Edwin Carlos Lane, editor of one of the leading county-seat newspapers of Iowa, was born August 11, 1855, on the home farm of his maternal grandfather situated midway between Plano and Bristol Station near the main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, in Little Rock township, Kendall county, Illinois. He was one of a family of three sons and one daughter whose parents were Levi Hart and Emily Jane (Kendrick) Lane. The father was born in Lewis county, New York, in 1830, and was a son of Lyman Lane, a native of Suffield, Connecticut, who was born in 1799. Our subject’s great-great-great-grandfather, L. Lane, came from Scotland to New England and was the founder of the family in the new world. Lyman Lane continued a resident of New England through the period of his early life and married Miss Nancy Hart, a daughter of the Hon. Levi Hart, who was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1773, and removed to Lewis county, New York in 1798. He was an extensive farmer and figured prominently in the public life of the community in which he lived, serving his county in the New York assembly in 1818 and was for many years county judge of Lewis county. Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Lane removed from Lewis county, New York, to Kendall county, Illinois, in 1837 and the former acquired the ownership of a farm two miles from what is now Yorkville. He was one of the successful pioneer farmers of Kendall county, prominent in the progress of the community along agricultural lines. There he died at the age of ninety-seven years.
It was his son, Levi Hart Lane, who became the father of Edwin Carlos Lane. Born in the Empire state he was only about seven years of age when he accompanied his parents on their westward removal to Illinois and in Kendall county, that state, on February 23, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss Emily J. Kendrick, who was born in the state of New York, in 1833. Her father, William P. Kendrick, was born at Hollis, New Hampshire, in 1790, attended the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Harvard University. For six years he was a member of the faculty of that famous institution of learning. He became a Congregational minister and for nearly thirty years acted as a home missionary in the state of New York. In 1826 he married Emily Tucker, who was born at Suffield, Connecticut, in 1804, and was a daughter of Morris and Ruth (Fowler) Tucker of Suffield, Connecticut, and of Agawam, Massachusetts, respectively. Rev. and Mrs. William P. Kendrick removed from the state of New York to Kendall county, Illinois, in 1846, and there he died in 1854, while his widow passed away in 1861. Having married their daughter, Emily Jane Kendrick, in Kendall county, Illinois, in 1854, Dr. Lane engaged in the practice of dentistry at Bristol, now a part of Yorkville, Illinois, and later removed to Prescott, Linn county, Kansas, where he was a druggist for several years. lie also acted as postmaster of that town and his prominence in the community is indicated by the fact that he was elected in 1872 to represent Linn county in the state legislature. For about twenty-five years lie has been a resident of Topeka, Kansas. In 1864 he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who passed away in Bristol, Illinois, when their son, Edwin, was but nine years of age.
The name of Carlos came to Edwin Carlos Lane from his great-uncle, Carlos Hart, who was the son of judge Levi Hart. Reared in Kendall county, Illinois, he attended a select school and also the public school in Bristol, Illinois, now Yorkville. Later he attended the Godard and Rickard rural schools in the vicinity of Yorkville and added gradually to his knowledge through his experiences in printing offices where is demanded broad general information. At the age of twelve years he had an opportunity to enter a printing office, which gratified a natural inclination and longing and, therefore, on the 2d of September, 1867, he became an employee in the office of the Kendall County Record at Yorkville, Illinois, where he worked at the printer’s trade under the instructions of his employer, John R. Marshall, a superior printer. With him Mr. Lane continued for four years and in 1871 and 1872 was employed as a printer in the office of the Beacon at Aurora, Illinois. In December of the latter year, he went to Prescott, Kansas, to assist his father in business and was thus engaged for about a year and a half, during which time he gained practical insight into business methods. In July, 1875, he went to La Cygne, Kansas, where he formed a partnership with J. P. Kenea in the publication of the La Cygne Journal and for the conduct of a job printing business. Since that time Mr. Lane and Mr. Kenea have been in partnership, the organization of the firm of Kenea & Lane being effected in July, 1875. Together they continued the publication of the La Cygne journal until August, 1893, when they removed to Clarinda, Iowa, where in September, 1893, they founded the Clarinda Journal and in connection therewith a job printing business. For some years before leaving La Cygne for Clarinda, Mr. Lane with Mr. Kenea became financially interested in the publication of a neighboring newspaper, the Pleasanton Observer, at Pleasanton, Kansas. Mr. Lane has now had thirty-four years’ continuous experience as an editor and publisher and has always been thoroughly familiar with the details of his business. During all this time lie has been an industrious worker, giving careful, faithful and intelligent attention to his duties and, therefore, has proven successful. He has an established reputation as a clear, concise and able writer. His political and other writings are widely quoted and the Clarinda journal, of which he is the editor, is one of the leading papers of Iowa, standing as a splendid representative of modern journalism in all that is commendable and progressive in the field of newspaper publication at the present time.
In 1889 Mr. Lane was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to the position of postmaster of La Cygne, Kansas, and held that office for more than four years. He resigned the position a short time before his removal to Clarinda. He has been a life-long republican and strictly a straight party man. For ten years he was the member from Linn county of the second Kansas republican congressional committee and for two years, including the presidential campaign of 1888, was its chairman. He is now a member of the Clarinda public library board and in all professional and non-professional relations is a stalwart advocate of every movement that tends to promote general progress and upbuilding in the city. He became a member of the Masonic fraternity in 1877 when the Entered Apprentice and Fellowcraft degrees were conferred upon him and in 1878 he was raised to the degree of a Master Mason in La Cygne Lodge, No. 61, A. F. & A. M., of which he was the worshipful master for two years. He is now, 1909, the senior warden of Nodaway Lodge, No. 140, A. F. & A. M. ; is a Royal Arch Mason-member of Clarinda Chapter, No. 29, of which he is a past high priest. He is also a member and past worthy patron of Clarinda Chapter, No. 214, O. E. S., and he belongs to the First Presbyterian church of Clarinda. Throughout his entire life he has been connected with the printing business, having occupied every position in the office from the most humble to that of editor-in-chief, his advancement following as the logical sequence of his close application and his thorough understanding of the work in which he embarked as a young tradesman.