NORTHWESTERN IOWA ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION VOLUME II 1804-1926 J. P. MANSMITH The business career of J. P. Mansmith has been closely identified with the commercial growth and prosperity of Arnolds Park, Dickinson county, where he has for a number of years successfully conducted a flourishing mercantile business, while at the same time he has taken a commendable interest in the general welfare and progress of the community. Born at Hartley, Iowa, on the 9th of February, 1888, he is a son of John C. and Julia Ann (Paul) Mansmith, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Illinois. They were married at Marshalltown, Iowa, to which state their respective families had come in early pioneer days, making the journey from the east in the typical covered wagons of that day. Both families settled on land in O'Brien county, where the young people were reared to maturity and married. After his marriage, John C. Mansmith bought six hundred and forty acres of land from George W. Skee, the gentleman who later donated American flags which he had placed on every schoolhouse in Iowa. Mr. Mansmith still owns three hundred and twenty acres of this land, which is located two miles east of Hartley, but for the past nineteen years has been retired from active affairs and is living in Hartley. J. P. Mansmith attended the public schools, graduating from the high school at Hartley, and at the age of fourteen entered on an apprenticeship to learn the mercantile business, serving as clerk and utility boy in a store at Hartley. He remained with his first employer three years and was employed as a clerk in different stores in Hartley for nine years. On January 1, 1911, at Arnolds Park, he became a clerk in the general mercantile store of A. L. Peck, with whom he remained two years, and in 1913 he opened a store of his own here, in which he has enjoyed a very gratifying success, doing a volume of business that would only be expected in a city of much larger size. He has devoted himself assiduously to his affairs, in all of which he has shown keen judgment and wise discrimination, and his success has been well merited. Mr. Mansmith was one of the organizers and is now vice president and a director of the Arnolds Park Savings Bank. In 1909, Mr. Mansmith was united in marriage to Miss Lela Mentzer, of Springville, Iowa, and to them has been born a son, Paul David, a student in high school. Fraternally Mr. Mansmith is a member of Gloaming Lodge, No. 482, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Milford; Spirit Lake Chapter, No. 132, Royal Arch Masons; Okoboji Lodge No. 429, Knights of Pythias, at Milford; and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He has at all times evinced a commendable interest in local public affairs and has served eleven years continuously as a member of the town council of Arnolds Park and has served as treasurer of the school board for the past seven years. His religious membership is with the Methodist Episcopal church at Hartley, and he is also an associate member of the undenominational church at Arnolds Park, to both of which organizations he gives generous support. He is a man of active and energetic manner, sound and reliable in his business methods, and keenly alive to the highest and best interests of the community. Personally he is a man of genial and kindly manner and enjoys an enviable standing throughout the district honored by his citizenship. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/