ARTHUR P. CUYKENDALL, BEAR GROVE TOWNSHIP.
Mr. Cuykendall is a prosperous farmer of Bear Grove township, who makes a specialty of breeding Suffolk draft horses -- there is only one other resident of Cass county thus engaged. He is already extensively engaged in that line, and his business is increasing with most encouraging rapidity. In this, as in all other respects, he has earned success by persistent and intelligent effort and sheer strength of will; nothing has floated to him, or come to him unsought.
Arthur P. Cuykendall was born in Grundy county, Ill., February 19, 1866, and is the son of Stephen N. and Belinda (Merrin) Cuykendall, natives respectively of New York and Ohio. The father came to that section of Illinois in the 'fifties, and lived the life of an industrious farmer until the outbreak of the Civil War. He then joined Company E., Twenty-third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but after being taken prisoner and paroled did not reenter the service. He died in Grundy county, September 5, 1871, his widow being still alive. The family of Mrs. Stephen N. Cuykendall came from New York, and two of her brothers were early settlers of Cass county. The paternal grandfather, Martin Cuykendall, was also a native of the Empire State, where he died. Mr and Mrs. Stephen Cuykendall became the parents of three children, all of whom are dead but Arthur P.
Having spent his boyhood and his youth, into his sixteenth year, as a resident of Grundy county, Arthur P. Cuykendall shifted the scene of his activities from Illinois to Iowa, in December, 1881. He then settled in Cass county, and, after working for others for about four years, started in his individual career of independent prosperity. In 1895 Mr. Cuykendall purchased the farm in Bear Grove township, upon which he has since erected a modern residence and otherwise brought it to a high standard of farming property. He conducts general farming, as well as the breeding specialty already mentioned, and is altogether among the most substantial and progressive citizens of the younger generation.
In 1889 Mr Cuykendall was married to Lelia M. Swires, and they have become the parents of three children -- Ralph N., Lella F. and Vera J. Her parents were Thomas and Martha J. (Simpson) Swires, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The father was a pioneer of Washington county, Iowa, and died there in 1874. In 1876 the widow came to Cass county with the family of six children, and now resides in Atlantic. One son and Mrs. Cuykendall reside in Cass county.
From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 307-308.
