CORNELIUS P. LONG,
who died at his home in Taylor township, Benton county, Iowa, March 7,
1905, was a highly successful and substantial farmer. Mr. Long was born
at Greensburg, Decatur county, Indiana, January 9, 1859, and was son of
W. P. and Annie (Waddell) Long, natives of Kentucky. W. P. Long and his
wife were married in Decatur county, Indiana, and there carried on a
farm until 1855, when they moved to Harrison township, Benton county,
Iowa. Later he purchased a farm in Taylor township, and during the
Civil war he moved to Polk township, where he purchased a farm of one
hundred and sixty acres, the family 'home for many years. Mr. Long died
at the age of eighty-four years at Urbana, where he spent the last
years of his life; his wife died about 1895, aged seventy-one years.
Cornelius P. was the second of their eight children who reached
maturity and besides these two died in infancy. The following survive:
Mrs. John Glendye, of Vinton; William, of Harrison township; Albert, of
Vinton, and 0. E., of Denver.
C. P. Long was reared from childhood in Benton county, and there
received a common school education. He was very successful as a farmer
and stock raiser, and always raised Shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey
hogs. He owned two hundred and sixty-seven acres in Taylor township, in
sections 6 and 31. This farm was at first unimproved and had to be
cleared and cultivated to bring it to its present high state of
cultivation. Mr. Long was an industrious farmer, a kind husband and
father, and universally esteemed. Politically he was always a
Republican, and he and his wife belonged to the Prairie Creek Christian
church.
Mr. Long married, May 24, 1873, Mrs. Delia A. Sammons, widow of N. J.
Sammons and daughter of Michael and Ann D. (Ferris) Snell, natives of
Albany, New York, and Horseshoe Bend, Connecticut, respectively. Delia
A. Snell was born in Jennings county, Indiana, December 6, 1844. Her
parents were children when they came with their respective families to
Indiana; they were married at Brookville, Franklin county, Indiana, Mr.
Snell was a farmer and also a miller, and they lived and died on the
old farm, he dying in August, 1872, aged seventy-five years, and she
died in July, 1893, aged eighty-nine. They had several children, of
whom five died in infancy. Mrs. Long is the youngest, the others are:
Mrs. Jack Long, of Urbana; Mrs. Mary Stagg, who died October 21, 1909;
Mrs. Martha Stagg and Mrs. Catherine G. Gnose, all of Indiana; and
Henry C., of Greensburg, Indiana. Mrs. Long came to Benton county
October 17, 1861, but was married in Indiana to N. J. Sammons, who was
born at Greensburg, Indiana, and died at Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1872, at the
age of thirty years, leaving two children, Kittie M. and James Henry.
Kittie M. Sammons is now the wife of William Bassett, of Vinton, and
they have one daughter, Mrs. Ethel Johnson, of Polk township. James
Henry Sammons, of Alberta, Canada, married Jennie Rarey, and they have
four children, Vernie, Bernice, Floyd and Selma. Mr. and Mrs. Long
became the parents of two children, Frank and Ruth. Frank Long, of
Missoula, Montana, is engaged in mercantile business, he married Ella
Calkins, formerly of Mount Auburn, Iowa, who died in December, 1905,
leaving one son, Chester, aged six, born June 27, 1903. Ruth Long
married Clifford Bunten, a farmer of Taylor township, Benton county,
and they have two sons, Paul, born June 29, 1903, and Frank L., born
January 17, 1909.