Pusey, William H. M.

PUSEY

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/16/2019 at 14:02:43

William H. M. Pusey

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.487)
WILLIAM H.M. PUSEY, of the well known firm of Officer & Pusey, bankers of Council Bluffs, was born in Washington Co., Pennsylvania, July 29, 1826, son of NATHAN and Martha (MILLS) PUSEY. The former, a merchant and farmer by occupation, was a native of Culpepper Courthouse, Virginia. He was of English and Quaker ancestry, his forefathers having come over with William PENN settling in Philadelphia. Caleb PUSEY, one of the number, was one of Penn's commissioners and built the first mill in the colony at Philadelphia. Nathan PUSEY, a man of excellent judgment, was very successful and retired to Baltimore, Maryland, where he died in 1865. He had a family of five sons and two daughters.

WILLIAM H. M. PUSEY was educated at Washington, Pennsylvania, in the Washington-Jefferson College, and graduated at that college in 1847 in the same class with Hon. James G. Blaine. He removed to Iowa in 1856, settling in Council Bluffs, where he has made his home ever since. The same year he engaged in the banking business with his present partner, brother-in-law Thomas OFFICER and has since devoted his whole life to that business. In 1858, however, he was elected State Senator from Pottawattamie Senatorial District, then embracing 27 counties bordering on the Missouri River and extending eastward. In 1882 he was elected a member of Congress from the Ninth Iowa District and with these exceptions his entire life has been devoted to his present business. He has always taken a deep interest in the progress of his adopted city and in the development of the state. Mr. PUSEY was united in marriage to Miss S.E. OFFICER of Washington Co., Pennsylvania, on June 21, 1849, sister of his partner. They have three children living, viz.: Ella, wife of DR. C.H. PINNEY of this city; Frank S., a resident of Denver, Colorado, engaged in the construction of railroads and electric motor lines; and Kate, who resides with her father and mother.