Trails to the Past

Iowa

Union County

Biographies

 

Progressive Men of Iowa

1899

 

ALDRICH, Edwin A., of Creston, has made pharmacy' a study for many years and has achieved notable success. He began his first work in a drug store in 1866 as a clerk at a salary of $15 a month, and has been continually in the drug business since that time. There is probably not a better versed pharmacist in the state. He was born in Adams, Mass., September 12, 1851.  His parents, Edwin J. and Melissa R.  Peck Aldrich, came from Adams, Mass., to Montrose, Iowa, in 1856, and engaged in the mercantile business until the breaking out of the war, when the father enlisted as quartermaster of the Seventeenth Iowa, and was afterwards promoted to brigade quartermaster, and was, at the close of the war, commissary of subsistence, stationed at Camden, Ark. He was breveted major at the close of the war for efficient services rendered.

Edwin A. received his early education in the public schools, and finished in Denmark academy, in Denmark, Lee county, Iowa. Later he spent some time in the Chicago College of Pharmacy, after which his first position was in Ormsbee & Hoyt's drug store at Geneva, 111. After one year he came to Iowa and purchased a drug store at West Liberty, which was run under the firm name of Aldrich & Gibbs. He remained there five years, but business not proving satisfactory he sold out and went to Creston, Union county, Iowa, in 1880, where he engaged as a clerk for Silverthorn & Rugh for three years, when he went to Texas, where the old firm of Aldrich & Gibbs entered into a prosperous business and accumulated considerable money. Owing to the ill health of his wife Mr. Aldrich sold his interest in the business, at the end of three years, and returned to Creston, where he again entered in the drug business on his own account, and has successfully conducted it since that time. He is vice-president of the Creston National bank, and owns an interest in the Keith Furnace company, of Des Moines.  He has always been an enthusiastic republican and a leader in local politics. Mr.  Aldrich was brought up an Episcopalian, but was never confirmed. He was married at West Liberty in 1877 to Miss Emma C.  Keith. They have five children living and one dead.

GIBSON, John. No more active or successful business man can be found anywhere in Iowa than John Gibson. His home is at Creston, but his extensive business interests in Des Moines keep him in that city a great deal of the time.

Mr. Gibson was born in Wellsville, Columbiana county, Ohio, October 2, 1849, and is the son of Josiah Gibson, D. D., now deceased. Josiah Gibson was a Methodist minister, and a native of West Virginia.  His first pastorate was in the Pittsburg conference, after which he was transferred to the Rock River conference in 1854, and in which conference he was presiding elder for eight years. In 1870 he was transferred to the southern Illinois conference, where he served ten years. In 1880 he retired from the ministry and came to the home of his son, John Gibson, where he died in 1887. The mother, Elvira A. Ebbert Gibson, was a native of Pennsylvania, and was married to Josiah Gibson in 1845. She, too, died at the home of her son in 1894.  John Gibson is of Scotch descent, his grandfather, John Gibson, having come from Scotland to America in 1798.

Mr.  Gibson's education was completed in the public schools, and one year in the academy of Elgin, 111. His first money was made by selling war books and pictures in Illinois in 1864. He located in Creston, Iowa, in May, 1878, having driven across the country from Pueblo, Colo. His wife and two sons were with him and they were seven weeks making the journey. Mr. Gibson practiced law at Creston until 1882, when he gave up the active practice of law to devote his time to other business. He then engaged in stock and bond selling and in loaning money for eastern parties. He was one of the incorporators of the Iowa State Savings bank at Creston in 1884, and has been president of that institution most of the time since its organization. In 1891 he became vice-president of the Iowa Central Building and Loan association, and has held that office ever since. In 1890 the Gibson Investment company was organized, and he has been its treasurer since that time. The company has very large real estate interests in Creston. He was one of the incorporators of the Anchor Mutual Fire Insurance company and has been treasurer of that company for the past three years. He also organized the Nebraska Central Building and Loan association, of Lincoln, Neb., in 1893, of which he is the president. In politics Mr. Gibson has always been a republican. In 1897 he was elected to the lower house of the legislature, from Union county, in a very close contest, the county being always classed as doubtful, and served with the ability which has characterized all his business life. He takes a great deal of interest in educational matters, and has been one of the directors of the independent school district of Creston for the past eight years. He is a member of the Methodist church.

He was married June 30,1870, to Miss Tillie J. Martin, of Alma, 111. They have three children living - Josiah, born April 28, 1873, graduated at Cornell college, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1895; John M., born July 24, 1875, is now living at home, and Jane, born August 8, 1877, is the wife of Frank Phillips, of Creston. Mr. Gibson is a very busy man and a successful financier. He is also very genial, and a man who makes hosts of friends wherever he goes.

HEINLY, Benjamin Franklin, of the well known wholesale firm of B. F. Heinly & Brother, at Creston, Iowa, descended from an ancient German family. His father's great-grandfather, who came from Germany to America, was related to the Ludwigs, that branch of the family from which Emperor William the First was descended. The family settled in Northampton county, Pa., engaged principally in agricultural pursuits and the raising and handling of stock. Joseph Heinly, the father of Benjamin, received his education in the German language, but after moving to Iowa he learned to speak, read and write the English language. The family that came to Iowa in 1855, and settled on a farm at Sweetland Center, Muscatine county, consisted of six boys and one girl, all of whom were born in Northampton county, Pa. There were four girls born to this union in Iowa, and one girl that died in infancy in Pennsylvania.  Benjamin P., was born March 11, 1850, in Northampton county, Pa. Out of that family there are still living three boys and three girls: William Anderson Heinly, who resides at Danville, 111.; Milton McCarthy Heinly and Laura Georgia Jones, in Muscatine county, Iowa; Ida May Purdy, at Pierce City, Mo.; Ella Savannah Wintermute, at Tacoma, Wash., and George.  The oldest son died while serving his country in the civil war, and another died in Alabama shortly after the war. 

Benjamin worked on his father's farm summers, and his early education consisted of about three months in the district school each winter, from the time he was 7 years old until he was 15. He attended a three months' term in the commercial college conducted by a brother, at Vincennes, Ind.  This concluded his school education and was of much benefit to him all through his business life. At the age of 16 he started out in life for himself, and in five weeks had earned $90 by work in the harvest field. This was the first money he had earned and appropriated to his own use, and it stimulated his desire to make money for himself and be independent He went to Louisa county and taught school for six months, and, though he gave good satisfaction, did not like the work. For about two years he conducted a little store near his father's farm in Sweetland Center, then bought a store in Fairport, where he engaged at the same time in other business, but was not satisfied with his opportunities.

March 1, 1874, he was married to Miss Isabella Sweet, of Fairport, and the next day started for Creston, where they have since lived. The town then had 1,200 population, and Mr. Heinly went into partnership with I. L. Mackemer, his brother-in-law, in the retail grocery business. The partnership with Mackemer lasted for five years, during which time both added considerably to their stock of worldly goods. Mr. Heinly then purchased his partner's interest, and about six months later his younger brother, T. A. Heinly, was admitted as a partner.  The business grew and its owners prospered. In August. 1882, with J. C. Wallace, they started the first wholesale grocery house in Creston, under the firm name of Wallace, Heinly & Brother. With persistent effort many obstacles were overcome, and they did a fairly good business in the jobbing line. After Mr. Wallace had been associated with them for two years, the Heinly brothers purchased his interest and he retired with a good profit on his investment. They then associated with them Mr. H. B. Holcomb, who acquired an interest in the wholesale business which he retained until the death of T. A. Heinly in January, 1890. Mr. Heinly then purchased Mr. Holcomb's interest and continued the business under the firm name of B. F. Heinly & Brother, the brother's widow retaining her interest in the firm.  There has been no change in the firm since 1890. It has held its own through all the trying financial times.

Mr. Heinly was one of the incorporators, and is now president of the Anchor Mutual Fire Insurance company. It was organized in Creston in 1889 as the Hotel Owners Fire Insurance company; changed its name a year later, and moved to Des Moines in 1895. It is a strong company.  Since living in Creston Mr. Heinly has served three terms as alderman at different periods. His political affiliations, in the main, have been republican. He loves the grand old party and the humane and brilliant war and reconstruction record it made, but he is a firm believer in the re-monetization of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 by the United States. Mr. Heinly is a member in good standing of the First Congregational church of Creston, superintendent of the Congregational Sunday school, member of the Men's club, the West End Social club, the Masonic order, the Modern Woodmen and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

Mr. and Mrs. Heinly have three sons and a daughter: Earl Casper, born June 23, 1876; Webster Guy, born September 19, 1879; Vinton Sweet, born September 15, 1887; Maurine Louise, born February 6, 1890.

MacLEAN, Paul, editor of the Creston Gazette and postmaster of Creston, has carved out a permanent place for himself among Iowa newspapermen and politics. He has been a resident of the state since 1869, when his father's family left the old homestead in Pennsylvania and settled on a large farm near the old town of Columbus City, Louisa county. Paul Maclean was born December 10, 1865, on the old home farm, known as Clover farm, adjoining the village of Springdale, Allegheny county, Pa., about sixteen miles up the Allegheny river from Pittsburg. This farm had been in the possession of the Maclean family for generations, having had but one other owner, to whom it was patented by William Penn, and the instrument executed by William Penn is still in the possession of Matthew Maclean, father of Paul. Matthew Maclean was married in 1860, to Nancy Logan, whose father was famed for being the first white child born west of the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania. He was a country merchant, and Charles Dickens was a guest in his home at Logan's Ferry, opposite Springdale, and allusion is made to his visit there in Dickens' American Notes. Paul Maclean's grandfather, on his father's side, was a newspaper man of distinction. He began in his youth, in the office of the Greensburg Gazette., of which he was subsequently for several years, the editor. Later, he was editor of the Pittsburg Gazette, now the Commercial Gazette, which he owned in partnership with his brother. The Gazette was the first newspaper established in Pittsburg, and the Macleans made it the first daily. They also conducted an extensive publishing business, devoted mainly to Presbyterian church literature; this is now known as the Presbyterian board of publication.  Matthew Maclean, when he removed to Iowa, devoted himself to raising stock, and was very successful. He avoided public office, never wanted one, and announced, when the matter was broached, that he would accept no nomination, and would not serve if elected to office.

Paul Maclean attended the public schools of Columbus City, and took a course in the university in Oberlin, Ohio. At the age of 16 years he began his business education in the office of the Columbus Nonpareil, holding the position of "devil " at a salary of $1.25 per week. This was allowed to accumulate for six months, and is still among Mr. Maclean's bills receivable, for the paper, at this time, yielded up the ghost and left little but debts to mark its existence. Two years later his father bought for Paul an interest in the Columbus Junction Safeguard, where he was for a time associated with Mr. Will Colton, and later with his brother-in-law, Mr. J. B.  Hungerford, now editor of the Carroll Herald.  In 1883, Mr. Maclean purchased the Carroll Herald, and for several years conducted that paper in conjunction with the late E.  R. Hastings. After Mr. Hastings' death, the firm of Maclean & Hungerford was formed, and continued in the management of the Herald until 1889, when Mr. Hungerford purchased Mr. Maclean's interest, and the latter, with his father, purchased the Atlantic Telegraph from Hon. Lafayette Young. In the spring of 1892, having sold the Telegraph, Mr. Maclean went to Creston and secured control of the Gazette, in which his father is also interested.

Mr. Maclean was married in 1892, to Miss Gertrude Young, of Carroll, a niece of Hon. H. W. Macomber of that place, and Judge Macomber, of Omaha. They have one child living, Elizabeth, born May 8, 1895. A son, Malcolm, died in infancy.  David A. Maclean, a business man in Indianapolis, and Ralph Maclean, local editor of the Carroll Herald, are brothers of Paul. Mary, wife of J. B. Hungerford, and Elizabeth, who lives with her parents in Atlantic, are his sisters. Paul is the elder brother.

In 1896 Mr. Maclean was chosen presidential elector for the Eighth congressional district, and says that he acknowledges no higher honor than that of having voted for William McKinley for president, and Garret A. Hobart for vice-president, in the meeting of the electoral college.  He was appointed postmaster of Creston, in March, 1898.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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