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Permanent LinkRepresentative Victor Felter View All Years
VICTOR FELTER, horticulturist, farmer and former state legislator, died May 15, 1960, at Indianola; born on a farm and nursery near Crystal, Tama County, Iowa, April 7, 1877, the son of Harvey and Anna Hillman Felter; received his high school education at Washta in Cherokee County, purchased a farm near Cherokee, exhibited purebred swine at the Chicago International Live Stock Exposition in 1900; attended the first farmers’ short course at Ames in 1901, and was secretary of the Cherokee County Farmers Institute, 1898-1903 and one of the first county corn clubs, 1903-1908; married Edith Green at Washta June 8, 1904; directed the famous Iowa “Horn of Plenty” agricultural exhibit which won the grand prize at the San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915; farmed in Dallas County three years, judged agricultural and horticultural products at numerous county and district fairs in Iowa and other states, and had a fifty-year association with the state fair as an exhibitor, judge of county exhibits for ten consecutive years, and superintendent of the agricultural building; helped organize several Iowa farm bureaus in 1917, and was Pottawattamie County agricultural agent at Oakland from 1918 to 1926 before purchasing and establishing a large commercial orchard north of Indianola; resigned as president of the Warren County Farm Bureau to become a successful Republican candidate for state representative in 1930, was re-elected to the state legislature in 1932 and 1934, also being president of the Warren County Farmers Institute, 1930-1932, Warren County Fair, 1932-1934, continuing as secretary of the latter till 1939; was a past president of the Iowa State Horticulture Society, receiving its Gold Merit award in 1953, Iowa Fruit Growers Association, Iowa Fair Managers Association, Iowa Bee Keepers Association and served as director of the school district 27 consecutive years; ceased his fruit growing operations in 1951, and removed to Indianola in October, 1957; elected president of the Indianola Garden Club, and was an active member of the Methodist Church; survived by his wife, two daughters, Mrs. Harold Hopkins, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Mrs. Marvin Cone, Moscow, Idaho, and two of three sons, Victor of Missoula, Montana, and Donald of Cainsville, Missouri.