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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thompson L. Brookhart passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the old home farm in Van Buren County, and there he attended the public schools until 1903.  He then came, in 1904, to his present home City of Washington, and here he was graduated in Washington Academy, as a member of the class of 1909, he having in the meanwhile served as clerk and student in the local law office of his brothers, Senator Smith W. Brookhart and James L. Brookhart, his former law partners.  In