PROF. J. W. EDWARDS, A. M. Professor John William Edwards, occupying the chair of chemistry in the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, was born near Bloomingburg, Fayette county, Ohio, in July, 1872, and is a son of Charles W. and Harriet S. (Blanpied) Edwards, the former a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. The paternal grandfather, J. M. Edwards, was principal of the Flughes high school at Cincinnati for twenty-five years and was widely recognized as a leading representative of public instruction in his state. Charles W. Edwards was reared in Cincinnati, and after attending the public schools spent three years as a student in Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, that state. He had previously learned the machinist's trade, and after the completion of his education he resumed mechanical pursuits and made rapid advance in that department of labor. He was with the Big Four railroad shops and had charge of the brass department. He was also offered the. position of master mechanic, but is now connected with the physical department of the Ohio Wesleyan University in the capacity of mechanician. His wife was a daughter of John Blanpied, who was born in the Island Guernsey, in the English Channel, of French parentage, and in early life was a sailor, but later entered the Methodist Episcopal ministry and spent his last years in or near Delaware, Ohio. Mrs. Edwards, mother of our subject, is also yet living. Professor Edwards, pursuing his early education in the common schools of Fayette county, Ohio, afterward attended the high school in Delaware and in 1888 entered the university of that city, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1895. In the meantime he had spent two and a half years as an instructor in chemistry in another school, and from an early age he has found special delight and interest in this science. Following his graduation he entered Tufts College of Massachusetts, where he pursued a special course in chemistry and won the degree of Master of Arts in 1897. He afterward spent one year as instructor in Ohio Wesleyan University and in the fall of 1898 was offered and accepted the chair of chemistry in the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant. Here he has since remained and is regarded as one of the strong members of the faculty, establishing the work of his department upon a splendid basis, so that the study of chemistry has become a matter of deep interest to the students, a large number of whom pursue that branch of science. In fact, his department is now one of the most important of the university. When Professor Edwards came to Mount Pleasant he had charge of all the scientific work, but has been given assistant instructors and now concentrates his attention upon the work connected with the chair of chemistry and physics. He is splendidly qualified for the position and his labors have been of direct and permanent benefit to the institution. He belongs to the American Chemical Association and to the Iowa Academy of Sciences and finds congenial companionship with many of the noted scientists and educators of the county, thus keeping in constant touch with the advanced thought of the present day. On the 22nd of March. 1900. Professor Edwards was married to Miss Bertha T. Thompson, a daughter of Edward Thompson, of Delaware, Ohio. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and enjoy that social prominence which is the recognition of genuine personal worth. Professor Edwards was for nine years in the post office at Delaware, Ohio, and through this means, associated with teaching, he was enabled to pursue his college course. The latent strength of his character was thus manifest in his determination to acquire an education, and the same persistency of purpose has marked all of his work and contributed largely to his success as an educator. Prominent in Masonic circles, he was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Alason in Delaware, Ohio, and still retains his membership in the lodge there. He is likewise a member of Hemy Chapter, No. 8, at Mount Pleasant, and Jerusalem Commandery. No. 7, Knights Templar, of this city. He served as high priest of the chapter, which he also represented in the grand chapter, and he is the present eminent commander of the Knights Templar and has been the grand senior warden of the grand commandery. He has also attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish rite, being a member of Zarepath Consistory, No. 4, S. P. R. S., of Davenport. That Professor Edwards is a man of scholarly attainments is a fact which has been shadowed forth between the lines of this review, but that he is not a recluse is shown by his active work in the Masonic fraternity, with the teachings and tenets of which he is in hearty sympathy. He maintains high ideals of citizenship as well as in his chosen field of labor, and Mount Pleasant numbers him among her representative men. whose course reflects credit upon the city and the university with which he is connected. ©2009 Genealogy Trails