George W. Godfrey

George W. Godfrey has the always honorable distinction of being a native son of Iowa. His active life in the state, covering a period of nearly half a century, has been filled with good works, teaching, farming, merchandising, and since 1901 his home and interests have been centered at Albia in Monroe County. Mr. Godfrey was born in Mahaska County, Iowa, November 6, 1861, son of Benjamin and Ellen Jane (Reynolds) Godfrey. His father was a native of the State of Maine, of English ancestry, and came out to Iowa from Ohio. In 1849 he entered Government land in Mahaska County. For several years he conducted a ferry at Belfountain on the Des Moines River, and over this ferry crossed hundreds of people bound for the California gold fields. In 1871 he purchased the Eveland Ferry, and continued its operation until 1876, when the first bridge over the river was constructed at that point. Ellen Jane Reynolds was a native of Ohio and came out to Iowa in 1850. She was of German stock. Both parents possessed the qualities of the sturdy pioneers. George W. Godfrey grew up in Mahaska County, attended school there, and for about ten years his time was divided between teaching in the winters and farming in summers. In 1888 he left the farm and moved his family to Oskaloosa, where he engaged in the wholesale fruit and commission business. While at Oskaloosa he was honored with election to the city council and is a member of the school board. On selling his local business holdings in 1896 he was on the road as a traveling salesman for five years. Mr. Godfrey in 1901 bought the Gray ice plant at Albia. To the ice interests he added that of coal, and for a quarter of a century has been one of the leading coal and ice dealers of Monroe County. He is a successful man of large interests, prominent in business affairs, and always responsive to calls upon his public spirit. Mr. Godfrey is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, being a member of Kaaba Temple of Davenport. He is a Democrat and in 1928 was chosen a delegate to the national Democratic convention at Houston. Mr. Godfrey built his very attractive home near the southern limits of Albia, at 1320 South Main Street, in 1914. He married at Oskaloosa in March, 1883, Miss Matilda E. Hoopes, member of an early Mahaska County family and daughter of Andrew L. and Bersheba (Darling) Hoopes. Her father's people came from Pennsylvania and her mother from Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey have two children: Miss Lulu May and Clarence Edward. The son, now in partnership with his father in the ice and coal business, married Katharine Gant, of Albia, and their three daughters are named Marian, Kathryn and Betty Lu.

by Edgar Rubey Harlan, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931