USA > Iowa > Woodbury County > Sioux City > Past and present of Sioux City and Woodbury County, Iowa > Part 25
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mony of her superior skill and ability in this in progress in this portion of the country. In direction. She is now teaching both china and 1876 he accompanied his father on a trip to the Black Hills and later he made two other trips. On one occasion they were taken to Chester City, but were released after two weeks. oil painting and has a large number of students. Bertha E. is the wife of W. J. McGraw, a com- mission merchant of Sioux City. Alson W. is deceased. Herbert E. resides in Rock Valley, On the 11th of May, 1887, Mr. Pecaut was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Cook, a daughter of Erastus Cook, and they are now the parents of four children, of whom two died in infancy-Loren E. and Erwin W., being the surviving sons. The family are members of the Mayflower Congregational church and Mr. Pecant gives his political allegiance to the Re- publican party. Iowa, and conducts the mill there. Harley S. is a resident of Sioux City. She and her daugh- ter occupy a nice home at No. 1008 Jennings street, which was built by Mr. Rounds in 1886. Both are prominent in society circles here and both are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Rounds held membership relations with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic lodge at Eureka, Wisconsin, and was the organizer of the Odd Fellows lodge at Rock Valley. In politics he was a Republi- FRANK HAAREN. can, but never an office seeker. His life was ac- tuated by the high principles which form the basic element of the Odd Fellows Society, and in all his relations with his fellowmen he was just and honorable, ever courteous and consid- erate to those with whom he came in contact and not only won success, but also an honorable name.
EDWARD W. PECAUT.
Edward W. Pecaut, who is filling the posi- tion of deputy sheriff of Woodbury county, is a native son of the great west, possessing the en- terprise and energy so characteristic of this por- tion of the country. He is a son of Gustave Pecaut, who is represented elsewhere in this volume. His education was acquired in the public schools of Covington and when eighteen years of age he began learning the machinist's trade, which he followed continuously until 1894. In that year he was appointed deputy sheriff under W. C. Davenport and has since held the office, proving very capable, prompt and faithful in the discharge of his duties. He is quite familiar with the history of develop- ment in the west and indeed has been a factor
Among the worthy citizens that the father- land has furnished to Sioux City is numbered Frank Haaren, who was born in Germany in 1855. His father, Henry Haaren Sr., was also a native of Germany and was a farmer by occupation. He served his country as a soldier in 1866, and he was of the Catholic faith in his religious views. He married Eva Schmitt, who was born in Germany and was also a communicant of the Catholic church. Both parents are now deceased. They had three children: Frank; Joseph, who is living in Germany; and Mary, who has passed away.
Frank Haaren was educated in the common schools of his native land and in his youth worked on the farm with his father. He came to the United States in 1881 when about twen- ty-six years of age and located in Sioux City. He was landlord of the Iowa House for five years and afterward went in business in Omaha, Nebraska, where he continued for a year. He then returned to Sioux City, where he has since been located and during his residence here he has met with creditable success by his well di- rected efforts as a liquor dealer, a business which he has now followed for twelve years.
In 1887 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Haaren and Miss Freda Kejul, a daughter of
FRANK HAAREN.
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William Kejul, a boilermaker. She was born in Saxony, Germany, in 1867, and by her mar- riage has become the mother of three children : Frank, Edward and Arthur, but the second is now deceased. Mr. Hlaaren is a member of the Odd Fellows society, also of the Improved Order of Red Men and the Sons of Herman. Of the last named he has been grand treasurer for six years and he has filled all of the chairs in the local lodge, of which he is a charter mem- ber. He likewise belongs to the Germania So- eiety, the Bankers' Union and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, erie No. 77, and is a sup- porter of the Democracy. In a country where business opportunity is limitless and where effort is not hampered by caste or class he has gradually advanced and has made for himself a ereditable name and gained desirable success.
JUDGE C. H. LEWIS.
Judge Charles Henry Lewis, who was for sixteen consecutive years judge of the fourth ju- dieial district of Iowa, and one of the most no- table and gifted members of the Iowa bar, was born in Collins Center, Erie county, New York, on the 17th of October, 1839. His parents, Oren and Elizabeth ( Nichols) Lewis, were na- tives of Connecticut and were descended from English ancestors. They removed to southern Wisconsin when their son Charles II. was but nine months old and after spending two years in that state went to Boone county, Illinois, where they remained until 1851. On the 8th of October of that year they became residents of Independence, Iowa, and three years later removed to Quasqueton, Buchanan county, Iowa, where the father remained until his death in 1884. His wife had died in 1843.
Judge Lewis spent his early life upon his father's farm, save that for a brief period he was employed in a furniture factory which his father conducted in Independence. His edu- eational privileges in his youth were somewhat
meager, but desirous of acquiring a more com- prehensive education than the public-school sys- tem of the state afforded, he entered Cornell College, at Mount Vernon, lowa, when nineteen years of age. His father was in limited finan- cial circumstances and therefore unable to give his son assistance, so that he remained in college during the spring, summer and fall terms and engaged in teaching through the winter months, his salary meeting his tuition and other ex- penses of his college course throughout the re- mainder of the year. He spent three years in this manner and then, in 1862, left college and enlisted in defense of the Union canse, as a private soldier of Company HI, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry. After a year he was made ser- geant major of the regiment and a year later was commissioned first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment, which position he held until the war elosed, when the regiment was inns- tered out of service. He had been in the army for three years and five days and during all that time was never absent from duty except for three days, during which time he was on the sick list.
At the close of the war Judge Lewis returned to his old home in Buchanan county, and for a short time was engaged with his brother in the milling and general merchandising business, but his taste lay in the line of the professions and he entered the law department of the State University, where he was graduated on the com- pletion of the regular law course in the summer of 1869. Ile then removed to Cherokee, Iowa, and on the 29th of May, of that year, entered into partnership with his father-in-law, H. C. Kellogg. They were the first lawyers of that county and enjoyed a very large and important practice. In 1870 Judge Lewis was nominated for the position of district attorney of the fourth judicial district of Iowa, embracing twenty-two counties in the northwestern part of the state. He received a very large majority at the election, running far ahead of his ticket, and he entered upon the duties of the position
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January 1, 1870, serving in that capacity until the 1st of January, 1875. In 1873 two coun- ties were dropped from the district, leaving twenty counties. In the summer of 1874 he was nominated for district judge and in the fall election was elected by a most flattering majority, polling a much larger vote than was usually given the candidates of the party. He took his seat upon the bench January 1, 1875, and there remained continuously through six- teen years. In 1877 the district boundaries were again changed, owing to the increased population, and the proportionate increase in legal business, and the fourth district then com- prised nine counties. In the fall of 1878 Judge Lewis was renominated by acclamation and served for two terms more, of four years each, being elected by increased majorities at each election and holding the office until January 1, 1891.
He won the reputation of being one of the best judges who has ever presided over an Iowa court, and in his decisions, which were ever strictly fair and impartial, he displayed a com- prehensive knowledge of the law and great cor- rectness in its application to the points in liti- gation. He presided in the first trial of what was known as the Haddock case, and won the favorable opinion of all loyal and fair-minded citizens. He presided over nearly all of the hotly contested legal battles growing out of the temperance agitation and legislation in north- western Iowa and his decisions found favor with the great masses of the people who stood for law and order. His mind was analytical, logical and inductive. With a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the funda- mental principles of the law, he combined a fa- miliarity with statutory law and a sober, clear judgment which rendered him a strong advocate and safe counselor and also ranked him among the best judges of the state, but no matter what the views of the general public it is the opinion of the bar that counts for most in determining the ability of the lawyer or jurist, and Judge
Lewis won high encomiums from his fellow practitioners and those who pleaded their cases in his court. He entered upon the discharge of his judicial duties in the full vigor of manhood and through the entire period of his official service he wore the judicial ermine without a stain. On the last day before his retirement from the bench, the bar of Woodbury county presented him with an elegant gold watch and chain, the former appropriately inscribed. The services on that occasion were very impressive and the resolutions there adopted show the kindly regard and esteem in which he was held by the lawyers of his district. The watch was one of the finest productions of the Elgin Na- tional Watch Company. The movement, ull- surpassed, is enclosed in a solid gold Louis XIV case, with an enameled dial, and is mounted with diamonds and rubies, filagree work and gold figures. Inside the case is the inscription "Presented to Hon. C. H. Lewis, judge of the fourth judicial district, by members of the Sioux City bar." Attached to the watch was a heavy gold chain from which hangs a plain, square, satin-finish gold locket, with a large diamond in the center.
After his retirement from the bench Judge Lewis resumed the practice of law in Sioux City and had his office at No. 502 Toy Build- ing. He was a forceful speaker, clear in argu- ment, logical in his deductions, and his eli- entage was of a distinctively representative character.
Judge Lewis was married March 31, 1866, to Miss Emma E. Kellogg, who is a native of Rut- land, Vermont, and they had four children, all living : Florence Gertrude, Edward Oren, Bur- ton Kellogg and Ida Sophia. For more than a third of a century Judge Lewis made his home in northwestern Iowa. He never sought to figure prominently before the public in any line outside of his profession and vet the in- fluence of such a man, even though quietly exerted, is a potent factor in the development of a community and in furthering its best in-
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terests, and Judge Lewis, because of his useful kota, and the Farmers' National Bank, of and honorable career, enjoyed the highest re- gard and confidence of his fellow citizens. lle died September 26, 1904.
FLETCHER A. MCCORMACK.
The increase of business activity and the growth of business opportunity have brought about new conditions, which men of enterprise recognize and improve. The term "promoter," although now a common one in business par- lance, is of comparatively recent origin. It, however, expresses Mr. McCormack's position in business eireles in northwestern Iowa, for he he has been a most active and efficient faetor in promoting business interests, especially in the line of banking, and his labors have been of direct benefit to several communities.
Fletcher Andrew MeCornaek was born in Tama county, Iowa, December 12, 1868, his parents being Robert C. and Jane (Gordon) MeCornaek. The father removed from Knox county, Illinois, to Tama county in 1864, and there followed farming for a time, while later he engaged in the lumber business and banking. He died June 1, 1896, while his widow is now a resident of Traer, Iowa.
Bridgewater, South Dakota, of all of which he is the president; First National Bank, of Hart- ington, Nebraska ; Laurel State Bank, of Laur- el, Nebraska ; and the Belden Bank, of Belden, Nebraska. Of these he is the vice-president, and he is a director of the Iowa State National Bank, of Sioux City, Iowa. His practical ex- perience and investigation have given him thor ough and comprehensive knowledge of the bank- ing business, and the institutions which he has organized are valuable enterprises of the various localities indicated.
In 1894 Mr. MeCormack was married to Miss Mary Clark, of Traer, Iowa, daughter of T. F. Clark, a farmer and banker. Their chil- dren are: Robert C., born May 19, 1898; Hermion, borne January 7, 1901; and Lucia Jane, born July 2, 1904. The parents are members of the Congregational church, and po- litieally Mr. MeCornaek is a Republican. He makes Sioux City his home with offices in Room 609, Security Bank building. His banking interests have made him widely known in this portion of the country and while bringing to him a desired prosperity have also been of practical benefit to different localities.
Fletcher A. MeCornaek attended school in Traer and in Gladbrook, Iowa, and in 1886 EDWIN RUEL WHEELER, M. D. went with the family to California, where he Dr. Edwin Ruel Wheeler, practicing medi- cine in Leeds, a suburb of Sioux City, was born in Morse, Johnson county, Iowa, March 6, 1881, and is a son of Dr. Hail and Mary C. (Ingham) Wheeler. When nineteen years of age the father removed from Vermont to the west, and after spending a year in Illinois came to Iowa, settling in Monona county, where he taught school for several years. He afterward married and then went to Iowa City, where he entered upon the study of medicine in 1876. Just three days after his graduation his son, Dr. E. R. Wheeler, was born. spent three years. After his return to Iowa he spent one year as a student in Iowa College, at Grinnell, completing his education there in 1889. In 1891 he went to Coleridge, Nebras- ka, and was employed as eashier in the Cole- ridge State Bank, and in the winter of 1896 he came to Sionx City as cashier of the Iowa State Bank, serving in that eapaeity for three years. In 1894 he engaged in the promotion of the banking business in northeastern Ne- braska and established and became identified with the followng banks: The Coleridge State Bank, of Coleridge, Nebraska; the Davison Dr. IFail Wheeler settled for practice in On- County Bank, of Mount Vernon, South Da- awa, Iowa, where he remained for eleven years,
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or until 1893, when he came to Sioux City, where he has since remained in the active prac- tice of medicine and surgery.
Edwin R. Wheeler attended the public schools of Onawa for three years and later con- tinued his education in the public schools of Sioux City. When seventeen years of age he was appointed to the position of assistant house physician for the Samaritan Hospital. In 1898 he entered the Sioux City School of Medi- cine and on the completion of the regular four years' course was gradnated with the class of 1902. He opened an office in Leeds in the fall of that year and has since enjoyed a very satisfactory business, his patronage continually increasing as he demonstrates his ability to cope with disease. He has laudable ambition and an enterprising spirit and the outlook for the future is therefore bright and promising.
Dr. Wheeler was married March 14, 1903, to Miss Nellie Young, a daughter of E. R. Young, who is employed by the Iowa Telephone Com- pany. Socially he is connected with Reliance Lodge, No. 533, I. O. O. F., and politically he is a Republican. In Sioux City, where he has lived from early boyhood, he is popular, and in Leeds his professional skill is demonstrating his right to be classed with the capable young members of the medical fraternity.
FRANK H. PEAVEY.
The subject of this biography, Frank H. Peavey, was born at Eastport, Maine, January 18, 1850, and died in Chicago, Illinois, De- cember 30, 1901. ITis father, Albert D. Peav- ey, was married to his mother, Mary Drew, December 14, 1848, at Eastport, Maine. IIis father died November 15, 1859, leaving as his survivors, his widow, Mary D. Peavey, two sous, John J. and James Fulton Peavey, a daughter, Lonise D. Peavey, now Louise D. Cleland, and himself, the oldest child then
living. Ilis brother John J. died a few weeks after his father's death.
The genealogy of the ancestors of Frank H. Peavey and their heirs presents an interesting study which, at this time, space and opportu- nity forbids us to enter, but that research fur- nishes evidence of the cause of the strong traits of character which he inherited. They and his own parents were neither endowed with great riches nor embarrassed by poverty, and neither were they proud nor humble. In all their record and that of their collateral kin- dred, history shows that none ever dishonored the family name or dimmed its high reputa- tion.
His father dying when he was but nine years of age, he was left in his youth to the tender care of a fond mother. At the same moment it left him a widowed mother and a fatherless sister and brother, all looking to him as the one to lean upon and rest their hopes for the future. He was blessed with the succor, right training and influence of a strong maternal love. Through her devoted love and example he was taught the correct lessons of faith, duty and pride, and in him were early implanted the enduring principles of conduct and the fixed sense of obligation which ruled his whole life.
At the age of sixteen he left his home at Eastport, Maine, to visit an uncle in Chicago. This trip to him was a novelty and a de- light, and to his devoted mother but a visit to kindred, to be soon ended, and be to return to her and finish, as she might be able, his edu- cation at the public schools. Before the close of the promised time for his return home he became an employe in a bank. His mother's fond wish for him to return met the response of his purpose to make his own way.
In the year 1867, through Ineky chance, he proceeded to Sioux City, Iowa, and there ae- cepted a responsible position as bookkeeper in the large wholesale grocery house of H. D. Booge & Company. While then young and
Frank AVEaway
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inexperienced, his honest face and great indus- mother, sister and brothers, to whom he was try challenged and secured the admiration of ever endeared by his manly virtues and great affection for all his worthy kindred, and be- cause he was a tender knight to her whom he had taken from that family as his companion for life. his employers, and he remained for years their confidential bookkeeper and chief elerk. So his arduous and strenuous life as a business man commenced at Sioux City, lowa, in the spring of 1867.
In the year 1870 he started in business for himself at the same place, as a member of the firm of Booge, Smith & Peavey, engaging at that time in the sale of agricultural imple- ments and grain. After two years, while car- rying on a limited business, all the firm's prop- erty was destroyed by fire, and he left prae- tically penniless. IIe subsequently formed the partnership of Evans & Peavey, and they carried on for a time the same business, and subsequent thereto he took as a partner Colonel J. S. Meckling, and this firm began to deal in grain and operate a few elevators on the then Sioux City & St. Paul Railway. It was then that he more fully began to secure the attention and interest of railroad men who soon learned that they needed him as much as he required them and their co-operation. It was then he formed the great firm of F. H. Peavey & Company, for a long time composed of Frank II. Peavey and E. C. Michener, the latter a friend of his boyhood days. Then his business became exclusively a grain business, and this with his line of elevators gradually but surely grew under his master mind and strong hand. In 1884 it assumed such proportions that it he- eame necessary that he should remove his head- quarters and his home to Minneapolis, the more central point of his constantly growing business, and there he remained until his death.
His brother, James F. Peavey, was his part- ner in business for a long series of years at Sioux City, Iowa, and subsequently moved to New York city, where he holds an important position in business eireles. His sister, Louise D. Peavey, married Jonas M. Cleland, for a long time a prominent lawyer and citizen of Sioux City, Iowa, and for the past six years holding a prominent position as an officer in the Cable Company of Chicago, Illinois. There were born to Mr. Peavey and his wife three children, a daughter, Lucia L., now Mrs. Frank T. Heffelfinger ; a daughter, Mary Drew, now Mrs. Fred B. Wells, and a son, George W. Peavey, who married Miss Kate Semple Jor- dan, of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sons and sons-" in-law, some time prior to his death, became connected with him in the partnership of Frank II. Peavey & Company, and, since his death, have conducted the same. At the time of his death Mr. and Mrs. Frank T. Heffelfinger were blessed with three sons, and Mr. and Mrs. Fred B. Wells with one daughter.
His mother, Mrs. Albert D. Peavey, still survives him, having continued her residence, from the time she came to Iowa in 1871 at Sioux City, up to the present time. His de- votion to his mother was marked and was that born of love the purest and best. On the oc- easion of his frequent visits to her, away from business eares, he bestowed upon her filial de- votion seldom witnessed and never excelled.
In 1871, following a desire that had long If she in her younger days extended to him, as she did, the most faithful nurture, love and benign influence, in her maturer days he re- warded her by love and care which proved him a noble son. been in his heart since he east his lot in his western home, he brought his mother, sister and brother to Sioux City, Iowa. In August, 1872, he married Mary D. Wright, daughter of Senator George G. Wright, of Iowa. In Ilis family, wife, children, grandchildren, that union he also seeured another father, sons-in-law and daughter-in-law each were
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blessed with his companionship, a love, a hope, an inspiration, a cheery soul, a faith. To his wife no truer knight could have been more thoughtful, considerate, loving, and it was the wish of his heart to have her happy and eon- tented. As she was happy, his own life and days were made happier, and if she suffered his own heart strings received the touch and pang of sorrow.
The great firm of Frank H. Peavey & Com- pany which he formed and built up, beeame the head of the elevator business of the world, and Mr. Peavey the king of the grain busi- ness. He was the master-builder of it, and his progressive spirit, matchless energy and hon- orable dealing had enabled him to reach this accomplishment. It is not needful here to re- eite in detail the magnitude of his grand busi- ness, the capacity of his elevators, or the great steamships built by him to carry his produets to the sea. It is sufficient to say that the boy of sixteen, who left the parental home in 1867 with such a heritage and influence baek of him, met the struggles of life, met obstacles and overcame them, met the world and the great army of strong men and seeured their eonfi- denee, esteem and good will, and in all things and at all times, never ceased to remember his honor or his duty to himself, or to hu- manity.
He did not secure wealth through avarice, or desire to mount up a great bank account. He delighted in great undertakings and the proeurement of wealth in the pleasure it gave him to be a factor and leader in the business of the world. He loved to proeure means with which to bring sunshine into his family and to his friends, and to render charity to the unfortunate, the needy and the worthy. He believed that wealth secured through honest means should be considerately used in helpful- ness, and that the lowly should be lifted up.
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