JOB CARD.
JOB CARD, Sheriff of Cass county, Iowa, has been a resident of this county for more than a quarter of a century, and is one of its well-known and highly respected citizens.
He was born in Bennington county, Vermont, May 16, 1847. Reverting to his ancestry, we find he is remotely descended from Welsh ancestors and belongs to a family noted for longevity. His father, Job E. Card, was born in Vermont in 1815, and was by occupation a farmer. In 1869 he left the Green Mountain State and moved west to Iowa, settling in Cass county, where the residue of his life was passed and where he died, in May, 1893, at the age of eighty years. He was a son of Abel Card, a native of Rhode Island and of Welsh descent.
Mr. Card's mother was by maiden name Miss Lyda L. Hendee, and she, too, is a native of Vermont. She was born in 1826 and is still living. Her father, Asa Hendee, was a veteran of the war of 1812, was by trade a carpenter, and lived to the advanced age of ninety years. Job E. and Lyda L. Card had three children, two sons and a daughter, the subject of our sketch being the oldest. Of the others, we record that Lucina L. is the wife of J. P. Byrd, a farmer of Pymosa township, Cass county, Iowa; and that Ward E. is a resident of Atlantic, this county.
Mr. Card was reared in his native place and received a common-school education. He was a mere boy when the great Civil war broke out, but young as he was he was thrilled with patriotism and a desire to go out in protection of the Union. In 1865, then at the age of eighteen, he enlisted as a member of Company E, Fifth New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry, and was detailed as hospital steward. In this capacity he served until the war was over, and he received an honorable discharge. In 1869 he came out to Iowa and direct to Cass county, locating on a farm in Pymosa township, where he maintained his residence until 1873. That year he was appointed deputy Sheriff of Cass county, in which position he served most efficiently until 1878, when he was elected Constable of Atlantic township. This office he filled until January 1, 1892, and from that time until June 1, 1893, he was in the mail service. In the fall of 1893 he was elected to his present position, that of County Sheriff, receiving his official honor from the Republican party, with which he has always affiliated. His long experience as Deputy Sheriff and Constable especially fit him for the duties of this office, which he is performing with his customary fidelity.
In February, 1878, Mr. Card married Miss Mary E. Welch, a native of Illinois, and they are the parents of one child -- Miss Grace.
Mr. Card is identified with a number of fraternal organizations, among which are the A. F. & A. M., I. O. O. F., K. of P., G. A. R., and M. W. A. He has passed all the chairs in the K. of P. and the I. O. O. F.
From A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Volume I, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1896, pp. 378-379. Transcribed July, 2015 by Cheryl Siebrass.
