CLYDE, Samuel A.

CLYDE, FERN, CONLEY, MARSH

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 2/3/2011 at 16:44:24

Samuel A. Clyde and family came to St. Ansgar township, Mitchell county, in September, 1855. The conveyance was a covered wagon drawn by a yoke of red mooley oxen, and the oxen were shod much as horses are shod, except that there were two shoes on each foot because of the cleft hoof. The starting point was a farm in the northern part of Jefferson county, Wisconsin. They located two miles north of St. Ansgar. All lived the first winter in a log cabin about fourteen by sixteen feet in size and eight feet high. It had a puncheon floor and sod roof, and the furniture was all home made. In 1856 Mr. Clyde was elected justice of the peace, then township assessor, county judge and member of the board of supervisors. He filled all these positions with skill and credit.

He was born near Cherry Valley, New York, October 12, 1804, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war. When he was a young man he was taken with severe bleeding of the lungs which continued at intervals for several years, and from which he never entirely recovered. In 1839 he was married to Elizabeth Fern, who was a teacher of experience, was born in England, and came to New York state in childhood with her parents and family. In 1844 Mr. and Mrs. Clyde moved to what was then the territory of Wisconsin, their oldest child being about fifteen months of age. They experienced all the trials and hardships of pioneer life there and were among the veteran pioneers when they came to this county. Mrs. Clyde was a woman of unusual ability, energy and public spirit. During the first winters in Iowa she taught in her small home her own and several of the neighbors' children. Besides doing the ordinary work of a house wife she carded, spun, knit and wove most of the wool produced by a small flock of sheep kept on the premises, and exchanged many socks and mittens for groceries and clothing. She braided and sewed many straw hats for boys and men, and some for women, and sold and exchanged them to pay for living expenses. During four or five winters she taught the home school, first in an addition to her own log home, and later in the stone schoolhouse that was built on land donated by her and her husband to the district. Her wages for such teaching were twenty dollars a month, and, as school orders were not paid promptly, she had to wait months for her pay, or discount her orders for cash.

Mr. and Mrs. Clyde were highly esteemed by their neighbors and other ac­quaintances, and their advice was sought and,.followed by many on matters of public interest and importance. Mr. Clyde died on the home farm August 2, 1868.

Four children of this marriage grew to maturity: Arthur W., born in New York state; and Louisa E., Jefferson F., and S. Elizabeth, born in Wisconsin. All of these except Arthur taught school in the home district. Arthur attended the Dunlap Academy in Mitchell, took private lessons of Mrs. Oran Faville, served four years in Company K, Twenty-Seventh Iowa Infantry, and was the first county auditor elected in the county. He first entered the newspaper business with the St. Ansgar Gazette and Osage News, then studied law and practiced the same in Logan, Iowa, and Ashley, North Dakota. He died in the last named place, in April, 1910. Louisa taught school in several country districts, attended Cedar Valley Seminary, married Rev. F. A. Marsh, and died at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1879. Jefferson is one of the editors of this history. The daughter, S. Eliza­beth, attended Cedar Valley Seminary and Iowa State University, married Rev. J. W. Conley, and is now living at Fresno, California. All members of the Clyde family moved from the home farm in 1873. After that time the subdistrict was changed to an independent school district, and the old neighbors gave it the Clyde name, in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde. Mrs. Clyde lived with her children at Iowa City, Mitchell, Joliet, Illinois, and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She passed away at Joliet, Illinois, in the fall of 1886. Her remains rest beside those of her husband in the old St. Ansgar cemetery, the one now used by the German Lutheran church people.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 389.