Book Description

Excerpt from Portrait and Biographical Album of Mahaska County, Iowa: Containing Full Page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens of the County, Together With Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Iowa, and of the Presidents of the United States We have completed our labors in writing and compiling the Portrait and Biographical Album of this country, and wish, in presenting it to our patrons, to speak briefly of the importance of local works of this nature. It is certainly the duty of the present to commemorate the past, to perpetuate the names of the pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and to relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age, and this solemn duty which men of the present time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity demand that a record of their lives and deeds should Ire made. In local history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this region from its primitive state may lie preserved. Surely and rapidly the noble men, who in their vigor and prime came early to the county and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number remaining who can relate the history of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of historical matter without delay, before the settlers of the wilderness are cut down by time. Not only is it of the greatest importance to render history of pioneer times full and accurate, but it is also essential that the history of the county, from its settlement to the present day, should be treated through its various phases, so that a record, complete and impartial, may be handed down to the future. The present the age of progress, is reviewed, standing out in it old relief over the quiet, unpretentious olden times; it is brilliant record, which is destined to live in the future; the good works of men, their magnificent enterprises, tittle lives, whether commercial or military, do not sink into oblivion, but, on the contrary, grow brighter with age, and contribute to build up a record which carries with it precedents and principles that will he advanced and observed when the acts of soulless men will be forgotten and their very names hidden in obscurity. In the preparation of the personal sketches contained in this volume, unusual care and pains were taken to have them accurate, even in the smallest detail. Indeed, nothing was passed lightly over or treated indifferently; and we flatter ourselves that it is one of the most accurate works of its nature ever published. As one of the most interesting features of this work, we present the portraits of numerous representative citizens. It has been our aim to have the prominent men of to-day, as well as the pioneers, represented in this department; and we congratulate ourselves 011 the uniformly high character of the gentlemen whose portraits we present. They are in the strictest sense representative men, and are selected from all the callings and professions worthy to be given. There are others, it is true, who claim equal prominence with those given; but of course it was impossible for us to give portraits of all the leading men and pioneers of the county. We are under great obligation to many or the noble and generous people of this county for kindly and material assistance it the preregistration of this Album. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com