| Bremer County, Iowa | |
Horace E. Gilbert We are pleased to grant to Mr. Gilbert a representation in the history of Latah county since he is one of the real builders of the county; being a man whose life here has always been spent in laboring for the advancement of the county's interest, and having displayed great sagacity and enterprise in these labors, much credit is due him for the benefit that has accrued from his efforts, and while this is true it is no less true that he is possessed of the happy qualities of worth, affability, uprightness, and integrity that find pleasant exemplification in his daily walk. He was born in Bremer county, Iowa, on January 25, 1858, being the son of John S. and Maria S. Gilbert, farmers. He remained at home until twenty and then set out to seek his fortune in the west. He came via the Union Pacific to San Francisco and thence by ocean steamer to Portland and soon he was in Junction City in the Willamette valley, where a few months were spent, when he came to Moscow. He soon selected a homestead near where he now lives and set to work to improve it in good shape. In 1891 he traded that place and $1800 for the farm where he now lives, three miles northeast from Moscow. His present farm is one of the finest kept estates in the county of Latah, a Mr. of thrift and business enterprise being patent everywhere. He has a nine-room residence of modern architectural design and tastily kept, is building a large barn, has some fine herds, and everything that would make a rural home profitable and comfortable. Mr. Gilbert has one hundred and two acres set to timothy and intends to put the balance of the home quarter to clover. He takes great interest in the production of grasses, and also has a fine large orchard. In addition to this farm Mr. Gilbert possesses as much more land about one and one-half miles north from the home place. October 12, 1886, was the date of the happy occasion when Mr. Gilbert took to himself Miss Florence, daughter of Lewis and Sarah Miller, as wife, and to this union have been born Jessie, deceased, and Eva, five years of age. Mrs. Gilbert's father was a prominent citizen in his home county in Illinois, being justice of the peace and county commissioner for years. His great work in life was along the lines of church work, being allied with the Baptist denomination. He was a real philanthropist and spent much time and money in assisting the poor. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert are members of the Baptist church, affiliating with the Moscow congregation, and they are faithful in the support of the gospel. In the person of Mrs. Gilbert we have a lady of true devotion and dominated by a gracious spirit, being given to hospitality and manifesting a refined dignity in presiding over her household. Mr. Gilbert is one of the up-to-date men of the county, active and prudent in business, far sighted in matters of importance and withal thrifty and careful in all his enterprises. [An Illustrated History Of North Idaho Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai, Shoshone Counties, State Of Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903, submitted by Barb Z.] James Hutchison Among the leading fruit growers of Latah county must be mentioned the subject of this article, and also it is right that the faithful labors which he has performed for the substantial progress of this county should receive proper consideration. Mr. Hutchison was born near Cape Vincent, New York, on February 23, 1855, being the son of James and Jane (Mores) Hutchison. The first twelve years of his life were spent in Rome, New York; then in company with his parents he came to Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa, where twelve years more were spent in farming, the father being a railroad man. It was in 1881 that our subject came west and settled first on the Snake river, and one year later came to American ridge. After several years of residence there he came to his present home place on Fix ridge, three miles west from Juliaetta. The year 1887 was the date that settlement was made on this place, and the estate shows enterprise and industry on the part of the owner. Mr. Hutchison has fifty acres of orchard, thirty of which is devoted to prunes and the balance to different fruits. He owns one hundred and twenty acres on Big Bear ridge, also a dwelling and several lots in Port Angeles, Washington. He handles considerable stock in addition to his fruit and farming and is one of the leading men of his section. The marriage of Mr. Hutchison and Miss Sophia, daughter of Rev. Peter and Sophia (Dushing) Desgranges, was solemnized on May 22, 1882, in Moscow, Idaho, and eight children have been born to them: Wallace and Walter, twins, the latter dying when he was five years of age; John and Jane, the former died at the age of seventeen; Caroline, Lottie, Howard, George, all at home. Mrs. Hutchison was born and educated in the state of New York. Mr. Hutchison is a man of ability and commendable activity in his business enterprises, as his accumulations manifest, and he is esteemed and respected by all. [An Illustrated History Of North Idaho Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai, Shoshone Counties, State Of Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903, submitted by Barb Z.] John H. Hutchison John H. Hutchison is one of Latah county's most enterprising and capable men, being the largest fruit grower in the county at the present time, and having abundant success in his endeavors because of his skill and wisdom and energy in handling the business, which has grown under his care and direction to the proportions of a business that may well be a source of pride to the entire county. Reverting more particularly to the personal history of our subject, we note that Mr. Hutchison was born on March 16, 1857, in Steuben county, New York, being the son of James H. and Jane (Mores) Hutchison, natives, respectively, of Scotland and New York state. The father was a bridge carpenter and wrought on structures for railways. When John H. was very young his parents removed to Rome, New York, remaining there until this son was eleven years of age. There also the father died and the mother with her children removed to Iowa, settling near Waverly, Bremer county, where the son remained about thirteen years, being occupied in gaining an education and also in the good work of instruction in the schools. He came west to Whitman county, Washington, in 1880, and for two years he raised sheep there and then retired from that industry and removed to Latah county, where he purchased a right to the quarter section where his house now stands. To that he has added until he owns four hundred and forty acres of fine soil. Mr. Hutchison has improved his estate in a most commendable manner, having an elegant residence, barns, outbuildings, and all conveniences to handle a general farming business. He has an orchard of forty acres, set entirely to prunes, and twenty acres more given to a variety of fruits. His fruit products alone amount to a large industry. He has an evaporating plant one hundred and twenty-eight feet by twenty feet in dimensions, also a large storage house and commodious apartment house for the men, of whom he employs nearly fifty in the busy seasons. Not only does Mr. Hutchison excel in producing large quantities of fruit but at the Spokane fruit fair he won the gold medal in 1894 and also he has won the same at the Kendrick exposition. His work is highly commendatory to him and a source of credit and pride to the entire county. Fraternally Mr. Hutchison is affiliated with the K. of P. His marriage with Miss Clara E. Barker was solemnized at Moscow, Idaho, on June 23, 1890. She had come from Wisconsin, her native state, with her parents, William F. and Helen M. (Blount) Barker, to Waverly, Iowa, where she was principal of the primary schools and kindergarten for four years after the date of their arrival there, which was 1862. She had also taught in Wisconsin and her entire teaching experience dates over a period of sixteen years. Her father was a general merchant at Waverly for twenty years. After Mr. Hutchison came here he taught one the first schools that was held in the new building on of American ridge. He was the first president of the Potlatch Horticultural Association, also of the fruit fair at Kendrick. In addition to the exhibit which Mr. Hutchison took to Spokane, when he secured the gold medal, lie has made tour others, and has won various prizes there and elsewhere. [An Illustrated History Of North Idaho Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai, Shoshone Counties, State Of Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903, submitted by Barb Z.] John H. Meier John H. Meier (1902), in partnership with his brother, Henry L. Meier, farms the southeast quarter of section 12, Aetna township. He was born the first day of November, 1874, in Bremer county, Iowa. His parents, Christopher C. and Dora (Kuhrt) Meier, both natives of Germany, are deceased. The father died November 28, 1909, and the mother passed away seventeen years before, in 1892. Henry L. Meier is also a native of Bremer county. The date of his birth is March 6, 1873. John resided in the county of his birth until 1884, when with his parents he moved to Jerauld county, South Dakota. He was educated in the public schools of Sumner, Bremer county, Iowa, and later in the district schools of Jerauld county. On attaining his majority he commenced working out at farm labor, then in 1902 commenced his agricultural career in Pipestone county. He farmed on section 14, Aetna, for three years, then moved to his present location. Mr. Meier devotes considerable attention to the raising of high grade stock. He is affiliated with the M. W. A. lodge at Ruthton. [An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, 1911] Mrs. Sherman I. Pool Minnie Alice Lewis Pool, of Waverly, daughter of James Sawyer Lewis and Harriet Stebbins Lewis, was born Oct. 27, 1866, in Apple River, Ill. Descended from seventeen lines of New England ancestry, noted for their piety and patriotism, many of whom bore coats-of-arms, coming to America from England about 1630, helping to found many New England towns, and being men of affairs in their towns. The Stebbinses were original settlers of Springfield, Northampton, and Deerfield, Mass., and trace back to 900 according to the Domesday Book. The Odell line is very ancient, tracing back to 795, closely related to four kings of England, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, Edward II, and Henry VIII; also related by blood or marriage to fifty families entitled to bear arms. The first Baron Odell was Count of Flanders, a powerful, noble family, said to have possessed a complete and unbroken record back to Priam, King of Troy, about 1200 B. C. Numerous ancestors served in King Philip’s War, the Inter-Colonial Wars, French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and her father served three years in the Civil War. One noteworthy fact in connection with Mrs. Pool’s Odell lineage is that she is the 36th generation by direct descent from the first Count of Flanders, and that for thirty-two generations the line from father to son was unbroken. She has in her possession the whole line of genealogy; it is said to be correct beyond question, being founded upon documentary evidence and traced by eminent scholars and is one of the most ancient lineages on record. She belongs to the Taft-Emerson line. She and Ralph Waldo Emerson are descended from the same immigrant ancestor, Thomas Emerson. Robert Taft, the immigrant ancestor of William Howard Taft, is also her immigrant ancestor on that line. Roger Sherman, the signer, and Ethan Allen, are both connected with her line. Educated in the public schools of Illinois, and the State Normal University at Normal, Ill., she was, for twelve years, a successful teacher in the schools of Jo Daviess county. Married Nov. 24, 1898, at Rush, Ill., to Sherman Ira Pool of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, who is of Revolutionary descent. Member of the M. E. church. For many years an active Sunday School worker. Member of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, class of 1901; member of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, a noted historical society of Massachusetts; an ardent Daughter of the American Revolution, joining in 1901; had seven Revolutionary forefathers,. In 1908 helped organize and named the Revolutionary Dames chapter of Waverly, and served four years as registrar and historian, one year as regent. During her regency, was instrumental in locating and marking the site of a pioneer fort at Janesville, Iowa, the oldest town in Bremer county. October 8, 1913, organized the Clock-Reel Chapter of Janesville. Appointed state chairman committee on Preservation of Historic Spots, N. S. D. A. R. Elected state historian at the 14th conference, Iowa D. A. R. Represented her chapter at the 22nd and 23rd continental congresses at Washington. Devoted to the best interests of the society, and particularly to its historical work. Mr. and Mrs. Pool are antiquarians in taste, devoted to genealogical and historical research, and have made many historic pilgrimages. On one—which led them through the New England States, New York, and Canada, to the homes of their ancestors,—they attended a Field day of the P. V. M. A. at Deerfield, Mass., where Mrs. Pool had a prominent part in the program, at the unveiling of monuments to two of her Colonial ancestors, who were original settlers of Deerfield, 1686. They plan to take a trip every year, and an extensive one every two years. Mrs. Pool favors equal suffrage. [The Blue book of Iowa Women, by Winona Evans Reeves, Publ. 1914, Transcribed by Dana Kraft] Frederick Sundermeier Frederick Sundermeier. Among those citizens of German nationality who have found business opportunity in Montana and have improved it, is Frederick Sundermeier, owner and proprietor of the Troy laundry in Belt, who also has accumulated other valuable property holdings in that city. He began life in a business way as a retail grocer in Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa, where he continued very successfully ten years. Ambitious to avail himself of the greater opportunities for which the far West was famed, in 1892 came to Montana, locating at Great Falls in May of that year. He immediately entered the wholesale produce and commission business there but continued in it only one year and then removed to Sand Coulee to establish a laundry, the first in the town. Two years later he removed to Belt where he opened the Troy laundry, there being two other laundries there at that time. After a time, however, his competitors gave up the struggle and left Mr. Sundermeier as the only representative of that business in Belt. He has now been in the business eighteen years, is well established and has been successful. It is a hand laundry and is conducted in a building at the northeast corner of Main street which was erected by Mr. Sundermeier expressly for that purpose. Steady, persistent effort counts, whatever the line of endeavor. By his enterprise and stability of purpose, Mr. Sundermeier has not only developed a profitable business but has also become the owner of considerable real estate in Belt and is recognized as a business man of worth and ability. Mr. Sundermeier was born in Germany. February 19, 1855, and immigrated to America in 1865 with his parents, Henry and Wilhelmina (Clausing) Sundermeier, who settled in Bremer county, Iowa. There the father spent the remainder of his days as a farmer, passing to life eternal in 1890 when seventy-one years of age. The mother also was a native of the Fatherland and died in 1898 at the age of sixty-eight. Frederick was the first born of their three children who grew to maturity. His education begun in Germany was continued in the public schools of Bremer county, Iowa for two years. His life was spent on the farm until twenty-six years of age, when he began his business career at Waverly as previously mentioned. On May 19, 1887 at Waverly, Iowa, he was united in marriage to Amelia Koehler, a daughter of Frederick Koehler, a native of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Sundermeier have one son, Edward H., born in Waverly on March 20, 1890. In politics Mr. Sundermeier is an Independent, supporting the men and measures most nearly meeting his approval. In fraternal membership he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, and in church faith and membership he is a Lutheran. [History of Montana, Volume 3, 1913, distributed by Barb Z., transcribed by C. Danielson] Burton Erwin Sweet Sweet, Burton Erwin, of Waverly, member of the house from Bremer county, is a young man who belongs altogether to Iowa, for he was born, reared, educated and his professional life has been confined to this state. His parents, Alpheus E. Sweet and Isabelle Lyon Sweet, came to Iowa from Illinois in 1867 and settled on a farm in Bremer county. Here their son Burton was born December 10, 1867. They prospered on the farm and in time Mr. Sweet, Sr., accumulated sufficient capital to engage in banking as well. In 1853 Mr. Sweet had crossed the plains as captain of a wagon train going to California in search of gold, but he found a more certain avenue to fortune in Bremer county, Iowa. Mrs. Sweet was a school teacher and she instilled into her son a desire for an education. He attended the country school until he was about ten years old, when he went to the Tripoli high school at Tripoli, Bremer county, for a few years. For a short time he attended the State Normal School at Cedar Falls. He entered Cornell College at Mt. Vernon in 1889 and in 1893 was graduated from that institution. The same year he entered the law department of the State University and in 1895 was graduated and admitted to practice in the state and federal courts. While at Cornell he belonged to the Star Literary society and at the State University belonged to the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. Upon the completion of his law course he formed a partnership for the practice of law in Waverly with Edward A. Sager, the firm name being Sager & Sweet. The firm is doing a large and profitable business. Mr. Sweet was city solicitor of Waverly for three years, and during that time the firm successfully tried an important case for the city involving all the water rights in connection with the dam and mill site at Waverly. The firm has also tried a number of important criminal cases. Bremer county offered little promise of personal reward to a young republican, for it was at the best a close county and usually democratic. Nevertheless Mr. Sweet was a very active, as well as earnest, republican. He was always counted upon to help in campaigns, being a good speaker. In 1897 he was nominated for the legislature and after a hard fight was defeated by a very small plurality. He was chairman of the republican county central committee during the campaigns of 1898 and 1899, and in the campaign of 1898 the republicans for the first time elected all their important county officers except one. In 1899 Mr. Sweet was again nominated for the legislature and was the only republican elected in Bremer county in that year. The democratic majority on the head of the ticket was 153, so that he ran about 200 ahead of his ticket. Representative Sweet earned the respect and consideration of his fellow members for his clean and able service in the legislature. He was not given to exploiting himself before the house, but attended faithfully to his business. He belongs to the Grant Club in Des Moines and is one of the coming men in Iowa politics. [Biographies and portraits of the progressive men of Iowa, 1899] | ||
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