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Oliver J. Felton
Born Ca. 1863 |
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One of the substantial men and well known citizens of Cedar Rapids, where for the past nine years he has pursued his profession as an attorney at law, is Oliver J. Felton. A native of Jones county, this state, he was born on section 10, Madison township, and is a son of M. O. Felton, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in this volume.
Oliver J. Felton was reared at home and after completing the course of study prescribed by the local school near his birthplace, attended Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he received further instruction in the fundamental branches of English education and also the culture that is distinctive of men of his profession. In 1887 he engaged in teaching, being connected with educational work for the greater part of the five subsequent years. In 1889, he took up the study of law under the preceptorship of E. M. Sharow, of Davenport, and in January, 1891, was admitted to the bar, before the supreme court of Iowa. Straightway he established himself in Oxford Junction, where for nine years he practiced with a success that suggested the feasibility of entering larger and more remunerative fields. Accordingly in 1900 he removed to Cedar Rapids and has permanently identified himself with the bar there. A large constituency indicates the confidence he has won from the people among whom he has practiced for almost a decade, while a more tangible evidence of his success is afforded by the extent of the landholdings entered upon the records in his name or in that of his wife, for in addition to the old Felton homestead of two hundred acres which he and a brother, G. L. Felton, cashier of a bank in Middleton, Oklahoma, own, Mr. and Mrs. Felton are possessed of over one thousand acres in Jones and Linn counties. The greater part of the land in the latter county is embraced in the Brookdale farm, lying upon the outskirts of Cedar Rapids and is considered of great value.
On the 8th of December, 1891, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Felton and Miss Emma J. Eldred, a daughter of J. S. Eldred, a well known private banker of Oxford Junction. He was also one of the pioneer settlers of his part of Jones county, for in 1853 he entered two hundred and fifty-three acres of government land, which is still in the possession of the family.
Politically Mr. Felton gives unqualified allegiance to no party, but the best man and the measure that has for its object the advancement of the welfare of his fellow citizens invariably receives his support. The acumen which has distinguished his conduct of cases has also marked his land investments, for he has made a specialty of buying Iowa property and has derived therefrom a pronounced success. Ever a stanch advocate of his clients' interests, clever in summing up the evidence of a case and keen in the detection of subtleties in his adversary while he is ever on the alert to grasp the clue that will obtain for him an honorable victory, his name may well be placed among those who work for the fair name of their profession, at the same time acquiring a gratifying reward for the thought and labor expended in the behalf of others. He has never sought public office, but his influence has been just as effective for the advancement of the community as if he were the actual incumbent of a public trust.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 123. |
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© Copyright 1997-2013, The Art Department, © Copyright 2014-2020, Richard Harrison.
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