George E. Bickley

As printed in 1915

GEORGE ELVIN BICKLEY.

George Elvin Bickley is general manager of the Corn Belt Telephone Company at Waterloo and is one of the city's progressive and representative residents. Along the path of industry and efficiency he has advanced to the plane of affluence and while carefully and systematically conducting his business affairs, actuated by laudable ambition, he has at the same time recognized and improved his opportunities. Mr. Bickley was born in Waterloo on the 19th of November, 1874, and is a son of Samuel B. and Susanna (Klingaman) Bickley, the former a native of Westmoreland county and the latter of Somerset county, Pennsylvania. The father, however, was reared in Ohio from his third year and in 1865 came to Waterloo, being then a young man. The same year Susanna Klingaman accompanied her parents on their removal to Waterloo, she being at that time a young woman of seventeen years. Mr. Bickley carried on general agricultural pursuits as a life work and as the years went on prospered in his undertaking, winning a substantial competence that now enables him to live retired. He makes his home in Waterloo, where he is enjoying a well earned rest, and his life, honorable and upright at all times, has won him the high regard of his fellow townsmen.

George E. Bickley was reared at home and was educated in the city schools of Waterloo and the University of Wisconsin, where he pursued a special course in electrical engineering. Following the completion of his studies in 1895 he found employment with the Cedar Valley Telephone Company of Waterloo, in which connection he has steadily worked his way upward, and in 1898 he was made superintendent of the company. In 1901 he went west to Denver, Colorado, and accepted a position as inspector of the Colorado Bell Telephone Company. One year later he was made wire chief, in which capacity he continued until 1907, when he returned to Waterloo to accept the superintendency of the plant department of the Corn Belt Telephone Company, formerly the Cedar Valley Telephone Company. In 1910 he was made superintendent of the plant as well as superintendent of the Cedar Rapids & Marion plants and in September, 1913, he was further advanced to the position of general manager of the Corn Belt Telephone Company at the time of the consolidation of the various companies in this part of the state. He still holds a directorate in the Cedar Rapids & Marion Company as well as in the Corn Belt Company and he is likewise a director of the Home Building & Loan Company of Waterloo. He is familiar with every phase of the telephone business and his experience well qualities him for the onerous and responsible duties which devolve upon him in this connection. His ability has developed as the years have gone on and he is now devoting his attention to executive control and administrative direction.

carefully looking after all the details of the business and controlling the efforts of those who serve under him.

In 1 90 1 Mr. Bickley was united in marriage to Miss Myrtle E. Kelley, of Waterloo, and they have become the parents of three children, Dorothy Helen, George Francis and Mildred Elsie. Mr. Bickley votes with the republican party and his fraternal connections are with Waterloo Lodge, No. 105, A. F. & A. M.; Iowa Consistory, No. 2, A. & A. S. R.. of Cedar Rapids; and El Kahir Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., also of Cedar Rapids. He is likewise connected with the Knights of Pythias and with the Waterloo Commercial Club. He ranks today among the foremost citizens of Black Hawk county. He keeps in touch with the trend of modern thought and progress, understands the conditions which affect the welfare of community, state and nation and at all times uses his aid and influence on the side of advancement and improvement.

As printed in History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.