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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Albert
Lufkin A
notable example of the successful self-made man was the late Albert Lufkin, and
as such he made his influence felt among the people of Jasper County, where he
cast his lot in pioneer days and labored for his own advancement and that of the
locality as well, thereby earning the right to be classed among the leading
citizens of his day in the community honored by his citizenship.
His life was a long and interesting one, fraught with much work and much
good; indeed, it is doubtful if any man of a past generation was so intimately
intermingled with the history, of the city of Newton and Jasper County as was
Mr. Lufkin and his career may well be studied with profit by the youth standing
at the parting of the ways whose career is yet a matter for future years to
determine, for it was not only successful from a material viewpoint, but it was
wholesome in every avenue, exemplary in every relation and a model worthy of
emulation by all who would be counted among those who win in the battle which we
commonly call life and leave behind us the greatest of all heritages, an honored
name. Mr.
Lufkin was born on a farm situated on Casco Bay, Maine, about twenty miles from
Portland, at the town of Freeport, on January 7, 1831. He was the son of
Benjamin and Eliza (Pote) Lufkin, both of English extraction and both natives of
Freeport, Maine. His parents and
all four of his grandparents are buried in the cemetery at that place.
The farm on which the subject was born was partly cleared for the purpose
of using the wood in boiling down sea water in making salt, and in his boyhood
he plowed up fragments of the old salt kettles, interesting relics of a pioneer
industry. His early education was
obtained in the public schools. In
addition to the common branches taught, he began the study of algebra and while
yet at home he took up the study of geometry and trigonometry without a teacher,
using an old work on navigation, published in 1758.
He learned the use of logarithms and commenced the study of navigation
from this book. He finished his
course in Bowditch's Navigation unaided, after which he entered the North
Yarmouth Academy, which he attended several terms. He followed teaching for
several years, after leaving school, specializing on mathematics, which branch
he taught one term in Yarmouth Institute. He
then attended a school of engineering at Providence, Rhode Island, under Prof.
William A. Norton. The latter being
called to Yale, the subject, with most of his class, followed and entered the
school of engineering at Yale University, taking a course of scientific
engineering and chemistry. Leaving
New Haven, Mr. Lufkin went to work
for H. T. Walling at map making. In 1853 he took a position with the
Pennsylvania Railroad as topographer. After
making the surveys on the north branch of the Susquehanna River, he went to
Philadelphia and spent the winter drafting for this road and while there he
attended sixty lectures, having joined the Franklin Institute and the
Pennsylvania Historical Society. In
the spring of 1855 Mr. Lufkin came west and located in Jasper County, Iowa,
purchasing a farm in what is now Richland Township, for himself and his brother
William, who came out in the fall of that year. On
October 9, 1855. Mr. Lufkin was married to Catherine Griffin, of Freeport,
Maine. In the spring of 1858 he was
elected County superintendent of schools and moved to Newton in August of that
year. During his term of office he
succeeded in having built many better school buildings. He held the office two
terms and made many friends among the people, teachers and pupils.
He then began the first set of abstracts of titles in Jasper County, In
1869, in company with Gen. James Wilson, he established the Jasper County Bank,
in which Mr. Lufkin was interested for over ten years.
While yet in the bank he bought an interest in the foundry and machine
shop of James Edgar & Company and with J. H. Lyday and James Dutot continued
the business under the name of the Newton Machine Works.
Later he became sole proprietor. While
he was in the machine shop, Rev. D. H. Rogan came to him with sewing machine
plans, and in a room of Mr. Lufkin's stable was built the first sewing machine
ever manufactured west of the Mississippi and the first ever run with a thread
for a belt. This was later sold to
the Singe Sewing Machine Company. The
death of Mr. Lufkin occurred in 1907, and that of his wife in 1880. Their family
consisted of one daughter and two sons namely: Mary, Arthur K. and Herman, all
of whom are married, and the sons are successful businessmen and influential in
their communities. In
1881 Mr. Lufkin married Fannie E. Derbyshire, and one child was born to this
union, which died in infancy. Mr.
Lufkin traveled extensively in this country, having visited all the states but
four, and Canada repeatedly, also old Mexico. Mr.
Lufkin was for over twenty years a member of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He was one
of the leading men of his day and generation and to him Jasper County owes much
and here his memory will long be cherished. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 646. |
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