- GODDEN & BALLARD, dealers in monuments and gravestones,
are well known in the business
- circles of this and adjoining states. They have perhaps as
large a marble factory as there is in Iowa. Their sales for 1895
will doubtless reach $60,000. They constantly employ from fifteen
to eighteen men, and they are furnishing marble and granite work
for parties throughout the states of Iowa, Minnesota, North and
South Dakota, and Nebraska. They have at the present time, thirty-eight
soliciting agents, one general and two special agents. Their
business is constantly and rapidly increasing and they are contemplating
the erection of a mammoth new building and adding greatly to
their present facilities for turning out work.
- J. H. GODDEN was born at Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1861.
He came to Iowa in 1879, and to
- Emmetsburg in 1880. In 1882 he was married to Miss Nettie
POTTS, of this city. Public enterprise claims him as one of its
ideal exponents. His ambition is permeated with the spirit of
improvement. He has built nine residences in this city, and he
has spared no efforts to adorn and beautify them. Though a comparatively
young man, his business career has been one of remarkable success
and intense zeal for the material advancement of Emmetsburg.
- S. W. BALLARD is more of a conservative type of a man. He
was born at Marion, Ohio, in 1840.
- Six years later his father moved to Erie County, New York.
At seventeen, our subject left home, working for a time in the
lumbering regions of Pennsylvania, later in a paper mill and
after this on a farm. When the war broke out he enlisted and
made a creditable record as a soldier. Returning home at the
close of hostilities, he became a traveling salesman for a seed
firm, holding the position for two years. He was
subsequently engaged in sinking oil wells in Pennsylvania and
farmed in Illinois for some time. In 1871 he came to this county
and settled in West Bend township. In March, 1873, he was married
to Emma S. LA BAR. Two sons and three daughters blessed their
home, four of whom are living and attending the public schools
of this city. After living 12 yeas on the farm, he became a partner
of Mr. GODDEN in the marble business. Mr. BALLARD is a successful
business man and a respected citizen and he has prospered. Besides
his marble interests, he has five large farms in this county.
-
- From "Emmetsburg Democrat [Emmetsburg, Palo Alto
County, Iowa] 1895 Christmas Souvenir"
-
- Courtesy of a transcriber.
|