Representative Robert Melvin Peet View All Years

HONORABLE ROBERT M. PEET

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorative of the life, character and public services of the late Honorable Robert Melvin Peet of Jones county, Iowa, beg leave to submit the following report:

Robert Melvin Peet was born in Fairview Township, Jones county, Iowa, the son of James M. and Anna Dallas Peet. Gideon Peet, his grandfather, entered five hundred sixty acres of land in Fairview Township at the land office in Dubuque in 1840. He lived only a few years after that and his sons assumed management of the place. Mrs. Gideon Peet died in 1847. Soon after James M. Peet purchased the interest of the seven brothers and one sister and became the sole owner of the farm. James M. Peet was the father of Robert M. Peet, better known as Mel, and Mel assumed control of the land in 1877 when James M. Peet retired and moved to Anamosa. Since 1877 Robert Peet added to the original acreage of the farm through sane investments and hard work until the place is listed at twelve hundred acres all in one farm in addition to large acreages in other localities. It is one of the largest farms in this part of the state and one of the finest—a beautiful monument to a man whose greatest joy in the success he attained was in the happiness it enabled him to bring to his family and friends.

On Thanksgiving day of 1878, Robert Peet was married to Miss Carrie Belle Carbee, daughter of William and Harriet Smith Carbee, and they have lived on the home place ever since. In 1888, Mr. Peet built the fine brick house across the road from the old farmstead.

Surviving are Mrs. Peet and eight children: Mrs. W. F. McCarty of Ames, Iowa; Mrs. Meda Bowdish and Miss Minnie Peet of Anamosa, Iowa; Mrs. Ora Mayes of Tipton, Iowa; Mrs. H. L. Aarenfight of California; Mrs. W. E. Dandridge of New Orleans, Indiana; and James W. and Robert M. Jr., of Anamosa, Iowa. There are also nine grandchildren.

In politics Robert Peet was a democrat. He served as a member of the Board of Supervisors in Jones county for four years and was elected Representative from Jones county and served in the Thirtieth and Thirty­first General Assemblies.

Therefore, Be It Resolved, That in the passing of the Honorable Robert Melvin Peet, Jones county and the state of Iowa have lost a valuable and honored citizen and that this General Assembly bear unanimous witness of his upright life and his honorable service to his state. He was a man honored and trusted, of sterling quality and irreproachable character.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

THOMAS STIMPSON,

JOHN R. GARDNER,

GEORGE SCHLATTER,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, April 19, 1937.