Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 393

GEORGE B. DENISON, of the firm of G. A. Garretson & Co., bankers of Muscatine, Iowa, and an early settler of that city, was born in the town of Floyd, Oneida Co., N. Y., on the 13th of February, 1819, and is a son of Samuel and Nancy ( Burlingame ) Denison. The Denison family in America is descended from an old and distinguished English family, some of whose members figured conspicuously in English history during the stormy days of Charles the First and Oliver Cromwell. The founder of the family in this country was William Denison, who with his three sons, Daniel, Edward and George, came to America in 1631, only eleven years subsequent to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. They settled at Roxbury, Mass. Daniel was prominent in military matters, and served as Speaker of the House of Representatives; he left but few descendants. Edward died childless. George settled in Stonington, Conn., and was a Colonel of the Colonial army, and won renown fighting with the Indians. He married and had a large family. It was from this branch that the forefathers of our subject sprang. One branch of the family settled in Canada in an early day and there became prominent.

Daniel Denison, the paternal grandfather of our subject, married a Miss Avery, of the noted New England family of that name, and settled at New London, Conn., where he resided until 1771, when he moved with his family to the then wilderness of Rensselaer County, N. Y. There his son Samuel, father of George, was born on the 24th of October, 1774.

Our subject received his primary education at home and later took a course in an academy. He was a student of the Oneida Institute at Whitesboro, N. Y., the first abolition school of America. After completing his education he became a teacher, and followed that vocation for several years. In the summer of 1850 he came to Muscatine, prospecting for a site for business. At that time a new school-house was being erected, and by offering the building committee some valuable hints in perfecting their work, he became known to them as an educator, and was employed to teach the school the succeeding spring. He returned East that fall, and the following spring came back and entered upon his duties as teacher of the first graded school taught in Iowa, commencing May 12, 1851. He remained in charge of the school for four years.

On the examination of the school law Mr. Denison found that, while it made ample provisions for the building of school-houses, it utterly failed to make suitable provisions for maintaining the schools after the house was built. This was a very serious oversight, to remedy which Mr. Denison drew up an amendment consisting of nine sections, entitled an " Act to extend the powers of school districts," and submitted it to the Legislature, which left it optional with the electors of the district to levy a tax and make the schools free, or support them by "Rate Bill." The House passed the bill as drawn by Mr. Denison, but the Senate struck out by one majority the " Free School" section, but unanimously passed the rest of the bill, and in this shape it was passed by both Houses, and was approved by the Governor Jan. 22, 1853. ( See edition of School Laws of 1853 ) This was the only change made in the school law from 1847 to 1858, when the law was revised entirely. He served several years as a member of the Muscatine School Board, and in 1862 was elected County Superintendent of Schools, was re-elected, serving from 1862 until Jan. 1, 1866, a term of three and a half years. He has always been an advocate of a liberal and broad gauged system of education, and has devoted at least ten years of his life to educational matters. His first vote was cast at a school election, and the first dollar of tax he ever paid was toward the building of a school-house in the district where he went to school.

In early life Mr. Denison was a Whig in political sentiment and voted for William Henry Harrison for President in 1840. In 1856, the Whig party having broken up, he joined the new Republican party, and cast his vote for its first candidate, John C. Fremont, in 1856. He has advocated and supported the policy of that party continuously since.

Our subject married Miss Margaret M. Lyon, a native of Herkimer County, N. Y., and a daughter of Dr. Benjamin Lyon. They are the parents of three children, of whom only the youngest survives, a daughter, Edna. Miss Edna is a graduate of Iowa College of Grinnell. Mrs. Denison was a graduate from the State Normal School at Albany, N. Y., and was a teacher in the public schools four years after coming to Muscatine.

Since 1876 our subject has been engaged in banking. On the 1st of September, 1878, he joined G. A. Garretson in a private banking business, under the firm name of G. A. Garretson & Co., successors to the Muscatine National Bank, which connection has continued to the present time.


Back to 1889 History of Muscatine Co. Index Page

Back to the Muscatine Co. IAGenWeb Index Page