Honorable John S. Mott, This gentleman is an extensive lumber dealer at Postville, Allamakee, County. He was born on the 21st of May 1823, in Rockland, Sullivan County, New York, a mountainous region on the borders of the lumber district of the Delaware River: where, together with farming on a small scale, he was taught the lumber business in childhood. He had scarcely attained his sixteenth year when he began to pilot rafts down the tributaries of the Delaware, on their way to Philadelphia, where the lumber of that region chiefly found a market; and until 1865 he was engaged in lumbering and farming -- following one as a winter and spring and the other as a summer occupation. While in Rockland he represented his town several years on the Board of Supervisors. His health failing in 1855, he resorted to the water-cure establishment under Dr. Jackson, at Glen Haven, New York, and was greatly benefited by the treatment he received. Taking a deep interest in the Union cause during the late rebellion, and not feeling able himself to endure the hardships of war, he employed a substitute, to whom he paid $1,100 for enlisting in the service, at a time when the "draft" was not anticipated. In 1856 he came to Iowa, settled in Bloomfield Township, Winneshiek County, where he engaged in farming till 1867, when he removed to Postville, having built a house there the previous year. Postville was then just starting, and Mr. Mott is one of the oldest business men of the place. During that year he entered into partnership with Hayte & Burdick in the lumber business. He continued with them three years, when he bought out their interest. In 1872 he also bought out Seley & Shaw, another lumber firm, and thus had entire control of the lumber interest of the place 'till March, 1873. At that time another lumber yard was started. Mr. Mott has been very successful, and is still doing a large business in all branches of the lumber trade. When the Town of Postville was organized, the citizens elected him the first mayor. In 1871 he laid out an addition to the town, and has since done considerable in dealing in real estate. He was married February 16, 1853, to Miss Almina Dodge, of Rockland, New York, by whom he has had four children.

~transcribed by S. Ferrall