For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 624
WILLIAM FOSTER BISHOP. Prominent among the citizens of Muscatine is William Foster Bishop, president of the Hawkeye Pearl Button Company and one of the native sons of this city, who by the exercise of industry and natural ability has gained an enviable standing in the business world. He was born September 12, 1865, and is a son of Jacob A. and Rebecca Bishop, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The father was reared at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and came to Muscatine at an early day, where he engaged in the grocery business. He departed this life in 1905, at the age of more than four score years, and the mother died in 1879. Both were members of the Congregational church. There were five children in their family, three sons and two daughters: Jolm, deceased; Minnie, who became the wife of Mann Hershey and is now deceased; Nellie A., now Mrs. L. C. Crossman, of Los Angeles, California; Edward, also of Los Angeles; and William F., our subject.After receiving his preliminary education in the common schools William F. Bishop entered the high school of Muscatine, from which he was graduated in 1884, at the age of nineteen years. Having decided upon a business career, he went to Poughkeepsie, New York, and became a student at the Eastman Business College, graduating from that celebrated institution in 1885. Returning to Muscatine, he entered the wholesale commission house of Hoopes & Son as bookkeeper and later was connected for three or four years with the office of S. & L. Cohn. He then entered into partnership with John S. Sterneman and P. J. Mackey in the wholesale clothing business. Finally in 1900 he associated with C. C. Hagerman in the manufacture of pearl button blanks and the business has ever since been conducted under the firm name of Bishop & Hagerman. In 1903 this firm, in connection with F. C. Vetter, organized the Hawkeye Pearl Button Company, which was incorporated and has become one of the most important concerns of the kind in the country. It maintains a factory at Muscatine and branch factories at Keokuk and Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Canton, Missouri, employing seven or eight hundred persons. The company maintains a branch office in New York city and also carries a large stock of goods in St. Louis, selling to all parts of the United States. Mr. Bishop is also identified with other business enterprises and is a director of the First National Bank of Muscatine.
In 1890, at Muscatine, Mr. Bishop was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Carskaddan, a daughter of Judge Jerome and Marilla (Brown) Carskaddan, a record of whom appears elsewhere in this work. One child, Jerome, has blessed the union.
Mr. Bishop is a prominent member of the Masonic order, being a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and belonging to Iowa Lodge, No. 2, A. F. & A. M.; Washington Chapter, No. 4, R. A. M.; De Molay Commandery, No. 1, K. T.; and Zarephath Consistory. Politically he is in sympathy with the republican party, believing that its principles are most conducive to the advancement of the welfare of the country. He takes a great interest in motor boating and is a member of the Muscatine Launch Club and also of the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association, serving at present as commodore of the latter organization, which has about three thousand members and is one of the most important associations of the kind of this country. Beginning twenty-five years ago in a subordinate position, Mr. Bishop has steadily advanced and today is a prominent factor in the manufacturing business of the west. This he has accomplished by close application and sound judgement. He is a man of clear perception and unusual enterprise, and his opinions are always given careful consideration by those with whom he is associated, as they are founded on experience and observation. He is a type of the men who control the large industries and are today coming forward not only as the employers of the country but as the peacemarkers of the world.
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