Polk Co. IAGenWeb

CASADY, P. M. — Many of the early settlers of Fort Des Moines have been eminently successful. They were men of intellectual, moral, and physical stamina, industrious, energetic, and shrewd, and early laid a good foundation, and have built slowly, yet surely and safely. Among these is P. M. Casady. He was born near Connersville, Indiana, on the 3d day of December, 1818, where he received his early education at the seminary of that place. He was raised on a farm, and finding the routine of farm duties unsuited to his taste, early resolved to devote his life to some other occupation. Finding in the law a wide field for the employment and cultivation of his best powers, he decided to fit himself for that profession, and was admitted to the bar February 16, 1841. In 1842 he was appointed Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court of Rush county, Indiana, and held that office until he decided to remove to Iowa, in May, 1846. He arrived at Fort Des Moines on the 11th of June of that year, and commenced the practice of law in this and adjoining counties, and was appointed postmaster by Cave Johnson, Postmaster-General, under the Polk administration, and resigned December 31, 1848. The same year he formed a partnership. with R. L. Tidrick, under the firm name of Casady & Tidrick, which existed until 1853. April 5th,1847, he was appointed School Fund Commissioner for Polk county, and resigned the office in eight or nine months. In August, 1848, he was elected State Senator for the district composed of the counties of Marion, Polk, Jasper, Dallas, and all the counties to the Missouri River, west, and to the State line on the north, and served two regular sessions, the Second and Third General Assembly of the State Legislature. He was elected Judge of the Fifth judicial district, and received the commission, was sworn into office, but immediately resigned the office, and accepted the appointment of President Pierce of Receiver of Public Moneys for lands, subject to sale in this district, and, continued in this office until his resignation was accepted in the spring of 1857. He then formed a partnership with Gen. M. M. Crocker, and in 1859 J. S. Polk was taken into the firm, under the firm name of Casady, Crocker & Polk, which. continued until 1861, when Gen. Crocker retired to enlist in the service of his country. In 1864 Judge Casady retired from the practice of law and devoted his attention to his private business. In July, 1875, he organized the Des Moines Bank, of which he is president. Mr. Casady was married June 27, 1848, to Miss Augusta Grimmel, a native of Ohio. By this union they have three children: Simon, Frank and Rose (now Mrs. Henry).