USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 3
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W. O. Kaiser acquired his early education in the public schools of Newton, Iowa, to which place his parents removed during his early childhood. He afterward attended Hazel Dell College there, and subsequently became a student in Highland Park College at Des Moines, Iowa, at which college, after graduating, he was placed in charge of the pharmacy department. In 1897 he came to Burling- ton, where he embarked in the drug business, his first location being at No. 1319 North Eighth street, whence he removed to his present location at No. 1110 North Eighth street in 1901. In 1908 postal station No. 2 was opened in his store. Mr. Kaiser takes just pride in this, for he was instrumental in having the different postoffice
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stations placed on the various hills, which has proved of the greatest convenience to the citizens. His was one of the first stations opened after the original one was established in the Union station. Mr. Kaiser is an enterprising, wide-awake and successful business man. He has ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement, and thus has put forth earnest effort to please his cus- tomers, while his thoroughly reliable dealing has won their confi- dence and goodwill.
In 1907 Mr. Kaiser was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Bosler, who was born in Burlington, Iowa, and had previously been a popular and efficient teacher in the public schools here. She taught in the Sunnyside and North Oak schools and her work in that con- nection was highly satisfactory. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Bosler, both of whom are now deceased and were buried in the Aspen Grove cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Kaiser have been born two children : Kenneth, who died in infancy ; and Donald W., who was born in Burlington, December 16, 1912.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Kaiser is a Mason and an Elk, and in the former organization has attained the Knight Templar degree in the York Rite. Honorable, upright dealing and pro- gressive methods have firmly established him in the regard of his contemporaries and colleagues, and he now has in Burlington a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaint- ance.
S. H. JONES.
Prominent among the wholesale merchants of Burlington is S. H. Jones, who is at the head of a business that has long figured prom- inently in commercial circles of the city. He was born on Jones Island, in the Ottawa river, in Canada, an island owned and cultivated by his father, Edward Jones, and noted as a scenic point between Montreal and Ottawa, the family home commanding a splendid view for miles down the river. Edward Jones wedded Phoebe Simpson and the family made their home upon the island until their son, S. H. Jones, was twelve years of age.
The last named acquired a public school education, pursuing his studies in the Montreal high school. When sixteen years of age he became connected with the hardware business in Montreal and un- doubtedly one of the chief factors in his success is the fact that he has
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remained in the line of business in which he embarked as a young man. Crossing the border into the United States in 1873, he settled in Chicago and was for four years with S. H. Ransom & Company, stove manufacturers. He then removed to Clarion, Iowa, and for ten years was engaged in the retail hardware business at that place. In 1891 he came to Burlington and through the intervening period has been identified with the hardware trade in this city, being now en- gaged in the wholesale business under the firm name of the Drake Hardware Company. As one of the organizers of the business Mr. Jones became active in its management.
In 1888 Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Jessica P. Childs, of Waterloo, New York, and to them have been born four children, a daughter and son, Elizabeth P. and Norman Nelson sur- viving, the latter now with the Drake Hardware Company. Mr. Jones is a prominent Mason, belonging to lodge, chapter and com- mandery, being a past eminent commander of St. Omar Commandery, K. T. He is a member of the Episcopal church and is a democrat in politics but not an office seeker.
JOHN CALVIN FLEMING, M. D.
Modern thought and investigation have reached the conclusion that not the good that comes to us but the good that comes to the world through us is the measure of our success; and judged by this standard, the life record of Dr. John Calvin Fleming was a most successful one, for his life was the expression of good deeds, of kindly purposes, of noble thought and generous action. To know him but slightly was to esteem and honor him; to come within the closer circle of his acquaintance was to entertain for him the warmest friendship and love, for his life ever measured up to the highest standards of manhood and citizenship.
He was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Huntingdon county on the 24th of November, 1848. His ancestors had lived in that locality through several generations. His great-grandfather, who was the progenitor of the American branch of the family, died at sea while on his way from the north of Ireland. His family completed the voyage and established their home in Huntingdon county, Pennsyl- vania, where many of his descendants have since lived. James Fleming, the father of Dr. Fleming, was a silk knitter who spent his
DR. JOHN C. FLEMING
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entire life in Huntingdon county and was employed in the mills therc.
Dr. Fleming pursued a preparatory course of study in the Tus- carora Academy in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, and later he en- tered Kishacoquilis Seminary in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, spend- ing the summer seasons as a student, while the winter months were devoted to teaching, whereby he defrayed the expenses of his own education. His time was thus passed until he reached his majority. Wishing to become an active member of the medical profession, he then began reading under the direction of Dr. John McCullough, with whom he remained until he entered Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. He completed a four years' course in that institu- tion by graduation with the class of 1871, and then entered upon active practice in connection with his former preceptor, Dr. McCul- lough. Success attended his efforts from the beginning and he re- mained a resident of the east until 1877, when he came to Burling- ton, where he followed his profession until his demise. He was made county physician for Des Moines county in 1880, and con- tinued in that office for six years. He was also city physician and health officer for two years, and in 1888 the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad named him its local surgeon and he continued to act in that capacity to the time of his death. He was also examiner for the New York Life Insurance Company and for fifteen or twenty years was connected in a similar capacity with the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York and the. Mutual Benefit Insurance Company of New Jersey. He was also accorded a large general practice.
In writing of his professional career, a contemporary biographer ere his death said: "He has never had a partner, and his success has come in direct recognition of his professional skill and ability, won through careful preliminary preparation and thorough inves- tigation and broad study since leaving college. He keeps in touch with the advanced thought and improved methods of the profession, and has practiced along scientific lines, with the result that his labors have been most effective in checking the ravages of disease and alle- viating human suffering. He has, too, the strictest regard for a high standard of professional ethics, and therefore commands the re- spect and confidence of his professional brethren. He belongs to the Des Moines Medical Society and the American Medical Asso- ciation."
On the 28th of February, 1894, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Fleming and Miss Ida Weber, a native of Burlington, and to
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them was born a son, John C. Dr. Fleming was a democrat in his political views, yet did not hesitate to cast an independent ballot if his judgment so dictated. He was a man of innate culture and refinement, broad-minded, a student and scholar and one with whom association meant expansion and elevation. Death called him while he was ministering professionally to a little grandson of J. J. Flem- ing, to whose bedside he was called while he was a guest at the home of a friend. Dr. Fleming at once went in response to the call for his professional aid, and while there was suddenly stricken. People in all walks of life paid tribute to his upright character, his many good deeds, and the news of his demise fell like a pall over the city. Many expressions of high regard were set forth by the local press.
One of the Burlington papers said: "His demise is a personal loss to hundreds. His interest in his patients was the interest not of the professional man. It was a personal interest. For almost two- score years he has been ministering to the ailing people of Bur- lington and many of his patients and the children of his patients would have no other doctor. He was, in addition to the man of medicine, the friend and adviser and counselor. His heart was big and his voice was kind. The call of distress to Dr. Fleming found him always ready to respond. He was not mercenary and the poor person who needed his services was accorded the same careful attention as the rich. And when the last hour came to a patient whom his skill was fruitless to save it was no uncommon sight to see him sharing sincerely the grief of the family. He always did his best, and his memory will long be cherished by those who knew him and loved him for his never failing optimism and the goodness of his heart."
Another wrote of him: "Both in his professional and social life, Dr. Fleming was the type of man that works good in a community. During his thirty-seven years of residence in this city he had not only built up a lucrative practice but had endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. Many are the incidents told of his charitable disposition and unwavering loyalty in administering to the needy. Of an unassuming nature, modest in his successes and tireless in his warfare against disease, it was his capacity for work that gradually weakened his constitution and made him subject to the attack that robbed the city of a beloved citizen. The children loved him, an unusual circumstance with a doctor, and indicative of the confidence which they placed in him. Dr. Fleming was a self-made man. His practice was not the result of self-exploited
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deeds. He was a big man with a big heart, skilled in his profession, and during the years of service here he proved by deeds rather than words that he was deserving of all the confidence that a loving public placed in him."
A tribute was paid him by Horace Rand, as follows: "I have known Dr. Fleming for more than thirty years, and for the last fifteen very intimately. During this time I have never known him to do an unkind act. He was father confessor to numbers of families and persons in this community, and we went to him for advice, not only for our bodily ailments but for things relating to our spiritual, material and social well-being. His business judgment was good, and in times of trouble it was a great comfort to go to his office and get his opinion. He was so charitable that his advice was always of the best. From a professional standpoint he was held in the highest esteem, not only by our local physicians, but his opinion was re- spected by the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the country. You had but to sit in his office for a few hours to realize how many and varied were the people who depended on him, and how often he gave his services when he could not expect or hope for compen- sation. We all claimed him as a member of our different families, and as we gathered at his home during the past week we began to .realize how many were the real mourners."
Another said: "He had those qualities of manhood that made countless friends. He had those qualities of his profession that gave him the implicit confidence of the public in his skill as a physician and his integrity as a medical counselor. He had those qualities of character that gave him unchallenged standing in the business world. He had those qualities of citizenship that give stability to law and order and the welfare of the community. And he had those qualities of good-will and kindliness that cement friendship and find expression in numerous deeds of charity and helpfulness. Such, in brief, is the story of Dr. Fleming's career in Burlington as the public saw and knew him. He came here a young man, only a few years advanced in the practice of his profession. He quickly won the confidence, and ever retained it, of the physicians of that period, among whom we recall to mind Dr. G. R. Henry, Dr. David Mc- Dill, Dr. J. C. Stone, Dr. Jones and others then living but who have passed away. They recognized in the young physician a man of sterling character, a student in whom there was promise of a successful future and a practitioner who had already attained to an experience that warranted his admission to the local field as one in every way qualificd. He enjoyed their respect and confidence and
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was given that fraternal hand so helpful to a newcomer. Their con- fidence was not misplaced and it spread to the citizenry. His de- votion to his work, his thoroughness and painstaking care of his patients, his fidelity to duty, as most appropriately portrayed by Mr. Osborne in the funeral discourse, made him a popular physician in every home to which he was called. 'Once called, always called,' was the almost universal rule that obtained among his patients. That fact alone is a most eloquent tribute to his skill, his fidelity and zeal and his likeableness as a man. He needs no better monument. He died as he had wished-in the performance of duty. When called to the last patient he ever served he realized that he was under a physical strain, but he did not hesitate. His thought was of the little child who was in sudden and serious illness. The doctor was on his knees at the bedside ministering to the little patient, when suddenly his heart ceased its pulsation. The child lived; the good doctor died. He had answered his last call; he had rounded out his life work. He fell on the firing line, a true soldier of duty. What better finis could be written of any one?"
From the ministry came this tribute by Rev. Naboth Osborne : "He was our friend and we loved him; therefore we have left our homes and work this day that we might show how highly we re- garded him. Others of us could die and but few would gather to do us reverence ; this man died and our entire city is filled with mourn- ing. There is scarcely a street in which some one has not wept for him-scarcely a house in which he had not a friend. For nearly forty years he practiced his profession so that every year but added to his honor and his influence. Serviceableness was written all over his life. He went about doing good. Night and day he was at the call of the people, of men and women and children. The suffering child received the same attention at his hands as the greatest in the city. The passing stranger and the lifelong friend received from him the best he had to give. He held the cup of water to uncounted parching lips and soothed the bed of pain for multitudes of men and women. He enriched one of the noblest of our professions and honored humanity in doing his daily task. He not only served the bodies of men, he helped heal the wounds of the soul. He had medicine for the heart as well as for the physical frame. He was a born father confessor and carried about with him sacred and inviolate a multitude of the secrets of men's souls. He was not only a doctor, he was also a counselor. His wisdom was sought on all manner of questions. He was an adviser of families as well as the physician of individuals. His practice and insight
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and ripening experience of life were such that in all sorts of trouble his advice and wisdom were sought. When he entered the house of the afflicted the watchers by the bedside were relieved as if some crushing and unshakeable burden had suddenly fallen from their shoulders. His personality was as rich as his influence. As bone and blood and nerve and tissue went to make up his body, so kind- ness and sympathy, and tenderness and consideration, and patience and charity and fatherliness went to make up his character. The world has need of such men as this. He went from us as he wished to go. Caring for the sorrows and soothing the pains of a little child, his manly soul went out to meet his God and to render an account of his stewardship. He was caught in the act of doing good. We could have wished that he had remained with us if only for a day or two, that we might sit at his bedside and tell him how we loved him and how highly we regarded him. But perhaps it is better not, for his dutiful and unassuming soul would have been embarrassed by the wealth of affection that would have been poured in streams of benediction upon him. Our comfort lies in what he was and in our memories of him. Those who knew him will never forget him. If we were of his age we shall remember him as a brother beloved. If we are younger than he, and knew him well, we shall think of him as we think of our fathers. If we have been his patients we shall know that what he could do for us he did for us, and that un- grudgingly. He is of those who live again, remembered by what he has done. And to our waiting hearts there comes His health-giving and satisfying words, 'I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live again, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.' This is our lasting comfort."
His was indeed the greatness of soul and spirit which lifted him above the common lot of man and made him one of those whose memory is cherished as a precious legacy and remains as a blessed benediction to those who knew him.
CAPTAIN CARLTON DRYDEN.
Captain Carlton Dryden, now living retired, has made his home in Burlington since 1869. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having served at the front throughout the period of hostilities, and the same spirit of loyalty has ever been manifest in discharging his duties of
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citizenship. He was born in Highland county, Ohio, March 6, 1842, a son of James M. and Elizabeth (Ellis) Dryden. The father was a native of Ohio, born in 1808, and the mother's birth occurred in Virginia in 1806. In her childhood she accompanied her parents to Ohio and in that state was married. In 1851 the family removed to Peoria, Illinois, and later to Keithsburg, that state. In 1853 they settled in Montezuma, Iowa, where they resided until 1864, when they returned to Keithsburg. There the father passed away on the 3d of February, 1887. The mother died while on a visit in Minne- sota in 1872. Throughout his entire life the father followed the occu- pation of farming, and at fifty-four years of age he enlisted for serv- ice as a member of the Fortieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he remained until September, 1863, when he was honorably dis- charged and returned home. To him and his wife were born seven children: Caroline, the deceased wife of Thomas Marlatt; Charles, who served for three years in the Ninth Illinois Infantry and died in 1912; Esther, the wife of Roger Carter, of Oklahoma; Carey, who served for three years in the Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry and died in 1904; Carlton; Cyrus, who was a member of Company F, Tenth Iowa Infantry, during the last year of the war and is now living in Keithsburg, Illinois; and William C., a retired merchant of Wichita, Kansas.
Captain Dryden was a lad of nine years when his parents removed to Illinois and was eleven years of age when they came to Iowa. He made his home on a farm near Montezuma until August, 1861, when his patriotic spirit was aroused by the attempt of the south to overthrow the Union and he offered his services to the government, becoming a private of Company F, Tenth Iowa Infantry. He was promoted from time to time until he became captain of his company. He served as sergeant until January 1, 1864, and reenlisted for three years, or during the war. He was then appointed first sergeant and ultimately was promoted to the rank of captain, remaining with the army until August, 1865. The regiment was organized at Iowa City in September, 1861, and went to St. Louis, Missouri, thence to Cape Girardeau, where they encamped. The first winter was spent in camp at Birdspoint, Missouri, and on the 4th of March, 1862, they left that place under General Pope, participating in the cam- paign that resulted in the capture of New Madrid and Island No. 10. With Pope's army he went to Fort Pillow, being there at the time of the battle of Shiloh, arriving at the latter place two weeks after the engagement. The Tenth Iowa participated in the capture of Corinth, the battle of Iuka, September 19, 1862, the battle of Cor-
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inth, October 3-4, 1862, and went with Grant through Mississippi, returning to Memphis. Captain Dryden also participated in the Vicksburg campaign, took part in the battle of Missionary Ridge and aided in guarding the railroad. He was also through the Atlanta campaign, and while at Carterville, Georgia, in November, 1864, cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. He went with Sherman on the celebrated march from Atlanta to the sea and was in the engagement at Savannah and the different battles in the Car- olinas, after which he participated in the Grand Review. He was then sent with his army to Little Rock, Arkansas, in July, 1865, and there remained until honorably discharged at Davenport, Iowa, on the 31st of August of that year. He was in every state of the Con- federacy during the war, except Florida and Texas, and he returned home with a most creditable military record, familiar with every phase of military life, having undergone all of the hardships inci- dent to war.
In the meantime Captain Dryden's father had removed to Keiths- burg, Illinois, and there the son joined him. On the 9th of August, 1866, he was there married to Miss E. E. Mckinney, who was born in Indiana in 1838. They traveled life's journey together for thirty- seven years and were separated by the death of the wife in 1903. There was one daughter of that marriage, Luella, who became the wife of Dr. G. W. Slingluff, and died in 1902.
Following his marriage Captain Dryden resided in Keithsburg until 1869, when he came to Burlington, and throughout the inter- vening years he has resided in one house. He worked as a carpenter for some time and was then in the employ of E. Joy & Company, lumber merchants, until March, 1873. He afterward entered the service of William Berry & Company, lumber dealers, with whom he continued until 1890. He was the assistant superintendent of con- struction at the time of the building of the Burlington postoffice and was the first to lose his job under Cleveland. For three years he was with the police department and for a year he served as police judge. He then returned to the Burlington Lumber Company, with which he was associated until 1911, when they retired from business, since which time Captain Dryden has also lived retired. For forty- two years he had been a well-known figure in the business circles of the city and had gained a measure of success that now enables him to rest from further toil.
In his political views Captain Dryden has always been a stalwart republican, unfaltering in his allegiance to the party which was the defense of the Union during the dark days of the Civil war, and
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which has also been the party of progress and reform. His life has .been guided by his Christian faith, as he has membership in the First Presbyterian church. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Repub- lic and was commander of the Burlington post for three years. He likewise has membership with the Des Moines Commandery of the Loyal Legion. He is a man well preserved for his years and an excellent conversationalist and a most interesting and companion- able gentleman. He has in Burlington a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance, and throughout the period of his residence here he has been known as a progressive citizen through his active cooperation in all measures relating to the public good. In matters of citizenship he is as true and loyal as when he followed the old flag upon the battlefields of the south.
HON. JOHN GRAHAM FOOTE.
Among the pioneers of the state of Iowa none is more worthy of mention than John Graham Foote, who in 1841 settled in Burling- ton, Iowa, and from that year until his death actively participated in the upbuilding of the state. Not only was he one of the foremost business men of Burlington, but he was connected with the early rail- road building of this section and also represented his district in the upper house of the legislature. Mr. Foote continued a resident of Burlington until his death, which occurred March 4, 1896, when he was nearing his eighty-second birthday.
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