230 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



THE PASSING OF EUGENE SECOR 



July 



A Tribute to a Beekeeper Who Was One of Iowa's Best Known and Most 

 Beloved Sons, and Who Was Widely Recognized in Other Fields 



MANY hearts were saddened by 

 the word of the death of Eu- 

 gene Secor, of Forest City, la. 

 Gored by an angry bull, on May 14, 

 he died the same afternooon. It falls 

 to the lot of few men to bind the 

 hearts of so many in the ties of 

 friendship as he did. Eugene Secor 

 was one of the world's noblemen. He 

 was not a specialist and did not rise 

 to great eminence in any field, yet he 

 was a leader in several. It was as a 

 horticulturist and beekeeper that he 

 was most widely known. He began 

 contributing to the" pages of the 

 American Bee Journal nearly forty 

 years ago. For many years he was 

 prominent in the beekeeping field, 

 having served as Vice President, and 

 later as President of the North 

 American Beekeepers' Association ; 

 the name was later changed to Na- 

 tional. He was afterward treasurer 

 and general manager for a period of 

 six years. Mr. Secor was selected as 

 the sole expert judge of the apiary 

 department of the World's Columbian 

 Exposition held at Chicago in 1892-93, 

 and later served in the same capacity 

 at the Omaha Exposition. For many 

 years he judged the bee and honey 

 exhibit at the Iowa State Fair. 



It was during the years of Mr. Se- 

 cor's greatest activity that the Na- 

 tional Beekeepers' organization 

 reached its greatest success, and un- 

 doubtedly his efforts contributed 

 greatly to that end. It was as a 

 writer of songs and poems that he, 

 perhaps, became best known in the 

 beekeeping field. Several of these 



By Frank C. Pellett 



songs were set to music by Dr. C. C. 

 Miller and George W. York and sung 

 at the beekeepers' conventions. "The 

 Hum of the Bee in the Apple-Tree 

 Bloom, "Buckwheat Cakes and 

 Honey" and "The Beekeepers' Lulla- 

 by" were sung in hundreds of bee- 

 keepers' families a generation ago. 



As a horticulturist our friend was 

 known from one end of Iowa to the 

 other. His home, "The Shelter," at 

 Forest City, was surrounded by one 

 of the finest collections of trees and 

 shrubs in the middle west, and for- 

 tunate was the nature lover who 

 found himself a guest in that home. 

 Mr. Secor and daughter, Miss Nina, 

 were able to make their guests feel 

 very much at home, and delightful 

 was the atmosphere of the place with 

 its wealth of books and magazines, 

 inside, and flowers out-of-doors. 



■\Yith his bride Mr. Secor settled at 

 "The Shelter" more than fifty years 

 ago. All, excepting a few old trees 

 there, have been planted by his own 

 hands. Few trees and shrubs hardy 

 under Northern Iowa conditions are 

 missing from the collection, and 

 hardy, herbaceous plants have not 

 been overlooked. Plant breeding has 

 been a fascinating pursuit for many 

 years. Crossing the peony was a spe- 

 cialty which claimed his attention for 

 some time past. I have nearly two 

 dozen new varieties which were orig- 

 inated in the Secor gardens and they 

 are a never-failing source of pleas- 

 ure to me. The fact that they were 

 tlie result of my friend's dreams and 

 die parent plants were crossed by 



home at Forest City. 



hand pollination, in an effort to work 

 out the types which he desired, add 

 greatly to their value to me. The 

 collection at the "Shelter" included 

 many hundreds, and they are a won- 

 derful sight at blooming time. 



There has probably not been a vol- 

 ume of the reports of the Iowa Horti- 

 cultural Society that has not con- 

 tained some contribution from the 

 pen of Eugene Secor. He was at one 

 time President of that organization, 

 and for many years a director. At 

 the time he first settled in Iowa the 

 State was very new, and little was 

 known of the varieties of fruits which 

 would be suited to its soecial climate. 

 He went through all the painful pro- 

 cess of planting hundreds of varieties 

 which could not stand the rigorous 

 winters, or the hot, dry summers, and 

 suffered the disappointment that al- 

 ways comes through losing a coveted 

 variety. Most of the joy of life to 

 the nature lover comes through the 

 acquaintance with new varieties, and 

 Eugene Secor tasted to the full the 

 pleasure that comes to the man of 

 scientific turn of mind from investi- 

 gation of nature's secrets. In addi- 

 tion to his beekeeping and gardening 

 activities, he was a breeder of short- 

 horn cattle, and for many years was 

 President of the Farmers' Institute 

 of his county, and also of the Winne- 

 bago Agricultural Society. Not only 

 was he active in various lines of agri- 

 culture, but in business as well. As 

 one of the founders of the City Bank, 

 later the First National Bank of For- 

 est City, he was closely connected 

 with the commercial development of 

 his town and county. 



As a churchman he also rose to 

 leadership, having been a delegate to 

 the General Conference of the Meth- 

 odist Church, to which denomination 

 he belonged. He was also a member 

 of the Board of Trustees of Cornell 

 College, of Mt. Vernon, la., for sev- 

 eral years. In politics he was also 

 successful, having held several offices, 

 including a seat in the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, and also the position of 

 postmaster of Forest City. 



Our friend was a well-balanced 

 man. Everything which interested 

 him lie investigated thoroughly, but 

 he did not become warped in his 

 judgment and narrow in his views 

 through too close attention to "ik- 

 subject. His indomitable spirit was 

 not crushed by adversity and his life 

 offers a fine example for the young 

 manhood of his community. Seven of 

 his ten children died before he did 

 and his wife preceded him in deatli 

 by seven years. No matter how 

 great his loss, or how deep his cause 

 for anxiety, he was always genial and 

 unci miplaining. 



He continued his interest in lues 

 until the end, but only with about 



