Lafayette Lamb

As printed in 1911

LAFAYETTE LAMB.

After a man has won his laurels in the business world, it is not easy for him to drop most of the perplexing cares and devote the balance of his days to the enjoyment of what has been so honestly earned, as is shown by the larger number of men of rank who work on until death overtakes them. But to enjoy life rationally, imbibing of the pleasures and comforts wealth commands, is but an evidence of a broadness of character such as that of Lafayette Lamb, of Clinton, Iowa.

Mr. Lamb is the fourth child and second son of Chancy and Jane (Bevier) Lamb, and was born February 26, 1846. in Carroll county. Illinois, sixteen miles from Clinton, Iowa. When he was five years old his father moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the family remained one year. and then went to Big Flats, Chemung county, New York, the father there superintending the milling operations of J. C. Cameron & Company. In those days traveling was a hardship and the migration from Illinois to the Keystone state was made by going down the Mississippi river to Cairo, from there to Pittsburg by water, and then to Harrisburg, going over the mountains by stage, traveling part of the way by canal and a short distance by railroad. The child was a pupil in the public schools of Big Flats and practically all of his elementary training was obtained there.

When Lafayette Lamb was ten years old his father moved the family to Fulton, Illinois, and in the following year, 1857, established a home in Clinton, Iowa, which from that time on was the permanent residence of the Lambs. The head of the family bought a small sawmill and lumber yard in the town, and Lafayette, though only a boy, was called upon to assist in the operation of the mill. His task was to raise the logs upon a rotary carriage as they were hauled into the mill, the work in that day being carried on with a lever. The lad's schooling was of necessity restricted, and it was only hen the river froze and the mill ceased operations that he went to school, returning to the mill when sawing could be done. Upon the plant being enlarged and a shingle mill being added, Mr. Lamb made shingles for his father for five years. His first experience in the lumber yard was in 1862, when he started tallying, and after a year spent in familiarizing himself with the grades, he became a retail salesman tor his father.

From 1862 to about 1864 the elder Lamb was also engaged in the grist mill business, in which Lafayette assisted him. The money stringencies during the Civil war compelled the lumber manufacturers to trade lumber for whatever the farmer raised that was marketable, and the product of the Lambs' sawmill was given in exchange for grain, which was ground in the grist mill and sold at wholesale to retailers. Shortly after his experience in the retail yard. Lafayette Lamb had charge of the grist mill and continued in that capacity until the mill was sold and a sawmill built on its site.

So Aaried and thorough had been his training that Mr. Lamb when twenty-two years old was made foreman under S. B. Gardiner for C. Lamb & Son. his eldest brother, Artemus. having been admitted to the firm in 1864. In 1872 he took charge of the boats furnishing the logs to the Lamb mills and had active charge of the logging when the first steamboat ever employed on the Mississippi for owing log rafts was put into service. This vessel was the "James Means," and was the forerunner of a Aalual)le fleet of steamboats operated by the firm. For ten years Lafayette supervised this branch of the business, although when his father and brother were away at times he had general charge of the firm's affairs. He became a member of the firm of C. Lamb & Sons in 1874, and when the business was incorporated, four years later, he was made vice-president of the company.

Begining with 1882, Mr. Lamb, though still retaining charge of the

As printed in Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa (1911). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.