Representative Joseph H. Mack View All Years

HON. J. H. MACK

MR. SPEAKER — Your committee appointed to prepare and present suitable resolutions respecting the life and public services of Hon. J. H. Mack, a member of the House in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies, begs leave to report the following:

The subject of this memorial was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1837, and after residence in Indiana and Illinois, came to Madison county, Iowa, in 1857. He came up the river to Des Moines on a boat and landed near the mouth of Coon River. It was so wet and muddy that he traveled on foot from Des Moines to Grand River township, Madison county, Iowa. He was actively engaged in the practice of medicine for about twenty years, during which time he endured all the hardships and privations of the pioneer doctor. He also was engaged in the business of farming and acquired quite a number of farms in the community where he lived. He was very active in politics and during the last twenty-five years of his life determined the political affairs of the township where he lived. He was a veteran of the War of the Rebellion and served faithfully in the Forty-seventh Iowa Infantry until the termination of his enlistment. By reason of his energy and public spirit he laid out a town near the center of the civil township and by consent of all interested, it was named Macksburg in his honor. He was elected member of the House in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies and served on many important committees. During the latter years of his life he became deeply interested in the promotion of the Des Moines-Winterset-Creston Inter-urban Railroad. Although enfeebled in health by reason of age and the insidious ravages of an incurable disease, he spent the last years of his life to accomplish this object so dear to his heart, and it was because of his exposure and nervous strain incident to the prosecution of this enterprise that his death was hastened. He died on the 16th of March, 1908, leaving a record of patriotic services which will ever be cherished by the remaining members of his family, by his associates in the State Legislature, and a wide circle of friends.

Resolved: That the foregoing memorial be entered on the Journal of the House and that an enrolled transcript of same be presented to his widow, Mrs. J. H. Mack, Macksburg, Iowa.

E. R. ZELLER,

C. F. SWIFT,

J. H. DERROUGH,

Committee.