USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Vol. II > Part 18
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JAMES H. DALY.
The city of Sanborn has reason to pride itself upon its progressiveness, its financial and commercial institutions, and, above all, in its citizenry, which has no superior in O'Brien county or western Iowa. One of the best known and able young men of this excellent community is he of whom this review is written and who ranks high among the bankers of the county. James H. Daly is a man of unquestioned ability and superior attainments, who is, withal. self made and has attained a position of substance and standing in the com- munity practically through the exercise of talents which were his by right of heritage and development.
Mr. Daly was born in the city of Aurora, Illinois, August 8, 1864. He is the son of P. J. and Margaret Jackson Daly, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of England. Margaret Jackson was born in the city of Lon- don, England, and emigrated with her parents to Canada, where she was reared to young womanhood. P. J. Daly removed with his family to Boone, Iowa, in the year 1869. He was a railroad engineer and a mechanical draughtsman in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad for sev- eral years. Previous to locating in Iowa his headquarters had been in Chi- cago, while he made his residence in Aurora. He died in Fremont, Nebraska. in 1908, at the home of his son. Mrs. Daly resides at Boone. They were the parents of three children: J. J. Daly, a resident of Fremont, Nebraska : Elizabeth, at Boone, and James H., of Sanborn.
James H. Daly was educated in the schools of his native city and, when still a youth, became a member of a surveying corps. He learned the ma- chinist's trade in the railroad shops and became a fireman on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Later he had charge of the air pumps in the Union
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Pacific shops at Omaha. In 1882 he came to Sanborn and was employed as a machinist in the shops of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad for a period of three years. He also spent one year in Chadron, Nebraska. in the employ of the same company. On his return to Sanborn from Chadron, he was employed as bookkeeper for William Harper. the organizer of the O'Brien County Bank. He has been with this bank for twenty-six years and has assisted in its reorganization. He was first bookkeeper. then cashier and is now the president of the bank, having filled this position for the past three years.
The Sanborn Savings Bank was organized in 1898, succeeding the First National Bank, which likewise succeeded the O'Brien County Bank, which began operations in the early seventies. The capital. of the bank is $50,000 ; surplus, $16,000; deposits. $300,000. The officers are as follows: Presi- dent, J. H. Daly ; cashier, John A. Johnson : directors. J. H. Daly, J. A. John- son, W. W. Johnson, S. C. Kerberg, Frank Frisbie and Fred Frisbie. The original organizers of the bank were: W. W. Johnson, J. H. Daly, J. A. Johnson, Frank and Fred Frisbie and W. M. Smith. The bank is located in its own building and also owns the adjacent building. It has the strongest list of stockholders from a financial standpoint of any bank in O'Brien county. The principal stockholders are as follows: S. L. Moore, of Boone, Iowa : J. H. Mermon, of the old established Herman Banking Company, and present cashier of the First National Bank of Boone. Iowa, and also president of another strong bank: C. H. Zanzinger, of Boston, Massachusetts, a very prominent man in financial and banking circles of the Hub City. Its cor- responding banks are as follows: The Continental and Commercial. of Chi- cago; the First National, of Sioux City: the First National, of Boone, in which the bank's reserve is carried, and the First National, of Sheldon.
Mr. Daly is politically allied with the Republican party and is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, being a member of the Scot- tish Rite consistory of Sioux City and a Mason of the thirty-second degree.
Mr. Daly was married in 1890 to Mettie G. Conkur, of Sanborn, and is the father of one child, Bernice. Like other successful men of this western . country, he has implicit faith in land as the basis of values and the source of all wealth. He is buying and selling land continuously and thoroughly under- stands land values in the vicinity and throughout the country. At the present time he is the owner of eight hundred and eighty acres of O'Brien county land, and has land holdings in Texas, South Dakota, Nebraska. Minnesota and Kentucky.
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FRANK W. HORTON, M. D.
It is not always easy to discover and define the hidden forces that move a life of ceaseless activity and large professional success : little more can be done than to note their manifestation in the career of the individual under consideration. In view of this fact, the life of the physician and public- spirited man of affairs whose name appears above affords a striking example of well-defined purpose, with the ability to make that purpose subserve not only his own ends but the good of his fellow men as well. He has long held distinctive prestige in a calling which requires for its basis sound judgment and discipline of a high order, supplemented by the rigid professional train- ing and thorough mastery of technical knowledge, with the skill to apply the same, without which one cannot hope to rise above mediocrity in ministering to human ills. In his chosen field of endeavor Doctor Horton has achieved a distinctive success and his present standing among the leading medical men of northwestern Iowa is duly recognized and appreciated.
Dr. Frank W. Horton, of Sanborn, Iowa, was born November 7, 1870, at Fort Atkinson, Iowa. He is the son of Warren H. and Ella ( Beman) Horton, natives of New York state. Warren H. was the son of William Horton. Ella Beman is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Beman, early pioneers of Wisconsin, where Mr. Beman is now residing with one of his sons. Doctor Horton's mother is still living and, the father died April 5. 1914. the Doctor being the only child of the four born to them who is living.
Doctor Horton was educated in the Volga and Belmont ( Iowa ) high schools, graduating from the latter high school in 1889. He then entered the University of Iowa and graduated from the medical department in March, 1894. Mr. Horton worked his way through school and college by clerking in a mercantile establishment during vacation. During his third year in college he served as house physician of a hospital at Iowa City. It is to be noted that the men who work their way through school are usually those who make the better students. This is strikingly true in the case of Doctor Horton. The fact that he had to work his way through college is an indica- tion that he was a student of much more than ordinary ability.
Immediately after graduating from the University of lowa, Doctor Horton located in Sanborn and has now practiced just twenty years in this community. He has built up an excellent practice in Sanborn and the sur- rounding country and has achieved unusual success in his profession. He has handled a large number of very important cases successfully and is de- serving of the high stanading which he has secured throughout this section
FRANK W. HORTON, M. D.
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of the state. He is a member of the O'Brien County Medical Society, the Hahnemann Association of lowa. the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy, and takes an interest in all organiza- tions which he thinks will help him in his business.
Doctor Horton was married in September. 1895, to Harriet Smiley, a trained nurse of Iowa City. She was born in Indiana. To this marriage have been born four children. Leon, deceased. Ruth, Wilma and Margaret. Doctor Horton and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church and contribute liberally of their means to its support. Politically, he is a member of the Republican party and identifies himself with the Progressive branch of that organization. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. While he has been entirely de- voted to his profession, he has not neglected to take his part in the affairs of his town and community. He is a man who believes in progress and improve- ment and takes an interest in whatever he feels will be for the material ad- vancement of the city and the social, intellectual and moral good of its people.
WALTER RALEIGH BROCK, M. D.
There is no class to whom greater gratitude is due from the world at large than the self-sacrificing, sympathetic, noble-minded men whose life work is the alleviation of suffering and the ministering of comfort to the af- flicted, to the end that the span of human existence may be lengthened and a great degree of satisfaction enjoyed during the remainder of the earthly so- journ. There is no standard by which their beneficent influence can be meas- ured ; their helpfulness is limited only by the extent of their knowledge and skill, while their power goes hand in hand with the wonderful laws of na- ture that spring from the very source of life itself. Some one has aptly said, "He serves God best who serves humanity most." Among the physicians and surgeons of O'Brien county who have risen to eminence in their chosen field of endeavor is the subject of this review, whose career has been that of a broad-minded, conscientious worker in the sphere to which his life and. energies have been devoted and whose profound knowledge of his profession has won for him a leading place among the most distinguished medical men of his day and generation in the city of his residence.
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Dr. Walter Raleigh Brock was born May 7, 1870, near Ypsilanti. Mich- igan, and is the son of Dr. C. L. and Marion (Morrison) Brock. Dr. C. L. Brock was a native of Vermont, his birth occurring on January 17, 1818, and he was reared, educated and taught school there and later migrated to tlie state of Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1866. He immediately began the active practice of medicine in Michigan, and in 1871 moved to Tama county, Iowa, and later to Rock county, Minnesota. In 1896 he moved to Sheldon and resided with his son, Dr. W. B. Brock, until his death, which occurred in 1901. Marion Morrison, the wife of Dr. C. L. Brock, was born of Scotch parentage, in Blenham. Ontario, Canada, and is still living in Sheldon with her children. Dr. C. L. Brock and wife were the parents of nine children. all of whom are living: Chauncey, who resides in Minnesota: Lowell, of Wyoming: Sydney, of Des Moines, Iowa; Dr. George Brock, a dentist of Redlands. California ; Charles Francis, of Gettys- burg, Michigan : Horace Mann, of New York City: Mrs. Ellen Kramer, of James, Iowa. and Mrs. Phoebe Beadle, of Wyandot, Nebraska.
Dr. Walter R. Brock was educated in the public schools of Rock county, Minnesota, and later attended Drake University, graduating from the medical department of that institution in 1894. Since his graduation from Drake he has pursued several courses in Chicago University and other post-graduate medical schools. He practiced two years in Hills. Minnesota, and then lo- cated in Sheldon, Iowa, where he has practiced continuously up to the pres- ent time. He has his full share of the patronage of Sheldon and vicinity and is regarded as one of the leading practitioners of this section of the state. He is a member of the O'Brien County, Iowa State, Sioux Valley and Amer- ican medical associations, and is treasurer of the Sioux Valley Medical So- ciety at the present time.
Doctor Brock was married in 1901 to Maude Shinski. the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Shinski, and they are the parents of two children, Jo- seph, born September 28. 1904. and Helen, born December 7, 1908.
Doctor Brock affiliates with the Universalists and Mrs. Brock is a mem- ber of the Catholic church. The Doctor is a member of the fraternal order of Knights of Pythias. He is actuated by only the highest motives in the prac- tice of his profession and has brought rare skill and resource in the care of many of his cases which have a serious feature. Quick perception and al- most intuitive judgment have rendered him exceptionally strong in diagnosis, though ever willing to lend any aid or suggestion.
Throughout his busy life he has ever been a hard and enthusiastic stu- dent and keeps well abreast of the times, as he has realized that in the science.
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of medicine. as in other departments of modern research, there have been con- stant and steady advances and discoveries. He has been very successful in his large practice during the years that he has been in this county, and be- cause of his ability and high personal character, he enjoys a high standing among his professional colleagues and among the people generally.
HERMAN JOHN BRACKNEY, M. D.
Although but a short time a resident of the community of which this volume is a record, the subject of this sketch has by his professional ability and high personal character stamped his impress on those with whom he has come in contact and is numbered among the progressive and enterprising residents of Sheldon. In the realm of medicine and surgery he has achieved a splendid reputation, for by training and experience he has well qualified himself to combat disease in all its forms, and among his professional col- leagues he is held in the highest regard.
Dr. Herman J. Brackney, the son of John W. and Janie ( Felter ) Brack- ney, was born in Tama county, Iowa, October 29. 1881. His father was a native of Indiana and his mother of Illinois. John W. Brackney was born in 1851 and came from Indiana to Iowa with his parents when he was nine years of age. The Brackneys purchased a farm in Tama county and here John W. grew to maturity, and married Janie Felter, the daughter of Nelson Felter and wife. Nelson Felter was the first settler in Crystal township, Tama county, Iowa, having settled there in 1854, coming from Cook county, Illinois. In 1886 John W. and the family moved to Cherokee county, Iowa. and shortly afterwards he engaged in the mercantile business in Cherokee. Mr. and Mrs. John Brackney were the parents of three children: H. W., an attorney of Sioux City, Iowa: Dr. Herman J. and Mrs Maud R. Christianson.
Doctor Brackney was educated in the Washta, lowa, high school and later attended the Western College of Toledo, Iowa. In 1905 he received his Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees in the State Uni- versity of Iowa and immediately located in Sheldon for the practice of medi- cine. Doctor Brackney has rapidly forged to the front as one of the leading practitioners of the city and now enjoys his full share of the practice of the city and vicinity. He keeps in close touch with the advancement of the medical profession. through wide reading and dependence upon various
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medical associations. He is a member of the O'Brien County, lowa State and American medical associations, and takes an active interest in the annual meetings of these organizations.
Doctor Brackney was married in 1906 to May Soesbe, of Greene, Iowa. To this union there has been born one daughter, Helen. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church and give freely of their means to its support. Doctor Brackney has a large and well selected professional library, as well as many other valuable works, of which he is a close and constant reader. Personally, he is a man of social impulses and is genial and companionable in his relations to his fellow men. Since locating in Sheldon, he has taken a deep interest in the welfare of the community and gives his ardent support to all measures for local improvement.
J. H. McNEILL.
J. H. McNeill belongs to that class of men who win in life's battles by force of personality and determination and these qualities he has inherited from his Scotch ancestors. Since coming to this county he has proved him- self to be a man of ability and honor and always ready to lend his aid in de- fending principles affecting the public good. As a farmer he was working early and late to make his farm a paying proposition ; as an insurance man in Sanborn he worked no less diligently, while as a mayor of the city of San- born since March, 1913, he has ably and conscientiously served his city in the capacity of an executive.
J. H. McNeill, the present mayor of Sanborn, Iowa, was born August II. 1861, in Delaware county, Iowa, near Manchester. He is the son of David and Jean ( Robertson) McNeill, both of whom were natives of Scot- land. David McNeill came from Scotland with his parents to America when he was seven years of age and settled on Prince Edward Island, in the gulf of St. Lawrence. On this rocky island David McNeill was reared and mar- ried. When a young man he had been a sailor in the British navy and trav- eled over the entire world. He then returned to his home in Prince Edward Island and married. In 1854 he came to Iowa, where he secured a farm in Delaware county. He died at Manchester in 1883.
J. H. McNeill came to O'Brien county, Iowa, in 1880 and for the first two years worked upon farms in this county. He then worked at the car-
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penter trade awhile, then married and moved onto his farm, which he pur- chased in 1888. He lived on his farm of one hundred and sixty acres until 1906, when he came to Sanborn, where he has been engaged in the insur- ance business. He has some of the strongest and best insurance companies and has built up a large and lucrative business since coming to Sanborn. In recognition of his ability as an administrator of public affairs, the city coun- cil of Sanborn appointed him mayor in March, 1913, and this position he is now filling to the entire satisfaction of the city.
Mr. McNeill was married in 1888 to Louise Davids, the daughter of George B. and Sarah .\. ( Rogers) Davids. Mr. and Mrs. McNeill have two children, Irene, who is librarian of the Sanborn library, and Isabel, who is a graduate of the Sanborn high school.
George B. Davids was born July 4, 1836, at Brandon, Vermont, and died July 9, 1903. He was the son of a miller and during the early part of his life operated flouring mills in the eastern part of New York and Vermont. In about 1858 he located in Wisconsin, but a few years later returned to New York. During the Civil War he enlisted as a sailor in the United States navy and served for six months. Before the war was over he returned to Wis- consin and sold farm machinery and during one of his trips over the country he visited Lyons, Iowa, where he met Sarah A. Rogers, who afterward be- came his wife. In 1870 he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, still retaining his connection with the implement business and traveled over northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin as a collector for the company. On his second visit to O'Brien county in 1878. he bought a half section of land in Summit township, O'Brien county, for one dollar and a half an acre. In 1880 he moved to Sheldon, Iowa, and three years later he quit the machinery business and came to Sanborn and, in partnership with Ellis & Ellis and Mor- ton Wilbur, he started the Sanborn State Bank. In 1886 he sold out to his partners and moved to his farm in Summit township. In 1900 he sold his farm and shortly after the death of his wife he returned to Wisconsin, where he died in Green Lake county, July 9, 1903. He and his wife had but one child, Louise. the wife of Mr. McNeill.
Politically. Mr. McNeill is a Progressive, having joined that party upon its organization in the summer of 1912. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a member of the Mystic Shrine and has attained to the honor of the thirty-second degree. In all the relations of life Mr. McNeill has been an advocate of wholesome living, cleanliness in poli- tics as well, and has ever been outspoken in his denunciation of wrongdoing of every kind. He is a man who, in every respect, has merited the high es- teem in which he is universally held.
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PATRICK KELLEY.
From the far-famed and beloved Emerald Isle have come to the new republic of the west during the past three centuries a large percentage of its best and most enterprising citizens. They are found, too few, within the borders of O'Brien county. One of the worthiest and best known of the agricultural element of this horde of Erin's fair land is Patrick Kelley, of Sheldon, who was born in 1838 and he is therefore now advanced in years; but, having lived a wholesome life along conservative paths, he is hearty and can look backward over a life well spent and forward with no apprehension for the future.
Mr. Kelley emigrated to America with his parents. James and Mary (Griffin) Kelley, in 1846 and the first year lived in New Jersey. The family then moved to Connecticut, where the father of Patrick worked in a cotton and woolen mill in that state from the time that he was nine years of age. During the Civil War he worked at Norwich. Connecticut, in the arsenal and gun manufacturing works. In about 1868 he went west and settled in Minne- sota, where he found employment on a railroad gang which was constructing a railroad through that state. After living ten years in Minnesota he came to Sheldon in the spring of 1878 and was employed by a company constructing a railroad through O'Brien county. The early part of the eighties he "squatted" on railroad land, three miles east of Sheldon, in Floyd township. Like scores of other "squatters" in the county. he later had difficulty in proving his title, but was eventually given possession of the land on which he settled. He has a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which is now worth! two hundred dollars an acre. In 1901 he retired from active farming and moved into Sheldon, where he is now living.
Mr Kelley was married in 1872 to Mary Bray, who died in February. 1908. To this union were born eight children : James, deceased : Mrs. May Dougherty, of Sanborn, who has two children, John and Winifred; Wini- fred deceased; Mrs. Margaret Kearney, of Plevna, Montana, who has one son, Joseph; Jennie, a teacher in the Sheldon schools: Gertrude, an art teacher in St. Theresa College at Winona. Minnesota: Joseph, of San- horn : Mrs. Catherine Donahue, east of Sheldon, and three children who are still at home, Daniel, Margaret and Marcella : James, of Plevna, Montana. was in the grain business, but was killed December 5. 1912. Mr. Kelley has given his children the best of educational advantages and has had the satis- faction of seeing them become useful members of society.
Mr. Kelley and the members of his family are faithful adherents of the
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Roman Catholic church and are attached to St. Patrick's cathedral at Sheldon. Politically. he is a Democrat and takes an intelligent interest in the affairs of his party, although he has never held any public office except that of school director. In 1906 Mr. Kelley became the heir of property in Connecticut to the value of ten thousand dollars at the death of a wealthy brother. Timothy, of Norwich, in that state. His honorable and successful career has not been a path of roses, for he has had to work hard all of his life and often against adverse conditions, which would have discouraged many other men. While primarily interested in his own affairs, he has not been unmindful of the inter- ests of others, as his effort to promote the welfare of the community abund- antly justifies. Because of his upright life and business ability, he is emi- nently worthy of a place in the annals of his county.
T .
EDWARD A. MAYNE.
It is generally considered by those in the habit of superficial thinking that the history of so-called great men only is worthy of preservation, and that little merit exists among the masses to call forth the praises of the his- torian or the cheers and the appreciation of mankind. A greater mistake was never made. No man is great in all things. Many by a lucky stroke achieve lasting fame who before that had no reputation beyond the limits of their im- mediate neighborhoods. It is not a history of the lucky stroke which benefits humanity most, but the long study and effort which made the lucky stroke possible. It is the preliminary work, the method, that serves as a guide for the success of others. Among those in O'Brien county, Iowa, who have achieved success along steady lines of action is the subject of this brief review.
Edward A. Mayne, a prosperous merchant of Sanborn. Iowa, was born December 13, 1858, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, the son of John and Ellen (Mckinstry) Mayne, natives of England and Canada, respectively. John Mayne was a tailor by trade, who in his later years engaged in farming, and whose death occurred in Wisconsin. His wife was of Scotch ancestry, and they were the parents of three children : Jennie, deceased : Mrs. Anna Velie, of Sanborn, and E. A., whose history is here portrayed.
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