Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 123

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1360

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chased the interest formerly owned by Mr. Henry, and the firm of Ellsworth & Goddard became one of the most prominent in the city, enjoying a very extensive trade. In the spring of 1880 Mr. Ellsworth retired and Mr. Goddard has since been alone in the owner- ship and control of the large and constantly increasing business which the house enjoys. In February, 1871, the store was destroyed by fire, entailing a heavy loss; but with char- acteristic energy the firm erected in its place the present fine two-story brick building which Mr. Goddard has since occupied. He carries a large stock, carefully selected, and his hon- orable dealings and earnest desire to please his patrons have made him a successful business man.

His efforts have not been confined alone to merchandising. He was one of the origi- nal directors in the First National Bank; is a stockholder in and vice president of the De- corah Windmill Company, of which his eldest son is manager, and which is one of the most successful manufacturing industries of the city. He is also president of the Decorah Business Men's Association and a director in the De- corah Building & Loan Association. In fact it may be truthfully said of Mr. Goddard that every public enterprise promising to aid his home city in the smallest degree has found in him an earnest supporter. Western commu- nities hopefully believe in a future of brilliant promise. Citizens recognize that the fulfill- ment of these promises depends upon laying broad foundations and seizing every feasible means looking to such an end. Activity in the present means ample fruition in the future, near or remote. This demands constant vigil- ance by those who possess a spirit of public enterprise. Such a citizen of Decorah Mr. Goddard has always been. He has been fore- most in devising as well as furthering every plan deemed helpful to the city which has been his home since early manhood. Time and money he has spent freely and ungrudg- ingly in those taxes which enterprise lays upon the citizens who have broader conceptions of

life and social relations than mere money- making. The obligations Decorah is under to him are best recognized by those who have known him intimately for a generation. His work along these lines has been unostentatious and never performed with a view to the ap- plause of his fellows.

Although intensely devoted to business Mr. Goddard has always kept posted in the cur- rent events of the times. He has therefore always taken unusual interest in politics be- cause he has fully realized that the welfare of his country is involved in the principles and policies which control in national affairs. Always a Republican-never a politician-his study of party policies has been so keen that he has always been ready and able to give cogent reasons for the faith he holds, and to stand up and be counted as one having clear, positive and intelligent views upon every pub- lic question upon which parties divide. He has never asked office at the hands of his party, and on but one occasion, and that with his reluctant consent, has his name been used. In 1893, in a non-partisan election, he was chosen Mayor of the city, and his administra- tion of affairs during the two years of incum- bency was of a high business character, marked by progress in all right directions, and by an economy that left the finances (disordered when he assumed the reins) in the best possible con- dition for entering upon an era of public im- provements that have, at the time this sketch is written, been only partially effected.

Mr. Goddard is not a church member; but the influences of early training in a Christian home have had an abiding influence upon his character and life. The effects are visible in a life of the highest integrity and pure morals. He believes in the church and has been a con- stant and liberal supporter of the oldest relig- ious organization in Decorah. Hence, when- ever social divisions have come-as come they will to every community-the influence of Mr. Goddard has always been upon the side of God, home and native land, of decency, morality and social purity.

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Mr .. Goddard is a self-made man in the fullest sense of the term. His business has been conducted along the lines of legitimate commercial undertakings, and speculation has formed no part of it. It was for this reason that when the financial storms came and the demon, panic, was wrecking business houses throughout the country, Mr. Goddard was enabled to maintain his business credit and come out a victor. He has been prominently and honorably connected with the business in- terests of Decorah for forty consecutive years, and no man has a larger or more devoted circle of friends than he.

The home life of Mr. Goddard has been most felicitous. He is a man of domestic tastes, and finds his greatest happiness when in the midst of his family. He was married December 12, 1861, to Miss Jennie Richardson, who was born in Sherburne, Vermont, January II, 1842, the daughter of Rufus and Elizabeth (Durkee) Richardson. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Goddard are : Harry Clark, manager of the Decorah Windmill Company, born June 1, 1865; Clara, her father's assistant in the store, born May 5, 1867; Herbert, born August 22, 1877; and Frederick Richardson, the youngest, born August 11, 1879.

5 ON. JOSEPH HOBSON. - Among the early settlers of Fayette county was the subject of this sketch, the late Joseph Hobson, of West Union, now deceased. He came to Iowa when the State was scarcely ten years old and more than two years before the capital had been permanently located at Des Moines. He spent the greater portion of his life within its borders and died within a few miles of where he originally located, having lived to see a sparsely settled community changed into a thickly settled and prosperous county and town.

Mr. Hobson was born in Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, October 17, 1823, his parents being John Wainwright Hobson and Abigail Bishop Scott Hobson.

John W. Hobson, father of our subject, was born in Peniston, Yorkshire, England, August 22, 1794, and was the son of Joseph Hobson, of that place. In 1816, in company with his uncle, Joseph Wainwright, he came to America and located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred August 14, 1834, he being a victim of the cholera plague which swept the country that year. He was married in 1819 to Abigail Bishop Scott, daughter of Joseph Scott, a native of Massachusetts, who subse- quently removed to, and was one of the early settlers in, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and later located in Pittsburg, where he passed the later years of his life. Mrs. Hobson, mother of our subject, was of Scotch-English ancestry, was born in New Jersey April 10, 1799, and crossed the mountains in childhood with her parents when they removed to Fayette county, Pennsylvania. She resided in that county nearly all her life, and died there at Connells- ville in 1883.

Hon. Joseph Hobson, whose name heads this sketch, spent his early years in his native city. His elementary education was received through private tutors, there being at that time few if any public schools within that State. While yet a young man in Pittsburg Mr. Hob- son gave some time to the study of law, pur- suing his studies in this direction from time to time as opportunities offered and leisure from other pursuits permitted.

In the month of April, 1855, he arrived in Iowa, locating upon a farm near Westfield (now Fayette), where he continued to reside for about two years. In the meantime, in the year 1856, he had been admitted to the bar, and in 1857 he removed to the village of Fayette, where he taught school and subse- quently opened an office and began the prac- tice of law.

In the fall of 1858 he was elected Clerk of the District Court, and in December of that year removed to West Union, taking possession of that office in January, 1859, and serving in that capacity five consecutive terms, and until

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January, 1869. After retiring from the Clerk's office he resumed the practice of law and con- tinued therein until he retired from business in the fall of 1887. In 1869 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the Thirteenth General Assembly of Iowa, and served in that body during the ensuing session thereof. In June, 1870, he was appointed United States Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Third Congressional District of Iowa, and served for about three years, -until the office was discontinued by operation of law.

He was one of the original organizers of the Fayette County National Bank, in 1872, and was its first and only president until his resigna- tion as such in December, 1887. He also served as vice-president of the Fayette County Savings Bank from its organization in 1875 until December, 1887. He served as Mayor of West Union for two years, and as a member of the School Board in said town for twelve years.

Politically Mr. Hobson was first a Whig and later a Republican. Coming to Iowa he took a prominent part in county and State politics, both in convention work and as a po- litical speaker. In the latter capacity he made an enviable reputation locally. During the many years of his political career he made a greater number of political speeches than any other man in the county, and, being well versed in literature and the political history of the country, as well as possessing the genius of the story-teller, he never failed to draw and entertain an audience. He was also frequently called upon to speak upon public occasions, and always acquitted himself to the satisfaction of all concerned. He was a great reader, and well informed on matters which had been brought to his attention and unusually well in- formed on questions relating to the general as well as political history of our own country. He was possessed of numerous resources, men- tally ever active in all public enterprises calcu- lated to upbuild the community where he re- sided.

Mr. Hobson was married at Sharpsburg,

Pennsylvania, April 15, 1847, to Elizabeth Baker, daughter of James· and Rachel (Wake- field) Baker. She was born in Bakerstown, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1825, -that village having been founded by her fam- ily, one of the earliest to settle in western Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hobson is a woman of strong common sense, great energy, untiring industry, an active worker in the church and kindred societies and highly esteemed in the community where she has so long resided.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hobson are: Joseph Brittain, born in Connellsville, Penn- sylvania, April 29, 1850, served as Lieutenant in the United States Navy, and died at Minne- apolis, Minnesota, July 2, 1882; Lloyd, born in Connellsville, August 16, 1852, and died March 8, 1860; Frank, born in Auburn, Iowa, and married Sarah Torode, and is senior part- ner, editor and one of the founders of the Argo, published at West Union; Fannie Elizabeth, born in Westfield, Iowa, and married to C. W. Knickerbocker, M. D., of Charles City, Iowa; Leroy Templeton, born in West Union and now connected with the Argo; Alla, born in West Union and married to H. I. McGuire, of Lima, Ohio; Leta, born in West Union and died in infancy; and Alfred N. Hobson, of whom see sketch elsewhere.

Mr. Hobson was a member of West Union Lodge, No. 69, A. F. & A. M., and of Round Grove Lodge, No. 41, I. O. O. F., of West Union.

In February, 1887, Mr. Hobson was strick- en with paralysis, from which he never re- covered. He retired from all business in No- vember, 1887, and died on December 15, 1893.

a W. KNICKERBOCKER, M. D., a physician now in practice in Charles City, Iowa, was born in Delhi, this State, March 29, 1858, a member of a prominent family. His father, Rev. Smith Knickerbocker, was a native of New York and a representative of an old Holland family.

In the ranks of his profession the Doctor

Anthony Jacobs.

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has always stood high, for he is a close student, keeping up with the times in every particular; and the large patronage which he receives in- dicates the confidence and trust reposed in him by the public.

He. is prominently associated with the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Charles City Lodge, No. 141, F. & A. M .; of Alimony Chapter, R. A. M .; Joppa Commandery, K. T .; and of El-Kahir Temple, of the Mystic Shrine, of Cedar Rapids. In politics he is a Republican, stanch and uncompromising.

B EV. ANTHONY JACOBS, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Chari- ton, Iowa, is a native of Aalborg, Denmark, a seaport city on the Dan- ish peninsula, where he was born April 16, 1852. His parents were Jacob and Lena (Ol- son) Jacobs, and the father was a tailor by trade. By carrying on business in that line he accumulated sufficient capital with which to purchase a farm, and in 1872 became the owner of a good tract of land in Shelby county, Iowa, which yields to him a good tribute in return for the care and cultivation he bestows upon it. He came to Chicago in 1866, and for six years the family lived in that city, re- moving thence to Shelby county, where the parents continued to make their home until 1894, when they became members of the fam- ly of their son Anthony. They had three chil- dren, but Willie and one unnamed died in Den- mark.

Mr. Jacobs remained in his native land until fifteen years of age and attended the public schools of Aalborg, where he secured good fun- damental knowledge. He has always been a student, studying and investigating, and the evidence of his research is seen in his eloquent sermons. At the age of eighteen he began preaching, and for nine years he remained in Chicago, preaching and studying at the Theo- logical Seminary of the Baptist Church. His labors were mostly in evangelistic and mis- sionary fields until 1881. In 1873 he went to 49

Omaha, Nebraska, where for two years he en- gaged in Sunday-school and missionary work, and in 1875 he returned to Chicago, where he was ordained, and becaine pastor of the Mis- sionary Baptist Church, which was carried on under the auspices of Second Baptist Church of that city. In the capacity of missionary and pastor, he continued his labors there until the latter part of the year 1877, from which time he gave his entire attention to general missionary work in western Iowa until 1881.

It was in that year that Mr. Jacobs ac- cepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Harlan, Shelby county, where he remained until 1883, when he accepted a call from the church in Waupaca, Wisconsin. While there he suffered a severe illness, which necessitated his resignation, and he returned to Iowa to rest and recuperate. In 1884 he was assigned to the pastorate of the Baptist Church, of Bed- ford, Taylor county, Iowa, and also engaged in general evangelistic work, in which capacity he has visited many of the States of the Union, holding revival services. He spent three years as pastor of the Baptist Church in Sidney, Fremont county, Iowa, and since 1891 has been the esteemed pastor at Chariton. During his residence in Sidney he was instrumental in building a new church, securing some of the means while engaged in evangelistic work in other places and also giving part of his own salary for that purpose. He has helped to construct a very handsome house of worship in Chariton, the finest in the city, it being erected at a cost of $16,000, and completed and ded- icated in 1894.

In Chicago, September 28, 1882, Rev. Jacobs was united in the holy bonds of matri- mony with Miss Mercy H. Dewey, a native of New York, who was reared and educated in Wisconsin. Two children grace this union, - Christie M. and Jay, -both attending school in Chariton.

Mr. Jacobs is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows Society and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in politics is usually a Republican, but does not consider himself

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bound by party ties. He is an ardent advo- cate of temperance, a believer in the cause of woman suffrage, and his voice is often heard in support of these and other much needed re- forms. He is a talented and eloquent speaker, at once earnest, entertaining, instructive and convincing, neither fear nor favor can make him change his views or hesitate to give them expression, and he is always found as the cham- pion of the helpless, the defender of the inno- cent, and the friend of the poor and needy. Following closely in the footsteps of his Mas- ter, his consistent Christian life has won him the respect of people of all denominations.

ON. ANSEL KINNE BAILEY was born in the town of Wales, Erie county, New York, November 18, 1835, and was the second son of Wesley and Eunice (Kinne) Bailey, both of whom were descendants of New England stock. The father of our subject was born in Reads- boro, Vermont, in February, 1808, a son of Elder Elijah Bailey, a minister of the Method- ist Episcopal Church originally, but afterward withdrawing therefrom because he could not reconcile his conscience to the attitude of his church at that time on the question of negro slavery. Eunice Kinne was the eldest daugh- ter of Prentice Kinne, a native of Connecticut and a pioneer settler in the town of Manlius (now De Witt), Onondaga county, New York, where she was born October 22, 1807, -one of a family of eight sons and three daughters.

The career and occupation of Mr. A. K. Bailey can be traced to a line of circumstances beginning with the grandfather on the paternal side, Rev. Elijah Bailey. But little is known of him except the general fact above stated, and that he preached at a little church in Ver- mont for a score or so of years, for seventeen of which he consecutively represented his town in the General Assembly (or Legislature) of that State. That he was a inan of positive convictions and much mental force is evident from his power over others. The church he

preached to followed "the course of empire," and member by member gradually moved away to "the Genesee country," as the western part of New York was then called. That region was then being settled up, and was the " far West" of the early decades of this century. . Wher- ever these pioneers went they carried their re- ligion with them; and if there were no churches they called in their neighbors on Sundays, and opening their Bibles expounded their truths.

After this church faded out Elijah Bailey moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where his declining years were spent, evidently acting as a missionary, preaching the gospel of Christ and of freedom to all, black and white. In time little churches of like belief grew up in the Genesee country, on Cape Cod and else- where. Some method of regular communica- tion between them was felt to be necessary. This led to the establishment of a newspaper, and Wesley Bailey was chosen to edit it. With no knowledge of the printing business, little training as a writer, and very small capital, in 1837 he started the South Cortland Luminary and Intelligencer. After publishing it at South Cortland, New York, less than two years, the office was removed to Fayetteville, Onondaga county, and its name changed to correspond with the new location. From its nature, it was more of an abolition paper than a church organ. Mr. Bailey's subsequent career is told by this extract from an obituary notice written in February, 1891, by his eldest son, Hon. E. P. Bailey, editor of the Utica (New York) Daily Observer :

" He had followed his father's footsteps in entering the ministry, and was preaching to a Methodist congregation. The father of Grover Cleveland was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in the same village. Wesley Bailey was also editing the village paper. This was not such a vehicle of local intelligence as is the village newspaper of to-day, but a newspape devoted largely to religious and political mat- ters. Wesley Bailey had become one of the pioneer anti-slavery writers who sprang up about that time. He was naturally conserva-

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tive and had been a Democrat, but his moral convictions uprose against the sin of human bondage, and he gave himself up to the crusade which the Abolitionists began and the Rebel- lion completed, -the extermination of slav- ery. It was the work he was doing with his pen that led him into notice.

" Utica was somewhat known as the home of a body of Abolitionists, who were disquieting the politics of the time. Conventions had been held here. One had been mobbed and driven to Peterboro, the home of Gerrit Smith, and the type of the Friend of Man newspaper had been thrown from its windows into Whites- boro street. That paper's existence became feeble and its life was wearing out when the Fayetteville paper came under the eye of Al- van Stewart, a gifted man whom affluence wronged of the incentive to perfect his gifts. He found in its editorials an earnestness veiled in geniality and humor which charmed him. ' Brother DeLong,' he said, 'that is the man we want here.' A few weeks later, James C. DeLong and another, agreeing with Mr. Stew- art, made a journey to Fayetteville-more of an event than a trip to Chicago to-day-and they remained for days, until their object was accomplished. October, 1842, found Wesley Bailey in Utica getting out the initial number of The Liberty Press. It speedily attained a large circulation, was enriched by the pens of many writers, and made its editor widely known. There grew up thereafter a new ele- ment in politics, and the Free-Soilers encamped in the political field near to the line of the Abolitionists. They did not fight for the ex- tirpation of slavery as did the Abolitionists, but for its restriction to the territory it already held. In the campaign of 1848 the more prac- tical of the Abolitionists joined the Free-Soil party, and thereafter in a measure lost their old identity. It was after this campaign that Mr. Bailey, strongly impressed with the need of work in the cause of temperance, made his paper a temperance journal and changed its name to The Utica Teetotaler. He became identified with the Sons of Temperance, then

a powerful organization, numbering many hun- dreds of 'divisions' in the State, and was the Grand Scribe for several years. But he did not lose his interest in politics, and in the Fre- mont campaign of 1856 the interests he repre- sented were given a place on the State ticket and he was elected State Prison Inspector. He relinquished his paper to his second son, Ansel K. Bailey, and George W. Bungay, the poet. The end of his official term left him free to make a venture he had long desired to enter upon. He visited Iowa and selected his future home, -a pretty city, yet not more than a village, in a lovely valley forty milles west of the Mis- sissippi and a few miles from the Minnesota line. Here he removed with his family, ex- cepting his eldest son, in March of 1860, and started the Decorah Republican, with Ansel K. Bailey as junior partner. .The paper and the partnership prospered. Some years ago, tem- porarily enfeebled, he gave up his interest in the paper and never resumed active labor."

The education of Mr. A. K. Bailey began in the public schools of Utica, New York; but at the age of thirteen years he "graduated," so far as his schooling went, and entered his father's office as a " devil." In time he grew to be its foreman, and in 1856, on the day he became of age, -after the senior Bailey had been elected Inspector of State Prisons, -he gave his note in the sum of $500 to his father and became sole editor and proprietor of the Utica Teetotaler, a paper devoted, as its name indicated, to the advocacy of temperance. After publishing it for nearly two years, he sold the establishment to George W. Bungay, editor of a publication of like character printed at Ilion, New York. Mr. Bungay was a poet and lecturer of much local celebrity, but not a printer, and a part of the trade was that his office should be moved to Utica, and Mr. Bailey hold the positions of office editor, busi- ness manager and principal compositor of the Independent. This relation lasted until Jan- uary, 1860, when the publication suspended, and Mr. Bailey decided to come to Iowa with his father. Prior to removal, the printing-

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office at Decorah had been purchased, and on the 30th of March of that year the two fam- ilies landed in Decorah, Iowa, and on the 13th of April the first number of the Decorah Re- public, by Wesley Bailey & Son, was issued. Subsequently the name was changed to Repub- lican, and it has been continued uninterrupt- edly ever since by A. K. Bailey & Brother, and afterward by A. K. Bailey & Son, the present junior partner being Edwin C. Bailey, second son of our subject. Mr. Bailey was elected Treasurer and Recorder of Winneshiek county in 1863, and after serving one term de- clined a re-election in order to devote himself wholly to the interests of his paper. It was his desire to enlist in the war of the Rebellion, but as he was the practical printer of the con- cern, with two families to support, and as journeymen printers were almost impossible to obtain, circumstances seemed to render it im- perative that he should remain as a home guard.

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Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 123

Author: Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1360

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1360