Samuel L. Lorah

Samuel L. Lorah selected and adopted his present home in Pymosa, June 1st, 1855. Having had large official experience in Ohio, where he was clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the county in which he lived fifteen years, and Probate Judge three years, Judge Lorah was soon chosen to official position in the township and county here. His services were valuable in bringing order out of chaos, in the county's affairs, after he became County Judge. He continues to occupy the house he built in 1855, the lumber for which he hauled from the Iranistan saw mill. For the first few years he did his trading at Council Bluffs. His daughter Ellen (now Mrs. Peter D. Ankeny, of Des Moines) taught the second school that was taught in Pymosa. The Judges, in passing back and forth from Lewis, to hold court, in an early day, used to nearly always stop at Judge Lorah's for dinner or lodging, and if they stopped long enough they generally got beaten at checkers.

From "History of Cass County, Iowa Together With Brief Mention of Old Settlers," by Lafe Young, Atlantic, Iowa, Telegraph Steam Printing House, 1877, pg. 21-22.