Trails to the Past

Iowa

Pottawattamie County

Biographies

 

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.

 

The information on Trails to the Past © Copyright   may be used in personal family history research, with source citation. The pages in entirety may not be duplicated for publication in any fashion without the permission of the owner. Commercial use of any material on this site is not permitted.  Please respect the wishes of those who have contributed their time and efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank you!