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E. A. MABON

The two most strongly marked characteristics of both the east and the west are combined in the residents of the section of country of which this volume treats. The enthusiastic enterprise which overleaps all obstacles and makes possible almost any undertaking in the comparatively new and vigorous western states is here tempered by the stable and more careful policy that we have borrowed from our eastern neighbors, and the combination is one of peculiar force and power. It has been the means of placing this section of the country on a par with the older east, at the same time producing a reliability and certainty in business affairs which is frequently lacking in the west. This happy combination of characteristics is possessed by the subject of this sketch. E. A. Mabon, a leading citizen and successful business man of Randalia, Fayette county.

Mr. Mabon was born in Kane county, Illinois, on September 13, 1867, and is a son of George W. and Augusta (Howard) Mabon. The subject's parents came from Illinois to Fayette county, Iowa, in 1869, and settled on a farm in Center township, one and a half miles from Randalia. He is still living in this vicinity and has long occupied an enviable standing in the community, being a man of unquestioned integrity of character and genuine worth. In politics he is a Republican, while his fraternal relations are with the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He and his wife became the parents of three children, two of whom are living. Mrs. Mabon died in 1887 and subsequently Mr. Mabon married Mrs. Jessie Averill and they have one son.

E. A. Mabon was reared on the paternal farmstead and received his education in the public schools of the home neighborhood. On attaining mature years he began business on his own account, engaging in the livestock business, and as a stock buyer he has been eminently successful, having been so engaged for twenty-two years. He was at Hawkeye for three years, but in 1892 he came to Randalia and bought eighty acres of land. Here he erected a fine residence and has made many other permanent and substantial improvements, bringing the place up to a high standard of efficiency. The present farm comprises two hundred acres, much of which is in cultivation, but Mr. Mabon now, as formerly, devotes the major part of his time to the stock business. He has been wide-awake to the best interests of his community and took a leading part in the organization of the Randalia Savings Bank, which was effected on July 20, 1908. Mr. Mabon was elected president of the new institution and is the present incumbent, much of the bank's success being due to his influence and business judgment. He is also a stockholder in the Randalia Creamery Company. He is a man of broad and comprehensive ideas and his business judgment is valued by those who are associated with him. Because of his ability, his genial disposition and his high personal character, he enjoys to a marked degree the good will and respect of all who know him.

Politically, Mr. Mabon gives an earnest support to the Republican party, in the success of which he is deeply interested. His fraternal relations are with Randalia Lodge, No. 177, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while religiously, he renders a generous support to the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On April 7, 1892, Mr. Mabon was united in marriage to Minnie Van Bogart, a native of Fayette county and the daughter of Frank and Amelia (Tromblee) Van Bogart. Her parents were natives of New York state. Mrs. Van Bogart died on September 1, 1886, and Mr. Van Bogart now resides at Hawkeye, this county. To the subject and his wife has been born one child, Sybil Adel, her natal day having been August 3, 1902."