Biographical review of Des Moines County, Iowa : containing biographical and genealogical sketches of many of the prominent citizens of to-day and also of the past.. Chicago: Hobart Pub. Co., 1905.
Edward W.M. Catlett, General agent for the Connecticut mutual life insurance company, was born in Lexington, McLean county, Illinois, July 4, 1866, and is a son of William O. Catlett, whose birth occurred in Martinsburg, West Virginia. H, his paternal grandfather, although a resident of the south, was a staunch abolitionist. William O. Catlett in his early boyhood days was bound out to a miller and mastering the business, he followed the miller’s trade until after the inauguration of the Civil War when he enlisted as a member of Company C, 94th Illinois infantry, at Lexington, Illinois, as a private. He was wounded in military service at Springfield, Mo., while on guard at the arsenal there and was transferred to Chicago. He served for three years and was put on guard duty at Camp Douglas in Chicago on account of physical disability that unfitted him for active field service.
After the war he engaged in the nursery business at Lexington, building up an extensive trade, the Catlett nursery becoming widely known. At length he disposed of the nursery and removed to Des Moines, Iowa, where he lived until his death. He married Alice Caroline Mahan, September 24, 1855, a native of Zanesville, Ohio. Her father was also a staunch abolitionist and died in a rebel prison. He was an aged man, and because of his bitter opposition to the system of slavery he aided in freeing a number of slaves, his home being a station on the famous underground railroad. Suspicion being aroused against him in the minds of southern sympathizers, he was captured by the rebels, and put in prison where the hardships of prison existence terminated his life.
Three brothers of William O. Catlett were soldiers in the Civil War, and, although they lived in West Virginia, were staunch abolitionists. Mrs. Catlett, following her husband‘s demise, came to Burlington, Iowa, to make her home with her son Edward W. M. Catlett and here died June 20, 1889. In their family were the following named: Thomas G., who was the oldest child by Mr. Catlett’s first marriage, and who was at one time an attorney of Burlington, and died in Linneus, Mo., October 28, 1903; Evelyn E. a daughter by the first marriage, is the wife of John B. Wright, a resident of Manitoba; Viola is the wife of W.V. Beal of Red Cloud, Nebraska; Maude E. died January 11, 1886; Edward W. and Horace, who died January 25, 1900.
Edward W.M. Catlett acquired his early education in the schools of Lexington, Illinois. In the year of the Chicago fire, 1871, when he was five years of age his father removed from Lexington to Nebraska during a rush there and secured a claim but later the family returned to Winterset, Iowa, where Mr. Catlett of this review, pursued his studies in the public schools. He also took a course in Elliot Business College after coming to Burlington. On 14 years of age, he began learning the printers trade in the employ of the George A. Miller printing company of Des Moines, Iowa, with which he was connected for three years. He afterward entered the employ of the canyon, printing company of Des Moines, and later we moved to Burlington, we’re following his commercial course he entered the services of the Conrad Lutz printing company, becoming employed as a job printer for three years. November 1, 1889, he entered the office of the Burlington Hawkeye as mailing clerk and was connected with the advertising and collection department for 12 years, while during the last four of his relation with the paper, he was also connected with a mailing department. He resigned his position with the Hawkeye January 1, 1904, to accept agency of Southeastern, Iowa for the Connecticut Mutual Life insurance Company of Hartford, his territory extending east of Ottumwa and south of Cedar Rapids. He appoints agents and looks after the business general in the principal towns in southeastern Iowa.
Mr. Catlett is a member of the Woodmen of the World. He has filled all of his positions as an executive officer. He became a charter member of Blackhawk camp number 33 and five times has been a representative to the head camp and twice to the sovereign camp. His political allegiance is given to the Republican Party, and he is active in its ranks doing all in his power to promote its local work and successes, being in 1903, a delegate to the state convention. On June 28, 1892 Mr. Catlett was married in Burlington to Miss Bertha Kroppach, who was born in Burlington, while her parents were natives of Prussia, coming to the city at a very early day, and for more than 20 years, the father was assessor.
Mr. and Mrs. Catlett have an attractive home at 807 S. 9th St., which was built in 1899 at a cost of $3000. They have a large circle of friends in the city and enjoy the hospitality of many of the best homes in Burlington. Mr. Catlett is classed with the representative businessman here and the success he has achieved is the direct result of his own labors, for he entered business life without capital and has gained advancement through close application, laudable ambition, and unfaltering diligence.
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Transcribed from Ancestry.com by Meg Betts Torbert 10/16/2023. Edward Catlett was her great-granduncle; his father, William O. Catlett, was her second great-grandfather.