History of Marshalltown, (Marshall County) Iowa United States of America

Hiram Landis Getz of Marshalltown, ranks among the foremost physicians and surgeons of the state, and has also been prominent in political and educational circles; commissioned by President Cleveland, July, 1894, for a term of four years as postmaster at Marshalltown; was for a number of years a member and twice elected president of the Marshalltown school board; elected president of the department of school administration, National Educational association, 1896. He is of German and Swiss descent, although his ancestors have lived in America many generations. His father, Levi Gross Getz, was a farmer and fancy stock breeder, noted for his integrity and thrift. He died in February, 1896, in Lancaster county, Pa., aged 68 years, having spent the most of his life on the farm which had been owned by the family since 1804. John Getz, the doctor's grandfather, was an extensive land owner, and was also engaged as a school teacher. His wife, Magdalena Gross, was of German descent. Jacob Getz, Sr., the doctor's great-great-grandfather, emigrated from Pfalz, Germany, during the eighteenth century, and settled in eastern Pennsylvania. Maria Long Landis, Dr. Getz's mother, was a resident of Manheim township, Lancaster county, Pa., and is a descendant of Rev. Benjamin Landis, who came to America in 1717, from the vicinity of Manheim, on the Rhine, where his ancestors had been driven from Zurich, Switzerland, about 1660, on account of their religious belief, Hans Landis having been there beheaded in September, 1616. Their denomination was that of Pietus or Mennonites. The Landis family is a very old one, their name having been known to the French and Germans many centuries ago. A large number of their descendants still live in Lancaster county, Pa., and twenty-seven representatives of them were in the civil war.

Dr. H. L. Getz was born November 14, 1850, in East Hempfield township, Lancaster county, Pa. He obtained his early education at the district school and the high school at Manheim, Pa. He also received private instruction in Latin and German. He has been a student all his life. In 1885 he graduated from the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific circle, and in 1890 received the honorary degree of A. M. from Iowa college. He began the study of medicine in 1871, with Dr. John M. Dunlap, of Manheim, Pa., attended four terms at the Jefferson Medical college in Philadelphia, graduating March 11, 1874, with special honors in anatomy, being also secretary of the graduating class. He also attended lectures and clinics at Will's Ophthalmic, Allen's Obstetrical and other hospitals in Philadelphia; was connected with some of the city's free dispensaries, and was an assistant and student under Dr. R. J. Levis, a noted surgeon. He came to Marshalltown, March 20, 1874, opened an office April 1st, and has been in active practice ever since.

In addition to his regular professional work the doctor has served as medical examiner and surgeon for numerous life and accident companies, and medical director for the Northern Life association, of Marshalltown, Iowa; was for many years the city health officer of Marshalltown, and was the first regularly appointed county physician for Marshall county. He is the present chief surgeon for the Iowa Central Railway company, district surgeon for the Chicago & North-Western Railway company at Marshalltown, local surgeon for the Chicago Great Western Railway company, and surgeon for the Marshall Light, Power and Railway company. He was elected professor of physiology [p.195] at the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1882, but declined the offer owing to property and other interests at Marshalltown. In 1884 he was elected professor of obstetrics, surgical diseases of women and diseases of children in the Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Des Moines, where he served until 1887, when he resigned in order to give more time to professional duties at home. In 1894 he was elected professor of anatomy and clinical diseases of women in the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, but did not accept, owing to his receiving the appointment as postmaster, there having been thirteen candidates for the position. He was appointed assistant surgeon of the Iowa National Guard, and commissioned captain June 12, 1887, by Governor Larrabee; commissioned lieutenant-colonel, as a member of his staff, June 14, 1890, by Governor Boies; commissioned past assistant surgeon-general August 19, 1889, rank of colonel of the U. R. K. of P. of Iowa. He has been especially skillful and successful as a surgeon, performing most of the major and special operations known to surgery. He has devised an improved combined trocar canula and aspirating needle; a new uterine repositor; an antiseptic surgical cabinet; Getz's bicycle ambulance and handstretcher, and has designed Getz's physicians' and surgeons' labor saving day book and ledger and Getz's daily conduct record and ledger for penal institutions, which is now used by the state industrial schools. He has been a frequent contributor to many of the principal medical and surgical journals of the United States, among them the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Medical and Surgical Reporter, the Medical Record and the Iowa State Medical Reporter, etc., etc. Some of these contributions were translated and published in foreign journals, and he has often read original papers at the state, national and international meetings of the surgical and medical fraternity.

In politics the doctor is independent, having voted with the republican party until 1884, when he identified himself with the democrats. In the presidential campaign of 1896 he was in sympathy with the national democracy. He was appointed a member of the board of trustees of the Iowa industrial schools in 1886 by Governor Larrabee, to fill a vacancy, and in 1887 the legislature elected him for a full term of six years. During Cleveland's first and second administrations he served as a member and president of the board of pension examiners. Under his management of the Marshalltown post office many reforms and improvements were brought about in the office, and it was very generally conceded that the service was the best in the history of the city. The doctor was appointed to fill a vacancy as a member of the board of education of Marshalltown in 1889, and in 1890 was elected for a term of three years, re-elected in 1893 to a third term. In 1896 he was unanimously chosen president of the board and re-elected president in 1897. He was a delegate to the department of school administration at the National Educational association (Buffalo, N. Y.) in 1896, and was there elected the first president of this department.

Dr. Getz is a member of the leading medical and surgical societies of the state and nation; was second vice-president of the State Medical association in 1882, and first vice-president in 1897; and the founder and first president of the Iowa Central (State) Medical association. He was elected vice-president of the International Association of Railway Surgeons in 1897, and a member of the executive board in 1898; October 14, 1898, he was elected president of the Iowa State Association of Railway Surgeons, at Clinton. He is a member of the following civic societies: Knights Templars, Mystic Shriners, Knights of Pythias, Uniformed Rank, K. P., Odd Fellows, Elks, Princes of Iran, Knights of Korrassan, and was a charter member of the Woodmen's camp organized in Marshalltown. He joined the German Reformed church at Philadelphia, but upon removal to Marshalltown was admitted to the Presbyterian. His views becoming too liberal to be in keeping with the church creed he requested that a withdrawal letter be granted and that his membership be canceled.

Dr. Getz was married May 27, 1874, to Miss Mary E. Worley, daughter of Nathan and Susan Worley. Her paternal grandmother was the first white female child born where the city of Cincinnati now stands. Dr. and Mrs. Getz have two children, N. Worley, born May 12, 1875, graduated from the Marshalltown high school, was a student for three years at Iowa college, general delivery clerk in the Marshalltown post office for one year, after which he attended lectures at Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, for one year, and in 1897-1898 was a student in the medical department of the University of Berlin, Germany; Igerna M., who was born July 13, 1878, graduated from the Marshalltown high school, later a student at Miss Baldwin's Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and in 1897-1898 was a student of languages in Europe.

SOURCE: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa published by Conway and Shaw, Des Moines: 1899.

Franklin Gilman Pierce, mayor of the city of Marshalltown, is a young man of wide resources, both native and acquired. He comes of good Puritan ancestry, being a descendant of John Pearce, who settled in Rhode Island in 1632. Another ancestor, John Pierce, served in the revolutionary war. Mr. Pierce's father, William Pierce, a carpenter and builder, of moderate circumstances, was born in 1821, at North Kingston, R. I. He was married in 1865 to Martha Jane Moore, who was born in 1849, at Columbus, Ohio, and whose ancestors, the Moore and Wilson families, are among the oldest in Virginia.

F. G. Pierce is a native of Iowa, having been born at Earlville, in Delaware county, December 7, 1868. When he was three years old he removed with his parents to Marshalltown, where he has lived most of the time since. He began his education in the schools of that city, and graduated from the high school in June, 1886. He entered the State university in 1888, graduating in June, 1892, with the degree of Ph. B. While attending the university he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and took an active interest in athletics, serving as manager in 1890 and captain in 1891 of the university football eleven. He was also prominent in literary work, being elected editor-in-chief of the Junior Annual, published by his class. After his graduation he was engaged in the insurance business at Marshalltown for several years, but in 1895 abandoned this for the more congenial vocation of journalism. He first published the Marshall County Register, but in 1896 consolidated with the Daily Press, in which he still owns an interest.

Politically, Mr. Pierce has always been a republican. In 1895 he was elected mayor of Marshalltown on a non-partisan ticket. Representing the wishes of the people who desired a reform looking toward greater economy in the city's expenses, he was supported largely by laboring men and elected with a good majority. During his first year in office he had an unfriendly council to contend with, but in 1896 new men were elected who were more in sympathy with him, and he was able to carry out the wishes of his supporters. So well did he accomplish this that he was re-elected in 1897 and again in 1899, and is still serving the interests of the taxpayer. In municipal affairs he has always been in favor of municipal ownership of public franchises and has written a number of articles for different papers dealing with this aspect of city affairs. He was vice-president for Iowa of the League of American Municipalities in 1898.

Mr. Pierce is a member of the Masonic Order, Knights of Pythias, I. O. O. F., Benevolent Elks, Red Men, Modern Woodmen of America, Maccabees, Ben Hur and Court of Honor. He is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and belongs to the Congregational church. He was married June 30, 1897, to Miss Nellie M. Loree, of Marshalltown.

SOURCE: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa published by Conway and Shaw, Des Moines: 1899.

History of Marshalltown, (Marshall County) Iowa

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