History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Eugene Secor
[Eugene Secor]
EUGENE SECOR is a name well known to all lovers of trees and parks in Iowa. He was born in Peekskill, New York, May 13, 1841, and attended the district schools in his native State. His father possessed a well-selected library and from this his children gleaned a higher education. In 1862 Mr. Secor came to Iowa and enlisted in the “hundred days” service but was not called to the field. Two years later he entered Cornell College at Mount Vernon but was soon obliged to abandon his studies. He held a number of offices in Winnebago County during the following fourteen years. But he is best known throughout the State for his valuable papers on bee-keeping, horticulture and preserving the beauties of nature in parks and forest reserves. He has been a prominent member of the State Horticultural Society for many years, having served as director, president and manager of one of the experimental stations. He has contributed to journals and magazines both literary and technical for many years, and written by request a resume of the apiarian industry of the United States and its exhibit at the World's Fair for the permanent records of that and the Omaha Expositions. He is a successful bee-keeper, often procuring a ton of honey in a season. He has served as treasurer, president and general manager of the National Beekeepers' Society. In 1888 Mr. Secor was chosen trustee of the State College of Agriculture, serving six years. He is a prominent Republican and for sixteen years has usually been a delegate to the annual State conventions and has also served as a delegate to the National Convention in 1892. In 1901 he was elected a Representative in the Twenty-ninth General Assembly and served as chairman of the committee on horticulture.