H. M. BOORMAN, ATLANTIC
It is the lawyer who is best versed in the practical affairs of life and who is equipped, as well, with a broad fund of legal knowledge, that is destined to make a mark in the modern world. When to wide experience and solidity of knowledge, is added finished and eloquent oratory, it is a foregone conclusion that substantial success will accompany every step of such a personality.
From the first the career of H. M. Boorman, the widely known attorney and orator of Atlantic, was destined to be upward, by the very logic of his life events; one step taken, the other must follow -- there was no other way. He was reared in an agricultural community, and in early life acquired a taste of banking. Later, he was associated with the grain trade, and afterward became thoroughly conversant with practical finances. In the meantime he had been a hard student at law, and in the midst of his successes of more recent years has never abandoned his legal studies. With the experience indicated above, Mr. Boorman settled in Atlantic as an attorney, drawing his clientage largely from an agricultural, business and financial community, with whose character and requirements he was so thoroughly conversant. All his previous life and training spelled the success which has been his from the first.
In brief, the facts of Mr. Boorman's life are that he was born in Grant county, Wis., on the 3d of January, 1857, his parents, John and Eliza (Brodt) Boorman, being natives of New York, of German descent. The father, who was a well-to-do farmer, removed to Wisconsin about 1840, and after clearing and improving a tract of land, resided there for many years. Besides engaging in agricultural operations, he opened a general store which he conducted for about ten years, finally acquiring a competency upon which he retired to his native State, where he is still living. His wife died in 1902, the mother of six children -- four sons and two daughters -- Mr. Boorman being the only child living in Iowa. The grandfather, Benjamin Boorman, was an Englishman by birth, but migrated to the Empire State, where he passed the balance of his life.
H. M. Boorman was reared and educated in Wisconsin, being trained in school, on the farm and in the store. Quite early in life he entered the bank of Humphrey & Clark, at Bloomington, that State, and held for some time the position of teller. In 1881 he came to Atlantic, and for a year was associated with D. F. Gilman & Co., buyers of grain. In the following year he became connected with the Atlantic National Bank, and was identified with that institution for five years as assistant and cashier. But Mr. Boorman's ambitions were far above those of a bank clerk, and, while faithfully performing the duties of his positions, he had commenced the study of law. In May, 1889, he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the State, and since that date has followed his chosen profession in Atlantic with increasing popularity and reputation.
In 1883 Mr. Boorman was married at Atlantic to Mary McDaniels, a daughter of John McDaniels, for many years president of the National Bank of that city. They have one child, Ella, who graduated from Oberlin College in 1905. She was married October 17, 1906, to the Rev. O. P. Bell of Chicago, Ill., son of Henry Bell of Cass county. Mr. Boorman is highly honored in the fraternity circles. In politics he is a Republican, but belongs to the independent element of the party, and leans toward popular control, not only of corporations, but of the general policies of the country.
As a summing up of his professional character, it may be stated that no member of the Cass county bar has a higher reputation for breadth of legal knowledge, or a brighter name as a finished orator, than H. M. Boorman of Atlantic. He is the attorney for the Atlantic National Bank, as well as special counsel for a number of prominent business institutions, and is considered pre-eminently safe as a legal adviser. Further, he has gained a reputation second to no attorney in the State for the successful handling of damage cases against railroad corporations, and his services are in full demand in Iowa and adjoining States in other lines of special legal work. Finally, it is the decided opinion of his associates and his numerous clients that the solidity of his legal equipment and his broad judgment especially quality him for judicial duties.
From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 274-275.
