WILLIAM WADDELL
William Waddell, the next clerk of the courts, was elected in the fall of 1862, and successively re-elected in 1864, 1866 and 1868, serving eight years in this capacity, with credit to himself and honor to his friends.
William Waddell was born June 28, 1832, in Steuben county, New York. In 1836, his father and family moved to Livingston county, Michigan, then a wilderness, where in the year following the father died. The widowed mother with her seven children shortly afterwards returned to her former home in New York. William lived with his father's relatives until he was sixteen years old, after which he made his own way in the world. He acquired a good academical education and in the spring of 1857, started for the West. He came to Cass county, Iowa, in April, 1858, and in May was employed by the state commissioners to select the swamp lands in the unorganized counties of the northwestern part of the State, and on his return to Cass county, in the following autumn, he took charge of the public school at Lewis, continuing in that employment nearly two years. He and Belle Johnson, of Lewis, were married April 6, 1860.
In October, 1862, he was elected clerk of the district court of Cass county, and was twice re-elected. On retiring from that position in January, 1869, he went to Atlantic, in the employ of F. H. Whitney, agent of the Atlantic Town company, and moved his family to that place in the following May. In February, 1870, he was appointed cashier of Cass County bank, then organized and served in that capacity until January, 1880, when he resigned the place to take the office of county treasurer, to which he had just been elected. He served two terms and refused to be a candidate for re-election. He has for the last two years been a member of the Iowa Republican State central committee.
In January, 1869, when the office of clerk of the board of supervisors was taken from the clerk of the district court and conferred upon the newly created auditor, the board of supervisors of the county tendered the following vote of thanks to William Waddell, who had so long held official connection with their body:
"Whereas, William Waddell's term of office as ex-officio clerk of the board having expired, we, the members of the board, deeply regret that his pleasant countenance will greet us no more as our clerk; therefore, be it
"Resolved, By the board of supervisors of Cass county, Iowa, that, as a business man and a courteous gentleman he has no superior, and for truth, integrity and honesty of purpose, we feel in duty bound to freely testify that he has always maintained an even and unruffled deportment toward the members of the board, and always studiously tried to do that which was for the best interests of the county, without fear, favor or affectation. That the thanks of this board be tendered to William Waddell for the able and efficient manner in which he has discharged the duties of clerk of this board, and that our best wishes attend him in his retirement from the duties of his station."
Mr. Waddell was succeeded by J. K. Powers in the office of clerk of the courts, on the 1st of January, 1871, and was re-elected in 1872, thus serving four years.
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. 361-362.
William Waddell, was elected to the office of surveyor in 1868, Mr. Waddell has been prominently identified with the more important official positions, and in connection with one of these, clerk of the court, full details are given of this eminent gentleman.
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, pg. 371.
