JAMES M. CARLSON.
It is not an easy task to describe adequately the career of a man who has led an eminently active and busy life, and who has attained a position of relative distinction in the community with which his interests are allied. Biography, however, finds its most perfect justification in tracing and recording the facts of such a life history. It is, therefore, with a full appreciation of what is demanded, and with the painstaking scrutiny which must be accorded each statement, and yet with a feeling of satisfaction, that the details of the career of James M. Carlson, a well-known banker of Exira, are here briefly set forth.
James M. Carlson, the cashier of the First National Bank, of Exira, Iowa, was born on December 17, 1884, in Denmark, the son of Hans P. and Oline (Petersen) Carlson, both of whom were born in Denmark, the former in 1839, and the latter in 1851. Hans P. Carlson died in 1904. He was a farmer in Denmark and came to America in 1892. He located near Elkhorn, Iowa, where he rented a farm for ten years. He then moved to a farm near Atlantic. Iowa, where he lived for a short time, after which he moved to Shelby county, Iowa, where he lived until his death.
Hans P. and Oline (Petersen) Carlson were the parents of five children: Chris, deceased, was married to Lena Petersen, who is also deceased; Nels, unmarried, lives in Canada; Anna, the wife of Walter E. Potts; James M., the immediate subject of this sketch; Alfred, unmarried, lives at home with his mother at Marne, Iowa.
James M. Carlson received his education in the public schools of Shelby county, Iowa, and after leaving his home township schools, he took a course at the Capital City Commercial College, at Des Moines, Iowa, and was graduated from this institution with the class of 1904. He then took a law course in the Lincoln-Jefferson University at Hammond, Indiana, and from this institution, which is a correspondence school, he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. After completing his law course, Mr. Carlson engaged in the banking business at Marne Savings Bank, at Marne, Iowa, where he remained for five years, and then located in California for one year. He came to Exira and was elected cashier of the First National Bank in 1911.
Mr. Carlson was married in 1912 to Ethel Musselman, the daughter of Millard and Dora (Cumpston) Musselman, and to this union one child, Marjorie, has been born. Mrs. Carlson was born in Warren county, Iowa, and her parents were also natives of this state. They were the parents of six children, Carrie, William, Ethel, John, Sele and Vera. Mrs. Carlson is a member of the Primitive Baptist church, of which the family are regular attendants.
Mr. Carlson is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to the Blue Lodge No. 342, at Exira, and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine at Des Moines. James M. Carlson is a Republican, and is at the present time a member of the Exira city council, and has made a splendid record in this office. Mr. Carlson has been very successful as a banker, and much of the success of the First National Bank, of Exira, Iowa, is partially due to his efforts. He is popular with the patrons of the bank and with the officers and directors of the institution as well. Mr. and Mrs. Carlson are popular socially in Exira, and well known to a large number of people.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 399-400.
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