Frank Dolphin

Frank Dolphin, one of the prominent and deservedly successful business men of Lansing, was born in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, and there acquired his education in the public schools. With his father he came to Iowa in 1886 and settled in Lansing where they worked in a sawmill and engaged in the manufacture of lumber for two years. Mr. Dolphin of this review later bought a drilling outfit and for five years thereafter worked at drilling wells, building up a large and profitable patronage along this line.

Being ambitious for a broader field of labor and for a wider and more suitable scope for his activities, Mr. Dolphin determined to study electrical engineering and accordingly took a correspondence course in this science, becoming an expert practical engineer. Upon receiving his degree he joined William Nopper, who was in charge of the installation of the electric light and power plant at Lansing which was later merged into the Upper Iowa Electric Light and Power Company in which Mr. Dolphin is now the manager of the Lansing plant. He is also associated in business with Mr. Olson with whom he owns a steam power machine and a large blacksmith and wagon and repair shop, a large patronage being accorded them in recognition of the excellent quality of the work done and their straight forward and honorable methods.

Mr. Dolphin married in Waukon on the 10th of October, 1904, Miss Bertha Magnusson, who was reared and educated in Lansing. They occupy a comfortable and modern residence just adjoining the business plant and shop and they have made their home a center of warm-hearted hospitality. Mr. Dolphin is a Master Mason and belongs to the blue lodge in Lansing. He is identified also with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Yeomen. In politics he is independent, voting according to the dictates of his personal judgment, and while he is not in any sense an office seeker he is now in the second term of his able service as a member of the city council. In Waukon, Lansing and throughout Allamakee county he is known as a man of good business ability, of strict integrity and moral worth-an active, progressive and public-spirited citizen whose official record is marked by the same energetic, straightforward and conscientious work which has distinguished and made successful his business career.

-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich

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