Gardner A. Shurtleff

SHURTLEFF, HOPKINS, EATON

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/17/2011 at 09:26:51

GARDNER A. SHURTLEFF is a retired farmer living in Grundy Centre. Through well directed efforts, enterprise and industry in former years he acquired a competence which now enables him to lay aside all business cares and enjoy the rest which he has so truly careened and richly deserves. A native of the province of Quebec, Canada, he was born on the 20th of October, 1834, unto Lathrop and Harriet (Hopkins) Shurtleff. The paternal grandfather, Amos Shurtleff, was a native of Connecticut. The father was born and reared in Quebec, but the mother was a native of New Hampshire. By occupation he was a farmer, and followed that business throughout his entire life.

Our subject was the only son and third child in a family of five children. In his native province his boyhood and youth were quietly passed, and in its public schools he obtained a good education which fitted him for the practical duties of life. He then began farming, which he continued until 1865, when he made his way to the United States and cast in his lot with the early settlers of Grundy County, Iowa. He located on section 4, Washington Township, where he had purchased land in 1856 at $3 per acre. His tract comprised one hundred and sixty acres and was in its primitive condition when Mr. Shurtleff located thereon, but he at once began breaking the prairie, and in course of time abundant harvests were garnered as the result of his toil. To the east of his home there was not a neighbor for eight miles. He did his trading and marketing at Waterloo, and his first wheat brought a good price, selling at $1.75 per bushel.

In 1867 Mr. Shurtleff returned to Quebec and was united in marriage with Mary R. Eaton, daughter of Valentine W. Eaton, a farmer of the province of Quebec. Our subject at once came with his bride to the new home which he had prepared for her in the west, and there continued to live until 1883, since which time they have resided in Grundy Centre, where they erected one of the finest homes in the place.

Mr. Shurtleff still owns four hundred and fifty acres of valuable land in Washington Township, all under a high state of cultivation and well improved. Of this one hundred and seventy acres are situated on section 5, and two hundred and eighty acres on section 4. The place is supplied with living water and is well drained. In connection with his other interests, our subject is a stockholder in the Grundy County National Bank. In politics he is a stalwart advocate of Republican principles. He and his wife hold membership with the Presbyterian Church, in which he has served as Elder for twenty-one years; they are both earnest workers in the Master’s vineyard, doing all they can for the promotion of the cause. They are numbered among the earnest settlers of the county, where they have lived for almost a third of a century, and are also numbered among the best citizens, for their well spent lives have gained them an enviable position in the regard of their many friends.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894