Progressive
Men of Iowa
1899
Progressive Men Index
DODGE, General
Grenville Mellen, whose name is written permanently in the
history of the United States and whose service is cherished as
a precious heritage by the people of Iowa, who claim him as
their own, is a resident of Council Bluffs, Iowa; his business
is in New York City. He occupies a position of the highest
honor in the estimation of the public and of the business
world, for he has achieved extraordinary success as a
commander, a leader, not only in time of war but in time of
peace. General Dodge is at this
time and has been for some years regarded as the greatest of
the surviving generals of the civil war.
The confidant of Lincoln and Grant, the man they
unquestionably trusted, both in matters of judgment and
execution, he is a conspicuous figure in the history of the
civil war. His long and uninterrupted series of triumphs as a
railway builder, have made him not only famous as an engineer
and financier, but have given him the comforts which wealth
has secured, and which he so richly deserves.
General
Dodge was born in Danvers, Mass., April 12, 1831. His father
was Sylvanus Dodge, born in Rowly, Mass., in 1801, and died in
Council Bluffs, Iowa, December 23, 1871. The first of the
Dodge family in America was Richard, born in England, who came
over with the Plymouth colony in 1629, with his brother
William. General Dodge is of the
ninth generation in America. His mother was Julia Theresa
Phillips, a native of New England, whose family came from
England in the year 1700. She and Sylvanus Dodge were married
in 1827, and they had three children: Grenville M, 1831;
Nathan Phillips, 1837 and Julia Mary, 1843. Mr. Dodge was a
merchant and postmaster of his town at one time. His children
enjoyed only limited educational opportunities, assisting in
the store and working on farms during the summer time and
going to the common schools during the winters With the
industry, energy and determination which characterized his
subsequent career, Grenville M. Dodge set to work when a young
boy to secure an education. He had good health and could stand
work, so he prepared himself at the age of 14 to enter the
academy at Durham, N. H., and the following year entered the
Norwich University of Vermont, from which he was graduated as
a civil engineer in the scientific course in 1850.
After this he had a short course in Captain Partridge's
Military academy in Vermont. In 1851 he went west and
began his career as a railway builder, being soon engaged with
Peter A. Dey, afterward railway commissioner of Iowa, in
building the Chicago & Rock Island railway, and then the
Mississippi & Missouri River railroad, from Davenport to
Council Bluffs, now united as the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific railway. During this time he began to form the plans
which he afterward carried out for the building of the great
Pacific railway, and as he had opportunities from 1853 to
1861, he explored the country west of the Missouri and
examined the Rocky mountains from north to south to find the
best place to cross with a railway, which he predicted would
be built someday not far off. He laid out, in his mind and in
letters, the route which was afterward selected. In 1854 he
removed to Council Bluffs and engaged in engineering and
freighting across the plains. He also helped to organize the
banking house of Baldwin & Dodge, which is now the Council
Bluffs Savings bank, of which N. P. Dodge is president. In
1856 he organized the Council Bluffs guards, the nucleus of
his future great command, and was made its captain.
In 1855,
the parents of the young engineer removed to Dodge county,
Neb., settling among the Indians, the farthest west of any
white settlers. Three years later they removed to Council
Bluffs, where they spent the rest their days.
The war
of the rebellion took from General Dodge some of the best
years of his life and robbed him of his splendid health, but
it gave him an undying fame. His services to the nation
have been spoken of with enthusiasm in the official letters of
his commanding officers and have been recognized by many marks
of honor not ordinarily bestowed. Being sent to Washington by
Governor Kirkwood in 1861, to arrange for equipment for Iowa
troops, his worth was instantly recognized by the war
department, for he secured the arms, ammunition, etc., after
the delegation in congress had failed, and he was offered by
the war department a commission as captain in the regular
army. He declined this to return to his own state, and upon
the recommendation of the war department, Governor Kirkwood
commissioned him colonel and authorized him to raise a
regiment, the Fourth infantry. A surplusage of volunteers was
converted into the Second (Dodge's) artillery. Early in the
summer of 1861, Colonel Dodge took a part of his command,
before it was completed, and made an excursion into Missouri,
driving the guerrillas that infested the north-western part of
that state to flight. He also checked there he checked colonel
Poindexter's movement and forced him to retreat into the
southern part of the state. Colonel Dodge, with his regiment,
was first assigned to Rolla, Mo., and he was placed in command
of the Fourth brigade. In the celebrated battle of Pea Ridge,
this brigade was under fire for three days, March 6, 7 and 8,
1862, and its commanding officer was in the thick of the
fight; had three horses shot under him, and was seriously
wounded, but stayed in his place till the end of the fight. He
lost one-third of his entire command, every field officer
being either killed or wounded, for he would not retreat. His
cool head, full appreciation of the importance of the
situation and his unswerving courage helped to win a great
victory. For this he was immediately promoted to the rank of
brigadier-general.
After
recovering from his wounds, General Dodge was assigned to duty
at Columbus, Ky., to rebuild the Mobile & Ohio railroad,
which had been destroyed by the rebels, and was much needed to
supply the army. Later, in 1862, General Dodge was assigned to
the command of the second division of the Army of the
Tennessee, in the district of Corinth, where he rendered
valuable service. He opened the campaign of 1863 by defeating
the rebel forces under Forrest, Roddy, Ferguson and others,
and took a principal part in a movement on Granada, Miss.,
that resulted in capturing fifty-five locomotives and 1,000
cars. On July 5th, the day after the fall of Vicksburg,
General Grant was so much pleased with General Dodge that he
assigned him to the command of the left wing of the Sixteenth
Army corps, with headquarters at Corinth, and later in the
month recommended and requested that he be promoted to be
major-general. This was approved by General Halleck, and
afterward by Gen. W. T. Sherman, and the promotion was made
May 22, 1864, in recognition of General Dodge's brilliant work
in the opening of the Atlanta campaign. With two divisions of
the Sixteenth Army corps he joined General Sherman, at
Chattanooga, on May 4, 1864, and was entrusted with the
advance of the Army of the Tennessee in its famous movements
at the opening of the Atlanta campaign, taking Ship's Gap, at
midnight, on May 5th, and Snake Creek Gap, on May 8th,
reaching Johnson's rear at Resaca and forcing him to give up
his impregnable position at Dalton, Ga. His corps also took
part in all the battles up to Atlanta and Jonesborough, Ga. He
was successful in many brilliant engagements, and especially
distinguished himself in the greatest and most decisive battle
of the Atlanta campaign, July 22, 1864. While standing in a
trench before Atlanta he was severely wounded in the head,
August 19, 1864, and was sent north to recover. On the first
of November, following, he was ready for duty and was assigned
to the command of the department of the Missouri, December 2d,
superseding General Rosecrans. The country there was over-run
by guerrillas and the army was in bad condition. General Dodge
soon had the army in good shape, quelled the general Indian
outbreak which then threatened along the entire frontier, and
made vigorous war on the guerrillas. Gen. Jeff Thompson's
command, with 8,000 officers and men in Arkansas, surrendered
to him. At the close of the war
General Dodge's command was made to include all the Indian
country of the west and northwest.
For a year after the close of the rebellion, General
Dodge was engaged in fighting Indians, and he succeeded in
bringing them to peace by his vigorous and uncompromising
methods. After completing the Indian campaign General Dodge
was, at his earnest request relieved of his command May
1,1866, and his resignation from the army was accepted May 30,
1866. General Dodge was selected by General Grant at the head
of the list of major-generals of volunteers whom he would have
retain this rank in the regular army.
In July,
1866, the republicans of the Fifth congressional district of
Iowa nominated General Dodge for congress, wholly without his
solicitation. He reluctantly accepted one term. He was of
great assistance in putting the army on a peace footing, and
in the solution of questions pertaining to the internal
improvement of the west and the building of the
trans-continental railway lines. His fame as an engineer made
his counsel heeded. During his term in congress General Dodge
had kept up his work as chief engineer of the Union Pacific, a
position which he had accepted immediately upon his retirement
from the army. The building of that great railway is the chief
monument to the greatness of the man, the engineer. He
overcame all obstacles, and they were many. At
one time the whole project was about to fall when General
Dodge appeared in New York, in 1867, and proved that the fears
of the financiers, as to the cost, were greatly exaggerated,
and the plans were carried forward. Nearly every mile had to
be built under military protection, on account of the
hostility of Indians, and many of the best men employed in the
work were killed. The materials had to be hauled hundreds of
miles. Opposition and suspicion were encountered on every
hand, but the genius of the engineer and the man of affairs
was great enough to conquer all the enemies of the enterprise
and satisfy the doubters. He stood by his locations and grades
regardless of the criticisms of others and had the
satisfaction of seeing his work approved by all the government
commissioners appointed to examine it, and by the engineers
who examined it to find changes that would better it. No
material changes were made. The great undertaking was
completed May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah, 1,186 miles
from the starting point on the Missouri river.
General
Dodge has built many other railways, among them the following:
Texas & Pacific; Missouri, Kansas & Texas;
International & Great Northern; New Orleans & Pacific;
Des Moines, Northern & Western; Oriental & Mexican
Southern (partially); Fort Worth & Denver; Denver, Texas
& Fort Worth,
From 1874
to 1879 he spent a portion of each year abroad, and was
consulted by the builders of the great Russian trans
continental line from St. Petersburg through Siberia to the
Pacific ocean, and on other foreign enterprises. He was asked
to take charge of a system of internal improvements in China,
but the project failed at first on account of the death of
Anson Burlingame, former United States minister to China, who
had it in charge, and when the Chinese government again asked
him to go to China for this purpose, in 1886, he was unable to
go.
All the
military organizations growing out of the civil war have found
in General Dodge a strong supporter. He was one of the first
organizers of the Loyal Legion and belongs to the G. A. R.
Upon the death of General Sherman he was elected president of
the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. He is also
vice-president of the Grant Monument association and president
of the Grant Birthday association, both of New York. He
belongs to the Odd Fellows, to the Union League club of New
York, and the United Service club. He
is president of the Norwich University association of New York
and belongs to many other organizations. He was made chairman
of the commission to investigate the conduct of the war with
Spain by President McKinley.
Always an
earnest republican, General Dodge was a delegate-at-large from
Iowa to the republican national conventions at Philadelphia,
Chicago, and Cincinnati, and has taken an active part in every
presidential campaign during and since the campaign that
resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln.
DODGE, Nathan
Phillips, of Council Bluffs, was born in Peabody, Essex
county, Mass., August 20, 1837. He is descended from Richard
Dodge, who came from Somerset England, in 1838 with the
Puritan colonists and settled in Massachusetts.
Some half dozen of these colonists had settled on the
west side of the Essex river, just across from Salem, and in
time this settlement became known as Beverly.
Sylvanus
Dodge, the father of Nathan P., was born at the beginning of
this century in Rowley, Mass. When in middle life he took an
interest in politics, and, during President Polk's
administration, he was appointed postmaster of South Danvers,
now Peabody, Mass., which position he held until he went west
in 1855. During his residence in Douglas county, Neb., from
1855 to 1860, he was a justice of the peace and subsequently
one of the county board of commissioners. He then removed to
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and at the time of his death, in 1871,
he was register of the United States land office for that
district. Sylvanus Dodge was a hard working man from his
boyhood, always keenly interested in public affairs, and known
for his honesty and general integrity of character. The wife
of Sylvanus Dodge was Julia T. Phillips, born in 1802 on a
farm adjoining the Dodges in Rowley.
Phillips has long been a name familiar in the historic
annals of New England, and Mrs. Dodge was a splendid type of
the New England woman who brought to our western country the
strength and fortitude of the Puritans. When past the meridian
of life she bravely surrendered the scenes and friends of her
childhood and followed her husband and sons to the west,
passing the remaining thirty years of her life in Nebraska and
Iowa, where she died in 1888 at the advanced age of 87 years.
She always took an interest in what was going on in the world;
and, in her early days when our country was ringing with the
eloquence of the great anti-slavery agitators, she would walk
miles after a hard day of household labor to hear such men as
Wendell Phillips, Garrison and Douglas.
The hardships endured by Mr. and Mrs.
Dodge in assisting their sons to hold their claims,
continually molested by claim jumpers and hostile Indians,
cannot be told in a few lines. Later, when her son, Grenville,
was winning a name and fame in the civil war, the mother at
home was active in the work of gathering hospital stores for
the army, as president of the local relief society in Council
Bluffs.
Nathan P.
Dodge was the younger son. He received a common school
education in New England, and then at the solicitation of his
older brother, Grenville, he started west when 16 years of age
to join this brother, who was a civil engineer, making the
first surveys for the Rock Island railroad across Iowa.
Leaving
home in the spring of 1854 he came directly to Iowa City,
where he expected to meet his brother, but on his arrival he
found a letter telling him that he had gone east. Weary and
homesick, with not a place to lay his head, the boy pioneer
spent his first night in Iowa in an office chair. In the
morning he reported to Peter A. Dey, who had charge of the
surveys, and, after a two-days' drive, he was initiated into
camp life at Rock Creek, seven miles west of Grinnell. The
party, of which he now became a member, spent the summer of
1854 locating the line between Iowa City and Des Moines. In
the fall he returned east to help his father close up his
affairs, and the following March found the father and son
crossing Iowa in an open wagon on their way to Council Bluffs.
Here they crossed the Missouri into Nebraska and traveled
twenty-three miles northwest from Omaha to the Elkhorn valley,
where they found the oldest son, Grenville, awaiting
them. Nathan Dodge staked out a
claim ad joining his father's, which he owns today. Their
cabins marked the western limits of civilization until you
reached the Pacific coast, or the Mormon settlement in Utah.
Within sight of their door was the Pawnee village, within
whose smoking tepees lived 2,000 or 3,000 Indians, who were
both to give up their hunting grounds to the whites.
Their depredations forced one after another of the
neighboring families to desert their claims and growing crops
and seek shelter in Omaha and Council Bluffs. By July only one
family remained besides the Dodges. They were favored with
growing crops and a garden grown from New England seeds, so
they determined to fight it out to the end rather than
sacrifice their farms to the redskins. But the latter grew
bolder as the settlers decreased in numbers and they began
killing the whites in a settlement five miles north; so, on
the first of August, the Dodges, with their household goods
packed in two wagons, returned to Omaha, then a village of one
year's growth. Here Nathan and his father sought shelter in an
unfinished cabin, where they made a temporary home for the
winter, and here they welcomed the mother and sister on their
arrival from Massachusetts. Grenville M. Dodge returned to
Council Bluffs, where he formed a partnership with John T.
Baldwin and opened a banking and land office.
Under
the protection of state militia sent out by Governor Izard to
protect the frontier, Nathan Dodge returned and harvested the
crops on the Elkhorn farm and hauled them to Omaha. In the
spring of '56 he accepted a position in the land and banking
office of Baldwin & Dodge in Council Bluffs. Emigrants for
California, Utah and Oregon gathered in Council Bluffs by the
thousands and laid in their supplies for the long journey
across the plains. These supplies came from St.
Louis by steamboat.
The year
1856 was one of great activity in the Missouri valley; the
entry of lands in western Iowa and the opening of the
neighboring territory of Nebraska brought many emigrants to
this region. Council Bluffs and Omaha
received large accessions to their population, new towns were
laid out and lots sold at fabulous prices compared with their
actual value. The channels of business were filled with a wild
cat currency, issued by backs throughout the western states,
Iowa excepted, and this inflated speculation resulted in a
general panic the following year, 1857. Young Dodge was so
fortunate as to pass through this panic of speculation,
followed so closely by one of depression, at an age when its
lessons were clearly impressed upon his mind and had an
influence in shaping his own business career. The original
firm of Baldwin & Dodge withdrew from the banking and land
business and Nathan P. Dodge became their successor in 1860,
with a large business.
In 1863
Caleb Baldwin, then chief Justice of Iowa, resigned his
office, retiring from the bench to become the partner of Mr.
Dodge in the banking and land business, the firm again
becoming Baldwin A Dodge, but formed by the brothers of the
original firm. In 1868 Judge Baldwin returned to the practice
of law, while Nathan Dodge continued the banking business
alone until 1870, when he turned it over to the Council Bluffs
Savings bank, of which corporation he has ever since been
president. The land busi-ness has been continued under the
name of N. P. Dodge & Company.
Mr. Dodge
attributes what measure of success he has had in business life
to hard work, close attention to details, and keeping free
from obligations. Both his business affairs and personal
indication have influenced him from entering public life, but
he has always stood ready to join with others in public
enterprises which promised to advance the interests of his
city. Apart from his business and the education of his
children, his greatest Interest has been in benevolent and
church work. A member of the Congregational church, he has
been a liberal contributor the church and charitable work at
home and abroad. He often represents his church at national
councils, and in 1891 was a delegate to the international
council held in England.
He was
married to Susanna C. Lockwood in 1864, the daughter of Isaac
Lockwood, of St. Louis. Five children were born to them, four
of whom are now living, two sons and two daughters. These have
been educated in New England, the sons going through Harvard
and studying law at the Harvard law school, the daughters
graduating from Smith's college at Northhampton, Mass. Three
of them-two sons and a daughter-have chosen law as their
profession, Miss Dodge being one of the first six women to be
admitted to the New York bar after graduating from the law
school of the University of New York with
honors.
EDMUNDSON,
Mr. James Depew is a native of Iowa. He was born on the 23d
day of November. 1838, on a farm near the city of Burlington,
and has spent the whole of his life in his native state.
His father, William Edmundson, was a native of
Kentucky, and was of Scotch-Irish descent, his ancestors
having settled in Virginia early in the eighteenth century. He
was one of the early pioneers, having settled in the territory
of Iowa in 1836, and lived in the state until his death, in
1862. He was one of the organizing
officers of Mahaska county, and a member of the First General
Assembly of the state. His mother, Priscilla Depew, was a
native of Virginia, and was a member of a Huguenot family of
that name, which was driven from France at the time of the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, and which
settled in America soon afterwards.
When Mr.
Edmundson was about 6 years of age.
his mother having died, his father and other members of
the family removed to Oskaloosa, where he first attended
private schools, afterwards attending the normal school
located in that city, and finishing his school days at an
academy in Newton, Iowa. Soon after leaving school he
returned to Oskaloosa and entered the law office of the Hon
William H. Seevers, afterwards and for
many years a judge of the supreme court of the state, as a law
student, and was admitted to the bar in 1860, by the late
ex-Gov. William M. Stone, then presiding judge of the
district. In the meantime, and while a law student, he was
elected a page of the Eighth General Assembly of the state,
where he gained his first knowledge of public affairs, and
formed the acquaintance of many leading men, which proved of
great benefit to him in after years.
Soon after his admission to the bar he removed to
Glenwood and associated himself, under the firm name of Hale A
Edmundson, with his old friend and schoolmate, the Hon.
William Hale, afterwards governor of Wyoming territory, in the
practice of law and the transaction of a general real estate
business. He remained here until the spring of 1866, when he
removed to Council Bluffs and formed a partnership with the
Hon. D. C. Bloomer, under the firm name of Bloomer A
Edmundson. The firm conducted a real
estate business in connection with the practice of law, until
the spring of 1870, when it was dissolved by mutual
consent. Mr. Edmundson, then
discontinued the practice of his profession and devoted his
time and attention exclusively to the purchase and sale of
real estate. In this business he covered a wide field, having
correspondents by the hundreds in all parts of the country.
For about twenty years thereafter he was thus actively
employed, and these were the years of his greatest business
activity. He never dealt largely in
city property, but early began making investments in farm
lands in Pottawattamie and other counties of western
Iowa. In these operations he was
remarkably successful, and still owns large tracts of land
throughout the western part of the state, which have become
very valuable.
As the
year went by he began to turn his attention to new modes of
investment, and in 1877, was influential in the organization
of the Savings, Loan and Building association, of Council
Bluffs, one of the most useful and prosperous associations of
this kind in the country.
About the
same time he became quite largely interested in banking, and
in 1882 united with other citizens of Council Bluffs in the
organization of the Citizens bank, the title of which was
afterwards changed to that of the Citizens State bank of
Council Bluffs, and became its largest stock-holder and first
president, which position he held until January, 1890, when
the Citizens State bank was consolidated with the First
National bank of Council Bluffs, Iowa, the new organization
retaining the title of the First National bank, and Mr.
Edmundson continuing to hold the position of president He is
also a large stockholder and director in the State Savings
bank, of Council Bluffs, and the Sioux Valley State bank, of
Correctionville, Iowa, and a stockholder in the Atlantic
National bank, of Atlantic, Iowa, and the Bankers National
bank of Chicago, besides being interested as a stockholder in
the Pioneer Implement company and the Empkle-Shugart Hardware
company, both of Council Bluffs. He does not, however, give to
any of these corporations his personal attention, preferring
to take life more quietly, and, while looking after the
management of his ample fortune, to employ himself in pursuits
more congenial to his tastes. Mr. Edmondson is an
independent thinker, and looks carefully into the current
Questions of the day. He is a great reader, and has gathered
about him a handsome library, in which he spends much of his
time.
He is not
a great lover of fiction, although quite familiar with the
leading writers in that department of literature, but rather
gives his attention to historical works, and those dealing
with abstruse questions of modern research. Being a lover of
books, it was quite natural that he should and did take an
active interest in the establishment of a free public library
in Council Bluffs, of which he has for many years been an
active and efficient trustee.
Mr.
Edmundson's first presidential vote was given for Abraham
Lincoln, and he has adhered steadily to the republican faith
through all subsequent years, and has always taken a warm
interest in the political notion of his party, giving freely
of his means to advance its success, often attending political
conventions, and in various ways aiding in the election of its
candidates. He has, however, never sought office, having been
too closely engaged, until recent years, in the care of his
business: leaving to others the honors and emoluments of
official life.
In
addition to his other holdings, he is now one of the
stockholders in and a director of the New Nonpareil company,
publishers of the Daily Nonpareil, the leading republican
newspaper in western Iowa.
For the
last fifteen or twenty years Mr. Edmundson has been quite a
traveler, and has visited every state and territory in the
union, including Alaska, and has also traveled extensively in
Europe. In his journeys through
Europe he has traveled to the extreme north and looked at the
midnight sun from the North Cape, the northern most point of
Norway, and has, with one or two exceptions, visited every
other country in Europe.
Mr.
Edmundson has given a great deal of attention to ethical
questions, but has never united with any religious
denomination. He gives freely, however, toward their support,
and usually attends the Congregational church, having been the
treasurer of that organization in Council Bluffs, for
seventeen years, resigning that position only about two years
ago. He related to the writer the remarkable fact that during
the whole period of his holding that office he only failed a
few times, perhaps not more than half a dozen in all, to pay
the pastor in charge his regular salary when it became
due.
Such examples of remarkable promptness in religious
corporations are believed to be exceedingly rare.
Mr.
Edmundson has no children. His first wife was Miss Jennie
Hart, daughter of Dr. H. W. Hart, a prominent physician of
Council Bluffs. She was a woman of excellent attainments, both
in mind and person. They were married in May, 1871, and Mrs.
Edmundson passed away in February, 1890. A noble monument
erected to her memory by Mr. Edmundson, stands in Walnut
Hill cemetery. He was again married on the
1st day of January, 1891, to Mrs. Laura Barclay Kirby, and
spent the most of the following year, with his wife, in
Europe. The above leading incidents
of Mr. Edmondson's life show him to be, emphatically a
self-made man. Like many other western boys, he started out to
make a place for himself in the busy world, and he has nobly
succeeded.
He has
accumulated an ample competence, and has gained the esteem and
confidence of the people among whom he has spent more than
half of his life. And all this he has accomplished by careful
attention to business, by strict honesty and fair dealing in
all his transactions, and by the exercise of prudence and a
rare good judgment, which never fails him.
He is genial and pleasant in his manners,
an interesting conversationalist, and a friend who will never
fail in the hour of severest trial.
FLICKINGER,
Albert T., the subject of this sketch, was born in
Urichsville, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, August 14, 1846. He
is the second of a family of eight children, five boys and
three girls. His parents, Eli Flickinger and Margaret
McChesney, were both natives of Ohio. In May, 1863, the family
moved from Ohio to a farm in Buchanan county, Iowa, where the
father died August 5, 1875, and the mother September 19, 1896.
Mr. Flickinger, while in Ohio, attended the schools of his
native town, and after coming to Iowa, the Lenox Collegiate
institute at Hopkinton, in 1866-67; he afterwards worked on
the farm during the summer and taught school in winter, until
1871, when he entered the State university at Iowa City. He
graduated from the academic department in 1875 and from the
law department in 1876. December 29, 1880, he was married to
Miss Ella Spangler, the oldest daughter of Hon. S. T.
Spangler, of Buchanan county, Iowa. They have two children,
Floyd S., born July 11, 1883, and Reed A., born July 14,
1887.
Soon
after his graduation from the Iowa State university, Mr.
Flickinger went to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and opened a law
office, where he has resided ever since, engaged in the active
duties of his profession with his brother, I. N. Flickinger,
under the firm name of Flickinger Bros. This firm has a large
practice in all the different courts, and enjoys an enviable
reputation for integrity and ability.
Mr.
Flickinger has always been an active republican, and was a
candidate for mayor of Council Bluffs on the republican ticket
in 1882. In 1886 he was elected by the legislature as one of
the trustees of the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council
Bluffs, and in 1892 was re-elected to the same office, his
second term expiring May 1, 1898. He was endorsed by his
congressional district for governor at the republican state
convention held at Cedar Rapids in 1897, receiving 151 votes
on second ballot.
GARDNER,
William Watson, is a direct descendant of one of the oldest
Puritan families, one that landed in America in the year 1656.
His grandfather, Benjamin Gardner, carried a musket through
the revolutionary war; a great uncle. William Gardner, was
aid-de-camp to General Washington. Governor Gardner, of
Massachusetts, was one of this family, who are all descendants
from John Gardner, of Hingham, Mass. He received from the
crown, in 1856, a grant of land located in that region.
William Gardner, the father of William Watson, was born in
Plainfield, Mass., July 10, 1803, and July 3, 1828, married
Ann Parkhurst. He was a contractor and builder and his early
life was spent in Massachusetts and in Ontario county, N. Y.
In 1840 he moved to Le Claire, Iowa, and lived until March 6,
1891. Ann Parkhurst was the
daughter of Sterling Parkhurst, of Ontario county, N.
Y., who moved with his family in 1837 to what is now
known as Le Claire, Iowa. The place was first called Parkhurst
town in honor of his family.
William
W. Gardner was born March 20, 1841, at Le Claire, Scott
county. He attended the village schools and then spent his
early life in teaching. Later he studied medicine and became
proficient in the theory of that profession but never
practiced and in 1870 he located at Avoca, in the drug
business. In this business the knowledge of medicine has
naturally been of great advantage to him. He has acquired a
fine reputation as a careful, conscientious and reliable
druggist. Having lived in Pottawattamie county for about
twenty-seven years, he has a large acquaintance and is very
favorably known throughout that section of the state. Mr.
Gardner's father was a whig and he was raised in that
faith, but when the party went to pieces in 1856, he became a
democrat, and the son has always been associated with that
party. He became a Mason as early as 1867 and has been
prominent in the affairs of that fraternity. He has taken the
Knight Templar degrees and presided as master and high priest
for several terms. He served as postmaster
during President Cleveland's second term. He was married
November 2, 1873, to Frances Maud Smith, and they have had two
daughters, one of whom died in infancy and the other, Frances
Maud, was born in 1883.
GUITTAR,
Theodore, of Council Bluffs, ex-sheriff of Pottawattamie
county, and at present deputy oil inspector for the state of
Iowa, has had much to do with the history of this state
although a native of Missouri. His father, Francis Guittar,
was among the first white men to come to western Iowa. He
first visited Council Bluffs, in 1825, in a keel boat while in
the employ of the American Fur company. He thus traded with
the Indians until 1840, at which time he engaged in the
business on his own account. In 1852, having accumulated some
money through his transactions with the Indians, he put in a
stock of merchandise at Council Bluffs, and the same was
continued until 1878, when he retired with a competency. He
was of French-Canadian stock, but was born at St. Louis, as
was his wife, Eugenia Bono.
Theodore
Guittar was born December 20, 1842, at St. Louis, Mo. He
removed to Council Bluffs with his parents when a small boy,
and it was in the common schools of that place he acquired his
education He clerked in his father's store until 1862, when he
responded to the tocsin of war, enlisting in the Second Iowa
battery. He served throughout the whole of the great struggle,
participating in the battles of Vicksburg, Nashville, Tupelo,
Jackson, Raymond, Hurricane Creek, Old Town Creek, Oxford and
others of less importance. He is a member of Abraham Lincoln
post, No. 29, Grand Army of the Republic, department of
Iowa.
The war
over, he returned to Council Bluffs and engaged as a clerk
until 1868, at which time he went into the grocery business.
This he followed until 1870, when he purchased a farm and
engaged in fruit raising and agricultural work until 1875,
returning at that time to Council Bluffs. Having done
effective work for the republican party, of which he was an
enthusiastic supporter, he, in 1877, was appointed deputy
sheriff of the county, serving as such for two years. In 1878
he was elected constable, and so well did he perform the
duties of that office during the three years of his incumbency
that he was the logical candidate for sheriff of the county.
He was elected by a handsome majority, and was re-elected at
the close of his first term. In 1890 he received the
appointment of deputy internal revenue collector for the
southern district of Iowa, serving for three years, and in
1894 was made deputy oil inspector, which position he is now
filling. He was married December 20, 1869, to Elizabeth
Beecroft. They have but one child, a daughter, Eugenia. I.
Guittar.
LEBECK, Carl
Ludwig, was born in Albersdorf, province of Holstein,Germany,
December 16, 1845. His father, Soren Larson Jensen Lebeck, was
a teacher, and taught for over forty-two years in that place.
His grandfather and great grand-father were natives of a
village in the northern part of Schleswig, called Spandet, and
they were farmers. The grand-father's name was Jens Olufsen,
and he had a family of eight boys and two girls.
Five of the boys became teachers and four of them went
to Denmark, but the father of Carl went south to Germany and
lived to be 87 years old. He taught for fifty - three years,
and during the last thirteen years of his life received a
pension of $250 per year. Carl's mother was Hanne Ketelsen.
Her father was raised upon a fine farm near Bredstedt,
province of Schleswig, which has been in their family for
probably 300 years, and is still owned by a cousin of Mr.
Lebeck.
Carl was
one of eleven children, seven boys and four girls. He
attended the common school, where his father was a teacher,
and at the age of 16 was apprenticed for five years to a
merchant to learn the dry goods and grocery business. He
worked for four years as a clerk in different places in
Germany, and in 1870 emigrated to America. He came as far west
as Illinois, and worked eight months for J. T. Alexander, the
"cattle king," on his " Broadland farm " of forty-two sections
in Champaign county. In the spring of 1871 he came to Clinton,
Iowa, and worked during the season on a farm. In the fall he
secured a place in a hardware store in Lyons, and remained in
that town until 1874, when he moved to Walnut, Pottawattamie
county, and formed a partnership with J. B. Johannsen and
started a general store on a small scale, under the firm name
of Lebeck & Johannsen. After four and a half years of
successful business he sold his interest to his partner. Soon
afterwards he bought another store in the same business and
took in a younger brother, Adolf, as a partner, under the firm
name of Lebeck Brothers. They continued in business together
for thirteen years, and were very successful. In 1894 Mr.
Lebeck bought his younger brother's interest and has since
conducted the business alone. Having increased the stock and
added another store room, he now has the largest business in
town.
Mr.
Lebeck has always been a democrat. He
is not a member of any of the fraternities. He is a leading
member of the Lutheran church. He was married November 2,
1872, to Minna Steffen, who is a native of Germany. They have
had seven children, but the only one living now is Alfred Jens
Ludwig, born June 29, 1878, who has attended business college
at Cedar Rapids.
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