantry,
with which he served until the close of the war. At that time he returned
to Winterset and resumed teaching school, which vocation he followed for
two years, following which he was appointed adjuster of the Farmers Insurance
Company of Cedar Rapids. In 1889 he moved to Hebron, Nebraska, where
he became secretary of a fire insurance company of Lincoln, and resided at
Hebron until his death, when his body was brought back to Winterset for
interment. Mrs. Goshorn, who was also a native of Pennsylvania, died
in 1882, at the age of forty-eight years, and was buried at Winterset.
Arthur E. Goshorn was given excellent educational advantages for his day,
and after graduating from the high school at Winterset entered the University
of Iowa, from which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880, receiving
the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. During the four years that he
attended that institution he was not only an excellent student, but was an
athletic star as well, being catcher for the university team for the entire
period and still being in possession of one of the few and oldest sweaters
issued by that institution to its athletes. Following his graduation
Mr. Goshorn took up the vocation of teaching at Winterset, where he became
principal of the old South Ward School, but in 1884 turned his attention
to newspaper work and for four years was the publisher of a newspaper at
Pierce, Nebraska. In 1888 he again returned to Winterset and took over
the Winterset News, of which paper he is still the owner, publisher
and editor, and which now has one of the largest circulations of any country
newspaper in the state. During his forty-seven years of newspaper life
Mr. Goshorn has formed a wide acquaintance among journalists, among whom
he is esteemed for his ability, native courtesy and general friendliness.
He is a member of the Iowa State Editorial Association and the
National Editorial Association, a fellow of the Iowa Academy of Science and
a member of the Association for the advancement of Science. He is a
member of the Masonic Blue Lodge. Mr. Goshorn has always taken an
intelligent and active interest in public affairs, and may civic movements
have been either fathered or benefited by him.
While at the university Mr. Goshorn was an ardent student of geology, under
Dr. Samuel Calvin, collecting many fossils for him from the Missouri series
which are now included in the university's exhibit. Mr. Goshorn has
always retained his interest in geology and is the collector and owner of
probably the most complete collection in Iowa of fossils from the Missouri
series. He was a pioneer in state conservation work and was three years
vice president of the Iowa State Conservation Society. He is president
of the Madison County chapter of the Isaac Walton League. During Wilson's
administration he was appointed postmaster at Winterset and served almost
nine years.
In 1883 Mr. Goshorn was united in marriage with Miss Kate Shriver, who was
born at Winterset and is a graduate of the local high school, and to this
union there have been born the following children: Mabel, Mrs. Horace
Tate, of Winterset; Robert C., one of the proprietors of the Jefferson City
(Missouri) Tribune-Post newspaper, and a veteran of the World war,
in which he held a first lieutenant's commission and was on detached duty,
who married Lenore Rhyno and has one daughter, Betty Jean; Katherine, the
wife of John Wintrode, a veteran of the World war, in which he held the rank
of first sergeant, and now resides at Saint Petersburg, Florida; and Martha
J., a teacher in the public schools of Jefferson City, Missouri, and a graduate
of the high school at Winterset. All four children attended their father's
alma mater, Mrs. Wintrode receiving her B. A. degree there in 1919. The
first wife of Mr. Goshorn died in 1911, and in 1914 Mr. Goshorn was united
in marriage with Miss Gertrude Rhodes, of Grinnell, Iowa. They are
the parents of one son, Arthur E., who is now a student in the Winterset
public schools.
~~~~***~~~~
WILLIAM J. GOODWIN, of Des Moines, is conspicuous among Iowa business
men as a brick and tile manufacturer, an industry in which he was early
associated with his father, and which he has developed during the past quarter
of a century until he is the head of two large companies, operating in the
Des Moines district. Mr. Goodwin has also been a prominent leader in
Republican politics in Iowa for a number of years.
He was born in Boone County, Iowa, January 15, 1878, son of Robert and Margaret
(Maxwell) Goodwin. His father was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, was
left an orphan at an early age, had no schooling beyond what he gave himself,
and his determination and energy and perseverance enabled him to achieve
a much more than ordinary success in life. He was well informed, and
met and mingled on terms of quality with many men of college training. In
Scotland he learned the business of coal mining, working in some of the Dixon
mines owned by his uncle of that name, who was quite a prominent coal operator
and developed a number of mines in Scotland. Robert Goodwin came to the United
States at the age of fifteen and found work for his skill as a coal miner
in eastern states. In the 70' he settled in Boone County, Iowa, where
he bought land, engaged in farming, and later became interested in brick
and tile manufacture. He married Margaret Maxwell, a native of Quebec,
Canada. Both died in Iowa. They were members of the Presbyterian
Church. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows and Ancient Order of United Workmen., He was a Republican
and was mayor of Grand Junction, Iowa, for several years. He and his
wife had seven children, six of whom are living.
William J. Goodwin attended country schools in Iowa, graduated from the high
school at Grand Junction, and in 1899 took the A. B. degree at Drake University
at Des Moines. At Grand Junction he took charge of a brick plant with
his father, and Grand Junction was his home from 1901 to 1903. In the
latter year he and his father and brother built a brick plant called the
Goodwin Brick & Tile Works, and subsequently he became interested in the Redfield Tile Company, at Redfield, Iowa, where for many years he has
owned one of the large plants manufacturing brick and tile and other clay
products. He and his youngest brother, Daniel Goodwin, own the Des
Moines plant. Mr. Goodwin is a director of the Iowa Des Moines National
Bank. Besides his interests as a manufacturer he is extensively interested
in farming land in Iowa. He also manages his father's estate, a very
large one, and a measure of his father's successful achievements. Mr.
Goodwin was for some time president of the Iowa Clay Products Association.
His two manufacturing plants do a business probably valued at $500,000
annually.
Mr. Goodwin in 1901 married Miss Grace Kingman, daughter of Smith and Rebecca
(Higbee) Kingman. Her father was born in New England, and came to Iowa
from New York State. He lived at Des Moines for many years and was
widely known as a farmer and nurseryman and fruit packer. Mrs. Goodwin
attended school in Des Moines, including Drake University. They have
two sons, Robert K. and William J., Jr. Robert K., born in 1905, was
educated at Drake University and in George Washington University at Washington,
D. C., graduating from the former. William J., Jr., is a student at
Drake University. He graduated with honors from the Roosevelt High
School at Des Moines, being president of his class and captain of his high
school football team. An added member of the family is Jane Ross, whom
Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin have reared from early childhood. The Goodwin
family are active members of the Plymouth Congregational Church, and Mr.
Goodwin has served on the church board. He is a Scottish Rite Mason
and Shriner, member of the Woodmen of the World and the Rotary Club.
Since 1907 he has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Drake
University, being now chairman of the board.
He has taken a deep interest in Republican party politics since early manhood,
and while living in Greene County was member of the Republican County Executive
Committee. He served two terms as county chairman, and he managed the
campaign of C. C. Dowell for Congress and was president of the Cummins for
President Club. Mr. Goodwin was a member of the State Senate of Iowa
from 1922 to 1926. In his first candidacy he was elected without
opposition, something that had never happened in his district before. Mr.
Goodwin owns a beautiful country home near Redfield, Iowa, where he frequently
entertains his Des Moines friends.
GRACELAND COLLEGE, of Lamoni, is an Iowa educational institution founded
and supported by the Reorganized church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The benevolent spirit and zeal for education that prompted its
establishment under the auspices of the church came primarily from Mrs. Marietta
Walker, who donated the original twenty acres of ground now comprised in
the campus as a site for the school. Mrs. Walker has been called the "Mother
of Graceland," and long before her death, on April 12, 1930, she saw the
wisdom of her early benefaction and the realization of her dreams for a school
that would fulfill at once the purposes of a standard educational institution
and one in which the ideals of her church would be fostered.
Graceland College was established in 1895. It has been doing its work
for thirty-five years. While it has its special merits and its own
traditions, Graceland has also developed on broad lines that have secured
to it the recognition of accrediting organizations both in the home state
and in the Middle West. Graceland has the distinction of being the
first accredited junior college in the State of Iowa. It is fully
standardized and officially accredited by the Intercollegiate Standing Committee
of Iowa for three years of college work, and also by the North Central
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and by the American Association
of Junior Colleges. Thus its graduates are granted the title of Associate
in Arts by authority of charter from the State of Iowa.
The physical plant and facilities of Graceland offer opportunities such as
can be obtained only in standardized junior college in a wholesome small
community. The land owned by the college comprises 358 acres. On
the campus are fourteen buildings, including several cottages. The
endowment is $270,000. The annual enrollment of three hundred students
is derived from all over the United States and some from Canada and other
foreign countries. Wholesome athletics have been encouraged and there
is also an industrial, self help department, through which many students
earn their tuition. Besides the regular academic courses Graceland
College offers preprofessional training in law, medicine, dentistry, engineering
and business administration.
The college has been fortunate in having as its president since 1915 Dr.
George N. Briggs, a man of splendid attainments, broad experience and influence.
~~~~***~~~~
C. H. GRAENING, M. D., a resident of Waverly, has had a long and honorable
career as a physician, public official and citizen. He has always been
deeply interested in educational matters. He is a member of the board
of the Waverly Public Library and has been especially loyal to the Wartburg
Normal College of Waverly, which he attended as a student during his youth.
He has served as a member of the board of directors of both the Wartburg
College at Clinton and the Normal College at Waverly. He acts as medical
adviser to the Normal College and also lectures on personal hygiene there.
Doctor Graening is a member of the American Lutheran Church board of
education.
Doctor Graening, was born at Marine City, Michigan, in 1871. His father,
Rev. John Graening, was born in Germany, in 1846, was brought to the United
States in 1857, completed his professional education in Saint Sebald, Iowa,
Seminary and for many years was active in the pastoral work of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church. For nineteen years he was pastor at Marine city, Michigan,
nineteen years at Monroe, Iowa, and fifteen years at Maxfield, Iowa. He
is now retired and a resident of Waverly. Rev. John Graening married
Elizabeth Bitter, who was born in Holland. They had three children:
Dr. C. H.; Mrs. George Kaiser and Mrs. A. G. Studier, of Waverly.
Dr. C. H. Graening took his M. D. degree at the University of Iowa in 1893,
and after a year of practice at Aspen, Colorado, returned to Waverly,
where he has devoted nearly forty years to a general practice as a physician.
He has been for a long time city health officer of Waverly and
is a member of the Bremer County, Iowa State and American Medical
Associations, the Autin Flint Association, the Interstate Association. He
is the medical director of the Lutheran Mutual Aid Society. Doctor
Graening has earned a special reputation as a doctor in diseases of children.
He is a member of the Community Club of Waverly.
He married, in 1893, Etta Waldschmidt, of Waverly, who died in 1896, leaving
no children. Doctor Graening's second wife and Dr. Adele Kimball, who
was a medical graduate of the University of Iowa and built up a large reputation
as a woman physician. She died in 1928. Subsequently Doctor Graening
married Ruth Hertlein, of Waverly. His only child, a son of his second
marriage, is Dr. Paulus K. Graening, who was a member of the Students Army
Training Corps at the University of Iowa during the World war and is now
practicing medicine at Oklahoma City. He married, in 1926, Miss Ruth
Smith, daughter of Ed. Smith, ex-secretary of the State of Iowa, and they
have one son, David, born in November, 1928.
HARLIE A. GRANTHAM for several years has been proprietor of the
Dewitt Observer, one of the oldest newspapers in Clinton County,
established over sixty-seven years ago. With a circulation of 2,500
copies, it is the largest newspaper in the county outside of the Clinton
Herald.
Mr. Grantham was born at Marseilles, Illinois, November 21, 1894, son of
Fred M. and Rebecca (Housman) Gratham. His father was born in Ohio
and his mother at Belle Plaine, Iowa. Fred M. Grantham is supervisor
of the water supply department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway.
There were five children in the family: Ferdinand M., Cecil H.,
Frederick M., Iona A. and Harlie A.
Harlie A. Grantham completed the work of the ninth grade in the Belle Plaine
High School in 1910 and the following year he was a billing clerk in the
office of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. During the
World war he was with the ground school of the Aviation Corps at Austin,
Texas. Several years ago a staff correspondent of the Des Moines
Register in a feature article published in the Sunday magazine section
told some of the interesting particulars of "Tex" Grantham's life. The
name "Tex," which he has signed to hundreds of contributions, is a nickname
he acquired while promoting a boxing match for the Belle Plaine American
Legion Post and later he used that pseudonym signature to some bits of verse
he wrote for the American Legion news notes and it has become his permanent
literary title. The author of the Des Moines Register article
summed up his career prior to entering the newspaper field as follows: "He
had tried railroading, farming (for two weeks), keeping a restaurant, office
working, selling automobiles, soldiering (in the Aviation Corps), and even
driving a taxicab." He was driving a taxicab in Cedar Rapids when he
met opportunity in the figure of a daily newspaper editor and in March, 1925,
took an assignment as a reporter, but still keeping his other job. After
six weeks he gave up his night work for the newspaper but was soon back again,
this time burning his bridges behind him by surrendering his place as a billing
clerk. From June 21, 1925, to February 18, 1926, he conducted the "hell
box column" for the Cedar Rapids Republican. That column enjoyed
immense popularity and laid the foundation of "Tex" Grantham's fame as a
writer. He signed off his column every day with a bit of whimsical
prose verse, and not long ago the Torch Press of Cedar Rapids collected
some fifty or more of these in response to many demands that they be kept
in permanent form and published them in a brief booklet which is not the
least interesting among Iowa's current literature.
Mr. Grantham left the Cedar Rapids Republican to accept the invitation
to act as manager of the Dewitt Observer. About a year later,
in 1927, he bought the Observer and has since combined the
responsibilities of managing a very prosperous newspaper and keeping up his
work as a writer and commentator on life as he sees it. In addition
to the Dewitt Observer he owns a half interest in a printing plant
at Dewitt.
Mr. Grantham married, June 29, 1914, Miss Anna Hlavacek. Her parents,
Fran and Frances Hlavacek, were born in Czechoslovakia, and after coming
to the United States settled on a farm in Iowa County, Iowa. Mr. and
Mrs. Grantham have one daughter, Frances A. He is a member of the Masonic
fraternity, the American Legion, the Springbrook Golf and Country Club and
a Republican in politics.
~~~~***~~~~
JOSEPH F. GRAWE, a veteran Union soldier of the Civil war, an early
day educator of Iowa, is a resident of Waverly, and publisher of the Bremer
County Independent. Mr. Grawe after fifty-six years of work as
a newspaper man goes to his office and desk every working day of the year
and is one of the oldest active newspaper men in the state.
He was born in Westphalia, Germany, July 6, 1843, and was five years of age
when his parents, Christopher and Elizabeth (Raecker) Grawe, came to the
United Stages and settled on a forty acre farm in Stephenson County in Northern
Illinois. The son Joseph grew up there, had an aggregate of twelve
months of schooling in the district of Rock Grove, near the home farm, and
among other experiences of his early manhood worked on a farm at ten dollars
a month.
At the age of eighteen he enlisted in Company G of the Ninety-third Illinois
Infantry, and served until the end of the war. Twice he was wounded,
the first time at Missionary Ridge and later at Altoona, Georgia. He
was captured each time, but was soon released. He was in the campaign
that ended in the fall of Vicksburg and in the subsequent drive under Grant
and Sherman through the heart of the Confederacy. Mr. Grawe attended many
reunions of his war comrades, but the most significant of them all, in his
opinion, was the reunion of both the Blue and Gray, when two thousand Union
veterans met a thousand survivors of the South on the battlefield of Vicksburg
in 1917. American was then in the World war, patriotic feeling ran
high, and the Southerners were in no way behind the Northerners in claiming
that the flag of the Union was their flag too.
Mr. Grawe came to Iowa shortly after the close of his military career. He
was a student in the Bradford Academy in Chickasaw County, and then took
up work as a school man, teaching for seven or eight terms, and for five
years was county superintendent of Chickasaw County.
He left school work to go into the newspaper business and for seventeen years
owned the Nashua Post and on July 1, 1890, he acquired the Bremer
County Independent, one of the oldest country papers in Iowa, having
been established in 1856.
On the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary as a newspaper man Mr. Grawe
wrote a quaint and modest and rather self-depreciative article of reminiscence,
which makes good reading and tells the chief facts of his experience.
"Fifty years ago we commenced newspapering and said 'good morning, good friends'
to a few hundred readers in the Cedar Valley, mostly Chickasaw County, having
bought the Nashua Post that week, and our first number was dated February
14, 1874. We commenced newspapering without business experience of
any kind. We knew nothing about the mechanical department of a newspaper
office and when we undertook to write we were in the same fix, or more so.
We were woefully green and clumsy at whatever we undertook to do. We
came into newspapering about the same time that the grasshoppers and the
chinch bugs came into Iowa wheat fields. Hope we will not be remembered
the way those hopper and bug years are remembered by some of the old settlers.
We owned and made the Nashua Post, such as it was, for nearly
seventeen years. During those hopper and bug years we took most prairie
chickens, sled length wood, old rails and soft soap.
"In 1890 we bought the Bremer County Independent, during our first
five years with the Independent we got cold feet many times. There
were too many newspapers here. But all the time we thought the
Independent was not the 'too many.' We gained a little all the
time, but during the first ten years the gain was so small that it could
hardly be seen with the naked eye. Those ten years were as great an
affliction for this writer as the hoppers and bugs of the early '70s.
During these fifty years we tussled with all kinds of problems, great
and small, and yet, with it all, newspapering is a great game. We don't
know where or how we could have found more fun, and hard work. In January,
1915, we bought the Waverly Republican of Will Tyrrell and paid him
his price. The two papers were made one under the name
Independent-Republican. The first number after this transaction
was dated January 28, 1915. Judging by the treatment we have received
at the hands of the good people of Bremer County and the rest of our subscribers,
that consolidation on the part of the proprietors of the two papers, was
one of the most sensible things they did since the war of the Rebellion was
won for the Union. The Independent is today on a good foundation.
It does quite a satisfactory business. It has the good will of
a lot of good people. And that good will helps to make us real comfortable.
We believe we have reason to feel that the Bremer County Independent
is better than it ever was before. And the younger members of the
Independent's family of workers are making it so." Mr. Grawe
has long been a member of the Iowa Press Association and the National Editorial
Association. He has long been affiliated with the Grand Army of the
Republic.
Not least should be mentioned Mr. Grawe's family. He married, June
3, 1873, Miss Blanche Waite, who was born at Swanton, Vermont. To their
marriage were born three sons and six daughters, and all the members of this
younger generation are still living: Carl F. the present postmaster
of Waverly; Joseph P., associated with the Independent; Harold L.,
of Waverly; Avis C., a teacher; Adelaide E., one of the younger generation
of workers on the Independent; Marion, wife of George Simmons, of
Minneapolis; Helen, a teacher in Sioux City; Dorothy, wife of J. B. Treloar,
of Waterloo; and Marjorie, a teacher in Minneapolis.
~~~~***~~~~
WILLIAM S. GREENLEAF, physician and surgeon, with a long and capable
record of service at Atlantic, was born in that city October 3, 1872,
and the Greenleafs are a family that have lived at Atlantic practically since
it was founded.
Doctor Greenleaf's parents were John Quincy and Paullina (Slater) Greenleaf,
New England people who came to Cass County, Iowa, in pioneer times and first
lived at the original county seat at Lewis. John Quincy Greenleaf,
who was a painter by trade, subsequently moved to Omaha, but after Atlantic
had been established as the county seat returned to that town and lived there
the rest of his life. He died in 1915 and his wife in 1922. He
was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There were three
children in the family: Minnie, wife of C. E. Hartshorn, of Logan,
Kansas; Mrs. Lula Whitted, of Los Angeles; and William S.
Doctor Greenleaf is a graduate of the Atlantic High School. He completed
his medical course at the University of Iowa in 1895, and then returned to
his native county and for over twenty years practiced in the town of Massena.
Since 1916 he has had his offices and home at Atlantic. He acts
as local surgeon for the Rock Island Railway Company, and a large part of
his time and attention are devoted to X-Ray work. He has a laboratory
and complete equipment for X-Ray examination and diagnosis. Doctor
Greenleaf is a member of the Cass County, Iowa State and American Medical
Associations, the Missouri Valley Medical Society, Radiological Society of
North America, the American Association of Railway Surgeons, is secretary
of Atlantic Hospital Corporation and is a Fellow of the College of Science
of Physical Therapy. He has membership in all the Masonic bodies at
Atlantic and the Mystic Shrine at Des Moines, is a member of the Rotary Club
and the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Doctor Greenleaf married, June 15, 1898, Miss Bessie M. Henshaw, of Atlantic.
Her father, W. H. Henshaw, was a stock and grain buyer, and served
as a Union soldier in the Civil war, enlisting in Company B of the Second
Iowa Cavalry. Mrs. Greenleaf graduated from the Atlantic High School
and attended the State Teachers College at Iowa Falls. She is a member
of the P. E. O., the Eastern Star and White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Priscilla
Club and the Methodist Episcopal Church. Doctor and Mrs. Greenleaf
have a daughter, Eloise J., born January 22, 1914, now in the senior class
of the Atlantic High School.
~~~~***~~~~
G. A. GROSSMANN, banker at Waverly, widely known throughout the Iowa
Lutheran Synod, is a son of George Martin Grossmann, a beloved pioneer
of Iowa Lutheriam, a brief sketch of whose life and work is published preceding
this. G. A. Grossmann was born May 25, 1862, in a cabin which represented
a parsonage of the Iowa Synod. Mr. Grossmann was one of eight children
of his parents and the only other one now living is Miss Nannie, the youngest
child, who remained with her parents until their death. She lives at
Waverly. The deceased children were: Emelia, wife of Rev. P.
Bridow, of Maxfiled, Iowa; Eliese, wife of G. Amman, whose father was the
first lay minister of the Iowa Lutheran Synod; Minna wife of Rev. F. Kuethe,
of Waverly; Marie, wife of Rev. Henry Hoerig, of Watertown and Menominee,
Wisconsin; G. S. who was in the United States mail service at Waverly and
Waterloo; and Emma, wife of Paulus List, for twenty years manager of the
Wartburg publishing house in Chicago, and now manager of the branch publishing
house of the United Lutheran Church.
G. A. Grossmann was educated at home, partly under the direction of his father,
and he completed his college course and theological training in Wartburg
Seminary at Mendota, Illinois. After being ordained he was for four
years pastor at Jubilee in Blackhawk County, Iowa. On account of a
throat affliction he gave up the active ministry, and, returning to Waverly,
did work for the Wartburg Publishing Company. In 1893 he bought the
Waverly Phoenix, a German language newspaper, which had been established
by a Mr. Krech, who sold it to Henry Schulz, from whom Mr. Grossmann purchased
it in 1893. At the beginning of the World war the Phoenix was
merged into the Weekly Democrat. The Democrat is now
edited by Mr. Grossmann's son Arthur. Mr. Grossmann is an able business
man and for several years has been president and director of the State Bank
of Waverly.
His interests and activities have been unfailing in behalf of his church.
Since 1899 he has been secretary of the Lutheran Mutual Aid Society
and has managed its affairs with vigor and efficiency, maintaining them on
a sound financial basis. Mr. Grossmann has always been known as a hard
worker. His vigorous constitution today is probably due to his habits
of industry and physical labor when a boy. At the age of fourteen he
was binding wheat in the harvest fields, plowing corn, and doing other heavy
manual toil. He is a member of the publishing committee of the Iowa
Synod and of its finance committee, is a member of the board of directors
of Wartburg College at Clinton, Iowa, and president of the Iowa Orphans Home
Society. He is a member of the Community Club at Waverly, and for ten
years was on the board of directors of the Iowa National Insurance Company
of Des Moines. His father was a Republican, but Mr. Grossmann has been
a consistent Democrat in principle, though in the Bryan campaign of 1896
he supported the gold standard ticket of Palmer and Buckner. Mr. Grossmann
in 1923 took his first important vacation, when he spent three months in
Europe. While overseas he placed wreaths on the graves of his ancestors.
He married Miss Anna Kaufmann, daughter of G. Kaufmann, of Waverly. The
following children were born to their union: Cordelia, wife of A. R.
Boer of Wisconsin; Arthur C., editor of the Waverly Democrat; Rosa,
wife of Rev Eugene Poppen, of Detroit, Michigan; Helen, wife of E. L. Hahn,
who is connected with the wholesale department of Marshall Field & Company
in Chicago; W. P., owner of a moving picture house at Nevada, Iowa; W. P.,
who for two years was at Camp Dodge with the recruiting branch and at the
close of the war with the discharging department, and prior to the war had
worked in the bank at Waverly; Hilda, who completed her musical education
in the Chicago College of Music, is voice teacher in the Kansas State
Agricultural College at Manhattan; Emma is an employee of the Peninsular
State Bank at Detroit, Michigan; Helmuth W., owner of a Funeral Home at Charles
City, Iowa, was in the hospital department of the United States navy, assigned
to the U. S. S. Montana in 1917-21.
~~~~***~~~~
GEORGE MARTIN GROSSMANN, distinguished for his pioneer work as a Lutheran
clergyman and particularly as the first director of the Wartburg College
and Teachers Seminary at Waverly, was born in Germany, at Grossbieberau,
Hessen-Darmstadt, October 18, 1823, son of Ludwig and Maria Margaretha
(Rotenhaeuser) Grossmann. His father was a teacher. He attended
normal school at Friedburg, engaged in teaching, and while thus occupied
became interested in the missionary work in America, then being directed
by Wilhelm Loehe, of Neuendettelsau. After studying theology he offered
his services to Loehe, who chose him to conduct a training school for parochial
school teachers at Saginaw, Michigan.
George M. Grossmann was ordained at Hamburg, and with his family and some
young men who were to be hid pupils reached Saginaw in July, 1862, opening
his school. The Lutheran pastors of Saginaw County were members of
the Missouri Synod. Grossmann soon found himself unpleasantly concerned
in a controversy between Loehe and the Missouri Synod over the nature of
the ministerial office and its relation to the priesthood of believers. He
sided with Loehe against the extreme congregationalism of the Missourians.
Consequently finding his position at Saginaw uncomfortable, he decided
to migrate to a part of the country unoccupied by pastors of that synod,
and accordingly, late in October, 1853, he and his friend, Rev. Johannes
Deindoerfer, moved to Iowa. Settling at Dubuque, he reopened his school,
gathered a Lutheran congregation, while Deindoerfer went some sixty miles
northwestward into Clayton County. On August 24, 1854, these two pioneer
ministers and two other young men recently sent over by Loehe met in
Deindoerfer's cabin at Saint Sebald in Clayton County and organized the German
Lutheran Synod of Iowa. The synod during the years continued to grow,
although handicapped by the polemical onslaughts of the Missouri Synod, and
by some dissensions and intrigue within its own ranks. Loehe continued
to send men and money for its work, and as German immigrants poured into
the West and Northwest the synod gradually extended its activities east to
Lake Erie and west to the Rocky Mountains. Rev. Mr. Grossmann was president
of the synod from 1854 to 1893.
In the meantime his school was transformed into a theological seminary, of
which he was president until 1874. In 1878, in vacant rooms in an orphanage
at Andrew, Iowa, he resumed his training of parochial school teachers. In
1879 the synod established a small private school for boys at Waverly,
and at the call of the synod Rev. Mr. Grossmann took charge of the school,
which became the Wartburg Normal College, designed to prepare young men for
teaching in parish schools. Thus he became the first director or president
of the new seminary. The youngest of the thirteen students enrolled
in 1879 was August Engelbrecht, who is now director or president. For
a short time Waverly's first hotel was rented as a temporary home for the
college. In 1880 work was started on the building of "Old Maine," a
three story structure, in the building of which the students contributed
much of the labor. In 1885 the college department of the synod's
theological seminary at Mendota, Illinois, was transferred to the Waverly
school, which thereafter was known as the Warthurg College and Teachers Seminary.
Some years later it was decided to separate the seminary and the college
department and in 1894 the college was removed to Clinton, Iowa, where it
has since been known as the Wartburg College. This division seriously
depleted the faculty and student body at Waverly, but in a short time the
academy department, the commercial department and school of music were added,
in 1905 a pro-seminary department was organized, and about two years later
co-education was introduced. In 1920 the Junior College was added and
the name of the institution changed to Wartburg Normal College. Between
1910 and 1926 North Hall was doubled in size, and the old Commercial Building,
Grossmann Hall, Watburg Hall, Gymnasium and Luther Hall and other structures
added to the campus. At the present time Wartburg is a fully accredited
normal school and junior college, with the campus and modern equipment.
During the fifty years the school at Waverly has had four presidents
or directors: Director Grossmann, Director Lutz, Director Bergatrasser and
Director Engelbrecht.
Director Grossmann took up his labors at Waverly on a salary of six hundred
dollars a year and a house, and continued to direct the work until 1894,
when the infirmities of old age made it necessary for him to retire. He
continued to be a resident of Waverly until his death on August 24, 1897.
He was the author of a book, Die Christliche Gemeindeschule,
published in 1895.
During his early manhood in Germany he married Nannie Steppes, who survived
him and passed away in 1912 at the age of eighty-eight. Of their eight
children the only surviving son is G. A. Grossmann, Waverly banker and secretary
of the Lutheran Mutual Aid Society.
~~~~***~~~~
LORRAINE M. GUENTHER, county auditor of Jackson County at Maquoketa,
was born and grew up at the old Mississippi River town of Sabula. He
was in the railroad service for a number of years, is a World war veteran,
and on all counts his experience has well qualified him for the post of
responsibility he enjoys in his native county.
He was born at Sabula February 13, 1895. His father, Jacob H. Guenther,
was a native of Pennsylvania and was thirteen years of age when his parents
came out to Iowa and settled on a farm near Sabula. At the outbreak
of the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army. In 1864 he returned
to Sabula and for many years was in business in that city as a pharmacist.
He passed away June 30, 1923. Jacob H. Guenther married Francina
Marikle, a native of New York State, who resides at Sabula. There are
two sons, Wade, publisher and owner of the Sabula Gazette, and Lorraine
M.
Lorraine M. Guenther was graduated from the Sabula High School in 1911. In
August of the same year he went to work for the Chicago, Milwaukee &
St. Paul Railway, and altogether was on the payroll of that company for eleven
years. He was one of the first to join the colors and go overseas after
America declared war on Germany. He enlisted May 26, 1917, in the
Thirteenth Regiment of Engineers. After a period of training in Chicago
he embarked for France, July 21, 1917, being among the first of the American
Expeditionary Forces. During most of his service he was in the Verdun
sector in France. He returned home in April, 1919, and was honorably
discharged at Camp Grant, Illinois, May 14.
He then resumed his place with the Milwaukee Railway, but in 1922 resigned
to enter the insurance business. He sold insurance four years and was
a bond salesman one year. Mr. Guenther on January 1, 1927, became deputy
county auditor. In 1928 he made the successful race for election as
county auditor and has filled that office since January 1, 1929. He
is a Republican, a member of the American Legion and the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Guenther married, November 29, 1924, Miss Lura A. Eggerstedt, daughter
of Jacob and Emma (Gray) Eggerstedt. Her father came from Germany when
about seventeen years of age, and for many years was in business with the
Hurst Lime Works. He retired in 1925. Mr. and Mrs. Guenther have
one child, Marilyn, born in 1925.
~~~~***~~~~
JAMES R. GUTHRIE, of Dubuque, is a man of distinguished attainments
in two distinct fields, that of medicine and surgery and of finance. he
is one of the prominent men of the state who were born on Iowa farms, and
his birth occurred at Sand Springs in Delaware County, July 22, 1858.
Doctor Guthrie is a son of Peter and Jane Ann Guthrie, his father of
Irish and his mother of Scotch ancestry. Peter Guthrie spent his active
life as a farmer. James R. Guthrie was educated in public schools,
attended Lenox College at Hopkinton, Iowa, from which he graduated Bachelor
of Science in 1878, and the college awarded him the Master of Arts degree
three years later. During this interval he had taught school, and on
the basis of this early experience and equipment he entered the medical
department of the University of Iowa, where he was graduated M. D. in 1884.
Doctor Guthrie has practiced medicine and surgery at Dubuque since
graduating and is a member of the staff of Finley Hospital. He is a
member of the American College of Surgeons and the Dubuque County, Iowa State
and American Medical Associations.
He has rendered valuable service in his profession outside his home city.
In June, 1889, he was elected to the chair of physiology in the College
of Medicine at the University of Iowa, in 1898 was made professor of gynecology
and obstetrics, and on July 22, 1902, was appointed dean of the College
of Medicine, and altogether gave thirty years of service to the cause of
the advancement of medical education and the raising of the medical standards
of his school. In 1914 he resigned as dean and during the following
five years continued to work for the university as a lecturer. Doctor
Guthrie is affiliated with Dubuque Lodge, B. P. O. Elks.
His active career as a financier dates from 1914, and three important financial
organizations and institutions of Dubuque owe a great deal to his judgment
and integrity and business ability. These are the Federal Bank &
Trust Company, the Federal Corporation and the Federal Building Company.
The Federal Bank & Trust Company was opened May 2, 1914, and Doctor
Guthrie has been president from the beginning. Since 1921 the company
has occupied a thirteen story building that is one of the finest business
structures in the city and which also houses the two other corporations of
which Doctor Guthrie is the active head.
Doctor Guthrie is a Republican in politics and a member of the Westminster
Presbyterian Church. He married at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, April 20, 1893,
Miss Harriett Dowdell, whose father, Edward Dowdell, was an early pioneer
of Eastern Iowa. Doctor and Mrs. Guthrie had two children, Edward,
who died in infancy, and a daughter. The daughter, Janann, whose name
is an abbreviation of her mother's name, Jane Ann, is a graduate of Vassar
College and is now Mrs. Frank C. Baker, of Kansas City, Missouri.
|
