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| Hedrick Savings Bank |
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History:
Most banks are named after a famous, well-known or respected person or city, Hedrick Savings Bank is no exception. Ottumwan John Morrow Hedrick was that famous person Hedrick Savings Bank and the City of Hedrick were named after.
At the mention of the name "General Hedrick," there rises in the memory of many a veteran the vision of a tall, square-shouldered, thin but muscular man, with swarthy complexion and eyes which expressed firm will and unflinching courage. Born in Rush county, Indiana, December 16, 1832, John Morrow Hedrick came to Iowa in 1845. At seventeen he qualified himself for teaching, and until he became of age taught school winters and worked on his father’s farm summers. In 1853, he married Matilda C. Haines. His father, J. W. Hedrick, was an influential farmer of Wapello county. John was for
several years a partner in a mercantile business in Ottumwa, Iowa, and for a time incidentally served in a militia company, first as lieutenant and then as captain, thus unconsciously fitting himself for the crisis of 1861. In 1852, he entered a mercantile house as a clerk.
The Iowa Roster mentions Hedrick’s appointment as quartermaster of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, December 23, 1861, and promoted to first lieutenant of Company D of that regiment. He was soon promoted to the captaincy of his company. Wounded and captured at Shiloh, in April, he was sent from one southern prison to another and was not exchanged until the October following. First making a visit to his Ottumwa home, he joined his regiment in Tennessee in February, 1863. In the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, he was so severely wounded in the hip that he was obliged to use crutches for many months thereafter. He was promoted to a colonelcy, August 18, 1864.
Detailed for special duty as a member of a general court martial in Washington, D.C., Hedrick was retained in that service until August 11, 1866, when he was mustered out. While serving in that capacity he heard the case of the conspirators against the lives of Lincoln and Seward. On the 13th of March, 1865, he received his brevet as brigadier-general.
A staunch republican in politics, General Hedrick was a frequent attendant on party conventions. In 1864, while in the service, he was chosen a delegate to the Baltimore convention which re-nominated Lincoln. He was also a delegate to the Grant convention of 1868.
In 1866 the stockholders of the Ottumwa Courier chose him as editor of that journal. In 1869 he and Maj. A. H. Hamilton became joint owners of the Courier. After nine years of partnership he sold his interest to his partner. In 1866 General Hedrick was appointed postmaster of Ottumwa. In 1870 he resigned to take the supervisorship of internal revenue in Iowa and four other states. He held this office for six years. While supervisor he took charge of the big whisky fraud cases in Milwaukee and Chicago, handling them so firmly and discreetly as to win high praise from the secretary of the treasury. During the eight years prior to his death he built and operated Ottumwa’s street railroad. He was for many years preeminently the public-spirited citizen, foremost in work and contribution for the development of the city and state.
General Hedrick’s death occurred October 3, 1886, in his fifty-fourth year. He had been seriously affected with asthma, but the immediate cause of his death was a partial paralysis. His funeral was attended by many comrades and friends. The funeral oration at the grave, delivered by General Belknap, was an eloquent tribute to a brave, true man. The general’s obituary, written by Major Hamilton of the Courier, is such as is rarely paid in all honesty by the survivor of a long period of business intimacy. The general left a widow and five children: Mrs. Kate M. Ladd, Howard L., Charles M., Harry M. and Carita B. Hedrick. |
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