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1907 Past and Present Biographies

Benjamin Franklin Osborn

Benjamin Franklin Osborn, whose life of unwearied industry has made him one of the leading citizens of Rippey, and of Greene county, was born in Westville, Indiana, July 17, 1854. His father, William Osborn, a very successful farmer, was an active, popular and public-spirited citizen, who died in 1863 at the comparatively early age of thirty-five years, leaving five good farms and considerable other property for the support of his widow and five small children. His wife bore the maiden name of Charlotte Long and was born in Jackson county, West Virginia. She was a good business woman, a kind and affectionate mother and an active Christian. She died in Perry, Iowa, in 1897.

The ancestral history of the family can be traced back to a very remote period. Osborn is a very old name, having been known fully a thousand years. Representatives of that name removed from Scandinavia to Normandy and thence went to England at the time of William the Conqueror. The direct ancestors of Mr. Osborn of this review came from England to America early in the seventeenth century. For two hundred and fifty years, or as far as it has been possible for him to trace, the family have all been members of the Friends or Quakers church. While there have been a number of ministers and trades people in the family they alt have owned land and have primarily been farmers. Although not of a restless disposition, still they have been poscssed of the spirit of the pioneer and for seven successive generations the family have pushed westward, keeping to the front of civilization.

B. F. Osborn supplemented his early education by high-school and academic work in Westville, Indiana, where he spent some time as a high-school student and also as a pupil in the academy under Professor John Laird. He was a resident of Westville until the fall of 1870, when with his mother and her family he came to Iowa, settling upon a farm near Perry. The trip westward was made in an emigrant wagon and it required twenty-two days’ travel before they reached their destination on the 5th of October. Mr. Osborn of this review spent nearly two years on the farm before going to Des Moines to take up his school work. He was very successful as an agriculturist, but the desire for a better education made farm life seem tedious and irksome to him. He pursued a commercial course in the Iowa Business College at Des Moines, after which he entered Des Moines College and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1876, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. For special work in geology and zoiilogy he was granted the degree of Master of Arts by the Des Moines College in 1886. He did county normal work along the lines of nature’s study from 1884 until 1886 inclusive, and in 1889 and 1890 he was president of the Alumni Association of Des Moines College, while from 1889 until 1892 he was a member of the board of trustees of that institution. He took up the study of law and could have been admitted to the bar, but gave up the idea of becoming a member of the legal profession on account of an injury to his eyes during his last year in college. He possesses the natural instinct of the collector of the odd and curious. He began making collections when a small boy and by the time he was thirty years of age he had a very large general collection, covering geology, zoology and numismatics. Owing to the pressure of other work he was forced to abandon systematic collecting twenty years ago. He still has, however, a large part of his collection, which contains some valuable and interesting specimens. He has always been greatly interested in literature, history and science and has gathered together a large library, appertaining thereto.

In his youth his hours of play were few. He was only nine years of age when his father died and he early had to assist his mother in the care of their property. From the age of twelve years he has done a man’s business and carried a man’s responsibilities in the active affairs of life. He gave up further study in college at the earnest solicitation of his family, who opposed his further continuance in college work on account of his impaired eyesight. Then with an older brother he engaged in the grain and stock business in Perry, Iowa, in 1876. Through lack of experience, together with unusually bad markets, this venture proved unsuccessful and they lost heavily, at length closing out the business to prevent a complete failure.

After retiring from the grain and stock business Mr. Osborn took up the study of medicine under Dr. S. Pangborn of Perry. He also took up the study of pharmacy under his uncle and carried the two studies together, clerking at intervals in drug stores in Perry until the 11th of May, 1878, when he purchased the drug store in Rippey and has since been located at the same site, having recently completed his thirtieth year in the same building. As a boy on the farm he had given considerable time to the study of veterinary medicines. In small towns during pioneer days a druggist was expected to know a little of everything in relation to the medicines he sold, so that during his early experience as a merchant here Mr. Osborn not only put up medicine for the sick, but also acted as local dentist and as veterinary surgeon and cared for the dead. He now holds three certificates from this state, that of registered pharmacist, registered embalmer and registered veterinary practitioner, and is actively engaged in all three lines. In addition to his other interests he is a stockholder, vice president and director of the Greene County Telephone Company, also the local manager for Rippey. He is likewise a stockholder and director of the Rippey Savings Bank, and in business life has manifested a keen discernment and an aptitude for successful management which have made him one of the prosperous residents of the community.

While in college Mr. Osborn became a member of the Olmstead Zouaves, afterward known as Company A, Third Iowa Infantry, in which he continued as an active member for five years. While this command was often called out to do police duty, they never saw actual service. Mr. Osborn, however, has done considerable service of a public nature in other ways. In 1883 he was elected a member of the board of supervisors and filled that position for six years, discharging his duties with the utmost fidelity and ability. The opening of the big coal fields at Angus threatened to take all the business from Rippey, and in order to prevent this the business men of the latter town organized the Rippey Coal Mining Association in 1883, which. against the most trying and discouraging obstacles, finally succeeded in locating the vein of coal at Rippey, which was successfully worked for a number of years. Mr. Osborn was president during the life of the company and superintended all of the prospecting. He aided in the establishment of the Independent school district in 1884, was a member of the board that located the school site and had charge of the erection of the building. He was elected a member of the board of regents of the State University of Iowa in 1890, and served until 1896. His name thus became widely known in educational circles and he has long been recognized as a stalwart champion of the school interests of the state. Furthermore, he has figured prominently in many other ways promoting public interests. He was one of the charter members of the Iowa State Pharmaceutical Association, was vice president in 1888, and has served on a number of the more important committees of that organization. He was a member of the Iowa Academy of Science and is also a member of the Iowa State Historical Society, his identification therewith being a natural sequence of his deep interest in historical and scientific subjects. He is now president of the Pioneers’ Association of Boone, Greene, Guthrie and Dallas Counties, having served for a number of years, and was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls, in which capacity he is still serving, having been elected for a term that will continue him as the incumbent until 1910.

On the 17th of May, 1876, Mr. Osborn was arried in Perry, Iowa, to Mittie Shelton, who is a representative of an old Virginia family, having been born on her father’s slave plantation near Richmond. In her childhood her parents removed to the west, and most of her life prior to her marriage was spent in Keokuk, Iowa. Mrs. Osborn has a long and honored line of Virginia ancestors who distinguished themselves in both civil and military service. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Osborn have been born three children, two sons and one daughter: Dr. William S. Osborn, of Knoxville, Iowa, at present the superintendent of the State Hospital for Inebriates, who was married October 8, 1906, to Miss Lucy Martin of Cherokee, Iowa; Wayne M., who is a graduate of the law department of the State University of Iowa and is now looking after agricultural interests at Bennett, Colorado; and Charlotte Winston, who was married May 8, 1901, to Charles Larrabee, of Clermont, Iowa, by whom she has two sons, Charles, aged five, and Frederick O., aged two years. Mr. and Mrs. Larrabee reside at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and the Grandfather and Grandmother Osborn make frequent visits to their very interesting grandchildren there.

Mr. Osborn was a member of the Odd Fellows Society in Perry and so continued for several years, or until the lodge surrendered its charter. He joined the Masonic lodge in 1880, has since held all of the chairs and is past master. He is also a chapter Mason, a Knight Templar, a noble of the Mystic Shrine and a member of the Eastern Star, while in his life he exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the craft. He is one of the charter members of Rippey camp, No. 1761, M. W. A., was its first consul and served in that oflice for a number of years. He likewise belongs to Pawnee tribe, No. 104, Independent Order of Red Men. He is a stalwart republican and a member of the Grant Club of Des Moines. He has always been active in politics and has repeatedly served on township and county committees. Several times he has been chairman of the republican county convention and has attended a large majority of the republican state conventions during the past thirty years, also acting as chairman of the delegation. His labors have touched the general interests of society in this part of the state. He assisted in organizing the Rippey Commercial Club and became its first president, filling the position to the present time. He is likewise president of the Greene County Pharmaceutical Society. He has served for several years as a church trustee and was reared under Baptist influence, but has never identified himself with any religious organization. His influence, however, has always been given on the side of right, progress, reform and improvement, and the advancement which has characterized him in his business career and in his social relations has also been manifest in his public service whether such service has been as an office holder or as a private citizen. One who knows Mr. Osborn well said of him: “He is a man thoroughly worthy the respect of his fellowmen, and those who know him give him their warm esteem and admiration.”

There are some points which constitute the logical deductions of the foregoing life record. To those at all familiar with this history it is well known that what his hand has found to do he has done with his might and with a sense of conscientious obligation. There have been no sensational chapters in his life record, but the account is that of a man who has done his duty day after day to the best of his ability. His leisure hours have been few, and what he has undertaken he has carried forward to successful completion, whether for the promotion of his private business interests or the advancement of matters of public moment. Not given to self-laudation or praise, he nevertheless enjoys in full measure the esteem of those with whom the varied relations of life have brought him in contact.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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