Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II, Part 165

Author: Brigham, Johnson, 1846-1936; Clarke (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II > Part 165

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In the public schools of Des Moines C. C. Christy pursued his education until graduated from the East high school. Upon completing his studies he learned the carpenter's trade under R. S. Finkbine, being employed on the con- struction of the state capitol. Later he took up contracting on his own account, starting in a small way but in the course of time building up a remarkable business. During the last few years of his connection with that industry he erected a number of Des Moines' most important buildings, including the Com- mercial building, the Polk county jail, the Johnson block, the Cary school, the street railway company's power house, the Laurel apartments on Seventh street and a number of the state-fair buildings. He also built all of the power houses, stations and terminals for the original interurban system that enters Des Moines for the Inter Urban Railway Company. He was chairman of the committee that had in charge the erection of the new Sixth avenue bridge and laid the

CHARLES C. CHRISTY

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plans for the new Locust street bridge. After fifteen years of activity in the contracting business he retired, although he still maintains the same office. He has become largely interested in real estate in Cleveland, Ohio. He has ex- tensive residence property in what is known as the Christy-Kennedy allotment, which is an addition of one hundred and twenty-five of the finest suburban lots of that city, located near the old Garfield home. He also holds some very valuable Des Moines properties and in 1907 became still more closely associated with business interests in this city, opening a fine restaurant on Eighth between Locust and Walnut streets. There he continued until the site was sold and the wrecking began, to make room for the new Des Moines Club building. At that time he opened a handsome cafe at 517 Mulberry street and a lunch room at No. 205 Sixth avenue in Des Moines, and he is also proprietor of a cafe at Grand Island, Nebraska, a lunch room at Sioux City, at Columbus, Nebraska, and at Cheyenne, Wyoming. His Des Moines cafe is unsurpassed by any in the city in design and decoration and unexcelled for the excellence of its cuisine. Such in brief has been the business activity of Mr. Christy and the extent and importance of his connections place him in a prominent position among the business men of Des Moines. He has ever been resourceful, has looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities and opportunities of the future and in the direction of his affairs his sound judgment has been mani- fest in the excellent results which attend his labors.

On the 26th of August, 1889, in Des Moines, Mr. Christy was married to Miss Anna Kennedy, a daughter of George Kennedy, of Cleveland, Ohio, and their children are: Nellie, nineteen years of age, who is a pupil in the Lake Forest Academy at Lake Forest, Illinois; and Edith, seventeen years of age, who is attending the West high school of Des Moines. The family attend the Wesleyan Methodist church, in which Mr. Christy holds membership. He also has membership relations with the Knights of Pythias, the Maccabees, the Red Men, the Eagles, the United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is a republican and recognizes the obligations and duties as well as the opportunities and privileges of citizenship. He has, therefore, done much work along the lines of public progress and improvement. He served as alderman of the fifth ward for two terms and was a member of the execu- tive committee of the republican county central committee for one term. He was chairman of the city hall committee that secured the site for the new municipal building and at all times his aid and cooperation have been accounted valued factors in winning success for any public project. His life in every relation has been fraught with progress and success because of his cultivation of the qualities of industry, determination and persistency, which ultimately accomplish the object undertaken.

WILBURT S. FRALEY.

Twenty years ago Wilburt S. Fraley began in his own name as a contractor in Des Moines. During the time that has since passed he has seen many changes take place in the city, old landmarks have disappeared and the appearance of the city in many respects has been changed until Des Moines is today one of the most attractive business and residence centers in the west. In the accomplish- ment of this transformation Mr. Fraley has borne an important part and his influence is also to be perceived in many important improvements now in prog- ress. He was born in Madison county, Iowa, January 19, 1867, and is a son of Theodore L. and Katharine (King) Fraley. The father was born in Indiana in 1826. He was a dry-goods merchant and also engaged in the contracting business. He served for the Union in the Civil war, being detailed in the com-

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missary's department. He is now living at Portland, Oregon, having reached the age of eighty-five years.

Wilburt S. Fraley was educated in the public schools of Winterset, Madison county, Iowa, and after arriving at maturity engaged in the contracting and building business in the Black Hills, acquiring a practical knowledge which has been highly useful in larger operations during more recent years. In 1890, being attracted to Des Moines, he came to this city and established an office it Second and Grand streets, subsequently moving to his present location, at 600-602 Eighth street. From the very start he gained a fair share of patronage and in his business has not only acquired a competence but has contributed substantially to the upbuilding of the city. He was one of the prime movers in securing the location of the city hall on the east side and has been for years one of the leaders along the lines of public improvements. He did the interior dec- orating in the courthouse, the opera house and other prominent buildings and his capability is demonstrated in the liberal patronage he enjoys.

Mr. Fraley was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Fowler, of Dawes county, Nebraska, whose father was engaged in the wholesale business in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, previous to the Civil war. He served as a volunteer in the Union army and died from the effects of a wound received in battle. He was a mem- ber in high standing of the Masonic order. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fraley, namely : Katharine, now Mrs. Wonderland; Helen, who is at pres- ent engaged in teaching. school; Alvin T., Ollie, Delia, Mary, Francis, John and Charles, all of whom are attending school; and an infant.

Mr. Fraley is identified with the republican party and gives to it his earnest support. He has found time aside from his private business affairs to serve most acceptably as a member of the city council, filling this position for a period of six years, and also served as a member of the school board from 1896 to 1902. He is recognized as a progressive citizen, earnest and efficient in the discharge of every responsibility, and ever ready to lend his aid to any worthy cause. He is a member of the Methodist church and fraternally is quite prom- inent, being connected with the Masonic order, the Yeomen of the World, the Woodmen of the World, the Homesteaders, and Lodge No. 98, B. P. O. E.

JAMES STIPPICH.

In the list of progressive and enterprising agriculturists of Polk county must be included the name of James Stippich, who lives in Madison township. A native of Ohio, he was born in Allen county on the 23d day of December, 1853, being a son of Paul and Elizabeth (Groscross) Stippich, the father a native of Germany and the mother of Pennsylvania. Mr. Stippich came to the United States during his boyhood with his parents and settled in Ohio, in which state he later met and married Miss Groscross. When the call came for vol- unteers to uphold the Union in the sixties Mr. Stippich enlisted, but the hard- ships and privations incident to army life so undermined his constitution that he contracted the disease from which he died in 1863. Three children were born of this union of which the son James was the eldest, the other two are both married and have families, one living in Crocker township, this county, and the other in Idaho. After the war Mrs. Stippich was married to Mr. T. B. Moore and in 1866 they removed to Iowa, locating on a farm in Polk county and are now living retired in Polk city.

James Stippich was only a boy of thirteen years when his stepfather and mother came to Iowa, and thus obtained the greater portion of his education in the district schools of Ohio. He remained at home until he had passed his four- teenth year and then became a member of the household of William Hanger,

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a farmer of Polk county, with whom he remained until he was twenty-one years of age. He began working as a farm hand in 1874 and continued to do so until he was married; subsequent to this event he engaged in farming for himself on eighty acres he had previously purchased, of his present homestead. He has since added another forty acres to his original tract, making the aggre- gation of his present holdings one hundred and twenty acres. During the period of his occupancy he has very greatly improved the place. The land is well tiled, he has good substantial fences about his fields and all of the barns and outbuildings are well constructed and in good repair. The house has also been remodeled and is a comfortable and convenient residence with modern appointments. Mr. Stippich engages in general farming and stock raising in both of which undertakings he has met with a reasonable degree of success, and has acquired a competence which will enable him to rent his farm during the ensuing year and retire to Polk city to enjoy the ease and comfort denied him during his hard-working youth.

Ever since attaining his majority Mr. Stippich has affiliated with the re- publican party and his political fealty has been rewarded by his constituency electing him to various offices in the township. He is a trustee at the present time and has been for the past five years, in addition to this he is serving his fifth term as road supervisor and has been a school director for twenty years. That he most faithfully and competently discharges the responsibilities of every office to which he is elected is attested by the period of his incumbency. Fra- ternally he is identified with the Masonic order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the basic principles of which organizations have always served to direct his life. During his residence in Madison township Mr. Stippich has shown himself to be a man who would be an acquisition to any community.

WARREN DICKINSON.

Warren Dickinson, civil engineer, the practical demonstration of whose ability is seen in a number of fine structures in Des Moines, his native city, was born July 2, 1868. His father, Wilmot H. Dickinson, was born at Derby Line, Quebec, September 28, 1828, and his life span covered the intervening years to the 24th of October, 1898. He was a prominent physician in the place of his birth, and later in Des Moines, following his removal here in 1858. At that time there were no railroads in the city and he journeyed as far as Mile City, which was the terminus of the railway line at that time and thence drove over- land to his destination. When he arrived here he found a very small place with only a few houses but he located for practice and was soon ministering to the needs of his fellow townsmen and the people in the surrounding country in times of sickness. As other settlers came and the town grew he bought property on Fourth and Center streets, making his choice of a location against the advice of his friends who suggested that he buy closer in town and not way out in the woods. He followed his own ideas in this matter, however, and made his purchase in what was then the outskirts of the city but is now the very center of business activity. The property in which he invested at that time and on which he built a handsome home is now very valuable. He married Miss Sarah M. Butin, who was born in the state of New York, January 28, 1832, and is still living at the old home.

Warren Dickinson pursued his education, after leaving the public schools, in Baptist College of Des Moines, now the Des Moines College, and in Lehigh College and the Chester (Pennsylvania) Military College. He took up a course of civil engineering and was graduated from the last named institution in 1889. He then entered the employ of the United States government, working

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at Ocean View and at Wilmington, Delaware, on the ship canal, being employed under General W. F. Smith for two years. He returned to Des Moines in 1891 and entered the city engineer's office under M. R. Laird, there continuing until 1893, when he became county surveyor. He occupied that position for a year and then opened an office on his own account, since which time he has suc- cessfully practiced his profession. He was employed in civil engineering work on a number of the prominent buildings of the city, chief among which are the court house, golf club house and suburban sub-divisions. He is frequently called in professional consultation and is recognized as a foremost follower of the pro- fession of civil engineering in Des Moines.

In Indianola, Iowa, on the 7th of March, 1898, occurred the marriage of Mr. Dickinson and Miss Flora V. Adams, and this union has been blessed with two children : Francis Butin, who was born September 28, 1899; and Doris Mae, born March 28, 1902. Both are students in the Fredrick M. Hubbell school.

Mr. Dickinson is a member of Elks Lodge, No. 98, B. P. O. E .; Myrtle Capital Lodge, No. 9, K. P., and also belongs to the Hyperion Field and. Motor Club. In politics he is a republican and in religious faith an Episcopalian. He is fond of all outdoor athletics and manly sports and his chief recreation, perhaps, comes through playing golf. He is also an expert at billiards He possesses a strong personality and most kindly disposition. He is devoted to his family and numbers among his friends many of the most prominent people of Des Moines.

LE ROY C. DUNN.

Enterprise and perseverance have been the dominant factors in the business career of Le Roy C. Dunn, who is associated with E. J. Selover in the under- taking parlors they maintain at 907 West Locust street and 630 East Grand ave- nue, Des Moines. Mr. Dunn was born on the 8th of July, 1877, in Monmouth, Illinois, being a son of Joseph D. and Sarah Mary (Harvey) Dunn, the former of Scotch-Irish and the latter of French and English extraction. The father, who is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, has always engaged in the real-estate business and is now living in Salisbury, Missouri, but the mother, who was born in Hillsboro, Ohio, passed away on the 10th of April, 1903.

The public schools of Monmouth, Illinois, provided Le Roy C. Dunn with the greater portion of his education, which was later supplemented by a course at night school. Being anxious to begin his business career he laid aside his text-books at the age of sixteen years and entered the office of the Monmouth Daily Review, of which he was made foreman at eighteen. He continued in the service of this journal for about three years, following which he entered the employ of the Maple City Cigar Company as traveling salesman. For six years he served in this capacity with headquarters at Des Moines, during which time he studied undertaking, thus equipping himself for the business he is now en- gaged in. He became a permanent resident of Des Moines about 1897, accept- ing a position in the undertaking parlors of J. W. Patrick, with whom he re- mained for one year. In 1904 he removed to Perry, Iowa, in order to take charge of the undertaking department of the Gamble Furniture Company, but the following year he again returned to this city to assume the management of Mr. Patrick's business, to which Ross & Ross succeeded on the Ist of March, 1907. Mr. Dunn continued in the service of others until the Ist of January, 1908, at which time he purchased one-half interest in the business of E. J. Sel- over, thereafter operating under the firm name of Selover & Dunn, their parlors being located at 630 East Grand avenue. They extended their activities in Sep- tember, 1909, by acquiring the establishment of H. S. Gray, located at 1113 West

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Locust street. After buying the latter they conducted both parlors until the 12th of April, 1910, when they purchased the business of L. F. Shank, at 907 Locust street, the west side concern being known as Dunn & Selover. This being a more desirable location than their West Locust street place, they consolidated the two and are now conducting a parlor at 630 East Grand avenue and 907 West Locust street. As they are both progressive and wide-awake business men they are conducting two of the finest undertaking parlors in the city. They keep a complete and extensive stock of caskets and such other appurtenances as are used in their profession, sparing no expense in the equipment of their vehicles and furnishings.

Mr. Dunn was united in marriage in this city on the 23d of December, 1903, to Miss Florence Adams, a daughter of David Adams, of New Virginia, Iowa, in which town Mrs. Dunn was born on the Ist of December, 1875. Mr. Adams, who is a veteran of the Civil war, was one of the pioneer settlers of New Vir- ginia, where he is now living retired at the age of eighty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn affiliate with the Methodist Episcopal church, while he is also identified with various fraternal orders. He is a Mason of high rank and holds member- ship in Capital Lodge, No. 110, A. F. & A. M., is a Royal Arch Mason and affiliates with the Alpha Council, besides which he belongs to Des Moines Com- mandery, No. 4, K. T., and to the Des Moines Consistory, having passed through the thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite, and the Za-Ga-Zig Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He has filled all of the chairs of the blue lodge and various other offices in the fraternity. Mr. Dunn also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men, while his affiliation with more purely social organizations is confined to the Hyperion Club of Des Moines and the Iowa State Commercial Traveling Men's Association.

The men and measures of the republican party receive Mr. Dunn's political support, but as he has never aspired to public honors or the emoluments of office he does not actively participate in civic affairs, preferring to concentrate his energies upon the development of his business, in which he is meeting with marked success. Although he is a young man to occupy the position he does in the commercial activity of a city, Mr. Dunn will continue to advance as his am- bition and energy will ever carry him forward until he attains the position to which he aspires.

JUDGE GEORGE G. WRIGHT.

At the third annual banquet of the State Bar Association in Cedar Rapids, July 7, 1897, Judge H. E. Deemer, of the supreme court of Iowa, feelingly re- ferred to Judge Wright as "that grand old man who recently went before the Judge of Judges. A man of keen judgment, of almost intuitional div- ination as to the right; one of the great chancellors of this country." Judge George G. Wright, pioneer, jurist, statesman, financier and the most widely known of the men who took an active part in the stirring drama of the trans- formation of Iowa from a sparsely settled territory to a great commonwealth, was born in Bloomington, Indiana, March 24, 1820, a son of John and Rachel ( Seaman) Wright. The father. a native of Pennsylvania, was of Welsh de- scent, his first American ancestor having come from Wales in 1720, at which time he settled in Pennsylvania. John Wright died in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1825, when his son, George G., was five years of age. The mother came to Iowa during the territorial days and, surviving her husband for many years passed away at Keosauqua in 1850.

George G. Wright was compelled by ill health to forego the ordinary sports of boyhood but, being naturally studious, he found his compensation in books.

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He was awarded a free scholarship in the Indiana University, from which in- stitution he was graduated with high honors when only nineteen years of age. He read law in Rockville, Indiana, under the direction of his brother, Hon. Joseph A. Wright, afterward governor of that state, and was admitted to the bar in the state courts in 1840. In September of the same year, having deter- mined to try his fortunes in Iowa, he went down the Wabash and Ohio rivers and up the Mississippi to Burlington. He traveled by stage to Keosauqua, which then contained a few log houses and had recently been chosen the county seat of Van Buren county. The sparsely settled district presented scant encour- agement to the young lawyer, but with characteristic optimism he settled there and began the practice of his profession. Energetic, studious, conscientious and mentally vigorous, and possessed of that happy temperament which wins friends, esteem and confidence, he so far progressed that in 1846 he was appointed by the court to the office of prosecuting attorney of the county and the same year was nominated the whig delegate to the territorial council, his democratic op- ponent being his father-in-law, Thomas Dibble, who defeated him in the en- suing election. In 1848 Judge Wright was elected state senator from Van Buren county for the four years covering the third and fourth general assemblies. His skill as a debater, his profound knowledge of the law and his sound common sense soon made him one of the leaders in the legislature. The most important work of the third session was the compilation of the first code putting into statutory form the unwritten law on a multitude of subjects and the recon- struction of the entire judiciary system. The bulk of the work of codifying fell upon Senator Wright, and when near the end of the session opinion was expressed that an extra session would be necessary to finish the code he took the floor and refused his consent to adjournment until the code was completed and passed. He worked night and day to complete the task. Many of the measures specially prepared by him are still in force practically as written by him.

In 1850 Judge Wright was nominated for representative to congress from the district comprising the south half of the state, but it was overwhelmingly democratic and his opponent, Bernhart Henn, defeated him. In 1854, when he was less than thirty-five years of age, his ability and reputation as a lawyer had become so generally recognized that he was selected as the whig candidate for justice of the supreme court of Iowa and won over his opponent, Edward Johnston, by a vote of fifty-three to forty-five, and, with the exception of two years, was continuously reelected for fifteen years. His service on the supreme bench marked an epoch in which the entire judiciary system of the state was changed. The most abstruse and complicated questions involving the vast and varied interests of the state, of corporations and of individuals were solved, and precedents were established which have been accepted and confirmed by the highest tribunals of the land. In fact, the foundation on which rests the state's present jurisprudence was laid by Judge Wright and his early associates, the list of whom contains such names as Cole, Woodward, Stockton, Isbell, Lowe and Dillon. The opinions of Judge Wright running through the first thirty volumes of Iowa Reports are notable models of perspicuity, clearness and soundness.

In 1865 Judge Wright removed to Des Moines and shortly afterward became associated with Judge Chester C. Cole in the organization of the Iowa Law . School, to the history of which a chapter is devoted in the first volume of this work. The first class consisted of twelve students and it is safe to say no class ever received more complete, liberal or valuable instruction. A favorite with young men and preeminently a scholar, Judge Wright had the happy fac- ulty of expressing his views in attractive and impressive language. Abhorrent of anything savoring of sharp practice, he strove to impress upon his class his oivn high ideals of moral and professional rectitude and the fundamentals of the

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science of law. The Iowa Law School in 1868 became the law department of the State University and the graduates became alumni of the university. Judge Wright continued to serve the school until 1895, delivering his last lecture in June of that year. In the summer of 1870, to the surprise of all, Judge Wright tendered his resignation as a member of the supreme court. In a letter dated August 9, 1870, the Judge published the reasons for not waiting until the ex- piration of the term. He deemed it due to those who would be candidates that they should early know the field would be clear. He added that he would leave the place he had held for fifteen years with regret and yet with deliberation. He modestly added that he may have failed in ability, but he had sought to be faithful. He trusted his successors would be better paid. On his retirement from the supreme bench, in response to the importunities of a host of friends, he became the candidate for United States senator and such was his personal popularity that he was elected on the first ballot. He served for six years on various important committees and then declined a renomination, which marked the end of his service in public office.

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Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II, Part 165

Author: Brigham, Johnson, 1846-1936; Clarke (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Brigham, Johnson, 1846-1936; Clarke (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1464