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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
PastAndPresentOfMahaskaCo.,IA by Manoah Hedge(Oran F. Schee) - ORAN F. SCHEE, b. 11Oct1875 Oran F. Schee, secretary and treasurer of the Vehicle & Improvement Company of Oska- loosa, is a native of Ohio, having been born in Warren county on the 11th of October, 1875, a son of Nathan and Sarah J. (Alexan- der) Schee, natives of Ohio and Wisconsin re- spectively. The father was a pioneer settler of Marion county, Iowa, removing from Ohio to the vicinity of Tracey in 1855. He first engaged in the nursery business, which he followed for fifteen years and then turned his attention to the banking business, which he carried on in Milo, Warren county, and also at Bussey, Ma- rion county, Iowa. He was likewise identified with banking interests in Indianola and at Di- agonal, Iowa, organizing private banks in each of these towns. He thus became ?????? as- sociated with financial interests in the state and is regarded as one of the representatives and progressive business men of Iowa, now making his home in Des Moines. He also has lumber interests in the south and has dealt to a considerable extent in Iowa lands, at the same time actively carrying on agricultural pur- suits. At least one-half of the hedge fences of Mahaska, Marion and Warren counties have been planted by the father of Mr. Schee, and he has contributed in substantial measure to the development and progress of Iowa's farming interests. In his family were four children Velettie, the widow of J. W. Goode and a resi- dent of Colorado Springs; Hester, the wife of I.E. Ireland, of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Oran F., of this review; and Eleanor, at home. Oran F. Schee acquired his preliminary edu- cation in the public schools of Milo, Iowa, and later attended Simpson College, the Northwest- ern University, at Evanston, Illinois, and Drake University, at Des Moines, from which he was graduated in the class of 1898, on completing the scientific course. After completing his stu- dies he engaged in the hardware and lumber business at Decatur, Iowa, and a year later be- came cashier in the Decatur City Bank. When another year had passed he came to Oskaloosa as secretary and treasurer of the Oskaloosa Ve- hicle & Improvement Company, and the busi- ness has more than doubled since he took charge thereof. He has extended the scope of the enterprise by establishing a branch house at Albia, Iowa, and the annual sales of both whole- sale and retail now amount to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The products of the house are shipped to all the middle and south- western states and to the Indian Territory and the lumber is all secured from the mills which the company owns in Arkansas and in Indian Territory, and is converted from the raw ma- terial into a finished lumber product in the mills and wood-working plants and in the lumber camat D?he company owns splendid oak hick- ory and cottonwood forests and the lumber is shipped in car lots. They manufacture wagon- boxes, shovel boards, wheelbarrows, standard farm wagons and farm trucks and have three plants, one in Oskaloosa, one in Omaha and one in the Indian Territory. Mr. Schee is the secre- tary and treasurer of the Oskaloosa Vehicle & Improvement Company, and is president of the Mitchell Carriage Company at Albia, Iowa. On the 19th of March, 1900, Mr. Schee was married to Miss Elgin Huston, a daughter of John Huston, of Blandinsville, Illinois. Their children are: John H. and O. F. Schee, Jr. Mr. Schee is a member of the board of direc- tors of the Young Men's Christian Association and in the midst of a busy life finds time and opportunity to aid in measures for the uplifting of his fellowmen and also co-operates in those interests which are a matter of civic pride and improvement. In his business career he is quick to note fidelity and loyalty on the part of em- ployes and to reward such by promotion as opportunity offers. Honored and respected by all, there is no young man in Oskaloosa who oc- cupies a more enviable position in industrial and financial circles than Mr. Schee, not alone by reason of the success which he has achieved but also because of the straightforward business policy that he has ever followed. It is true that he entered upon a business already established but in controlling and enlarging this many a man of less resolute spirit would have failed. but he has embraced the opportunities which are ever to be found in business life and has wrought along lines of success and in accord- ance with business methods that neither seek nor require disguise.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy