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Delaware County, Iowa

 

 Biography Directory

 

Iowa Official Register 1909-1910

pages 627-638

For more information on Iowa from this register visit the IAGenWeb Special Project "Iowa History".

 

 

CHARLES DeWITT,  Representative from Montgomery county, was born September 25, 1862, in Colesburg, Delaware county, Iowa. His parents were both born in New York state. At the age of five years he came to Montgomery county, Iowa, with his parents and has lived there ever since. Educated in the rural schools with the exception of two winters spent in the high school of Elliott, and a three months' course in a business college in Red Oak, Iowa. Has held the following township positions in Pilot Grove township: Township clerk eight years, assessor four years, Justice of the Peace two years, school director three years. His occupation is that of a farmer, but for a few years he taught school in the winter. Elected Representative in 1908. A Republican in politics.

 

WILLARD LEE  EATON,  Railroad Commissioner, was born of American parentage in Delaware county, Iowa, October 13, 1848. In 1856, with his parents, Arial K. and Sarah Jarnigan Eaton, he moved to Osage, Iowa, where he still resides.
     He was educated in the common schools and graduated from the Cedar Valley Seminary in 1872 with the degree of B.S. and the same year received the degree of LL. B. from the State University of Iowa. In 1874 Mr. Eaton married Laura R. Annis. They have one child, Allan March Eaton, who was born March 15, 1887.
     Mr. Eaton was brought up as a Democrat and until 1893 voted that ticket. Since that time; however, he has identified with the Republican party.
     He served as Mayor of Osage three terms, County Attorney of Mitchell county one term trustee of the Cedar Valley Seminary and is at present a trustee of the Upper Iowa University. He was a member of the Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth General Assemblies and Speaker of the Twenty-ninth. He has been identified with all the Masonic bodies of Iowa, serving as the Grand Master of the Masons in the year 1900-1901. Mr. Eaton has been actively engaged in the practice of law since 1874. He entered upon his duties as Railroad Commissioner in January, 1907.

 

GEORGE E. ROBERTS is a native of Iowa, having been born in Colesburg, Delaware County, in 1857.  In 1873 his parents removed to Fort Dodge, where the son, in 1878, became the editor and publisher of the Fort Dodge Messenger, then a weekly Republican journal.  In February, 1882, he was elected State Printer, which position he held by reelections for six years.  He became widely known in the presidential campaign of 1896 as the author of a reply to Harvey's "Coin's Financial School" which was used a a campaign document by the Republican National Committee.  He also wrote a work on the money question called "Iowa and the Silver Question," which was an able discussion of the financial issues involved in the campaign.  These publications were regarded as among the best statements of the financial policy of the Republican party in that campaign and brought the author into prominent notice.  When Lyman J. Gage became Secretary of the Treasury he tendered to Mr. Roberts the position of Director of the United States Mints, which he accepted and at the close of a term of four years he was reappointed by President Roosevelt.  In June, 1902, he with some associates purchased the Iowa State Register and the Des Moines Leader which were consolidated under the name of the Register and Leader, Mr. Roberts assumed editorial control of the united daily journals.

 

~ Transcribed by Debbie Clough Gerischer

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