Tom D Lockman

Tom D. Lockman is the efficient and popular cashier of the First National Bank, of Albia, Iowa. It is said that banking institutions are the pulse of the nation, giving indication of the healthful condition of commercial life. It is certain that in times of financial crisis there is nothing does more to restore the public confidence than a bank that follows a safe, honorable and open-handed policy. Such an institution is that with which our subject is connected, and its high standing among monetary concerns in this section of the State is due in no small degree to the capable efforts of Mr. Lockman. Banking is his profession and he gives to it all his energy. It is his ambition to have the establishment one in which the people can place the utmost reliance—an institution that is known to pay dollar for dollar.

Mr. Lockman is a native of Drakesville, Davis county, Iowa. He was born January 28, 1859, and is a son of John B. and Nancy M. (Drake) Lockman, the latter a sister of General F. M. Drake, the Governor-elect of this State. She is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families in the West, and it is related that when a child she sat on the knee of Chief Black Hawk in Fort Madison, in 1837. After a visit to Washington, where Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, presented him with a suit of tailor-made clothes, the chieftain wished to trade these to Mr. and Mrs. Drake for "little Nan," whose long, curly hair he greatly admired. The father of our subject was a native of Indiana, and in the fall of 1847hsi father came with the family to Iowa, locating on the land which has since been the Lockman homestead. Subsequently he made his home in Drakesville, where he embarked in general merchandising, conducting a store for a number of years. He is now living retired, in his sixty-eighth year, and his wife, who was born in Rushville, Indiana, in 1836, is still his faithful companion and helpmeet. For many long years they have traveled life's journey together, sharing with each other the hardships of frontier life in early days, and now the prosperity which crowns the honorable business career of her husband.

Mr. Lockman was the third in order of birth in a family of ten children, four sons and six daughters. He spent his boyhood days in Drakesville, and is indebted to its public schools for his literary educational privileges, while his business training he received in his father's store, where he served in the capacity of clerk. He was thus employed for two years, when he was offered and accepted a position more to his taste, becoming a clerk in the First National Bank of Albia. Later he was promoted to the position of assistant cashier, and in 1885 he was made cashier, in which capacity he is still serving. His business record here is so well known that it needs no comment. There is probably in Monroe county no more popular or more highly esteemed man, and he is also an honored member of the Iowa Bankers' Association, in which he is now serving in the capacity of treasurer.

In the year 1891 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Lockman and Miss Josamond Stahl, then a resident of Montezuma, Iowa, and a daughter of John Stahl. Socially Mr. Lockman is connected with the Masonic fraternity, and is now serving as Treasurer of Astor Lodge, No. 505, F & A. M. His political support is given to the Republican party, but he has never had time nor inclination for public office, devoting his energies solely to the banking business.