p. 49
THOMAS HUNT JOYCE, although born in Ireland,
has been an Iowan since his earliest years, and is extremely loyal to his home
state and is always interested in promoting any enterprise that will further the
growth or betterment of his home town of Keokuk and Iowa. His life work has not
been confined to Iowa alone. Mr. Joyce is head of a group of contracting firms
whose activities in railroad building and highway construction radiates over
half a dozen Midwestern states.
Mr. Joyce was born in County Galway, Ireland, May 24, 1867.
In 1870, when he was three years old, he came with his parents, Patrick and Mary
Hunt Joyce, to the United States, landing in New York and going directly to
Keokuk. His father chose to settle in Keokuk because at that time the Government
was building a large canal between Nashville (now Galland) and Keokuk, and he
was to be employed by contractors in the construction work there. This canal was
in later years submerged when the Mississippi River Power Company built the dam
between Keokuk, Iowa and Hamilton, Illinois. When the canal was completed his
family moved to a farm near Breckenridge, Illinois, where they remained four
years. His father on leaving he farm took up work with the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe Railway Company during the construction of the Santa Fe line
between Chicago and Kansas City. When this work had been completed Patrick
Joyce, with his family, returned to Keokuk and for an umber of years was engaged
in the teaming and contracting business, until his death, September 1, 1901. His
wife died in 1877.
In the meantime Thomas Joyce was acquiring a common school
and practical education, and was from boyhood in touch with the great work
of railway construction. He attended the Beggs School at Galland and schools in
Keokuk until he was fourteen and in after years he made up for some of his
deficiencies of his earlier training by attending night school classes in
Keokuk. While working with his father on the construction of the Santa Fe line
between Chicago and Kansas City he gained the inspiration to become a
contractor. From the age of twenty-one to twenty-five he was employed by
different contracting companies in Iowa and nearby states.
In 1893 he became superintendent for the contracting firm of
Cameron & McManus of Keokuk, while they had the contract for the building of
a terminal and switching yards around Keokuk. In August of the same year he was
taken into the partnership and the firm's name changed to Cameron, McManus &
Joyce. This partnership existed for nineteen years, until the death of Mr. James
Cameron in October, 1912, and Mr. Thomas F. McManus in February of 1913. The
business was then reorganized by Mr. Joyce and the new partnership was called
Cameron, Joyce & Company. In the new partnership the members in addition to
Mr. Joyce were James Cameron, oldest son of the former partner, George E. Smith
and Robert E. O'Brien. In 1918, after Mr. O'Brien severed his connection with
the partnership, the company was incorporated by the following: Thomas H. Joyce,
James Cameron, George E. Smith, and James M. Joyce.
The contracting companies with which Mr. Joyce has been
associated have been leaders in the contracting work for the Santa Fe, and have
done work for them continuously since 1894. The grading contracts awarded to the
companies with which Mr. Joyce has been associated have extended from Chicago to
Kansas and through the far West.
About eighty miles of the grading done preparatory to the
laying of the double track between Chicago and Kansas City was done by Cameron,
McManus & Joyce. At the time of the World's Fair in Saint Louis, the
Cameron, Joyce & Company partnership did the heavy grading on the Mexico-Old
Road. Another interesting contract awarded the partnership was a pipe line job
for the Santa Fe, involving the handling and laying of pipe which was hauled
fourteen miles from Flagstaff, Arizona, in wagons and distributed around the
mountainside and then packed up by burros up the mountains a distance of from
one and one-half to three miles.
In 1926 Cameron, Joyce & Company, of which Mr.
Joyce is now president, was awarded a large contract by the Santa Fe on a cut
off near Mulvane, Kansas. This work involved about seven hundred thousand yards
of grading. The company, together with its subsidiary companies, have also
handled a number of grading jobs for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Illinois Central and the Elgin, Joliet
& Eastern Railway Companies.
In recent years these contracting companies have taken up
highway paving, and have had contracts that included grading, culverts, bridge
construction, and the laying of the slab in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and
Minnesota. In 1928, approximately one hundred miles of eighteen foot slab was
laid, and in the construction of these highways five hundred men were employed
by Cameron, Joyce Companies, as well as twenty subcontractors, who employed
about thirty men each.
In coming to a high place in the business world Mr. Joyce has
brought with him and promoted the success of many others. Mr. Joyce is always
interested in ambitious men, and puts opportunities in their way and has that
broad and tolerant spirit which overlooks some of the ways of youth and
endeavors to inspire them with high ideas and ideals. Love of work, natural
leadership among men and a determination to succeed account for his record of
successful achievements in business. He has been persevering, has weighed well
the circumstances in connection with his undertakings, and has regarded the
essentials of accomplishment above personal advantage and personal comfort.
As a result of Mr. Joyce's steady advance in the business
world he finds himself at present the president of Cameron, Joyce, &
Company, Cameron, Joyce, Smith, Elder Company, Cameron, Joyce Steam Shovel
Company, Hamilton Contracting Company; president and treasurer of the
Scott-Edwards Printing Company; treasurer of the Tri State Roofing Company;
partner in J. Burk-Coco Cola Bottling Company; director of the Keokuk National
Bank, Purity Oats Company and the Southwest Box Company; chairman of the board
of directors of the Super Oil Company; member of the American General
Contractors Association. At the time final arrangements were being made for the
building of the Keokuk and Hamilton Dam he was a director of the Industrial
Association, now known as the Chamber of Commerce, and helped in the raising of
$60,000 for the betterment and advertisement of Keokuk.
Mr. Joyce is a Roman Catholic. He is affiliated with the
Knights of Columbus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal
Order of Eagles, the Keokuk Country Club, The Keokuk Club, the Hancock County
Automobile Club, the Rotary Club, and has been interested in a number of
campaigns in behalf of the Democratic candidates.
Mr. Joyce was married, November 26, 1885, to Ella Croughan,
daughter of a retired farmer of Clark County, Missouri. Their marriage was
solemnized by the Rev. Thomas O'Reilly, pastor of Saint Peter's Catholic Church
of Keokuk, Iowa.
Having often felt the disadvantage of not attending school as
a boy, Mr. Joyce has generously offered to his six children the advantage of a
college education. His oldest daughter, Marybel, attended Saint Mary's Notre
Dame and the University of Iowa. After finishing two years of college she was
married to David L. Hassett in June, 1923. They now have three children, Joyce,
Sallyann and Ruth. His second daughter, Ann, received her A.B. degree from
Trinity College, Washington, D.C. His son Thomas received his A.B. degree from
the University of Iowa. James finished two years' work at the University and
then accepted a position as manager of the Super Oil Company. James also manages
the farming of about five hundred acres of farm land for his father. Mr. Joyce
has carried over from his childhood a great love of the farm, and his hobby is
overseeing and helping his son with the farm management. Helen and John are now
attending the University of Iowa.
~~~~***~~~~ REV. E. F. JACKSON is pastor of Saint Mary's Catholic
Church of Oskaloosa. This is one of the oldest Catholic parishes in
Eastern Iowa. It was established about 1841, and the present church is the
third structure used by the parish since it was organized. The present
church is more than fifty years old, and has long been one of the prominent
landmarks of Mahaska County. The congregation is recent years has been
looking forward to the erection of a new church.
Many worthy and zealous priests have served the parish and
Father Jackson has brought to his work there an unusual equipment, that of a
highly educated priest, and he also had a thorough secular education and before
entering the priesthood he graduated from medical college.
Father Jackson was born in Pennsylvania, son of J. J. and
Philomena (Pilgrim) Jackson. The Jackson family is of old American Yankee
stock, and has been in this country seven generations. Father Jackson was
liberally educated, and has given twenty years of his life to the Catholic
ministry. During that time he has served as pastor in many Iowa parishes.
For a time he was connected with the cathedral at Davenport and he came to
Saint Mary's at Oskaloosa in 1927 from Colfax, Iowa. Outside of his
regular duties as a parish priest he has for years been connected with child
welfare work under the Catholic auspices.
~~~~***~~~~ HON. BERNHARD M. JACOBSEN. For more than half a
century Bernhard M. Jacobsen, capitalist, prominent citizen, president of the
Clinton Thrift Bank, has been connected with this city's substantial
development, and formerly served it as postmaster. Mr. Jacobsen was
fourteen years old when he accompanied his parents to Clinton, a well-educated
youth of practical upbringing, who lost no time in securing employment, first in
a brickyard, then in a sawmill, and later in a mercantile establishment, his
industry and thrift winning comment and approval in every case. Ten years
later he embarked in business for himself in the mercantile line, and continued,
with various changes, until 1926, when he closed out his retail business. In
the meantime he had invested in valuable business property and in 1927 organized
the Clinton Thrift Company. In this undertaking Mr. Jacobsen has had
opportunity to encourage and apply on a large scale his ideas of the basic
business principles of industry and frugality, guided by personal integrity, and
he has the satisfaction of realizing that the Clinton Thrift Company, which he
founded so well, is now ranked with the leading financial institution of
Clinton County, with enviable reputation of good-will among the great masses of
the populace which it serves. Notwithstanding his constant immersion in
business he has found time to consider and assist in all important civic
movements and on occasion has served honorably and efficiently in public office.
In November, 1930, he was elected to Congress and is now the
representative of the Second Congressional District of Iowa in the national
House of Legislation, at Washington, D. C. Bernhard M. Jacobsen was born
in Germany, March 26th, 1862, a son of Bob and Magdelena Jacobsen, who came to
Clinton, Iowa, when the father was fifty-two and the mother fifty-one. The
father had been a grain miller in Germany, but lived retired from business
pursuits after his arrival in this country.
After the various experiences in working for others, already
mentioned, Bernhard M. Jacobsen, May 1, 1886, became a dry goods and clothing
merchant, and his first business enterprise was launched under the name of
Nissen & Jacobsen, and this caption was retained until he became sole
proprietor and conducted it under his own name until 1914. In that year he
received from President Wilson, appointment as postmaster of Clinton, and he
continued to hold that office until 1928, during which time he incorporated his
business under the name of Jacobsen-Thompson Company, and this was retained
until the business was dissolved in 1926. The Clinton Thrift Company is
housed in the business block 242 to 248 Fifth Avenue, South, which he purchased
in 1923, and which has four stores on its main floor. Mr. Jacobsen is
president of his company, and his son, William S. Jacobsen, is secretary and
manager.
On May 28, 1885, Mr. Jacobsen was married to Miss Lena Trager,
of Clinton, a daughter of Sebastian and Anna (Hertz) Trager, the former of whom
operated barges carrying wood, on the Mississippi River. Both parents of
Mrs. Jacobson are deceased. The following children have been born to Mr.
and Mrs. Jacobsen: William S., who is in business with his father; Alma,
who married Charles L. Callender, of the Cunningham Tube Company, Indianapolis,
Indiana; Alvina, who is assistant manager of the Dodge Hotel, Washington,
District of Columbia, has been a resident of that city since 1918;
Marvin J., who is in the insurance business at Clinton, representing the
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, and the Aetna Life
Insurance Company, has several times been high man in the State of Iowa for the
Northwestern Mutual; and Bernice, who is the wife of Paul W. Soenksen, operator
of department stores at Harvey, Illinois, and Chicago.
Mr. Jacobsen is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason,
belonging to De Molay Consistory No. 1, of Clinton, and Kaaba Temple of the
Mystic Shrine at Davenport. He also belongs to the Odd Fellows, Elks,
Eagles and is a charter member of the Turner Society, to which he has belonged
for forty-seven years, and is also a charter member of the Clinton Rotary Club,
which his son William S. served as president in 1929. Marvin J. Jacobsen
was president of the Clinton Kiwanis in 1929 and the father is also a member of
the Wapsipinicon Club. the Lutheran Church is Mr. Jacobsen's religious
home. In political faith he is a Democrat, but his concern is with
material progress and purity in politics. His own success he claims is due
to the consistent effort he has made to win the confidence of his customers and
then hold it. Also to having gone into only those things of which he
had practical knowledge. His friends claim that it is based on his honest,
direct and considerate treatment of those with whom he has business relations.
~~~~***~~~~ WILLIAM C. JAEGER. The average state capital is
usually found subordination industrialism and commerce to its function as a
governmental center and attractive place of residence but Iowa's fair capital
city constitutes a significant exception to this rule, for it has standing as
one of the important centers of manufacturing and commercial enterprise in the
Hawkeye State, with no sacrifice of tis prestige as the seat of government of
this commonwealth. Among the well ordered industries that have contributed
much to the precedence of Des Moines is the Jaeger Manufacturing Company, of
which William C. Jaeger if the president.
Mr. Jaeger was born in Burlington, Iowa, December 25, 1865, and
is a son of John and Frances (Fitter) Jaeger, both native of Germany, where they
were reared and educated and where John Jaeger served an apprenticeship that
made him a skilled artisan at the trade of shoemaker. The parents came to
the United States in 1840, and for a time John Jaeger followed his trade in
Louisville, Kentucky. He then gained pioneer honors in Iowa, where he was
long engaged in the work of his trade in the City of Burlington, both he and his
wife having there continued their residence until their death and both having
passed the seventieth milestone on the journey of life. Of their family of
six sons and six daughters two of the sons and three of the daughters are
living: Mrs. Emma Flynn still resides in Burlington, where her husband is
employed in the shops of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad; Mrs.
Tillie Wolf resides at Davenport, this state, where her husband is an estimator
for the Rock Island Sash & Door Company; William C., of this sketch, is next
younger; Mrs. Lydia Myers resides in Burlington, where her husband is
superintendent of boiler shops; and Carl is employed in railroad shops in his
native City of Burlington. The parents were earnest members of the
Lutheran Church, and the father was a Republican in politics.
The public schools of Burlington afforded William C. Jaeger his
youthful education, and he was but thirteen years of age when he began working
in a furniture factory in that city. At the age of eighteen years he came
to Des Moines and found employment in the furniture factory of L. Harback.
He was thus engaged seven years, and he then became associated with others
in establishing the Des Moines Cabinet Company, the factory of which occupied
the present site of the City Hall. After being connected with this company
three years Mr. Jaeger formed a partnership with A. Anderson in the ownership
and operation of what was known as the East Side Planing Mill. Three years
later Mr. Jaeger assumed full ownership and control of this business, which he
continued in the original location until 1913, when he removed the plant to the
corner of Vine and West Eighth streets, where the business has since been
successfully continued under the corporate title of Jaeger Manufacturing
Company. Mr. Jaeger being president and general manager, three of his sons
being now associated with him in the business and providing efficient executives
and coadjutors. This corporation now controls a substantial and well
ordered business in the manufacturing of store fixtures of high grade, products
being shipped into all sections of the Union and all being manufactured to
order, with no attention given to manufacturing of regular stock fixtures.
Recently the company has completed important equipment contracts in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana, and the wide
ramifications of the business make it contribute definitely to the industrial
and commercial prestige of Des Moines. Mr. Jaeger has proved a reliable
and thorough-going business man, and has won success entirely through his own
ability and efforts. His political alignment is with the Republican party, and
he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Lutheran Church, in which he is
serving as a deacon. He was for many years a member of the Board of
Directors of the East Side Commercial Club.
In 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jaeger and Miss
Susanna Juon, who was born in Switzerland, and who was five years of age when
the family came to the United States and established residence in Polk County,
Iowa, where her father, Christian Juon, became a prosperous farmer and where
both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives.
William J., eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger, was
born and reared in Des Moines, as were also the younger children, and he is now
an executive officer with the Jaeger Manufacturing Company; Lydia is the wife of
C. A. Snyder who is manager of the Roberts Sash & Door Company in the City
of Chicago; Albert and Carl are associated actively with their father and their
older brother in the Jaeger Manufacturing Company; Louise is the wife of Samuel
Marsh, who is general manager of an electrical company in California; and
Richard, youngest of the children, is, in 1929, a student in the Capital City
Commercial College of Des Moines.
~~~~***~~~~ WILLIAM W. JAEGER, vice president and director of
agencies of the Bankers Life Company of Des Moines, has rounded out a quarter of
a century of service with that company. He started as a local solicitor,
and since then has been one of the prime factors in promoting the business and
prestige of the Bankers Life Company over many states and districts of the
United States.
Mr. Jaeger was born at Portage, Wisconsin, August 9, 1876, son
of Ernest L. and Mary R. (Peabody) Jaeger. His father was born in Germany,
in 1830, and was fourteen years of age when brought to America. His father
was a competent physician and surgeon and had served as burgomaster of his town
in Germany. When he brought his family to the United States in a sailing
vessel he spent a short time at Albany, New York, and then moved to the vicinity
of Toledo, Ohio, where he spent the rest of his life practicing his profession.
Ernest L. Jaeger when a young man of twenty years, in 1850, moved west to
Wisconsin. This was then one of the youngest states and was without
railroad facilities, all goods being transported inland from Iliwaukee and other
lake harbors with wagons and ox teams. For many years he conducted a
general mercantile business at Portage. He always voted as a Republican,
and he and his wife were the leading factors in starting the Presbyterian Church
at Portage. He was able to retire from business at the age of sixty-five,
and he died in 1915, at the age of eighty-five. His wife, who was born at
Middleburg, Vermont, died in 1904. She was born in 1835. They were
married at Portage, Wisconsin. Of their six children only two are now
living, Chauncey P. Jaeger and William W. Chauncey P. is in the assessor's
office at Madison, Wisconsin.
William W. Jaeger attended the Portage High School in Wisconsin
and continued his education in the Lake Forest Academy and Lake Forest College
at Lake Forest, Illinois. He was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1898,
and immediately went to work as an office employee of Swift & Company, and
then for a little over a year was a traveling representative of the firm. For
about one year he had charge of the Stock Yards Market of the old Schwarzschild
and Sulzberger Packing Company. Mr. Jaeger had an experience of several
years, from 1900 to 1904, in the grocery business at Deming, New Mexico.
On July 1, 1904, he did his first work as a solicitor of
insurance for the Bankers Life Company at Bloomington, Illinois. He also
worked at Champaign, Illinois, and he had soon satisfied himself that he had
found his permanent life work. After a year in the field he was appointed
assistant manager for some twelve counties in the heart of Illinois, and about a
year later was named manager for the same territory, and later organized the
agency. The company then sent him to Topeka, Kansas, to establish and
develop a general agency. His special abilities made him invaluable to the
company during its period of development as a nationwide organization, and on
July 1, 1915, he was made special field representative, traveling all over the
country, organizing and adjusting and building up the company's sales force.
Three years later he was made regional sales manager for the ten eastern
states, and on July 1, 1922, was called to the home office at Des Moines to
direct the company's sales organization as general sales manager. In
January, 1926, Mr. Jaeger was named vice president and director of agencies.
He is also a member of the board of directors of the company.
He has been called a natural born leader, has a gift for
inspiring men to work with and for him, and he has contributed in enormous
measure to the great volume of business secured by the Bankers Life Company
during the last twenty years. Mr. Jaeger knows life insurance, knows
salesmanship, is a forceful speaker, and has sometimes been called the
"Billy Sunday of Life Insurance." He has enjoyed some of those
appreciated marks of recognition from the insurance world in general, having
served as vice chairman of the executive committee of the Life Insurance Sales
Research Bureau, and is a member of the Association of Life Agency Officers.
He is a member of the Des Moines Club, serving that club as a member of
the board of trustees, and of the Wakonda Country Club, and is a director and
has been prominently identified with the Des Moines Public Welfare Bureau.
Mr. Jaeger still has his membership in the Presbyterian Church at
Champaign, Illinois. Among his minor hobbies are gardening, motoring and
fishing. While in Lake Forest College his prominence in athletics made him
a Five Letter man.
Mr. Jaeger married, in 1904, Georgia May Camp, who was born at
Mount Vernon, Iowa, daughter of George D. and Emma P. (Platen) Camp, her father
how eighty-one and her mother seventy-nine, residents of Mount Vernon. Her
father was a carriage manufacturer and afterwards joined the group of agents of
the Bankers Life Company. Mrs. Jaeger graduated in 1897 from the
University of Nebraska. Their only child, Georgia Camp Jaeger, was born in
1905 and died in 1912.
~~~~***~~~~ WILLIAM J. JAHNKE is now one of the able representatives
of the newspaper fraternity in the Hawkeye State, where he is editor and
publisher of the Hubbard Review, a well ordered weekly paper issued in
the vital little City of Hubbard, Hardin County. This paper proves an
effective vehicle for the offering of local general news, for advancing the
civic and material interests of the community and county in which it is
published, and for upholding the cause of the Republican party. The
Hubbard Review was founded by J. J. Parsons, in 1881, and among others who
have functioned as its publisher in past years were Thomas Doal, S. S. Boyland,
Mr. Manness (now associated with the Register-Tribune in the City of Des
Moines), and Paul Ratliff. Mr. Ratliff figured as editor and publisher of
the paper two years and then sold the plant and business to Mr. Jahnke, in
September, 1923, the latter having since continued at the helm and having
brought the Review up to the high communal standard.
Mr. Jahnke was born at New Ulm, Minnesota, April 26, 1887, and
is a son of William J. and Mathilda (Castor) Jahnke, the former of whom was born
in Germany and the latter in Chicago, Illinois. In his native land William
J. Jahnke received his early education and there also he served a thorough
apprenticeship to the trade of cabinetmaker. At the age of fifteen years
he severed the ties that bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek
his fortune in America. His trade fortified him for successful achievement
in the land of his adoption, and as New Ulm, Minnesota, he was actively engaged
in the cabinetmaking business forty-three years - until his death, which
occurred in 1915. He gained a measure of youthful pioneer honors at New
Ulm and became one of the substantial business men and honored and influential
citizens of that place, where he gave thirty-three years of loyal service as a
member of the board of education. He was a Republican in politics and he
and his wife, who died in 1917, were zealous communicants of the Lutheran
Church, they having become the parents of nine children and four of their sons
having been in active service in the World war. Herman, who was a railroad
employee, is deceased; Waldemar is engaged in the shoe business at New Ulm,
Minnesota; Hilding, who resides at Long Prairie, Minnesota, and is serving as a
state highway engineer, was in the navy transport service, on the troop ship Missouri,
in the World war period, and made many voyages across the Atlantic. The
other two brothers who were in World war service were identified with the
infantry arm of the United States army.
William T. Jahnke was graduated in the New Ulm High School and
thereafter completed a course in the Lutheran College at New Ulm, in which he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1905 and from which he received the
degree of Bachelor of Arts. When he was a lad of fifteen years Mr. Jahnke
initiated his connection with the "art preservative of all arts" by
utilizing his vacation periods in acquiring practical knowledge of printing in
the office of the New Ulm Journal. He gave four years of service as
a compositor for this paper, and thereafter was similarly connected with another
paper in his native city during a period of eighteen months. He next
passed seven years in the office of the Hanske Herald, another Minnesota
paper, and he then came to Iowa, where for six years he functioned as editor and
manager of the New Hampton Courier, at the county seat of Chickasaw
County. It was at the expiration of this interval that he purchased the
plant and business of the Hubbard Review, of which he has since continued
the resourceful and progressive editor and publisher.
Then, in April, 1917, the United States formally declared war on
Germany Mr. Jahnke promptly proceeded to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and entered
the officers training camp. There he received commission as first
lieutenant in the infantry, and thereafter he was in service at Camp Deming, New
Mexico, where he was stationed at the time the armistice brought the World war
to a close, he having returned to Iowa and having here received his honorable
discharge, at Fort Dodge, in December, 1918. He still retains association
with his World war comrades through his active affiliation with the American
Legion, and he is a past commander of Dugout Post No. 4, in his present home
city. Mr. Jahnke is actively identified with the Iowa State Press
Association, is a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the
Republican party stand sponsor, and he and his wife are communicants of the
Lutheran Church.
At Dundee, Minnesota, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jahnke
to Miss Lydia Lidtke daughter of Frederick Lidtke, a substantial citizen of that
place. The two children of this union are Marlyse and Marilyn, aged
respectively nine and four years.
~~~~***~~~~ JOSEPH JAMES is manifesting in his administration as
mayor of the vital little City of Oxford, Johnson County, the same loyalty and
progressiveness that have marked his activities in business. Mr. James has
been a resident of this county more than forty years and no citizen has more
secure place in popular confidence and esteem than the popular mayor of Oxford.
Mr. James was born at Newcastle, England, May 31, 1865, and is a
son of Joseph and Annie (Young) James, who continued their residence in England
until the close of their lives, the death of the former having occurred in 1884
and that of his widow in 1913, and both having been earnest communicants of the
Established Church of England. Of their six children Joseph Jr., of this
review, is the one surviving son, and the three surviving daughters still remain
in England - Mrs. Fannie Snowball, of Harriet; Mrs. Kittie Hewiston, of London;
and Mrs. Mary Bettenstadt, of Hexhal. The father was identified with the
milling industry during his entire active career.
Joseph James, Jr., immediate subject of this sketch, attended
the Eildon House School in Melrose, Scotland, and thereafter continued his
studies in Croft House School in Cumberland County, England. He then
entered historic old Cambridge University, in the law department of which he
completed a partial course. He left the university in 1882, when he was
seventeen years of age, and in the following year he enlisted in the British
Army, in which he received commission as second lieutenant in the Northumberland
Hussars. After two years' service with this command he was transferred to
the Sixteenth Lancers, with which he did loyal service in quelling insurrection
on the part of Arabs in Egypt, where he remained somewhat more than one year.
On his return to England, in 1885, he resigned from the army and became a
clerk for Lohden, Jacob & Company, owners and operators of a line of
steamships. By this concern he was given assignment, in 1886, to the
opening of an office in Brisbane, Australia.. In this mission his voyage
brought him to the United States, and upon landing in New York City he decided
to forego his journey to Australia, the great island continent, and to establish
permanent residence in the United States - a decision that he has never
regretted, though he retains deep affection for his native land and has made
several visits thereto since establishing his residence in the United States.
Mr. James arrived at Oxford, Iowa, in 1886, and in the earlier years of
his residence in Johnson County he gave his attention to farm enterprise. Thereafter
he developed a substantial and prosperous business in the handling of farm
produce, his operations along this line having extended widely throughout the
state, though he has continuously maintained his home and business headquarters
in Oxford, where he is now a carpenter and builder by vocation. Mr. James
has been signally loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and has given many
terms of service a a member of the municipal council of Oxford, further evidence
of his hold upon the confidence and good will of this community having been
given in March, 1928, when he was elected mayor of the city. Mr. James is
a Republican in political adherency, and reared in the faith of the Church of
England, he has retained the faith during his residence in the United States, as
represented by the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which both he and his wife
are communicants.
On the 17th of November, 1886, the year that marked the arrival
of Mr. James in Iowa, was here solemnized his marriage to Miss Florence Watson,
a representative of one of the sterling families of Johnson County. Of the
children of this union the following brief record is given: Mrs. Maude
Ives resides at Rolfe, Pocahontas County; Benjamin Watson, the eldest son, is a
resident of Oxford; John A. resides at State Center, Marshall County; Thomas R.
is a resident of Calona, this state; and Stanley continues to reside at Oxford.
~~~~***~~~~ JAMES E. JAMISON is a native of Burlington and has had
many responsible connections with the business and public life of that city.
He was born in Burlington November 27, 1880, son of George S.
and Ida C. (Hawkins) Jamison. His father was born in Ireland and his
mother in Indiana. George S. Jamison came to America when a young man, and
was on his way to Chicago when the great fire of 1871 occurred. This
diverted his journey to Burlington, Iowa, where he became chief night clerk in
the offices of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. He was one of
the successful business men of Burlington and conducted an insurance agency in
that city for many years. He died October 27, 1907, and his wife in
November, 1912.
James E. Jamison was educated in teh grammar and high schools of
Burlington, and at the age of nineteen was messenger boy for the First National
Bank. Two years later he became an office employee of John Blaul Sons
Company, wholesale grocers. He was there four years and for two years was
clerk in the Merchants National Bank. This varied employment gave him a
valuable experience for his subsequent business career. He then took over
the insurance business of his father, and has supplemented its service to keep
step with the advanced progress of insurance in its application to all forms of
business and industry.
Mr. Jamison married in 1922 Juanita McGuire, who was born at
Kirksville, Missouri, daughter of John E. McGuire, a native of Iowa.
Mr. Jamison was a member of the Iowa General Assembly in the
thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth sessions. To fill a vacancy he served three
months as commissioner of finance. He has a World war record, having
enlisted as a private in Company A of the Fifth Engineers and on July 30, 1918,
sailed for France. He was with the Engineers in the Meuse Argonne campaign
and in May, 1919, returned to the United States and received his honorable
discharge as a private at Camp Dodge in the same month.
Mr. Jamison is a director representing the City of Burlington in
the Citizens Water Company and was a director representing the city in the
McArthur Bridge over the Mississippi River until that bridge became the property
of the city. He is now one of the three jury commissioners of Des Moines
County. He is a Democrat, member of the B. P. O. Elks, Loyal Order of
Moose and Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is a member of the Rotary Club.
~~~~***~~~~ JOHN H. JENKS, president of the Avoca State Bank in the
attractive little City of Avoca, judicial center of Pottawattamie County, has
been a resident of Iowa fully half a century, has continuously maintained his
home at Avoca, where he has stood exponent of loyal and progressive citizenship
and constructive business activities, and he is a former representative of this
county in the State Legislature.
Mr. Jenks was born on the parental home farm near Springfield,
Massachusetts, September 25, 1855, and in the same year his parents moved to
Illinois and established the family home in La Salle County. Mr. Jenks is
a son of Simeon L. and Sarah (Thomas) Jenks is a son of Simeon L. and Sarah
(Thomas) Jenks, both likewise natives of Massachusetts and both representatives
of families that were there founded in the Colonial era, the Jenks family having
given patriot soldiers to the War of the Revolution. Simeon L. Jenks
became a prosperous farmer in Illinois, and there he and his wife passed the
remainder of their lives. The subject of this review is the elder of their
two surviving children, and the younger, Idelet, widow of E. M. Currier, resides
at Aurora, Illinois. Simeon L. Jenks was a son of Jeremiah Jenks, who was
a farmer in Massachusetts until the time of his death, the original American
representatives of the Jenks family having come from their native Wales.
John H. Jenks was reared to the sturdy discipline of the old
home farm in Illinois and after profiting by the advantages of the public
schools of the period he was a student two years in the old Chicago University,
which was the nucleus of the present great University of Chicago. When he
was twenty-two years of age he came to Iowa, in 1878, and established his
residence in Avoca. Here he was engaged in the buying and shipping of live
stock during a term of years as vice president of this institution and December
16, 1901, was advanced to the presidency, the executive office of which he has
since continued the incumbent. The careful administrative policies of Mr.
Jenks have been a potent influence in upbuilding the business of this bank,
which is one of the substantial and influential financial institutions of this
section of the state and which receives a representative support. Mr.
Jenks has made wise investment in Iowa land and is the owner of valuable farm
properties in Pottawattamie County. Mr. Jenks is a nephew of Jeremiah
Jenks, who became one of the early settlers of Iowa, where he established his
home at Osceola, Clarke County, and served as a pioneer county judge.
Mr. Jenks gives his political allegiance to the Republican
party, and while he has no ambition for political preferment he gave
characteristically loyal and effective service as representative of
Pottawattamie County in the Lower House of the Iowa Legislature during the
period of 1898-1900, even as he did during his several years of service as a
member of the board of education of his home city. He is affiliated with
the Knights of Pythias and represented his lodge in the Iowa Grand Lodge of the
order. He attends and supports the Avoca Presbyterian Church, of which his
wife is a zealous member.
At Mendota, Illinois, in the year 1881, Mr. Jenks was united in
marriage to Miss Anne E. Heslet, who was born and reared in that state and who
is a daughter of the late Samuel M. Heslet. Mr. Heslet was a successful teacher
in the public schools of Illinois and held positions as principal of schools at
Mendota, Clinton and Earlville. He was a gallant soldier of the Union in
the Civil war. Florence M., only child of Mr. and Mrs. Jenks, is the wife
of William M. Knutson, who resides in Hinsdale, Illinois, and who is Iowa field
manager for the Continental Illinois Bank & Trust Company of Chicago,
Illinois, besides having served as a state bank examiner for Iowa. Mr. and
Mrs. Knutson have a winsome daughter, Mary Katherine, who celebrates in 1930 her
fifth birthday anniversary.
WALTER L. JENKINS, secretary of the Kimball Brothers
Company of Council Bluffs, elevator manufacturers, has been identified with that
important industry since the close of the World war, in which he saw service
overseas.
Mr. Jenkins was born November 24, 1892, in Chicago, Illinois,
where his parents, Lott and Virginia Daisey (Boxley) Jenkins, still reside.
His father was born in Wales, at Morristown, son of John Jenkins, who came
to the United States and lived out his life here. Lott Jenkins for many
years was connected with the American Steel & Wire Company as superintendent
of mills, but is now retired. His wife as born in Spottsylvania County,
Virginia, a daughter of William E. Boxley, a native of the same state. William
E. Boxley when a boy ran away from home to join the Union army, and later for
number of years was engaged in the transfer business in Chicago. After the
war he went back to Virginia and became reconciled with his southern father for
his act of joining the ranks of the enemy. Lott Jenkins and wife are
members of the Baptist Church and he is a Republican in politics and belongs to
the Royal Arcanum. They had a family of four children: Edith, wife
of Leland Tilton, a farmer at Ashton, Illinois; Gertrude Jane, wife of W.
Lovering, who conducts an automobile accessory business in Chicago and lives on
a farm at Shabbona, Illinois; Walter L.; and Dorothy Boxley, a graduate of the
Crane Technical High School in Chicago now attending Chicago University.
Walter L. Jenkins attended high school at DeKalb, Illinois, was
graduated in 1913 from the Northern Illinois State Normal School at DeKalb, and
until the war was engaged in educational work as a manual training instructor.
He was instructor at Rupert, Idaho, until 1917. Mr. Jenkins is a
talented singer and for one year was engaged in Chautauqua work. In 1917
he was appointed instructor in manual training at the Council Bluff's public
schools, but resigned to join the Second Officers Training Camp at Fort
Sheridan, and received his commission as second lieutenant of artillery in
November, 1917. He went overseas with the One Hundred Nineteenth Field
Artillery, Thirty-second Division, and was in France sixteen months. He
was wounded during the great Agronne drive, and in consequence was absent from
active duty for three months. He received his honorable discharge in June,
1919, and soon afterward joined the Kimball Brothers Company at Council Bluffs
and has since become secretary of the corporation.
He married in 1920 Miss Ruth Kimball, a daughter of W. H.
Kimball, one of the founders of this Council Bluffs industry. Mr. and Mrs.
Jenkins have a daughter, Martha Jean, born in 1923, and a son, Walter Kimball,
born in 1929. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins are members of the Congregational
Church, but Mr. Jenkins sings in the choir of a Methodist Church at Omaha.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, a past exalted ruler of B. P. O.
Elks Lodge No. 531, is a member of the American Legion Post and the Rotary
Club.
~~~~***~~~~ WALTER P. JENSEN. The City of Waterloo, judicial
center of Blackhawk County, has long been known for the high standards
maintained by the members of its bar, and one of the representative law
practitioners of the city at the present time is he whose name initiates this
paragraph. Mr. Jensen, member of the firm of Mears, Jensen &
Gwynne, has been here established in the practice of his profession from the time
of his admission to the bar, in 1914, and his law business is one of substantial
and important order - the best voucher of his technical ability and
personal popularity.
Mr. Jensen was born in a pioneer log house on the farm of his
father, near Rolfe, Pocahontas County, Iowa, December 1, 1880, and the date of
his nativity was considerably later than that which marked the settlement of his
father in that county. He is a son of Peter Jensen, who was born in Odense,
Denmark, where he was reared and educated, he having been the only
representative of the immediate family to come to the United States. Peter
Jensen was a youth when he thus severed the ties that bound him to home and
native land, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to establish himself in what he
believed to be a land of broader opportunities for gaining success through
individual endeavor. From New York City he continued his westward journey
to McHenry County, Illinois, where he found employment at farm work. He
carefully saved his earnings, and with the same as his financial fortification
he came to Pocahontas County, Iowa, and purchased a tract of wild prairie land
in Des Moines Township, near Rolfe. On this embryonic farm he erected the
log house in which his son Walter P. was later born, and with ox teams he
reclaimed his land to cultivation. On the occasion of a memorable scourge
of grasshoppers most of his crops were thus destroyed, and he took the
twenty-eight bushels of wheat that he had saved to a mill several miles away,
where it was manufactured into flour for the use of his family. While he
was absent on this mission a prairie fire destroyed all buildings on his farm
except the log house, his wife having feared that the house too would burn and
having taken her infant daughter to a nearby field for safety. Mr. and
Mrs. Jensen were not discouraged by these losses, and in the course of time
substantial prosperity came to them as a result of their earnest efforts. New
buildings were erected on the farm and the land was placed in a high state of
productiveness. In 1902 Mr. and Mrs. Jensen retired from their farm to the
nearby village of Rolfe, and there the wife died in March, 1913, at the age of
sixty-eight years. Thereafter Mr. Jensen was a member of the home circle
of his son Clarence, on a farm on the opposite side of the road from his old
home place, and he died in January, 1921, at the venerable age of eighty-one
years. His wife, whose maiden name was Christina Paulsen, likewise was
born in Denmark, she having been a young woman when she came to the United
States and her parents having passed their entire lives in Denmark. She
was the devoted helpmeet of her husband in the labors and struggles of the
pioneer days in Iowa, and the names of both merit place on the records of those
who did a worthy part in the civic and industrial development of this favored
commonwealth. Anna, eldest of their children, is the wife of J. H..
Pollick, of Plover, Pocahontas County; Mary s the wife of W. H. Shackelford, of
San Diego, California; Clarence still resides on his farm near the old family
homestead in Pocahontas County; and Walter P., of this sketch, is the youngest
of the number.
Reared to the invigorating discipline of the farm, Walter P.
Jensen supplemented the discipline of the little district school by a course in
the Iowa State Teachers College at Cedar Falls, in which he was graduated with
the degree of Master of Didactics. He thereafter served one year as
principal in the public schools at Ionia, Chickasaw County, and then followed
the course of his ambition by entering the law department of the great
University of Michigan. After there continuing his studies one year he
gave six years of constructive administration as county superintendent of
schools in his native county, Pocahontas, and from that county he was elected,
in 1913, in the Thirty-fifth General Assembly of the State Legislature, in the
Lower House, of which he was made chairman of the committee on state educational
institutions and a member of the important judiciary committee. At the
close of the session he returned to the law department of the University of
Michigan, and in the following year he received there from his degree of Bachelor
of Laws. In the same year, 1914, he opened his office in the City of
Waterloo, and here he has since continued in active general practice, with
secure prestige as a resourceful trial lawyer an dwell fortified counselor.
In the year 1927 the firm of Mears, Lovejoy, Jensen & Gwynne was
formed. Mr. Lovejoy was appointed, in January, 1930, as judge of the
District Court. A sketch of Judge Lovejoy will be found on other pages of
this work. The firm now continues as Mears, Jensen and Gwynne.
Mr. Jensen is a Republican in political alignment and is
significantly loyal and progressive as a citizen. He and his wife are
zealous members of Westminster Presbyterian Church in their home city, of which
he has served as a trustee and in connection with which he is now a member of
the board of sessions. He has membership in the Blackhawk County Bar
Association and the Iowa State Bar Association, and in 1927-28 he served as city
attorney of Waterloo. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Jensen is affiliated with
Waterloo Lodge No. 105, A. F. and A. M.; Tabernacle Chapter, R. A. M.; and
Ascalon Commandery, Knights Templar. He has membership also in Blackhawk
Lodge No. 72, I. O. O. F.; Helmet Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and the local
Kiwanis Club, of which he is a past president.
June 9, 1909, recorded the marriage of Mr. Jensen to Miss Anna
I. Moody, who was born at Plainfield, Bremer County, Iowa, a daughter of Clark
B. and Nettie (Rogerts) Moody, her mother being of English ancestry, established
in America in the Colonial days. Representatives of the family were
patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution and thus Mrs. Moody is eligible
for and affiliated with the Daughters of the American Revolution, as is also her
daughter Mrs. Jensen. Capt. J. Mr. Roberts, maternal grandfather of Mrs.
Jensen, was in command of a company that gave valiant service in defense of the
Union in the Civil war.
~~~~***~~~~ HERBERT C. JEPSEN is a native of Nebraska, but has lived
nearly all his life in Clinton County, Iowa. The chief feature of his
business career has been his capable service as cashier of the Gooselake Savings
Bank.
Mr. Jepsen was born on the homestead of his parents in Cuming
County, Nebraska, September 8, 1890. His parents, Fritz and Christine (Theimen)
Jepsen, were born and married in Germany and about 1882 came to the United
States. They were then young people about twenty-five years of age. Their
first location was in Clinton, Iowa. Leaving there, they went to Nebraska
and took up a homestead in Cuming County. After about ten years they
returned to Clinton County, in 1894, and his father bought a 240 acre farm.
He is now living retired in the City of Clinton. In the family of
the parents were the following children: Herbert C., Hans, Herman, Warner,
Fritz, Olga, who married Carl Wiese, of Clinton County, and Lenora.
Herbert C Jensen had all his educational advantages in Clinton
County. After completing his schooling, when about nineteen years of age,
he spent a year in the service of the I. & I. Interurban Railway at Clinton.
For fifteen months he clerked in a grocery store, and in 1914 entered the
Gooslake Savings Bank, starting as a clerk, but since the first tow years of his
service has held the post of cashier.
Mr. Jepsen is a good community man, and the records of the town
of Gooslake show that he has filled with ability the offices of mayor, seven
years as treasurer of the school board, and during the World war was in training
camp at Camp Dodge for eight months. He is now township committeeman of
the Republican party and is a member of the German Lutheran Church. Mr.
Jepsen married, June 20, 1918, Miss Viola Wiese, daughter of Elizabeth (Dohse)
Wiese, of Clinton County. They have two sons, Donald and Herbert C., Jr.
~~~~***~~~~ ALDIS A. JOHNSON, physician and surgeon at Council
Bluffs, is a member of the Council Bluffs Clinic, and he engaged in private
practice here after a number of years as a professor in the medical department
of the University of Nebraska.
Doctor Johnson was born at Maysville, Mercer County,
Pennsylvania, but grew up in Trumbull County, Ohio. His parents, Austin
and Cornelia (Post) Johnson, were both born in Pennsylvania. His father
died in 1925 and his mother resides in Ohio, at the age of seventy-nine. Of
their eight children five are living, one son, Frank L., Johnson, having lost
his life in Turkey during the World war. The family are members of the
Christian Church and the father was a Republican and member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows.
Dr. Aldis Johnson grew up on an Ohio farm, was educated in
public schools and completed his literary education in Ohio State University,
where he was graduated Bachelor of Philosophy in 1908. Following that he
spent two years in Cornell University and two years in Western Reserve College
of Medicine in Cleveland, graduating M. D. in 1912. For two years after
graduating he was resident pathologist in the Cleveland City Hospital and then
came west to the University of Nebraska as instructor in the school of medicine.
Doctor Johnson in 1917 prepared for service in the World war,
joining Colonel Macrea's Mobile Hospital No. 1, with which he was overseas for
sixteen months. Doctor Johnson received his honorable discharge April 16,
1919, and for two years after the war resumed his professional duties at the
University of Nebraska.
In 1921 he moved to Council Bluffs and since that time has been
associated with the clinic, as specialist in diagnosis and general medicine.
Doctor Johnson is a member of the Pottawattamie County, Iowa State and
American Medical Associations, is a member of the Iowa State Clinical Society
and the Missouri Valley Medical Society. He is everywhere regarded as one
of the most capable men in his line in Southwestern Iowa.
Doctor Johnson married, April 30, 1919, Miss Mary A. Simon.
She was reared and educated at Piqua, Ohio, and graduated in the same
class as her husband from Ohio State University. They have a son, Aldis
A., born in 1923. Doctor and Mrs. Johnson are members of the
Congregational Church. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the B.
P. O. Elks.
~~~~***~~~~ ALFRED R. JOHNSON, D. D. S. The progress made in
the filed of dental science within a few years, comparatively speaking, has kept
pace with that of medicine, and side by side they have continued their
beneficent work to cure the ills of humanity. Both sciences are well and
ably represented at Clinton, Iowa, and one of the younger professional men whose
scientific work is attracting attention is Dr. Alfred R. Johnson, dental
surgeon. Doctor Johnson's practice has seemed most acceptable to the
public ever since his arrival at Clinton, and, highly educated and thoroughly
qualified, he bids fair to become still better known and more widely
appreciated.
Dr. Alfred R. Johnson was born at Clinton, Clinton County, Iowa,
November 22, 1904, and is a son of Carl A. and Charlotte (Nelson) Johnson.
Carl A. Johnson was born near the City of Stockholm, Sweden, where he
received a public school education and learned the trade of carpenter. When
about twenty years of age he immigrated to the United States and came directly
to Clinton, where he secured employment at his trade, and for many years has
been one of the most trusted employees of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway,
being employed in the car shops. He married Charlotte Nelson, who was born
in the same locality in Sweden, and who was also about twenty years of age when
she came to America, marrying Mr. Johnson at Clinton. They are the parents
of five sons and five daughters, all of whom are living: Herbert, Alma,
Violet, Bert, Paul, Mabel, Lillian, Vivian, Hartie and Alfred R.
Alfred R. Johnson attended the public schools of Clinton, being
graduated from the high school as a member of the class of 1922, and in 1924
entered the State University of Iowa, graduating from the dental department of
that excellent institution in June, 1929. He had a brilliant college
career and during 1927 and 1928 was president of the Psi Omega fraternity, and a
member of the Students Council, and during 1928 and 1929 was president of the
Association of students of Dentistry, a national organization. On July 22,
1929, he bought the office and practice of Dr. H. P. Fischer, who retired after
having practiced at Clinton, for the past thirty-seven years. Doctor
Johnson maintains modernly equipped and perfectly appointed offices at 2320
North Second street, and in addition to retaining Doctor Fischer's practice in
its entirely has been successful in attracting many other patients. He is
a member of the Clinton County Dental Society, the Iowa State Dental Society and
the American Dental Association. Fraternally he is a Blue Lodge Mason, and
his religious faith is that of the Swedish Lutheran Church, while politically
his is a Republican, without aspirations for public life.
~~~~***~~~~ ANDREW J. JOHNSON, of Clinton, represents one of the old
established industries along the Mississippi River, the manufacture of pearl
buttons. From the standpoint of personal experience he is now one of the
oldest men in that business in Iowa.
Mr. Johnson, who is manager of the Clinton branch of the Pioneer
Pearl Button Manufacturing Company, was born in Germany, February 18, 1873.
His parents, Eilert and Mary Johnson, died when he was a child, and at the
age of sixteen he and the brother accompanied an uncle to the United States.
Mr. Johnson acquired all his formal schooling in Germany and has
been steadily at work ever since coming to this country and his industry and
ability have brought him to a place among the honored business men of Iowa.
For the first three years he was in America he worked at Concordia,
Missouri. In 1892 he went to Muscatine, Iowa, being then about nineteen
years of age. After one year on a farm he was employed for two years with
the Muscatine factory of the H. J. Heinz Company. Then, in 1895, he
started to lean the business of manufacturing pearl buttons. His
apprenticeship was served in the Muscatine branch of the Pioneer Pearl Button
Manufacturing Company. For a time he worked with Mr. Boepple, originator
of the pearl button industry at Muscatine. Mr. Johnson not only mastered
the technique of his craft but early in his experience showed executive ability
and enterprise to take an independent part in the industry. In 1905 he
established at Davenport the Tri-City Button Company. He was at Davenport
until 1909 and in 1910 he started the factory of the Fremont Pearl Button
Company at Fremont, Wisconsin.
Mr. Johnson in 1919 returned to Iowa and at Lyons established
the factory known as the Clinton branch of the Pioneer Pearl Button
Manufacturing Company. Here in 1926 he installed the new cutting machines,
owned and patented by his company. These represent a great advance in the
process of manufacturing, since each machine is capable of being operated with a
minimum of training and experience on the part of the operative. At the
Clinton factory only the blanks are cut and weekly shipments are made to the
main factory, now located at Poughkeepsie, New York, where these blanks are
finished into pearl buttons.
Mr. Johnson married, October 5, 1897, Miss Ida Sell, of
Muscatine, daughter of Fred and Lena Sell, farmers. To the marriage of Mr.
and Mrs. Johnson were born six children, Louis, Arthur, Lillian, Elmer, who is
deceased, Ernest and Pearl. Mr. Johnson is a popular member of business
circles in Clinton, belonging to the Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the
Modern Woodmen of America and the Baptist Church.
~~~~***~~~~ DAVID NICHOL JOHNSON, county attorney of Louisa County,
has been an able lawyer of this section of Iowa for over a quarter of a century.
His success as a lawyer has been the accompaniment of a fine mind and
character, and at all times he has been faithful to the discharge of his duties
and obligations as a citizen.
Mr. Johnson was born in Clearcreek Township, Keokuk County,
Iowa, May 12, 1877. His father, William Johnson, was born in Richland
County, Ohio, and was a child when the family moved to Iowa in 1854, being early
settlers in Keokuk County. William Johnson was a brave soldier of the
Union during the Civil war, being a captain of a company in the Thirteenth Iowa
Infantry. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, but remained with the
colors until the end of the war. After the war he was a farmer and
merchant, and died in 1922, at an advanced age. He married Helen Marquis,
of Keokuk County, Iowa, who died in 1881. Of their five children the two
now living are David N. and Mrs. Eva Keifhaber of Manitoba, Canada.
David Nichol Johnson was reared on a farm in Keokuk County,
attended public schools there until 1897, and in the meantime had helped his
father and also hired out as a farm hand. For two years he taught school
in Keokuk County, and teaching paid part of his expenses while in the University
of Iowa, where he took the law course and graduated June 12, 1901. After
graduating he taught two years in Keokuk and Washington counties and in 1903
formally launched himself in the practice of law at Columbus Junction, during
the first year having an associate Fred M. Molesberry. He then practiced
alone, and remained at Columbus Junction for seventeen years. While there
he served about ten years as justice of the peace and was secretary of the
school board for five years. He was also secretary of the local fair
association two years.
Mr. Johnson was elected for his first term as county attorney in
1920, and at that time he moved his home from Columbus Junction to Wapello.
He has also served as city recorder of Wapello. In 1926 he was again
elected county attorney and in 1928 reelected, and gives most of his time to the
work of his office. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans, the Knights of
Pythias, the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Johnson married, September 6, 1899, Miss Mamie Goeldmer, of
Clearcreek Township, Keokuk County. She died December 14, 1917, the mother
of three children: Everett G., of Chicago; Mrs. Alice Stegal, of
Muscatine; and Miss Evelyn. The son Everett is an accomplished musician,
and organized a well known orchestra, called the Chicago Cadet Band.
~~~~***~~~~ EMMONS JOHNSON. It was nearly seventy years ago
that Emmons Johnson, a young man of sterling character and exceptional talent,
came to Iowa and established his residence in the little frontier village that
was the nucleus of the present City of Waterloo, the vital metropolis and county
seat of Blackhawk County, and it was in this city that his death occurred after
he had attained to the patriarchal age of ninety-two years, his mental and
physical powers having been remarkably vital and commanding up to the close of
his long and useful life.
Mr. Johnson did much to advance the civic and industrial
development and progress of Iowa and long had special prominence and influence
in connection with banking enterprise in this state, his splendid character and
powers having well equipped him for leadership. He was one of the most
venerable and highly honored pioneer citizens of Iowa at the time of his death.
Emmons Johnson was born in Ellicottville, Cattaeraugus County,
New York, January 23, 1835, and his death occurred April 5, 1927. He was a
son of Dr. Elisha, who was born November 8, 1793, and Herma (Jewett) Johnson.
His paternal grandfather, Noel Johnson, was born October 12, 1765, in
Rhode Island, and was one of the earliest settlers in Cattaraugus County, New
York, where he passed the remainder of his life. His wife was Mary Weaver,
who was born June 17, 1770. Dr. Elisha Johnson was reared and educated in
the old Empire State and became one of the influential physicians of his day and
generation in Cattaraugus County, where he was long and successfully engaged in
the practice of his profession and where he passed the closing years of his life
in the village of Otto. His wife, Herma Jewett, was a daughter of Salmon
and Ellen (Cole) Jewett and a granddaughter of Caleb and Hannah (Curtis) Jewett.
Caleb Jewett was born January 16, 1741, and died, in Litchfield,
Connecticut, February 8, 1820, he having served as a patriot soldier in the War
of the Revolution, in Colonel Burot's regiment of the Continental Army. His
son Salmon was born October 27, 1770, and was venerable in age at the time of
his death.
The earlier education of Emmons Johnson was obtained in the
village schools of Otto, New York, and thereafter he continued his studies in
academies at Springville and Fredonia, that state, besides which he was a
student for a time in Brown University, having in the meanwhile taught in rural
schools and by this means provided for the advancement of his own education, his
final course of study having been historic old Amherst College.
Mr. Johnson was twenty-five years of age when, in 1860, he made
his way to Iowa, with Waterloo as his destination. He proceeded to the
terminus of the railroad and thence came by stage to Waterloo, which was then a
mere frontier village of a few hundred population, the greater part of the site
of the present modern city having at that time still been Government land, and
such land having been for sale at the rate of $1.25 an acre. For a time
Mr. Johnson was employed on a pioneer farm near Waterloo, and he next engaged in
the grain business, he having in this line later transferred his headquarters to
Independence, Buchanan County, and having erected the first grain elevator at
that place. Upon his return to Waterloo he became one of the principals in
the Leavitt & Johnson Bank a private institution, and later established the
Johnson & Leavitt Bank at Waverly, Bremer County. It was in the year
1866 or 1867 that Mr. Johnson thus removed to Waverly and established the first
bank in Bremer County and built the first substantial brick residence in
Waverly. He there remained until 1871 and in the meantime served as a
member of the State Senate. In 1871 he sold his interest in the bank at
Waverly and resumed his association with banking enterprise in Waterloo, as a
member of the firm of Leavitt, Johnson & Lusch. A few years later Mr.
Lusch sold his interest to his interest to his associates, and the latter
continued their bank as a private institution until 1898, when it was
reorganized and chartered as the Leavitt & Johnson National Bank. In
October, 1891, was organized the Leavitt & Johnson Trust Company, and in
1900 Mr. Johnson purchased Mr. Leavitt's interest in this institution, of which
he continued chairman of the board of directors until he was nearly ninety years
of age, he having been also the organizer of the Waterloo Savings Bank.
The name of Mr. Johnson ever stood for all that was careful
conservative and reliable in banking operations, and his policies and his
personal integrity commanded to him uniform popular confidence and esteem.
He was a man of thought and action, and he made his life count worthily in
its every relation. His political allegiance was given to the Republican
party ad he was signally liberal and public-spirited as a citizen. His
religious faith was that of the Congregational Church, of which both he and his
wife were charter members and he was also a member of the Chicago Board of Trade
in 1876-1877, living in Evanston.
Mrs. Johnson, whose maiden name was Lucy Leland, was born at
Morrisville, Madison County, New York, a daughter of Uriah and Maria
(Chamberlain) Leland and a granddaughter of Joshua Leland, who was born at
Sherburn, Massachusetts, his great-grandfather, Henry Leland, having been among
the first settlers in that locality and records show that, as owner of the site,
of eighty acres, Henry Leland laid out the town of Sherburn in 1654, much of the
land that he owned in that district being still held by his descendants. Joshua
Leland became one of the pioneer settlers in Madison County, New York, and his
son Uriah was the first white child born in that county. The Leland family
has been one of prominence in America, as one generation has followed another,
and there has been published a comprehensive genealogical history of the family.
Mrs. Lucy (Leland) Johnson long preceded her husband to the life eternal,
her death having occurred February 22, 1892, when she was fifty-eight years of
age. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Emmons Johnson were five in number:
Elbert Leland, Lewis E., Marian Louise, Walter Emmons and Alice Lucy.
The daughter Marion Louise, to whom the publishers are indebted for the
data for this memoir of her honored father, is the widow of James D. Easton, to
whom a tribute is given in the following sketch, and she still resides in
Waterloo. The younger daughter, Alice Lucy, is the wife of David H. McKee,
of Waterloo.
In March, 1895, Emmons Johnson married the widow of James
Kellogg, of Rochester, New York, who was Ella Harriet Clark, a native of New
York State. She lived in Waterloo for thirty-two years, dying December 26,
1928. No children were born to this union of marriage.
~~~~***~~~~ GEORGE M. JOHNSON, M. D. For more than two decades
Dr. George M. Johnson has been engaged in the general practice of medicine and
surgery at Marshalltown, where through a display of talent, natural and acquired
ability, sincerity and a pleasing personality, he has inspired confidence and
built up a large and lucrative practice. His experience has been broad and
comprehensive, and both as a professional man and a citizen he is accounted one
of the valuable members of Marshalltown's population.
Doctor Johnson was born at Clinton, Connecticut, October 10,
1875, and is a son of Dr. George O. Johnson. His father, who is now
deceased, was born in La Grange, Ohio, where he was well educated for the
profession of medicine, and for some years was engaged in practice at Clinton,
Connecticut. He came to Iowa in an early day, engaged in practice at
Wyoming in Jones County, Iowa, where his work was largely of a country practice
character, but finally he settled at Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa, where he
continued to make his professional headquarters for over a third of a century.
During his long residence in Iowa he was well and favorably known in his
calling and was a member of the Jackson County Medical Society, the Iowa State
Medical Society and the American Medical Association. In his later years
he removed to the Oklahoma Territory and engaged in practice there. At the
time Oklahoma was admitted as a state to the union he was elected a member of
the first State Legislature as senator from Caddo County. He passed away
at Guthrie, Oklahoma, while serving his second term as senator in the Stare
Legislature. Gurthrie at that time being the capital of the state. His
wife, who was born in New York State, was taken by her parents to Geneseo,
Illinois, at an early date, and was there reared, educated in the public schools
and married.
After attending the grade and high schools at Maquoketa, Iowa,
Dr. George M. Johnson entered the Iowa State University in 1893 and took two
years of academic work and two years of premedical work. In 1897 he
entered the famous Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he pursued a medical
course of two years and was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
He immediately commenced the practice of his profession at Maquoketa,
where he remained until 1908, in which year he settled permanently at
Marshalltown, where he has wince remained and now maintains commodious,
well-equipped and well-appointed offices in the Masonic Temple. Doctor
Johnson occupies a high place in his profession and is equally proficient in all
its departments, therefore having taken up no specialty. He has the esteem
of his fellow practitioners for the manner in which he observes the ethics and
amenities of the calling, and is a member of the Marshall County Medical
Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he was made first lieutenant
of Company M. Forty-ninth Regiment, Iowa National Guard, and in 1898 went to
Cuba, subsequently being honorably discharged and mustered out of the service in
May, 1899. In 1905 he was commissioned a captain in the Iowa National
Guard, but resigned in 1908, because of the pressure of his professional duties.
When the United States was drawn into the World war Doctor Johnson
immediately enlisted in the Medical Corps, and in July, 1917, received the
commission of captain. He was serving at Fort Riley, Kansas, when he
developed a severe case of ulcer of the stomach, and was sent to Chicago, where
he was confined in a hospital for four months. When discharged therefore
he was declared unfit for further duty and received his honorable discharge
December 24, 1917. Doctor Johnson is a member of the Congregational
Church, and with other active members of the Chamber of Commerce is active in
civic work. He belongs also to the Lions Club and for twenty years has
been a member of the official board of the Young Men's Christian Association of
Marshalltown.
At River Forest, Illinois, Doctor Johnson was united in marriage
with Miss Marjorie A. Millikin, whose father was one of the pioneer
Congregational ministers of Iowa, and whose brother is Robert A Millikin, former
noted scientist of the University of Chicago, who is now identified with the
faculty of the California Institute of Technology. Three children have
been born to Doctor and Mrs. Johnson: Harriet M., born in 1904, at
Maquoketa, Iowa, who was an art teacher in the Des Moines public schools for two
years. She married Charles A. Mosher, and resides at Aurora, Illinois.
Marjorie N., born in March, 1908, is attending Ames College. Janet
G., born January 15, 1915, is attending public school at Marshalltown. Doctor
Johnson is now serving his third term as a member and third year as president of
the Marshalltown school board, and is a great friend of education.
~~~~***~~~~ HARRY S. JOHNSON, former clerk of the District Court of
Linn County, is a member of the Cedar Rapids bar, where he has practiced since
1913. Mr. Johnson is a World war veteran and one of the men of his
generation who have become prominent in the professional and civic life of the
state.
He was born on a farm near Dixon, Illinois, August 17, 1888, and
was five years of age when his parents moved to Iowa. He spent his boyhood
at Clear Lake, graduating from high school there in 1908, and after that for one
year attended the Memorial Military Academy at Mason City. Mr. Johnson as
a boy learned to depend on his own efforts and he worked his way through
college. He is well known in baseball circles, and while in school
he played professional baseball during the summer vacations. For two years
he was with the Columbus team in the Nebraska Stare League. Mr. Johnson
graduated LL. B. from Drake University in 1913 and is a member of the Sigma
Alpha Epsilon fraternity of that university.
When he began practice at Cedar Rapids, in 1913, he was member
of the firm Peck & Johnson, and during 1915-16 of the firm Crosby, Fordyce
& Johnson.
He left his law work to join the colors May 1, 1917, entering as
a private, and when honorably discharged, February 8, 1919, was first lieutenant
in the One Hundred Twenty-sixth Field Artillery, Thirty-fourth Division. After
his military service he resumed practice at Cedar Rapids as member of the firm
Fordyce & Johnson.
Mr. Johnson was elected and served three terms as clerk of the
District Court. He was in that office from January, 1921, to December 31,
1927. While clerk he reorganized the filing system and put his office on a
thorough efficiency basis, so that he is credited with having handled more
business at less cost than any previous clerk in the county. Since 1928
Mr. Johnson has carried on a general civil law practice, with offices in the
Higley Building.
He still keeps up his interest in baseball and since 1926 has
been president of the Cedar Rapids Baseball Club. He is a member of the
Linn County, Iowa State and American Bar Associations, the American Legion, is a
trustee of the B. P. O. Elks, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason,
member of El Kahir Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows.
Mr. Johnson married at Des Moines in December, 1920, Florence
Wagner. She is a graduate of Drake University and Northwestern University
and was a teacher until her marriage. They have one son, Lawrence Hanford
Johnson.
~~~~***~~~~ IRVING C. JOHNSON was born and reared in the City of
Oskaloosa and now has standing as one of the representative members of its bar.
In choosing his field of professional endeavor Mr. Johnson emulated the
example of his honored father, the late Judge J. Kelly Johnson, who was long a
leading lawyer in this city and who served with distinction on the bench of the
District Court. The subject of this review is known for the amplitude and
exactness of knowledge of law and precedents and for the efficiency of his
service as counselor, besides which he had made a record of success as a
resourceful trial lawyer. He is retained as attorney for the Johnson
Abstract Company and other corporations, and his law business is one of
substantial and representative order. He has been engaged in the practice
of his profession in Oskaloosa more than thirty years, and has continuously
maintained his office in the building at 121 High Avenue, East. He is a
popular and influential member of the Mahaska County Bar Association and the
Iowa State Bar Association, besides having membership in the American Bar
Association. He has been content to give undivided allegiance to his
profession and thus has had no desire for political office, though he is a
staunch advocate and supporter of the cause of the Republican party.
Mr. Johnson was born in Oskaloosa, judicial center and
metropolis of Mahaska County, on the 1st of June, 1872, and is a son of Judge J.
Kelly Johnson and Ann E. (Gruwell) Johnson, the former of whom was born in
Greene County, Ohio, August 22, 1841, and the latter of whom was born in
Columbiana County, that state, she being a daughter of Dr. J. P. Gruwell, who
was likewise a native of Ohio and who was long in active practice as a physician
and surgeon, he having been of English and French lineage and his wife having
been a birthright member of the Society of Friends.
Judge J. Kelly Johnson was a son of Abijah and Elizbeth (Bailey)
Johnson, the former of whom was born in Warren County, Ohio, a representative of
one of the sterling pioneer families of that section of the Buckeye State, and
the latter of whom was born in Virginia, whence she accompanied her parents to
Ohio. Abijah Johnson gained success both as a farmer and a merchant.
In 1854 he moved with his family from Ohio to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and
there he continued to the mercantile business until 1865, when removal was made
to Oskaloosa, Iowa. He continued as one of the honored pioneer citizens of
this community until 1881, when his impaired health led him to remove to
California, where his death occurred in the following year, his wife having died
in that state likewise. They became the parents of eight children: Sylvia
B., J. Kelly, Micajah D., Rebecca O., Overton A., Warren C., A. Henry, and Anna.
Of the number Warren C. is the only survivor.
Judge J. Kelly Johnson was in his thirteenth year at the time of
the family removal to Crawforsville, Indiana, and in that state he received the
advantages of Wabash College and Battle Ground Institute. Thereafter he
was a student in the law department of the University of Michigan during one
session, and in 1865, when twenty-four years of age, he came with his parents to
Oskaloosa, Iowa. Here he became a student in the law office of J. R.
Bancroft, and subsequently h attended a law school in the City of Des Moines.
He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1867, and he then engaged in the
practice of his profession at Eddyville, Mahaska County, where he formed a law
partnership with Henry C. Clements, a personal friend who had been a fellow
student in the law school of the University of Michigan. Judge Johnson was
chosen city attorney of Eddyville, and this office he retained until 1868, when
he found a broader field of professional endeavor by engaging in practice in
Oskaloosa. Here he formed a partnership with George W. Lafferty, and their
professional alliance continued until his election to the bench of the District
Court in 1883. In 1869 Judge Johnson had been appointed city attorney of
Oskaloosa, and by subsequent election he retained this office six years. He
represented Mahaska County in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth General Assemblies
of the State Legislature, and in the latter was chairman of the house committee
on constitutional amendments. In 1882 he was elected to the bench of the
District Court of the Sixth Judicial District, and in the election of 1886 he
had no competing candidate. He was again elected in 1890, and was thus
serving his third consecutive term at the time of his death, November 12, 1894.
Judge Johnson was a man of dignity, urbanity and unfailing courtesy, his
legal learning was broad, and his rulings on the bench were signally fair and
impartial, while he ever strove to temper justice with mercy, as he knew well
the springs of human thought and motive and was kindly and tolerant in his
judgment of humanity. His political allegiance was given to the Republican
party, and he and his wife were earnest members of the Friend's Church, their
marriage having been solemnized April 27, 1871. Mrs. Johnson survived her
husband more than thirty years and her death occurred in Los Angeles,
California, March 7, 1928, when she was in her eighty-seventh year. Judge
Johnson was but fifty-three years of age at the time of his death. Of the
seven children two died in infancy, and of the five surviving the eldest is
Irving C., of this review: Mrs. Elizabeth J. Esgen resides in Los Angeles,
California; Carl remains in Oskaloosa; Alice is the wife of John C. Bradbury,
and they reside in Oskaloosa; and Emily is the wife of J. E. Duffy, of Redondo
Beach, California.
Erving C. Johnson was graduated from the Oskaloosa High School
as a member of the class of 1888, and in the fall of the same year he here
entered Penn College, in which institution he was graduated in 1892 and from
which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the following year,
after completing effective post-graduate work in Haverford College, near
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received from that institution the degree of
Master of Arts. Upon his return to Oskaloosa he began the study of law
under the preceptorship of his father and later continued his studies in the
office of Seevers & Seevers, one of the leading law firms of the city at
that time. In May, 1895, he passed a successful examination in Des Moines
and was duly admitted to the bar of his native state. He has since been
engaged in the independent or individual practice of his profession in
Oskaloosa, and is now one of the veteran and honored members of the bar of his
native county. He gave six years of service as referee in bankruptcy
for the southern district of Iowa, and retired from this office in 1908. He
has been for thirty years a trustee of his academic alma mater, Penn College, is
secretary and a director of the Hawkeye Lumber Company of Oskaloosa, is a
director of the Willapa Lumber Company in the State of Washington, is a director
of the Mahaska County State Bank, and is a former president of the Rotary Club
of his home city. He and his wife are active members of the First
Presbyterian Church of Oskaloosa.
October 19, 1899, marked the marriage of Mr. Johnson and Miss
Mary Hortense Burnside, daughter of William and Hannah (Henderson) Burnside, who
gained pioneer honors in Iowa, Mr. Burnside having been born in Guernsey County,
Ohio, June 4, 1842, a son of James and Mary (Wilkin) Burnside, representatives
of sterling pioneer families of the Buckeye State, and Mrs. Mary (Wilkin)
Burnside having been of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
William Burnside was a youth when he accompanied his parents to
Iowa, and at the age of twenty years he here enlisted for service as a soldier
of the Union in the Civil war. He became a member of Company A,
Twenty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, August 20, 1862, and with this command he
served until January 23, 1864, when he was transferred to the Fifty-first United
States Infantry. He continued in service some time after victory had
crowned the Union arms and was mustered out at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June 16,
1866, with the rank of first lieutenant. Mr. Burnside lived up to
the full tension of conflict at the front and took part in many engagements,
including the siege and capture of Vicksburg. After receiving his
honorable discharge he returned to Iowa, where he advanced his education along
varied lines, including his study of law and the taking of a virtual commercial
course. In 1868 Mr. Burnside engaged in the real estate and abstract
business in Oskaloosa, and finally he purchased the lumber business which
eventually became the first unit of the present Hawkeye Lumber Company, which
was incorporated in 1901 and of which Mr. Burnside continued the president until
his death March 12, 1911, this being one of the leading lumber concerns of Iowa,
with headquarters in Oskaloosa and with numerous branches. Mrs. Burnside
survived her husband and died in Oskaloosa, January 6, 1925. Their
marriage occurred on Christmas day of the year 1868, and all of their seven
children survived the honored father: Ralph H. is a resident of Portland,
Oregon; Charles H. resides in New York City; Mary H. is the wife of Mr. Johnson
of this review; Margaret H. is the widow of Ralph Hinshaw, of Oskaloosa; Miss
Elizabeth H. likewise resides in this city; John H. is a resident of Denver,
Colorado; Alice H. is the wife of Howard Hockett, of Whittier, California.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children. J. Kelly, named in
honor of his paternal grandfather, was graduated as an electrical engineer from
Columbia University, New York City, where he remains as an instructor in
electrical engineering. Miss Hannah Grouvelle Johnson was graduated from
the Oskaloosa High School, thereafter continued her studies tow years in Penn
College, then completed a course in the University of Chicago, in which she was
graduated, and later graduated from Columbia University upon completing a
library course. She is now an efficient and popular member of the
executive staff of the Frick Art Reference Library in New York City.
~~~~***~~~~ JACOB JOHNSON is one of the best known citizens of
Denison, where he has had his home for a quarter of a century. He spent a
number of years in educational work, and is now city clerk of Denison.
Mr. Johnson was born in Denmark, January 31, 1883, and was about
a year old when his parents, A. P. and Marie (Anderson) Johnson, came to America
and settled on a farm in Grundy County, Iowa. His parents lived out
their lives in that rural community, where his father died at the age of
seventy-two and his mother at seventy-three.
Jacob Johnson, who has never married, was educated in district
schools and in 1905 graduated from the State Teacher College of Cedar Falls with
the Master of Didactics degree. In the fall of the same year he began
teaching at Denison, and was a school man there for twelve years, and for one
year was superintendent of schools at Dow City in Crawford County.
At the time of the World war Mr. Johnson joined the colors and
was in training with the Coast Artillery Corps, being stationed at Fort Scott
for seven months. After his return to Denison he was deputy sheriff of Crawford
County for a year and in 1920 was appointed city clerk and has given a faithful
and capable service in that position for ten years. Mr. Johnson is
affiliated with the Blue Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter of the Masonic fraternity
and is a member of Denison Post No. 8 of the American Legion.
~~~~***~~~~ RAYMOND E. JOHNSON is measuring up to the full
responsibilities involved in directing the fiscal affairs of his native state,
and is giving a most efficient and popular administration as state treasurer of
Iowa.
Mr. Johnson was born at Wilton Junction, Muscatine County, Iowa,
on the 26th of March, 1886, and is a scion of the third generation of families
that were founded in the Hawkeye State in the pioneer period of its history, as
is evident when it is noted that his father, Silas L. Johnson, was born in Cedar
County, and his mother, Nellie (Bell) Johnson, in Scott County. Silas L.
Johnson is the earlier stage of his active career was engaged in the cattle
business at Wilton Junction, and thereafter he served fully twenty years as
cashier of the American Savings Bank at Muscatine, in which city both he and his
wife continued to reside until their death. Of their five children Raymond
E., of this review, is the eldest of the three surviving; Bessie L. is the wife
of Robert R. Vernon, who is now a member of the faculty of the college conducted
by the Y. M. C. A. in the City of Chicago, he having been graduated from
Morningside College at Sioux City, Iowa; Mildred is the wife of Frederick
Wollett, a traveling salesman, and they reside in the City of Peoria, Illinois.
The late Silas L. Johnson was a Republican in political alignment, and he
was county treasurer of Muscatine County during the period of 1894-1900. He
was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his wife were
earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His father, Paul W.
Johnson, was born and reared in Ohio, and became one of the substantial pioneer
farmers of Cedar County, Iowa. paul W. Johnson was a son of William
Griffith Johnson, who likewise was born in Ohio, and who was a representative of
one of the early pioneer families of that commonwealth. The family name of
his wife was Drake, and their marriage was solemnized in 1779. Thomas
Bell, maternal grandfather of the present state treasurer of Iowa, was born in
the State of New York, came to Iowa in the '50s, and here reclaimed and
developed one of the productive farm estates of Scott County.
In the Muscatine public schools Raymond E. Johnson continued his
studies until the had duly profited by the advantages of the high school. In
1908 he was appointed deputy treasurer of Muscatine County, and in 1910 he was
made county treasurer, an office he retained until 1920, he having served five
consecutive terms and his resignation having occurred when he accepted the
office of secretary of the state executive council of Iowa, a position he
retained from February 1, 1920, until January 1, 1925, when he resigned to
assume his present office of state treasurer, in which he is now serving his
third term and he has been re-nominated for reelection in the autumn of 1930.
Virtually the entire active career of Mr. Johnson has been one of close
association with fiscal affairs, and his record has been one of loyalty,
efficiency and consecutive advancement, showing that he has well merited the
popular confidence that has retained him in executive service of this order.
Incidentally he has been active in political affairs in his native state
during a period of somewhat more than twenty years. He has been
influential in the councils and campaign work of the Republican party of Iowa,
he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in the
Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with both York and Scottish Rite bodies, as
well as the Mystic Shrine. He is a past eminent commander of DeMolay
Commandery No. 1 of Knights Templar at Muscatine, this being one of the oldest
Commanderies in the state, and he is affiliated also with the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men.
May 22, 1907, recorded the marriage of Mr. Johnson and Miss Edna
I. Ryan, of Grandview, Louisa County, she being a daughter of Charles H. and
Nettie (Lockwood) Ryan, who now reside at Muscatine, where the father is living
retired, he having been born in Pennsylvania and having long been a resident of
Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children: Charles S. is
twenty-one years of age and is assistant state bank examiner, and Janet,
seventeen years of age, is a student in the Des Moines High School.
~~~~***~~~~ ROBERT N. JOHNSON. In the profession of law at Fort
Madison, Iowa, the firm of Johnson & Martin is recognized as one of major
importance, its senior member, Robert N. Johnson, being one of the experienced
and sound attorneys of Lee County, with not only personal clients but for years
representing banks trusts, estates and corporations as legal advisor. Mr.
Johnson has also been active in local politics in Lee County, and to a large
extent has been a moving force in much of the substantial development at Fort
Madison during the past quarter of a century. This is his native city and
here his interests are settled, family, profession, property and social
connections. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a past
president of the Rotary Club, and for twenty years has served as attorney for
the school ward.
Robert N. Johnson was born at Fort Madison April 6, 1875, a son
of Nelson Johnson, a native of Ohio, born near Norfolk, that state. Although
his educational opportunities were meager, being limited to the common schools,
he carried on his own studies into the higher branches and became so well
educated through his own efforts that he was able to become a school-teacher of
some note. After he came to Iowa he taught school at Newton, and later
served as superintendent of schools at both West Point and Fort Madison, and
some of the sons of Iowa who later rose to distinguished positions in this
state, as well as in other ones, were among his pupils. In
1877 he organized the Johnson English Training School, and operated it until
1912, five years prior to his death in 1917. He married Miss Nancy Jane
Porter, of Kentucky, who survived her husband until 1925, when she, too, passed
away. They had two children: Robert N., who is the younger; and Mrs.
Sarah Johnson Casey, of Fort Madison. During the many years Nelson Johnson
resided at Fort Madison he was held in high respect by his fellow citizens,
and many of the early cultural efforts that were put forth by the people were
either inaugurated by him or received his effective support.
After attending the common schools of Fort Madison Robert N.
Johnson entered his father's training school, and completed its course in 1893.
For one term thereafter he taught school, but his father's profession did
not appeal to him, and he therefore entered the law office of J. D. Hamilton as
a stenographer, and remained with him until 1895, during which time he acquired
the rudiments of the legal profession, and continued his law studies in the law
college of the University of Michigan, which he entered in 1895. In 1898 he
was graduated from that great institution of learning at Ann Arbor, with the
degree of Bachelor of Laws, and returning to Fort Madison, established himself
in practice. It was not long before he began to attract attention because
of his ability, and in 1905 he was appointed deputy county attorney, and served
in that capacity for four years, during that time handling some important
litigation, but in 1910 he returned to private practice. However, when
there arose a need for his services in 1920, he once more accepted appointment
as deputy county attorney, and served for six years. With the formation of
his present partnership, in 1923, with C. C. Martin, the onerous requirements of
his practice necessitated his relinquishment of public duties, and he is now
devoting himself to the work of the firm. During the World war, as might
have been expected from the character of the man, Mr. Johnson was very active in
all local war work, and was particularly useful as a four-minute speaker, his
earnest sincerity and logical deductions bringing forth hearty responses
wherever he addressed meetings held to raise money for patriotic purposes.
From the time he cast his first vote he has been a warm supporter of the
Republican party and its principles and candidates.
On January 3, 1900, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Mabel
Josephine Morrison, of Fort Madison, Iowa, and they have five children, namely:
Margaret Mary, who is a Sister in the Convent of Saint Joseph, Ottumwa,
Iowa; Sara Marie, who resides at Fort Madison; Robert N., Junior, who after
completing the law course at the University of Iowa is now employed as a lawyer
in the United States Department of Justice; Virginia and Mary, both of whom are
residents of Fort Madison.
During the twenty years that Mr. Johnson was connected with the
school board as its attorney he spared no effort to advance the cause of
education, and he has always favored increasing the school facilities and
improving them that there may be no one denied the advantages of a good
education. To those who are ambitious to succeed in life he advises them
to make up their mind definitely and conclusively as to what line they desire to
work along, then to fight it out, good or bad, until the obstacles are overcome.
He is known as a man of high character and one who lives up to his
promises, whether they are made personally or professionally, is full of
enterprise and energy, and never relinquishes his effort until success has been
attained.
~~~~***~~~~ VERNON JOHNSON. Aside from any distinction which may
attach to him as a member of one of the pioneer families of Fremont County,
Vernon Johnson, of Sidney, has gained prominence as one of the leading members
of the legal profession of the county, and at various times has been the
incumbent of official positions in which he has shown marked executive capacity,
being at present president of the school board of Sidney. He is a man of
broad views and practical principles, which combine to make him a valuable and
constructive citizen.
Mr. Johnson was born on the old home farm in Fremont County,
June 2, 1881, and is a son of L. L. and Viola Jane (Carr) Johnson. His
paternal grandfather was John Nelson Johnson, who was born in North Carolina,
where he was reared and educated, and in young manhood took up a homestead in
Fremont County, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1866. Mr.
Johnson was a man of great industry and accumulated some 1,500 acres of land,
which, in those early days, was taxed at only twelve dollars. L. L.
Johnson was born in the same house in which his son was later to be born, in
1859, and passed all of his active career as an agriculturist in Fremont County,
although he is now retired and living at Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has
always been active in the Presbyterian Church. A Republican in his
political views, he had the full confidence of his fellow citizens and for
seventeen years served in the capacity of township assessor. Mr. johnson
married Viola Jane Carr, who was born at Wayne, Indiana, a daughter of John Carr
who was born in Virginia, and went thence to Indiana, following which he came to
Iowa about 1866 and spent the rest of his life in farming in Fremont County.
Mrs. Johnson also survives, and she and her husband are th parents of six
children: Vernon, of this review; Dr. W. C., who is engaged in the
practice of surgery at Los Angeles, California; Dr. C. O., a veterinary surgeon
of Silver City, Iowa; Hon. Clyde C., a prominent member of the bench and
bar of Columbia Heights, Minnesota; Dell, who is connected with the Iowa State
Highway Commission; and James W., of Ames, Iowa, one of the chief engineers of
the department of materials and tests.
The early education of Vernon Johnson was acquired in the
country schools of Fremont County, following which he took a course in the high
school at Thurman, and following his graduation was principal of the public
schools of Hastings, Iowa. After three years he entered the law department
of the Iowa State University from which he was graduated in 1913, and in 1914
commenced practice at Sidney. In the same year he was elected county
attorney, and held that office from 1915 for six years, at the end of which time
he resumed private practice, in which he continued to be engaged with constantly
growing success. Mr. Johnson is recognized as a reliable and capable
lawyer, who has a high standing in his profession, and is a member of the
Fremont County Bar Association, the Iowa State Bar Association and the American
Bar Association. In addition to his extensive practice he has a number of
other interests and is a member of the board of directors of the Fremont County
Savings Bank of Sidney. His religious connection is with the Presbyterian
Church, of which he has been a trustee for several years. Fraternally Mr.
Johnson is a York Rite Mason and Shriner and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
A Republican in his political allegiance, he has long been active in his
party, and was a member of the central committee thereof in 1920. At
present he is serving capably as president of the school board of Sidney, and
during the World war was food administrator for Fremont County, and active in
all the drives.
In June, 1907, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with Miss
Margaret M. Hixson, who was born and educated at Memphis, Missouri, and is a
daughter of L. W. Hixson, who spent his life in agricultural pursuits in
Missouri. They have no children.
~~~~***~~~~ ALLEN JOHNSTON, who came to Iowa in 1855, was one of the
great men of his generation, inventor, manufacturer, creator of business
industry, and directly and indirectly credited with giving to the City of
Ottumwa the enterprise that have been the most productive of industrial
prosperity there.
He was born in a log cabin in Muskingum County, Ohio, October
24, 1848, and died at Ottumwa, Iowa, April 3, 1930. He was a son of John
and Marian Johnston, his father of Scotch-Irish and his mother of English and
Welsh ancestry. His father was a weaver, whose business was seriously
interfered with by the coming of the power loom, and who was living on a little
rented farm when his son Allen was born. Later he bought a small tract of
land in the hills of Ohio, and in 1855 the family decided to come West. A
brother of John Johnston had moved out to Monroe County, Iowa. John
Johnston sold his Ohio farm for about eight hundred dollars and started West in
October, 1855, with three horses and two wagons, and the family lived in the
wagons through the winter. Allen Johnston grew up in the country about a
mile from Blakesburg, Iowa. He was always fond of outdoor life, and as a
boy he earned money trapping quails and fur-bearing animals. He had no
formal schooling until he was eight or nine years of age, and though the duties
of the farm kept him from regular attendance, he pursued his studies with a
system that made it possible for him to keep up with his classes even though
absent, at times two weeks or more.
Allen Johnston from boyhood exemplified his greatest gift, that
of intellectual curiosity and keen powers of observation, accompanied by a
restless desire to improve on the conventional ways of doing things. There
were few Iowa farms in that time which contained work shops, and all he had to
do with was a few of the simplest tools. As a boy he made his own sled and
skates, and his first practical invention was a hazelnut huller, consisting of a
wooden cylinder revolving in a hollow log, both being studded with nails, and as
the cylinder revolved the nails tore the husks from the hazelnuts.
At the age of nineteen he went to Ottumwa to study dentistry
with his brother, W. T. Johnston. His brother at that time was the
local agent for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Allen Johnston attended
school for a few months in Ottumwa. He helped his brother sell sewing
machines, and early became interested in experimenting on improved attachments,
the first issue of his genius being an embroidery attachment, on which he and
his brother took out a patent. Subsequently he devised a ruffler, which
immediately became popular and for half a century has been one of the standard
attachments of all sewing machines. They started the manufacture of the
ruffler at Ottumwa, the equipment consisting of a few files and chisels and a
punch press, the power for which was supplied by a hand power grindstone. Subsequently
several Ottumwa men became financially interested, including W. T. Majors, J. T.
Hackworth and J. G. Hutchison, and also A. G. Harrow. Money was invested
in new equipment, and the Johnston Ruffler Works became one of the industries
that did most to give character to the City of Ottumwa as a manufacturing
center. Mr. Johnston had to defend his patents through extensive
litigation, since many imitations were made in Rufflers, and eventually he sold
the business to a competitor in New Haven, Connecticut. It was during a
business trip to England in the interest of the Johnston Ruffler Works that
Capt. J. G. Hutchison met on shipboard a representative of Jon Morrell and
induced the Morrell Company to establish its plant in Ottumwa.
Mr. Johnston patented 130 inventions. He was the founder
of the Cutlery Works of Ottumwa an din later years his manufacturing interests
were chiefly represented by the Johnston Pressed Gear Company and the Johnston
and Sharp Company. He had been practically retired from active business
for some years, but the things he accomplished before he retired have placed his
name permanently among great American inventors. Mr. Johnston fully half a
century ago conceived the idea of making a flying machine. He succeeded so
far as to construct a machine that lifted its own weight using a propeller much
the same as in use today. However, that was long before the era of
internal combustion engines, the only available source of power being steam, and
Mr. Johnston finally gave up further experimenting, realizing that a flying
machine would not be practical until a lighter power source was developed.
The Johnston family are members of the First Presbyterian
Church, and the fine old home on Court Street in Ottumwa is one of the landmarks
of the city. Mr. Johnston married, February 8, 1872, at Oskaloosa, Iowa,
Miss Elizabeth Wiley, of an early Iowa family of Scotch-Irish ancestry, daughter
of Dr. John H. and Angeline (Antrobus) Wiley. Three children have been
born to their marriage. The daughter Stella is the wife of Mr. Frank W.
Sharp, of Ottumwa, and has six children, named Margaret E., Allen W., John H.,
Helen A., Angeline and Elizabeth. Roy Wiley Johnson, also of Ottumwa,
married Jessie Fair. The second daughter, Alice M., is the wife of Leon
Emmert.
~~~~***~~~~ GEORGE A. JOHNSTON. Within nearly two decades of
professional activity at Creston, judicial center of Union County, Mr. Johnston
has gained secure vantage ground as one of the able and representative members
of the bar of this county, and his practice is now of substantial and important
order, the while he is valued as a loyal, liberal and public-spirited
citizen.
Mr. Johnston is a scion of families that were founded in the
southern part of our national domain in the Colonial period of American history,
and his father grained pioneer prestige in Iowa. Mr. Johnston was born in Wayne
County, this state, July 1, 1877, and is a son of Andrew Duncan Johnston and
Sarah Jane (Tedford) Johnston, the former of whom was born near Madisonville,
Tennessee, and the latter in the State of Indiana. Andrew D. Johnston was
a son of Samuel Johnston, who likewise was born in the Madisonville district of
Tennessee and whose father had become the owner of one of the large and valuable
plantations in that part of Eastern Tennessee, as well as owner of a large
retinue of slaves. Samuel Johnston's wife, whose family name was Duncan,
was conscientiously opposed to slavery, and he thus was led to refuse his
heritage of slaves, other property having been given him instead, while his
younger brothers became the owners of the old home plantation. He came
with his family to Iowa in the year 1854, and here he and his wife passed the
remainder of their lives, with secure standing as sterling pioneers of the
Hawkeye State.
Andrew D. Johnston came with his parents to Iowa in 1854 and the
family home was established in Louisa County, where he continued his association
with farm enterprise until the outbreak of the Civil war brought to him a higher
duty. He enlisted as a member of Company C, Eleventh Iowa Volunteer
Infantry, proceeded with this command to the front, and in his service of three
years and eight months he lived up to the full tension of conflict, through
participation in major and minor engagements. After the close of the war
he removed to Wayne County, where he became a prosperous farmer and where he and
his wife passed the remainder of their lives, secure in the high esteem of all
whom knew them. He was commander of his post of the Grand Army of the
Republic and at the time of his death, was a Republican in politics, and he and
his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Johnston, as before
stated, was born in Indiana, and she was a daughter of William H. and Polly M.
(Orr) Tedford, who were born and reared in Tennessee, where their marriage
occurred and whence they later removed to Indiana, from which state they came to
Iowa as pioneers of the year 1854.
After completing his high school studies George A. Johnston,
dependent largely upon his own resources, found ways and means to follow the
course of his ambitious purpose, that of preparing himself for the legal
profession. In the law department of Drake University, Des Moines, he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1912, and his admission to the bar of his
native state was virtually coincident with his reception of the degree of
Bachelor of Laws, and his initiating the practice of his profession at Creston,
which fine little city has since continued the central stage of his law
practice, extended into the various courts of Iowa, including the Supreme Court
and the Federal courts. He has long controlled a substantial and
representative general practice. He served four years as county attorney
and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. In addition
to his home place in Creston Mr. Johnston is the owner of a fine stock farm in
Union County, the same being devoted in large measure to the breeding and
raising of Hereford cattle and Belgian draft horses. He is affiliated with
the Masonic fraternity, has membership in the Union County Bar Association and
the Iowa State Bar Association, and his wife is an active member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in her home city.
The year 1899 recorded the marriage of Mr. Johnston to Miss
Sadie Frances Fisher, who was born and reared in Ringgold County, this state,
and whose father, S. H. Fisher, came to Iowa in 1866, from Illinois, he having
become one of the substantial farmers in Ringgold County. Neva Jane,
eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnston, is the wife of Donald F. Henry,
a farmer and stockman near Shannon City, Union County; Paul Fisher, the elder
son, is an ensign in the United States navy and at the time this writing, in the
fall of 1929, is in service in Chinese waters; Mildred is the wife of Hulan A.
Shay, and they reside at Creston, where he is assistant manager of Armour &
Company; and Elton Andrew is in service as a member of the United States Marine
Corps, with which he is at present stationed in Nicaragua.
~~~~***~~~~ ROBERT J. JOHNSTON, who died October 30, 1924, was a
conspicuous citizen and business man of the City of Humboldt, Iowa, for many
years. He was a banker and frequently was elected to public office. His
interest in public affairs was completely shared by Mrs. Johnston who as mayor
of the City of Humboldt has been given an amount of publicity which makes her
one of the interesting women of the nation. She well merits her
distinctions. Mrs. Johnston is a remarkable personality, vigorous,
practical-minded, dispatches a large amount of business every day and has a
horizon of intellectual interests that would be unusual even in a woman whose
life had been completely centered in books rather than in practical affairs.
The late Robert J. Johnston was a native of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, where he was born January 13, 1856. His parents, John and
Jane (Porter) Johnston, were natives of Pennsylvania and Canada respectively.
Robert J. Johnston was a young man when he came west and settled at
Humboldt. For a time he was deputy county treasurer, and left that office
to take up banking as a career. In 1888 he was made cashier of the
Humboldt State Bank of Humboldt, and was closely identified with that
institution until he sold his interests in 1917. During the last seven
years of his life his time was taken up in looking after his private affairs.
Politically he was a staunch Republican. Among other public offices
he was mayor and member of the city council and served in the Thirty-seventh and
Thirty-eight General Assemblies of Iowa. For many years he was a member of
the Iowa State Fair Board and served for two years, 1899-1900, as president of
the Iowa State Fair Association.
Mr. Johnston and Miss Mary H. Stoddard were married at Humboldt
in 1888. Mrs. Johnston is a native of Minnesota. Her parents, James
G. and Mary (Barr) Stoddard, were pioneers of that state. Her father was a
farmer, had a store at Red Wing, Minnesota, and after coming to Humboldt County,
Iowa, again located on a farm. He died in 1871 and his widow subsequently
married S. H. Brewer.
Mrs. Johnston attended school at Humboldt and Fort Dodge. She
represents some of the oldest of Colonial New England families, and for many
years has been prominent in patriotic organizations. She had five ancestors who
were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, three of them by the name of Morgan.
She is also a descendant of Elder Brewster of the Mayflower Pilgrims.
In the paternal line she is a descendant of John Stoddard, who came from
England in 1640 and received a grant of land from Connecticut. Mrs.
Johnston for many years has been prominent in both the state and national bodies
of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was state regent of Iowa, and
treasurer general of the national society (1917-1920). She is also state
treasurer of the Society of Colonial Dames, is national treasurer of the
Daughters of Runnemede, and is treasurer national of the Daughters of 1812.
She is serving as grand treasurer of the Order of the Eastern Star in
Iowa. Mrs. Johnston maintains a business office in the Doan Building,
where she administers her official responsibilities as mayor and also looks
after the Johnston estate. Mrs. Johnston in 1930 was nominated for a third
successive term as mayor of Humboldt.
Every few days the Iowa press publishes some current comments
and anecdotes about the redoubtable mayor of Humboldt, and these newspaper
stories, of course, furnish little substantial matter for biography. One
of these picture of her as an official and one of many that have been portrayed
to the public outside her home community is contained in a two-column article in
the Des Moines Register written by a staff writer who describes her
appearance as "tall, determined and austere; blue-eyed and gray haired and
with a curtness in manner that is more a mannerism than a confirmed attitude.
As an official she employs occasionally the masterful methods of a
top-sergeant, severe, direct, unequivocal," and then goes on to quote one
of the comments of her fellow townsman to the effect that "she bosses us
around all our lives, and when we die we have to go to her for a burial permit,
for she is secretary of the cemetery association."
~~~~***~~~~ RUFUS SHERMAN JOHNSTON, president of the Louisa County
National Bank of Columbus Junction, is one of the most important citizens in
this section of Southeastern Iowa. His name has been closely associated with the
county for forty years as a farmer, business man and promoter of the material
and civic interests of the community.
Mr. Johnston was born at Columbus City in Louisa County, October
4, 1864. His father James Harvey Johnston, was born in Tennessee, and
settled near Columbus Junction, Iowa, in 1856. He was an early settler,
and his enterprise and industry made him one of the leaders in the farming
industry of the county. He died in June, 1890. His wife, Miss Esther
A. Orr, was also born in Tennessee, and died in 1913. Of their four
children two are living, Rufus Sherman and Mrs. Laura Gilkey, whose home is in
Pennsylvania.
Rufus Sherman Johnston finished the work of the public schools
at Columbus Junction in 1881 and for three years pursued the liberal arts course
in the Eastern Iowa Normal School, graduating A. B. in 1886. He played on
the college baseball team and was valedictorian of his class at graduation.
While in school he was associated with his father's farm. After
graduating he clerked for a time in Blair's Book Store, and in 1887 resumed his
place on the farm. For forty years he has owned and supervised valuable
farming interests in this section of the state and has been a leader in farm
organizations. From 1896 to 1903 he was secretary of the District Fair
Association, and he served ten years as a member of the Iowa State board of
agriculture. Mr. Johnston in 1891 became a partner of E. G. Amuryl in a
hardware business at Columbus City, and was active in that until 1896. He
has been on the board of directors of the Louisa County National Bank since
1890. Since 1913 Mr. Johnston has been in the automobile business, as a
partner in the local Ford agency, and they also handle the Durant cars.
Mr. Johnston was county supervisor of Louisa County from 1906 to
1912, and has served as a member of the local school board for over thirty-six
years, several times being president of the board.
He married, March 6, 1896, Miss Louie Colton, of Columbus City.
They have three daughters, Dr. Helen Johnston, of Des Moines, Edith, of
Columbus Junction, and Pauline, of Columbus Junction.
~~~~***~~~~ CECIL C. JONES is one of the prominent younger men in the
profession of medicine and surgery at Des Moines, and ranks among the first in
the state as an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist.
Doctor Jones was born at Topeka, Kansas, May 27, 1892, son of
William C. and Ella (Cain) Jones, his father a native of Indiana and his mother
of Kentucky. William C. Jones, still a resident of Topeka, has spent a
great many years in the service of the Rock Island Railway Company and is
superintendent at Topeka. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the
Masonic fraternity and Woodmen of the World, and both he and his wife, who is
now deceased, were active in the Methodist Episcopal Church. They had a
family of three sons: Dr. Cecil C.; Russell, connected with the Rock
Island Railway at El Reno, Oklahoma; and Howard, a practicing attorney at
Topeka.
Cecil C. Jones attended school in Topeka, and came to Iowa for
his professional training at the University of Iowa, from which he was graduated
M. D. in 1920. For two years he was an interne in the State Hospital, and
had one year of study abroad at Vienna, where he came under instruction and
attended clinics for special training in eye, ear, nose and throat. His
practice has been limited to his specialty. Doctor Jones has his offices
in the Equitable Building at Des Moines. He is a member of the American
Academy of Oto-Laryngology and is a member of the Polk County, Iowa State and
American Medical Associations. He has membership in the Wakonda Club and
is a Sigma Nu and Phi Rho Sigma.
Doctor Jones married in 1923 Elsie Laurine Johnson, who was born
at Wall Lake, Iowa, and was educated in Morningside College at Sioux City, Iowa,
and the University of Iowa. Mrs. Jones is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
~~~~***~~~~ CLYDE E. JONES is one of the prominent younger members of
the Ottumwa bar, and like many other forceful men in the professions and in
business in Iowa today a background of service during the World war was in a
manner his introduction to the serious affairs of life.
Mr. Jones was born at Agency, Iowa, February 20, 1895. Three
generations of the family have lived in this section of Iowa. His
grandfather, Levi Jones, was born in Wales, and after coming to the United
States lived in Pennsylvania and later moved out to Agency, Iowa. The
father of Clyde E. Jones is Edward R. Jones, who was born in Pennsylvania, in
1860, and was brought to Iowa about 1869. For many years he has been one
of the well known farmers and stock men of Agency. He married Harriett
Verdow.
Clyde E. Jones was graduated the Agency High School in 1913 and
followed this with four years in the University of Iowa, in the school of
Liberal Arts. He took the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1917, and his
scholarship record earned him election as a Phi Beta Kappa. His junior
year in law was spent in the George Washington University at Washington, D. C.,
and in 1919 the University of Iowa conferred upon him the degree LL. B. He
is a member of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity, and his scholarship record
earned him membership in the Order of the Coif.
In the meantime he had enlisted at Ottumwa and was in training,
being finally in the Replacement Camp at Camp Forrest, Georgia. After
being admitted to the bar he settled down to the general practice of law at
Ottumwa, where he has offices in the Ottumwa National Bank Building. He is
a member of O. B. Nelson Post of the American Legion and has been prominent in
various fraternal organizations. He is a York and Scottish Rite Mason,
member of the Shrine and Grotto, belonging to the Consistory and Kaaba Temple of
the Mystic Shrine at Davenport. He is a past exalted ruler of Ottumwa
Lodge No. 347, B. P. O. Elks, is a past district deputy grand exalted ruler of
the South East District of Iowa, and president of the Iowa State Association of
Elks. He is also a member of teh Knights of Pythias, and his family are
members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Jones married in Chicago, March 20, 1919, Miss Verl E.
Brown, of that city. Her parents, John W. and Clara (Shehan) Brown, came
from Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have two daughters, Barbara Jean and
Margot Dean.
~~~~***~~~~ JOHN C. JORDAN, president of the Iowa National Bank at
Ottumwa, is a member of a family that on the whole has supplied as much good
material to the business affairs and citizenship of Iowa as any other that could
be mentioned.
His father was William A. Jordan, one of the Iowa pioneers who
came from Indiana the year before Iowa Territory was admitted as a state. He
had the qualifications of a school teacher, but in Iowa became a merchant at
Lancaster, then the county seat of Keokuk County. Subsequently he
was a merchant at Richland and later at Eddyville. William A. Jordan
married Maria McGraw, who was born in Ohio, removing with her parents first to
Indiana and later to Iowa, where settlement was made in Keokuk County. She
died in 1910, at the age of eighty-one years.
It was in 1868, sixty years ago, that the home and center of
activities of the Jordan family were transferred to Ottumwa. William A.
Jordan was a merchant at Ottumwa and acquired a wholesale boot and shoe
business, which he subsequently turned over to his son Walter B. He lived
in Ottumwa until his death in 1873, passing away at the age of fifty-four.
All of his sons became prominent in business in Iowa and
elsewhere. Their names were Walter B., Jacob W., Albert C., John C., Charles L.
and William G.
William A. Jordan also had six daughters, all of whom are
married and living, as follows: May, wife of Ira A. Myers; Ada, Mrs. Ben
W. Ladd; Ida, Mrs. George F. Hall; Kitt J., Mrs. Claude Myers; Inez, Mrs. M. B.
Hutchison; and Eva, wife of Emmett R. Work.
All the sons were keen, able men. Walter B. after leaving
the business he had taken over from his father became a post trader in the
Dakotas and Montana in the early '70s, and should properly be credited with
having done much toward the founding of Miles City in the latter state. Later
he was in business at Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and saw his sons prosperously
fixed in the business life of those cities. Jacob W. Jordan was a merchant
in Ottumwa until 1902, when he retired. He died in 1910. His
brother, Albert C., left Ottumwa when a young man, lived at Marshalltown for a
number of years, but died and is buried at Ottumwa. Charles L. Jordan was
connected with the Jordan interests in Ottumwa, and died during the '80s. William
G. Jordan was for some years in the wholesale drug business at Des Moines, and
later in Minnesota was associated with his older brother in the wholesale
grocery business. He is now living retired at Pasadena, California.
John C. Jordan was reared and educated at Ottumwa, leaving
school at the age of sixteen. He went to work in his father's
establishment, and has had a consecutive connection with the commercial life of
Ottumwa for over forty years. He has been president of the Iowa National
Bank since 1904. Mr. Jordan has been a member of the city council and for
twelve years on the school board. He was a Democrat until the free silver
campaign of 1896, in which year he identified himself with the gold wing of the
party and has since acted independently.
He married in 1881 Miss Nellie Butler. They had four
children: Ethel, wife of Merrill C. Gilmore; Oscar W., who died at the age
of twenty-seven, in 1912; Charles B. and Frank R. The two younger sons
enlisted and were in training at the time of the World war.
~~~~***~~~~ PAUL S. JUNKIN is president of the Fairfield Ledger
Company, publishers of the Daily Ledger at Fairfield. In Jefferson
County the Ledger has been a power in the newspaper field since pioneer
times, and the Ledger is also almost unique in the history of Iowa
journalism from the fact that it has been owned and published by one family
continuously for eighty years. In that time there has been four
representatives of the family who have had the chief responsibilities of the
publication. Mr. Junkin's father carried the paper on for many years, and
before Mr. Paul Junkin took charge one of his brothers was head of the business
and also a nephew.
Paul S. Junkin was born at Fairfield, August 12, 1867. He
grew up and attended school there, and completed his education in Parsons
College, attending the preparatory academy for three years and then taking the
full four years' collegiate course. He was graduated in 1889. During
his college career he was pursuing a practical vocational course, learning the
newspaper business under his father and brother, then owners and editors of the Ledger.
Mr. Paul Junkin then launched out into a newspaper career for himself,
purchasing and for one year conducting the Orange City Herald. In 1900 he
went to Corning as owner and editor of the Union Republican. Later
he was editor and owner of the Creston Daily Advertiser and also had
interests in the Bedford Times-Republican, Chariton Herald-Patriot, Albia
Republican and Fort Madison Daily Democrat. Upon the
reorganization of the Iowa Press Association Mr. Junkin was honored with
election as its first president, and served two terms in that office.
Mr. Junkin left the newspaper field in 1919 to engage in
manufacturing at Fort Madison, Iowa, and later was appointed and served as
receiver for the Perfection Tire and Rubber Company. Then, in 1924, he
returned to Fairfield and acquired the controlling interest in the Fairfield
Ledger. July 1, 1930, he became postmaster of Fairfield, being the
first occupant of the fine new Postoffice Building, and disposing of a
controlling interest in the Ledger to his nephew, Don McGiffin.
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