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 4

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 4

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HARRY B. FRASE.

Allied with the movement to secure for Des Moines improved plans of city improvement that shall have practical value in municipal affairs, and upholding at all times the highest ideals of official service, Harry B. Frase has made a most creditable record in the position of county auditor to which he was elected in 1908. He was born February 13, 1872, at Akron, Ohio, a son of Benjamin B. and Sophia Francis Frase, both of whom were natives of Wayne county, Ohio, and of German descent. The father was a sergeant of Company C, of the Sixteenth Ohio Infantry, during the Civil war, and in business life was a dealer in farm implements. He came to Des Moines in 1874 and was associated with the commercial interests of the city to the time of his death, which oc- curred October 6, 1902. He is still survived by his widow and four children: George D., a resident of Chicago, where he is engaged in the insurance business ; Ned C., living in Des Moines; and Mary Francis, the wife of F. J. Meyers, who is engaged in the insurance business in Des Moines.

Brought to Iowa when but two years of age, Harry B. Frase pursued his education in the East and West Des Moines schools. This was his equipment for life's practical duties, but in the intervening years he has been a student of affairs, learning from each new experience the lesson of life therein contained. Becoming connected with railway interests he remained in the service of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company for eleven years and seven months, winning advancement in the freight department from one position to another of greater responsibility. Since attaining his majority he has also been interested in politics as an advocate of republican principles and has labored earnestly and effectively to promote the welfare of his party. He served as chairman of the county central committee from 1906 until 1908 and in the latter year was made secretary of the city central committee. In the same year he was also named as his party's candidate for the office of county auditor of Polk county and won the election for a two years' term. His record in this office is highly commend- able, winning for him the commendation of the general public by reason of his faithfulness to duty and the methodical, systematic manner in which he has man- aged his work in the office.

Mr. Frase belongs to St. John's English Lutheran church, to the Knights of Pythias and Elks lodges. He is also a member of the Booster Club and few men are more intensely and actively interested in the welfare and progress of Des Moines or have done more effective work for the city in the attempt to se- cure an ideal form of government that will be at the same time practical in its. adaptation to the needs of the present hour.

EDWIN HERBERT McDANIEL.

Edwin Herbert McDaniel, actively engaged in general agricultural pursuits, devotes his attention to the operation of an excellent farm of one hundred and thirty-one acres on sections 20, 29 and 32, Allen township. His birth occurred in that township on the 25th of September, 1865, his parents being Basil and Jane A. McDaniel, who in the fall of 1858 came from Richland county, Ohio,

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

to Allen township, Polk county, Iowa. Their children were nine in number, of whom our subject was the sixth in order of birth.

Edwin Herbert McDaniel attended the common schools in the acquirement of an education and after putting aside his text-books turned his attention to the tilling of the soil. The work of the fields has claimed his time and energies throughout his entire business career and in addition to the cultivation of cereals he devotes considerable attention to stock-raising, making a specialty of Poland China hogs. His farm embraces one hundred and thirty-one acres of rich and productive land on sections 20, 29 and 32, Allen township, and in its neat and thrifty appearance gives evidence of the practical methods and careful super- vision of the owner. Mr. McDaniel was one of the promoters of the dike or dam which prevents the overflow of the Des Moines river and thus renders arable thirteen hundred and ninety acres of land.

On the 20th of October, 1887, Mr. McDaniel was united in marriage to Miss Minta Deaton, a daughter of Noah and Jennie Deaton, who were natives of Iowa and Indiana respectively. Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel are the parents of eight children, as follows: Myrtle, who is now the wife of Paul Wesley; Hazel, who wedded Leslie Fry; Albert; Noah; Gladys; Wilma; Basil; and Herbert.

In politics Mr. McDaniel is a stanch republican, loyally supporting the men and measures of that party. He is now serving in the capacity of township trustee, having been elected to that office on the 8th of November, 1910. He has also acted as township treasurer and has held many minor positions, ever discharging his public duties in a most prompt and capable manner. His entire life has been spent within the borders of Polk county and he is widely recognized as one of its substantial agriculturists and representative citizens.

GEORGE M. HIPPEE.

No adequate memorial of George M. Hippee can be written until the inter- ests and enterprises which he instituted have reached their full fruition in the world's work. But there is much that may with profit be set down as exem- plifying the fact that character and ability will come to the front anywhere. Moreover, the active and helpful part which he took in the upbuilding of Des Moines well entitles him to prominent mention in this history.

He was born in Canton, Ohio, on the 6th of March, 1831, a son of George and Ann (Schriver) Hippee. He was descended from German ancestry on both the paternal and maternal sides. In the schools of his native city he pursued his education and in early manhood became a resident of Des Moines, arriving in this city when it was a mere village of practically no industrial or commercial importance-a typical town of the western frontier in the midst of a seemingly boundless prairie that as yet had been scarcely claimed or cultivated. He was a Des Moines merchant at the age of twenty-six, for in 1857 he established a drug store in a little log cabin on Second street. Close application to his busi- ness brought him increasing trade and he enlarged his stock to meet its grow- ing demands. He built the first three-story brick building that was used ex- clusively for the drug business, its location being at the corner of Second street and Court avenue. For eight years he continued in the trade and then retired in 1865.

His success had enabled him to become a factor in financial circles and at all times his business enterprise was such as contributed to the progress and prosperity of the city as well as to individual success. He became president of the Second National Bank, of the Union Fire Insurance Company, the Glencoe Company, the Guardian Life Insurance Company and the Hawkeye Insurance Company. He organized what is now the Valley National Bank and for a num-

GEORGE M. HIPPEE

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

ber of years was its president. He was also one of the organizers of the Des Moines Savings Bank, connected with the State Bank of Iowa, and in the estab- lishment and conduct of reliable financial institutions met a need in business life which arose from the city's growth and development. He was one of the first to apply for a gas company franchise for Des Moines, and his initiative spirit prompted his connection with a development of business interests of far-reaching importance. He became an officer of the Iowa National Bank and of the Iowa Loan & Trust Company, serving as trustee and director of the latter. He was likewise president of the Union Improvement Company and his success was at- tributable in large part to his ready recognition of and utilization of opportunity.

On the 10th of March, 1859, Mr. Hippee was united in marriage in Trenton, New Jersey, to Miss Eliza Page. a daughter of William Page, of Tuckerton, New Jersey. Their only son and child is George B. Hippee, who married. Mildred Polk and is now president of the Des Moines City Railway Company and general manager of the Interurban Railway Company, and identified with various other financial and business connections that make him the worthy successor of his father.

George M. Hippee holds membership in the Episcopal church and also with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias. He served as school director for nine years and has ever been interested in the material, intellectual and moral prog- ress of the city. Coming to Des Moines in the days of its villagehood, he is numbered with those who have been the builders and promoters of its great- ness and his name will ever remain an honored one on the pages of its history.

HENRY WALLACE.

The life story of Henry Wallace has been simple in its purposes but won- derful in its achievements and that its achievements have been wonderful is due to the simplicity and singleness of his purpose-to help his fellowmen. All about him from early manhood were opportunities for service which he recognized. He thought at first to benefit his fellows by preaching to them the truths of the gospel and after several years' successful work in the minis- try ill health intervened and he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. His habit of study characterizing his entire life, soon brought him to a realiza- tion of the unfavorable conditions of the farm and he at once began preach- ing the gospel of development, improvement and the utilization of natural ad- vantages. He has striven toward high ideals for himself and others and he stands today among the men of national prominence, whose labors have wrought a transformation so great as to seem almost magical. He has seen the need, he has sought to meet it. In this is the simplicity of his life story; in the re- sults attained, his wonderful achievements.

In early manhood he was known as the Rev. Henry Wallace; today he is affectionately termed "Uncle Henry" throughout Iowa. He was born near West Newton, Pennsylvania, in 1836, and came of Scotch-Irish ancestry. After preparing for college at Geneva Hall in his native state, he matriculated as a member of the junior class of Jefferson College. Following his graduation he devoted a year to teaching in Kentucky and in the fall of 1860 was enrolled among the students in the Allegheny (Pennsylvania) Theological Seminary. The summer of 1861 was devoted to teaching in an academy in his native town and later he spent two years in a United Presbyterian seminary at Monmouth, Pennsylvania. Licensed to preach in 1862 he sought a field of labor in the middle west and in 1863 was installed as pastor of the United congregation of Rock Island and Davenport, where he remained for several years. In 1871 he accepted the pastorate of the church at Morning Sun, Iowa, where he de-

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voted his time to proclaiming the gospel and to pastoral duties until failing health caused him to spend the summer of 1876 in Colorado and California. His mother, four brothers and three sisters had all died of tuberculosis in the twelve preceding years and his physician told him that the seeds of the dis- ease were in himself. His summer's sojourn in the west proved of little bene- fit to him and on his return his physician informed him that he must at once leave the ministry, allowing him not even opportunity for a farewell sermon, if he did not wish to be in his grave within a few months.

Rev. Wallace submitted to this arbitrary decision and laid aside his title and the active work of the ministry. Those who know the resolute nature of the man will at once understand that he entered upon a determined fight to restore his health. He turned to the farm, in which line he had had practical experi- ence in his youthful days, believing also that it offered him the most promising opportunity to combat the ravages of his disease. Six months found him some- what improved in health and still better at the end of a year. In ten years he was fully restored, so much so that in twelve years after living on the farm he was accepted as a good life insurance risk at the age of fifty-three. Vigorous in mind and body he has recently been chosen for national public service by poli- tical appointment at the age of seventy-three.

In early manhood Mr. Wallace had voluntarily chosen a life service for the benefit of his fellowmen and his entire life has been in keeping with his original purpose, although he was obliged to change the plan of procedure. He bought land in Adair county, moving his family to Winterset, Iowa, so that his chil- dren might have the advantages of town schools and drove back and forth from his home to the farm, winter and summer, to direct its cultivation and de- velopment. As he studied farm methods in his home community and elsewhere he became deeply impressed with the fact that the farmers of Iowa were neither getting out of the farm nor putting back into it what they should. There was a lack of scientific method in their work and a wasting of natural resources. He became impressed, too, that the conditions of the average farm home as to living conveniences and social and educational opportunity were not such as to make for the greatest happiness and growth of the farmer and his family. He recognized the fact that the unattractiveness of farm life was driving the young people from the farm into the cities. His characteristic spirit of help- fulness asserted itself and he began preaching the doctrine of better farming and farm living. How to make his views known to the people was the question. He saw that other men, feeling as he did, were addressing the public through the press, and going to Editor Cummings of the Winterset Madisonian, con- vinced him that he ought to give space to farm matter and offered to write a full page for a farm department every week without charge. The editor agreed and thus Mr. Wallace entered upon the active work of agricultural journalism. His aim was to tell the truth about things plainly in a manner that would appeal to plain spoken farmers. He urged the rotation of crops, the use of better seed and pointed out the value of more live stock and better live stock; arraigned the farmers for the neglect of their homes, pointed out the impor- tance of making them more attractive for themselves and their children; he advised them to stand together for the protection of their common interests and above all preached the care of the soil and the conservation of its resources. For love of the work and his desire to aid humanity, he continued the work of his ministry often "without money and without price." He realized, too, how much the farmers might do for themselves as a political force in securing legislative enactment, local, state and national, for their own benefit. He began discussing what might be accomplished for the promotion of their own wel- fare and interspersed his writings on self conservation, crop rotation and live- stock breeding with appeals to the farmer to arouse the use of his ballot for the enforcement of old laws and the enactment of new ones.

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

On one occasion Editor Cummings objected to a paragraph from Mr. Wal- lace's pen which he considered a hit at the republican party and Mr. Wallace's connection with the Madisonian was therefore severed. He felt, however, that he must still preach the doctrine which he was advocating, and in attending the meeting of the State Agricultural Society at Des Moines, in the winter of 1879- 80, he talked with James Wilson, now United States secretary of agriculture, who advised him "to find a little old run down country newspaper that he could buy cheap and write and print what you like." The advice was followed and Mr. Wallace became a partner of a Mr. Springer, the owner of the Chron- icle, a little struggling newspaper of Winterset, with a circulation between three and four hundred. Free to write as he felt about things, Mr. Wallace soon made himself a real factor in the newspaper field of Iowa. His thorough understanding of the farmer and farm life in every phase enabled him to antici- pate the wants of the farmer and his discussion and comment upon matters of interest to farmers became immediately popular. Within a year the circula- tion of the Chronicle had increased to fourteen hundred and the owner of the Madisonian proposed a consolidation of the two papers, which was brought about with Mr. Wallace still as part owner and agricultural editor.

In 1883 Mr. Wallace visited Des Moines and other points, meeting James Duffus, half owner of the long established Iowa Homestead, who had had some differences with his partner and asked Mr. Wallace's advice concerning the situa- tion. The latter advised that Mr. Duffus purchase the paper and when asked "but what should I do for an editor," replied "O, hire some one somewhere." A few days later Mr. Wallace received a letter from Mr. Duffus, stating that he was appointed editor of the Homestead. He gave little thought to the matter until two or three weeks later, when he received a letter asking when copy might be expected. He then went to Des Moines to discuss the matter and finding that the Homestead was very financially weak at the time, proposed to do the edi- torial work for ten dollars a week. He continued at that salary after James Pierce became owner of the Homestead and until the publication was placed upon a sound financial basis. In the 'gos he severed his connection with the paper and in 1895, with his sons H. C. and John P. Wallace, and later his young- est son, D. A. Wallace, began the publication of Wallace's Farmer, today one of the most widely read agricultural journals of the country.

Throughout all the years of his connection with journalism Mr. Wallace has preached the doctrines of reform, improvement, development and conservation, seeking these along agricultural or political lines as the case might be. He has never been a partisan politician, standing always for men and principle first, but he has recognized the fact that through political action results can be achieved and he entered into politics for that purpose. When the barbed wire trust placed an exorbitant price upon the new fencing material, he joined with the agricultural writers in arousing the farmers to an opposition to the trust and was among the editors of agricultural papers who came in Des Moines and planned to call a state convention of farmers for the organization of the Farmers Protective Association to raise money and hire attorneys to fight the trust in court. Following the convention, in April, 1881, more than ten thou- sand members were secured for the association and a large fighting fund brought together. A. B. Cummins, now United States senator, was employed as attor- ney and after a notable fight of five years won his victory in the courts and barbed wire fencing was brought within the reach of the farmers.

Mr. Wallace's first real political contest occurred in 1885 and 1886, when the farmers of the country were aroused to demand of congress some sort of legislation for the regulation of interstate . commerce. Some of Iowa's con- gressmen were slow to yield to the wishes of their constituents and voted against every effort at Washington to secure laws for railway control. Mr. Wal- lace and other agricultural editors attacked these congressmen through the

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

columns of their papers, and when this proved of no avail, generally voiced a demand for their defeat. Colonel Hepburn was among those defeated in 1886 and others suffered similarly at the hands of their former constituents, and in 1887 congress put the first interstate commerce law on the statute books of the country. The agitation for national control of railroads in 1886 and 1887 re- newed the agitation legislation that had been repealed in 1878. A railway commission had been appointed to be paid by the railroads themselves and rail- way regulation became a farce in the state. Mr. Wallace and other agricultural writers began to discuss the need of legislation, calling on the farmers to assert their rights. They joined Governor Larrabee in his fight for larger and more thorough control of the railroads of Iowa and especially the creation of a real railroad commission regulated and paid by the people and not the railroads. Both republicans and democrats in the twenty-first general assembly opposed the measure. Thirteen of these men were candidates for reelection in 1887, then Mr. Wallace and his associates attempted their defeat, wishing to elect men who would stand by the farmers of Iowa. Records of these thirteen legis- lators were published in the Homestead and a copy of the paper was sent to every farmer in the district of every one of these assemblymen. Then there was an organized movement made to show that the farmers vote was gotten out and twelve of the thirteen men were defeated. Governor Larrabee at the conven- tion of the legislature in 1888 sent a strong message, outlining what the people needed and wanted in the way of railroad legislation and after a determined struggle the laws that stand today were written on the statute books.

Later came the contest against the policy of the State College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts at Ames, which was a college of agricultural and me- chanical arts in name only. It was not known that a single student had ever been graduated from the agricultural course. Mr. Wallace was one of the leaders in this fight and a prominent factor in winning the victory which made William A. Beardshear president of the college, while James Wilson, now secre- tary of agriculture, was placed at the head of its agricultural department, Mr. Wallace himself refusing to be considered in that connection, believing Mr. Wil- son to be the man for the place. In 1905 Mr. Wallace took a determined stand in the campaign to bring about the enactment of the national rate legislation of 1905. Iowa members of congress failed to comply with the demands of their ·constituents. The result of transient editorials written by Mr. Wallace and his son, Henry C. Wallace, at length brought Colonel Hepburn to a position where he agreed to introduce what became known as the Hepburn bill in the house and make a fight for it there. Senator Dolliver, too, after a conversation with Mr. Wallace, went away convinced that Iowa was in earnest in its demands and in Washington made a splendid fight for the bill in committee, outwitting Senator Aldrich, and made another splendid fight for the bill on the floor of the senate and thus placed himself in the ranks of the progressive republicans in the national halls of legislation.

While Mr. Wallace was carrying on aggressive work there in those lines he was working as surely and effectively, if more quietly, for the improvement of the general welfare of the farmer, his farm and his property. From the begin- ning of his connection with journalism, believing as he expressed it "that the fertility of the soil is the greatest of the natural resources of the country, and that the prime object of the farmer should be to conserve and increase this fertility," he began to advocate farm methods that would conserve the soil, urging rotation of crops and new varieties of crops. In a day when clover was little understood he investigated and studied it, became convinced that clover would benefit the soil and wrote and lectured on clover so persistently for years that he became known as the clover crank. Others, however, joined him and Iowa has derived more benefit than can be estimated from her clover crops. He took up the work, too, of securing the use of better seeds, better

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

dairying and better highways and was instrumental in inaugurating good roads and in securing the daily trains for the transportation of dairy products. His labor for more and better live stock has been likewise valuable, both from the standpoint of soil conservation and of larger profits in dairying and live-stock feeding. The election of Mr. Wallace to the national conservation congress in 1910 was the logical result of his splendid and resultant efforts in the field in which he has so long labored.

A work which is perhaps more intangible, but none the less effective and far-reaching, has been Mr. Wallace's efforts toward improving the home con- ditions and those kindred interests-the educational and moral development of the individual. One of the local papers said his work in this connection has been "labor for the soul conservation of the farmers," adding "he has sought all his years to do more than point the way to better farming. He has sought also to point the way to better farm living." Professor W. A. Henry, of the University of Wisconsin, expressed the thought when he said that Mr. Wal- lace was a great agricultural editor because he was managing his journal not merely to advance agriculture but good citizenship also. Dr. L. H. Bailey of Cornell gave recognition to his work for higher things than mere money making, when he said of him "He is an admirable example of strong idealism and prac- tical sense, combined with a highly developed individualism-just the qualities that are needed in the young men of the open country." Mr. Wallace early saw that the surroundings of the average farm home as to schools and social and religious opportunities were far from satisfactory and that they must be remedied soon if farmers were not to deteriorate in quality and the young people be driven from the farms to the city. In his editorial work from the beginning may be found effort to make farm life happier and better. It is found in his plain homely talks on home life, in his talks to boys and girls, and in his Sun- day-school lesson dissertations. Shortly after he began the publication of his paper he began writing a review of the Sunday-school lesson, which each week has been a leading feature of his journal. A series of open letters to farm boys which he wrote, was later published in book form and has run through five or six editions.

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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 4

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