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Permanent LinkRepresentative Matthew Henry Calderwood View All Years
MATTHEW HENRY CALDERWOOD, farmer, banker and legislator, died at Eldridge, Iowa, May 22, 1945; born May 4, 1863, in Winfield township, now a part of Sheridan township, Scott county, Iowa, the son of Henry and Nancy Ann Calderwood. The father came to America from Ireland in 1847 and for one year operated a sawmill at LeClaire before moving to the farm. A rural resident all his life, Mr. Calderwood served his community in many capacities, a champion of improved farming, better roads and good schools; attended rural schools in his youth and studied one year at Northern Indiana Normal school, Valparaiso, Indiana; married Sarah Ritchie Brownlie of Long Grove, Iowa, on September 20, 1887, and they went upon the farm at Eldridge, where his life was spent; aided in the organizing of the Eldridge Savings bank in 1889, serving as vice-president until 1901 when he became president and continued until 1931; was Scott county’s representative in the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first General Assemblies; first secretary of the Scott county Farmer’s Institute, also secretary of the Eldridge Mutual Telephone company since 1902, and director and past president of the Mississippi Valley Fair and Exposition; a former justice of the peace and president of the local school board for many years; a member of the Christian church and numerous fraternal societies. Six children survive him, a son and a daughter residing at the home in Eldridge.