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Progressive Men of Iowa
1899
 BICKNELL, Anson Dodge, lawyer, of Humboldt,
is a lineal descendant of one of the oldest families in
the United States.
Zachary Bicknell, an English naval officer, his
wife, Agnes, and their son John, left the county of
Somerset, in the southwest of England, in 1635, and
braved the dangers of the long and perilous voyage to
America, landing at Weymouth, Mass. They were dissenters
from the Established church, and they dared to leave
comparative comfort at home and endure extreme
hardships, known and unknown, to uphold their faith and
escape persecution. None but the sturdiest and best in
England were among these earliest settlers, for this was
only fifteen years after the landing of the Mayflower
and five years after the Puritans had founded Boston.
Such was the foundation of the Bicknell family in
America. Very few families have been strong enough to
maintain their identity as this one has. It is strongest
in New England, but is represented in all parts of the
country and the Bicknell Family association, with
headquarters in Boston preserves the history and notable
achievements of its members.
A. D. Bicknell is of the eighth generation in
America. He was born December 30, 1838, in Westmoreland,
Oneida county, N. Y. His father, James Bicknell (1795),
was a famous Baptist preacher, who was born and lived
all his life in Oneida county, where he preached more
than forty years, and went abroad to preach very
frequently, especially in the south, where he had great
outdoor audiences of 7,000 to 10,000 people. He was a very
vigorous man, mentally and physically, and was a good
business man as well as preacher. His wife, mother of A.
D., was Rebecca Ruth Brooks (1812), also a native of
Oneida county. She had a philosophical mind, was quick
of observation, devoted to her family and church, and
keenly sympathetic. She died in 1862, aged 50, and her
husband in 1884, at the age of 88 years. The family was
a large one, but the only full brother and sister now
living are James Y. Bicknell, of Buffalo, N. Y., and
Mrs. Jane E. Bicknell Coats, of St. Paul Park,
Minn.
The district schools during Mr. Bicknell's
boyhood were somewhat primitive, but he managed to get
good out of them and entered Rome academy in Rome,
N. Y.,
where he was prepared in 1860 for the sophomore year in
Hamilton college; he did not enter college, however, but
went directly into the law office of K. Carroll and J.
B. Elwood, where he remained for two years, and in 1862
started for Iowa.
The railway stopped at Cedar Falls, and from
there he walked, first to Fort Dodge and then to Dakota
City, Humboldt county, where he met one of the pioneers
of that region, Simon B. Bellows, and went to work for
him on his farm, first at a dollar a day and board
during harvest and then at $18 a month and board. That
was the beginning of his fortune. That winter he taught
school five months in Dakota City at $24 a month. In the
spring he went to Fort Dodge with $112, so strict had
been his economy, guided by a never forgotten purpose.
At Fort Dodge Mr. Bicknell successfully followed the
mason's trade.
In the spring of 1864 he and another man bought a
forty-acre timber tract near Fort Dodge, on which was a
limestone quarry. They built a kiln and the sale of lime
was so profitable that Mr. Bicknell was able to return
to New York, in December, 1864, where he was married,
December 30th, to Miss Sarah Ann Mills, daughter of
Allen Mills and Sarah Ann Lee Mills, of Westmoreland,
Oneida county. They returned at once to Fort Dodge and
went to housekeeping, cheerfully facing together the
hardships and struggles of pioneer life. In it all she
was a brave and capable helpmeet, and is accorded by her
husband a good share of credit for all he has
accomplished.
In 1868 Mr. Bicknell sold his interests in Fort
Dodge and bought a quarter section of government land in
Humboldt county, on the Des Moines river, eight miles
west of the town of Humboldt. He farmed with exceptional
success until the spring of 1877, when he removed to the
town of Humboldt and resumed the practice of law. He
long intended to do this, having taken up manual labor
for his health, which had been impaired by too severe
mental labor, and now he left the farm to give his
children better advantages, at a time when he was
enjoying great prosperity. He has, however, a
first-class law practice, to which he devotes his
business attention exclusively. He is the owner of
considerable town and country property, and in 1899
added a large stone store building to the business
houses of the town.
Mr. Bicknell has always been an active
republican, one of the leaders in Humboldt county. He
was county superintendent of schools in 1872-3 and
raised the standard of teachers. He was a member of the
house in the Eighteenth General Assembly, in 1880, and
has twice been mayor of Humboldt. He is a member
and liberal supporter of the Unitarian church. He is
deeply interested in science, particularly astronomy and
geology, and is a local authority on these subjects. The
family home includes an entire block, which is a
beautiful park and a favorite resort for birds in fact
birds and parks are specialties with him. He owns the
little gem at the end of the business street, River
Park, where the town holds all of its out of door
meetings, and where lovers stroll and the weary seek
rest and seclusion. But his greatest park lies along the
Des Moines river for half a mile on the opposite side of
the town. This is a wild tract composed of hills,
plains, cliffs and native forest cut up by wild ravines,
canyons and brooks, while on one side of it the deep and
placid waters of the Des Moines. Lake Nokomis furnishes
first-class boating and fishing in summer and an ideal
skating field in winter. All these parks are free to the
public for all proper uses.
Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell have four
children, all living, viz.: Frank Wade, born March 20,
1866; Clara Rebekah, born December 30, 1870; Charles
Mills, born March 22, 1875, and George James, born
August 4, 1885.
 GARFIELD, George Selwyn, a prominent lawyer
of northwestern Iowa, lives at Humboldt, where he
located in September, 1880, with seven books, $15 worth
of furniture, and no money. Mr. Garfield was the son of
Benjamin Franklin Garfield, who was, in early manhood, a
school teacher in New England, and afterward a lawyer in
Kane county, 111., where George was born June 11, 1856.
His parents were natives of Vermont, and returned there
in the infancy of their child. His boyhood was spent in
Windsor county, Vt., and Sullivan county, N. H., until
he was 20 years old. Both father and mother were of
Puritan New England lineage, tracing back to the English
emigrants who landed at Plymouth about 1640. Mr.
Garfield's father was a veteran in the Mexican war and
also served in the Eighth Illinois cavalry in the civil
war. He was one of the California "forty-niners," and
spent several years in the gold mines in that state,
although he never accumulated much of the precious
metal.
Until he was 15 years of age, the only school
that George S. Garfield attended was the rural district
school, and that for only about three months in the
year. Having lost both his parents before he was
sixteen, he struggled along, working on farms in the
summer and occasionally teaching a district school in
the winter, until he was 20 years old. His meager
earnings meanwhile were spent pursuing a course of study
in the State Normal school at Randolph, Vt., where he
graduated. In 1876 Mr. Garfield came to Winneshiek
county, Iowa; stopped with relatives and spent two years
teaching school, and reading law during vacations and
winter evenings.
For one year he was principal of the public
school at Concord, Pa. Afterwards he returned to Iowa
and entered the law department of the State university,
graduating with the degree of LL. B. in 1880. With a
classmate, Charles A. Edwards, also a New Englander, and
a young man of unusual talent, he located at Humboldt
for the practice of law. Failing health compelled Mr.
Edwards to retire to his former home in New Hampshire,
where he soon after died. Mr. Garfield continued the
business, and with steady application to the study of
his profession, combined with the sacred regard for his
promises and his business standing, he has built up an
excellent practice and established himself firmly with
the people of the county. There is no man
in that vicinity who enjoys a higher reputation for
truth and veracity and courageous devotion to principle
than does Mr. Garfield. He has made honesty pay. He has
been steadily allied with the republican party, although
seeking no political prominence or preference, except in
1894, when he was a candidate for district judge. He has
devoted his time and attention to the duties of his
profession rather than the political field, and has no
taste or tact for prevailing political methods or the
workings of any machine. He has now served his eighth
year as president of the school board of Humboldt,
during which time he was active in the movement for a
new schoolhouse, and served upon the committee to select
plans and build the edifice, which is one of the best in
that part of the state. He has no membership in any
secret society. Mr. Garfield is an
active member of the Unitarian church and served for ten
years as a member of the board of trustees and secretary
of the Unity church in Humboldt, which is one of the
strongest societies in the state. He has written a
history of that church for the State Historical society,
and it is on file in the historical department in the
state house. In 1891 he was president of the Iowa
association of Unitarian and other independent
churches.
Mr. Garfield was married July 1, 1884, to Mary E.
White, a daughter of Greenlief B. White, the leading
merchant of Humboldt. Two sons, Clement White Garfield,
born March 18, 1891, and Theodore Greenlief Garfield,
born November 12, 1894, have come to them. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Garfield have marked literary ability and have
taken a leading part in the literary clubs in this
little "Athens of Iowa," as it is often
called.
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