Representative Daniel Alanson Emery View All Years

DANIEL ALANSON EMERY

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character, and public service of the Honorable Daniel A. Emery, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

Mr. Daniel Alanson Emery, who represented Wapello county in the Thirty-ninth General Assembly, was prominent in Ottumwa civic, church, political and business circles for more than half a century before his death November 12, 1943, at the age of 85 years.

Mr. Emery was born in Ridgeville Corners, Ohio, June 18, 1858, the son of Josiah Bartlett and Mary Harper Emery. The father died in 1861, while engaged in recruiting an Ohio company for the Union army. The widow and two sons came to Wapello county in 1863, and Mr. Emery lived in the Wapello county and Ottumwa community since.

Mr. Emery attended rural and Ottumwa public schools; in 1881 he was graduated from Highland College in Kansas, and in 1883 he received a law degree from the University of Iowa. He actively practiced law for 10 years in Ottumwa and maintained his membership in the Bar Association. At the time of his death he was the dean of local attorneys.

Mr. Emery was president of the Peoples Building and Savings Association when he died. He helped establish the firm in 1892 and served as its secretary until 1939. He was a past president of the Iowa State Building and Loan League.

He helped organize the Ottumwa Rotary Club more than 25 years ago and served as an early president. He helped organize the company that built the present Ottumwa Hotel, and served as an officer in the association many years. He helped pioneer electric lights for Ottumwa, and helped organize many other activities.

Mr. Emery had a public career that included one term as a member of the State House of Representatives, 1921-22; secretary of the State Board of Education, 1909-13; member of the Ottumwa City Council, 1892-93; and city police judge, 1916. He also was prominent in Republican Party politics for fifty years.

For many years Mr. Emery was associated with the Iowa National Guard, being a charter member of the original Company G of the Second Regiment, in 1884. He served in the Company for seventeen years, rising from private to captain. During the Spanish-American War he was Brigade Quartermaster at Camp McKinley, at Des Moines.

Mr. Emery also had a long record in Masonic circles. He was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar, and a Shriner.

He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Ottumwa for eighty years, served on all of its boards, and was an honorary life member of its Board of Elders at the time of his death. He lived a long, honorable and active life, and will be greatly missed in his community.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Fifty-first General Assembly, That in the passing of the late Honorable Daniel Alanson Emery the state has lost a valued and honored citizen, and the House would tender, by this resolution, its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of his family in their sorrow; and

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be instructed to send an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

DEAN AUBREY,

WADE H. MCREYNOLDS,

JAMES A. COWAN,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted,