Casady family
prominent family in Des Moines, Iowa
The Casady family are a prominent family in the Des Moines region who were among the first white pioneers to arrive in Iowa. The family has been involved in banking, agriculture, education, real estate, politics, media, entertainment, and other endeavors, and had a strong impact on the early history and legislation of Iowa. Members of the Casady family have helped found several major businesses in Iowa history, including Pioneer Hi Bred International, Central National Bancshares, and the Bankers Life Association, which later evolved into Principal Financial Group. In the 1970s, the Casady family owned over 10% of all shares in the Pioneer corporation and nearly 14% of all stock in Central National Bancshares.
Background
As part of the founding elite of Des Moines, the Casady family maintained social ties with other affluent pioneer families such as the Hubbell family and the Polk family. Intermarriage was common between these families.
Family tree
Agriculture
Simon Casady, Jr., son of banker Simon Casady, co-founded the Pioneer Hi Bred International corporation, a pioneer in the production of GMOs, alongside farm journal editor and future U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace and other local Iowa businesspeople.
Several generations of the Casady family were shareholders or officers at Pioneer, including Simon Casady Jr.'s son Simon Wheeler Casady III, who was a Pioneer director, secretary, and major shareholder. Simon Casady Jr.'s wife Grace Margaret Wheeler Casady was also a major shareholder. Simon and Grace's daughters Hortense Oldfather and Rose Casady McCay were also shareholders.
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This entry incorporates text from “Casady family” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.