ADAM PICKETT, who is serving as county attorney of Union County, with executive offices in the courthouse at Creston, has been a resident of Iowa for more than forty years, has the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was long and prominently identified with educational work in the state, and finally, in 1919, he initiated the practice of law at Creston, where he continued to give his attention to his private law business until he was elected county attorney, in which office he is now serving his second term.

Mr. Pickett was born on a farm twenty miles distant from the City of Belfast, Ireland, March 13, 1862, and is a son of Robert and Ellen (Fraser) Pickett, who likewise were born in Ireland but both of whom were of Scotch lineage, on which score they were zealous members of the United Presbyterian Church, in the faith in which they were reared. Robert Pickett continued his activities as a farmer in Ireland until his death, in 1870, and in 1884 his widow and children came to the United States, where Mrs. Pickett soon made settlement in Greene County, Iowa. She was venerable in years at the time of her death, in July, 1908, in Missouri. Mrs. Mary Ann Gray, eldest of the children, is a widow and now resides in New York City, she having come with other members of the family to the United States and she and her husband having resided many years on their farm in Missouri. Her daughter, Miss Irene Gray, was actively identified with Government war services in the World war period, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and later at Columbia University, New York City, where she and her widowed mother now maintain their home. Robert, Jr., eldest of the sons, resides at Sullivan, Indiana, and is a foreman in coal mines near that place. Adam, of this review, was next in order of birth, and Joseph, youngest of the children, resides in Detroit, Michigan.

Adam Pickett was a lad of eight years at the time of his father's death, and his early education was obtained in the schools of his native land. He preceded his widowed mother and the other children to the United States, in 1882, and in coming to Iowa he advanced his education by attending the Normal School at Dexter; Highland Park College, at Des Moines, this state; and the Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloomfield, Illinois, from which last named institution he received his degree of of Bachelor of Philosophy, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy having later been conferred upon him by the same university. His law studies were prosecuted in the University of Chicago and in the law department of the University of Drake University, Des Moines.

During the long period of thirty years Mr. Pickett was a successful, influential and popular teacher in the Iowa public schools, and during the final twelve years of this period he was superintendent of the public schools of his present home city of Creston. After his retirement from the pedagogic profession, in which he had made a splendid record, he here engaged in the practice of law, in 1919, and his ability and popularity soon brought to him a substantial and representative law business that engrossed the major part of his time and attention until he was elected county attorney, in November, 1926, the election of November, 1928, having marked his reelection to the office, in which he continued to give a characteristically loyal, vigorous and acceptable administration. It is to be noted that he gave seven years of service as justice of the peace at Creston, a position to which he had engaged in the practice of law in this city. Mr. Pickett is a stalwart advocate and supporter of the cause of the Republican party.

In August, 1893, Mr. Pickett was united in marriage to Dora L. Nichols, nee Clayton, who was born in Jones County, this state, and who received the advantages of the Iowa public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Pickett have no children. They are zealous and loved members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city, of which he is a trustee, and it is to be recorded also that he gave thirty-four years of faithful service as a teacher in the Sunday School. In the state in which they have lived and wrought to goodly ends Mr. and Mrs. Pickett may truthfully be said to have a circle of friends that is limited only by that of their acquaintances.

NOTE: Adam Pickett was the principal of the Mount Ayr Community School from 1900 to 1908, and provided a strong influence in educational improvement and advancement of Ringgold County. ~ SRB

SOURCE: HARLAN, Edgar Rubey. A Narrative History of the People of Iowa Vol. IV. p. 38. American Historical Society. Chicago. 1931.

Transcription by Debbie Gerischer for the Iowa History Project, an IAGenWeb Special Project