History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Charles J. A. Ericson
CHARLES J. A. ERICSON was born in Sweden, March 8, 1840. In 1852 his father emigrated to America with his family, settling on a farm near Moline, Illinois. In the spring of 1859 Charles removed to Mineral Ridge in Boone County, Iowa, where he opened a country store, the nearest railroad town at that time being Iowa City. He was appointed postmaster holding the position until 1870. In that year he removed to Boone, entering the City Bank as cashier. In 1871 he was elected Representative in the House of the Fourteenth General Assembly, where he secured the passage of a bill making settlers on the Des Moines River lands, occupying claimants, many hundreds of them living in his county. In 1895 Mr. Ericson was elected to the State Senate from the district of Boone and Story counties, and was the author of a bill which became a law taxing corporations for filing articles of incorporation. He also secured the reduction of interest on State warrants from six to five per cent. Mr. Ericson has been a successful business man, accumulating wealth which he has used liberally in building up his home city. He has also made large contributions to worthy enterprises. In 1899 he gave more than $12,000 to provide a park for Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois. In 1867-8 he built five school houses in the county; and in 1900 he built and presented to the city of Boone a building for a public library at a cost of $10,000, which has been named the “Ericson Memorial Library.”