GEORGE J. PELLETT, BRIGHTON TOWNSHIP.
This pioneer settler of Brighton township and breeder of fine carriage and speed horses, is a native of the State of Pennsylvania, and was born near the little city of Harford, Susquehanna county, on June 7, 1846. His parents were Jason and Phoebe (Rogers) Pellett, the former born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Connecticut. The father was a farmer and lumberman, and moved to Wisconsin in 1851, locating in Manitowoc county, where he lumbered and farmed until near the close of his life, when he became a resident of Cass county, where he died on September 4, 1898, his wife following him to the other world in 1903. They had a family of three sons and four daughters. The three sons and two of the daughters are living, George and his brother Ambrose being residents of this county. The father was a man of local prominence and influence in Wisconsin, filling a number of township and county offices and serving as United States Marshal during the Civil War. He was a member of the township and county boards of supervisors, assisting in their organization. The grandfather, Hezekiah Pellett, passed his early life in Connecticut and served in the War of 1812. Late in life he became a pioneer in Wisconsin, where he died at an advanced age.
George J. Pellett passed his boyhood and youth in Wisconsin, living in that State from the time that he was five years old, and received his education in the common country schools of the early days. He remained in Wisconsin until 1870, engaged in farming and logging, and in the year last mentioned started with a team for Iowa, spending four weeks on the trip, but making as good time as the condition of the country and the facilities of travel allowed. On his arrival in this county he located on the farm in Brighton township, which he has broken up and improved, and here for a number of busy years he carried on a general farming industry with marked success. He spent seven years in Atlantic, but for the past eight years has been actively engaged in breeding carriage and speed horses of the finest strains. He has possessed such princes of the turf as Noxie (record 2:15 1/4), and now owns "Knox All," with a record of 2:18.
Mr. Pellett has prospered in all lines of his enterprise, and is now reckoned among the substantial men of the county. He has also been public spirited and progressive, and has helped materially to push forward the county's car of progress and develop her resources to the lasting benefit of her people. In 1867, Mr. Pellett was married in Wisconsin to Lydia A. Wheatley, and three children were born to them: Ida, now Mrs. White of Plattsmouth, Neb.; Walter J., a resident of this county; and Mary, now Mrs. Archer, of Nebraska City, Neb. Their mother died in 1872 and in 1874 the father married, as his second wife, Mary Mott, a native of Canada. They have five children, Olive, now Mrs. C. Savery of Atlantic; Laura, Mrs. George Higley, also of Atlantic; Will, a resident of this county; Ada, living in Atlantic; and Bert, who is still at home. In politics the father is a Republican, but he has never been an active partisan or an office seeker, although he has served as president of the School Board for eight years. Fraternally he is connected with the United Workmen.
From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 463-464.
