ASBURY CRISMAN.
ASBURY CRISMAN,who by his own efforts has won a place among the prosperous farmers of Union township, Dallas county, Iowa, forms the subject of this review. His farm is located on section 6; Redfield his post-office address.
Asbury Crisman was born March 22, 1850, in Allegheny county, Pennsylvaniz, the fifth son in the family of seven sons of Aaron and Celia (McMurry) Crisman, both natives of Pennsylvania, the former a member of a Pennsylvania-Dutch family and the latter of Scotch descent. In 1853 the Crisman family left the Keystone State and moved out to Iowa, making settlement in Cedar county, where, in 1871, the father died, at the age of forty-nine years.
At the age of eighteen young Asbury left home for the purpose of making his own way in the world. He early developed an independent disposition, and would have started out for himself even earlier than this had it not been for the fact that he was needed at home. On leaving the paternal roof, he first went to Wilton Junction, a small town not far distant from his home, where he remained one year. At the end of this time he went to Gage county, Nebraska. There in May, 1870, he took a homestead claim, on which he lived seven years, improving it as his means would permit, and in time secured title to it. This place he sold in the spring of 1878. Then he moved back to Iowa and in Cass county rented a farm, upon which he lived two years, after which he bought a small tract of land and the next two years lived on it; then sold out and bought eighty acres in the adjoining township in the same county. After two years spent on the last named place, having in that time improved it to a considerable extent, he again sold out, and then bought a forty-acre tract, on which he lived three years. His next move was to Audubon county, this State. He had sold his last Cass county property, and on his arrival in Audubon county rented 160 acres of land, which he cultivated the next three years. After this he bought twenty-eight acres in the same county, and during the three years he made his home on it, by additional purchase, he increased it to seventy acres, and on selling this place bought an adjoining 120 acres. In 1893 he again sold out and that year purchased his present farm, -- eighty-five acres of choice land in section 6, of Union township, Dallas county. This farm is all well improved and highly cultivated. It has been said that "a rolling stone gathers no moss," but there are exceptions to the rule, as in the case of Mr. Crisman, he having bettered his condition at each one of his frequent moves.
Mr. Crisman is a Republican "to the backbone," and is among the most public-spirited and enterprising men of his community. He favors good schools, good morals and religion, and is giving his children the best educational advantages he can afford. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Crisman was married March 8, 1870, to Miss Margaret E. Barnhouse, a native of Indiana, and to them have been born fourteen children. Two died at birth. The names of the others are Emma S., William F., Mary F., Alice V., Clarence, Edward W., Francis A., Mabel E., Edna May, Lizzie Belle, Charles Le Roy and Gladys E. All of this number are living except three, --Emma S., Clarence and Charles Le Roy.
From A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Volume II, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1896, pp. 998-999. Transcribed July, 2015 by Cheryl Siebrass.
