Progressive Men of Iowa
1899

HAMILTON, William Edgar, editor and publisher of the Odebolt Chronicle, is one of the well known figures in Iowa journalism. He is a grandson of William Hamilton, who served in the war of 1812 as colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment, and was afterward a brigadier-general of the militia, in the same state, for many years.  The Hamilton's were natives of Scotland, and afterwards lived in the north of Ireland, whence they came to America just before the revolutionary war, and settled in Cumberland county, Pa. Gen. William Hamilton was one of the pioneers of Mercer county, Pa., and one of the prominent figures of western Pennsylvania in his day. He was the father of nine children, John Hamilton, the father of the subject of this sketch, being the second child born to him. John Hamilton was born in Mercer county, Pa., in 1816, and died in Sharon, Pa., in 1872. He learned the trade of a plasterer in early life, and afterwards farmed and worked at his trade alternately. He was register and recorder of Mercer county from 1854 to 1857, and was a man of more than ordinary ability and information. Ann Powell Stroud was the maiden name of John Hamilton's wife.  She was born in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1827, and was the daughter of William Stroud, who was of Quaker descent. She is still living in Sharon.

March 13, 1857, William E. Hamilton was born in Mercer, Pa. When he was seven years old his parents moved to a farm near Mercer, and the boy's first schooling was in the country school near his home. At the age of 12 he received better advantages in the city schools of Sharon, to which place the family then moved. For three years he was happily busy with his books, hoping, as does every bright ambitious boy, that he might be able to finish his school work and add thereto a college course. But when he reached his sixteenth year he experienced a great loss in the death of his father, and college hopes and plans were, perforce, given up. He went bravely to work, however, to take care of himself, and his first situation was in a stove and tinware store, where he was employed for three months, in the summer of 1872, at a dollar a day, pretty good wages, in those days, for an inexperienced lad. In the fall of the same year he entered the employ of the Atlantic Iron works, in Sharon, as invoice clerk, and that he was a valued and trusted employee may be inferred from the fact that he remained with the same firm for eight years, being paymaster during the last four.

In the fall of 1880, Mr. Hamilton concluded to try his fortune in the west, and came to Iowa, locating first at Bloomfield, where he worked for two years on the Davis County Republican, as local editor. In 1883 he went to Odebolt and found employment in the law and abstract office of W.  A. Helsell, with whom he remained for four years. Desiring to again engage in the newspaper business he started, in 1887, the Odebolt Chronicle, which he has owned and edited since that date. In 1893 Mr. Hamilton compiled a guide to the World's fair called "The Time Saver," which was probably the most popular guide in use. He spent six months in Chicago and sold 150,000 copies of his little book, clearing a handsome profit. Mr.  Hamilton's father was a war democrat and he was reared in the Douglas faith. In the campaign of 1880 he became convinced that the protective policy was the true one for American interests, and since that time he has been an ardent supporter of republican principles. He belongs to the Masonic and Knights of Pythias lodges, and is also a Woodman of the World and a Modern Woodman. He belongs to no church but is Unitarian in belief.

January 18, 1894, he was married to Mrs. Mabel C.  Coy, of Odebolt. He was recently appointed supervisor of census for the Eleventh congressional district of Iowa, the only office, elective or appointive, for which he ever applied.

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