Benjamin W. James
Benjamin W. James is
successfully established as a manufacturer and dealer in
the best grade of cemetery monuments of granite and
marble and in this line of enterprise is the worthy
successor of his honored father; who was one of its
pioneer exponents in Clayton county. Mr. James has well
equipped business quarters in the thriving city of
Guttenberg, and is one of the representative business men
and popular and influential citizens of his county.
Mr. James was born in Millville township, this county, on
the 20th of June, 1863, and is a son of Charles and
Amelia (Greybill) James, the former of whom was born in
Dillon, Staffordshire, England, August 17, 1826, and the
latter of whom was born at Richfield, Pennsylvania,
October 4, 1834, coming with her parents, Thomas and
Amelia (Womer) Greybill to Guttenberg on May 2, 1842.
Charles James, the father of the subject of this sketch,
was but four years of age at the time of the family
immigration to America in 1830, and his father, Thomas
James, first established the family home in the state of
New York. Later he resided at Massillon, Ohio, and at
Janesville, Wisconsin. He met his death as the result of
a ship wreck in Thunder Bay on Lake Huron, dying as the
result of the exposure. For many years prior to leaving
England he was employed as a mechanic in work on Windsor
Castle. Charles James acquired his early education in the
schools of New York and Ohio, and at Cleveland he served
a thorough apprenticeship to the trade of marble and
granite cutting, in which he became a skilled artisan.
After leaving the Buckeye state he resided for some time
at Galena, Illinois, and was engaged as traveling
representative of the R. L. Rosevro Monument Company, now
of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1862 he came with his family
to Clayton county, Iowa, and established his residence in
Millville township, where he became the owner of a small
farm and where also he continued actively engaged in the
granite business for many years, many fine specimens of
his handiwork being found in the various cemeteries of
Clayton county at the present day. He died at his old
home in Millville township on the 17th of August, 1896, a
sterling and honored citizen of the county that had
represented his home for more than thirty years. He was a
stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican
party, and was a zealous member of the United Brethren
church, as is also his venerable widow, who now maintains
her home in the city of Waterloo, this state.
Of the children, the subject of this review is the
eldest; Ada is the wife of Louis Wentworth, a wholesale
lumber dealer and contractor, of Omaha, Nebraska; Hannah
is the widow of Caleb Kenyon, and in her home at Waterloo
she has the companionship of her loved mother; William is
a substantial farmer of Millville township; and Dwight
and Esther are deceased. After having duly profited by
the advantages of the public schools of his native
county, Benjamin W. James gained a higher course of
academic discipline by attending Leander Clark College,
at Toledo, Iowa.
Under the effective direction of his father he gained
thorough knowledge of the trade of granite and marble
cutting, and he has been successfully established in the
monument business and northwest land investment at
Guttenberg since 1895, the high grade of his work and the
effective service given, having combined to make him
one,of the leading exponents of this line of business in
Clayton
county, where he has ever held impregnable vantage place
in popular confidence and esteem. The Republican party
has the unswerving allegiance of Mr. James, and though he
is loyal and public-spirited as a citizen he has never
been troubled by aught of ambitian far palitical office.
He is the owner of an attractive home property at
Guttenberg, besides his place af business and a tract af
valuable land in La Maure and Stutsman counties, North
Dakota. He is affiliated with the local lodge af the
Independent Order af Odd Fellows and he and his wife are
zealaus and official members of the Methodist Episcopal
church at Guttenberg.
On the 8th of October, 1894, was solemnized the marriage
af Mr. James to Miss Minnie B. McCrum, daughter of Thomas
and Martha McCrum, of Earlville, this state, and they
have two sons - Paul G., who. was born March 20, 1897, is
at present superintendent of the Consolidated Schools at
Fertile, Iowa, and Dwight, who.o was born February 21,
1904.
source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg 194-196
-submitted by S. Ferrall
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