Daniel M. Clump

CLUMP, MITCHELL, APPLE

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 2/12/2011 at 20:48:31

Daniel M. Clump, who follows farming on section 22, Superior township, Dickinson county, and also devotes considerable attention to stock raising, was born in Lake county, Illinois, on June 15, 1860 , his parents being Frederick J. and Elmira (Mitchell) Clump, the father a native of Buffalo, New York, and the mother of Stephenson county, Illinois. They were married in Freeport, Illinois, and continued to reside in that state until 1884, when they came to Dickinson county, Iowa, and located on a farm on section 34, Richland township. They lived there until 1901, when Mr. Clump retired and located on a small farm of fifty-six acres within the town limits of Superior, where he has since resided.

Daniel M. Clump passed the days of his minority in Illinois and is indebted to its public schools for the education he acquired during that time. It was in 1881 that he came to Iowa and took charge of his fathers’ farm on section 34, Richland township, Dickinson county. At that time the land was all wild prairie and he erected the buildings and set out trees thereon. He has practically witnessed the entire development of this region and is thoroughly familiar with pioneer conditions. The trip from Illinois to Iowa was a hard one as the country was then snow bound, and he arrived in Spencer on the first freight train that had reached that place for three months. It had required a whole week to make the journey. On reaching Spencer he was only able to buy one loaf of bread and as his trunk did not arrive on the same train he made the trip to Spirit Lake in a pair of wooden shoes. An uncle had previously come to Dickinson county and he had built a shack upon the father’s farm which he stocked with provisions, but on the arrival of our subject he found that the neighbors had grown hungry and had taken all the meat left there. For some time he was obliged to live on graham mush and graham bread. So severe had been the winter that on the fourteenth day of April, 1881, he was able to cross Okoboji Lake on the ice with a load of oats. Mr. Clump continued to reside upon the old home farm until 1893 when he removed to Des Moines, where he was identified with the real estate business for four years.

While at that place he was married on November 25, 1895, to Miss Josephine Apple of Racine county, Wisconsin. In 1897 they removed to Estherville, Emmet county, and for the following two years Mr. Clump conducted a meat market at that place. At the end of that time he moved his market to Jackson county, Iowa, where he and his father purchased a section of timber land and for several years he cut cord wood and also engaged in the cattle business. In 1903 he returned to Estherville, where the following two years were passed, and since that time he has remained upon his present farm of two hundred and forty-three acres in Superior township, Dickinson county. As an agriculturist he has met with excellent success and for several years past has devoted considerable attention to the feeding of cattle for market, which branch of his business he has also found profitable.

Mr. and Mrs. Clump have two daughters of their own and also an adopted son, namely: Irene A., Ruth I. and Arthur Dale. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and have a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in both Emmet and Dickinson counties. In politics Mr. Clump is independent, preferring to support men and measures that he believes best calculated to promote the general interests of the community. He is one of the representative citizens of Dickinson county and his course in life has ever won for him the respect and esteem of those with whom he has been brought in contact.

Submitted by: Justina Cook. Justina's husband is the great-grandson of Daniel Clump.