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 43

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 43

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and stood at all times for liberty, enlightenment and advancement. His en- dorsement of the movement of the Revolutionists of France provoked a mob to destroy his house and effects, among which were valuable manuscripts, which had cost him many years of labor. He and his family barely escaped with their lives. This was at Birmingham, England, subsequent to which time Dr. Priest- ley went to London. After several years in active work in church, literature and science, he emigrated to America in 1794. His name is deeply engraven on the pages of history as the discoverer of oxygen gas, which gained him fame throughout the scientific world. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Society of England and also by Catherine, empress of Russia. His son, the great-grandfather of Dr. Priestley of this review, had preceded him to America and was living at Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, where Dr. Joseph Priestley took up his abode upon his arrival in the new world, there continuing his studies. In 1796 he visited Philadelphia and founded the first Unitarian church of that city, and in fact the first church of that belief in America. He died February 6, 1804.

Marks B. Priestley, father of Dr. Priestley, was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1823, and was reared to mercantile pursuits, his initial business experience being received in that line. He served in the Mexican was as a member of the Third Regiment of Tennessee Infantry, enlisting at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he was clerking at the time. After joining the army he was made clerk of the commissary department and during the absence of his superior served as commissary until the close of the war. Through the succeeding twenty years he engaged in merchandising in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, after which he took up the study of law and was ad- mitted to the bar at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, in 1875. He there practiced for seven years, after which he came to Des Moines in November, 1882. He was married December 20, 1849, to Mary Taggart. His fraternal relations were with the Masons and his political support was given to the republican party. The Scotch strain in the veins of Dr. Priestley comes through his grandmother, who was a daughter of the Earl of Dundas, and a first cousin to Sir Ralph Abercrombie, both major generals in the British army. Her paternal grand- father, James Biddle, was judge of the admiralty court and upon the organi- zation of the state of Pennsylvania, following the Revolutionary war, was ap- pointed presiding judge of the first judicial district of Pennsylvania, which included Philadelphia. He continued in office until his death in 1797. Her father, Marks John Biddle, was a prominent lawyer of Reading, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the state senate.

Dr. Priestley acquired his medical education at the University of Pennsyl- vania, from which he was graduated in the class of 1874. He then practiced in his native town until 1876, when he came to Des Moines, and no man in the city or state stands higher in the profession. His position is the logical sequence of ability that has been constantly augmented by thorough study, broad research and wide investigation. The consensus of public opinion regarding him is manifest in the fact that his is the largest practice in the city. He is a distinguished and valued member of all the different medical societies and any word that he speaks is listened to attentively, for his opinions are largely ac- cepted as authority.

On the 30th of April, 1874, Dr. Priestley was married in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, to Miss Clara Simpson, a daughter of Asa Simpson, a leading attorney there. Mrs. Priestly was born at Selinsgrove, Snyder county, Pennsylvania. Two children were the result of this union: Crayke S., who was born January 21, 1875, and died May 12, 1904; and Marks B., born January 22, 1879.

In his political views Dr. Priestley is a republican and fraternally is a thirty- second degree Mason and a member of the Elks and the Knights of Pythias

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lodges. One has but to see him to recognize the fact that he is a man in whom one can have confidence-a dependable man in any relation and any emergency. His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity, his frankness and cordiality of address, with a total absence of anything sinister or anything to conceal, fore- token a man who is ready to meet any obligation of life with the confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise .of human activities.

MRS. ROSA BENDER.

Mrs. Rosa Bender, residing on a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 31, Allen township, is one of the well known and highly esteemed iadies of the community. Her birth occurred in Germany on the 23d of July, 1834, her parents being George and Lizzie Hoffman, both of whom passed away in the fatherland. Rosa Hoffman was educated in the schools of her native land and there spent the first twenty years of her life. In 1854 she crossed the Atlantic to the United States, locating in Pennsylvania, where she residedi until her removal to Jowa in 1859. Coming direct to Polk county, she took up her abode in Allen township and has here made her home continuously since.

On the 7th of March. 1859, she gave her hand in marriage to Jacob Bender, a native of Pennsylvania, who served as corporal in Company G. Eleventh Regiment of United States Infantry, during the Mexican war and remained in the service until hostilities ceased. After receiving his discharge he went to California, where he was identified with gold mining for six years, and on his return east settled in Polk county, Iowa, in the fall of 1858. He located upon the present farm of his widow, which was a government grant to the Mexican war veterans.

To Mr. and Mrs. Bender were born nine children, as follows: Harry J., who wedded Miss Dora Deaton; Mary, the deceased wife of N. L. Groch ; George; Anna, the wife of W. J. Lindley; William, who married Miss Ida Baber; Charles, deceased, who married Grace Clement; Frank; Clara, who is the wife of Eugene Grover ; and Loma, the deceased wife of Jasper Honrey. The father of these children passed away on the 2d of January, 1894, his demise being the occasion of deep and widespread regret.

Mrs. Bender still resides on the farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 31 which her husband owned and operated during his lifetime. The property is well improved in every particular and annually yields bounteous crops which find a ready sale on the market. Mrs. Bender is a devoted and consistent member of the Lutheran church, exemplifying its teachings in her daily life. She is widely known in the community where she has now lived for more than a half century and throughout this entire period she has enjoyed the respect and esteem of those with whom she has come in contact, while her good leeds have closely endeared her to many.

JOHN G. MARTIN.

Another of the energetic business men of Des Moines whose ambition has ever kept him forging ahead is John G. Martin, who is engaged with his brother- in-law, Fred McKowen, in the conduct of a general store at the corner of Park avenue and Ninth street. He was born in England on the 3d of October, 1872,

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and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Parks) Martin, who emigrated to the United States from their native land in 1878. When they first arrived in this country the family located in Missouri where the father was employed as a laborer for two years, at the end of which period they came to Des Moines. After settling here Mr. Martin engaged in the dairy business, with which he was identified until 1902, when he retired to a five acre truck farm at the corner of Sixth street and Park avenue, where he continues to reside.

Being but six years of age when he arrived in America with his parents John G. Martin acquired his education in the public schools of Missouri and Iowa. When old enough to lay aside his text-books he obtained employment in the Polk county coal mines, continuing in this occupation for twelve years. He engaged in various other forms of labor at different times, and being of a thrifty nature always practiced the most rigid economy, by which means he accumulated the capital which enabled him in February, 1902, to go into business with Mr. McKowen. They handle a choice and well selected line of groceries and meats, in addition to which they also deal in feed and coal. Their courteous attention to customers, as well as their accommodating manner and prompt delivery of goods, has been the means of their building up a large patronage. They are always found to be trustworthy and reliable in all business transactions, and as a result are highly esteemed by the firms with whom they deal, and who accord them a generous credit. In addition to their stock they also own the building and land upon which their store is located.

Never having married Mr. Martin continues to make his home with his parents. Fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Red Men, while his religious affiliation is with the Episcopal church. Al- though he has never aspired to public office Mr. Martin is interested in all polit- ical activities particularly those of a local nature, and gives his support to the men and measures of the republican party, considering that its policy of protec- tion and the centralization of power is best adapted to subserve the interests of the majority. He is the type of man who will win in almost any venture owing to his determination and faith in his own powers to attain the goal.

FRED FRENCH KEITHLEY.

Among the younger representatives of the Des Moines bar Fred French Keithley is accorded prominence although he has not passed the thirty-third milestone on life's journey. He was born in Adair county, Iowa, August I. 1878, a son of James Montgomery and Florence (French) Keithley, the former of German and the latter of English descent. On the mother's side, the ancestry of the French family is traced back to the Duke of Normandy. The first Amer- ican representative of the name, Nathaniel French, settled in Massachusetts in 1721 and later removed to Vermont. One of his sons, Fred French Keithley's great-granduncle, was William French, shot by tory representatives of King George III at the courthouse in Westminster, Vermont, on the night of March 13, 1770, and called by some historians "The first martyr of the American Revo- lution." The first representatives of the Keithley family came to America from the border of Northern Germany in 1772. They were three brothers, James, Joseph and John. John Keithley, the great-great-grandfather of Fred French Keithley, was a commissary officer in General Washington's army and assisted the army at Valley Forge. James M. Keithley, born in Indiana, December 22. 1850, was a youth of fifteen years when, in 1865, he came to Iowa, within the borders of which state he has since made his home. For thirteen years he was traveling salesman for the D. H. Baldwin Piano Company with headquarters at Chicago, but for the past five years has engaged in the real-estate business, his home being now in Des Moines. In 1873, in Winterset, Madison county, Iowa,

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he married Miss Florence A. French, a native of New York, and unto them were born four children, of whom two are living, the brother of our subject being Frank C. Keithley, who was born December 23, 1875, and is engaged in the publishing business in Des Moines as a member of the Keithley-Joy Music Company.

When age qualified Fred F. Keithley to begin his education he entered the district schools of Adair county, which he attended for two years, and later con- tinued his studies in Winterset, Iowa. He removed to Des Moines in 1893 and subsequently became a student of the North Des Moines high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1899. Drake numbers him among its alumni for in the fall of 1899 he entered the university as a student of the college of liberal arts. He won the Ph. B. degree in 1903 and afterward pursued the law course, being graduated with the class of 1905. In June of the same year he was admitted to the bar and in the following month began practice, being asso- ciated with Judge Stephen F. Balliet under the firm name of Balliet & Keithley. This relation was maintained for a year, after which Mr. Keithley began an independent practice and has so continued ever since. In the intervening period of five years he has made substantial progress and is recognized as one of the strong and able young lawyers of the Des Moines bar, his native talents and intellectual powers constituting an excellent foundation upon which he built his success and fame as a practitioner of law.

Pleasantly situated in his home life, Mr. Keithley was married in Des Moines on the 28th of July, 1904, to Miss Imogene Balliet, a daughter of Judge S. F. Balliet, of an old and prominent family of Iowa, and at one time judge of the district court of Polk county, Iowa. Mrs. Keithley was born in Nevada, Story county, lowa, June 18, 1882. Three children have blessed this union: James Balliet, born May 16, 1906; Helen Letson, September 7, 1908; and Florence French, June 29, 1910.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Keithley are well known in the capital city where they have a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaintance. He is a progressive republican in politics and in a quiet way does what he can to promote the movement which is strongly felt today in the party for reform and for the adoption of principles that shall serve the interests of the many rather than the few. He is popular in the membership of the Drake Law Club and the University Club and he belongs to the University Lodge, K. P. He is also a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church and in that connection the principles which guide his life and shape his conduct in all relations find their root and source.

FRED H. BEANER.

Organization has been the watchword of recent years in the business world, the extent to which it has been carried being understood only by those who have given it close attention. All retail lines of business are now maintaining associa- tions for the promotion of mutual interests and the grocers have not been back- ward in taking advantage of this important means of protection. Fred H. Beaner, secretary of the Des Moines Grocers Association, is an important factor in promoting the welfare of the grocery trade of the city, and is justly held in high repute on account of the tact and skill he has evinced in the discharge of his duties. He is a native of Des Moines, born October 8, 1874, son of Jacob and Mary N. (LeFever) Beaner. The parents were both born in Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, the father in 1839, and the mother in 1847. Mr. Beaner, Sr., served in Company C, One Hundred and Forty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, under

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Captain Strain, during the Civil war. Later he took up his permanent home in Iowa.

There were eight children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Beaner, four of whom are now living, namely: Anna, wife of H. M. Ware of Des Moines ; Fred H., the subject of this review; Aurilla, now Mrs. Dale Shaw of Des Moines ; and Martha, also of Des Moines.

Fred H. Beaner received his preliminary education in the public schools and early in life became identified with the grocery busness, beginning under Levi Bender, with whom he was connected for nine years. He was next connected with J. G. Roland & Son, general merchants, for two years, and then accepted a position with W. V. McQuaid, which he retained for eleven months. For five years he was with the firm of Charles Bond, and then in 1,902 was made secre- tary of the Des Moines Retail Grocers' Association, and has ever since continued in that position. This organization is maintained for the mutual benefit of its members, and has a credit rating system, collection and legal departments, etc., handling all matters that affect the business.

The Des Moines association, in connection with others in the state, is largely responsible for the excellent pure food laws that are now upon the statute books of Iowa. The association each year holds a pure food show as an educational and advertising feature, the show at Des Moines ranking among the four best that are held in the United States. A representative of the United States de- partment of animal industry who was present at the show of 1910, declared it was the most attractive of any that he had visited that year in the entire country. The value of the work which is being done by the association through the pure food shows and by other means can scarcely be estimated, and makes the organi- zation one of the highly useful agencies in the promotion of the public welfare.

Mr. Beaner has made a practical demonstration of success, showing what may be accomplished by a young man who prepares himself for responsibility and discharges his duties with promptness and good judgment. It is men like the subject of this review who attain important positions and give strength and permanency to any enterprise with which they are connected. Politically, Mr. Beaner is identified with the republican party, and fraternally with the Odd Fellows and Elks, being a member of all branches of the former organization. He is also a stanch member of the Methodist church.

GERSHOM HYDE HILL, A. M., M. D.

Gershom Hyde Hill needs little introduction to the readers of this volume, for he became widely known in the state as assistant superintendent and superin- tendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Independence and is prominent now as a private practitioner, also as one of the proprietors and superintendent of The Retreat, a private hospital for the treatment of nervous and mild mental disorders in Des Moines. His accomplishments in the practice of his profes- sion have been of signal service to humanity and his investigations and re- searches have constituted valuable contributions to scientific knowledge. But while he regards the practice of his profession as his chief life work, it doe's not exclude his active assistance along lines of public progress for municipal reform or in support of temperance, educational and church movements.

Iowa numbers Dr. Hill among her native sons, his birth having occurred at Garnavillo, Clayton county, May 8. 1846. His parents were Rev. James Jere- miah and Sarah Elizabeth (Hyde) Hill. The ancestral history of the family is traced back to the year in which America was discovered. The lord mayor of London in 1492 was Sir Roland Hill, who was the first Protestant to attain that position. Three hundred years later another Sir Roland was the originator

DR. GERSHOM H. HILL

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of the penny postal system in England. In early colonial history the name of Hill is often found. William, called one of the founders of New England, came over in the ship William & Francis. The founder of the Maine branch of the Hill family was Peter, who came from the west of England to Biddeford in 1653. Four generations later Mark Langdon Hill figured in the activities of Phippsburg. "He was a successful shipbuilder, owner and merchant, at one time judge of the court of sessions, postmaster, chairman of the board of se- lectmen for many years, held other town offices, was a prominent member of the Congregational church. He was always a conspicuous man, was a trustee of Bowdoin College, served in the general court of Massachusetts and in the United States house of representatives. He was notably condescending, affable and courteous, which were natural traits in his character."

On his father's side Dr. Hill descended from James McCobb, who was cap- tain of a company of the militia of Massachusetts during the Revolutionary war and also a chairman of the committee of safety, inspection and correspondence for the town of Georgetown, Massachusetts (now Maine), and a recognized patriot, taking an active part in providing means of defense and forwarding details of soldiers to the armies in the field.

On his mother's side he is descended from Elijah Hyde, who was in Novem- ber, 1776, appointed major of the Second Regiment of Connecticut Light Horse. Major Elijah Hyde's regiment of light horse was reported at Stillwater, New Jersey, October 2, 1777. The following paper is recorded, signed by him : "A return of men detached from the Second Regiment Light Horse, in the state of Connecticut, to serve in the Continental army until the 15th of January next agreeable to order from Colonel Seymour, commandant. Dated, Lebanon, Con- necticut, October 5, 1779. Elijah Hyde, major."

Our subject's father, James Jeremiah Hill, the youngest son of Judge Mark Langdon Hill, was born in Phippsburg, Maine, in 1815, and after mastering the branches of learning taught in the village schools pursued a preparatory course at Bridgton Academy and then entered Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated with honors in the class of 1838. He prepared for the ministry as a student in the Andover Theological Seminary and is numbered among its alumni of 1843. In the following spring he married Miss Sarah Elizabeth Hyde, who was a daughter of one of the deacons of the Old South church, a merchant and an eminent citizen. The wedding journey of the young couple was the long and arduous trip to the far west. They floated down the Ohio river to St. Louis, then proceeded up the Mississippi river to Dubuque, from which point they rode across the prairies to Garnavillo in Clayton county, a village which had been founded by pioneers from New England. Their home was among the Indians, who up to that time had remained in exclusive possession of this hunting ground. Wolves frequently made the night hideous with their howling and other wild animals were seen. Game of all kinds, including venison, bear meat and wild turkeys, was to be had in abundance. A feature of interest in the new home was the advent of a little son, Gershom Hyde, so called in honor of his maternal grandfather. This was in 1846. Two years later a second son, named James Langdon Hill for his paternal grandfather, arrived. In 1849 the Rev. Mr. Hill left Iowa and with his family went to Albany, Illinois. There the birth of a third son occurred May 29, 1852, and he was named for an uncle. Edmund K. Alden. The mother died the same day. In September, 1853, the Rev. James J. Hill was married to Sarah Wells Harriman at Great Falls, New Hampshire. She was a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary and became the mother of two sons and four daughters. She proved an acceptable and efficient pastor's wife, was a kind and faithful stepmother and following her husband's death most carefully cared for her fatherless children. She passed away in Des Moines in 1896.

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Continuing his ministerial labors, the Rev. James J. Hill was pastor of the Congregational church in Savanna, Illinois, in Wapello, Louisa county, Iowa, at Glencoe, Minnesota, and in 1860 removed with his family to Grinnell, Iowa, for the purpose of giving his children a college education, preaching in the mean- time in the near-by churches at Montour, Green Mountain, Marietta, Albion and Genoa Bluffs. In 1865 he became the founder of the Congregational church at Fayette, Iowa, to which place the family removed except his elder sons, Ger- shom and James, who remained in Grinnell until they were graduated from Iowa College in 1871. After acting as pastor of the Fayette church for three years Mr. Hill accepted an agency for the American Missionary Association in which work he continued to the time of his death, which occurred at Fayette, October 29, 1870, his remains being interred in Hazelwood cemetery at Grinnell, where are made the graves of his two wives and an infant son. He was a zealous and thoroughly consecrated Christian minister and an evangelistic dis- position prompted him to plant churches and nurture them to the end of his days. The mother of Dr. Hill was born in Bath, Maine, in 1823. She had no brothers but two sisters, one of whom became the wife of the Rev. Edmund K. Alden, D. D., of Boston, and the other, the first wife of Rev. Dr. George F. Magoun, the first president of Grinnell College. In disposition Mrs. Sarah E. Hill was exceedingly active, enthusiastic, philanthropic and self-sacrificing. She was devoted to her husband, her children and the work of the church.

Dr. Gershom H. Hill, educated in Iowa College (now Grinnell College), re- ceived the degree of A. B. in 1871 and that of A. M. in 1881. In 1910 he was elected a member of Chapter Beta of Iowa of the Phi Beta Kappa at Grinnell College. He completed his preparation for the practice of medicine in Rush Medical College of Chicago, from which he received his professional degree on graduation in the class of 1874. In 1878 he pursued post-graduate work in Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York and in 1890 at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. In the meantime there had come into his life many interesting experiences which left their impress upon his character. He was but fifteen years of age when, in 1861, he one night drove a wagonload of slaves forty miles to Marengo, where he secretly put them in a box car billed to Can- ada. They were traveling on the "underground railroad," on which there were no stations between the state of Missouri and the home of J. B. Grinnell. In the winter of 1863, Dr. Hill although but seventeen years of age, developing an early leadership, became teacher of a school and before his own graduation from college had taught for a half dozen winters, winning the public favor to such a degree that his services were always sought for still another year.

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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 43

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