Samuel G. Armstrong

As printed in 1901

SAMUEL G. ARMSTRONG.

The subject of this review, who is the senior member of the firm of Armstrong & IcClenahan, ha.- through his own exertions attained an honorable position and marked prestige among the representative business men of Cedar Rapids, and with signal consistency it may be said that he is the architect of his own fortunes and one whose success amply justifies the application of the somewhat hackneyed but most expressive title, "a self-mail man."

Mr. Armstrong was born near the present village of Clarence, Cedar county, Iowa, August 24, 1858, and is one of a family of seven children, all living at the present writing in 1901. His father, Charles Cornelius Armstrong, was born in Connecticut, and when young went to Ohio, where he married Miss Lucy Dawson, a native of Virginia. About 1845 they came to Iowa and were among the early settlers of Cedar county. The father first located on a farm near what is now Clarence in Cedar county, where he lived till 1866, when he moved to 3.1t. Wernon, where he lived one year, and then to a farm near Alarion, afterward living at Alarion and Mt. Vernon again. The father died in 1885, and the mother passed away in 1893.

The primary education of our subject was received in the public schools of Marion, and later he attended Cornell College at Mt. Wernon for a few terms. At the age of seventeen he commenced teaching school and followed that profession quite successfully from 1876 to 1879, attending school in the meantime. He began his mercantile career as a clerk in a country store at Bertram, Iowa, where he was employed for one year, and in the fall of 1880 came to Cedar Rapids, and commenced work for the dry-goods firm of Foote & Whitney, remaining with them about two months, but not liking the business, he entered the employ of I. N. Isham, a picjueer merchant of Cedar Rapids, then conducting a clothing business, being with him and his successors until the fall of 1890.

On the 3d of September, that year,.Mr. Armstrong embarked in business for himself as a member of the firm of Anntrong, Fletcher & Company, opening a clothing store in a room 40x70 feet, the site being a part of their present location. Two years later the firm was changed to.Vrmstrong, McClenahan & Company, the company being H.. I'alley, of St. Paul, Minnesota, whose interest Mr. Armstrong purchased in 1897, when the firm name was changed to Armstrong & McClenahan, as it now stands. They carry a fine line of clothing and gents' furnishing goods and have met with remarkable success from the start. Their rapidly increasing trade has compelled them to enlarge their stock from time to time, and to make many improvements in their store. At first they occupied only one door, but now use all of the three stories with a basement at numbers 120- 122- 124 South Second street, having sixteen thousand square feet of floor space. They have on an average of fifteen in their employ, and their extensive trade is not only in the city and county, but extends throughout this section of the state. The following is an extract from the Evening Gazette:

"Largest in Iowa — Armstrong & ISIc- Clenahan's Remodeled Clothing Store — Now equipped with an electric passenger elevator and every modern convenience — Children's Department on Second Floor. The people of Cedar Rapids ought to take civic pride in the remodeled clothing store of Messrs. Armstrong & AlcClenahan, for that popular institution is now the very largest of its kind in the entire state of Iowa. The immense stock covers four floors, including the basement, with sixteen thousand eight hundred square feet of floor space, giving the store front rank among all the great mercantile establishment of Iowa."

Mr. Armstrong was in his 'teens when his mother was left a widow and he was called upon to contribute to the support of the family. For nine years he was employed as a clerk, during which time, by economy and judicious investments, he managed to save a nucleus, with which to embark in business for himself. A man of good business ability, sound judgment and keen discrimination, he has met with well deserved success in his undertakings, and is now interested in a number of different enterprises. He is connected with the store of the Armstrong Clothing Company at Lincoln, Nebraska; is a stockholder in the Clark MacDaniels Company, manufacturers of overalls and shirts, and the Cedar Rapids National Bank; and a stockholder and director of the Cedar Rapids Loan & Trust Company, the latter of which he helped to organize. On the 5th of September, 1896, Mr. Armstrong married Miss Anna Cooper, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Cooper, old residents of Cedar Rapids, who were born in Ireland and are now well advanced in life. Our subject and his wife have one child, Robert Cooper, born July 4, 1897. They have a pleasant home at 1015 Fourth avenue, and are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In his political affiliations Mr. Armstrong is a Republican, and he is deeply interested in public affairs and the good of the community in which he lives. He is genial, courteous, enterprising and progressive, of commendable public-spirit and the highest integrity, and well deserves the success that has come to him.

As printed in Biographical records of Linn County, Iowa .. (1901). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.