Espeset Family

ESPESET

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 2/13/2011 at 20:16:24

The name Espeset has been well known in Emmet county and has been associated here with integrity, ability, and public spirit for more than fifty years, or eve since the arrival within the county of Knute Espeset, who was one of the early settlers, coming in 1865. He was long prominent in business and political circles of the community. His attention was first given to farming and subsequently he engaged in the farm implement and hardware business, becoming one of the foremost as well as one of the early merchants of the county. He also figured prominently in connection with political interests and held the office of county sheriff and county treasurer. His son, James Espeset, was a native of Allamakee county, but was reared upon the home farm near Estherville and in early manhood took up the profession of teaching. At one time he served as deputy county treasurer and was also deputy postmaster. Later he entered the employ of the Estherville State Bank, with which institution he was identified for quarter of a century, being the cashier thereof at the time of his retirement in 1910. Since then he has devoted his attention to the abstract business. He married Edith Graves, who was born in Winneshiek county, Iowa, but was reared in Emmet county, having been brought to this county during her infancy by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Graves. Her father was one of the founders of Estherville and became the pioneer banker of this section of the state. Mrs. Espeset has always been prominent in church work and social activities and is a member of the P. E. O., the Eastern Star and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

From such ancestry comes Howard Espeset, a son of James Espeset, and fortunate is he that his lines of life have been cast in harmony with the untarnished family record. He was born in Estherville, April 2, 1882, and attended the Estherville public schools, being graduated from the high school with the class 1898, after which he studied for a year at Parsons College in Fairfield Iowa, and for three years in the State University of Iowa at Iowa City, being graduated from the latter institution in 1902, at which time the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy was conferred upon him. He then entered the field of baking and continued to occupy the position of assistant cashier of the Estherville Sate Bank until 1912. Since that time he has been engaged in the abstract business with the firm Graves & Espeset. This firm was established by Howard Graves in an early day, and as the county records were burned in the courthouse fire of 1876, the only evidence of title to lands in Emmet county prior to that time is found in the old abstract books used by this firm.

In 1910, in California, Mr. Espeset was joined in wedlock to Miss Marie Thomas of Las Vegas, Nevada. Mrs. Espeset is interested in church activities and in women's club work. Mr. Espeset holds membership in the Presbyterian church and he is a member of the Masonic and Elks lodges at Estherville and of the Estherville Commercial Club. In politics he has always been a republican and for some time gas been actively identified with the work of the party in Emmet county, but has never sought nor desired public office. He is interested in all that pertains to the welfare and upbuilding of city and county, however, and for a number of years was a member of the city library board. His influence is always on the side of progress and improvement and his entire career has been actuated by high and honorable purposes, his life measuring up to advanced standards of manhood and citizenship.

Source: History of Emmet County and Dickinson County Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1917.