Representative Wilfred Parriott Dawson View All Years

HON. WILFORD P. DAWSON

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life and service of the Honorable Wilford P. Dawson, late of Cherokee county, beg leave to submit the following memorial:

Wilford P. Dawson was born near Brodhead, Green county, Wisconsin, April 2, 1859, and died at Aurelia, Iowa, October 13, 1928, at the age of sixty-nine years, six months and eleven days. He was a prominent figure in political and agricultural circles in the state of Iowa for many years. He received his education in the public schools of Wisconsin and through constant study at home. For nine years during his early manhood he taught school during the winter months and worked on farms in the summer.

Mr. Dawson came to Iowa in 1882, settling on one hundred and sixty acres of prairie land in Cedar township, Cherokee county. Three years later he married Miss Edith Lockwood of Warwick, New York. To this union ten children were born, one dying in infancy. In 1893 he purchased and moved on a nearby farm where he lived nine years, then buying and living on a farm near Quimby. In the year 1907 Mr. Dawson purchased three hundred and twenty acres in and adjoining the town of Aurelia and here the family has since resided.

Prominent in politics and agricultural circles, Mr. Dawson had a wide acquaintance over the state. He took a sincere and active interest in agricultural affairs, for which he received due recognition. He was presented with a certificate of eminent service and honorary degree of bachelor of science by the Iowa State College for distinguished service along the line of scientific farming.

Mr. Dawson was the first president of the Cherokee County Farm Bureau was chairman of the State Legislative Committee for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, and was appointed by the Governor as a member of the state commission to investigate and report on agricultural industrial conditions. The past year he had been president of the Iowa Farm Credit Corporation. He was president of the Iowa Horticultural Society for a number of years, president of the Corn Belt Meat Producers Association for one year, and the first president of the Iowa Potato and Truck Growers Association. He was president of the Square Deal Hail Insurance Association.

Mr. Dawson was a strong supporter of the Republican party, but progressive in his ideas. He represented Cherokee county in the State Assembly during three terms where he became a leader among his associates and received appointments on some of the major committees. The Republican party presented his name as a candidate for Congress from the Eleventh District in 1922, but the nomination was lost by a small margin.

Mr. Dawson has served as a member of the local school board. During the war he gave freely of his time as a member of the Cherokee county draft board. It can be said of Mr. Dawson that he was a man of recognized ability. He was thorough in everything he essayed to accomplish, in his agricultural pursuits and equally so in his other tasks that presented themselves. It was by this thoroughness that he was recognized and intrusted with responsibilities of a major nature.

Mr. Dawson was a member of the Unitarian Church of Sioux City, Iowa, and as a fraternalist held connection with the Modern Woodmen and Knights of Pythias. During the past few years Mr. Dawson had spent much of his time in the city of Des Moines as president of the Hail Insurance Association, as chairman of the Farm Bureau Legislative Committee, and in other capacities that demanded his presence there. Mrs. Dawson also spent the past few winters there but they still retained their residence in Aurelia.

Mr. Dawson is survived by his wife and nine children: Harry Blaine of Los Angeles, California; Ada Joyce Chase of Sioux City, Iowa; John Jesse of Cherokee, Iowa; Wilford Clay of Aurelia, Iowa; Emory Ward of Fulda, Minnesota; Manley Roosevelt of Chicago, Illinois; Leland Stanford of Aurelia, Iowa; Wendell Holmes of Aurelia, Iowa, and Edith Celestine Smith of Lakota, Iowa; a sister, Mrs. Nettie Alexander of Larrabee, Iowa; and a brother, S. N. Dawson of Campbell, Minnesota.

He will be greatly missed in the home, in community and state, but the fact that he has measured out in service to humanity many times that expected of an average life, should be great consolation to all who feel the loss of his departure.

Therefore, Be It Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the state of Iowa takes this occasion to express its appreciation of the character and services of this valuable citizen.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be printed in the journal of the House and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased in care of Mrs. W. P. Dawson, at Aurelia, Iowa.

C. C. R. BUSH,

G. W. SMITH,

J. PARK BAIR,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted April 8, 1929.