J. HERBERT PARK
J. Herbert Park has been a resident of Wayne county for
forty years. During
that time he has witnessed the growth and development of this
section of the state and has been a powerful individual force
in its agricultural and business development, many of the
leading banks in Lucas and Wayne counties owing their
foundation to his initiative spirit and their development to
his ability and enterprise, and his eight hundred acre farm
standing as a conclusive evidence of his energy and ability. His record may well
serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement, showing
what may be accomplished by individual effort when
intelligently directed, for it has been by his own labors that
he has gained the prominent position which he now occupies
among men of marked ability and substantial worth in his
community.
J. Herbert Park was born in Warren county, Illinois,
October 28, 1843, and is a son of Warren and Sophia (Wheaton)
Park, natives of Massachusetts, the former born in 1806 and
the latter in 1816. The
Park family is one of the oldest in America and was founded
here by a representative of the line who located in
Massachusetts in 1635, settling on the spot where Harvard
College now stands. There
is still extant and in the possession of the subject of this
review a genealogical record extending back eight generations. It contains the
names of J. Herbert Park’s great-grandfather, Samuel Park, who
was a member of the Massachusetts general court during the
Revolutionary war, his grandfather, John Park, wounded in King
Philip’s war, and his paternal grandmother, who was a member
of the famous Adams family of Massachusetts, from which
President John Quincy Adams came. The parents of the subject of this
review were pioneers in Illinois, having settled in Warren
county, that state, after the Black Hawk war. Both died in
Henderson county, the father in 1886 and the mother in 1904. Among their
children were: Russell,
who has passed away; Mrs. Mary Calista Anderson, who resides
in Lincoln, Kansas; J. Herbert, of this review; Orlando
Appleton, who resides in Brownsville, Oregon; Solomon Adams,
of Henderson county, Illinois; Eugene, deceased; and Harry
Ellsworth, also of Brownsville, Oregon. The elder members
of this family were born in Massachusetts and the younger in
Henderson county, Illinois.
J. Herbert Park grew to manhood in Illinois and there
attended common schools.
After laying aside his books he engaged in teaching,
and at the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted from Henderson
county in Company G, One Hundred and Eighteenth Volunteer
Infantry, serving as a non-commissioned officer and receiving
his honorable discharge.
He afterward returned to Henderson county and resumed
his teaching, later abandoning this occupation and turning his
attention to the stock business and to dealing in lands. In 1870 he settled
at Burlington, Iowa, and there obtained a position in a law
office, doing notary work and also managing the real-estate
department. Following
this he went to the western mountain states and there engaged
in the mercantile business in the mining camps of the Rocky
mountains for about twenty years. Before settling at Burlington he had
purchased one hundred and thirty-five acres of choice land in
Richman township, Wayne county, and after his return from the
mining camps he settled upon this property, whereon he has
since resided. To
it he has added extensively from time to time and is now a
large landowner, holding between seven and eight hundred acres
lying in Richman township, this county, and Union township,
Lucas county. The
farm has three sets of good improvements and is a valuable
property in every particular, for it has been operated along
modern, practical lines, and it responds to the care and labor
of its owner in constantly increasing productiveness.
In addition to his farming interests Mr. Park has for
many years been very prominent in financial circles of
Humeston and the vicinity and has assisted in the organization
of seven different banks.
Today he is interested in the Home State Bank of
Humeston and in the Cambria Savings Bank. He was the
organizer of the Derby State Bank, in which he has since
disposed of his stock.
Mr. Park voted for Abraham Lincoln at the time of his
second election and at the second election of President Grant
voted the independent republican ticket. He is, however, at
present, a democrat and interested in public affairs,
cooperating heartily in everything which he deems of permanent
value to the community in which he has so long resided. He is connected
fraternally with Fidelity Lodge, No. 228, F. & A. M., of
Humeston, and belongs to the Royal Arch Masons in Corydon. He is a man of
exemplary character, just, conscientious and peace-loving, and
during the forty years he has lived in Wayne county he has
never been involved in a law suit, settling all disputes which
have arisen in accordance with the principles of right and
justice. A wide
reader, he has spent a great deal of time and thought upon his
library, which is today one of the finest to be found in this
part of Iowa, being especially well supplied with books of a
historical and scientific nature. He lives his own life; his books are his
companions; his fields are his friends; his work and business,
his recreation. The
best current magazines are on his reading table, for Mr. Park
is a well informed man and likes to keep abreast of the
questions and issues of the day. As was said of his famous kinsman,
President John Quincy Adams:
“His mind is a storehouse of facts and nothing could be
more desired by a person of mental attainment than to enter
into any kind of conversation with him.”