CASS COUNTY ABSTRACT AND TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY.

This is a stock company founded in 1875 by Ezra Willard and Isaac Hopper, who conducted it as a partnership concern until 1889, when Clinton S. Fletcher, R. G. Phelps, J. S. Harlan and J. F. Hubbard incorporated it. At that time Mr. Fletcher was made general manager, and continued to act in that capacity until 1893, when Charles A. Grubb was chosen to the position. The present officers of the company (1906) are J. F. Hubbard, James E. Bruce and D. S. Crain, directors, and Charles A. Grubb, manager. The capital stock is $3,000, and the company does a general abstracting business, being recognized as one of the business institutions of Atlantic and Cass county which none of their people would be willing to do without. In the discharge of their important duties, its officers and employes [sic employees] are made to exercise the utmost care, and as it is responsible and reliable to the limit of its powers, any document issued under its seal commands the confidence of individuals and the public without reservations.

CHARLES A. GRUBB, manager of the Cass County Abstract and Title Insurance Company, is a native of Clinton county, Iowa, and was born on December 21, 1868. His parents were Amaziah B. and Nancy E. (Bryan) Grubb, natives of Ohio. The father, the late Amaziah B. Grubb, at the time of his death of December 12, 1905, the honored mayor of the little city of Preston in Jackson county, was a harnessmaker and saddler, and from the commencement of his apprenticeship until near the close of his long life of almost seventy-eight years, wrought diligently at his trade with a high reputation for the excellence of his work and the strict integrity and straightforwardness of his business dealings in every respect. He was born in Ohio, on December 27, 1827, and when he was but three years old the family moved to what was then the Territory of Michigan, where he remained seventeen years and obtained a common school education. In 1847 he changed his residence to Goshen, Elkhart county, Ind., and there, on April 28, 1854, he was married to Nancy E. Bryan. They became the parents of five children: Fannie, who died when she was about two years old; Edwin J.; Harry W., who lives in Denver; Charles A., of Atlantic; and Will B., of Kansas City, Mo. All stand high in the places of their residence and are contributing to the elements of progress in their several communities.

After his marriage the father remained in Goshen engaged in the harness and saddlery business until 1866, when he decided to change at once his residence and his business. At that time he moved to Clinton, in this State, and opened a gorcery [sic grocery] store which he conducted for a number of years. In 1889, deciding to return to his old craft and again change his base of operations, he crossed the line into Jackson county and once more turned his attention to making harness and the saddlery trade, in which he continued until the day of his death.

Politically Amaziah B. Grubb was always a Democrat, and a leader in the councils of his party, wherever he lived. In Indiana he was always in the front rank, and showed himself to be one of those serviceable spirits, who can be ever depended upon not only to do their own part in the work of the world, but supply the deficiencies of others. If an important meeting was to be held in his part of the State, he was the man whose skillful and resourceful mind directed the arrangements for it. If a special service was, to be rendered, he either possessed or found the means required for its performance. The great men of the party, such as United States Senators Voorhees, McDonald and Turpie, in his locality, counted upon him as the local Hercules whenever the team stuck in a rut, and called upon him to pull it out. He was well known and highly appreciated by them, and none among the rank and file of the party hesitated to give him due credit for his saving power in every emergency. And yet, as is nearly always the case, in the fairmindedness of the American mind, even in all the madness of its political contentions, he was highly appreciated by the other side, and looked upon as a man of high integrity and sterling worth, as is proven by the intimate relations and warm friendship existing between him and Vice-President Schuyler Colfax. He had not been in Preston very long before he became a Democratic leader there. He was twice elected mayor of the village, and was a good and efficient officer. Even when the shadows of death were darkening around his couch, he showed his deep and constant interest in the welfare of the community he so much loved, and used his failing strength in directions for its promotion. In business he was careful and painstaking, honorable and upright in all his dealings, and if making mistakes of the head, always avoiding those of the heart. He was also open-handed, warm-hearted and unostentatiously charitable. A long life and a useful life closed when he went to his long rest, and at its close he was laid to his peaceful slumbers with every demonstration of popular esteem and affection, and borne to the tomb by the men who were sharing his labors in behalf of the village and best knew his worth.

The grandfather, Andrew Grubb, was a native of Virginia and a renowned school teacher of the early days. He wrote an arithmetic which was long used in the schools, a copy of which is still preserved among the heirlooms of the family. The book was written with a quill pen, and is a beautiful specimen of penmanship, which in those days of simplicity of life and seriousness of purpose, was called the "Queen of the Arts." He was also a teamster boy in the closing years of the Revolution, and in the early days of farther western emigration, became a pioneer of Ohio, where he died in the fullness of years and of local celebrity.

Charles A. Grubb was reared in Iowa and educated in the common schools. He began life as a telegraph operator for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, which he served in that capacity for a period of five years, after which he attended a business college at Clinton, Iowa. In 1892 he became a resident of Atlantic, and since then he has been continuously connected with the business in which he is now engaged. In the meantime, however, he had studied law, and in 1899 he was admitted to practice. In June of the same year he was united in marriage with Lulu Gillespie, a native of this county. They have two children--Kenneth A. and a daughter, Doris M. In political faith Mr. Grubb is a Rebublican [sic Republican], and while devoted to the principles of his party he has never been an active partisan. In fraternal life he is connected with the Knights of Pythias.

From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 347-350.