ADDINGTON, Clinton H.

ADDINGTON, PATTON, DAVIS

Posted By: Gordon Felland
Date: 6/8/2009 at 12:54:04

Clinton H. Addington of Osage, is well known in newspaper circles in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. He was born in Stacyville, Iowa, November 15, 1868, and is a son of William H. and Gertrude (Patton) Addington. The latter was a daughter of David and Eliza Patton, who removed from Walworth county. Wisconsin, to Iowa. They were pioneers of Wisconsin, having gone to that state from Connecticut in the year 1834. Mr. and Mrs. Patton came to Iowa in 1864 and settled at Stacyville, where Mr. Patton became the owner of the Stacyville mill, well known to the early settler and patronized by many from Six Mile Grove, a Norwegian settlement just over the state line in Minnesota, as well as those of the nearby territory. Mr. and Mrs. Patton returned east in 1869 and their last days were spent at Elgin, Illinois.

William H. Addington, father of the subject of this sketch, was a son of William H. and Alvira (Potter) Addington, who also came from Wisconsin in the year 1863. They were originally, however, from Oneida county, New York and Erie county, Pennsylvania, William H. Addington, father of Clinton H., having been born in Erie county six years prior to the removal of the family to Wisconsin. The family home was established in this state during the pioneer epoch of its development and afterward William H. Addington, Sr., removed to Missouri where he spent his remaining days. While in Iowa he engaged in farming and acted as agent for the McCormick and J. I. Case farm machinery, he having had an intimate acquaintance with the founders of these concerns in Wisconsin. William H. Addington, Jr., claimed residence in Stacyville for more than a third of a century. He followed the occupation of farming principally. In 1869 he changed his residence to Missouri, remained there two years and then moved to Elgin, Illinois. During three years residence there Mrs. Addington's parents died, the mill property at Stacyville came back to the family on the foreclosure of a mortgage, and to look after this and other interests the Addington family came back to Stacyville which was their home until the death of Mrs. Addington in 1889. Mr. Addington survived his wife for a decade. In their family were three sons; Frank H., who died at the age of nine years in Elgin, Illinois; William H., now of Osage; and Clinton H.

The latter acquired his early education in the public schools of Stacyville. When nineteen years of age he commenced teaching school, following the profession for two years. A spring term was spent as a student in the Upper Iowa University at Fayette. In 1892 he was employed at Little Cedar in a lumber yard and later in a store. In the spring of 1893 Charles Scheu, a pioneer merchant of Stacyville, placed him in charge of a branch store at David, a newly established station on the Great Western Railroad. He held this position until Mr. Scheu's death when the store was discontinued. For a short time he assisted his father on the farm and from there, in the fall of 1896, was elected to the office of county recorder of Mitchell county and made so excellent a record in that position that he was three times reelected and voluntarily retired from the office as he had entered it, with the confidence and goodwill of all concerned, having for four terms occupied the position, while the prompt, efficient and capable manner in which he discharged his duties won for him the admiration of all. On retiring from the recorder's office he engaged in the abstract business, conducting it under the name of the Mitchell County Abstract Company for five years, with a set of abstract books compiled under his supervision while in the recorder's office. In the summer of 1906 a company of capitalists secured his services to compile a set of abstract books for McLain county, North Dakota, at Washburn, the county seat. On completing this work he returned to Osage, disposed of his interest in the Mitchell County Abstract Company and for a year was with his brother in business. Not being suited with this he sought another change and found his real life work in the newspaper business, starting with the purchase of a half interest in the Osage News on January 1, 1908. Three years later he became the sole owner of the paper but after two years felt the need of an assistant and sold a half interest to Harold C. Austin, a young man who developed exceptional newspaper ability. Together they brought the paper to a high degree of excellence, it being recognized as one of the best papers in the state. They were persuaded to part company in July, 1916. After a four months rest Mr. Addington went to Glenwood, Minnesota, where he purchased the Pope County Times. After a few month he deemed it advisable to merge his paper with the competing paper, The Glenwood Herarld, an old and well established paper in which he secured a substantial interest and became one of the editors and managers.

On the 10th of November, 1897, Mr. Addington was united in marriage to Sara Huntington Davis, who was born in Delaware county, Iowa, on February 22, 1871, a daughter of Daniel and Charlotte (Bruce) Davis, natives of the state of Vermont, who found a western home in Delaware county, where Mrs. Addington was born. But when she was quite small the family removed to Fayette, where Mr. Davis engaged in the banking and mercantile business. Mr. Davis was one of the argonauts, who in 1849 went around Cape Horn to California, where he spent five years. To Mr. and Mrs. Addington were born three children, their first, a son, dying at birth. Their daughter, Lois, was born February 6, 1900, and at this writing is a freshman at Coe College, Cedar Rapids. A son, Leslie Davis, was born in August, 1904, but was permitted to remain with them for only four months.

In his political views Mr. Addington is a republican and has given stanch support to the principles of the party as a private citizen and as a newspaper publisher. His progressive spirit led him, however, to identify himself with the newly formed progressive party in 1912. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of which he is a past chancellor commander, and he has also been a representative of the organization in several meetings of the grand lodge. In early life he united with the Congregational church at Stacyville, transferring his membership to the Osage Congregational church when his duties as a county officer caused his removal to the county seat. He was superintendent of a Sunday school at Stacyville before he was twenty years of age, served in that capacity during his residence at David, and since becoming identified with the Osage church has served that organization as Sunday school superintendent, church trustee and deacon.

He is prominent and widely known, and his genuine worth is recognized by all with whom he has come in contact. Practically his entire life has been passed in Iowa and the spirit of western enterprise and progress which has been the dominant factor in the upbuilding of the state has found expression in his career.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 30.