Representative David Jackson Pattee View All Years

HON. DAVID J. PATTEE

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to draft resolutions commemorating the life, character and public services of the Honorable David J. Pattee of Okoboji, Iowa, a late member of the House of Representatives, begs leave to report the following memorial:

David J. Pattee was born December 22, 1839, in the county of Chittenden, state of Vermont, and died at his summer home at Okoboji, Iowa, July 19, 1912, at the age of seventy-three years. He was educated in the public schools of Vermont in his native county of Chittenden, afterward clerking in a store until a call for troops to preserve the union came, and David answered the call, as had his ancestors in the war of the Revolution. The young man enlisted in the Ninth Vermont, and took part in the battles of that regiment, being captured at Harper’s Ferry. While on parole he was discharged for disability. He then came to Des Moines, where he again took a position as clerk. While here he again entered the military service, this time in the Forty-seventh Iowa. Shortly after his re-enlistment he was made Lieutenant and later Captain of his company. Upon his return from the army he became a partner in the business where he had been clerking, and where his position had been kept open for him while he was serving his country.

In 1867 he went to the new town of Perry, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and afterwards the realty and loan business, and in 1883 in company with another he opened a private bank. Later the firm purchased the controlling interest in the First National Bank of Perry, and he became President, a position which he held until the last.

After serving as Supervisor of the county a year, Mayor of the city three years and Postmaster thirteen years, Captain Pattee was elected in 1883 and 1885 to the House of Representatives. He was Chairman of Municipal Corporations and a member of several other important committees. Mr. Pattee was an active member. It is said of him by those who ought to be familiar with his work that no man has done more for the town where he lives than Captain Pattee. In 1903 he gave to the city a tract of twenty acres for a park.

When death came the city felt his loss keenly, and on the day of his funeral nearly every business house in the city was closed during the services, and everywhere there seemed to be a feeling that the community had sustained a great loss.

Captain Pattee was married in 1872 to Miss Belle Moore, daughter of Mr. John H. Moore, also a pioneer of the town of Perry. They were the parents of six children, one of whom with the mother passed away before the father. Therefore be it

Resolved, That in the death of David J. Pattee the state and nation has been called upon to mourn the departure of a worthy, upright citizen, a great statesman and an honorable man; and be it further

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be printed in the Journal of the House.

HENRY BRADY,

F. S. SHANKLAND,

J. W. JACOBS,

Committee.

Adopted April 16, 1913.