W. O. Bock
W.O. Bock
W. O. Bock, well known in New Albin by reason of many years of
capable, intelligent and faithful service as postmaster of the
city, was born in Sweden in 1859, and is a son of Charles J. and
Mary E. Bock, natives of that country. The parents crossed the
Atlantic to America in 1868 and came immediately to Iowa,
settling in Lansing, where the father followed his trade until
his retirement from active life, when he moved to New Albin,
where he made his home until his death, which occurred when he
was eighty years of age. The mother had also reached the age of
eighty when she passed away. Of the eight children born to their
union seven survive, the youngest having died in infancy. The
others are: Charley, who resides in New Albin; Julius, of
Dubuque, Iowa; Alfred, who makes his home in Wausau, Wisconsin;
Andrew, of Waukon; W. O., of this review; Mary, who married W. A.
Cutting; and Edward, a resident of New Albin.
W. O. Bock was nine years of age when his parents settled in
Lansing and there he grew to manhood, acquiring his early
education in the district schools and later attending high
school, where he completed the full course. At the age of sixteen
he began his business career, securing a position as clerk in a
store and continuing this connection for sixteen years, the last
four of which he spent as manager. In 1888 he formed a
partnership with J. M. Tartt, and they opened a grocery and drug
store in New Albin, continuing to conduct it until the fall of
1912 and securing in the meantime of important and representative
patronage, accorded to them in recognition of their upright and
honorable business methods and their earnest desire to pleases
their patrons. Mr. Bock was first appointed postmaster of New
Albin in 1888 by President Harrison and at that time he served
for four years in a capable and thoroughly satisfactory manner.
He was appointed to the position for the second time in 1903 and
he has since served, having in the meantime accomplished a great
deal of constructive and beneficial work, managing the department
under his charge with ability, foresight and public spirit. For
the past two years he has been connected with business interests
in the city as the proprietor of a profitable real-estate
business and he has handled a great deal of valuable property,
his judgment being considered sound and reliable on all matters
relating to present or future land values. His business career
has been successful because his methods are both practical and
modern and because he has won the confidence of his patrons and
the public at large by his straightforward and upright dealings
throughout the years of his residence here. He has valuable
individual holdings, owning a quarter of a section of land in
North Dakota, four hundred acres, well improved, in Minnesota and
a fourteen hundred tract in on of the best agricultural districts
of Montana. He owns also a fine home in New Albin and is
connected with important business interests here. Having come to
the city in the days of its pioneer settlement, he took advantage
of the opportunities for investment, and purchased a great deal
of property on the town site, being today part owner of all of
the vacant lots within the original town limits. His business
interest are at all times capably conducted and his success has
followed as a natural result of his earnest, straightforward and
persistent labor.
In 1881 Mr. Bock was united in marriage to Miss Cora E. Tartt, a
native of Allamakee county and a daughter of James and Phoebe
Tartt, the former born in Tennessee and the latter in Illinois.
They spent the last thirty years of their lives in New Albin, the
father dying in this city at the age of seventy five and the
mother passing away at the age of seventy-four. In their family
were seven children, of whom three survive, as follows: Walter
B., of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; Oscar C., also of this city;
and Cora E., the wife of the subject of this review. Among those
deceased was Mrs. H. F. Hutter, the former wife of Dr. Hutter, of
New Albin. Mr. and Mrs. Bock became the parents of two children,
the eldest of whom died in infancy. The other is a son, Forest W.
M., who was born in 1892. He is a graduate of the New Albin high
school and is now attending college at Mount Vernon, Iowa. The
family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr.
Bock is an active and successful religious worker, having for the
past twenty-five years served as Sunday school superintendent and
a member of the official board. Fraternally Mr. Bock is connected
with the Masonic lodge and his wife is a member of the Eastern
Star at Lansing. He gives his political allegiance to the
Republican party and is at all times interested in the growth and
development of Allamakee county, cooperating heartily in
movements for the general advancement and expansion. The period
of his residence in New Albin covers a quarter of a century and
the many sterling traits of his character are, therefore, well
known to his fellow-townsmen, the great majority of whom number
him as a friend.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich
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