Joseph O. Varner

Joseph O. Varner is a retail grocer of Albia, Iowa. While the lives of steady men seldom abound in sensational incidents, there is an energy, a perseverance and an underflow of character that lend them a charm, an attractiveness and a worth that merit admiration and careful thought. We need not look among those who have been most honorable people and occupy the highest positions in affairs of state to find lives worthy of record. Those lives that demonstrate the power of industry in overcoming obstacles and in creating opportunities, and thus rising through subjective ability, contain lessons that are indeed of inestimable value. Such a career is that of our subject. He is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in the vicinity of Van Wert, in Van Wert county, November 7, 1847.

His father, Martin J. Varner, was a native of the Buckeye State, and having attained his majority there married Miss Matilda Parrott, daughter of Samuel Parrott, and they removed to Wapello county, Iowa, where they remained two years. In 1858 they became residents of Albia, where the father embarked in merchandising, carrying on a general store until 1862, when, realizing his duties to his country and that his services were needed at the front, he enlisted as a member of the Union army, and was assigned to Company A, Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry. The following year he died, thus giving his life in defense of the cause. He was a son of Leonard Varner, of German lineage, and the Parrotts were also of German descent.

Our subject was the eldest of seven children, two sons and five daughters, and those who still survive are Samantha, wife of H. B. Moore, of Albia, Iowa; Arpin¸ wife of O. C. Brooks, of Centerville, Iowa; Henry B.; and Hope, of Albia.

Our subject spent his first nine years in the county of his nativity and entered the public schools; but the greater part of his education was acquired after the removal of the family to this city, where he pursued his studies until eighteen years of age. Immediately afterward he entered upon his business career as a salesman in the store of George W. Cromer, of Albia, with whom he remained for four years. He then went upon the road as a traveling salesman in the employ of S. R. McConnell, of Burlington, Iowa, wholesale dealer in harness and saddlery, with whom he continued for twelve years, traveling in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. On the 24th of August, 1886, he began business on his own account, embarking in the retail grocery trade in Albia. He now carries a large and well selected stock of groceries, queensware and crockery. He is well known and enjoys the confidence of his patrons.

In 1865 Mr. Varner was happily united in marriage with Miss Sarah Jordan, a native of Illinois and a daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Jordan. Five children have been born to them, and of them we make record as follows: Joseph C. is living in Des Moines, Iowa; Harry B. is assisting his father in the store; Bessie and Arpin are both at home; and Gertrude died at the age of eighteen months.

Mr. Varner is a member of Albia Lodge, No. 76, F. & A.M. He also belongs to Monroe Lodge, No. 81, I.O.O.F, and Albia Lodge, No. 265, A. O. U. W.