IAPALOAL-L Archives

From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: Bio of Dwight G McCarty
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 18:01:41 -0500

Harlan, Edgar Rubey. A Narrative History of the People of Iowa. Vol III.
Chicago: American Historical Society, 1931
p. 200

DWIGHT G. McCARTY, of Emmetsburg, is a lawyer whose practice has given
him more than local reputation. Besides his individual attainments
Emmetsburg people think of him as carrying on the honorable traditions and
character of his father, the late George B. McCarty, whose career as a
pioneer lawyer of Northern Iowa is sketched on preceding pages.
Probably the best work of Dwight G. McCarty in his profession has been
in the realm of authorship. Lawyers and historians all over the Middle West
recognize his name in connection with several book titles found in law and
general libraries. These include: Territorial Governors of the Old
Northwest, published in 1910 by the State Historical Society at Iowa City;
History of the Tariff, published by the Tribune Publishing Company of
Emmetsburg in 1909; History of Palo Alto County, issued by the Torch Press
of Cedar Rapids in 1910; Law Office Management, by Prentice Hall,
Incorporated, of New York, in 1926; Iowa Applied Evidence, a law book in two
volumes, published by Callaghan & Company of Chicago in 1927; and
Psychology for the Lawyer, Prentice Hall, Incorporated, 1929. These
publications have met with great success. Law Office and Management has
already run into a second printing and a great demand has arisen for the
forms suggested, which brought about the publication of these forms under
the head McCarty's Lawyers Efficiency System, of which at least parts are in
use in one law office out of every hundred in the united States in the four
years of its existence to date. Mr. McCarty has received correspondence from
readers in Canada, Scotland, England, Virgin Islands, Philippine Islands,
etc. as well as every state in the Union, which indicates the wide interest
created. His book on Psychology for the Lawyer had a sale of several
thousand in advance of publication, which also brought many interesting and
commendatory letters from all over the country. he is now working on two new
volumes on legal subjects.
The published evidences of his research and authorship include a number
of articles, including the following titles: "Early Social and Religious
Experiments in Iowa," in the Iowa Historical Record of January, 1902; First
Territorial Governor in the First Expansion of the united States," in the
Journal of American History, April, 1909; "The Knack of Billing a Client,"
in System Magazine, June, 1920; "The Lawyer's Time Record," in the
Commercial Law League Journal, November, 1925; Protecting the Public, the
Encroachment of Social Legislation on Private Rights," in the American Bar
Association Journal, January and February, 1925; "Modern Methods for the Law
Office," in Iowa Law Review, Vol. 4, page 245; "Time Records for the
Lawyer," in Iowa Law Review, Vol. 6, page 23; "Developing the Lawyer's
Personality," in American Law Review, July and August, 1926; "Our Changing
Law Practice," an address delivered before the Michigan State Bar
Association on September 8, 1927, and published in the Michigan State Bar
Journal in February, 1928, and the Commercial Law League Journal, May, 1928;
"Mental Defectives and the Criminal Law," Iowa Law Review, June, 1929, and
reprinted in the Commercial Law League Journal for November, 1930; "System
in the Commercial Law Office," Handbook of the Commercial Law League of
America, July, 1929.
Dwight Gaylord McCarty was born at Sioux City, Iowa, April 1, 1878. He
graduated from the Emmetsburg High School in 1897, then spent four years in
Grinnell College, graduating Ph. B. in 1901, and attended the Harvard Law
School for three years, taking his LL. B. degree in 1904. Grinnell gave him
the Master of Arts degree in 1904. He was admitted to practice in the
Supreme Court of Iowa October 7, 1904, and in the Federal courts January 7,
1907. On November 1, 1904, he became associated with his father in the firm
of McCarty & McCarty at Emmetsburg, an association that continued for over
twenty-three years and since the death of his father he has practiced alone.
Mr. McCarty has kept himself alert by many points of contact with men
and affairs. He has been chairman of the City Plan Commission of Emmetsburg
since its creation in 1914, has been president and secretary of the
Emmetsburg Commercial Club, member of the Emmetsburg Public Library Board,
secretary of the Emmetsburg Hotel Company since 1917. he is a life member of
the State Historical Society of Iowa, vice president during 1928, and 1929
of the Iowa Town Planning Association, member of the American Political
Science Association. He was for two terms secretary of the Republican
central committee of Palo Alto County, was an alternate delegate to the
National Republican convention of 1916, and has been a delegate to numerous
states and judicial conventions. Since 1905 he has been a member of the
Emmetsburg Civic Club, a body of business and professional men who have
originated, sponsored or advocated many projects and plans for the
betterment of the community. he is a life long member of the First
Congregational Church and has served as a trustee and is former vice
president of its church council. He has been a Mason since 1905, is
affiliated with the Royal Arch and Knights Templar Orders, has been chief
advisor of the Emmetsburg Chapter, Order of DeMolay, since 1923, and in 1928
was awarded the DeMolay Cross of Honor by the Grand Council. he also belongs
to the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern
Woodmen of America and has been a delegate to the National head camp of the
Modern Woodmen at Buffalo, New York, and Chicago.
Mr. McCarty married, June 16, 1904, Guinevere Craven, who was born near
Kellogg, Iowa, May 22, 1884. Through her mother she is a descendant of
Joseph Mason, who was in a party of skirmishers sent by General Washington
on the morning of the battle of Monmouth, and was reported missing and was
never heard of afterwards. Her father, David P. Craven, was born November 7,
1841, and died April 7, 1927. He was descended from a distinguished English
family. Her mother, Julia Bennett Craven, was born June 14, 1843, and died
August 7, 1915. Mrs. McCarty graduated from the Ontario, New York, High
School in 1898 and from Grinnell College took the A.B. degree in 1903. She
is a member of the Friday Club, the Eastern Star and for two years was
president of the Emmetsburg Parent-Teachers Association. Mr. and Mrs.
McCarty have three children: Gaylord Craven, born June 7, 1905, graduated
from Grinnell College in 1927 and is now assistant manager of the securities
department of the Charles E. Lewis Company of Minneapolis. On June 15, 1929,
he married Marjorie Krook, and lives at Minneapolis, Stanton Elliot, born
December 14, 1911, died June 22, 1916, Dwight Gordon was born July 30, 1917.

Cathy Joynt Labath
Palo Alto Co, IA USGenWeb Project
http://www.celticcousins.net/paloalto/index.htm

This thread:

• Bio of Dwight G McCarty by "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>