W. F. RIGHTMIRE
The present Bar of Griswold is ably represented by W. F. Rightmire and C. S. Patterson.
W. F. Rightmire, of the firm of Rightmire and Patterson, was the first attorney of Griswold. He is a native of Ithaca, Thompkins county, New York, born March 23, 1849. His father was from the same State, and his mother was born in Connecticut, her ancestry being easily traced to the passengers who landed from the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock. Her grandfather, George Palmer, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution and in the War of 1812. Her father, William Franklin, was own nephew to Dr. Franklin. Mr. and Mrs. Rightmire, Sr., were married in Thompkins county. New York, September 20, 1842, and are the parents of six children, three of whom are now living. Mr. Rightmire, Jr., was reared upon a farm, and his father being in limited circumstances, he worked at various occupations, and thus was able to attend, after a time, Ithaca academy, and obtained sufficient education to enable him to teach school. He afterward attended Cazenovia seminary, in Madison county, New York, and engaged in teaching a graded school in Pennsylvania and in other localities, following that profession some time. Meanwhile he read law, and fitted himself for the legal profession. In 1872 he went into the local ministry of the Evangelical association. In 1873 he was appointed to what was called the "Jersey shore circuit." He was married March 3, 1874, to Margaret Cahran. In June of the same year, he came to LeClaire, Iowa, and engaged in keeping books; thence in the fall went to Hampton, Rock Island county, Illinois, and taught school. In the spring of 1875 he went on the river, acting as clerk on a raft steamer, and as agent for the Chippewa lumber company. In the fall of that year he went to Camanche, Clinton county, Iowa, and took charge of three schools. In 1876 he went to Sabula, Jackson county, and took charge of the Sabula schools, where, on account of failing eyesight, he resigned. In the fall of 1877 he taught school near Maquoketa and in the spring of 1878 went to Red Oak, Montgomery county, where he was unfit for business all summer on account of sickness. In the fall, with his health somewhat improved, he taught school near there through the winter, and the winter following. He was admitted to the bar at the April term of the district court, in 1880. Upon the first day of May, 1880, he came to Griswold, opened an office, and commenced the practice of his chosen profession. He has been eminently successful, and has a lucrative and rapidly increasing practice. Politically he is a Republican, and takes an active part in the dissemination of the principles of that party, canvassing the ninth congressional district under the auspices of the State Central committee, in 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Rightmire are the parents of three children now living: Robert A., born March 12, 1875; Claude H, born May 2, 1882; and John S., born August 18, 1884.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 391.
