A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931 EDWIN D. SAMSON was not yet three years of age when his parents came from their old home in Indiana to number themselves among the pioneer settlers in Iowa, and in this state he was reared and educated; here he has staged his acuities and his services during the long intervening years, and here he has been a member of the bar of the capital city of Des Moines fully forty-five years, with good standing in the legal profession in the fine old Hawkeye State, and with inviolable place in popular confidence and good will. Mr. Samson is now virtually retired from the active practice of his profession and gives his time and attention to his executive duties as referee in probate for Polk County, an office to which he was appointed January 1, 1928, and the affairs of which he is administering with characteristic loyalty and efficiency. Mr. Samson was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, December 13, 1850, and is a son of Seth and Margaret Jane (Wilson) Samson, of whose ten children he was the second in order of birth, even as he is one of the six who still survive the honored parents. Seth Samson likewise was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, and his wife was born in Greene County, Ohio, her parents having thence removed to Indiana when she was a child, she having been a daughter of Aaron Wilson, who likewise was born in Greene County, Ohio, where the family was early established, and who renewed his pioneer experiences in connection with the farm industry after he had removed to Indiana, in which state he and his wife passed the reminder of their lives. In February, 1853, Seth Samson came with his family to the pioneer wilds of Iowa and made settlement in Wapello County, where he took up Government land, for which he paid $1.25 an acre and to the improvement and cultivation of which he gave his attention during a period of ten years. He then, in November, 1863, transferred the family home to Decatur County, where he and his wife remained until their death and where their mortal bodies were laid to rest in the cemetery at Van Wert. Mr. Seth Samson served as a soldier of the Union during one year of the Civil war. He was a Republican in political alignment, and he and his wife were zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a son of Seth Samson, Sr., who was born in the State of New York and who became one of the pioneer settlers in Indiana. The family name of his wife was Hopkinson. The pioneer schools of Iowa afforded Edwin D. Samson his early education, and in Simpson College, this state, he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1876, his alma mater having later, in 1879, conferred upon him the supplemental degree of Master of Arts. Prior to entering the college he had gained experience as a teacher in rural schools. After leaving college he read law in the office of the firm of Henderson & Berry at Indianola, judicial center of Warren County, and after his admission to the bar, in October, 1977, he initiated the practice of his profession at Indianola, where he associated himself with George W. Seevers, under the firm name of Seevers & Samson. There he continued his professional activities until 1883, in October of which year he established his residence in Des Moines, where for thirty years the active work in his profession continued, until his recent appointment to his present office of referee in probate. Mr. Samson has never deviated from the line of loyal allegiance to the Republican party, and he and his family are earnest and devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Samson is a trustee of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church of Des Moines; and in this city he was a director of the Methodist Hospital during a period of twenty-eight years, with twenty-one years of that time marking his service as president of the board. He is likewise a member of the Board of Trustees of Simpson College at Indianola, a position he has retained many years. He was interested in the affairs and work of the state committee Y. M. C. A. of Iowa, which he served twenty-seven years as a member and ten years as chairman of the committee. On the 8th of February, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Samson and Miss Laura Virginia Dye, who was born in Ohio, and whose father, the late Robert E. Dye, came from that state to Iowa and became a pioneer farmer in Decatur County. Mary Evelyn, eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Samson, is employed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the interests of the Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in which work she travels widely over the country; Duane D. is engaged in business in San Antonio, Texas; and Emory Alden is in business in the City of Chicago. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa History Project _http://iagenweb.org/history/_ (http://iagenweb.org/history/) Scott County, Iowa _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm) **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220685763x1201394209/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DMarchfooterNO62)