Washington Dallam Gilbert

As printed in 1915

WASHINGTON DALLAM GILBERT.

Washington Dallam Gilbert was numbered among those enterprising and progressive men who made Burlington one of the centers of the lumber trade of the middle west. He also contributed to the upbuilding and development of the city through the building and sale ni homes. His well-defined plans were always carried forward to successful completion and his efforts were of a character that contributed to public progress, as well as to individual success.

He was a representative of an old southern family, being a grandson of Samuel Gilbert, who removed from Virginia to Kentucky, where he owned a large tobacco plantation, which he cultivated with the aid of slaves, who were also a part of his possessions. However, he became convinced that the system of holding human being in bondage was wrong, and therefore free all of his slaves, but old Mammy Ailsie, who refused her freedom and remained to nurse her master through his last sickness. His son, Samuel Gilbert, Jr., was born in Kentucky and in early manhood wedded Philotheta Parker, whose birth occurred in New York, in 1798. She was a representative of an old American family, and in still earlier generations, of English ancestry, being a lineal descendant of the Parker early, of Macclesfield. The first to leave England to become the American progenitor of the family settled in Massachusetts about 1645, with his family, and when an Indian massacre occurred, to which the parents were victims, the children escaped by hiding in the grass. The youngest son, Samuel Parker, after reaching adult age, removed to Coventry, Connecticut, and there lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and six years. He built the first house and barn in Coventry and was the first deacon in the first Congregational church there. One of his descendants, Samuel Parker, the father of Mrs., Philotheta Gilbert, was a soldier in the War of 18 12 and a pioneer citizen of Louisville, Kentucky, having left New York in a covered wagon and driving across the country to Louisville. At that time his daughter was a girl of thirteen summers. They remained in Kentucky until after her marriage. After reaching womanhood she became the wife of Samuel Gilbert, Jr., and in 1827 they became residents of Galena, Illinois. Afterward they lived for two years in Cassville, Wisconsin, and subsequently started for Prairie du Chien, then one of the outposts on the western frontier and the site of Fort Crawford. The pioneers of that district mingled freely with the Indians of the Sac, Fox, Winnebago and Menominee tribes. Mr. Gilbert was one of the pioneer lumbermen in the upper country and his operations along that line constituted an element in the development and prosperity of the state. About 1845 he left Prairie du Chien and established the family home at Albany, Illinois.

W. Dallam Gilbert was born at Cassville, Crawford county, Wisconsin, in February, 1829, while his parents were en route to Prairie du Chien. In the latter place he spent sixteen years and during that period pursued his education under private instruction. In 1845 he went with the family to Albany, Illinois, and about that time made his initial step in the business world by taking a raft of logs down the river to Fort Madison, where he sold the logs for his father. His early connection with mercantile life was as a clerk in the employ of the Nelson & Gilbert Company at Wilson's Landing, Wisconsin. He was nineteen years of age when he embarked in business on his own account, joining his brother in the purchase of a lumber mill at Eau Claire, Wisconsin. From that period he was closely connected with the lumber trade, operating in his native state until 1851, when he removed to Burlington and entered into partnership with John W. Gilbert. They established a lumberyard and as the years passed found it necessary to increase their facilities from time to time. Not only did they sell the manufactured product, but also became owners of timber lands and engaged in the manufacture of lumber, building up a business of extensive and gratifying proportions. Mr. Gilbert became an extensive dealer in pine lands and operated mills in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, and a boom company in the state of Washington, where he also owned extensive pineries. As he prospered in his undertakings he utilized his opportunities for judicious investment in real estate and became the owner of much valuable property in Burlington. He laid out two additions to the city, which bear his name. A contemporary biographer says: "Mr. Gilbert and his business associates probably did more toward the upbuilding and development of Burlington than any other individual or corporation. He erected many houses which he sold on easy terms, thus adding to the material improvement of the city and making possible the ownership of homes to many men in moderate financial circumstances."

Aside from his lumber and real-estate interests, Mr. Gilbert extended his efforts to banking and became one of the officials of the German-American Savings Bank, and one of the directors of the Merchants National Bank of Burlington. It seemed that his judgment in business matters was never at fault. His opinions were never hastily formed or ill-advised, but were the result of careful consideration of each phase of a business situation. When once his plans were formulated, however, they were promptly executed and carried forward to successful completion. To build up rather than to destroy was ever his broad policy, and his path was never strewn with the wreck of other men's fortunes.

In 1859 Mr. Gilbert was united in marriage to Miss Hetta Wells Merrill, who was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, in 1835 and was descended from a long line of Puritan ancestors. The records indicate that the line can be traced back to the Du Merles, a Huguenot family of the nobility of France. The Du Merle family and the Merrill family sprang from the same source, the former having lived in France and the latter in Salisbury, England. Their relationship is undisputed from the fact that they have the same crest. The only change was when, on the eve of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, representatives of the family went to England, the flour-de-lis of France was erased from the shield and the peacock head substituted, but the crest remained the same, as did the motto, "He conquers who endures." The Merrill family in time became connected with the faith of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and Nathaniel Merrill, emigrating from England, settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1633, and two years later became one of the founders and pioneer residents of old Newbury. Stevens Merrill, the father of Mrs. Hetta (Merrill) Gilbert, was a merchant of Boston, and in 1829 went to Mobile, Alabama, to market lumber and to manage a sawmill. He lived at Boston, and at Plymouth, New Hampshire. He was among those who went to the gold mines of California in 1849. He came from Boston to Burlington and here purchased the home now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. Cate Gilbert Wells. The house is known as Hickory Hill and a part of it was built sixty-five years ago. Stevens Merrill was united in marriage to Mehetabel Worthley Wells and it was their daughter, Hetta Wells Merrill, who became the wife of Washington Dallam Gilbert. She was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, and at seven years of age accompanied her parents to Boston, to make her home. Mrs. Gilbert was educated at Bradford and other New England schools and seminaries, and at one time lived in the old Merrill homestead, just opposite the Longfellow house in Cambridge. She was a lady of broad culture and marked literary taste.

Washington Dallam Gilbert died April 16, 1894, leaving to his widow and daughter a large estate. He was a devoted member of the Congregational church and was most generous in his support thereof. He was also an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity. His political allegiance was given to the republican party and at one time he served as a member of the city council of Burlington. He was defeated for mayor by the democrats. He stood for all that is progressive in community affairs and gave his support to those interests which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. His life was indeed a valuable factor in the upbuilding of Burlington along material, social, political and moral lines. He had the active cooperation of Mrs. Gilbert in all that he did for the benefit of his city and church, and, like him, she was a leader in the community. She was president of the Norman Circle of King's Daughters for many years. Thus it is that the history of Mr. and Mrs. Washington Dallam Gilbert has become an inseparable part of the annals of Burlington, where, locating at an early day, they took a most active, helpful and beneficial interest in the work of progress and improvement.

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