USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 35
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Politically, Mr. Elwood is a Republican and as a member of that party has been honored by being elected to office as mayor of his home city and also as district judge. In his religious belief, he and the members of his family are adherents of the Presbyterian church. Fraternally, he is a Mason, and has belonged to that time-honored order for the past thirty-six years, having attained to the Knight Templar degrees.
Judge Elwood was married September 10, 1878, to Sadie J. Darling, and to this union have been born four children: William Drennen, who is a graduate of the electrical engineering course of Ames College. Ames, Iowa, and is now manager of the lightning rod factory in Omaha; Margaret J. graduated from the Sac City Institute, and is now with her parents at home ; Charles Sumner, who died December 9, 1908, and Thomas Milton, who died at the age of two.
WILLIAM H. HART.
He of whom this notice is written by the publishers has been the super- vising editor of the volume entitled "History of Sac County, Iowa," which the reader now holds. Mr. Hart is one of the leading attorneys of the Sac county bar today.
William H. Hart was born March 4, 1859. in Cedar county, lowa, son of Jeremiah and Julia A. ( Whitson ) Hart, natives of New York and Pennsyl- vania, respectively. Julia Whitson was a descendant of the Piatt family of Pennsylvania. John Piatt being the ancestor. The mother of Jeremiah Hart was a native of northern Ireland, and a descendant of Thomas Babington Macanley. Jeremiah came to Fowa about 1855, and was united in marriage in Cedar county, the seat of justice of which is Tipton. Julia A. Whitson had come with her father to Cedar county, Iowa, about 1850.
T.H. Hall
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The Hart family came to Sac county, Iowa, in 1882, nearly a third of a century ago. The son, William H., came in the fall of 1880. The family located on a farm in Jackson township, a mile and a half northwest of Sac City. Later in life they removed to the city, where the father, Jeremiah, died at the age of eighty-two years, on September 10, 1910. The wife and mother died July 23. 1910, aged seventy-one years. Their children were : William H., of this memoir; Clarence E., now residing in Sac City, Iowa; Charles, of Sac City, Iowa, and Lee J., of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
William H. Hart obtained his education in the public schools of Clarence, Iowa. and at Carthage College. Carthage, Illinois. He followed teaching in Cedar county, Iowa, for about three years, and deciding to fit himself for the profession of a lawyer, studied with Piatt & Carr. of Tipton, Iowa. He was admitted to the practice of law in 1880. coming to Sac City in November of that year. He served a's assistant cashier in the Sac County Bank (now the Sac County State Bank) for five years, and in 1885 formed a partnership with Hon. C. D. Goldsmith, which continued until Mr. Goldsmith was elevated to the bench. In 1890 Mr. Hart formed a business partnership with Hon. Phil Schaller, in which they carried on an extensive business in law, loans and real estate. This partnership continued until the death of Mr. Schaller in July. 1911.
Politically, Mr. Hart has always been identified with the Republican party, believing that this party best represents the interests of American citizens. Among the various offices he has filled with credit to himself, may be men- tioned that of county attorney for Sac county, which position he filled for two terms, equal to four years: mayor of Sac City one term; secretary of the school board in Sac City twenty-seven years, or since 1886; city recorder and treasurer, and the attorney for the commissioners on insanity of the county for fifteen years. In all of these various public positions Mr. Hart has seemed to be the right man in the right place, and has given almost universal satisfac- tion. His knowledge of the law, his clear-headed and intellectual grasp of the situation, at all times, has made him peculiarly fitted to serve in these various capacities.
Mr. Hart is of the Presbyterian faith and has been an elder in this church for more than twenty years, and was twice elected to the general assembly of the church.
Fraternally. Mr. Hart is connected with the blue lodge, chapter, com- mandery and council of the Masonic order, as well as holding membership with the Mystic Shriners at Des Moines. He is well informed in the work- ings of this most ancient and honorable order. He was custodian of the
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grand chapter of Iowa for six years, and grand high priest of the grand chap- ter in 1906.
Mr. Hart was united in marriage March 31, 1881, at Clarence, Iowa, to Anna Greig, a native of Canada, and the daughter of James and Jeanette Greig.
Unlike the man who goes through life with the sound of a trumpet and full of egotism, making many warm friends and also many enemies, Mr. Hart has, during all the years of his career in Sac county, gone about his daily duties, both as an attorney and as a public official. in a graceful. gentlemanly manner, never fearing to stand for the right as he has understood the right, yet without causing opposition or friction where duty did not demand it. It goes without saying that he counts his friends in Sac county and northwestern Iowa by the one word, "legion."
PROF. JOHN R. SLACKS.
The final causes which shape the fortunes of individual men and the destinies of states are often the same. They are usually remote and obscure; their influence wholly unexpected until declared by results. When they in- spire men to the exercise of courage, self denial and industry, and call into play the higher moral elements ; lead men to risk all upon conviction, faith- such causes lead to the planting of great states, great people and great move- ments. That country is the greatest which produces the greatest and most manly men, and the intrinsic safety depends not so much upon measures and methods as upon that true manhood from whose deep sources all that is precious and permanent in life must at last proceed. Pursuing each his per- sonal good by exalted means. they work this out as a logical result ; they have wrought on the lines of the greatest good.
The teaching profession is one which calls for a high order of intelli- gence. He whose duty it is to shape the minds and inclinations of the youth of the land has a solemn and self-sacrificing duty to perform. Those among this noble profession who are gifted with the ability to rise to an executive position and be held responsible for the success of the entire educational sys- tem of an important division of the commonwealth are doubly burdened with responsibility and are given greater opportunities for the accomplishment of much good and, mayhap, see the realization of their cherished ideals along educational lines. In this respect, the biographer is more than pleased to
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white of the accomplishments of John R. Slacks, county superintendent of schools, Sac county. Professor Slacks, by reason of his tireless ambition and conscientious and unremitting efforts to improve the schools of his county and to bring them foremost among the systems of the state, is attracting attention which is state wide in its scope. He takes rank among the greatest of the state's educators by reason of his remarkable success in accomplishing his purpose without friction or without undue agitation among the body politic. The schools of Sac county are gradually being placed upon a high plane of efficiency, through the quiet, diplomatic, forceful methods employed by this young educator in the exercise of his prerogatives.
John R. Slacks was born on a farm in Keokuk county, Iowa, January 10, 1873. His parents were John and Catharine ( Ross) Slacks, natives of Scotland. Catharine Ross was the daughter of William and Margaret Ross. John Slacks ( the father ) emigrated from Scotland to America when a young man and first settled in the city of Pittsburgh. . After a few years' residence there, he moved westward and settled on a farm in Keokuk county. Here he met and wedded Catharine Ross, whose parents emigrated from Scotland to Keokuk county in 1859. John lived and prospered on his fine farm in Keokuk county until his death in 1878, at the age of fifty-six years. His death left the widow to care for a family of five children, as follows: William, now of Kirksville, Missouri; Anna (Ahlstrom), of Meadowmont, Idaho; Addie ( Allman), of Spokane, Washington; John R., and Alice ( Abrams ). residing on the old family homestead at Hedrick, Iowa. William was sixteen years old at the time of his father's death and on him, as the eldest, naturally devolved the burden of assisting the mother in rearing the family in comfort. The widow later was married to E. J. Jackson, who survives her. She died in 1901 in the old home at Hedrick.
John R. Slacks received his primary education in the rural schools and in a private normal school conducted at Hedrick. He began teaching when very young and continued to advance himself along the line of his chosen profession. While attending the State Teachers' College at Cedar Falls, he continued in his profession. He entered the Teachers' College in 1894, and completed his course in 1901, at which time there was conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Didactics. His teaching career began in 1893 in the rural schools, in which he taught for four years. He then had charge of a room in the Keswick, lowa, schools from 1896 to 1899, and in the fall of 1901 again entered the State Teachers' College for the purpose of completing his course. After graduation. Mr. Slacks was placed in charge of the Lake View, lowa, schools for a period of eight years. He was
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elected county superintendent of schools in November of 1908, and again elected in 1910 and 1912. Under his charge are a total of one hundred and twenty-five rural schools and nine graded schools. Like many suc- cessful men, Mr. Slacks entered upon the duties of his important position with well defined ideas of what was necessary to bring the schools of Sac county up to a high standard of efficiency. The esteem in which he is universally held throughout the county by all classes is the best testimonial to his tactfulness and calm and dignified way of introducing innovations which have had a marked tendency to bring about a closer co-operation between the school and patrons, and to raise the Sac county schools upon a higher plane than was ever before known. He has introduced and has carried to a successful culmination the co-operative method of "The School and the Home," and established a system of credits which are given the child for faithful work performed in the home as well as in the school room. Professor Slacks has been the recipient of extended and favorable mention throughout and beyond the borders of the state as the originator and progenitor of this system of furthering the cause of education and usefulness of the pupils. He also established the "play festivals" which are held each season at the close of the school year and in which parents and pupils take an active part with pleasure and recreation accruing to both. Through a definite and well-defined plan he has caused the schools of the county to be grouped in four districts, with four townships in each district. The pupils and patrons of these districts are called together for an all-day play festival and picnic dinner on successive days. On festival days the graduates from the eighth grades are granted their diplomas. These festivals are naturally very popular with the people, and it is known that patrons to the number of six hundred have been gathered for the pur- pose of taking part in the festivities. During Professor Slacks' incum- bency of the superintendency many modern sanitary heaters and ventilating systems have been established in the rural schools, an innovation which has eliminated headaches and much sickness and greatly improved the mental efficiency of the pupils. Earthen water jars, with individual drinking cups, are now the rule. In addition to accomplishing such wonderful results in making decided improvements in the school system of the county he has established a course of study which has been widely copied and became the author of "Outlines of Civil Government," which is used in the seventh and eighth grades. The historian of this work is greatly indebted to Mr. Slacks for the greater part of the chapter on education which bears his signature as author.
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Politically, Professor Slacks is allied with the Republican party; his religious affiliations are with the Baptist church, of which institution he holds the position of superintendent of the Sunday school. He was also the leader of the Boys' Band in Sac City, a talented musical organization formed during the summer of 1913.
Mr. Slacks was married in 1894 to Leona E. Ferry, of Sigourney, Iowa, the daughter of C. A. Ferry. Two children have blessed this union : John Wendell, aged seventeen years, and who graduated from the Sac City high school in 1913, and Melvin James Slacks, aged six years.
SEYMOUR D. SELBY.
The prestige and reputation of any city is dependent upon the personnel of its citizenship. If the residents are enterprising and progressive, the com- munity naturally becomes known far and wide as a coming city and one which is universally recognized as a good place in which to live. All re- form and progressive movements usually have their inception in a crying need for changes for the better. Their success depends upon the personality and integrity of those who get behind the movement and push it forward to completion ; a combination of progression and progressive citizens makes improvement certain and sure. The beautiful and enterprising city of Ode- bolt is fortunate in having for its governing officials a coterie of the most progressive and enterprising men of the municipality; their inception into office is the result of a growth and crystalization of sentiment demanding a change from the former order of things. The change has resulted for the better for all concerned. Odebolt is up and coming; improvements have been placed under way ; conveniences are now enjoyed by the citizens which were conspicuous for their absence previous to the new regime and all par- ties concerned are now universally interested in the making of a greater and better city. The city is very fortunate in having for its chief executive a man noted for his sterling honesty, integrity, and earnestness of purpose in the person of Seymour D. Selby, concerning whom this brief review is written.
S. D. Selby is a native of Grant county, Wisconsin, born on October 3, 1862, and is the son of John N. and Mary ( DeWitt) Selby, who were both born and reared in the old Buckeye state. In the year 1867 they departed from the old Ohio homestead and traveled to Adams county, Iowa. After a residence there of one and one-half years they journeyed to Page county,
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where they made their final home. John N. Selby died at New Market, Page county, in the year 1885. He was twice married and was the father of four children by his first marriage and five offspring by a second marriage. Five of these children are yet living, namely: Margaret, of Salem, Oregon; Mrs. Felicia Holt, also a resident of Salem, Oregon; Mrs. Ophelia Hully, of Atlantic, Iowa: Mrs. Olive Nance, on a farm in Minnesota, and Seymour D.
S. D. Selby was educated in the common schools and the Hawleyville. Page county, high school. He studied pharmacy in the town of Carbon, Adams county, and upon the completion of his course and being admitted to the practice of his profession he engaged in the drug business at Vallisca, lowa, for a period of six years. He then came to Odebolt in 1896 and here conducted a drug store for ten years. He retired from the business in 1906 and has since been devoting his time to the buying and selling of real estate and farm lands. He and J. R. Mattes conduct the Western Land Company for the purpose of handling Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota farm lands. Their business is very extensive and they handle many farms in the course of the year.
Mr. Selby was married in October of 1885 to Sadie Hanna, of Adams county, Iowa. He is the father of the following children: Margery Lenore, a graduate of Grimmell College and a teacher in the Sanborn, Iowa, schools; John, a graduate of the University of Omaha, class of 1914; Paul, who will graduate at the University of Omaha in the 1915 class.
Mr. Selby is the leader of the Progressive party in Sac county, being the aggressive chairman of the county central committee, and figuring prom- inently in Progressive circles throughout the state. Mr. Selby served as postmaster at Carbon, lowa, under Presidents Arthur and Harrison and re- signed his position on removing to Villisca. He is stockholder and one of the organizers of the Farmers Savings Bank of Odebolt and is the owner of three hundred and sixty acres of good land in the eastern section of South Dakota.
Mr. Selby is a member of the Presbyterian church and is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias, Brotherhood of American Yeoman and the Modern Woodmen. He was elected mayor of Odebolt in March of 1911 and has proven to be one of the best executives and the most enterprising the city has had in many years. During his term of office a sewerage system has been installed at a cost of over twenty-two thousand dollars and the work of installation has been faithfully and honestly performed. Other plans for the introduction of modern improvements and providing for the further beautifying the city are under way.
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AUGUST GROMAN, M. D.
No other profession has accomplished, during the last half century, the progress and development that have been made by the medical. The man of original thought and action, whose textbook forms but the basis of fu- ture work, has ever moved forward, taking advantage of and utilizing new discoveries in the science and looking always for better methods, surer means to the desired end. Such a man is he whose name forms the caption to this sketch. In considering the character and career of this eminent member of the medical fraternity, the impartial observer will not only be disposed to rank him among the leading members of his profession in his locality, but also as one of those men of broad culture and mental ken who have honored mankind in general. Through a long and busy life, replete with honor and success, he has been actuated by the highest motives, and to the practice of his profession he has brought rare skill and resource, his quick perception and almost intuitive judgment enabling him to make a correct diagnosis, always necessary that proper treatment may be used. He has always been a close observer and student of medical science, keeping in close touch with the latest advances along that line, and he has been uniformly successful in the practice. Because of his high attainments and his exalted personal char- acter, he is eminently entitled to representation in a work of this character.
Dr. August Groman, oldest practicing physician of Odebolt. lowa, was born November 9. 1856, in Lake county, Indiana. His parents, Charles and Caroline (Kluckhohn) Groman, were both natives of Germany, who came to this country early in the history of Indiana, and lived and died in lake county, that state. To them were born nine children: Henry, deceased; Charles, deceased; Frederick, of Muncie, Indiana; Dr. August Groman, of whom this chronicle speaks: Minnie, who lives in Chicago; Mrs. Caroline Noehren, of London, Ontario, Canada: Mrs. Sophia Wrede, of Chicago: Mrs. Louise Klein, who is a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Anna Wilson, of Hammond, Indiana. Charles Groman was twice married. and Dr. August Groman was a son by his first marriage. his mother dying when he was thirteen years of age.
Dr. August Groman was educated in the district schools of Lake county, Indiana, and finished his common school education in Knight's pri- vate school at Crown Point. Indiana. Early in life he decided to enter the medical profession and, with this end in view, he matriculated in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College in 1875. Immediately upon his graduation
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from that institution in 1878, he came to Odebolt, Sac county, Iowa, and has practiced continuously in this community for the past thirty-six years. He has lived to see this county grow from a straggling frontier settlement to its prosperous condition, and has had a large share in the material life of the community itself. Hundreds of the citizens of this county have Doctor Groman to bless for their very existence, and the good which he has accom- plished in his many years of service in this county can not be calculated by human agency.
Doctor Groman was married June 14, 1881, to Gesine E. Beckman, and to this union have been born six children, four of whom are now liv- ing: Dr. Herman C., of Hammond, Indiana; Alice, Dorothy and Elinor. Doctor Groman is a member of the various medical associations which seek to keep their members in touch with the latest scientific developments along medical lines. Among these are the Sac County, the Iowa State and the American Medical Associations. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Yeomen. Doctor Groman has filled a large place in the ranks of the public-spirited physicians of his county, in that he has done his part well, for his record has been such as has gained for him the commendation and approval of a large circle of friends throughout the county. His career has been a long and useful one in every respect and the citizens of this county owe hint a debt which they can never repay.
CURTIS ORVILLE LEE.
Among men of affairs in almost any progressive community are found those who have apparently been singled out for preferment of a higher order than their fellows. Such individuals are known to possess ability of a marked quality, the power of discernment, the faculty of making and retaining friend- ships, and the financial acumen which is absolutely necessary to gain material recognition as captains of finance. We usually judge a personage by the nature of his past accomplishments, his mode of living, and his usefulness to his fellow men. However, we dare not lose sight of the fact that, among men in general, we judge the citizen, to a certain extent, by his power to profit along the lines to which he seems naturally adapted. Life moves in such a mysterious manner and in ways that are past our comprehension that there is no possible means of predicting the outcome of the career of those who might
CURTIS ORVILLE LEE
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be gifted with every advantage possible at the starting of their life tasks. Select two men from the average groups into which humans are usually divided, give each an equal start in the race, provide both with suitable sinews, take it for granted that each will be equipped mentally and physically and endowed along similar lines. Watch the outcome. It is probable that one or the other will fall by the wayside or fail to properly develop his gifts and make only a mediocre success of his life; the other will enlarge his horizon and ever seek for new tasks to overcome and succeed even beyond the expecta- tions of his friends and associates. These things we can not properly explain. We can only portray life as we see it. It is the province of the historian to record the actual accomplishments of the men who come under his observa- tion. It is a pleasure, however, to present this encomium of the life and deeds of him whose name forms the caption of this biography. Curtis Orville Lee is a product of the pioneer life of Sac county and one of those who has taken high rank among the citizens of his native city along several useful lines of endeavor.
Curtis Orville Lee was born November 18, 1860, in Sac City, the son of Melitus S. and Caroline ( Travis) Lee. M. S. Lee was born in Schoharie county, New York, May 27, 1821, the son of William Lee, a native of the state of New York. While yet in his young manhood he made a trip to the west as far as Council Bluffs, Iowa. On his return he filed on and proved upon a claim in Madison county, Jowa. He later sold his claim to a settler and returned to Laporte, Indiana. Previous to this he had found employment with Curtis Travis, who afterward became his father-in-law. In 1853, he married Caroline, third daughter of his employer. He then traveled west- ward, stopping for a few months in the vicinity of Baraboo, Wisconsin, and then proceeding to Fayette county, lowa. He remained in this county for but one season, however, and in 1854 removed from the town of Winterset to Sac county. He first resided in Sac City, in a small log cabin. The winter of 1854-1855 was a terrible one, noted for the great depth of the snows and for the extreme cold. M. S. Lee found it necessary to remove his live stock to an improvised barn dug in a snowbank, near Judge Criss' place for the re- mainder of the winter. In the spring of 1861 he removed his family to his farm in Douglas township where he erected a fine residence which is occupied to this day by his daughter. He resided on the farm until 1894. when he re- tired to Sac City, dying March 12, 1898. The senior Lee was a large land owner, becoming possessed of an estate of one thousand three hundred and twenty acres of excellent farm lands. During his time he filled several minor
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