History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Phillip M. Crapo
[Philip M. Crapo]
PHILIP M. CRAPO is a native of Freetown, near New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he was born June 30, 1844. In youth he enjoyed excellent educational advantages, but chose to forego a college career that he might enlist in the Third Massachusetts Infantry, serving in the eastern department. After the war he became a civil engineer in Michigan and was engaged in the State offices at Detroit in the preparation of the Military History of Michigan. In 1868 Mr. Crapo came to Iowa as the representative of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company which he served in various capacities for more than twenty-one years. He has always been a public spirited citizen and aided materially in numerous important enterprises in Burlington. He assured the establishment of the Burlington Free Public Library and has recently made possible the erection of a permanent home for it by subscribing half the cost of a beautiful building. He was also chiefly instrumental in providing a public park for Burlington which bears his name. Mr. Crapo assured the success of the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the admission of the State into the Union, which was held in Burlington in 1896, serving as President of the Board of Commissioners which had charge of the enterprise. He was largely instrumental in securing the establishment of the Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown and delivered the address on behalf of the soldiers at the dedication of the building.