Clarence Albert Batman, son of James Edward Batman and Ovanda Ann Purkhiser, was born August 15, 1875 in Nevada, Story County, Iowa. He attended the Nevada schools graduating from Nevada in 1895 following which he took a commercial course at the Capital City Commercial College in Des Moines.
On November 21, 1900, he married Alta Morse, daughter of Cassius Marcellus Morse and Mary Orlena Woodhouse, in Nevada. He took of the painter’s trade for several intervals until 1903 when he took up farming near Nevada.
Beginning in 1907 he served four year as Deputy Auditor under Story County Auditor F. G. Dunahugh. On March 2, 1909, Alta (Morse) Batman died leaving Mr. Batman a widower with a daughter almost two years of age. Mr. Batman never remarried.
In the fall of 1910, he was elected Story County Auditor and served two terms in that position. On leaving the Auditor’s Office, he entered the office of J. M. Bricker, a local abstractor. When Mr. Bricker died in 1921, he purchased the business. Mr. Batman was elected mayor of Nevada and served two terms from 1919 to 1922. In 1926 Mr. Batman partnered with Harold J. Sayers and established Batman-Sayers Abstract Company. Mr. Batman sold his share of the business to his partner and retired on June 1, 1938. He was a member of several fraternal organizations and was a charter member of the Nevada Rotary Club.
He lived in Nevada almost his entire life, maintaining his residence in Nevada until about 1945 when he removed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to live with his daughter and her husband. Clarence A. Batman died on April 20, 1947 in Cedar Rapids leaving a daughter, Deborah Mary (Batman) Whelpley to survive him.