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         N. FRANK HEDRICK, proprietor of the Hotel Hedrick, the leading hotel of Columbus Junction, was born in Franklin County, Ind., June 22, 1834, and a son of the Hon. John W. and Mary (Morrow) Hedrick. He came to Iowa with his parents in 1842, when but eight years of age, the family settling in Wapello County, near Ottumwa, where Frank was reared on a farm, receiving a common-school education. In 1859 he went to California, leaving Ottumwa on the 1st of March, and traveling with an ox-team. The party was five and a half months in making the trip to Placerville. He engaged in mining in California with varying success, and subsequently went to Nevada, when he enlisted in Company B, Nevada Volunteers, and served until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged. He remained on the Pacific Slope for about thirteen years, ten of which were passed in California. On his return to Wapello County, Iowa, in 1872, Mr. Hedrick was employed in bridge carpentry for some years, and then engaged in the grocery business. In 1874 he began hotel-keeping at Columbus Junction, in which he continued for some years. He then rented his house, and engaged in the agricultural implement business in the same place, which he carried on for about three years, and then went to Dakota, where he engaged in the same business for two seasons. He returned to Columbus Junction in 1887, and built his present elegant house.

On the 3d of April, 1874, Mr. Hedrick was united in marriage with Mrs. Martha Jennings, widow of Henry Jennings, and a daughter of James Dixon. She was born in Kentucky, and had two children by her former marriage, both daughters: Artie, the elder, is the wife of Joseph H. Utt, a commercial traveler and resident merchant of Columbus Junction; the younger daughter, May, is the wife of W. A. Carr, a merchant of Columbus Junction.

In his political views Mr. Hedrick is a Republican, and has served in various official capacities, having several times served as member of the Town Council, and in 1881 was Mayor of Columbus Junction. Socially, he is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of Columbus City Lodge No. 107, A. F. & A. M., and also of Composite Chapter No. 91, R. A. M. The Hotel Hedrick, of which he is proprietor, was built by him in 1887, and opened for business December 25 of that year. The house is built with solid brick walls, is forty-six feet front on Walnut street, seventy-six feet deep, three stories in height, and contains thirty rooms. The house has wide halls, comfortable, well-ventilated rooms, a roomy and pleasant office, elegantly furnished parlors and sleeping rooms, and is also supplied with sample and reading rooms. The appointments of kitchen and dining-room are complete, and the table is all that could be asked or expected in a small city. Mr. Hedrick is always attentive to the wants of his guests, and is a host with whom it is a pleasure to stop.