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Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of
Iowa M MARQUARDT, GEORGE W., president of the Marquardt Savings Bank of Des Moines , and prominently identified with the business interests of that city, is a native of Germany . He was born in Elmshausen, Kreis Bensheim, Hesse-Dramstadt, February 9, 1832, and was the son of George W. Marquardt and Anna Mary Brecht Marquardt. The parents were farmers and by industry and thrift accumulated a competence. Their children, six in number, of whom George W. was the oldest, were educated in the public schools of Elmshausen. He learned the watch-maker's trade, commencing at the age of fourteen years. Six years later he concluded to try a larger field in America and came to Dayton, Ohio, in June, 1852, where he worked at his trade, and in less than two years saved two hundred dollars out of a salary of three hundred dollars per year, with which he came to Iowa City in March, 1854, and started in business in a small way. His business steadily grew from a small retail establishment to a large wholesale house. In 1881 the wholesale department was moved to Des Moines under the firm name of George W. Marquardt & Sons, and five years later the retail business was sold and the family with all its business connections moved to Des Moines. In 1892 the entire jewelry establishment was removed to Chicago and placed under the management of G. W. Jr. and C. G. Marquardt, sons of George W. The business had grown to such an extent that it demanded a more central location. Since he came to Iowa, Mr. Marquardt has been identified with many large business undertakings outside of his special line until now he is known more as a banker and capitalist than as a jewelry dealer, the latter business having passed into the management of his sons. He was a stockholder, director and vice-president of the First National Bank of Iowa City until 1887. In 1866 he assisted in establishing a large woolen mill in Coralville, Iowa. In 1881 the Iowa City Grape Sugar Company was organized and afterwards sold to a syndicate in Buffalo, New York, and the name changed to the American Glucose Company. Mr. Marquardt was interested in the Iowa City Republican Company, and was director and vice-president of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company of Iowa City. Since his removal to Des Moines he has engaged extensively in the banking business, becoming in 1886 a stockholder and director in the Des Moines Savings Bank. He was also a stockholder in 1875 in the West Branch Bank of West Branch, Iowa; in 1881 in the Iowa City Flint Glass Manufacturing Company; in 1891 in the Iowa National Bank, Des Moines, and in numerous other similar enterprises. The Marquardt Savings Bank, one of the leading banks of Des Moines, was organizes by Mr. Marquardt January 31, 1891. Mr. Marquardt has been its president ever since. His son, Harry S., was cashier until his untimely death in 1892. Mr. Marquardt was married June 2, 1859, to Miss Kate Kauffman, and to them have been born six children, three sons and three daughters: George W., Jr., is married to Miss Evelyn Allen, daughter of Reuben Allen; Charles Grant is married to Miss Libbie Roberts, daughter of W. S. Roberts; the daughters are: Effie L., married to W. F. Elliott, an attorney, and son of Judge Elliott of Indianapolis, Indiana; Lillian I., married to Dr. Crayke Priestley, and Della, who is unmarried. During all his life Mr. Marquardt has taken deep interest in religious affairs. He was a Lutheran in boyhood, but in Dayton, Ohio, became a member of the German Society of the Methodist Episcopal church, with which he has been connected ever since. He took a leading part in the building of the German Methodist church in Iowa City, and he has been the builder of two churches in Des Moines - the German Methodist Mission church at Seventh and Scott streets, and the German Methodist church on West Locust between Second and Third streets, which is a combination of business and church block. He has been three times chosen lay delegate to the Methodist Episcopal General Conference, in 1876 in Baltimore, in 1880 in Cincinnati and in 1884 in Philadelphia. The German College in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, owes much of its success to Mr. Marquardt, who has been director and treasurer for twenty-eight years, giving freely of his time and money every year to it support. The handsome building on the corner of Fifth and Locust streets, occupied by the Marquardt Savings Bank, is the property of its president, who is also the owner of much valuable property in the city. The Marquardt home on Grand avenue is one of the finest in the city, and also one of the pleasantest. The family is an ideal one, and Mr. Marquardt's life has in this as in other respects been crowned with marked success. He is known all over the state as well as in the city of his residence as a conservative, safe financier, who has been helpful in building up the city and gaining for it a reputation of conservatism and solidity that is of great value to those who are in business in Des Moines. McVey, Alfred Henry submitted by Dick Barton McVey,
Alfred Henry, a successful lawyer of Des Moines, was born in Fayette county,
Ohio, and is the son of Edmund and Sarah Eastlack McVey.
The McVey family (the name then being spelled MacVeagh) came to America
from Scotland about the year 1654, and the grandfather of A. H. McVey removed
from Pennsylvania to southern Ohio about 1800.
Mr. McVey's mother is descended from an old English family.
Her father, Marmaduke Eastlack, located in New Jersey about the time the
McVey family settled in Ohio. In
his boyhood Alfred H. McVey was a pupil in the public schools in Ohio and was
prepared for college at the Southwestern Normal school in Lebanon, Ohio.
His education was interrupted by the Civil War, for although he was only
a boy, he enlisted in the Seventy-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served
faithfully as a private soldier until he was honorably mustered out.
Returning from the war, he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, in
Delaware, Ohio, and was graduated in the classical course in 1868 with honors.
For a time he was a teacher in that college, but soon entered the law
department of Cincinnati College, which was then the oldest law school west of
the Alleghanies, from which he was graduated in due course.
He at once began the practice of his profession in Wilmington, Ohio, and
was successful from the start.
Removing to Toledo, Ohio, three years later, he became general counsel
for the Toledo, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway Company, and besides had a
large local practice, chiefly in the United States courts. In
1883 Mr. McVey yielded to a desire he had long cherished, and coming west, he
located in Des Moines, where he had since practiced with increasing success.
He was for a number of years a member of the distinguished firm of Cole,
McVey & Clark, but in 1896 he took into partnership his son, Edmund H.
McVey.
Ever since he came to Des Moines, Mr. McVey has been considered one of
the leading lawyers of the city and he has had a large and select list of
clients.
He has given especial attention to corporation and insurance law, and it
is as an insurance lawyer that he is best known throughout the West.
His practice extends into several states.
The firm engaged also in the general practice of the law.
The firm of McVey & McVey has finely equipped offices, with an
unusually good library, in the Good Block in Des Moines. In
December, 1901, he was appointed district judge in Polk County by Governor
Leslie M. Shaw. Mr.
McVey was married in January, 1869, to Miss Anna Holmes, daughter of Rev.
William Holmes, who is a direct descendant of Obadiah Holmes, who came from
England in 1639 and settled in Salem, Massachusetts.
He assisted Roger Williams in founding the Baptist church in America and
was one of the original proprietors of New Jersey, where he secured extensive
grants from the English crown.
Mr. and Mrs. McVey have five children.
Frank L., born in 870, was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University in
1893 and from Yale University in 1896 with the degree of Ph. D. He
is now professor of political economy in the University of Minnesota.
Edmund H., born in 1871, is a graduate of Yale University, where he
earned high honors, and is now his father's law partner.
William P., born in 1873, was graduated from Des Moines College and from
Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey, where he took first honors.
He studied for a time in the University of Leipsic, Germany, and is now a
leading pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Kate, born in 1880, is a graduate of the Women's College in Baltimore.
Charles, born in 1882, is a student in Drake University. The
McVey home, on North Fourth street in Des Moines, is one of the most atractive
in the city.
Both Mr. and Mrs. McVey are cultured people, and they have brought up
their children surrounded by a large library of good books, and helpful
influences. Moffit, John T submitted by Dick Barton Moffit, John T, of Tipton, lawyer and man of affairs, is a son of Hon. Alex Moffit who was a member of the Sixteenth General Assembly of Iowa. The father was born in 1829, in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, and came with his father to America and settled in Cedar county in 1840, where he has since resided. He is a farmer and lives on his farm and personally directs the management. The mother's maiden dame was Martha J. Poteet, who was born near Dayton, Ohio, in 1840, and came to Iowa in 1857. John T. Moffit was born on his father's farm, near Mechanicsville, Cedar county, Iowa, July 8, 1862. He attended the common schools of that county from 1868 until 1876, after which he spent three years in the Mechanicsville high school. In September, 1879, he entered the preparatory department of Cornell college, at Mt. Vernon, took the classical course, and on June 16, 1884, graduated with the degree of A. B. He was manager of the college base ball team for two years and held various offices in the Adelphian Literary society. He then entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and July 1, 1886, graduated from the law department with the degree of LL. B. In June, 1887, Cornell college conferred upon him the degree of A. M. In 1885 he enlisted as a private in the Iowa National Guard and rose successively to orderly-sergeant and second lieutenant in 1889, captain in 1890, and major in 1894. Governor Shaw issued his call for volunteers for the Spanish-American was on April 25, 1898. On this day Lieutenant-Colonel Moffit had been in his office attending to business as usual and was called from his bed about midnight by a message directing him to report at Des Moines forthwith to be enrolled. The next morning, after having travelled across half the state, found him reporting to the adjutant general for duty, at 9:30 A. M. He was enrolled as major of the Fiftieth Iowa on April 26; mustered into the United States service on May 18th, and on August 20th was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Fiftieth Iowa Volunteer infantry. This regiment was the first to leave Iowa for the south. He was regularly mustered out, with his regiment, on November 20, 1898. After his college days were over he formed law partnership with Charles E. Wheeler, under the firm name of Wheeler & Moffit, and commenced business November 1, 1887, at Tipton, Iowa. September 1, 1894, Judge J. H. Preston resigned his seat on the district bench and became associated with the firm of Wheeler & Moffit under the firm name of Preston, Wheeler & Moffit, and immediately the new firm opened an office in Cedar Rapids, to be conducted in connection with the one at Tipton. Mr. Wheeler withdrew September 1, 1897, and the firm is now Preston & Moffit. Judge Preston has charge of the business in Cedar Rapids and resides there, while Mr. Moffit looks after the practice in Tipton. they have been connected with all the important litigation of Cedar county and are regarded as a strong firm. Lieutenant-Colonel Moffit has always been a republican. He was a delegate from Iowa to the republican national convention which met at Minneapolis in 1892, being but 29 years of age at that time. He was one of the youngest members of that body, certainly the youngest of the Iowa delegation. He takes an active interest in politics, but has never sought office. In the spring of 1896, Tipton was organized into a city of the second class and he was elected its first mayor under the new order, although against his wish. He was president of the Republican club of Cedar county in 1888, and held a similar office in the McKinley club of Tipton in 1896. He was married to Miss Winifred E. Hecht, daughter of Fred and Margaret E. Hecht, at Clarence, Iowa, September 28, 1892. Has one daughter, Margaret Eleanor, born May 6, 1897. |