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History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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George D. Musmaker.

George D. Musmaker, practicing at the bar of Adair county as the senior partner in the firm of Musmaker & Williamson, the leading law firm of Greenfield, is accorded an extensive and distinctively representative clientage that has connected him with much of the important business tried in the courts of the district in recent years.  In no profession is there a career more open to talent than in that of the law and in no field of endeavor is there demanded a more careful preparation and more thorough appreciation of the absolute ethics of life or of the underlying principles which form the basis of all human rights and privileges.  Unflagging application and intuitive wisdom and a determination to fully utilize the means at hand are the concomitants which insure personal success and prestige in this great profession which stands as the stern conservator of  justice and it is one in which no man should enter without a recognition of the obstacles to be overcome and the battles to be won.  Possessing all the requisite qualities of the able lawyer, George D. Musmaker has gained for himself a most enviable position in his practice before the courts.  He was born in Cedar county, Iowa, January 14, 1872, a son of George and Mary (Welch) Musmaker, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Ireland.  They came to the United States in their young manhood and woman hood, both being seventeen years of age when they crossed the Atlantic.  They became acquainted and were married in the state of New York and about the time of the outbreak of the Civil war they removed westward to Iowa, settling in Muscatine county.  About the time of the close of the war they removed to Cedar county and in 1878 became residents of Adair county, taking up their abode in Prussia township.  At a later date they removed to Lee township, where the old Musmaker home is located.  It remained in possession of the family until 1914.  After the children had all grown to manhood or womanhood and left the home, the father and mother retired from active business life and removed to Greenfield, where both passed away.

George D. Musmaker was reared under the parental roof and obtained his education in the district schools, in the Greenfield high school and in the Dexter Normal School at Dexter, Iowa.  After the completion of his studies he engaged in teaching school for a year and it was his intention to adopt teaching as a profession but changing his mind, he turned to the profession of the law and in the fall of 1892, entered the law department of the State University at Iowa City, which he attended through the years 1892, 1893 and 1894.  After completing his studies he returned to the farm and for six years devoted his attention to general agricultural pursuits but in 1900 he sold his land and entered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he has been signally successful.  Opening offices in Greenfield he has, in the intervening years, gained a place at the top of the profession in Adair county and is today recognized as one of the ablest and foremost attorneys of his part of the state.  He is most careful and painstaking in the preparation of his cases and in the presentation of his cause he is logical and convincing.

On the 23d of April, 1895, Mr. Musmaker was united in marriage to Miss Alice Gerard, of Arbor Hill, this county, a daughter of T. J. Gerard, one of the well known retired farmers of the county now living in Greenfield.  To Mr. and Mrs. Musmaker have been born six children, of whom four are living:  Lyle, Lewis, Donald and George.

In his political views Mr. Musmaker is a republican but has never had any aspiration for political preferment.  However, he served four years as county attorney of Adair county and since 1905 has been president of the school board.  As a member of that body he was a dominant factor in bringing about the building of the new schoolhouse in Greenfield, one of the finest and most modern buildings for educational purposes in any town of its size in Iowa.  Mr. Musmaker consented, purely from a desire to see certain other improvements put through, to accept the nomination for the mayoralty of Greenfield and immediately after his election he energetically took up the work of the office and secured special legislation which permitted the town to build needed public improvements after the question was passed by a two-thirds vote of the town council.  Under this ruling the city waterworks were built in 1909 and the following year the paving of the little city was begun while Mr. Musmaker still filled the chair of mayor.  The work has been continuously carried forward until all the principal streets and arteries of travel through the town have been paved with concrete, Greenfield having more paved streets than any other town of its size in Iowa.  Mr. Musmaker has always been foremost in any movement for the improvement of his city and his labors have been a direct and forceful element in upbuilding Greenfield and making it the attractive city which it is today.

Aside from his public and professional activities Mr. Musmaker is the vice president of the Greenfield Savings Bank and is a stockholder in two other banks.  In business affairs his judgment is sound and keen and his enterprise is unfaltering.  He carefully manages his interests and with equal pride and alacrity looks after the public interests intrusted to his direction.  After all, however, the practice of law is his real life work and his legal learning, his analytical mind, the readiness with which he grasps the point in an argument, all combine to make him one of the ablest members of the Adair county bar.

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