USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 10
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HARRY C. DOORE.
The enterprising town of Greene numbers among its most able and representative business men Harry C. Doore, who for the past six years has conducted a large and important drug store there. He is a native son of Iowa, born in Floyd county, December 12, 1875. His father, Allan J. Doore, was born in Dover, Maine, and grew to maturity there. As a young man he came west to Iowa, locating in Floyd county, where his marriage occurred. His wife was in her maidenhood Miss Alice M. Lockwood, a native of New York state, who came west after she grew to womanhood. Allan Doore engaged in agricultural pursuits in Floyd county for many years, becoming well known throughout the state as a progressive and successful farmer and stock-raiser and a dealer in Star seed corn. He owned a farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he kept always in a high state of cultivation. In 1903 he moved to Vol. IT - 7
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Greene, where he lived retired until his death, which occurred November 24, 1912. His wife survives him and makes her home in Greene. To their union were born four sons and one daughter, all of whom have married and are now heads of families.
Harry C. Doore was reared upon his father's farm in Floyd county and acquired his early education in the public schools, sup- plementing this by a course in pharmacy in Drake university at Des Moines, from which he was graduated with honors in the class of 1902. He later accepted a position in a drug store in Des Moines, serving as pharmacist and clerk for four years, after which, in 1907, he returned to Greene and purchased an interest in an established drug business. In the following year he bought his partner's stock and has since continued the enterprise alone. In addition to a large stock of drugs and medicines he carries also oils, paints, varnishes, stationery, books and magazines and has a large soda fountain. All the branches of his enterprise have be- come important and profitable under his able management and his patronage is constantly growing, for his prices are reasonable and his business methods courteous and straightforward.
In Greene, on the 18th of June, 1913, Mr. Doore was united in marriage to Miss Ella Hesalroad, who was born and reared in Butler county, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Hesalroad. Mrs. Doore is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and belongs to the church auxiliary societies. Mr. Doore is connected fraternally with the Knights of Pythias, holding membership in the local lodge at Greene. He has an enviable reputation in busi- ness circles and in the social relations of life commands the esteem and regard of all who are associated with him.
J. A. BARLOW.
Butler county has been signally favored in the class of men who have occupied her public positions, in which connection J. A. Barlow should be mentioned, as he is now capably filling the office of county treasurer. Allison numbers him among her native sons, his birth having here occurred April 27, 1886. His parents, John and Bell (Oleson) Barlow, are residents of Dumont, where the father is engaged in the banking business. He was filling the office of county clerk at the time of the birth of his son, J. A.
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Barlow, and after his term of office had expired he removed with the family to a farm in Ripley township, five miles southwest of Allison, there residing for five years. He next returned to town, the family taking up their abode in Dumont when J. A. Barlow was but nine years of age.
The subject of this review had acquired his education in the public schools of Dumont and was employed in his father's bank for six years, or until his election to his present position in Novem- ber, 1912. He then returned to Allison, his native city, and as- sumed the duties of the office of county treasurer on the first of January, 1913. He is systematic, methodical, prompt and reliable and is making a most creditable record in office. He was elected on the republican ticket, having always been a supporter of the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He likewise served as town clerk for four years while in Dumont. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity and has many friends in that organization as well as in other connections. Those who know him esteem him for his sterling worth and none hold him in as high regard as those who have known him longest, a fact which indicates a well spent life.
ROY J. POOLEY.
Among the younger business men of Greene who have made their influence felt in the later commercial development of the city is numbered Roy J. Pooley, prominently connected with impor- tant business interests as secretary and manager of the Gates Lum- ber & Implement Company. He was born in Floyd county, near Greene, December 12, 1886, and is a son of John B. Pooley, a. native of England. As a young man the father emigrated to America, locating first in Winnebago county, Illinois, where he remained for a number of years. He later settled near Greene, in Floyd county, Iowa, and there purchased a tract of wild land which he cleared, eventually developing a productive and profit- able farm. He married in Floyd county Miss Priscilla J. Fid- dick, of English parentage, a daughter of James Fiddick, who was a mechanic in the British government shipyards for a number of years and who was stationed for a time in South Africa, where. Mrs. Pooley was born.
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Roy J. Pooley was reared on his father's farm in Floyd county and acquired his early education in the public schools of that locality. He afterward attended the Greene high school and later the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts at Ames, where he took a course in civil engineering, graduating with the class of 1910. He was afterward appointed city engineer of Charles City, serving in that capacity for almost two years. Resigning at the end of that time he came to Greene, where he asso- ciated himself with the Hon. Charles Gates, assisting in the incorporation of the Gates Lumber & Implement Company, of which he became secretary and manager. These responsible posi- tions he still holds and they have called forth his initiative spirit and organizing power-qualities which have been helpful factors in the development of the business. The company carries a large stock of lumber and building materials and also deals extensively in farm implements and machinery. In addition it is interested in the contracting and building business on a large scale and has important connections along this line. The concern is one of the substantial business institutions of Butler county and as its manager Mr. Pooley takes rank among representative and pro- gressive citizens.
On the 6th of September, 1911, in Greene, Mr. Pooley was united in marriage to Miss Nelle M. Stickney, a niece of Mrs. Charles Gates, by whom she was reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Pooley have become the parents of a son, Selwin Dwight. Mr. Pooley is a menber of the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife are members of the Greene Presbyterian church and are active in church and Sunday school work. They are people of exemplary character, well known and highly esteemed in Greene and through- out Butler county.
HENRY MULLER.
Henry Muller, senior member of the firm of Muller & Brock- mann, dealers in lumber, coal, grain and building material at Clarksville, is a representative business man of the county, enter- prising and energetic. He became identified with his present in- terests in 1910 and has displayed marked business ability and perseverance in their control. Since 1893 he has continuously resided in Butler county, arriving here when a young man of
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twenty-six years. He was born at Schessinghausen, Kreis Nien- burg, Germany, on the 1st of May, 1867, his parents being Hein- rich and Louisa (Beermann) Muller, also natives of Germany. The father died in 1895, but the mother is still living there.
Henry Muller was one of a family of five children, of whom only he and his brother Ernest came to the United States, the latter now living in Bremer county. Henry Muller was reared as a farm boy, his father having devoted his life to agricultural pur- suits, and after attaining his majority he seriously contemplated the question of coming to America that he might enjoy the better business advantages which report said could be secured here. At length his mind was made up and, bidding adieu to friends and native land, he sailed for the United States. Making his way to Butler county, Iowa, he began working as a farm hand and was thus employed for two years. He had previously fol- lowed farming in Germany and had spent three years as a mem- ber of the German army before crossing the Atlantic. After two years passed in the employ of others in this county he purchased ninety acres in Butler township and as his financial resources in- creased added to his holdings until he is now the owner of two hundred and ten acres in that township. He also owns a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Floyd county and from his landed possessions derives a substantial annual income. Year after year he carefully tilled the soil and continued to engage in farming until 1910, when he purchased his present business, becoming a member of the firm of Muller & Brockmann. They not only have a liberal patronage, but they also own much business property, including their elevator, lumber sheds, etc. They enjoy an extensive trade as dealers in lumber, coal, grain and building material and their enterprising and reliable methods are pro- ductive of gratifying results. Mr. Muller is also a director in the State Savings Bank of Clarksville and he owns an attractive home property in the town.
It was in the year 1896 that Mr. Muller was united in mar- riage to Miss Anna Becker, who was born in this county March 27, 1873, a daughter of Ferdinand Becker, mentioned elsewhere in this work. The three children of this marriage are Theodore, Gertrude and Hertha. In the summer of 1913 Mr. Muller went abroad, spending two months in Germany on a visit to his mother. He came here with two thousand dollars and that he is now num- bered among the substantial citizens of the county is the direct result of his own labors. In politics he has always been a repub-
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lican since becoming a naturalized American citizen. Both he and his wife hold membership in the German Lutheran church and they are prominent socially, the hospitality of the best homes of this part of the county being freely accorded them.
FRED ROVER.
Since 1884, Fred Rover has been prominently connected with agricultural interests of Butler county as the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, lying on section 28, Cold- water township. Throughout the years he has steadily carried for- ward the work of improving and developing this property and because his methods have always been practical and progressive, he has met with gratifying and well deserved success. He was born in Bremer county, this state, February 11, 1861, and is a son of Henry Rover, a native of Germany, who came to America when he was a young man, locating in Kane county, Illinois. He worked on a farm there for several years and there married Miss Louise Gurgens, also a native of Germany. After his marriage he moved to Iowa and entered land in Bremer county, acquiring one hundred and sixty acres at a dollar and a quarter per acre. He broke the soil and opened up a farm, later adding eighty acres to his holdings. Upon this property he erected an excellent resi- dence and substantial buildings, making it eventually, one of the best equipped and modern farms in Maxfield township. He spent the declining years of his life upon his farm, dying December 21, 1911. His wife survived him only a short time, dying February 24, 1913.
Fred Rover grew to manhood in Bremer county and acquired his education in the public schools of the vicinity and in the Luth- eran college at Waverly, where he spent one winter. Previous to this time his father had purchased five eighty-acre tracts of land in Butler county and in 1884 Fred Rover located on one hundred and sixty acres of this property, which he cleared, fenced and im- proved. He has erected upon it a fine two-story house, a modern barn, a granary and a hog house ; has also put out an excellent grove of forest and evergreen trees and has installed a gasoline engine and pump, which supplies the house and barn with water. In addi- tion to general farming, he also engages in stock-raising, keeping high-grade cattle, Poland China hogs and Norman horses. He first
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specialized in raising red polled cattle, and afterward the Here- ford and now the polled Durham. He is a stockholder in the Farmer's Co-operative Elevator Company and in the Northern West Point Creamery Company, which was organized some years ago.
Mr. Rover is married and has three children: Hulda; Emma; and Eldo H., who is aiding in the operation of the home farm. Mr. Rover is a member of the Lutheran church and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party. He is now in the fifteenth year of his able service as a member of the township board and is at all times progressive and public-spirited in matters of citizenship, giving his aid and cooperation to many movements for the general good. In business he is known as a man of strict integrity and honor and he holds the confidence and respect of the entire com- munity.
W. W. R. SHAFER.
Since 1864 W. W. R. Shafer has lived in Dayton township and during the greater part of this period has made his home upon the farm on section 36, which is yet his place of residence. By following always the most practical methods he has met with grat- ifying success in his farming operations and is today numbered among the representative agriculturists of the locality. He was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, January 10, 1846, a son of Thomas Shafer, who moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio about the year 1854 and three years later went to Green county, Wisconsin. In 1864 he moved to Iowa and located in Clarksville, purchasing land in the vicinity and also engaging in the manu- facture of flour. He passed away about the year 1893 and was survived by his wife until 1911.
W. W. R. Shafer came to Iowa with his parents when he was eighteen years of age and assumed charge of the farm, operating and improving this in the interests of his father until after the latter's death. The son then purchased the homestead and since that time has steadily carried forward the work of its develop- ment. He has erected an excellent residence upon it, a barn, gran- ary and corn cribs, and has divided the place into convenient fields with fences of woven wire. In addition to this he has set out a fine grove of fruit, forest and evergreen trees, and in fact has
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neglected nothing which would add to the appearance or value of the place. He raises a good grade of Durham and Aberdeen- Angus cattle, Poland China hogs and heavy work horses and his stock-raising interests are extensive and important.
In Brodhead, Wisconsin, December 21, 1865, Mr. Shafer was united in marriage to Miss L. J. Clemmer, a native of Green county, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Shafer became the parents of nine children: Thomas J., now sheriff of Butler county; F. L., of New Hampton; V. R., a resident of Waterloo; Mrs. Rettie Moulton, a widow residing in Cedar Falls; Della, the wife of J. M. Ramsey, editor of the Clarksville Star; Celia, who married Clyde Newman, of Clarksville; Alice, at home; Lena, who became the wife of J. K. Gabby and died in 1906; and George C., who passed away in 1908. The parents are liberal supporters of the Methodist Episcopal church of Clarksville.
Mr. Shafer gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and has served as township trustee a number of times and also as township clerk, as a member of the grand and petit juries and as delegate to numerous conventions. A resident of Butler county for almost half a century, he has thoroughly identified his interests with those of the locality and has made his work an im- portant force in advancement and growth. He is widely known throughout the county as a representative citizen and commands the confidence and respect of the entire community.
JOHN WESLEY CUNNINGHAM.
Dr. J. W. Cunningham, a resident of Butler county, Iowa, since 1888, was born in Rutland, Wisconsin, September 17, 1873. His father, Reverend William Cunningham, a minister in the United Brethren church and a pioneer preacher both in this state and in Wisconsin, moved to Iowa in 1874 and has since held vari- ous positions in the state.
When only one year of age, Dr. Cunningham came with his father to Iowa and has made his home in Butler county since he was fifteen years of age. After completing his preliminary edu- cation, which he took in Leander Clark College at Toledo, Iowa, he studied medicine under Dr. A. J. Hobson of Hampton, Iowa, and later entered the medical department of the Iowa State Uni- versity, graduating with the degree of M. D. in 1897. He also took
DR. JOHN W. CUNNINGHAM
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a post-graduate course in Chicago and has since kept in close touch with modern methods in the medical practice.
After he received his degree, Dr. Cunningham located in Ap- lington, where he began the practice of his profession in April of 1897. At the end of two years, he moved to Clarksville and after three years came to Dumont, where he formed a partnership with Dr. H. E. Day. Their association continued for three years. At the end of that time, Dr. Cunningham opened his present suite of offices, and his practice has grown steadily, extending beyond the limits of Dumont into the surrounding country districts.
He is regarded as one of the most able physicians in this sec- tion of Butler county for he supplements his thorough knowledge of the underlying principles of his profession by constant study and research along many lines, keeping in touch with the trend of modern medical advancement.
He is a member of the Butler County, the Iowa State and the Austin Flint Medical Societies and has presented many excellent articles before these organizations.
On the 23d day of June, 1898, Dr. Cunningham was united in marriage to Miss Mary Frances Stockdale, a daughter of C. J. Stockdale, a long-time and well known resident of Butler county. To this union were born four sons: Ralph Wesley Cunningham, who was born October 28, 1900; and triplet boys, born March 9, 1903, two of whom lived but a few days and the other, Elmer George, lived to be two years and died at the home of the Doctor's sister, Mrs. A. E. Fox, of Chicago, where he had been taken for medical treatment. On the 22d day of February, 1904, Mary Frances, wife of Dr. Cunningham, passed to the Great Beyond.
On June 29th, 1905, he was again married, his second union being with Miss Ethel Grace Stockdale, sister of his deceased wife. To this union one daughter, Thelma Irene, was born on October 5,1907.
At the meeting of the supreme lodge of the Mystic Workers of the World, held in Milwaukee in June, 1912, Dr. Cunningham was elected supreme medical examiner of the order. The Mystic Work- ers have a membership of seventy-five thousand and are one of the best and most progressive fraternal insurance organizations doing business in America today. Dr. Cunningham deserves great credit, not only because of his ability to hold such a position, but because he was elected to this responsible place on the first ballot, with a field of six candidates in the run, showing beyond a question or a doubt that he is eminently fitted and qualified for the position.
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Dr. Cunningham is a Master Mason, belonging to the blue lodge at Clarksville, and he is connected also with the Knights of Pyth- ias, being past chancellor commander of the Dumont lodge of that organization. He is well known in social circles of Dumont and in his profession has made rapid and continuous advancement, standing today among its most prominent representatives in this part of the state.
RICHARD GONZALES.
Richard Gonzales is a retired farmer now living in Allison. Success came to him during long connection with agricultural in- terests by reason of his unfaltering industry, his perseverance and his determination. He ranks, too, not only among the prosperous citizens of Butler county, but also among those whose lives have been actuated by a patriotic devotion to public duty. This was especially manifest in Mr. Gonzales at the time of the Civil war when he responded to the call for troops, going to the front with an Ohio regiment. He was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, November 21, 1840, a son of Richard and Jane (Gonzales) Gon- zales. The father was a native of Pennsylvania and the mother a native of Columbiana county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gon- zales were reared in Columbiana county and were there married. Mr. Gonzales died in Missouri prior to the birth of his son, Richard, and the mother afterward lived in Carroll county, Ohio, but spent her last days in the home of her son, Richard, in Butler county, Iowa, here passing away when in her seventieth year. She had five children : Nancy Ann, who died in young womanhood, while teach- ing school; Samuel, who enlisted in September, 1862, in the Ohio Cavalry, went with Sherman on the march to the sea and was honorably discharged at the close of the war; Silas, who died in Nebraska; Benjamin, living in Texas county, Missouri; and Richard.
The last named was reared in Carroll county, where he remained until he came to this county in 1867. He has now made his home here for forty-six years and has therefore witnessed much of the growth and development of this part of the state. He was a young man of but twenty-one years of age when he enlisted for service in the Civil war, joining Company I, Ninety-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in August, 1862. He was mustered in in September and
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on the 8th of October, 1862, at Perryville, Kentucky, was wounded. For a time he was in the field hospital, but his injuries were so serious that he was honorably discharged on the 11th of March, 1863.
Throughout his entire life Mr. Gonzales has followed farming and is now the owner of one hundred and twenty acres of good land west of Allison. He has sold the old home place, however, and since the fall of 1899 has made his home in Allison, where he is pleasantly situated, the fruits of his former toil supplying him with all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life.
On the 1st of January, 1867, Mr. Gonzales was married to Miss Susan Crumbecker, who was born in Carroll county, Ohio, Septem- ber 2, 1837, a daughter of Isaac and Hannah (Miller) Crumbecker, who were natives of Maryland, but removed to Carroll county, Ohio, in childhood, Mrs. Crumbecker being ten years of age when the Miller family went to the Buckeye state. She was born in 1802 and her husband in 1801. Both died in Ohio, Mr. Crum- becker at the age of seventy-nine years and his wife when sixty- two years of age. They were pioneer settlers of that state, taking up their abode there in the midst of the forest, but developing a good home in which they reared their family. Mrs. Gonzales re- mained under the parental roof to the time of her marriage and then started for Butler county, Iowa, with her husband. They settled first near Butler Center, which was then the county seat and he paid five dollars per acre for his first farm which is now worth one hundred and seventy-five dollars per acre. As the years passed on five children were added to the household: Ida S., the wife of Walter S. Bell of West Point township; John B., of St. Louis ; Frank C., of Trayor, Iowa; Mary Jane, the wife of B. L. Burbank of Trayor; and Anna May, the wife of the Rev. W. W. Parks, a Congregational minister of Allison. All of the children were born upon the old homestead farm in this county. The sons are now Congregational ministers and the family are members of the Congregational church.
Mr. Gonzales has long taken an active part in church and tem- perance work. His political allegiance was always given to the republican party until the election of 1912. At that time he be- came identified with the progressive party, for he does not believe in the blind following of party leaders nor in legislation enacted for the benefit of the few rather than of the many. Fraternally he is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic, his military service entitling him to wear the little bronze button, an emblem
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of honor and distinction to every American man, who rightfully possesses it. Mr. Gonzales has led a busy and useful, but quiet and unostentatious life and his sterling worth has gained him the high regard of all who know him.
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