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DAVID THATCHER DENMEAD.
One of the most conspicuous figures in the recent history of Marshall county was the late lamented David Thatcher Denmead, for many years widely known as one of the leading financiers of central Iowa. He was equally known as a citizen whose useful career conferred credit upon the community and whose marked ability gave him distinctive precedence as one of the most progressive and successful men that ever inaugurated and carried to successful termination large and important undertakings in this locality. Strong mental powers, invincible courage and a determined purpose that hesitated at no opposition entered his composition,...
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DAVID THATCHER DENMEAD.
One of the most conspicuous figures in the recent history of Marshall county was the late lamented David Thatcher Denmead, for many years widely known as one of the leading financiers of central Iowa. He was equally known as a citizen whose useful career conferred credit upon the community and whose marked ability gave him distinctive precedence as one of the most progressive and successful men that ever inaugurated and carried to successful termination large and important undertakings in this locality. Strong mental powers, invincible courage and a determined purpose that hesitated at no opposition entered his composition, rendering him a dominant factor in the business world and a leader of men in important enterprises. His exceptionally useful and industrious career proved that rare business talent is composed of a combination of high mental and moral attributes; that it is not simply energy and industry; that there must be sound judgment, breadth of capacity, rapidity of thought, justice and firmness, the foresight to perceive the course of the drifting tides of business and the will and ability to control them, and, withal, a collection of minor but important qualities to regulate the details of the pursuits which engage attention. All who knew Mr. Denmead are a unit in the opinion that he afforded an exemplification of the high talent referred to, if not in its most eminent development, yet a most extraordinary character, who, in the theater of his varied operations, achieved a reputation which placed him among the first of Iowa financiers and distinguished business men. No one did more for the material and general development of Marshalltown and vicinity than he, for he had their interests ever at heart and unswerving faith in their future greatness. His career might well be studied by the youth standing at the parting of the ways, whose destinies are yet matters for future years to determine, for in it they will find inspiration to press forward despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles and to shape their lives according to wholesome ideals.
Mr. Denmead was born on December 4, 1849, in Baltimore, Maryland, the scion of a prominent old family, and the son of Thomas and Caroline Denmead, he having been next to the last member of a happy household of ten children. These parents moved from the city of Baltimore when their son, David T., was young, and after a short residence in Martinsburg, Alex-son, David T., was young, and after a short residence in Martinsburg, Alexandrea and Wheeling, Virginia, settled in Steuberville, Ohio, where the subject spent the greater part of his early life and where he attended the public schools. Later he was sent to school at Gambier, Ohio, and thence to the Ohio Military Academy near Cincinnati.
After leaving school, Mr. Denmead started to learn the railroad business, finding employment in the clerical department of the Pittsburg, Chicago & St. Louis railway. Later he engaged in general merchandizing and coal mining in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, meeting with encouraging success in both lines, this venture marking the beginning of his business career. Believing that there existed a wider field for the exercise of his talents in the middle West, he came to Marshalltown, Iowa, in April, 1876, and, his keen business discernment enabling him to see a great future for this locality; he decided to make his permanent residence here, soon entered the employ of Woodworth & Son; lumber and coal dealers, with whom he was later taken into partnership, the firm name becoming Woodworth & Denmead. The Woodworths subsequently sold their interests to the late W.F. Battis and the firm name was changed to Battis & Denmead, the latter selling out to his partner and retiring from the firm in 1884.
Shortly before Mr. Denmead disposed of his lumber and coal business the first wholesale grocery company was organized in Marshalltown, the concern being known as Lacey, Letts & Gray, but Sylvester Letts and Fred Gray, two of the co-partners with F.C. Letts, could not see any future for the business in Marshalltown, and Lacey and Gray sold a portion of their interests to Mr. Denmead, who, with Mr. Letts and others, established the wholesale grocery concern that is still in existence and which has been most successful.
Turning his attention to banking, Mr. Denmead sold his interest in Letts, Fletcher & Company and purchased stock in the City Bank, then a private bank of which Mr. Denmead's father-in-law, the late James L. Williams, was president and principal owner, Mr. Denmead entering the bank as bookkeeper, later becoming assistant cashier, and upon the reorganization of the bank into a national bank in 1890, he was promoted to cashier. Four years later, following the death of Mr. Williams on January 29, 1894, Mr. Denmead was elected to the presidency of the City National Bank, which position he held until the consolidation of the City and the First National banks in 1908, and the City National Bank went out of business as far as its name was concerned. In May, 1907, when the old First National Bank went through its trouble, Mr. Denmead, it is generally conceded, was the one man who saved that institution from impending disaster. With a courage that was most heroic he threw his private fortune into the enterprise and stemmed the tide of approaching ruin that was rapidly developing. With remarkable business judgment, he piloted the bank safely through, no act of his business career being more splendid, illustrating, as it did, those finer qualities of the man in disregarding personal risk for the larger good. Mr. Denmead succeeded J.P. Woodbury as president and took charge of the bank's affairs, becoming president of the First National in addition to the presidency of the City National, the consolidation of the two banks under the name of the First National taking place on May 4, 1908, and almost a year later, on January 1, 1909, the First Trust and Savings Bank was organized, of which Mr. Denmead also became president. In addition to his extensive banking interests, which he carried forward in a manner as to stamp him a modern captain of industry, he had many other financial interests, including heavy investments in land. As secretary and treasurer of the Adams & Denmead Company, a corporation formed to handle South Dakota and northern Iowa land, Mr. Denmead had much money invested in farm land in Charles Mix county, South Dakota, and in Dickinson county, Iowa, near the town of Terril. Aside from his land company's interests, he had many personal investments in Aurora and Davison counties, South Dakota, near White Lake and Mitchell.
Aside from the Adams & Denmead business, J.Q. Adams, of Okoboji, and Mr. Denmead were interested in the Adams Investment Company, incorporated in Marshalltown about the first of the year 1911, but with offices in Chicago. This company handles Montana and Pacific coast lands. In another land company, formed in partnership with Thaddeus Binford, of Marshalltown, under the name Binford & Denmead, the subject had extensive investments in the Panhandle country, in Texas. He was also interested in many local business enterprises. being a director in both the Western Grocery Company and the A.E. Shorthill Company, and a stockholder of both the Tremont Company, which rebuilt and owns the Tremont block, and the Pilgrim Hotel Company. He was also a stockholder in the Continental and Commercial National Bank of Chicago. Besides his interests in the Tremont and Pilgrim hotel properties. Mr. Denmead, with C.C. St. Clair, owned the Woodbury building at First avenue and Main street. Mr. Denmead owned the store building at No. 317 South Third avenue, occupied by the Stepan Drug Company, together with three building lots in Ferner's addition, three in Industrial addition, and three in the Cracker Factory addition, also the Denmead home place at No. 405 West Main street, Marshalltown. He was one of the three wealthiest men in Marshalltown, having long been regarded as one of the leading citizens of Marshall county in its commercial affairs and he was the first to be consulted when any large venture, either public or private, was contemplated. Judicious investment in lands during a long period of rising values had accumulated for him a fortune and placed him in the front rank of Iowa's twentieth century men of affairs, for as a business man, fully in touch with the progress of the times, Mr. Denmead easily stood in the head column among his compeers in this state, having been broad-minded and liberal in his relations with the public and possessing a genius for large and important undertakings, essentially an organizer and promoter by nature and possessing a keen, visualizing attribute which enabled him to foresee with remarkable clearness the future outcome of a present transaction. His judgment was ever sound and seldom at fault, his sense of honor unquestioned and his fidelity to the right as he saw and understood the right ever unswerving in all the relations of life, these qualities, with shrewd tact and well developed common sense, enabling him to achieve a series of continued successes such as few in a much longer life attain. His private life, having been marked with integrity and a strong sense of justice, won for him the esteem and confidence of all who came within range of his influence. He was extremely benevolent in his daily life, giving largely and freely to all charities, his personal contributions to the local churches and the Young Men's Christian Association being particularly liberal.
The domestic life of Mr. Denmead began on April 30, 1879, when he was united in marriage with Gertrude Alice Williams, a lady of culture and refinement, and the only daughter of the late James L. and Jennie (Bagley) Williams. Mr. Williams was the first mayor of Marshalltown and well known in business and social circles for many years. This union was graced by the birth of three sons, all young men of much promise and high standing in all circles in which they move. They are James L. Denmead, vice-president of the First National Bank, in which Harry K. Denmead is also employed; and Dwight H. Denmead, who is engaged in the brokerage of stocks and bonds and the management of his father's landed interests.
Although public-spirited and ever ready to assist in movements calculated to result in the general good of the public. Mr. Denmead never sought the arena of political conflict, finding but little time to devote to public or fraternal organizations, and his lodge affiliations were confined only to two organizations, the Masons and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was affiliated with Lodge No. 108, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, but never went further than the blue lodge. His membership with the Elks was held in the local lodge, Marshall No. 312. He was also a member of the Marshalltown Club and the Chicago Automobile Club. His beautiful, commodious and elegantly furnished residence was known as a place of old-time hospitality and good cheer to his many friends, who were limited only by the circle of his acquaintance.
This useful and distinguished citizen was called to close his earthly accounts and summoned to his reward "in the windowless palaces of rest" on Sunday, June 11, 1911, in Cincinnati, Ohio, whither he had gone to attend the funeral of a relative, his death having been sudden, although Mr. Denmead had been in failing health for over two years.
1912 'Past and Present of Marshall County, Iowa'
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David T. Denmead, president of the First National bank of Marshalltown, Iowa, fell dead of heart disease at Cincinnati, where he went to attend the funeral of his brother-in-law. (The Mahoning Dispatch - Fri., June 16, 1911, pg. 2)
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