My Genealogy Hound

L. J. Camp, a practitioner at the Union county bar who has won a liberal clientage as the result of his comprehensive knowledge of the law and his correct application of its principles to the points in litigation, was born in Lee county, Illinois, October 25, 1864. His father, Daniel J. Camp, a native of Pennsylvania, is now living in Creston in the seventy-third year of his age. He is of Welsh ancestry and has devoted his life to the work of the farm. About 1844 he removed to Illinois with his parents, who entered land in Lee county, where he was reared on the farm and attended school. Later he began farming on his own account and carried on that pursuit in Illinois until 1876, when he came to Iowa, settling in Union county, where he secured a farm in Sand Creek township. His time and energies were then devoted to its further cultivation and development until 1901, when he retired to Creston to enjoy his remaining days in well earned rest. His methods were practical and his energy and untiring diligence in business enabled him to make steady progress so that in the course of years he became a substantial citizen and now derives a good income from his farm of two hundred acres. He has always been a republican in his political views and has held various township offices. In matters of citizenship he has displayed the same loyalty that characterized his ancestors who fought for independence in the Revolutionary war.

His wife, Mrs. Hannah A. Camp, nee Vertrese, was born in Lee county, Illinois, is of French and English lineage and is now sixty-six years of age. They were the parents of six children: L. J.; Charles, who died at the age of five years; Fred W., who died in 1891 at the age of twenty-four years; Edith M., the wife of John Dietrick, an undertaker, who is now farming in Highland township; and Frank and Webber, twins, the former a miner of Colorado, and the latter agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company at McPherson, and the owner of two hundred acres of land in Union township.

L. J. Camp was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He attended the district schools and afterward engaged in teaching school for eight terms. He pursued a high-school course at Afton, Iowa, and was graduated in 1886, while subsequently he attended a commercial school in Des Moines. As a preparation for the bar he read law in the office and under the direction of Judge N. W. Rowell at Afton and was admitted to the bar on the 15th of October, 1890. He then located and practiced in Creston and has here since remained, with the exception of an interval of seven years spent in the west. He served as county attorney in 1896 and 1897 and is now acting city attorney. He is an able lawyer who prepares his cases with great thoroughness and care and his preparation of his cases shows no straining after-effect but the clearness and precision in argument that indicates his thorough familiarity with the points in litigation and the principles of jurisprudence applicable thereto. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party and fraternally is connected with the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, in both of which organizations he is popular, gaining the warm friendship of his brethren in the fraternities.