Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 431

AARON PARK, there are but few business men of Wilton who have been identified with the town since its earliest history, but prominent among the small number is our subject, who is the present undertaker and furniture dealer of the city. He became a resident of Wilton in 1857, and established business in 1862. He was born in Cumberland County, England, Aug. 17, 1838, and is a son of William Park. His father died when Aaron was about twelve years of age, the mother surviving him for some time. They were the parents of seven children who reached mature years, five sons and two daughters. One daughter, Hannah, who was the seventh in the family, died in infancy, and hers was the only death that ever occurred in the family until 1888, when William, the eldest, departed this life. With the exception of our subject, there was but one member of the family who came to America, Matthew, who emigrated to this country in 1856, locating in Wilton, where he resided until 1884, when he removed to Sioux City.

In early life Aaron served an apprenticeship to the trade of cabinet-making, beginning at the age of fourteen and continuing as an apprentice until he crossed the Atlantic to America, between the ages of eighteen and nineteen. On his arrival he came directly to Wilton, where his brother had located the previous year, one week being required to make the journey from New York, which can now be accomplished in one-fourth of the time, which shows the progress in the facilities of traveling made in the interval of thirty years. When Mr. Park landed in Wilton he was the proud possessor of $5 in money, which constituted the capital with which he was to begin life in the New World. The hard times of 1857,1858 and 1859 had already begun, and even a skilled mechanic received but a trifle for his labor, if work at all could be secured. But, working at the carpenter's trade when there was any demand for his labor, Mr. Park managed to struggle through the financial depression, and in 1862 embarked in business with $15 as capital, but being a skilled workman he made progress from the beginning. His first place of business was a small shop on the site of Agnew's drug-store, but in 1868, he purchased his present location, which then consisted of a lot and a small frame building, to which he has added as his means and growing business demanded. His stock includes all that goes to make up a first-class furniture and undertaking establishment. He makes a specialty of the latter line of work, including embalming the bodies, to which he has given much attention, and his business is constantly increasing.

On the 1st of January, 1862, Mr. Park was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Nelson, a native of Ohio. In that State, her father's death occurred, after which the mother removed with her family to Iowa. Three children grace the union of Mr. and Mrs. Park : James Elsworth, who is now assistant cashier of the Farmer's and Citizen's Bank at Wilton; Charles G., and Clara Estella.

Our subject was one of the charter members of the Iowa State Undertaking Association, serving as its first President; is a prominent member of the Odd Fellow's Society, and also of the Masonic fraternity, in both of which lodges he has filled all the offices. He is the Chief of the Fire Department at Wilton, was one of the organizers, and has ever been numbered among its principle supporters. To him as much as to any other citizen is its present efficiency due. In his political sentiment Mr. Park is a Republican, and a warm advocate of the principles of that great political organization. He is ranked among the respected citizens of his town and county, with which he has been so long identified, and is one of the self-made men of the community. Beginning life a poor boy, by industry, perseverance and fair dealing, he has built up a fine trade, and is numbered among the leading citizens of the town. In the summer of 1887 he made a visit to England to see once more the home of his childhood and the friends whose faces he had not looked upon for thirty years. While he loves that country as his fatherland, stronger still is his attachment to the land of his adoption, whose free institutions give to all alike opportunities for advancement in life that are denied to the masses in other lands.


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