WILLIAM B. EDWARDS, CUMBERLAND.

Willim B. Edwards, now a retired farmer of Cumberland, is a fine specimen of the kind of men who have made the State of Iowa prosperous and honored. Although a native of Illinois, he has been a progressive agriculturist of Cass county for a period of forty years, having fondly clung to his adopted State and spent his life in furthering her development--except during the years of his youth and early manhood, when he was giving brave service against Confederates and Indians and in behalf of the Union.

In 1856 Amos Edwards removed with his family to Schuyler county, that State, where William B. resided at the outbreak of the Civil War. On August 13, 1861, the youth of nineteen enlisted in Company H, Third Illinois Cavalry, and served throughout the war in the Department of the West. The first important engagement in which he participated was at Pea Ridge, Ark. At Haines Bluff, on the Yazoo river, he was orderly for Colonel DeCourcie, and took part in the capture of Arkansas Post, where he served in cavalry fights, and in the summer of 1865 accompanied his command to the Northwest, forming a portion of the forces sent thither to hold the Sioux Indians in check. His duties were confined to Dakota, and after about three months of service he was mustered out at Fort Snelling, Minn., the date of his honorable discharge being October 20, 1865.

After thus devoting more than four years of his life to the service of his country, Mr. Edwards returned to Schuyler county, and on November 14, 1865, was married to Sarah J. Chapman, a daughter of James and Louisa Chapman and a native of that county. Mr. Edwards had already investigated Cass county and found it to his liking; so that, in the following year, he purchased a tract of wild land in Union township, determined to locate there as soon as possible. On October 20, 1866, his father-in-law died in Schuyler county, and on May 2d, of the following year, the widow, his wife, her sister and brother, and himself, took up their abode on the forty-acre piece of prairie land, on section 29. Mrs. Edwards' sister, who was then but an infant, was reared by herself and husband, and is now Mrs. South, of Strong, Neb. Mrs. Chapman died on the old homestead on section 29, in 1872, and there Mr. Edwads resided with his wife until March, 1875, when he sold the place, which he had greatly improved, and bought an "eighty" which he made his homestead for many years. Subsequently he purchased property in section 26, as well as in Edna township, and at the present time is the owner of 400 acres of land, all in a good state of cultivation.

William B. Edwards is one of the few now living, who has been a material factor in the development of the county since the times when the Indians were still lingering in their old hunting grounds. Both he and Mrs. Edwards frequently saw the Red Men during the first year of their residence in Cass county, at one time a party of forty Indians camping for several days near their house. During the days of his first settlement he was obiged to go Taylor county for corn with which to make bread. But those times--so wearing then, so fascinating now--are past, and Mr. Edwards is now resting from his fruitful labors, and honored citizen of Cumberland. For many years he was an active member of the G. A. R., has always beena Republican in politics, and is identified with the Christian Church.


From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 322-324.