PAST AND PRESENT OF
O'Brien and Osceola Counties, Iowa

BIOGRAPHIES

8lO O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

FRANK PAUL WINKLER. M. D.

Professional success results from merit. Frequently in commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative business through inheritance or gift, but in what are known as the learned professions advancement is gained only through painstaking and long-continued effort. Prestige in the healing art is the outcome of strong mentality, close application, thorough mastery of its great underlying principles and the ability to apply theory to practice in the treatment of diseases. Good intellectual training, thorough professional knowledge and the possession and utilization of the qualities and attributes essential to success have made Dr. Frank Paul Winkler eminent in his chosen calling and he stands today among the scholarly and enterprising phvsicians in a county noted for the high order of its medical talent.

Dr. Frank P. Winkler, a practicing physician and surgeon of Sibley, Iowa, was born June 24, 1882, at Ida Grove. He is the son of William and Caroline (Rudloff) Winkler, who are natives of Germany and early setlers in Ida county, Iowa. In 1891 William Winkler and family left Ida Grove and settled in Lyon county, where they lived until 1909, then moved to Luverne, Minnesota, where they are now living.

Doctor Winkler was educated in the public schools of Doon, Lyon county, Iowa; attended Charles City College of Charles City, Iowa; State Universitv of South Dakota; University of St. Louis, and finally was granted his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Illinois on June 6, 1906. He has also taken post-graduate work in the University of Illinois since graduating. With this excellent training it can be seen that Doctor Winkler has the practical training which is the first requisite of the successful physician of today. He keeps fairly abreast of the times by keeping in close touch with the latest literature on medical science and also by attending the various medical societies of the country. He is a member of the Osceola County, Iowa State, Sioux Valley and American Medical Associations, and the American Association of Railway Surgeons, and he is attending surgeon of the Samaritan Hospital, at Sibley.

Doctor Winkler began the practice of his profession in Scotland, South Dakota, and remained there three years. He then went to Bryant, South Dakota, where he practiced for the next three years. He came to Sibley, September 1, 1912, succeeding the practice of Dr. Hiram Neill, and has continued to practice here since that time.

Doctor Winkler was married in 1903 to Julia Ella Catobius, of St.

Picture of FRANK P. WINKLER, M. D.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 811

Louis, Missouri, who died December 3, 1909, at the age of thirty years. Fraternally, Doctor Winkler is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He is also identified with the Eastern Star and the Daughters of Rebekah. At the present time he is a local surgeon for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, as well as the Chicago, Minnesota & Omaha Railways. Doctor Winkler is still a young man and has a long and brilliant career before him. The success which he has attained since coming to this city indicates that the future holds much in store for him. He is a man of pleasing personality and makes friends easily.

C. W. LEWIS.

It would be interesting to know the underlying reasons which govern the choice of occupation and if it were possible to determine in any way the best occupation for a young man to enter, much of the failure in life would be eliminated. Undoubtedly there are many preachers who ought to be farmers, while, on the other hand, there are many farmers who would fill the pulpit with distinction. At this present day and generation there is such a multiplicity of professions offered to the young man that he is often bewildered by reason of their large number. Today there art thousands of occupations calling for young men where there was a scarce hundred a century ago. The important thing, after all, is for the young man to pick that occupation for which he is best fitted, then to equip himself that he may be an honor to the profession which he chooses. The life history of C. W. Lewis, one of the enterprising newspaper men of Osceola county, is an example of a man who is peculiarly trained for his chosen life work. As a son of a printer, he has learned the trade from the ground up and consequently there is no angle of the business which he does not thoroughly understand.

C. W. Lewis, the editor and publisher of the Ashton Leader, was born March 2, 1887, in Marcus, Iowa. He is the son of F. A. and Nettie (Watt) Lewis, who are natives of Wisconsin and Iowa, respectively. His father was a newspaper man and was editor and publisher of the Marcus News for twenty-five years. He was postmaster of Marcus for nine years, holding that position at the time of his death in 1906. F. A. Lewis and wife were the parents of three children: C. F., a farmer of Woodstock, Minnesota: Wilson, who resides with his mother, and C. W., with whom this narrative deals.

812 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA

C. W. Lewis was educated in the Marcus schools and graduated from the high school at the age of eighteen. Before graduating from the high school he had worked in his father's printing office after school hours and in this way became acquainted with the mechanical side of the business at an early age. For the past fourteen years he has been a printer and in active service, with the exception of three years, when he was assistant postmaster of Marcus. He came to Ashton and began the publication of the Leader December 17, 1909, and has had the satisfaction of seeing this paper increase its circulation and widen its influence in this community.

Mr. Lewis was married May 23, 1911, to Florence Hockert, the daughter of J. S. Hockert, a retired merchant of Sutherland, Iowa. To this union have been born two children, Merton, born in June, 1912, and Merna, born in July, 1913. Fraternally, Mr. Lewis is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Politically, he is Democratic, but is not a partisan in any sense of the word. He advocates the best measures in his paper in a fluent and forcible manner and yet in a way which indicates his independence of expression.

FRITZ HINZ.

Our nation owes much of its progressiveness to the infusion of the Germanic element amongst its population, for in all walks of life they have been found efficient, energetic and patient, enduring with fortitude the hardships of pioneer life and doing their full share in the work of pushing forward the wheels of progress wherever they are located. There is scarcely a locality in the Union that has not felt their strong and ameliorating influence, consequently they have ever been most welcome here and all honor is due them.

Fritz Hinz, a retired farmer of Primghar, is a worthy representative of the sturdy and energetic Germans who have come to this county from their faraway native land, and is one of the twenty-five hundred Germans who have honored O'Brien county with their citizenship. Mr. Hinz was born in Holstein, Germany, January 3, 1838, and was the son of Franz and Elzaba (Youngley) Hinz, who were the parents of five children: John, of Sutherland, Iowa; Henry, who still resides in the fatherland; Peter, deceased; Margaret, deceased, and Fritz, whose history is here presented.

Fritz Hinz grew up on his father's farm in Germany and at the age of thirty married Wiebke Ehleis, who was born in Germany in 1842. Immediately after their marriage they came to America and first settled temporarily

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA 813

in Davenport, Iowa, where they stayed for six weeks, after which they went to Tama couny this state, where they bought one hundred and twenty acres of land which they improved and developed to such an extent that they were able to sell it at a considerable profit. In 1885 they came to O'Brien county, bought a farm of three hundred and twenty acres adjoining the town of Gaza, a town which is partially built on the Hinz farm. After moving to this farm Mr. Hinz also engaged in the lumber business and was successful from the first. At one time he was the owner of nearly one thousand acres of land in the county, as well as four hundred acres of Dakota land, and also land in other adjoining states. In 1903 Mr. Hinz retired to Primghar after selling his farm and bought seven acres in the town of Primghar. He still holds two hundred and forty acres in Minnesota, and does a real estate business in connection with George W. Schee.

Mr. Hinz adheres to the principles of the Democratic party and, although not an office seeker, he has always taken an intelligent interest in the issues of the day. He and the members of his family are loyal members of the German Lutheran church and they give it their earnest support. Mr. and Mrs. Hinz are the parents of four children: Mrs. Minnie Manly, of Dakota; Frank, whose wife is deceased and who is now living at home with his parents, together with his daughter, Celia; Charles, who is running a store in Sanborn, and Mrs. Kate Hendrey, of Primghar.

Mr. Hinz represents the fine type of emigrants who by thrift and industry have become the present substantial citizens in the various communities in which they have settled, who combine business talent with sound business judgment and foresight to perceive the value of land, all of which has enabled Mr. Hinz to attain to a respectable and eminent position in the affairs of his community and enjoy a very comfortable competence. He is the exemplification of the self-made man who has achieved a reputation in this county which places him among the first of his county's business and public men.

PATRICK REDMOND.

Among the prosperous farmers of O'Brien county of Irish descent there is no one who deserves more honorable mention than Patrick Redmond, a retired farmer of Lincoln township. He was born in Ireland in 1835 and is the son of Peter and Mary (Whalen) Redmond. Peter Redmond was a farmer and teamster in Ireland and lived there all of his days, dying in 1863.

814 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

Peter Redmond was twice married and by his first marriage the following children were born: James, of Pennsyhania; John, deceased; Peter, of Los Angeles, California; Mrs. Marie Clerey, of Ireland; Mary, who was burned to death when a baby, and Patrick, whose history is here briefly delineated. In 1862 he was married to Marie Harris. There were no children by this second marriage, he dying a year after his second marriage.

Patrick Redmond left his native land when he was twenty years of age and came to America, settling in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He engaged in farming in Pennsylvania until 1865 and then went to Illinois, where he remained until 1873. The latter year he went to Henry county, Iowa, and farmed until 1880. His next move took him into Osceola county where he farmed for the next six years. He settled upon his last farm in Lincoln township, O'Brien county, in 1891. perchased two hundred and forty acres of land and improved in such a way that its productivity was greatly increased. He set out five acres of trees, which was the custom of most of the farmers of the county. He has always been interested in the raising of live stock and has been a breeder of registered stock. He makes a specialty of French Percheron horses and has taken many prizes at the county fairs of Osceola and O'Brien ccnmties. He now owns a young French Percheron stallion, two years of age, which he values at two thousand dollars. He is a stockholder in the Percheron Society of America at Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Redmond owns a home in Sanborn where he is spending his declining years.

Mr. Redmond was married in 1863, in Pennsylvania, to Mary Sullivan and to this union have been born seven children: Mary, a graduate of the Howe Academy of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and now a school teacher in Sanborn; Thomas, a real estate business man of Sibley, Iowa; Helen, who is teaching school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after taking a college course in Drake University, University of Minnesota and other schools; Steven, a farmer of O'Brien county; Margaret, the wife of Doctor Wheatley, government physician at the Soldiers' Home at Dayton, Ohio, and two children, Catherine and Steven, who died in infancy.

Politically, Mr. Redmond has always identified himself with the Republican party and, while interested in politics, yet he has never been an active factor in the campaigns. He and all of his family are earnest members of the Catholic church and contribute generously of their substance to its support. He is a member of the Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus. Mr. and Mrs. Redmond have reared a large family to lives of usefulness and have given them the best of educational advantages. The best citizen is he who takes his full share in the advancement of his community and

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 815

rears a family of children so that they will be able to take their places among the men and women who are advancing civilization in this country, and by this standard Patrick Redmond has met with unusual success. It is better to give a half dozen children, well trained, to the service of the state than to leave a fortune of one hundred thousand dollars to charity or any other organization and no children for the good of society. Mr. Redmond is highly esteemed bv every one who knows him and few men in the county have a wider acquaintance than he.

OLIVER A. METZ.

One of the most popular and efficient county officials who has ever held office by the grace of the suffrages of his fellow citizens is Oliver A. Metz, the present county recorder of Osceola county, who has been elected to this office four times in succession and is still holding it, while his previous official record was one of merit. Before moving to Sibley he was a resident of Allison township, and was nine years the school treasurer of his township and for eight years was township trustee. He is not only recognized in his own county as a man of more than ordinary ability, but at the last annual meeting of the State Recorders Association of Iowa, Mr. Metz was unanimously elected as president of the state association. This honor came to him absolutely unsolicited and is a marked tribute to his ability and popularity.

Oliver A. Metz, the son of Samuel J. and Susan (Diamond) Metz, was born July 1, 1853, in Pennsylvania. His parents were natives of Maryland and Pennsylvania. respectively, and migrated to Black Hawk county. Iowa, in 1865, where they purchased land and lived until 1881, when they returned to Pennsylvania, and two years later came west and settled in Kansas, where Samuel J. Metz died in 1901. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, six of whom are living: N. D., of Lake Park, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Jacobs, of Hay Springs, Nebraska; Mrs. Florence Secoy, of Hutchinson, Kansas: Mrs. Belle Crandall, who lives in Colorado; William H., of Little River, Kansas, and Oliver A., with whom this narrative deals.

Oliver A. Metz was twelve years of age when his parents came from Pennsylvania to this state and consequently he received some of his education in his native state. When he was twenty-four years of age he began farming for himself in Black Hawk and Grundy counties, living on rented land. In the spring of 1896 he came to Osceola county and purchased the

8l6 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

south half of the 'southwest quarter of section 14, in Allison township, and the north half of the northwest quarter of section 23, in this township, for which he paid thirty dollars an acre, and this land is now worth easily one hundred and twenty dollars an acre. He has put many improvements on the land in the way of huildings, fences and drainage, and his farm today presents a very attractive appearance. He continued to reside on this farm until 1907, when he moved to Sibley to take the office of county recorder, to which he had been elected in the fall of 1906. So popular was his administration of the duties of this important office that he was re-elected in 1908, 191O and 1912. Previous to moving to the county seat he had served in his home township as trustee and school treasurer.

Mr. Metz was married in 1877 to Lucy Waters, the daughter of Daniel Waters, an early settler of Black Hawk county, Iowa. Daniel Waters was a native of Pennsylvania, and came to Linn county, Iowa, in 1855. and permanently settled in Black Hawk county in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Metz are the parents of three children: Mrs. Eva M. Strayer, who lives in Ocheyedan, has one daughter, Neva; A. C. a grain buyer of Underwood, North Dakota, who is married and has one daughter, Lucy Elnora, and R. J. a livery man of Underwood, North Dakota.

Politically, Mr. Metz is a stanch Republican and has been honored by his party on numerous occasions and it is needless to say that he has well merited the confidence which has been reposed in him by his party, as well as the citizens of the county. He and his wife are both members of the Brethren church, but attend the Methodist Episcopal church at Sibley. He is a member of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Mr. Metz has proven one of the most popular and efficient county officials which the county has ever had. He is courteous in his dealings with the citizens of the county, and, being a man of intelligence, he is able to serve them in a very efficient manner.

WILLIAM W. TURNBULL.

One of the residents of Sibley, Iowa, who has had an interesting career is William W. Turnbull, a prominent real estate dealer of the county seat. He has been identified with the history of this county for more than twenty- five years, and in that time has made his impress upon the community. Beginning the battle of life at the age of eleven, he has never ceased his efforts and today is reaping the results of his many years of hard work.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 817

William W. Turnbiill, the son of John and Margaret (Davidson) Turnbull, was born in Brushland, Delaware county, New York, October 7, 1852. His parents were both natives of New York, and his father died in that state in 1857, while his mother died in Sibley, Iowa, in April, 1892. Shortly after the death of his father, W. W. Turnbnll started to school, but when he was eleven years of age he felt that he had to get out and help support his mother. Consequently, he hired out to a farmer for six months at eleven dollars a month. As he grew older he was able to command better wages, and before he was fourteen years of age was working in the tan-bark forests of Pennsylvania and doing the heaviest kinds of farm labor. A stray circular fell into his hands one day when he was fourteen years of age and changed his whole career. This innocent advertisement was from Lowell Commercial College, of Binghamton, New York, and the youth read it through eagerly. He got the idea that he could work his way through college and immediately wrote to the president of the college for information. President Lowell told him to come to Binghamton and upon his arrival there he was warmly received by the president. He had one hundred dollars saved and with this and the work which he was able to get to do in Binghamton he succeeded in staying in college until he graduated. He received his tuition and board for keeping the college rooms clean and soon after graduation came west, where he felt there were opportunities for a young man.

Mr. Turnbull was only seventeen years of age when he and his mother came to Iowa from New York and settled in Traer, Tama county, where he engaged in farming and incidentally learned the trade of a mason. For the next six years he followed the mason's trade, and in 1878 returned to New York and married Belle J. Winter. His marriage occurred December 26, 1878, and he immediately brought his young bride to Tama county, this state, to live. In 1882 he moved to Sibley, where he followed his trade as a mason until 1891. Since that time he has been engaged in the real estate business, handling Minnesota lands especially. He has sold thousands of acres on commission, as well as much land on his own account. He has made good in the best sense of the term and is recognized as one of the leading and substantial citizens of Sibley.

Mr. and Mrs. Turnbull are the parents of six children: Mrs. Bertha M. Worrell, deputy postmistress of Sibley; A. C, who is a railroad conductor at St. James, Minnesota; Mrs. Mable E. Regan, whose husband is a salesman at Sibley; John H., deputy postmaster at Sibley for six years, and now assistant county surveyor and superintendent of public construction; Will P., who

818 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

is also a salesman of Sibley, and Viola M., who is in the Gazette printing office of Sibley.

Mr. Turnbull has always been a Republican in politics and has been a great student of the issues of the day. He has never been a seeker for political office, although he held the office of township clerk and town clerk while living in Tama countv. He and his family are loyal members of the Congregational church and contribute liberally to its support. Mr. Turnbull is a great reader and student and keeps fully abreast of the times. He is a man of essentiallv domestic tastes and is never as happy as when by his own fire- side, surrounded by his family and with good books to while away his idle hours. He has always taken an active interest in every enterprise which might benefit his city and has always thrown his infiuence in favor of good government.

CHARLES E. FOOTE.

The Foote family, of which Charles E. Foote is a member, trace their ancestry back to Nathaniel Foote, of Colchester, Emgland, who came to Watertown, Massachusetts, about 1630. Rodger Foote, the grandfather of Charles E., came from Connecticut to Ohio in about 1820 and settled in Ashtabula county. He reared seven sons and one daughter, among whom was Lauren B., the father of Charles E., whose history is here portrayed. Lauren B. Foote was born in 1802 and is a direct descendant of Nathaniel, who came to Massachusetts in 1630. Seven generations of the Foote family have been reared in America.

Charles E. Foote. of Sanborn, Iowa, a railroad conductor on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad and a prominent business man of Sanborn, was born August 1, 1856, in Ashtabula county, Ohio. He was the son of Lauren B. and Cornelia M. (Ballard) Foote. Cornelia Ballard was born in New York in 1824 and was the second wife of Lauren B. Foote. Several members of the Foote family fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and also the Civil War. The mother of Henry Ward Beecher was a Foote and a distant relative of this family. None of the children by the first wife of Lauren B. Foote are living. Two of the sons by his first marriage, Irenus and Derrow, served throughout the Civil War. Irenus was in the Twenty-ninth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry and Derrow was in the Seventh Regiment of Kansas Cavalry. To the second marriage of Lauren B. Foote were born four children: Mrs. Ella VanLeuven, of Howard

Picture of CHARLES E. FOOTE

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 819

county, Iowa; Howard S.. who is superintendent of the Jefferson (Ohio) schools; Charles E., with whom this narrative deals, and Mrs. Abbie C. Metcalf, of Ashtabula, Ohio.

Charles E. Foote was educated in the Grand River Institute in Ohio. His brothers and sisters attend this school and receive instruction from J. B. Tuckerman. Charles E. started in life as a school teacher, teaching his first term of school in the country in New Linn township, Ohio, at the age of eighteen. He then taught two mure terms in small towns in Ohio and in the fall of 1875 came to Iowa and taught the fall and winter in Howard county. In the spring he returned to Ohio and attended school for the next year. In the fall of 1877 he returned to Howard county, Iowa, and taught until 1881. In 1881 Mr. Foote came to Sanborn, O'Brien county, and in the summer of 1881 taught four months and then taught the succeeding year in Sanborn. He was the first principal of the new school house which was opened for the first time in 1881. He then engaged in the real estate business for two years with Harley Day. In 1883 he became a brakeman on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway west of Sanborn and the year following became a freight conductor, being promoted after being in the service one year, two months and eight days. He began running as an extra passenger conductor in 1889 and received his regular assignment as a passenger conductor in 1897. His regular run now is from Sanborn to McGregor, a distance of two hundred and forty-three miles. Mr. Foote has saved his earnings and invested them in property in Sanborn, built five houses in Sanborn and has done everything he could to encourage home building and the growth of the town generally. He is a member of the school board at the present time, and takes a deep interest in the educational affairs of the town.

Mr. Foote was married in 1878 to Jennie L. Lick, of Lime Springs, Iowa, the daughter of A. and Helen (VVn Leuven) Lick, early settlers of Howard county, Iowa. They were natives of Pennsylvania and New York states respectively. Mr. and Mrs. Foote are the parents of five children: Lorne A., born in 1879, runs a dray line in Sanborn; Alfred K., born in 1881, is a conductor on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway; Helen C. who is at home; George V., born in 1885, is a conductor on the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, running out of Mitchell, South Dakota; Bernece C, who graduated at Oberlin, is married, her husband being in the employ of the government at Washington, D. C, where they live.

In his politics. Mr. Foote is a stanch adherent of the Republican party,

820 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

but, aside from his position on the school board, has never filled any public positions in the county. The nature of his business keeps him from taking an active part in politics. Mr. Foote's parents were members of the Congregational church, while his wife is a member of the Presbyterian society. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and belongs to the commandery at Cherokee. He also belongs to the Order of American Railway Conductors. Mr. Foote is recognized as a man of strong mentality and his several years of experience in the school room have made him a man who is deeply interested in the educational welfare of his community. In fact, he is interested in everything pertaining to the advancement of his community along material, civic, educational and moral lines. He is a man who to know is to respect and admire because of his sterling qualities of character and upright life.

E. M. TAYLOR.

E. M. Taylor, the son of Melvin B. and Emily A. (Hurlburt) Taylor, was born in November, 1865. in Hubbleton, Wisconsin. His parents were natives of Maine and Fort Jackson, New York, respectively. The Taylors are a family of colonial descent. Isaac P. Taylor, the great-grand- father of E. m. Taylor, was a maker of silk hats in England, while other ancestors of the family fought in the Revolutionary War. Melvin B. Taylor was a merchant and postmaster at Hubbleton at the time of his death in 1874. His widow came to Emmetsburg, Iowa, about 1880 with her sons, having previously lived at Winneconne and Oshkosh, Wisconsin. After her husband's death she operated a store and postoffice at Hubbleton for a short time and was engaged in the millinery business in Winneconne and Oshkosh. Upon coming to Emmetsburg, Iowa, her son, E. M., became an employee in one of the stores in that city.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 821

E. M. Taylor was educated in the schools of Hubbleton, Winneconne and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and when his mother came to Emmetsburg, in this state, he was fifteen years of age. He worked in a store here for about one year and then farmed a year upon a farm in Lyon county. He also attended school for a time in Silbey, (sic)in Osceola county. In 1884 he became assistant postmaster at Sibley and served in that capacity for a year and a half, after which he went to Emmetsburg and clerked in a store until 1888 when he became a partner in the store. In 1889 he started a branch store under the name of Schlegel, Taylor & Company at Sibley. In 1892 he and Mr. Hinkley purchased Mr. Schlegel's interest and conducted the business under the name of Hinkley & Taylor. On January 1, 1903, Mr. Taylor purchased Mr. Hinkley's interest and since that time has been the sole proprietor of the store. He carries an extensive line of clothing, shoes and men's outfitting at the present time. Prexious to January, 1908, the store was a general department store, but at that time he sold the dry goods department. He and Mr. Hinkley established the first department store in Sibley. The store has modern fixtures and at the present time carries a stock averaging twenty-two thousand dollars. His business is now housed in a handsome brick building on Main street and Mr. Taylor has a full share of the patronage of Sibley and the surrounding community.

Mr. Taylor was married in 1890 to Emma E. Fenton, of Sibley, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Fenton. Mr. Fenton was one of the earliest pioneers of the county, having brought his family from eastern Iowa to Osceola county in a covered wagon in 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are the parents of three children: Bernadena, a graduate from Grinnell College in June, 1914; Melvin Fenton, the assistant postmaster at Sibley, and Raymond, who is still in school. Mrs. Taylor is a woman of culture and refinement and takes a prominent part in the club life of her city. She is a member of the Eastern Star and was worthy matron of the Sibley Chapter in 1912. She and her husband have a fine modern home with all of the latest conveniences. It was one of the first modern homes to be erected in the city.

Polictically, Mr. Taylor is a member of the Republican party and has always been actively interested in the civic affairs of his city. For six years he was a member of the school board and for sixteen years a member of the city council. He and his family are loyal members of the Congregational church and contribute liberally of their means to its support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the degree of the Royal Arch and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have

822 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

a wide acquaintance in the city and surrounding comniunity and their many friends admire them for their good qualities of mind and heart. They have reared their children to lives of usefulness and honor and are now seeing them take their places in society in a way which will do them credit and reflect honor upon their parents.

CHARLES W. BRIGGS.

Among the progressive men of Sutherland, O'Brien county, Iowa, who havee llong been identified with the interests of the city, is Charles W. Briggs, the present postmaster of the city. As a public official in his home township, and as a business man in Sutherland, he has shown rare business ability, public spirit and unquestioned integrity. He is essentially a man of the people, broadminded, faithful and possessing an equipoise of attributes that stamp him as a natural leader among his fellow citizens. He is a tine type of the self-made man, and during a long and busy career has never swerved from the path of duty as he saw it.

Charles W. Briggs, the present postmaster of Sutherland, Iowa, was born in Grant county, Wisconsin, in 1852, the son of Edmond L. and Caroline ( Cranston) Briggs. Edmond L. Briggs was born in the state of New York in 1830, and when a young man he left the state and settled in Wisconsin. After farming for a few years in that state, he moved to South Dakota, where he followed the vocation of a farmer for twelve }years. He then retired and came to Sutherland, Iowa, where he remained with his children until his death in 1905. Caroline Cranston was born in Ohio. Edmond L. Briggs and wife were the parents of seven children: James C, who lives in Sutherland; Charles W., of this sketch; Waldo, a resident of Sutherland; Mrs. Earla Waterhouse, of this county; Edward, of South Dakota; Mrs. Edna Chesley of Sutherland, whose husband is deceased; Mrs. Nora Anderson, who lives in South Dakota.

Chrarles W. Briggs received a good common school education and also attended the academy at Patch Grove, Wisconsin. After finishing his education at the age of twenty he rented a farm in Wisconsin and lived on it for four years In 1876 he went to California and worked as a farm hand and the following year returned to Wisconsin, where he remained until 1882, when he came to O'Brien county, Iowa, and opened the first drug store in

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 823

Sutherland. After operating this store for four years he sold it and moved to western Nebraska, where he remained for five years. In 1890 he returned to Sutherland and has lived in this city continucmsly since that time. For the first three years after his return he engaged in the buying and selling of grain and later hought stock for H. A. Peck, in which business he was engaged for a period of thirteen years. In 1907 he was appointed postmaster of Sutherland, a position which he is still holding.

Mr. Briggs was married in 1884 to Rachel Townsend, who was a native of the state of Illinois, and to this union there have been born eight children: Mrs. Alta M. Schultz, of Sutherland, a graduate of the Sutherland high school and Cornell College of Music at Mt. Vernon, Iowa; Edmond C, a graduate of the Sutherland high school and now assistant cashier of the First Savinins Bank, of Sutherland; Arthur T., also a graduate of the high school of Sutherland and now a jeweler at Lemmon, South Dakota; Paul B., a salesman in a clothing store at Sutherland; Ruth A., who is now attending the Morningside College at Sioux City, Iowa; Donald J., Bernice and Majorie, the last three named children being still at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs are justly proud of their children, to whom they have given every educational advantage, as they feel that there is no better asset for the young people of this day and age of the world than a good education, and for this reason they have placed every possible advantage before them, and it is indeed gratifying to the parents to see that their children have taken advantage of their opportimities and are now in a fair way to make successful careers for themselves in the world.

Mr. Briggs is a Republican in his political belief and always takes an active interest in public atfairs. He was an assessor in his home township for several years and has been school treasurer of Sutherland and was also one of the first town councilmen of the city. In all his public activities he has so administered his duties as to gain the commendation of his fellow citizens. He and his family are attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church and subscribe liberally to its support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and takes a personal interest in the affairs of these fraternal organizations. Mr. Briggs has lived a busy and useful life, and his life history has been a career of unswerving integrity, indefatigable industry and wholesome home and social living, a most commendable career crowned with success. The best citizen is he who contributes his share to the commonwealth in the way of service and rears a

824 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

family to lives of usefulness and honor. In both respects Mr. Briggs has done his full share as the true American citizen and for this reason is well worthy of mention in a biographical volume of the character of the one in hand.

CORNELIUS VEDDER VAN EPPS.

This land of ours owes a debt of gratitude to the stalwart and hardy European races whose sons have come in large numbers, especially during the past half century, where there was a crying need of fearless men to assist in the work of winning and developing the Western states from their primitive wildness. The people of Germany have formed a large contingent and have ever been most welcome owing to their willingness to give their best efforts to this work, being, almost without exception, industrious and law- abiding, willing to upbuild and support our institutions and, while holding in grateful remembrance the native land, yet at the same time cherishing the Stars and Stripes. In their ranks were numbered Cornelius Vedder Van Epps, one of Sheldon's best known business men and one of O'Brien county's highly respected citizens.

Cornelius Vedder Van Epps, the son of Charles and Angelica (Vedder) Van Epps, was born September 16, 1837, in Albany county, New York. The Van Epps family trace their ancestry directly back to the old Dutch families who came over to this country in the earliest of the colonial times In 1620 Dirk Van Epen left Delfthaven, Holland, and came to this country where he settled on the Mohawk river, in what is now Schuylkill county, New York. Later he settled in Beaverwyck, now New Albany, New York. About this time the name appeared to have been changed from Van Epen to Van Eps. (sic) This Dirk Van Epen, who came to this country in 1620, is separated by six generations from the Van Epps whose history is here related. The direct descendants frum Dirk Van Epen to Cornelius Vedder Van Epps are as follows: Jan or Johannes, the son of Dirk, was one of the first settlers of Schenectady; his son, John Baptist, was taken captive in the "Massacre of Schenectady" on February 9, 1690; Johannes, the son of John Baptist, was born May 5, 1700; Jan Baptist, the son of Johannes, was born May 30, 1731; Charles, the son of Jan Baptist, was born April 12, 1788, and married May 16, 1806. He was in the War of 1812 and hauled ammunition from Albany to Buffalo, in New York. He was twice married and his second wife, the mother of Cornelius Vedder Van Epps, whose history is herein

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA 825

recorded, was the mother of thirteen children: Charles Henry; Mrs. Susan Eleanor Hildebrant; Elias Vedder, a soldier in the Mexican War, who was born September 10, 1828, and died November 30, 1901; Albert C.; Agnes; Harmon V.; Cornelius Vedder; Mary Angelica; William Henry Harrison; Rebecca V.; Sarah; Theodore; Sebastian.

In 1852 Cornelius V. Van Epps left New York with his parents and the family settled in Iowa near Davenport. They crossed the river on a horse ferry-boat, and settled in Scott county, there being only two families in the whole county at that time. They first moved on the LaGranger farm and in the fall of 1852 moved to a farm one mile south, where they spent the winter. Charles Van Epps died in Plesant Valley township, Scott county, and his widow died later in Davenport. In the fall of 1856 the family moved to Muscatine county, where they lived seventeen years.

Cornelius V. Van Epps enlisted in April, 1864, in Company A, Mississippi Marine Brigade, and saw service on the lower part of the Mississippi river. He participated in the battles of Coleman's Cross Roads, Old River Lake in Arkansas, where he was wounded in his right leg, which continued to bother him for several years and as a result his leg had to be amputated in 1888. After his return from the war, Mr. Van Epps was married, September 16, 1867, to Isabella McElroy, the daughter of James E. and Margaret (Jordan) McElroy, who were of Scotch-Irish and Irish Protestant ancestry, respectively. Mrs. Van Epps was born May 6, 1842, in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, and came with her parents to Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1855. where her father taught school for some time. Mr. McElroy died in 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Van Epps are the parents of two children, Mrs. May Gifford, of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Ervin M., a barber and printer.

Cornelius V. Van Epps and his family came to O'Brien county in 1872 and homesteaded on the southeast corner of section 10 in Carroll township. They erected a frame house, fourteen by eighteen feet, and suffered severe hardships for the first few years. At that time fuel was very scarce and they had to travel many miles in order to secure it. The nearest place where they could get wood was in Rock Valley in Cherokee county. Mr. Van Epps hauled the first load of lumber which went into the construction of the first house in Primghar, the county seat. He continued to live on the farm which he entered in 1872 until 1890, when he came to Sheldon, where he has since lived. He sold his farm in the fall of 1892.

Politically, Mr. Van Epps is a Progressive, having allied himself with this new party upon its organization in the summer of 1912. He has always taken an active interest in politics and in all the public affairs of the town-

826 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

ship. For some years he served as justice of the peace in Carroll township. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church of Sheldon and contribute liberally to its various activities. Mr. Van Epps is a pleasant, congenial man to know and has a host of friends in Sheldon and vicinity, who honor him because of the clean and open life which he has lived in this community.

JAMES S. CAMPBELL.

The history of Osceola county is but a record of the doings of its people and the value of the present volume is greatly enhanced because it is written while many of the first pioneers of the county are still living. The story of the plain, common people who came here in the sixties and seventies attracts the attention and interest of all the succeeding generations of this county. One hundred years from now this volume will be of intense interest to people who will be then living here and the many incidents which gather around the lives of the early settlers of the county will make interesting reading at that far-away time. The "grasshopper war" will undoubtedly cause much curiosity in the generations to come and yet the history of many of the pioneers which are presented in this volume gives testimony of the frightful ravages wrought bv these little invaders. The life history of James S. Campbell, who is now living retired in his comfortable home in Sibley, is a record of a life true to its highest ideal and there is much in it that should stimulate future generations of Osceola county to higher and better things.

James S. Campbell, the son of J. M. and Elizabeth (Hazelwood) Campbell, was born in Jefferson county, New York, May 9, 1851. His father was born in New York, while his mother was a native of England. J. M. Campbell was the son of James Campbell, a native of Scotland. The wife of J. M. Campbell came to America with her father from England when she was twelve years of age. In 1858 the Campbell family left New York state and moved westward, finally locating at Beaver Dam, Dodge county, Wisconsin. In 1886 they removed to Crawford county, Iowa, where they lived until the death of father and mother. J. M. Campbell was born April 3, 1827, and died in August, 1906. He was twice married. His first wife, the mother of James S. whose history is here portrayed, died in 1856 and he subsequently married his first wife's sister, Mary Maria Hazelwood, who died January 1, 1910, at the age of seventy-five. There were two children by the first marriage, James S., with whom this narrative deals, and Mrs. Ida Elizabeth

Pictures of MR. AND MRS. JAMES S. CAMPBELL

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 827

Kellips, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To the second marriage were born six children: Walter J., of South Dakota; Charles Ambert, of Iowa; Mrs. Louise Beaumont, of Denison, Iowa; Wilmer, of South Dakota; Mrs. Martha Woodruff, of Denison, Iowa, and Rev. Albert Gilliver, a Methodist minister, now preaching at Rapid City, South Dakota. In this connection it might be noted that the father of the two Hazelwood sisters was a Methodist minister.

James S. Campbell was seven years of age when his father left New York for Wisconsin and consequently received most of his education in the latter state. He was reared to manhood in Wisconsin and married in that state, living the life of a farmer there until the spring of 1889. He then migrated to Crawford county, Iowa, where he purchased a farm on which he lived for two years, after which he sold it and moved to Osceola county, Iowa, where he bought two hundred and forty acres of land in East Holman township for twenty dollars an acre. On this farm he lived for nine years, when he sold it and built a modern home in Sibley, where he is now living. He moved to Sibley in order to give his children better educational advantages. Three years after moving to Sibley he purchased one hundred and sixty acres in East Holman township adjoining the town of Sibley on the east and still later purchased three hundred and twenty acres in Wilson township. For some years he resided at times during the summer season on these farms. He owns two residences in Sibley, also the Tribune building, the opera house block and a half interest in the store building adjoining the opera house. Mr. Campbell has been remarkably successful as a business man, a success which has come about solely through his own business ability, together with the strictest integrity in all of his financial dealings.

Mr. Campbell was married March 9, 1874, to Ellen Janes, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Janes, early settlers of Wisconsin. To this union have been born three children: William Madison, a farmer of South Dakota and the father of four children; Clarence Eugene, a farmer of Alberta, Canada, and Mrs. Katie Elizabeth Jones, of South Dakota. Mr. Campbell was married a second time on September 1, 1908, to Mrs. Alice Bishop O'Connor, a wndow of Janesville, Wisconsin. She was born, reared and educated in Wisconsin and has been a prominent church worker all of her life. She is a member of the Northwestern Iowa Conference Board and now secretary of the Home Missionary Society. In October, 1913, she was selected as secretary to the national convention of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. She is a very able and intelligent woman and has devoted several years of her life to church and missionary work. In this she is now ably assisted by Mr. Campbell, who has been a church worker all of his life.

828 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

In the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he belongs, he has been class leader and a member of the official board for many years. He is a strong temperance advocate and never loses an opportunity to give the liquor traffic a blow.

Politically, Mr. Campbell has usually voted the Republican ticket, although he now classes himself as an independent voter. It is a fact that thousands of our best citizens are now breaking away from party ties and, especially in local elections, voting for the best man irrespectve of their party affiliations. To this large and intelligent class Mr. Campbell belongs and if there were more such men of independent thinking the country would be far better off than it is. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has always taken an interest in the work of this old fraternal organization. Such is the outline of the life of Mr. Campbell, which indicates that his career has been the result of careful and conscientious work and that in all the relations of life he has performed his full duty. Successful in business, respected in social life and as a citizen discharging his every duty in a manner becoming an intelligent, patriotic man, he has earned and retained the good will and regard of all who know him.

GEORGE W. NELSON.

An honored pioneer of this county and a distinguished veteran of the Civil War is George W. Nelson, who is now living a retired life at Sutherland, O'Brien county, Iowa. He came to this state in 1870. He has been an active figure in his state from the beginning and has always taken his full share in all of those enterprises which promise to benefit his community in any way. When the rebellion was raging throughout the Southland and threatening to destroy our Union, he responded with patriotic fervor to Lincoln's call for troops and in many of the hardest fought battles of that memorable struggle he proved his loyalty to the government whose flag he had promised to serve. He has been no less loyal to his government in times of peace and no citizen of the county is more worthy of representation in this volume. He deserves the commendation which comes to him from his fellow citizens because he has always led a clean and wholesome life and never done anything which might bring upon him the censure of his neighbors.

George W, Nelson, the son of Underhill and Harriett (Hauley) Nelson, was born in Wisconsin in 1843. Underhill Nelson was born in 1798 and as

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 829

a young man learned the tanner's trade, following it for twelve years. He then left his native state and moved to Albany, New York, and later to Wisconsin. He was married in the latter state in 1846 to Harriett Hauley, who was born in 1804 and died in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, in 1855. Mr. Nelson and wife were the parents of six children: Mary, Beach H., Elizabeth, Edward, Elias, deceased, and George W., who is the only one alive.

George W. Nelson received a limited common school education in his native state and when thirteen years of age began farming for himself near Milford, Wisconsin. He was working upon a farm when the Civil War broke out and then volunteered his services for the defense of his country. He enlisted August 22, 1862, in the Twenty-ninth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served until he was finally mustered out, June 22, 1865, at Shreveport, Louisiana. During his service of three years he was always ready for duty and served with distinction throughout the whole period of his service.

After the close of the war Mr. Nelson returned to his home in Wisconsin and in 1870 came to O'Brien county and homesteaded on a quarter of a section in this county. In 1873 he was married and from that time on he and his wife worked hard to make a substantial home for themselves and their children. He succeeded to a most gratifying degree, and now has a most attractive farm as well as one of the most productive in this section of the county. Mr. Nelson carries on general farming and also raises as much stock as he can feed with his crops.

Mr. Nelson was married in 1873 to Ann Elizabeth Bookman, who was born in New York state in 1857. To this marriage have been born eight children: Elias, a farmer of this county, who married Cora Steele; Alma, deceased: Beach H., who married Edith Thompson and is living on the old home farm; Elva, the wife of Edward E. C. Propp, manager of the Farmers' Elevator at Sutherland, Iowa; Grace, deceased; Elizabeth, who married W. M. Andrews and lives in Sutherland; Berton, a farmer of this county, and George W., Jr., who is still with his parents.

Politically, Mr. Nelson belongs to that large and intelligent class of citizens who reserve the right to cast their votes for the best men, irrespective of their party affiliation, and for such men the term Independent Progressive is peculiarly applicable. Mr. Nelson has always taken an active interest in poliiical affairs and while he was never an office seeker in any sense of the word, yet he has served his fellow citizens in two official capacities with credit to his township and honor to himself. He has served as road supervisor for

830 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

three years in his township, as well as school director, filling the latter office for three years. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Order of the Eastern Star and the Daughters of Rebekah. As he was an active veteran of the Civil War, it is but natural that he should take an active part in the Grand Army of the Repnblic post at Sutherland, where he has belonged for many years. Too much honor can not be accorded these boys in blue who fought the brave fight which enabled our country to remain a united nation. They are fast passing away and when taps are sounded for them our nation will have lost those men who made it possible for the flag to wave from coast to coast and from the lakes to the gulf.

ALFRED MORTON.

Few residents of Osceola county, Iowa, are better or more fayorably known than the enterprising business man and representative citizen whose life history is briefly told in the following lines, and none stands higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the community in which he resides. His influence has been potent and his sympathies broad, so that he has been able to become an influential factor in the life of his locality. He is mindful of the duties he owes to the community and discharges the same as becomes a man of character and a citizen thoroughly abreast of the times.

Alfred Morton, the son of Alfred and Mary (Moyer) Morton, was born July 19, 1868, in the state of New York near Syracuse. Alfred Morton, Sr., was born in Oswego, New York, in 1836, and was married to Mary A. Moyer November 13, 1861. He enlisted in the Civil War on March 29, 1865. at Auburn, New York, in the One Hundred and Ninety-third Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned as major on May 6, 1865, with his rank dating from March 29th of the same year. He was later commissioned as brevet lieutenant-colonel and with this rank was discharged January 18, 1866, at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Early in the reconstruction period President Grant appointed him circuit judge in Virginia, with headquarters at Richmond. In 1879 he removed to Iowa and settled at Sheldon, where he practiced law until his death, April 19, 1896. He was a man of great strength of character, one of the leaders of the bar in Iowa.

He was a member of the Congregational church and was very much interested in the work of that denomination. Fraternally, he was a member of

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 831

the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Grand Army of the Republic at Sheldon. At the time of his death he was the city attorney of Sheldon. Alfred Morton, Sr., and wife were the parents of three children: Joe, of Sioux City, Iowa, and secretary of the Interstate Fair Association; Mrs. E. G. Hutchinson, of Phoenix, New York, and Alfred, with whom this narrative deals.

Alfred Morton, Jr., was educated in the schools of Sheldon, Iowa, and later graduated from Phoenix, New York, Academy in 1886. Upon returning to Iowa after graduating from the academy, he became interested in the banking profession and has been engaged in the banking business in George, Ocheydan and Sibley, in this state. He was cashier of the Sibley State Bank from 1905 to 1910, when he disposed of his interest in the bank and became interested in the real estate and automobile business.

The Sibley Auto Company was organized in 1910 and Mr. Morton has been proprietor of the compauy since it was established. The company occupies a building which is seventy by eighty-five feet. It is built of concrete block and contains a large show room, well equipped office, repair shop, with all of the latest machinery for automobile repairing, besides other small rooms. The origiual building was built by Doctor Neill and an addition was buill by Morton, who took charge of the company. Besides the retailing of cars, the company does a general ]ivery business in addition to the repair work. They handle the Chalmers and Reo automobiles and have built up an extensive business throughout this section of the state.

Mr. Morton was married in 1897 to Maud Barclay, who died four years later, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Barclay, pioneers of Osceola county and has the honor of being the first child born in Sibley. Her death occurred in 1902. Mr. Morton was married a second time in September, 1910, to Mrs. Leona Fralick, of Syracuse, New York, who had one daughter, Muriel, by a former marriage. To this second marriage have been born two children, John and Josephine.

Politically, Mr. Morton is identified with the Republican party and in the civic affairs of his community has always taken an active interest. He is a member of the Sibley school board and for several years has been a member of the city council. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the thirty-second Scottish-rite degree and the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias at Sibley Mr. Morton is well known throughout the county and his many excellent qualities have won for him many loyal friends.

832 0'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

FRANK FRISBEE.

The two most strongly marked characteristics of both the East and the West are combined in the residents of Iowa. The enthusiastic enterprise which overleaps all obstacles and makes possible almost any undertaking in the comparatively new and vigorous Western states is here tempered by the stable and more careful policy that we have borrowed from our Eastern neighbors, and the combination is one of unusual force and power. It has been the means of placing this section of the country on a par with the older East, at the same time producing a reliability and certainty in business affairs which is frequently lacking in the west. This happy combination of characteristics is possessed to a notable degree by the subject of this history, Frank Frisbee, of Sheldon. He is too well known to the readers of this work to need any formal introduction here, for he not only comes of a family whose name is deeply engraved in the financial, commercial, professional and industrial history of this section of the state, but he himself is filling a large place in the public affairs of this community. Recognized as a man of strong and alert mentality, deeply interested in everything pertaining to the welfare of the community along material and civic lines, he is regarded as one of the progressive and enterprising men of his city and county.

Frank Frisbee, a retired farmer and banker of Sheldon, was born at Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, May 9, 1847, the son of Chester and Emeline (Stevens) Frisbee. Chester Frisbee was a native of New York, and came to Wisconsin in the early forties, where he lived for seven years at Geneva Lake. He then moved to the southern part of Dane county, in which the capitol of the state is located, and resided there for the next twenty-five years. In about 1880 he went to Sheldon, Iowa, where he resided with his daughter until his death. Mrs. Frisbee died in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Frisbee were the parents of eight children: Mrs. Elizabeth Vaughn, who died some years ago in San Diego, California; Adeline, who began teaching in Wisconsin at the age of sixteen and taught for ten years in that state; Mrs. Ruth Fox, who died in Sheldon; Janette, who died in California in 1908; James B., who came to O'Brien county with his brother Frank in the spring of 1871 and died in 1891; Frank, whose history is herein delineated; Fred, whose career is given elsewhere in this work; Bessie, the wife of Frank Webster, of Sheldon.

Frank Frisbee received a good practical education in the common schools of Wisconsin and worked on his father's farm until he came to this county in 1871. He came by rail to Algona, Iowa, and from there drove the

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 833

rest of the way. There were three of them who made this trip, Mr. Frisbee, his brother, James B., and Noah Stevens, the uncle of the two brothers and a veteran of the Civil War. When they came here in 1871, O'Brien county had a population of less than eight hundred and most of these were in the southeastern part of the county. Very little of the land had been homesteaded or pre-empted, but the settlers were fast rushing in to take hold of the choice land. Frank Frisbee located on half of section 14 in Carroll township, and with James immediately put up a shack and started to break the land and put in their first crop. They had to haul all of their lumber from Cherokee, the county seat of Cherokee county, on the south, and their rude cabin, built in 1876, was the home of the second family to locate in Carroll township. Here they lived until the fall of 1878. The grasshoppers became so bad that they decided to forsake their farm temporarily and engaged in the livery business at Sheldon. For the next thirty years the brothers were in this business, selling out in 1906.

The real fortune of the Frisbee brothers dates from the opening of their livery business in Sheldon. As fast as they had any money saved from their business they invested it in land, buying it from two and a half to forty-five dollars an acre, although the majority of it cost them only about fifteen dollars an acre. The next twenty years they bought five thousand acres, most of which they still retain. Frank Frisbee now has fifteen hundred acres in O'Brien county. He is a large stockholder in a land firm in Winnipeg which owns twenty thousand acres and forty elevators. While he has been largely interested in real estate, he has also been an important factor in the banking interests of this section of the state. He assisted in organizing the Primghar State Bank, First National Bank of Sheldon, First National Bank of Hartley, the Ocheyedan Savings Bank, the Sanborn Savings Bank, the Farmers' Savings Bank of Boyden and a bank in Minnesota, of which he was president for some time. The Frisbee brothers now own the controlling interest in the Sheldon First National Bank. In addition to their land holdings and bank interests, the Frisbee brothers also have large holdings in business blocks and other real estate in Sheldon.

Mr. Frisbee is a Republican in politics and has served on the school board. Although his name does not appear on the roll of any church, yet he is interested in the work of the churches and gives generously of his means to the support of more than one denomination. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and is one of the charter members of Malta Lodge No. 144 of Sheldon. Mr. Frisbee was married October 15, 1868, in Wisconsin to Myra McLaughlin, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. McLaughlin.

834 O'BRIEN and OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

Mrs. Frisbee's mother was the first woman in the township where the McLaughlins settled in Wisconsin. Mrs. Frisbee's mother spent her declining- years with her daughter in Sheldon. Mr. and Mrs. Frisbie are the parents of four children: Fred E., president of the First National Bank of Sheldon; Chester, who died at the age of four: Archie Lee, who died in infancy, and Gertrude, the wife of C. H. Woodruff, of Pasadena, California. Mr. Frisbee is a self-made man, having attained his success solely through his own efforts. His life and character forcibly illustrate what a man of right principles and high ideals can accomplish when his plans are wisely laid. Successful in business, respected in social life and as a citizen and neighbor discharging his duties in a manner becoming an intelligent citizen of the community, he has earned and retained the good will of all who know him.

TOBIAS E. DIAMOND.

Mr. Diamond was born in the village of Tilsit, Germany, March 18, 1876, the son of Hyman and Lena (Epstein) Diamond. His father is now a resident of Liverpool, England, and his mother died when he was a lad of eleven years, at which early age he came, alone, to America in May, 1887. He first located in Philadelphia. He resided in and about Philadelphia for nearly three years and earned his living by doing chores on nearby farms for his board during the summer seasons and attended school during the winters. When Mr. Diamond came to America he was familiar with but two English words. Six years later he was teaching school. This remarkable accomplishment was brought about by close application and an iron determination to succeed in the land of his adoption. In the year 1890 he journeyed to Minneapolis and worked in a candy factory for one year. From

Picture of TOBIAS E. DIAMOND

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 835

this city he went to eastern South Dakota and there worked on farms and attended school during the winter months. In the summer of 1892 he went to northwestern Iowa and did farm work. From here he went to Dixon, Illinois, in the fall and in less than two years he completed the four-year normal course provided for students. Although the regular work at the Dixon Normal College called for fifteen hours weekly, he succeeded in doing thirty-five hours' work. This remarkable feat required the hardest kind of study and the closest application on his part. He taught school in Illinois and Iowa for a number of years and held the position of principal of the Orange City (Iowa) high school. He entered the Iowa State University, and completed the law course in 1904. He was then employed as traveling salesman from June, 1904, to November 15th of the same year. He then came to Sheldon and for the first four years of his residence in this city he had his office with Judge Boies. In 1909 he opened an office of his own and has been very successful in his practice. On January 1, 1913, he took over a considerable part of Judge Boies' law practice on account of the Judge having taken his seat on the district bench. Mr. Diamond has had cases before the federal courts and in the supreme court of this state and of Minnesota, and enjoys a constantly increasing clientele. He served for four years as city attorney of Sheldon.

Mr. Diamond is a pronounced Democrat in politics and is one of the known leaders of his party in the state. In 1896 Mr. Diamond, when but twenty years of age, stumped the country and made speeches in behalf of the candidacy of William Jennings Bryan. He continues to take an active part in Democratic politics, and had the distinction of presenting the minority report in the Burlington (Iowa) Democratic convention of 1912 which endorsed the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson in preference to the choice of the convention. He made a notable address in behalf of Mr. Wilson and led a strenuous fight which attracted attention throughout the state. He firmly believed then, as now, that Woodrow Wilson was the logical candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency and his contention has been borne out by the subsequent choice of his favorite for the highest office in the land. During the campaign of 1912 he devoted three weeks of his time to campaigning i n behalf of the Democratic national ticket, and was gratified by the great Democratic success which followed. His religious associations are with the Congregational church. He is a member of the Masonic lodge, having taken thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite.

Mr. Diamond was married November 12, 1907, to Maude E. Peck, a

836 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA.

daughter of John F. Peck, formerly a resident of Sheldon, Iowa, but now residing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is the father of two children, Marion Lou and Dorothy Ruth.

The biographer believes that a perusal of this foregoing review and an analysis of the life work of this rising and gifted young man will provide inspiration to ambitious youths who are alike desirous of climbing the ladder of fame and winning renown. It is reviews such as this one that embellish the pages of this history.

PROF. EDWARD E. RICHARDS.

The men most influential in promoting the advancement of society and in giving character to the times in which they live, are two classes, to wit, the men of study and the men of action. Whether we are more indebted for the improvement of the age to the one class or the other is a question of honest difference in opinion; neither class can be spared and both should be encouraged to occupy their several spheres of labor and influence, zealously and without mutual distrust. In the following paragraphs are briefly outlined the leading facts and characteristics in the career of a gentleman who combines in his make-up the elements of the scholar and the energy of the public-spirited man of affairs.

Prof. Edward E. Richards, the son of E. James and Catherine (Smith) Richards, was born May 14, 1880, in Warren, Illinois. James Richards was born in 1847 in Illinois, and his wife was born in Pennsylvania in 1850. James Richards lived for many years near Galena, Illinois, where his father, William, worked in the lead mines. James Richards spent his younger days working in the mines, and since 1870 has lived in Warren, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. James Richards had three children: James, a merchant of North Yakima. Washington; Mrs. Bertha Fitzgerald, of Kankakee, Illinois, and Prof. Edward E., whose history is herein recorded.

Prof. Edward E. Richards was educated in the common and high schools of Warren, Illinois, and later attended Warren Academy. He then entered the University of Nebraska, from which he graduated in 1904. Before entering the university he had been teaching in the country schools, having taught from 1898 to 1902; the first two years he spent in the country schools and from 1900 to 1902 he was teaching in O'Brien county. Iowa. After graduating from the university, he became superintendent of the South Bend, Nebraska, schools and a year later was elected superintendent of the

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 837

Sargent, Nebraska, schools, a position which he held for three years; he then taught one year in Long Pine, Nebraska, and followed this with the position of superintendent of the Cumberland, Iowa, schools. In the fall of 1912 he was elected superintendent of the Primghar schools and has been efhciently filling that position up to the present time. He has brought to his school work a well drilled mind and the tact and personality which are the requisites of every successful teacher. He is rapidly bringing the Primghar schools to the front, and is placing them in a position where they are becoming of increasing value to the town and vicinity. He now has ten teachers under his charge, and has made the high school one of the accredited high schools of the state. In the year 1913 the high school enrolled ninety pupils and graduated seventeen.

Professor Richards was married October 20, 1902, in Orange City, Iowa, to Daisy M. Allard, the daughter of Benjamin H. and Rectinia L. Allard. This marriage has been blessed with two children, Hazel, born March 2, 1905, and Onine, born November 15, 1908.

Professor Richards is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He takes an active interest in the affairs of the Democratic party and for two years was county chairman of the Cass county, Iowa, Democratic organization. Since coming to Nebraska he has twice been elected delegate to the Democratic state conventions, having previously served twice as delegate in Nebraska. However, Professor Richards' interests are now directed towards the reorganization and upbuilding of the schools of Primghar. When he came here in the fall of 1912 he found the schools badly disorganized, but during his administration as superintendent he has brought about a wonderful change. He now has the schools in good working order and in a position where they are able to do efficient work.

JOHN V. ADKINS.

A record of the representative citizens of O'Brien county, Iowa, would be incomplete should there be failure to make mention of the name of John V. Adkins, one of the leading citizens of the town of Paullina. Mr. Adkins has been a resident here for over thirty years, during which time great and marked improvements have been made in this locality, in all of which he has taken more than a passing pleasure, being a man of high ideals and more than ordinary civic pride.

838 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

John V. Adkins, associated with the Bank of Paullina, Iowa, was born in Schuyler county, Illinois, in 1851, the son of Ezra and Lydia (Vertner) Adkins, the latter being a native of the state of Ohio. Ezra Adkins was an Easterner, born in Connecticut in 1824, and during the earlier years of his manhood he followed the vocation of farming. Previous to the time of the Civil War he came westward, locating in Illinois, where he had farming interests. There, at Camp Illinois, he enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and Twelfth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He saw much active service and during the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee, he was so unfortunate as to lose an arm. This was in 1864 and after receiving his injury he was given an honorable discharge, whereupon he returned to his former home in Illinois, and in 1865 became interested in the hotel business at Prairie City, Iowa. In this enterprise he was quite successful and with it remained for a number of years. He followed the hotel business here for some twenty years, when he disposed of his hotel and became county auditor of Jasper county, and about five years later his death occurred in 1898 in the town of Newton. He was the father of seven children, but three of whom are now living.

John V. Adkins received his schooling in his native county in Illinois and at the age of eighteen secured a position as clerk in a general merchandise store in Prairie City, this state. In this connection he remained for twelve years, when, desiring to be better equipped for the battle of life, he left Prairie City, going to Keokuk in 1876, where he took a complete business course, which was of inestimable advantage to him in later years. In 1883 he first came to Paullina and became associated with his brother David in the general merchandise business, selling out his interest therein three years later. David Adkins had the distinction of being the first settler in the town of Paullina and followed it from its earliest beginnings up to a thriving city with varied interests and fully in touch with the outside world. After severing his connection with his brother, Mr. Adkins became identified with the banking business, which has since claimed his best efforts and to its present satisfactory state of prosperity his industry and judgment has largely contributed. In addition to his interest in the bank, he has large landed holdings in O'Brien county and also owns his residence and several lots in the town of Paullina.

In 1877 Mr. Adkins was united in marriage with Allie White, who was born in 1853 at Valparaiso, Indiana, and their union has been blessed with two sons, the elder of whom, Harry C, is a civil engineer, located at present in Tennessee, while Leigh W., the younger, follows the same profession, being connected with the Northern Pacific Railroad, having his headquarters

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 839

at St. Paul, Minnesota. Mr. Adkins is a stanch supporter of old-line Republican principles, taking more than a passive interest in the party's affairs. The family is identilied with the Presbyterian church, to the support of which society Mr. Adkins gives liberally of both time and means. He is also a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Adkins has ever had the best interests of the community at heart and is one of the citizens of the town who is willing to give something of his own time and effort to bring about better things for the community. At present, he is serving Paullina as its city treasurer and every movement for the betterment of social, moral or material conditions finds in him a more than interested advocate. The qualities which have made him one of the successful and prominent men of Paullina have also brought him the esteem of his fellow townsmen, for his career has been one of well-directed energy, strong determination and honorable methods.

J. W. HICKOK.

In every town and city in the United States there are men whose business it is to minister to the material wants of man, and no more genial people are to be found than the men who manage the hotels and taverns of our country. For more than thirty-two years J. W. Hickok has been the proprietor of the hotel at Sibley, Iowa, known as the Osceola House, and during that long period of time thousands of people have partaken of his hospitality. It can not be gainsaid that many people get their first view of a town from the hotel where they stop, and for this reason a good hotel is one of the most valuable assets of a town or city. It is safe to say that there is no more popular proprietor in Iowa than Mr. Hickok, who has dispensed his generous hospitality for so many years in this city.

J. W. Hickok, the son of John M. and Mary (Stark) Hickok, was born December 15, 1850, in Grant county, Wisconsin, on a farm. His parents were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania, and in the early forties left their native state for Wisconsin, making the trip by lake and team. They passed through Chicago when there was only one building in that now famous city, and arrived in Grant county, Wisconsin, among the earliest pioneers of that state. One year after they settled in Wisconsin they drove back to Pennsylvania with Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff for a year's visit, the trip taking them twelve weeks. They reared a family of nine children in Wisconsin

840 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

and lived there the remainder of their dayS. John M. Hickok dying in 1869 and his wife passing away in 1897 in Iowa. The nine children of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Hickok are as follows: Almon, deceased; James, deceased; one who died in infancy in Pennsylvania; Cornelia, who died in Wisconsin; J. W., with whom this narrative deals; George V., who lives in Grant county, Wisconsin; Charles, who is a resident of California; Mrs. Minerva Bradley, also of California, and Mrs. Effie Suter, who lives in Sibley, Iowa.

J. W. Hickok was educated in the schools of Grant county, Wisconsin, and assisted his father to till the home farm until his marriage, at the early age of nineteen. He followed the vocation of agriculture in his native state until 1880, when he disposed of his interests in his native state with the intention of going West and investing in land in Iowa. He arrived in Osceola county, Iowa, on April 8, 1881, with his wife and five children. After looking over the county he decided to embark in the hotel business and accordingly purchased the Osceola House in Sibley, where he has continued as proprietor down to the present time. He took charge of the hotel on Julv 25, 1881, and since that time has been an active factor in the civic life of his town and community. He holds the record in Iowa for the continuous ownership of one hotel, an honor which speaks well for his successful management.

Mr. Hickok was married in Grant county, Wisconsin, in 1869, to Frances R. Stevens, and to this marriage have been born five children: Mrs. Agnes Briggs, of Leeds, South Dakota; Mrs. Anna Frick, who lives in Yankton, South Dakota; Mrs. Nellie Romey, of Melvin, Iowa; Gertie Hickok, who died in Wisconsin, and Edna, who is still living with her parents. George A. Romey. the husband of Nellie Hickok, is represented elsewhere in this work with a biographical sketch. He is cashier of the First National Bank at Melvin, in this county.

Politically, Mr. Hickok is a Democrat, but the nature of his business has kept him from taking an active part in political affairs. However, he has always been a wide reader of current events and keeps well informed upon the political questions of the day. He is an Odd Fellow of thirty years' standing and has always taken an active interest in the affairs of that fraternal organization. He also holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Hickok has carried on his hotel enterprise with that discretion and energy which are sure to find their natural sequence in definite success. He has always been a hard worker, a good manager and a man of economical habits, and, being pleasantly situated in a thriving state and in a thriving county, it is no wonder that he has gained substantial material

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 841

success in his chosen vocation. There is no more widely known, popular hotel man in the state than he, a tribute indeed to his genial nature and uprightness of character.

JOHN C. HANON.

A sterling and useful citizen is John C. Hanon, who is now living a retired life in Sibley, Iowa. His history should be an inspiration and incentive to those who are now living in this county and especially to the coming generation. The young man who is hestitating at the parting of the ways could do no better than to take his career as an object from which to pattern his individual course in life. Coming here during the pioneer times, he has lived through the whole history of the county and has taken his full share in making it the prosperous county it is today.

John C. Hanon, son of Michael and Margaret (Egan) Hanon, was born in Burlington, Vermont, April 23, 1850. His parents were both natives of Ireland and settled first in Vermont after coming to this country. They later moved to Ohio, and in 1854 settled at Baraboo, Sauk county, Wisconsin, and here Michael Hanon farmed until his death, which occurred in 1866, his wife having passed away in 1858. Michael Hanon and wife were the parents of five children, four of whom are living: Mrs. Birdie Desmond, who lives in Baraboo, Wisconsin; Michael, who is a resident of Reedsburg, Wisconsin; Mrs. Margaret Tierney, of Portland, Oregon, and John C, with whom this narrative deals.

In 1871 John C. Hanon came to Osceola county, Iowa, and homesteaded on the west half of section 8 in Ocheyedan township, being one of the first settlers of this township. He put up a small shanty and proved his claim so as to satisfy the government's requirements. The first year he broke up twenty acres and was fortunate in having a good crop. The next year the grasshoppers came and these pests became so bad that he left his farm and went to Sibley, where he worked at odd jobs for a time. In 1876 he entered the old Sibley House as clerk and in four years became the proprietor of the hotel, which he managed for a period of four years and then sold it and engaged in the implement business for the next five years. In 1889 he became interested in the real estate and insurance business and also gave some attention to agriculture. In 1905 he retired from active work on account of his health and is now living a retired life in his handsome home in Sibley. He has owned and handled over five thousand acres of land in Osceola county

842 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

during the past thirty years and in all of these transactions he has so conducted himself as to win the esteem of his fellow citizens.

'Mr. Hanon was married April 6, 1879, to Mahala Nixon, a native of Grant county, Wisconsin, and the daughter of George Nixon, a Union veteran and a pioneer settler of Osecola county, and to this union there have been born seven children: Charles, a lumber dealer of Pierre, South Dakota; Fred, an employee of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company; Blanche, who is still at home with her parents; Julian, who died at the age of twenty, of typhoid fever; George, a groceryman in Sibley, and Clifford, who is still attending the public schools of Sibley.

The Democratic party has always claimed the support of Mr. Hanon, and in its affairs he has always taken an active interest. He was city councilman of the town of Sibley when it was first incorporated and has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his home city. He and his family are loyal and earnest members of the Catholic church, and give to it their earnest and zealous support at all times. In disposition Mr. Hanon is frank, earnest and straightforward, and his popularity is due to the fact that he has never done anything which would bring down upon him the censure or disapproval of his fellow citizens.

ROSCOE JANVRIN LOCKE.

It is not an easy task to adequately describe the character of a man who has led an eminently active and busy life in connection with the great legal profession and who has stamped his individuality on the plane of definite accomplishment in one of the most exacting fields of human endeavor. Yet there is always full measure of satisfaction in adverting, even in a casual way, to the career of an able and conscientious worker in any phase of life. Among the truly self-made and representative men of O'Brien county none rank higher than the honorable gentleman whose name heads this sketch, who is a conspicuous figure in the civic life of the community. A man of tireless energy and indomitable courage, he has won and held the unqualified esteem of his fellow citizens. With the law as his profession from young manhood, he has won a brilliant reputation and the future gives promise of still much greater things for him.

Roscoe Janvrin Locke, attorney, of O'Brien county, was born June 16, 1877, in Dover, New Hampshire. His parents were E. F. and Julia E.

Picture of ROSCOE J. LOCKE AND FAMILY

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 843

(Janvrin) Locke, both of whom were natives of Strafford county, New Hampshire, where they were born in 1843. E. F. Locke was the son of James Locke, a native of New Hampshire, and Julia, the wife of E. F. Locke, was the daughter of Rufus Janvrin, who was also born in New Hampshire. The Locke family is descended from Scotch English on the father's side and French and Scotch ancestry on the mother's side. When Roscoe J. Locke was about one year of age his parents moved to the northern part of Missouri, where they permanently located in 1878. They had previously resided in Missouri several years before this, but had returned to their native state again. Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Locke were the parents of six children, three of whom are still living: Roscoe J.; Frank R., of Rockport, Missouri, and James R., of Lenox, Iowa.

Roscoe Janvrin Locke was educated in the district and high schools of Rockport, Missouri, and later graduated from the State University of Nebraska in the legal department, securing his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1901. Mr. Locke first came into the northwestern part of Iowa in 1896 and located south of Paullina, in this county, where he taught school during the winter and worked on farms during the summer. Upon his graduation from college he immediately began the practice of law at Sutherland, Iowa, where he remained until the spring of 1906, then removed to Primghar, the county seat of O'Brien county, and shortly afterwards was elected county attorney. He was appointed February 13, 1906, to this office to fill a vacancy, and upon the expiration of his appointed term he was elected, and has been re-elected four times since. He enjoys the utmost confidence and esteem of the people of the county, as is justified by their keeping him in the important office which he now holds.

Mr. Locke was married May 22, 1906, to Laura Ewoldt, the daughter of Hans and Mary Ewoldt, of Paullina, in this county. To this marriage have been born two children, Marian Julia, aged six, and Ruth, who died December 10, 1913. Fraternally, Mr. Locke is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Yeomen. Politically, he is a Republican and takes an active interest in the affairs of his party. He and his wife are loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Locke is a man of wide and accurate knowledge of law and is a close reader and keen observer of men and events. He is successful in his law practice and is also largely interested in the welfare of his community, giving his unreserved support to every enterprise which is to the advancement of his fellow citizens.

844 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

FRANK E. KENNEDY.

Frank E. Kennedy, the son of Michael and Mary (Murray) Kennedy, was born in Illinois in March, 1864. The parental home at that time was on a farm in LaSalle county, where his parents had previously settled. Michael and Mary Kennedy came to Connecticut before they were married and were subsequently married in that state. In the early fifties they came to Illinois and bought a farm in LaSalle county where they lived until 1878. They then moved to Tama county, Iowa, and bought a farm, rernaining there until the death of Michael in the fall of 1909 at the age of eighty-four. The mother now lives in Chicago with one of her daughters. Michael Kennedy and wife were the parents of five children, who are still living: Michael, of Traer, Iowa; Julia, Mary and Mrs. Ella Pollard, wlio are living in Chicago, and Frank E., whose history is here briefly sketched.

Frank F. Kennedy was educated in the country schools of LaSalle county, Illinois, and later attended an academy in his home County for a short time All of his spare time in his boyhood was spent upon the farm and he was able to attend school for only a few months each year, during the winter months. When he was twenty-two years of age he left home and began to work for himself and in the spring of 1889 he came to Osceola county and purchased one hundred and sixty acres in Viola township, which he farmed for five years. He then sold it and bought another farm in Viola township, where he lived until 1897, ater which he boiught a farm of two hundred and ten acres east of Sibley, in East Holman township, on which he resided for fourteen years. For the past three years he has lived in Sibley, where he has a fine modern residence in the eastern part of the city. Since coming to Sibley he has been engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock, handling about one hundred and twenty-five car loads of live stock

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 845

annnaly. He has his home farm of two hundred and ten acres in East Hohnan township. In addition to his other interests he is a stockholder in the Sibley State Bank and is a director and vice-president of that financial institution at the present time.

Mr. Kennedy was married in 1891 to Mary Cajacob, the daughter of P. A. Cajacob and wife, pioneer settlers of Osceola county. The reader is referred to the sketch of P. A. Cajacob, elsewhere in this work, for further details as to the family history. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are the parents of seven children, Edward, Ruth, Winifred, Martin, Helen, Lucille and Lorinda. All of these children except Lorinda are now in school, and Lorinda is now a teacher in the schools of Harris, in this county. She studied at St. Mary's Academy, South Bend, Indiana, while Lucille is a student in Winona College at Winona, Indiana. The other children are attending the schools of their home city. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are firm believers in the value of a good education and are anxious that their children be given the best attainable.

Mr. Kennedy is a stanch Democrat in politics and has been one of the leaders in his party for many years. He has held various city offices since moving to Sibley and in all of them has performed faithful and efficient service. He and his family are earnest members of the Catholic church and give it their support at all times. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Columbus at Sheldon, Sac county, Iowa.(sic) Mr. Kennedy has been a useful citizen of his county and has at all times done his full share in developing and improving the comnninity in which he has lived. His strenuous life has been rewarded with a large measure of success. Since he has alwayS conducted his business in strict accordance with the highest business ethics he is highly esteemed by everyone with whom he has been associated.

THEODORE J. STAGE.

The history of any man is interesting inasfar as he has taken a more or less prominent part in the history of his country and it is often the force of circumstances which puts a man into the limelight. While it is not true that we are mere creatures of circumstances, yet there is much truth in the statement of the poet. He said that "Many a mute and inglorious Milton" is never recognized by his fellow men. It is easily understood that the history of a man, who, when a mere lad of fourteen, enlisted in the war for the Union and fought through four years of the lboodiest fighting which the

846 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

world has ever seen, conld not be otherwise than interesting. After serving- through the entire war Theodore J. Stage became a prominent railroad man before he was twenty years of age and was one of the first settlers of Osceola county.

Theodore J. Stage, who is now living a retired life in the county seat of Osceola county, was born August 5, 1845, at Wassaic, Dutchess county, New York. His parents, James J. and Martha A. (Brinton) Stage, were natives of Scotland and Connecticut, respectively. In 1854 James J. Stage went West to buy land and was killed in a railroad wreck on the Great Western Railway in Canada on his return to New York. His widow married Solon D. McLane in 1857. In 1855 the mother and two children, Theodore and his sister, now Mrs. Martha Ann Morrison, moved to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where thev lived one year. After her marriage to Mr. McLane the family moved to Freeport, Illinois, in 1858 and a year later moved to Davis, Stephenson county, Illinois. In 1861 the family moved to Rockton, Illinois, where Mr. McLane was foreman of all the masonry construction on the railroad from Weston to Beloit in Wisconsin. In 1866 the family moved to Jessup, Buchanan county. Iowa, where they lived until Mr. McLane died. Mrs. McLane, the mother of Theodore J. Stage, then sold the home and went to Spokane, where she lived until her death.

Theodore J. Stage was only about a month past his sixteenth birthday when he enlisted for the Civil War at Freeport. Illinois. He enlisted on September 25, 1861, in Company B, Twenty-sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was in continuous service until March 9, 1864, having seen three full years of service and, being then a veteran of nineteen years, he decided to re-enlist and accordingly he re-entered the service and was not mustered out until July 20, 1865. He had served four years and two months and was mustered out before he reached his twentieth birthday. It is impossible in this brief historical sketch to detail the war record of Mr. Stage, but enough is given to show that he was in some of the hardest fought battles of that memorable struggle. The battles and sieges in which he participated may he briefly enumerated as follows: New Madrid; Island No. Ten; Farmington; three days' battle of Corinth; siege of Corinth; luka; battles and siege of Vicksburg; siege of Jackson, Mississippi; Missionary Ridge; Lookout Mountain; all the battles of the Atlanta campaign and siege; Sherman's march to the sea; burning of Columbia, South Carolina; Bentonville and Raleigh, North Carolina. He was present at the final surrender of Johnston in North Carolina and. with his regiment, marched to Richmond, Virginia, and thence to Washington, where he was in the Grand Review.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 847

This is truely a marvelous record and is rendered more striking because of the youth of Mr. Stage.

Mr. Stage returned to Iowa after he was mustered out in July, 1865, and began to work in the railroad shops of Woodbine, in this state. Shortly after he was made a railroad engineer, but served only three months in this capacity. His disability incurred in the service compelled him to retire from the strenuous work of an engineer. He was then a brakeman, baggageman and conductor until 1870, being employed part of the time on the Union Pacific Railroad. He was then twenty-three years of age and had seen enough service for a man of twice his age. His last work as a conductor was on the Missouri Pacific from Kansas City to Holden, Missouri. In the winter of 1871 he returned to Jessup, Iowa, and in the spring of 1872 came to Osceola county with a team and homesteaded in Viola township in section 30. He reached this county at a most unfortunate time, for the grasshoppers came along and ate his first crops, with the result that he was so discouraged that he left his farm to the grasshoppers. He again returned to railroading and was conductor on the Illinois Central from Waterloo to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and remained with the company for a few years. He then returned to his farm, where he lived until 1892, having been married in 1883. He was successful as a farmer and still owns his homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, which is one of the finest farms in the township. In 1892 he moved to Little Rock, in Lyon county, where he lived for one year. In 1893 he moved to Sibley, where he has since resided.

Mr. Stage was married September 4, 1883, in Sibley, Iowa, to Mrs. Ida Kizer, who was born in 1866 near Independence, Iowa. To this union have been born four children: Dana, born July 16, 1884, now in Seattle, Washington; Adelbert, deceased; Emory, born July 26, 1888, a hotel proprietor in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Cecil, born November 27, 1892, a lyceum entertainer and professional musician. He is now a student of Grinnell College and has studied in Chicago under one of Richard Mansfield's students. Mr. and Mrs. Stage are justly proud of their children, who are making an enviable record for themselves in the world.

In politics, Mr. Stage has been a stanch Republican all his life and has filled practically every office in his township. Religiously, he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the thirty- second degree. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while he and his wife are both members of the Daughters of Rebekah. As might be expected, he is a loyal member

848 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

of the Grand Army of the Republic of Sibley. Such is the life history of Theodore J. Stage, a man who is well deserving of being remembered in a history of his county. He has always done his duty as he saw it and whether upon the battle field or in the official chair, he has never wearied of his duties. It is needless to say that he is widely respected and highly honored by everyone in the county, for the clean life he has lived and the good he has done.

FREDERICK WARREN CRAM, M. D,

It is not always easy to discover and define the hidden forces that have moved a life of ceaseless activity and large professional success; little more can be done than to note their manifestation in the career of the individual under consideration. In view of this fact, the life of the physician and public-spirited man of affairs whose name appears above affords a striking example of well defined purpose, with the ability to make that purpose subserve not only his own ends but the good of his fellow men as well. Doctor Cram, the oldest practicing physician in O'Brien county, has long held prestige in a calling which requires for its basis sound mentality and intellectual discipline of a high order, supplemented by the rigid professional training and thorough mastery of technical knowledge with the skill to apply the same, without which one cannot hope to rise above mediocrity in ministering to human ills. In his chosen field of endeavor Doctor Cram has achieved a notable success, which has been duly recognized and appreciated throughout the section of the state in which he lives. In addition to his long and creditable career in one of the most useful and exacting of professions, he has proved an honorable member of the body politic and in every relation of life he has never fallen below the dignity of true manhood nor in any way resorted to methods that have invited censure.

Dr. Frederick Warren Cram, successful physician, business man and public-spirited citizen of Sheldon, was born November 15, 1854, in Bangor, Maine. His parents were Jacob Haskill and Sarah (Wing) Cram. Jacob H. Cram was born in Bangor, Maine, January 12, 1823, and was the son of Joseph Cram, who was a native of New Hampshire. The Crams trace their ancestry back to colonial times, when two Cram brothers, who were natives of England originally, received a large grant of land on the Hudson river on the Connecticut side. Here they settled and their descendants eventually scattered over the United States and formed a large family. Jacob Cram,

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 849

the father of Doctor Cram, married Sarah M. Wing who was born in Stetson, Maine, Jnne 22, 1827. After his marriage Jacob Cram and his family came west and located where he died October 29, 1893; the widow died February 27, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob H. Cram were the parents of seven children: William, deceased; Frank, deceased; Henry, a traveling salesman of Sheldon, Iowa; Charles of St. Paul, Minnesota; Georgia, deceased; Ida, deceased, and Dr. Frederick W. Cram, whose history is herein presented.

Doctor Cram was educated in the common schools of Minnesota and the St. Croix Valley Academy. He took part of his medical work in the University of Michigan and finished his course at the Rush Medical College at Chicago, graduating with tlie class of 1878. Since then he has taken post- graduate courses in that institution and makes annual visits to the Chicago clinic, in order to keep fully abreast of the time in his chosen field.

Doctor Cram first located in Jordan, Minnesota, upon his graduation in 1878, and a year later located in Sheldon, where he has been continuously practicing since that time. He established Cram's Hospital in 1903 and in 1906 established, his present hospital, which accommodates twelve patients and has two nurses in constant attendance, and is a very successful institution for a town of this size, being of untold benefit to the city and community. Doctor Cram has been a successful physician here from the first and is recognized throughout this section of the state and, in fact, throughout this section of the country, as one of the leading physicians. He is a member of the O'Brien County, Sioux Valley, Iowa State and National medical associations, in all of which he takes an active interest. He is at present the surgeon for the Illinois Central. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and Omaha railways. In addition to his medical practice. Doctor Cram has been one of the most public-spirited citizens, of Sheldon. In 1898 he built the first telephone exchange and when he sold it a few years later he had built it up to a high state of efliciency, having increased its subscribers to two hundred. However, it was becoming too much of an enterprise for him to manage successfuly and attend to his medical practice, so he sold it. Doctor Cram owned the first automobile in northwestern Iowa in 1881 and the third in the state. In fact, he has always been prominent in all enterprises and lends his hearty support to every cause which he thinks will benefit the city.

Fraternally, Doctor Cram is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has been twice married, his first marriage occurring in 1880 to Dora Walter, who died in 1888, leaving two children, Mrs. Georgia

850 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

Nerbovig, of Sheldon, and Walter W., who will graduate from the Rush Medical College of Chicago in June, 1915. In 1900 Doctor Cram was married to Mrs. Hattie L. Lanning, who had two children by her former marriage: Frederick is now twelve years of age, and Frank H., who died at the age of eight months.

Personally, Doctor Cram is a pleasant gentleman to meet, kind, benevolent and honest in all relations of life, and consequently is eminently deserving of the large success which he has attained by his own efforts. He enjoys the confidence of the city of Sheldon and community and is justly held in high esteem by everyone.

ARTHUR THEODORE FILLENWARTH.

Among the younger attorneys of O'Brien county, Iowa, who are fast rising to prominence is Arthur T. Fillenwarth, of Sanborn. He came to this place in the spring of 1913, after having been educated in the best schools of the United States, and such has been his legal training that he has already acquired a very satisfactory practice. The law departments of the University of Michigan and Harvard University are recognized as among the best in the country and a graduate from either school has the best training which can be received. To his wide college education, Mr. Fillenwarth has added a fund of valuable experience gained by extensive travel abroad. After leaving college he made an extended tour through Europe and the British Isles, visiting Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium and other continental countries.

Arthur T. Fillenwarth, the son of John and Louisa (Trappa) Fillenwarth, was born August 1, 1887, in Monona, Iowa. John Fillenwarth was the son of Peter, a native of Germany. The Fillenwarth family was one of the early pioneer families of Clayton county, Iowa, and prominently identified with its history for many years. John Fillenwarth, now living a retired life at Britt, Iowa, was one of the most substantial farmers of his county. He and his wife reared a family of five children, three of whom are still living, Mrs. Clara Zuehl, William and Arthur T. The two former are now living in Britt, Iowa.

Mr. Fillenwarth was reared on a farm, received his elementary education in the graded schools and later graduated from the high school at Britt in 1905. He then entered the University of Iowa and took the four-years course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, graduating in the spring

Picture of A. T. FILLENWARTH

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 851

of 1909. Having decided to make the law his hIe work, he at once entered the College of Law of the University of Iowa, where he has received much legal training. Later he studied in the law schools of Harvard and Michigan Universities under some of the foremost legal authorities and law book writers of the world. During the summer of 1911 he made an extended trip abroad, returning home in the fall and being admitted to the state bar of Iowa on October 3, 1912. In the spring of the following year he came to O'Brien county and opened his office on April 14, 1913. His splendid legal training, together with his great natural ability, has enabled him to build up a good practice in a short time. He has a keen mind and can grasp legal problems in a way which indicates that he will be one of the leaders at the O'Brien county bar within a few years. He is a Progressive in politics and at the June primaries his party nominated him for the office of county attorney, a position which he is abundantly qualified to fill.

Mr. Fillenwarth was married on June 30, 1913, to Sadie Raecker, of Britt, Iowa, the daughter of Rev. Henry Raecker. He was formerly the minister of the Evangelical church at Hartley, Iowa, but is now stationed at Britt. Mr. Fillenwarth and his wife are the center of a popular social circle in Sanborn and have made many warm friends since their marriage. They are people of winning personality and charm and are admired for their whole- souled hospitality.

A. C. WINTERFIELD.

It is the wise foresight and enterprise of the business men of any community which is, in a large measure, responsible for its prosperity and welfare. The county which has progressive, wide-awake men of affairs is to be congratulated, for it is such men who shape and direct the varied interests which make for the welfare of their respective communities. A. C. Winterfield, although not a resident of Sibley for many years, has nevertheless shown his ability as a business man since coming to this county and while advancing his own material interests he has not failed to take his proper share of the burden of promoting the civic welfare of the county.

A. C. Winterfield, the son of Frederick and Christina (Wagner) Winterfield, was born November 1, 1862, in Waukesha county, Wisconsin. Both of his parents were twice married, their first marriages occurring in Germany. Both families came to Wisconsin in the early fifties and were

852 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

lving in Milwaukee at the time the Asiatic cholera was prevalent in that city. While this was raging in that city both of them lost their first spouses. Mrs. Winterfield had two children by her first marriage and Mr. Winterfield had four children. After the death of their first spouses they were married in Milwaukee about 1854 and subsequently moved to Waukesha county, Wisconsin, where they lived for about ten years. In 1869 they came to Hardin county, Iowa, and settled on a farm where both died, Frederick Winterfield dying in 1894 and his wife four years later. The children of Frederick Winterfield by his first wife, who are now living, are Fred, of Iowa Falls, Iowa, and William, of Radcliffe, Iowa. The two children of his wife by her first marriage are both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Winterfield are the parents of four children: Albert and Henry, of Radcliffe, Iowa; Andrew, of Osceola county, and A. C, whose history is here presented.

A. C. Winterfield received his schooling in the country schools of his home county and later studied one year in Des Moines. In 1890 he left home and came to Sibley, but one year later returned to Hardin county and lived one year in Alden. He then located in Harris, in this county, and was engaged in the grain business from 1892 to 1904. He also conducted a lumber yard in connection with his grain business while living in Harris. In 1904 he disposed of his business in Harris and came to Sibley, where he engaged in the real estate and loan business. In 1911 he became a partner of T. S. Redmond and the firm is now doing a flourishing and prosperous real estate business in Sibley and this section of the state. He owns a fine farm of his own near Harris which yielded him eight dollars an acre on shares in 1913. He also owns four hundred and thirty acres in Osceola county and eighty acres in Minnesota. He is a stockholder and director of the Sibley State Bank, a prosperous institution of the county seat.

Mr. Winterfield was married in 1895 to Orphan M. Glass, of Harris, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Glass. Mrs. Winterfield died in December, 1910, in Harris, leaving two children, Loraine, who is now seventeen and a student in the Sibley high school, and Lenore, who is now nine years of age. Mrs. Winterfield was a woman of winning personality and her death was deeply mourned by the family and her numerous friends. She was a loyal member of the Methodist Episcopal church and a faithful worker in that denomination.

Mr. Winterfield is a stanch Republican in politics and has always taken an active interest in public affairs. He was county supervisor from 1898 to 1902 and while a member of the county board helped to select the plan of the magnificent court house which adorns the county seat. Fraternally, he is a

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 853

member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and is also a member of the chapter. He is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.

HEZEKIAH G. DOOLITTLE.

One of the finest and most distinguished men of Osceola county is Hezekiah G. Doolittle, a man who has been as intimately associated with the history of the county as any other resident. There is no phase of the history of the county with which he is not familiar and for this reason the biography of his life should be of intense interest to everyone in the county. He was born in Evans, Erie county. New York, June 18, 1838, and is the son of Anson S. and Frances (Smith) Doolittle. Anson Doolittle was born in Pine Creek, Delaware county, New York, February 28, 1809, while his wife was born in the same town August 25, 1810. Their marriage occurred in Bovina, Delaware county, New York, June 14, 1832.

The children of Anson and Frances Doolittle are as follows: Julia A., of Bovina, Delaware county, New York, born November 11, 1833, and now a resident of Sibley, Iowa; Houston A., born September 25, 1836. in Evans, New York, and now a resident of Sibley; Hezekiah G., with whom this narrative deals; Caroline R., born August 4, 1840, in Byron, New York, and now a resident of Fayette county, Iowa; William A., born in Oakfield, New York, October 19, 1842, and now a resident of Sibley; Charles S.. born in Oakfield, New York, November 10, 1845, and now resides in Florida, near Tampa; Addison K., born in Aurora, Illinois, November 18, 1847. and died November 6, 1895, in Indian Territory; Jonathan A., born January, 1849, at Bradford, Illinois, and died in infancy; Albert G., born in Grand Detour, February 20, 1851, and died February 7, 1899; Esther Melinda, born August 19, 1853, and died in infancy, and Dayton S. and Fremont G., twins, who were born in New Amsterdam, Wisconsin, August 19, 1856, and are both deceased.

The Doolittles left New York state in 1846 and located at Aurora, Illinois. Anson Doolittle was a wagon-maker by trade. In 1850 the family moved to Bradford, Lee county, Illinois, and still later to Grand Detour, Illinois. In 1856 they settled in New Amsterdam, Wisconsin, and three years later moved to Delhi, Delaware county, Iowa. The parents later moved to Earlville, Delaware county, where they lived for twenty-two years

854 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

and then moved to Osceola county, where they lived seven years, moving to Hancock county in 1888. Mrs. Anson Doolittle died in March, 1898, and Anson Doolittle in 1901.

H. G. Doolittle enlisted July 15, 1861, in Delaware county, Iowa, in Company K, Fifth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served over three years. He was in the battles of New Madrid, Island No. Ten, Pittsburg Landing, siege of Corinth, Iuka, and was wounded in the right leg at the latter battle. The bullet passed through his leg and he was laid up three months in the hospital at Jackson, Tennessee. He later participated in the battles at Fort Gibson, Champion's Hill, Baker's Creek and all of the fighting around Vicksburg up until it was finally captured on July 4. 1863. He was then transferred to the East and followed Sherman to Chattanooga, participating in the battles of Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He was captured at the battle of Missionary Ridge and taken to the Rebel prison at Belle Island near Richmond. He was captured on November 25th and escaped on March 16, 1864, by cutting a hole in the bottom of a railroad car, while being transferred to Andersonville in Georgia. He and two others made their thrilling escape at Gaston, North Carolina, and spent the next twenty-four days in the swamps. On April 8th thev arrived at Suffolk, Virginia, wading continuously through swamps for eighteen days during the rainy time of the year. They finally reached the Union line and in the summer of 1864 he was sent back to Chattanooga and thence to the camp at Indian Creek, and finally discharged at Chattanooga, July 30, 1864. He was elected sergeant of his company after being mustered in and was appointed first sergeant in 1863.

Immediately after the war Mr. Doolittle returned to Delaware county, Iowa, and was elected county surveyor, serving in that capacity until 1871. In the spring of that year he came to Osceola county, arriving on the first day of May, and spent the summer as a surveyor, locating the claims of the settlers who were fast arriving. On July 4, 1871, a convention was called on section 24, township 99, range 42, on Culver's homestead, for the purpose of nominating county officers. Mr. Doolittle was made the chairman of the assembled settlers and F. M. Robinson was elected as secretary. The convention nominated A. M. Culver, Horace Fenton and Mr. Spalding for county supervisors. Captain Huff for treasurer, F. M. Robinson for auditor, Frank Messenger for sheriff, D. L. McCausland for recorder, and C. M. Brooks for clerk. It is interesting to note in connection with this convention that a gang later came into the county and nominated Culver for

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 855

treasurer and looted the county to the extent of twenty-two thousand dollars the first year.

After his experience in Osceola county as surveyor, in 1871, Mr. Doolittle went back to Delaware county where he taught school during the following winter and returned again in the spring. He was chairman of the first grand jury in Osceola county in the spring of 1872, when the grand jury returned twenty-two indictments against the gangsters who had been swindling for the past year. They were put under small bond of one hundred dollars each and no one was surprised when they skipped the country and never showed up again in the county.

From 1872 down to the present time Mr. Doolittle has been an important factor in the history of the county. He has served as county surveyor for twelve years, was postmaster at Sibley under President Harrison, has been United States official weather observer since 1893, served as city assessor of Sibley two terms, was the census enumerator in 1900 for his town, served as rural carrier from 1902 to 1910 and has taught four years in the public schools of the county.

Mr. Doolittle had homesteaded on section 24, township 99, range 41, and lived here for twelve years after coming to the county. He then moved ro Sibley where he conducted a photograph gallery for the next eighteen years. He has always taken a very prominent part in all the civic affairs of his city, as is shown by the offices which he has held. He has been an exponent of clean government and wholesome politics and has never supported anything which savors of dishonesty in municipal politics.

Mr. Doolittle was married January 12, 1885, to Alice A. Walters, the daughter of Harvey and Charlotte M. (Allen) Walters. Her parents were natives of New York and were married at Ravenna, Ohio. They subsequently settled in New Hampton, Iowa, where Alice A. was born. The Walters family came to Osceola county in 1872 and homesteaded on section 10, township 99, range 41, where they lived until 1877. The father died on August 10, 1901: the widow is still living. Harvey Walters and wife were the parents of six children: Nelson J., who is now living in the state of Washington; Sidney S., of Tacoma, Washington; Mrs. Julia T. Wynne, of Beloit, Wisconsin; Mrs. Alice A. Doolittle, the wife of the subject of this sketch; John F., born February 16, 1867, who strayed from home and was found dead two and three-fourths miles from home. He was only two years of age at the time; Willie S., the youngest of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Walters, is deceased. The Walters lived on the homestead farm for years and then moved to Sibley in 1877, where the father kept the Pioneer

856 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

House for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle have two children living and one deceased: Jessie W., born August 5, 1888, graduated from Morningside College and is now doing post-graduate work at the State University in Iowa City; Frances Charlotte, a graduate of Morningside College, is now teaching at Inwood. She is known among her friends as Margie Doolittle. Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle are both loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Doolittle is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is commander of the L. G. Ireland Post at Sibley. Thus is outlined briefly the interesting career of Mr. Doolittle, a man who has been interested in his county for more than forty years, and in no position in which he has been found has he ever been delinquent to the slightest duty, and for this reason he has won the earnest approval of everyone who has known him.

LOUIS YOUNGERS.

Many of the finest homes in Sheldon, O'Brien county. Iowa, have been built by farmers who have made their fortunes in the fertile field of this county and then retired to this city to spend their declining years. Among these farmers who have made a notable success of farming in this county is Louis Youngers, who has a modern residence in the southern part of Sheldon, which he erected in 1911.

Louis Youngers was born February 17, 1853, in Ozaukee county, Wisconsin. He is the son of Nicholas and Margaret (Robbenet) Youngers, who were both born in Luxemburg. Germany. They were born, reared and married in that country and immediately after their marriage came to this country and located in the forests of Wisconsin, about twenty-five miles from Milwaukee. They reached this country in 1849 and literally carved their farm out of the dense wilderness where they settled. In 1883, Nicholas, his wife and two youngest children came to O'Brien county and lived in Sheldon on one of his son's farms until his death in 1898. His wife died in 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Youngers were the parents of seven children: Nicholas, Jr., of Sioux county, Iowa; Louis, whose history is here sketched; Mrs. Mary Ludovise, of Lynn township; Peter, of Kansas: Dominic, of Lynn township, in this county; Mrs. Anna Croat, of Sioux county, Iowa, and John, of Sioux county.

Louis Youngers came to LeMars in 1875 and worked his way to O'Brien county, where he hired out to a farmer in Carroll township. He worked

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 857

here for one year and in 1876 his brother Nicholas joined him and they farmed the west half of the southwest corner of section 30, in Carroll township. The brothers then bought the western half of the northeastern corner of this section. Louis later sold his interest in this to his brother Nicholas and rented eighty acres from Mr. Holmes, which they farmed together. Each of the brothers had a team and they not only farmed their own farm, but broke ground for their neighbors. They went through the terrible experience of the famous "grasshopper war" and remember distinctly that on July 28, 1876, the grasshoppers came so thick from the west the boys were hardly able to reach their shack. The grasshoppers fell like hail stones and within two days ate up twenty acres of oats and all of their other crops. The grasshoppers left eggs scattered everywhere and in the spring of 1877 they appeared again and ate up all the crops of that year. In 1878 the brothers managed to secure a fair crop and then Louis married and settled on his farm permanently. In the winter of 1880 and 1881 came the famous big snow, the worst in the history of this county. The snow came on October 15, 1880, and lay on the ground continuously until April 15, 1881. This was the last disaster which befell the brothers and after that things moved on without any interruption. Mr. Youngers lived on his farm until 1896 and then bought eighty acres in section 6, in Carroll township, adjoining the city of Sheldon. He now owns eleven hundred acres in the county, having bought his land at prices ranging from one dollar and a quarter to eighty-five dollars an acre. The prices which he paid for his land as he bought, tract by tract, are interesting in showing the increase of land values. Commencing at one dollar and a quarter an acre, twelve dollars, twenty dollars, thirty-two dollars, fifty-five dollars, sixty-two dollars and eighty-five dollars. This land is all worth from one hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars an acre at the present time. In addition to his holdings in O'Brien county, he owns two hundred acres in Sioux county.

Mr. Youngers was married in 1878 to Margaret Ludovisie and to this union have been born fourteen children: Nicholas L., a farmer of this county; Tracy, of Canada; Louis L., a farmer of this county; Mrs. Mary J. Giefer, of LeMars township; Peter, of Washington township; Theodore L., of Parker, South Dakota, where he is a bank cashier; Andrew, a farmer of this county; Clara M., who is keeping house for her brother; Martha M., who graduated from the Sheldon high school and is at home and teaching in the public schools of Sheldon; Matilda, who is in the high school; Clarence, Daniel, Leona and Eugene.

Politically, Mr. Youngers is a Democrat, but his interests have been so

858 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

heavy that he has never had the time to indulge in the game of politics. Though successful in his private affairs. Mr. Youngers has also been interested in the welfare of his community and gives his unreserved support to every enterprise which is for the advancement of the welfare of his fellow citizens.

WILL A. SOLON.

It is a well-attested maxim that the greatness of a community or state lies not in the machinery of government, nor even in its institutions, but rather in the sterling c[ualities of the individual citizen, in his capacity for high and unselfish effort and his devotion to the public welfare. In these particulars he whose name appears at the head of this paragraph has conferred honor and dignity on his county, and as an elemental part of history it is consonant that there should be recorded here a resume of his career, with the object in view of noting his connection with the advancement of one of the most flourishing and progressive sections of the commonwealth, as well as his career in the banking business, one of the most exacting professions to which a man can devote his talents and energies.

Will A. Solon, the cashier of the Sanborn State Bank, was born in February, 1882, in Mason City. Iowa, the son of A. W. and Katherine (Farrell) Solon. The reader is referred to the life of A. W. Solon, elsewhere in this volume, for details concerning the Solon ancestry, Mr. Solon was educated in the Sanborn public schools, having come with his parents to this city when he was eighty (sic) years of age. He graduated from the Sanborn high school in 1899, and then took the commercial course in the Capital City Commercial College of Des Moines. In 1900 he entered the Sanborn State Bank as assistant cashier and on April 1, 1911, he became cashier.

Mr. Solon was married in July, 1908, to Gertrude McKone, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James McKone, of Lawler, Iowa. Politically. Mr. Solon is a Democrat, and has served as secretary of the school board since 1901, and is now city clerk of Sanborn, having been elected to that ofiice in 1909. He and his wife are earnest and faithful members of the Catholic church, and belong to the congregation of St. Cecilia church of Sanborn. Fraternally, Mr. Solon is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

The Sanborn State Bank was established April 1, 1883, by C. D. and A. E. Ellis, of Charles City, Iowa, and Morton Wilbur, George B. Davis and F. A. Ellis, of Sanborn. Mr. Wilbur was cashier of the bank until

Picture of WILL A. SOLON

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 859

1900. when he was succeeded by G. M. Slocum, who had been assistant cashier previous to that time. In 1900 W. A. Solon became assistant cashier of the bank, and on April 1, 1911, he took the position of cashier. This bank has a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, a surplus of twenty- five hundred dollars, deposits of two hundred thousand dollars and total resources of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The bank owns its own two-story brick building on Main street, and has handsome fixtures. The banking room is floored with a fireproof tile and the room also contains a number of safe deposit vaults for rent. The bank issues certificates of deposit parable in six or twelve months, on which interest is allowed at four and five per cent. It issues bank money orders and bank money drafts for domestic or foreign use and payable at all points in the world at the most reasonable rates. It loans money to responsible parties on approved collateral or other securities, writes fire insurance on desirable property in strong companies at the prevailing rates. The record of the Sanborn State Bank for the past thirty-one years has certainly been an enviable one. It has stood the storms of nearly one and one-half score of years and shows a clean record, all of the time affording a place of safety for depositing idle funds and a place where accommodations may be secured by those worthy of credit at any and all times. The bank has always endeavored to give the people of this vicinity the best of service and under the new management, which went into effect in 1911, this endeavor will be redoubled. It cordially invites the people to make use of its facilities and to consult freely with its officers on any matters pertaining to any of its branches of business.

WILLIAM H. SLEEPER.

The character of a community is determined in a large measure by the lives of a comparatively few of its members. If its moral and intellectual status is good; if in a social way it is a pleasant place to live; if its reputation for the integrity of its citizens has extended into other localities, it will be found that the standards set by the leading men have been high and that their influence has been such as to mold the character and shape the lives of those with whom they mingle. In placing William H. Sleeper in the front rank of such men, a biographical fact is thus stated with an accuracy and justice which is deserving to the individual with whom the biographer is directly concerned. For thirty-five years the pioneer banker of Sheldon,

860 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

and having figured in the building up of the city, he occupies a unique place in the history of the city and county. Although modest to a high degree, he is one of the most approachable and public spirited men in the community.

Mr. Sleeper was born in New Jersey, on October 8, 1853, the son of Aaron and Maria Sleeper, both deceased, having lived their lives in their native state of New Jersey. The mother of William H. died when he was but a child. He was educated in the public schools of his native state. Becoming imbued with the western spirit, he traveled westward in 1878 and located in Sheldon, where he became the pioneer banker of the town. For a period of twenty years his banking institution was conducted as a state bank; in 1914 it became a private bank and is now operated under the firm name of Sherwood & Sleeper.

Mr. Sleeper has been interested in O'Brien county land and has owned and sold several tracts during his long residence in the county. At present he is the owner of a section of land in Monona county, Iowa. He is affiliated politically with the Republican party and has served as a member of the city council. In many ways he has been a useful citizen and is accounted one of the substantial citizens of the community. He is ever ready and willing to assist in meritorious public enterprises and has made his influence felt in behalf of good things which were intended to benefit the body politic in varIous ways.

Mr. Sleeper was married in 1883 to Etta Sherwood, daughter of George W. Sherwood, now a resident of St. Paul. They have had three children: Sherwood, deceased; Raymond, in Sheldon, and George, deceased.

RICHARD M. BOYD.

How much we owe the pioneers of O'Brien county! What a fine body of good and true men they were! Many of them were of the finest tvpe of manhood. They entered a wilderness of unbroken prairie country and passed through a period which tried men's souls and which brought out the best there was in them. Some gave up the fight for even bare existence during the first lean and poor years, but those who remained have reaped a harvest of good things and are now honored and respected in their neighborhoods. They were of a cosmopolitan class, embracing some of the best blood of New England, Pennsylvania, the South, and from far-away Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Many were Union soldiers, who, restless for a change for

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 861

the better in their circrmstances after passing through the harrowing scenes of four years of awful warfare, set their faces westward, there to hew out a home and rear their famihes to good and useful citizenship.

Richard M. Boyd, or "Dick" Boyd, as he is more affectionately known, of Sanborn, is a genuine pioneer of the hardy class who homesteaded in Grant township and has prospered as he well deserved. He was born May 18, 1843, in Ireland, the son of Robert and Mary Ann (Pogue) Boyd, of Scotch-Irish and Covenanter descent. Their immediate ancestors left Scotland to obtain freedom of worship in their chosen faith in northern Ireland. It is of record that the father of Mary Ann Pogue held a grant of considerable land in the North country, but unfortunately lost the same by going note security for a friend at the time of his marriage. Robert and Mary Ann Boyd and their children emigrated to America in 1853. For several years they lived in New York City, where the father died of ship fever contracted while on a trip to Rhode Island, whither he had gone to arrange for another place of abode for his family. The widow and children soon afterward moved to Rhode Island and located in the town of Bristol. There were six children in the Boyd family, as follows: Isaiah P., deceased; Richard M.; Robert W., of Sutherland; Mrs. Annie J. Magee, of Sanborn; Alex., of whose where- abouts nothing is now known; Mrs. Mary Corrall, deceased; John, deceased.

In 1861 Richard Boyd and his mother decided to come west and they journeyed to Iowa. They deemed this eventful step necessary on account of the fact that factories in Rhode Island had shut down and a kind of panic prevailed when the Civil War broke out between the states. They settled on a farm in Lynn county, Iowa. Here it was that Richard Boyd enlisted in the Union army and made an enviable record as a brave soldier. He enlisted in Company H, Fourteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, October 5, 1861, and was honorably discharged from the service November 16, 1864. at Davenport, Iowa. He enlisted under Capt. Roy A. Cranes and fought at Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, Shiloh, Corinth and Tupelo, Mississippi. He was taken seriously sick at Tupelo of typhoid fever and lay in the hospital for several months, suffering severe setbacks and being an invalid for a long time at Mound City, Illinois. At Shiloh he was one of the personal body guard for Gen. C. J. Smith. He finally got to St. Louis while still in a sadly weakened condition and being the ghost of his former robust manhood. It was a very long time before he became a well man. In fact, he was so disfigured by disease that his boon companions in his old command even failed to recognize him. After they discovered that their old comrade "Dick" needed their care they insisted on his being transferred to their quarters and

862 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

then tenderly cared for him and assisted him in building up his wasted physique. Later, down in Missouri, he was engaged in many skirmishes with the bushwhackers. He also saw active service in Kentucky and Mississippi. Previous to this he had participated in the engagement at Meridian, Mississippi. His last service was during the historic chase after Gen. Marmaduke Price and his rebel army, who were driven out of Missouri. He returned home after his discharge, but went again to the front and was in the employ of the United States government at Nashville, Tennessee, until the close of the war. Mr. Boyd recalls that the lamentable news of President Lincoln's assassination, when received in the Southern city, quieted the bitterness and quarreling among all classes of the people. Southerners and conquerors alike. When peace was declared he was retained in Nashville during 1866 and had personal charge of the government live stock.

For a period of four years after the end of his service Mr. Boyd lived in Linn county and in 1871 came to O'Brien county. He filed on a government homestead in Grant township, the southwest quarter of section 14, township 95, range 39. He improved his homestead and developed it into a fine farm, which he yet owns. In 1883 he came to the town of Sanborn, where he has since resided and is considered affectionately as the "Father of the Town." For several years he served as city marshal and constable and was also in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad for some years. He was appointed postmaster February 15, 1900, and served continuously until August, 1913. He was one of the best and most accommodating postmasters the city ever had. He was recommended by President Taft for another term, but declined to become an applicant for the position. In politics he has always been a Republican.

Religiously, Mr. Boyd has always been affiliated with the faith of his forefathers and is a stanch member of the Presbyterian church. Fraternally, he is allied with the Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic, being one of the few remaining members of the local post.

Mr. Boyd was married November 16, 1866, to Eliza J. Swecker, of Linn county, who has borne him six children, as follows: M. R., a citizen of faraway Fairbanks, Alaska: Seldon, a resident of Sanborn; Fay Devere, of Minneapolis; Neva L., of Chicago; Mrs. Ina Lee, of Ladysmith, Wisconsin; Erma, at home with her father. Mrs. Boyd died on September 22, 1913.

Mr. Boyd is the owner of eighty acres of rich and valuable land adjacent to the city of Sanborn. He is the owner of the postoffice building and another business house in the adjoining block. It is a matter of record that he sold the first load of wheat handled in Sheldon, Iowa, by Benjamin Jones

O'BRIEN and OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 863

in the early seventies. He is a very popular, substantial citizen, who is highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities by his fellow citizens in Sanborn and throughout O'Brien county.

CHARLES F. PETERS.

The city of Sheldon, O'Brien county, Iowa, boasts of many farmers who have retired to this beautiful little city to pass their declining years. Fortunate indeed is a man who has sufficient wealth to retire in his declining years and live a life of ease. Among the many retired farmers of Sheldon who have made their fortune in the fertile soil of this section of the state is Charles F. Peters, who was born in 1850 in Prussia. He is another example of the many Germans who have arisen to positions of affluence in this county. He is the son of David and Fredericka (Mellithin) Peters, who lived all of their days in the land of their birth. David Peters was an innkeeper and operated a distillery in his native land and died in 1857.

Charles F. Peters came to America when he was eighteen years of age and at once settled in Lee county, Illinois, where he worked on a farm. For the first five years he worked at day labor on farms in the county and then operated a threshing machine and corn shelling outfit for nine years. In the meantime he had married and in 1882 he came to Lyons county, Iowa, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land at fourteen dollars and a half an acre. Since he was a native of Germany, it is needless to add that he prospered on his farm. When he moved to Sheldon in 1907 he owned eight hundred and sixty-five acres which was worth one hundred and fifty dollars an acre. He recently sold a farm near Sheldon for two hundred dollars an acre and has sold several hundreds of acres in the last three years in this and surrounding counties. His farm in Lyons county is the finest in northwestern Iowa and is a model in every respect and is easily worth over one hundred and fifty dollars an acre. Mr. Peters has a fine residence in Sheldon where he is now living.

Mr. Peters was married in 1878 to Christina Gartz, of Germany, and to this marriage have been born five children, three of whom are living, Fred and Charles, who are operating their father's farm, and William, an attorney and Idaho.(sic)

Politically, Mr. Peters has long been identified with the Republican party, but, owing to his heavy agricultural interests, he has not been able to take an

864 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

active part in politics. He was reared to the German Lutheran faith, but he and his family attend the Congregational church in Sheldon, to which they contribute of their substance. Mr. Peters has had a remarkable success in farming since coming to Iowa. He owes his success solely to his own initiative and determination, but what he has accomplished has not been without hard work and that application which is necessary for success in any line of business. The acquisition of wealth has not blinded him to his duty as a member of the body politic and he is always interested in every enterprise and measure which he felt would better the community in which he lived.

JAMES H. DALY.

The city of Sanborn has reason to pride itself upon its progressiveness, its financial and commercial institutions, and, above all, in its citizenry, which has no superior in O'Brien county or western Iowa. One of the best known and able young men of this excellent community is he of whom this review is written and who ranks high among the bankers of the county. James H. Daly is a man of unquestioned ability and superior attainments, who is, withal, self made and has attained a position of substance and standing in the community practically through the exercise of talents which were his by right of heritage and development.

Mr. Daly was born in the city of Aurora, Illinois, August 8, 1864. He is the son of P. J. and Margaret Jackson Daly, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of England. Margaret Jackson was born in the city of London, England, and emigrated with her parents to Canada, where she was reared to young womanhood. P. J. Daly removed with his family to Boone, Iowa, in the year 1869. He was a railroad engineer and a mechanical draughtsman in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad for several years. Previous to locating in Iowa his headquarters had been in Chicago, while he made his residence in Aurora. He died in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1908, at the home of his son. Mrs. Daly resides at Boone. They were the parents of three children: J. J. Daly, a resident of Fremont, Nebraska; Elizabeth, at Boone, and James H., of Sanborn.

James H. Daly was educated in the schools of his native city and, when still a youth, became a member of a surveying corps. He learned the machinist's trade in the railroad shops and became a fireman on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Later he had charge of the air pumps in the Union

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 865

Pacific shops at Omaha. In 1882 he came to Sanborn and was employed as a machinist in the shops of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad for a period of three years. He also spent one year in Chadron, Nebraska, in the employ of the same company. On his return to Sanborn from Chadron, he was employed as bookkeeper for William Harper, the organizer of the O'Brien County Bank. He has been with this bank for twenty-six years and has assisted in its reorganization. He was first bookkeeper, then cashier and is now the president of the bank, having filled this position for the past three years.

The Sanborn Savings Bank was organized in 1898, succeeding the First National Bank, which likewise succeeded the O'Brien County Bank, which began operations in the early seventies. The capital, of the bank is $50,000; surplus, $16,000; deposits, $300,000. The officers are as follows: President, J. H. Daly; cashier, John A. Johnson; directors, J. H. Daly. J. A. Johnson, W. W. Johnson, S. C. Kerberg, Frank Frisbie and Fred Frisbie. The original organizers of the bank were: W. W. Johnson, J. H. Daly, J. A. Johnson, Frank and Fred Frisbie and W. M. Smith. The bank is located in its own building and also owns the adjacent building. It has the strongest list of stockhlolders from a financial standpoint of any bank in O'Brien county. The principal stockholders are as follows: S. L. Moore, of Boone, Iowa; J. H. Mermon, of tlie old established Herman Banking Company, and present cashier of the First National Bank of Boone, Iowa, and also president of another strong bank; C. H. Zanzinger, of Boston, Massachusetts, a very prominent man in financial and banking circles of the Hub City. Its corresponding banks are as follows: The Continental and Commercial, of Chicago; the First National, of Sioux City; the First National, of Boone, in which the bank's reserve is carried, and the First National, of Sheldon.

Mr. Daly is politically allied with the Republican party and is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, being a member of the Scottish Rite consistory of Sioux City and a Mason of the thirty-second degree.

Mr. Daly was married in 1890 to Mettie G. Conkur, of Sanborn, and is the father of one child, Bernice. Like other successful men of this western country, he has implicit faith in land as the basis of values and the source of all wealth. He is buying and selling land continuously and thoroughly understands land values in the vicinity and throughout the country. At the present time he is the owner of eight hundred and eighty acres of O'Brien county land, and has land holdings in Texas, South Dakota, Nebraska. Minnesota and Kentucky.

866 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

FRANK W. HORTON, M. D.

It is not always easy to discover and define the hidden forces that move a life of ceaseless activity and large professional success; little more can be done than to note their manifestation in the career of the individual under consideration. In view of this fact, the life of the physician and public- spirited man of affairs whose name appears above affords a striking example of well-defined purpose, with the ability to make that purpose subserve not only his own ends but the good of his fellow men as well. He has long held distinctive prestige in a calling which requires for its basis sound judgment and discipline of a high order, supplemented by the rigid professional training and thorough mastery of technical knowledge, with the skill to apply the same, without which one cannot hope to rise above mediocrity in ministering to human ills. In his chosen field of endeavor Doctor Horton has achieved a distinctive success and his present standing among the leading medical men of northwestern Iowa is duly recognized and appreciated.

Dr. Frank W. Horton, of Sanborn, Iowa, was born November 7, 1870, at Fort Atkinson, Iowa. He is the son of Warren H. and Ella (Beman) Horton, natives of New York state. Warren H. was the son of William Horton. Ella Beman is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Beman, early pioneers of Wisconsin, where Mr. Beman is now residing with one of his sons. Doctor Horton's mother is still living and, the father died April 5, 1914, the Doctor being the only child of the four born to them who is living.

Doctor Horton was educated in the Volga and Belmont (Iowa) high schools, graduating from the latter high school in 1889. He then entered the University of Iowa and graduated from the medical department in March, 1894. Mr. Horton worked his way through school and college by clerking in a mercantile establishment during vacation. During his third year in college he served as house physician of a hospital at Iowa City. It is to be noted that the men who work their way through school are usually those who make the better students. This is strikingly true in the case of Doctor Horton. The fact that he had to work his way through college is an indication that he was a student of much more than ordinary ability.

Immediately after graduating from the University of Iowa, Doctor Horton located in Sanborn and has now practiced just twenty years in this community. He has built up an excellent practice in Sanborn and the surrounding country and has achieved unusual success in his profession. He has handled a large number of very important cases successfully and is deserving of the high stanading (sic) which he has secured throughout this section

Picture of FRANK W. HORTON, M. D.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 867

of the state. He is a member of the O'Brien County Medical Society, the Hahnemann Association of Iowa, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy, and takes an interest in all organizations which he thinks will help him in his business.

Doctor Horton was married in September, 1895, to Harriet Smiley, a trained nurse of Iowa City. She was born in Indiana. To this marriage have been born four children, Leon, deceased, Ruth, Wilma and Margaret. Doctor Horton and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church and contribute liberally of their means to its support. Politically, he is a member of the Republican party and identifies himself with the Progressive branch of that organization. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. While he has been entirely devoted to his profession, he has not neglected to take his part in the affairs of his town and community. He is a man who believes in progress and improvement and takes an interest in whatever he feels will be for the material advancement of the city and the social, intellectual and moral good of its people.

WALTER RALEIGH BROCK, M. D.

There is no class to whom greater gratitude is due from the world at large than the self-sacrificing, sympathetic, noble-minded men whose life work is the alleviation of suffering and the ministering of comfort to the afflicted, to the end that the span of human existence may be lengthened and a great degree of satisfaction enjoyed during the remainder of the earthly sojourn. There is no standard by which their beneficent influence can be measured; their helpfulness is limited only by the extent of their knowledge and skill, while their power goes hand in hand with the wonderful laws of nature that spring from the very source of life itself. Some one has aptly said, "He serves God best who serves humanity most." Among the physicians and surgeons of O'Brien county who have risen to eminence in their chosen field of endeavor is the subject of this review, whose career has been that of a broad-minded, conscientious worker in the sphere to which his life and energies have been devoted and whose profound knowledge of his profession has won for him a leading place among the most distinguished medical men of his day and generation in the city of his residence.

868 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

Dr. Walter Raleigh Brock was born May 7, 1870, near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and is the son of Dr. C. L. and Marion (Morrison) Brock. Dr. C. L. Brock was a native of Vermont, his birth occurring on January 17, 1818, and he was reared, educated and taught school there and later migrated to the state of Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1866. He immediately began the active practice of medicine in Michigan, and in 1871 moved to Tama county, Iowa, and later to Rock county, Minnesota. In 1896 he moved to Sheldon and resided with his son, Dr. W. B. Brock, until his death, which occurred in 1901. Marion Morrison, the wife of Dr. C. L. Brock, was born of Scotch parentage, in Blenham, Ontario, Canada, and is still living in Sheldon with her children. Dr. C. L. Brock and wife were the parents of nine children, all of whom are living: Chauncey, who resides in Minnesota; Lowell, of Wyoming; Sydney, of Des Moines, Iowa; Dr. George Brock, a dentist of Redlands, California; Charles Francis, of Gettysburg, Michigan; Horace Mann, of New York City; Mrs. Ellen Kramer, of James, Iowa, and Mrs. Phoebe Beadle, of Wyandot, Nebraska.

Dr. Walter R. Brock was educated in the public schools of Rock county, Minnesota, and later attended Drake University, graduating from the medical department of that institution in 1894. Since his graduation from Drake he has pursued several courses in Chicago University and other post-graduate medical schools. He practiced two years in Hills, Minnesota, and then located in Sheldon, Iowa, where he has practiced continuously up to the present time. He has his full share of the patronage of Sheldon and vicinity and is regarded as one of the leading practitioners of this section of the state. He is a member of the O'Brien County, Iowa State, Sioux Valley and American medical associations, and is treasurer of the Sioux Valley Medical Society at the present time.

Doctor Brock was married in 1901 to Maude Shinski, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Shinski, and they are the parents of two children. Joseph, born September 28, 1904, and Helen, born December 7, 1908.

Doctor Brock affiliates with the Universalists and Mrs. Brock is a member of the Catholic church. The Doctor is a member of the fraternal order of Knights of Pythias. He is actuated by only the highest motives in the practice of his profession and has brought rare skill and resource in the care of many of his cases which have a serious feature. Quick perception and almost intuitive judgment have rendered him exceptionally strong in diagnosis, though ever willing to lend any aid or suggestion.

Throughout his busy life he has ever been a hard and enthusiastic student and keeps well abreast of the times, as he has realized that in the science

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 869

of medicine, as in other departments of modern research, there have been constant and steady advances and discoveries. He has been very successful in his large practice during the years that he has been in this county, and because of his ability and high personal character, he enjoys a high standing among his professional colleagues and among the people generally.

HERMAN JOHN BRACKNEY, M. D.

Although but a short time a resident of the community of which this volume is a record, the subject of this sketch has by his professional ability and high personal character stamped his impress on those with whom he has come in contact and is numbered among the progressive and enterprising residents of Sheldon. In the realm of medicine and surgery he has achieved a splendid reputation, for by training and experience he has well qualified himself to combat disease in all its forms, and among hisrofessional colleagues he is held in the highest regard.

Dr. Herman J. Brackney, the son of John W. and Janie (Felter) Brackney, was born in Tama county, Iowa, October 29, 1881. His father was a native of Indiana and his mother of Illinois. John W. Brackney was born in 1851 and came from Indiana to Iowa with his parents when he was nine years of age. The Brackneys purchased a farm in Tama county and here John W. grew to maturity, and married Janie Felter, the daughter of Nelson Felter and wife. Nelson Felter was the first settler in Crystal township, Tama county. Iowa, having settled there in 1854, coming from Cook county, Illinois. In 1886 John W. and the family moved to Cherokee county, Iowa, and shortly afterwards he engaged in the mercantile business in Cherokee. Mr. and Mrs. John Brackney were the parents of three children: H. W., an attorney of Sioux City, Iowa; Dr. Herman J. and Mrs Maud R. Christianson.

Doctor Brackney was educated in the Washta, Iowa, high school and later attended the Western College of Toledo, Iowa. In 1905 he received his Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine degrees in the State University of Iowa and immediately located in Sheldon for the practice of medicine. Doctor Brackney has rapidly forged to the front as one of the leading practitioners of the city and now enjoys his full share of the practice of the city and vicinity. He keeps in close touch with the advancement of the medical profession, through wide reading and dependence upon various

870 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

medical associations. He is a member of the O'Brien County, Iowa State and American medical associations, and takes an active interest in the annual meetings of these organizations.

Doctor Brackney was married in 1906 to May Soesbe, of Greene, Iowa. To this union there has been born one daughter, Helen. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church and give freely of their means to its support. Doctor Brackney has a large and well selected professional library, as well as many other valuable works, of which he is a close and constant reader. Personally, he is a man of social impulses and is genial and companionable in his relations to his fellow men. Since locating in Sheldon, he has taken a deep interest in the welfare of the community and gives his ardent support to all measures for local improvement.

J. H. McNEILL.

J. H. McNeill belongs to that class of men who win in life's battles by force of personality and determination and these qualities he has inherited from his Scotch ancestors. Since coming to this county he has proved himself to be a man of ability and honor and always ready to lend his aid in defending principles affecting the public good. As a farmer he was working early and late to make his farm a paying proposition; as an insurance man in Sanborn he worked no less diligently, while as a mayor of the city of Sanborn since March, 1913, he has ably and conscientiously served his city in the capacity of an executive.

J. H. McNeill, the present mayor of Sanborn, Iowa, was born August 11, 1861, in Delaware county, Iowa, near Manchester. He is the son of David and Jean (Robertson) McNeill, both of whom were natives of Scotland. David McNeill came from Scotland with his parents to America when he was seven years of age and settled on Prince Edward Island, in the gulf of St. Lawrence. On this rocky island David McNeill was reared and married. When a young man he had been a sailor in the British navy and traveled over the entire world. He then returned to his home in Prince Edward Island and married. In 1854 he came to Iowa, where he secured a farm in Delaware county. He died at Manchester in 1883.

J. H. McNeill came to O'Brien county, Iowa, in 1880 and for the first two years worked upon farms in this county. He then worked at the car-

O'BRIEN and OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 871

penter trade awhile, then married and moved onto his farm, which he purchased in 1888. He lived on his farm of one hundred and sixty acres until 1906, when he came to Sanborn, where he has been engaged in the insurance business. He has some of the strongest and best insurance companies and has built up a large and lucrative business since coming to Sanborn. In recognition of his ability as an administrator of public affairs, the city council of Sanborn appointed him mayor in March, 1913, and this position he is now filling to the entire satisfaction of the city.

Mr. McNeill was married in 1888 to Louise Davids, the daughter of George B. and Sarah A. (Rogers) Davids. Mr. and Mrs. McNeill have two children, Irene, who is librarian of the Sanborn library, and Isabel, who is a graduate of the Sanborn high school.

George B. Davids was born July 4, 1836, at Brandon, Vermont, and died July 9, 1903. He was the son of a miller and during the early part of his life operated flouring mills in the eastern part of New York and Vermont. In about 1858 he located in Wisconsin, but a few years later returned to New York. During the Civil War he enlisted as a sailor in the United States navy and served for six months. Before the war was over he returned to Wisconsin and sold farm machinery and during one of his trips over the country he visited Lyons, Iowa, where he met Sarah A. Rogers, who afterward became his wife. In 1870 he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, still retaining his connection with the implement business and traveled over northern Iowa, southern Minnesota and Wisconsin as a collector for the company. On his second visit to O'Brien county in 1878, he bought a half section of land in Summit township, O'Brien county, for one dollar and a half an acre. In 1880 he moved to Sheldon, Iowa, and three years later he quit the machinery business and came to Sanborn and, in partnership with Ellis & Ellis and Morton Wilbur, he started the Sanborn State Bank. In 1886 he sold out to his partners and moved to his farm in Summit township. In 1900 he sold his farm and shortly after the death of his wife he returned to Wisconsin, where he died in Green Lake county, July 9, 1903. He and his wife had but one child, Louise, the wife of Mr. McNeill.

Politically, Mr. McNeill is a Progressive, having joined that party upon its organization in the summer of 1912. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a member of the Mystic Shrine and has attained to the honor of the thirty-second degree. In all the relations of life Mr. McNeill has been an advocate of wholesome living, cleanliness in politics as well, and has ever been outspoken in his denunciation of wrongdoing of every kind. He is a man who, in every respect, has merited the high esteem in which he is universally held.

872 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

PATRICK KELLEY.

From the far-famed and beloved Emerald Isle have come to the new republic of the west during the past three centuries a large percentage of its best and most enterprising citizens. They are found, too few, within the borders of O'Brien county. One of the worthiest and best known of the agricultural element of this horde of Erin's fair land is Patrick Kelley, of Sheldon, who was born in 1838 and he is therefore now advanced in years; but, having lived a wholesome life along conservative paths, he is hearty and can look backward over a life well spent and forward with no apprehension for the future.

Mr. Kelley emigrated to America with his parents, James and Mary (Griffin) Kelley, in 1846 and the first year lived in New Jersey. The family then moved to Connecticut, where the father of Patrick worked in a cotton and woolen mill in that state from the time that he was nine years of age. During the Civil War he worked at Norwich, Connecticut, in the arsenal and gun manufacturing works. In about 1868 he went west and settled in Minnesota, where he found employment on a railroad gang which was constructing a railroad through that state. After living ten years in Minnesota he came to Sheldon in the spring of 1878 and was employed by a company constructing a railroad through O'Brien county. The early part of the eighties he "squatted" on railroad land, three miles east of Sheldon, in Floyd township. Like scores of other "squatters" in the county, he later had difficulty in proving his title, but was eventually given possession of the land on which he settled. He has a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which is now worth two hundred dollars an acre. In 1901 he retired from active farming and moved into Sheldon, where he is now living.

Mr Kelley was married in 1872 to Mary Bray, who died in February, 1908. To this union were born eight children: James, deceased; Mrs. May Dougherty, of Sanborn, who has two children, John and Winifred; Winifred, deceased; Mrs. Margaret Kearney, of Plevna, Montana, who has one son, Joseph; Jennie, a teacher in the Sheldon schools; Gertrude, an art teacher in St. Theresa College at Winona, Minnesota; Joseph, of Sanborn; Mrs. Catherine Donahue, east of Sheldon, and three children who are still at home, Daniel, Margaret and Marcella; James, of Plevna, Montana, was in the grain business, but was killed December 5, 1912. Mr. Kelley has given his children the best of educational advantages and has had the satisfaction of seeing them become useful members of society.

Mr. Kelley and the members of his family are faithful adherents of the

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 873

Roman Catholic church and are attached to St. Patrick's cathedral at Sheldon. Politically, he is a Democrat and takes an intelligent interest in the affairs of his party, although he has never held any public office except that of school director. In 1906 Mr. Kelley became the heir of property in Connecticut to the value of ten thousand dollars at the death of a wealthy brother, Timothy, of Norwich, in that state. His honorable and successful career has not been a path of roses, for he has had to work hard all of his life and often against adverse conditions, which would have discouraged many other men. While primarily interested in his own affairs, he has not been unmindful of the interests of others, as his effort to promote the welfare of the community abundantly justifies. Because of his upright life and business ability, he is eminently worthy of a place in the annals of his county.

EDWARD A. MAYNE.

It is generally considered by those in the habit of superficial thinking that the history of so-called great men only is worthy of preservation, and that little merit exists among the masses to call forth the praises of the historian or the cheers and the appreciation of mankind. A greater mistake was never made. No man is great in all things. Many by a lucky stroke achieve lasting fame who before that had no reputation beyond the limits of their immediate neighborhoods. It is not a historv of the lucky stroke which benefits humanity most, but the long study and effort which made the lucky stroke possible. It is the preliminary work, the method, that serves as a guide for the success of others. Among those in O'Brien county, Iowa, who have achieved success along steady lines of action is the subject of this brief review.

Edward A. Mayne, a prosperous merchant of Sanborn, Iowa, was born December 13, 1858, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, the son of John and Ellen (McKinstry) Mayne, natives of England and Canada, respectively. John Mayne was a tailor by trade, who in his later years engaged in farming, and whose death occurred in Wisconsin. His wife was of Scotch ancestry, and they were the parents of three children: Jennie, deceased: Mrs. Anna Velie, of Sanborn, and E. A., whose history is here portrayed.

Edward A. Mayne was educated in the common schools of Wisconsin and engaged in farming until he came here in 1884. He came to Sanborn, Iowa, in November, 1884, and on March i, 1885, he entered the employ of Slocum & Sweet, general merchants of Sanborn, and continued in the em-

874 O'BRIEN and OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

ploy of this firm for five years, after which he worked for W. A. Wasson in his store for the next eight years, at the expiration of which time he bought Mr. Wasson's interest in the bnsiness and continued to operate the store himself, and has been engaged in the mercantile business from 1898 until the present time. He has the largest and best store in the city of Sanborn and carries a stock valued at eighteen thousand dollars. His store occupies a two-story brick building and is well equipped with all of the latest conveniences for the trade. He does an annual business of over sixty thousand dollars and handles those goods which are usually found in department stores of towns of this size, and has a very large share of the patronage of the town and surrounding country.

Mr. Mayne was married September 8, 1887, to Clara Woolworth, and to this union have been born two children, Earl W., who is now twenty-five years of age and is assisting his father in the store, and Nellie, who graduated from the high school of Sanborn in the spring of 1914.

Politically, Mr. Mayne is a Republican, but classes himself with the Progressive branch of his party. He and his family are earnest members of the Presbyterian church and to this denomination contribute generously of their means and time. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He has been a busy man all of his life and none have done more to advance the material interests of his town and community, and as a citizen of the body politic no one stands higher in the esteem and confidence of the people generally.

HON. WILLIAM S. ARMSTRONG.

It is a gratification and at once a pleasure for the historian or biographer to be permitted to write at some length concerning truly able and lovable characters who have unselfishly given their services in the bringing about and accomplishing of truly noble things which have made life more worth living and enjoyable for a considerable number of people in the community.

Such individuals as he to whom the foregoing paragraph has reference are indeed rarely found in these advanced days of more or less personal selfishness among mankind. Their services to the community are alike unpurchasable and beyond proper estimation. To men of this class their work is indeed a labor of love, and their greatest reward in living and

Picture of William S. Armstrong.

O'BRIEN and OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 875

doing things for others is to see the fruit of their handiwork expand and ripen in the fruition of the happiness of others. Primghar is fortunate in having for one of its leading citizens a man who can easily be classed among those valuable individuals to whom the preceding introduction plainly refers. In William S. Armstrong is embodied the highest and best type of citizenship and it is of him that the following brief epitome is inscribed for insertion in the pages of this memoir of O'Brien county. The people of the county owe him a debt for honest and diligent service which can never be repaid; his work since he became a resident of the county has been mainly and unselfishly in the interests of the people, who are all his friends and well wishers.

William S. Armstrong was born January 4, 1853, in Lafayette county, Wisconsin. His father, John Armstrong, was born in 1816 and died in 1888. He emigrated in 1847 from Mercer county, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Elizabeth Swan, an Ohio lady. John Armstrong was a farmer and also a contractor and builder, as likewise a lawyer, and took a prominent part in political affairs. He was a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, and served several terms in the Legislature of his adopted state.

The subject had two brothers, both of whom, with their mother, died from cholera morbus in 1868. In addition, William S. Armstrong had four sisters, namely: Jane Perrigo, late of Inwood, Lyon county, Iowa, where she located in 1885 and died in 1908; Lacy Gierhart, late of Argyle, Wisconsin, deceased; Belle Hunnell, of Finley, Wisconsin, and Margaret Close, of Fedora, South Dakota.

The subject of this sketch attended the district school in his home county until he was fourteen years of age. He then enjoyed the very special advantages of two years' instruction in a select school under the tutorage of Professor Parkinson, later and now engaged for many years in the State University of Wisconsin. The Hon. Robert M. LaFollette, ex-governor and now United States senator from that state, was his classmate. Mr. Armstrong then put in one year further in school at Juda, Wisconsin. He then taught school for five years in the rural schools. He was married in 1875 to Caroline Curry, who was born in Ohio in 1853, the daughter of William C. Curry, a Wisconsin farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have two children. Earl Armstrong was married in 1906 to Hazel Andrews, and they now have three children: William Stanley Armstrong, aged six years, named for his grandfather; Paul Armstrong, aged two years, and Esther Jane. Minnie Armstrong, born in 1892, first graduated at the Primghar

876 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

high school in 1910, after which she spent three years in special course in music at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, and now (1913) is attending a further course in the Minneapolis Musical Conservatory. Mrs. Armstrong passed away November 5, 1913, her death resulting from a fall.

Mr. Armstrong, immediately after his marriage, took up the occupation of dairying. Having in the meantime taken a full course, he became an expert cheese maker and opened up a cheese factory in his home county. The whole state became noted as a great cheese state and he had the advantages of attendance on the many cheese and dairy conventions. All this was preparing him not only as a first class judge of cheese and dairy, but also as a quick and reliable judge of all connected questions of farming and stock raising and the questions of the good qualities of all classes of the best stock, which served him so well in his large field as auctioneer in all parts of O'Brien and surrounding counties later on. He came to Primghar in 1885 and at once built and equipped a cheese factory, which he conducted for three years. He brought with him an expert cheese man. W. H. Morrison, who remained with him during the whole four years. This at once brought him into touch with the best farming conditions in the county. He at once announced himself as an auctioneer. He has probably sold more in dollars of value in his twenty-eight years as an auctioneer than any other man ever in the county. His great strength as an auctioneer lies in the fact that he has been during his whole life schooled in the best practical farming and in a practical way understands the needs and surroundings of an agricultural community. He has kept himself informed to the very hour of each sale he conducts as to the trend and prospects of the times and markets and has kept such a hold on the public pulse and needs that his judgment has been accepted by the public not only as an auctioneer, but as a farmer also. He has not only talked farming, but has himself conducted a farm just south of Primghar. He is a ready talker and gives out much information in his sundry auction talks that brings many to his sales not only to buy, but to hear the general matters thus set forth.

Mr. Armstrong has taken a hand in whatever has come up in public affairs, whether in politics, church, school or town. He was chairman of the Republican county central committee at various times and has been a member of the board of education of Primghar for sixteen years of his time here. He has always been a Republican, with all that the strict meaning of that word carries with it. He was elected clerk of the district court for two suc-

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 877

cessive terms. While filling this office he has become so proficient in the details of court matters that the court of four judges has retained him for ten successive years as referee in probate to make special examination of all estate and orphanage proceedings that the court itself could not give attention to in detail, which position he still holds.

Mr. Armstrong took an active part in the establishment of the first lecture course in Primghar in 1886, and has developed it from a two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar course until now it is a twelve-hundred-dollar course. He first organized it in connection with the high school, and succeeded under difficulties. This lecture course, both under Mr. Armstrong and under the management of Fred B. Wolf and Roy King, developed until Primghar has the reputation of being one of the best lecture towns of its size west of Chicago. During Mr. Armstrong's management he put on as his first lecturer "Eli Perkins," and later such attractions of Gen. John B. Gordon, John Temple Graves, Doctor Gunsaulus, Maud Ballington Booth and many others.

Mr. Armstrong was one of the ten men who signed the written agreement on the part of Primghar guaranteeing twenty-two miles of right of way to the Illinois Central railroad as Primghar's bonus to secure the road, and as a stock shipper he shipped the first load of hogs and sheep over this branch of the Illinois Central road. He also attended that railroad meeting at Sioux Falls by committees from Cherokee, Primghar, Sheldon, Rock Rapids and along the line at which it was decided to build this line as finally constructed, from Cherokee up, instead of from Fort Dodge and further east of us, which would have meant defeat to this line and the towns in O'Brien county.

Mr. Armstrong was mayor of Primghar for two years, from 1905 to 1906. He has always been one of the boosters in the old settlers and Fourth of July meetings and other big days and occasions. He is a member and official in the Congregational church and Sunday school superintendent.

Mr. Armstrong has been a large shipper of all kinds of stock, but especially of sheep from the ranges in the states west and of fine stock from many places, when the demand seemed to call for same. He has also been active in the fraternal societies, especially in his connections with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, including the chapter and commandery, and the Mystic Shriners. His twenty-eight years in O'Brien county has indeed been a varied and active career.

878 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA.

THEODORE ZIMMERMAN.

The many revolutions which Germany suffered from 1800 to 1850 were a great hardship on the people of that nation, but a blessing to this country. Thousands and tens of thousands of the best citizens of Germany came to this country after the revolutions of 1820 and 1848 in Germany, and among those was E. A. Zimmerman, the father of Theodore Zimmerman, whose history is here presented. E. A. Zimmerman was a man of excellent education, and it was because of his education that he left his native land for America. He received his education in the best universities of Germany and because he wanted to have freedom of thought, speech and action, and could not secure it in Germany he left his native land and came to America in March, 1854. He secured a position as a teacher at once and sent back for his family. By the time the family reached this country, in the summer of 1854, he was dead.

Theodore Zimmerman, the secretary of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Association of O'Brien County, was born in Germany on April 7, 1854, the son of E. A. and Caroline (Gleasman) Zimmerman. He came to this country with his mother and two sisters, Minnie and Louise, in September, 1854, and upon their arrival in the new country they were met with the sad news that the husband and father was dead. The mother and her children remained in New York and Theodore received his education in that city. He was twenty years old when he left his mother's home and came to Butler county, Iowa, locating on a farm in Shellrock township, where he farmed for seven years. In 1882 he came to O'Brien county, locating on a farm in Franklin township, where he lived until 1902. He was a very successful farmer and at the time he removed to Sanborn he was the owner of six hundred and forty acres of fine farming land in one tract. He is also the owner of four hundred acres of land in Murray county and in the state of Minnesota. He has been interested in the buying and selling of farms for several years. For the past seventeen years he has been a director of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Association of O'Brien County and was elected secretary of that organization in 1909. He has been connected with the Sanborn State Bank for the past three years as director and is now president of a bank in Currie, Minnesota, which is near his landed interests in that state.

Mr. Zimmerman was married to Lou E. Mullen, of Butler county, Iowa, and to this union have been born five children: Olive, deceased; Roy, deceased; Mrs. Minnie Dummett, of Currie, Minnesota; Lelah L. and Zola L., who are still at home with their parents.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 879

Politically, Mr. Zimmerman is a Republican and has allied himself with the Progressive wing of that party. He has served one term from 1904 to 1907 as county supervisor, but has never asked for any public office at the hands of his party. Religiously, he and the members of his family are earnest and devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Zimmerman is intensely optimistic and far-sighted and has entered heart and soul into the life of this community. He is strictly a self-made man and in his business affairs he has been strict, and yet kindly and just in all his dealings. He is broad-minded and generous and in his private life has performed many acts of charity known only to himself and the beneficiary. He has worked hard and honorably earned the enviable reputation which he enjoys as one of the leading public spirited citizens of this locality, and it is needless to add that he is held in high regard and esteem bv all with whom he has come into contact.

IRA SOOP.

The two most strongly marked characteristics of both the East and the West are combined in the residents of the section of country of which this volume treats. The enthusiastic enterprise which overleaps all obstacles and makes possible almost any undertaking in the comparatively new and vigorous Western states is here tempered by the stable and more careful policy that we have borrowed from our Eastern neighbors, and the combination is one of peculiar force and power. It has been the means of placing this section of the country on a par with the older East, at the same time producing a reliability and certainty in business which is frequently lacking in the West. This happy combination of characteristics is possessed bv the subject of this brief sketch.

Ira Soop, insurance man of Sanborn, Iowa, was born in New York state September 1, 1864, and is the son of Alexander and Rachel (Wiltsey) Soop, both of whom are natives of the same state. The Soop family originally came from Germany. Rachel Wiltsey was the daughter of Isaac Wiltsey, who also was a native of Germany. Alexander Soop and family left New York in 1866 and settled in Hamilton county, Iowa, near Webster City, on a farm, where he lived until 1892, when he moved to O'Brien county and lived with his children until his death in 1896. Alexander Soop and wife

880 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

were the parents of four children: Rose, who is the wife of Charles Murrey, an early settler of this county, but now living in Medford, Oregon; Ira, whose sketch is here presented; Mary, the wife of John Sawin, of Webster City, Iowa; Tolman, of Webster City, Iowa.

Ira Soop was educated in the schools of Webster City, Iowa, and came to O'Brien county in 1881, when he was about seventeen years of age. He worked by the month in order to secure money to attend school at Webster City. He would work out by the month during the summer seasons and go to school during the winter months. In 1886 he taught his first term of school in O'Brien county, and followed the vocation of teaching for the next five years, farming between terms. In 1887 he purchased his first farm of eighty acres in Lincoln township, for which he paid eleven dollars an acre. In 1893 he sold this tract for thirty-one and a quarter dollars an acre. Since then he has purchased three different farms and sold them, making a handsome profit on each transaction. He has one hundred and sixty acres now in Lincoln township, this county, although he formerly owned four hundred acres in that township. For the past seventeen years he has been handling the fire insurance business in Sanborn. He represents the Hawkeye Insurance Company, the Des Moines department of Firemen's Fund and other companies.

Mr. Soop was married in 1885 to Anna Moon, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Moon, who were homesteaders of Iowa and settled in O'Brien county in 1871 in Center township. The "grasshopper" years drove him back to Illinois, where he remained. Mr. and Mrs. Soop are the parents of four children: Florence and Sadie, who are both teachers, and Fred and Marie, who are in attendance at the common schools of their home city. The two oldest daughters graduated from the Sanborn high school, from the Teachers' College at Cedar Falls, while the oldest daughter, Florence, graduated from the college at Des Moines.

Politically, Mr. Soop is a Republican and has filled various offices in the city of Sanborn. He has been a member of the city council and a member of the Sanborn school board for six years, during part of which time he was the president of the board. Fraternally, he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and is consul of the camp at Sanborn.

Mr. Soop is a good example of the successful O'Brien county citizens, who have started in with practically nothing and have risen to a position of affluence. In order to get money with which to come to O'Brien county from Webster City when a young man, he sold his favorite hunting dog, and when he arrived here he had twenty-five cents in his pocket, and with this slender

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 881

capital he started in to secure his education in order to prepare himself for a teacher. He taught his way through school and saved money while teaching in order to apply on the purchase price of his first farm. He has worked hard to gain a competency for his declining years, and while he has been successful in a material way, he has not neglected to assist in the general welfare of his Community. He and His wife are justly proud of their daughters and have given them the advantage of the best colleges in the state, and they have benefited from their educational training so as to take high rank among the teachers of the county.

WILLIAM BONNER.

Among the enterprising and progressive citizens of O'Brien county, Iowa, none stands higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens than the gentleman whose name forms the caption of this brief review. He has long been actively engaged in agricultural pursuits in this county and the years of his residence here have but served to strengthen the feeling of admiration on the part of his fellow men owing to the honorable life he has led and the worthy example he has set the younger generation, consequently the publishers of this work are glad to give such worthy character representation in this work. William Bonner, a distinguished veteran of the Civil War, and now living a retired life in Sanborn, was born in 1834, in Yorkshire, England, the son of Robert and Mary Bonner. He was educated in his native land and when twenty-five years of age came to America and located in Ingersoll, Canada. Here he worked on a farm for two years and in 1861 moved to Illinois, where he worked at the lead mines for a short time, after which he went to Benton, Wisconsin, and followed farming and lead mining. In 1865 he enlisted in Company C, Fiftieth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and served for the Union until the close of the war. He was mustered in the service at Madison, Wisconsin, and served in the Southwest. After the close of the war he returned to Wisconsin, where he continued to follow agricultural pursuits. In 1884 he came to O'Brien county, Iowa, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Franklin township. He has prospered since coming to this county and is now the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of fine farming land in Franklin township and one hundred and thirteen and a half acres in Lincoln township.

Mr. Bonner was married in i860 to Helen White, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David White. She was a native of England and came to America

882 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

with her father when she was four years of age. Mr. and Mrs. William Bonner are the parents of seven children: William L., of Sanborn; John E., of Montana; Robert A., of Max, North Dakota; Thomas G., of Shekin, Minnesota; Mrs. Nora M. Dodson, of Waterloo, Iowa; Mrs. Mary E. Miller, of Sanborn; Mrs. Anna B. Hansen, of Sanborn. Mr. and Mrs. Bonner have five grandchildren: Dorothy, the daughter of Thomas Bonner; Ruth, the daughter of Nora; Esther, Elinor and Robert, the children of their daughter, Anna.

The Republican party has always claimed the vote of Mr. Bonner, and although interested in political affairs, he has never been a candidate for any office. He and his family are loyal and earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are interested in its various activities. Mr. Bonner has spent thirty years of his life in this county, and in that time his fellow men have come to know him as a man who desires to do the right thing at all times. As a citizen he stands high in the esteem and confidence of his fellow men, and as a man of family he has given his children every possible advantage. There are not many of the old veterans of the Civil War left, and if is a pleasure to accord them a position of honor in this biographical volume.

JAMES BRUCE LINSDAY AND SPENCER A. PHELPS.

James Bruce Linsday, the son of E. C. and Ada (Allen) Linsday, was born May 11, 1889, in Litchfield, Michigan. His father is deceased and his mother is still residing in Michigan. Mr. Linsday was educated in the public schools of Litchfield and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1911, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, being admitted to the practice of law in Michigan and Iowa. Immediately upon his graduation he came here with his classmate, Spencer A. Phelps, and in the following April was elected attorney of the city of Sheldon. He is a Republican and a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

Pictures on S. A. PHELPS and J. B. LINSDAY

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 883

Spencer A. Phelps, who is the son of Dr. D. I. and Elizabeth (Spencer) Phelps, was born in Faribault, Minnesota, May 27, 1889. His father is a practicing dentist at Faribault, and has been following that profession for the past thirty years. Doctor Phelps' wife was a native of Rhode Island, and came with her parents from that state to Minnesota in 1868.

Mr. Phelps was educated in the public schools of Faribault and Shattuck Military Academy, which is located at that place, and later attended the University of Minnesota, Having decided to enter the legal profession, he entered the University of Michigan, it being one of the best law schools of the country, and became a classmate of his present partner, James B. Linsday, graduating with him in the class of 1911. He was at once admitted to the bar in Michigan and in the same month came to Sheldon, passed the state examination of Iowa and was admitted to the bar in this state. He is the first lieutenant of Company E, Fifty-sixth Regiment of Iowa National Guard. In January, 1912, the United States district judge, Henry T. Reed, appointed Mr. Phelps as referee in bankrupty for the district of O'Brien, Clay, Osceola, Lyon, Dickinson and Sioux counties. This appointment was certainly a tribute to the recognized ability of Mr. Phelps. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Congregational church, and a member of the Masonic lodge.

The firm of Linsday & Phelps is located above the First National Bank of Sheldon and has one of the most extensive libraries in this part of the state. Although these young men have been in this state but a short time, they are meeting with great success in this profession and are deservedly popular with all classes of people.

CHARLES BURNS.

The citizens who have come to O'Brien county, Iowa, from the Emerald isle have been uniformly prosperous, and no family has had a greater degree of prosperity than the Burns family, who were among the earlier settlers of this county. The history of Charles Burns, which is herewith presented, together with that of his father, Thomas Burns, makes an interesting chapter of the history of the representative men of O'Brien county.

Charles Burns was born September 18, 1857, in Columbus county, Wisconsin, on a farm, and is the son of Thomas and Bridget (Cowan) Burns,

884 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA.

both of whom were natives of Ireland. Thomas Burns was born in Ireland in 1833, and came to America with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Burns, in 1847. Michael Burns and family settled in Columbus county, Wisconsin. Bridget Cowan, the wife of Thomas Burns, came to America from Ireland when she was seven years of age with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Cowan. Thomas Burns and Bridget Cowan were married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in 1864 they migrated to Iowa and arrived in Steel county on June 8th of that year. In 1874 they came to O'Brien county and settled in Franklin township on the west half of section 30, paying three dollars an acre for one hundred and sixty acres, and three dollars and a half for another one hundred and sixty acres. They improved this land and resided on it until about 1907, when they moved to Sanborn, where Thomas Burns died in 1910, and his wife is still living at the advanced age of eighty years in Sanborn. Thomas Burns and wife were the parents of seventeen children. Twelve of these children grew to maturity and ten are now living: Charles, whose history is here delineated; J. H., of Carroll township; Mrs. Margaret Matson, of Sanborn; William, a farmer of Floyd township; Thomas, of Floyd township; Mrs. Mary Fitzgerald, who lives in North Dakota; James, of Sheldon; Mrs. Nellie Donahue, of Sheldon. Iowa; Katie, deceased; Mrs. Jennie Maroney, of Worthington, Minnesota; Edward, a farmer of Franklin township; Lucy, who died in infancy, and five others who also died in infancy.

Charles Burns was educated in the schools of O'Brien county and lived on the home farm with his parents until twenty-two years of age. The first money he ever earned was one hundred dollars, which he made by breaking prairie land for his neighbors, and while still a young man he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Summit township, this county, for four dollars an acre, and lived on this farm for thirty-one years. He then moved to Sanborn, where he has a fine home, and rents his farm out at the rate of six and a quarter dollars an acre. He is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of fine farming land in this county and a quarter section in Murray county, Minnesota. The Burns brothers are among the heavy land owners of the county, taken collectively; John H. is the owner of five hundred and eighty acres; Thomas, five hundred; James, two hundred and forty; William, two hundred and forty; Edward, two hundred and sixty, and Charles, four hundred and eighty. This gives a total of two thousand two hundred acres which are owned by the six brothers. In addition to this, the mother of these children still owns three hundred and twenty acres on the old home farm.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 885

Charles Burns was married November i6, 1892, to Carrie Mullady, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Mullady, early settlers of this county, and to this marriage have been born two daughters, Norene, who is a Latin teacher in Halstene, Iowa. She is a graduate of the Sanborn high school, and later from the Cedar Falls Teachers' College. Pauline, the other daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Burns, is in the eighth grade in th€ Sanborn schools.

Politically, Mr. Burns is a Democrat, and has held the office of township trustee and school director with eminent satisfaction to the citizens of the county and township. Religiously, he and all the members of the family are earnest and zealous adherents of the Catliolic church and give freely of their substance for its support.

The Burns family were the fourth to settle in Franklin township, O'Brien county, and Charles, being the oldest son, had to bear a good share of the responsibilities in the struggle for the new home in the prairie. He broke prairie land for incoming settlers and earned money in this way to help support the family. It is a fact that there is hardly a section of land in the county which he has not tramped over during his forty years of residence in the county. Although he had only a very meager schooling, yet he is remarkably well informed, which is due to the fact that he is a great reader all the time. It is recorded that he is one of the twelve men who voted to organize Summit township, and since that time no citizen has taken a greater interest in the development of the county. In his younger days Charley Burns drove teams to supply headquarters in Rock Rapids when there was but the merest track for a road. Although in his prime, he has seen O'Brien county change from a treeless, trackless waste of prairie to smiling farm lands, dotted with groves of large trees, well-laid towns and substantial farm buildings.

PAUL C. WOODS.

It is a well recognized fact that the most powerful influence in shaping and controlling public life is the press. It reaches a greater number of people than any other agency and thus has always been and always will be a most important factor in moulding public opinion and, in a definite sense, shaping the destiny of the nation. The gentleman to a brief review of whose life the following lines are devoted is prominently connected with the journalism of Iowa, and at this time is editor and publisher of the Sheldon Mail, the oldest paper of O'Brien county, comparing favorably with the best local

886 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

sheets in this section of the state in news, editorial ability and mechanical exeution. The county recognizes in Mr. Woods not only a keen newspaper man, but also a representative citizen, whose interest in all that affects the general welfare has been of such a character as to win for him a high place in the confidence and esteem of the people.

Paul C. Woods, the editor and publisher of the Sheldon Mail, the oldest established newspaper in Sheldon, Iowa, was born September 10, 1876, in Ossian, Iowa. He is the son of P. R. and Emily J. (Churchill) woods. His father was born in Pennsylvania in 1840 and his mother in New York state in 1845. P. R. Woods came to Iowa with his parents in about 1855 and settled in Jackson county and later moved to Benton county. At the time of the opening of the Civil war his parents lived in Fayette county. P. R. Woods enlisted in Company C, Twelfth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, from Fayette county and served under Col. C. P. Henderson for four and one-half years. He was in many of the hardest-fought battles in the Civil War among which were Shiloh, Fort Donelson, Fort Henry and numerous others. At Shiloh he was taken prisoner and was not exchanged until three months later. P. R. Woods is a finely educated man, being a graduate of Upper Iowa University at Fayette, Iowa. He has been a teacher and school principal in Iowa for many years and taught mathematics at Upper Iowa University at Fayette. Previous to his retiring from active life he was in the railway mail service. He is now living in Tama county. Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Woods are the parents of two sons. Herbert was born in 1869 and is a practicing physician in Tama county and Paul C, with whom this narrative deals.

Paul C. Woods was educated in the public schools and later attended Upper Iowa University at Fayette, from which he graduated in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. His first experience in newspaper work was in college, where he was editor of The Collegian, and thus gained his first preparation for his future career. Since leaving College he has been engaged in the newspaper business and with a success which shows that he has a natural aptitude for this line of business. He was first editor of the Iowa Times at McGregor and in 1904 went to Eldora and published the Eldora Ledger for eight years. The year following his connection with the Eldora Ledger he spent on his ranch in Texas, and on August 1, 1913, he purchased the Sheldon Mail and takes complete charge of the paper, which is the oldest paper in Sheldon, its first issue being on January 1, 1873. It has a circulation of two thousand throughout this county and adjoining counties. The paper is a large twelve-page, six-column sheet which is edited with marked

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 887

abiliy. The printing plant is well equipped with the latest improved machinery and in addition to his paper he conducts a job printing plant and finds it a lucrative part of the business.

Mr. Woods was married December 1, 1898, in New Albin, Iowa, to Amy Luther, whom he had met while a student in Upper Iowa University. He and his wife were students in the university at the same time. Three children have come to bless their union., Kenneth, Lucile and Carol.

Politically, Mr. Woods is a Republican and reflects his political views in his paper. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of the Maccabees and the Yeomen. He and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church and contribute liberally of their time and means to its support. They are both workers in the church and do everything they can to enhance its various activities. Mr. Woods is a member of the official board at the present time, and superintendent of the Sunday school.

Mr. and Mrs. Woods are useful citizens of the community and stand for the best things in the welfare of their town. Mr. Woods is an able newspaper man and always advocates the right side of questions which affect his community's welfare. He is keenly alive to the needs of Sheldon and community and never hesitates to express his opinion as to the value of any suggestions which might be made for the improvement of his town. The good which a newspaper can do to any community is not measured in dollars and cents, but rather in the effect it has upon the community in awakening its readers to a sense of their duties toward the public. In his paper Mr. Woods always tries to reflect the best means of elevating the intellectual, moral and material tone of his community and in so doing he has the hearty commendation of every one in the county.

FRANK PATCH.

The gentleman to a review of whose life the reader's attention is here respectfully directed is recognized as one of the energetic, well known business men of O'Brien county. Iowa, who, by his enterprise and progressive methods, has contributed in a material way to the commercial advancement of the locality where he lives. In the course of an honorable career he has been successful in the manifold lines to which his efforts have been directed, and, enjoying distinctive prestige among the representative men of his com-

888 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

munity, it is eminently proper that attention be called to his achievements and due credit be accorded to his worth as an enterprising citizen.

Frank Patch, the president of the Hartley State Bank, of Hartley, Iowa, was born March 4, 1858, in Whiteside county, Illinois, the son of Freeman R. and Malinda (Wier) Patch, natives of Vermont and Indiana, respectively. Freeman R. Patch was an early settler of Whiteside county, Illinois, and was twice married. He died in 1862, leaving two children by his second marriage, Frank whose history is here portrayed, and F. R. The mothier reared her two sons to manhood and died in 1913.

Frank Patch was only four years of age when his father died and he was reared and educated in the schools of his native county in Illinois. He completed his education by taking a course in St. Cloud's College, at St. Cloud, Minnesota. In 1878, when twenty years of age, he came to O'Brien county, Iowa, and taught school here for one year, after which he located in the rising town of Sanborn in this county, and for the next three years operated a livery and stage in Sanborn in partnership with L. C. Green. He then sold out his interests in the livery business and engaged in the banking business in Hartley, organizing the bank in 1882, when he was onlv twenty-four years of age. He organized the first bank in this town and on January 1, 1887, the bank was reorganized and made a state bank. It now has a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, with a surplus of fifteen thousand dollars and deposits of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Its total resources are three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The officials of the bank are as follows: Frank Patch, president; D. A. Patch, vice-president; F. R. Patch, cashier. Mr. Patch is also interested in the Gem Savings Bank, at Melvin, Osceola county, this state. In addition to his banking interests Mr. Patch has heavy landed interests in Osceola county and in Canada. He owns six hundred and forty acres in Osceola county, this state, and ten thousand acres in Canada, near Winnipeg. Mr. Patch was married September 6, 1881, to Delia A. Peck, the daughter of Doctor Peck, who was a practitioner at Springville, Iowa, for thirty years, but has recently retired to his farm in Floyd township, in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Patch are the parents of one daughter, Nellie I., who is still with her parents.

Mr. Patch is a Democrat in politics, but, owing to his heavy business interests, he has never felt that he had the time to participate in political affairs. Fraternallv, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and is a Knight Templar. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. As president of the Hartley State Bank Mr. Patch has demonstrated his possession of business abilities of a high order. The splen-

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 889

did success which has characterized this institution from its organization is due in a great measure to his energetic efforts and personal supervision. He enjoys a large acquaintance throughout the county and has a host of friends who admire him for his many good qualities of head and heart.

BESSIE J. BEERS.

In this twentieth century, women are playing an increasingly important part in the public affairs of the nation. Many states now have women suffrage and within the next generation the possibility is that women will be admitted to all the rights and privileges as are enjoyed by their brothers and husbands today. Ten states now admit women to full suffrage and allow them every privilege within the state. In Iowa, women may hold county offices and it is to the credit of the women of this state that many of them are efficiently filling official positions in the various counties of the state.

Bessie J. Beers, who is now serving her second term as the recorder of O'Brien county, was the first woman ever elected to office in this county. She was born in Essex county, New York, the daughter of Charles A. and Elizabeth (Denio) Beers. Charles A. Beers was born in 1825 in Essex county, New York, of German and English descent, and migrated to Buchanan county, the eastern part of Iowa, in July, 1866, and engaged in farming. In New York he had followed the occupation of a canal boatman on the Erie canal and Hudson river for several years. In 1873 Mr. Beers came to O'Brien county, bought land in Baker township, the northeast quarter of section 2, and there resided until 1893, when he went to Primghar, where he is now living a retired life. Mrs. Beers was born in Washington county, New York, in 1830, of French Hugyenot parentage, and died in Primghar, Iowa, in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Beers were the parents of five children: Mrs. Ella B. Crossland, of Primghar; Fred A., of Corwith, Iowa; James S., of Armstrong, Iowa, formerly recorder of O'Brien county for four vears; Mrs. Iowa M. Gere, of this county, and Bessie J.

Bessie J. Beers was educated in the township schools of this county and then took one year in the Sheldon high school. Following this she taught in the district schools of the county for twenty years, with remarkable success. Her first entrance into the political life of the county occurred in 1910, on the Republican ticket for county recorder, and in November of the following year she was elected, being the first woman of the county to hold this

890 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

office. Her administration was so efficient and profitable that she was re- elected in 1912 and is now finishing her second term as county recorder. In her last race for the office she was opposed by two strong opponents, yet such has been her official record that she was elected without trouble. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and belongs to the Daughters of Rebekah and the Yeomen.

PLATCY A. CAJACOB.

A pioneer farmer, business man, public official and booster for Osceola county, Iowa, is Platcy A. Cajacob, an adopted son of this county. For more than forty years he has lived within the limits of this county, and in that time has endured as many hardships as any of the men who came here in the early seventies. He has seen the time when it seemed that there was no hope for success for a farmer in this county, and yet he had the determination to remain here, and now has the satisfaction of knowing that his foresight was not mistaken. Much of the land which he held thirty-odd years ago and could not sell at all, is now worth from one hundred to two hundred dollars an acre. As a public official he has been one of the most efficient and faithful servants which the county has ever had, and in every capacity where he has been found he has given a good account of himself.

Platcy A. Cajacob, who is now living a retired life in Sibley, Iowa, was born Januarv i, 1843, in the little moimtainous country of Switzerland, in Europe. His parents, Martin and Margret Cajacob, lived in the little village of Sunvicks, canton of Groeson, which was situated high up in the Alps. In this lovely Alpine scenery Mr. Cajacob was reared to manhood. In the little schools of his neighborhood he received a good education, for there are no better schools in Europe than those of Switzerland. The success of Mr. Cajacobs is due in a great measure to the excellent training he received at the public schools of his native land. However, upon reaching manhood he felt that better opportunities awaited a young man in America than in his own country and, with the intention of verifying this fact, he came to this country in 1866, when twenty-three years of age. He at once went to Ohio, where he worked on a railroad for a few months at Piqua, and from thence he went to Wapakoneta, Auglaize county, Ohio, where he worked at the cabinet trade for two years. He then went to Tiffin, Ohio,

Picture of PLATCY A. CAJACOB

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA. 891

where he was engaged in the dairy business for one year, and while in Tiffin met and married Christina Brown.

In the spring of 1869 Mr. Cajacobs and his yonng wife went to Grant county, Wisconsin, where they bought a farm and for four years worked the same. He cleared the land, built a rude log house and barn, put up many rods of rail fencing, and was on the road to a successful career in that state as a farmer. However, hearing of the lands to be purchased in Iowa at a low rate, he decided to sell out his holdings in Wisconsin and go farther west. With this idea in mind, he disposed of his interests in Wisconsin, and in the fall of 1872 came to Osceola county, Iowa, where he homesteaded on section 22, in Holman township. For several years things often looked very gloomy and many of the settlers who came here full of faith left their land to the grasshoppers and severe wind storms. In common with all of the other settlers who lived in this section of the state in the latter part of the seventies. Mr. Cajacobs had to suffer the horrible grasshopper period. For the first ten }ears it seemed that he could not get a start. If the grasshoppers did not eat things up, it rained so that he could not get in any crops at all. Many of the settlers left the county, but a few stayed and among these few were Mr. Cajacobs and his family. Within four years after he came here, ]Mr. Cajacolbs was so downhearted that he practically gave away his land. In fact, he sold one farm for four hundred and twenty-five dollars. For the next seventeen years he engaged in the retail meat business and graduallv became interested in land again and bought here and there over the county until he became the owner of four hundred and fifty acres near Sibley, the county seat. While operating his meat market Mr. Cajacobs continued farming and in 1885 moved back on his farm, where he lived until 1908. Since that time he has been living in the county seat.

The history of the agricultural success of Mr. Cajacobs is only a part of his history since coming to this county. For the past twenty years he has been an important factor in the public life of the county. In 1891 he was elected county supervisor on the Democratic ticket and in 1901 was re- elected to that responsible position. He was one of the officials who helped build the new seventy-one-thousand-dollar court house which now graces the county seat. This appropriation not only included the building of the court house, but the construction of the jail, as well as the grounds on which these two buildings are now standing. An evidence of his worth as a man and his popularity as a citizen of the county is shown in the fact that he was elected over one of the strongest Republicans in the county and the first Democrat ever elected in the county, it being a strongly Republican county.

892 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

Nothing can speak higher of a man than the confidence which his fellow citizens repose in him, and in no other way is it so plainly shown as when a man runs for some public office.

Mr. Cajacobs was married in 1858 to Christina Brown, and to this marriage have been born six children: Mrs. Mary Kennedy, of Sibley, Iowa; Magdalene, deceased; John Robert, a druggist of Colusa, California; Mrs. Lorenca Funk, who is living in Chicago Heights, Illinois; Arthur and George are proprietors of a large and well-stocked hardware store at Sibley.

Mr. Cajacobs and all the members of his family are loyal members of the Catholic church and render to it their earnest and zealous support at all times. The life of Mr. Cajacobs shows what can be accomplished by a young man who comes to this country with no capital whatever, and with no assets but a willingness to work. He has shown the possibilities of farming in this county, and had the good judgment to perceive many years ago that land would rise in value. His good judgment told him when to buy and when to sell, with the result that he is today regarded as one of the most enterprising and substantial men of his county. He has keen business ability, which distinguishes the successful man from the one who is barely able to make both ends meet. His life is but another example of the many citizens of this county who have come from foreign lands and made a pronounced success in this favored state of the Union.

PETER SWENSEN.

The little country of Sweden in Europe has furnished some of the finest citizens to be found in any county in Iowa today, and among these there is no one who occupies a higher position in his county than Peter Swensen the present chairman of the O'Brien county board of supervisors. Coming to this county with practically nothing but his education and determination to work, he has attained a success which is remarkable. His life story, which is here briefly portrayed, is a conspicuous example of one who has lived to good purpose and achieved a definite degree of success in life. While working for his own material advancement, he has been one of the most public spirited citizens who has ever lived in the county. No one today enjoys a wider acquaintance or is more appreciated than is he.

Peter Swensen was born December 7, 1855, in Sweden, and is the son of Swen Tufveson and Bengta Tufveson Swensen. He was given a good

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 893

common school education in the schools of his native land and later studied in an agricultural college, where he was granted a diploma for his excellence in butter and cheese making.

In 1880 Mr. Swensen, who was then twenty-five years of age, decided to come to America to seek his fortune. He at once located in Delaware county, in eastern Iowa, and worked on a farm for three years. He then went to Earlville and clerked in a store for a time and became interested in the creamery business for the next eight years. He then traveled for a New York firm, buying butter and eggs for the next five years. His work was so satisfactory that he was given a substantial increase in salary while in the employ of this firm, John S. Martin & Company. On December 1, 1898, he resigned from the company and was married on the 15th of the same month and came to Hartley where he has since resided. While traveling on the road he saved his money and invested it in land in this county. He is now one of the largest land owners m the county. He has built up several farms in the county and then sold them. It has been his practice to buy farms, improve them by erecting buildings, fencing and draining it, and then sell them. He and his wife now own nine hundred and sixty acres of land in O'Brien county and sold nearly one thousand acres of improved land in the fall of 1913. During the past fifteen years he has handled nearly three thousand acres in this county. While he has been a farmer of heavy interest, yet his interests for several years have been largely concerned with the public welfare of his county.

In the fall of 1906 Mr. Swensen was elected a member of the board of supervisors of O'Brien county and was re-elected in the fall of 1912. He was elected chairman of the board on January 1, 1913, an honor which he has earned because of the merit of his work since becoming a member of the board of supervisors. The keynote to Mr. Swensen's career as a public official of this county is his opposition to graft in every way. He is an honest, conscientious public official, and gives his personal attention to the county business. An indication of the interest which he takes in public affairs is shown in the fact that he installed the heating plant in the new county home out of his own private funds, the plant costing him eleven hundred dollars. When he became a member of the board of supervisors, the county was in debt thirty-two thousand dollars. During his term of office this has been paid off, the twenty-thousand-dollar home for the poor has been erected at Primghar, concrete bridges and culverts have been built throughout the county, many roads have been improved, sewerage system has been established in the court house and many other public enterprises have received assistance at his hands.

894 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES. IOWA.

While he has done much for the county, he has not neglected his duty to his home town. He has served eight years on the town council at Hartley and has pushed public improvements in a way which has made Hartley one of the most progressive towns of this section of the state. He was instrumental in having the electric light plant installed, cement crossings instead of board crossings and many other improvements. He took a personal interest in the electric light plant and opposed a franchise to an outside corporation. By his personal influence he succeeded in pushing an election which decided that the city should install the plant. It cost eighteen thousand dollars and is now on a paying basis, nearly all of the plant being paid for While the town made many improvements during his term of office in the council it paid all of its debts and is now on as sound a footing as any town in the state of Iowa.

Mr. Swensen was married December 15, 1898, to Ida Cole, of Clayton county, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Cole. Mr. Swensen is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and belongs to the commandery at Manchester. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, being a charter member of St. Omar Lodge No. 240 at Earlville, Iowa. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Earlville and assisted in buying the Odd Fellows building at that place. He helped to build the Masonic temple at Earlville, Iowa, and is one of the largest stockholders in the temple at that place.

Mr. Swensen is the kind of a man who is a real asset to his county. It is interesting to note that when he came here in 1880 he could not speak a word of English and that within a comparatively few years he was in a position where he was doing as much or more for his adopted county than any citizen within it. He is held in high esteem throughout O'Brien county and no man in the county is more worthy of a place among the representative citizens of this county than is Peter Swensen.

OTTO SAUPE.

In the history of O'Brien county as applying to the agricultiural interests, the name of Otto Saupe occupies a conspicuous place, for through a number of years he has been one of the representative farmers of Carroll township, progressive, enterprising and persevering. Such qualities always win success, sooner or later, and to Mr. Saupe they have brought a satisfac-

Pictures of Otto and Dora Saupe.
NOTE: Pictures submitted by Colleen Mae (Saupe-Cleveringa) Lemkuil April 26, 2015.
A Saupe Family scholarship in presented every year at the Sheldon Community High School for students to continue their education.

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 895

tory reward for his well directed efforts. While he has benefited himself and the community in a material way, he has also been an influential factor in the educational, political and moral uplift of the community favored by his residence.

Otto Saupe, the present trustee of Carroll township, O'Brien county, Iowa, was born in 1865 in Germany, the son of Theo and Johann (Miller) Saupe, who spent their lives in the land of their birth. They were the parents of seven children, all of whom were born in Germany; William, living in Illinois; Bruno, a farmer of O'Brien county, Iowa; Mrs. Anna Baker, a resident of Illinois; Frank, deceased; Emil, a farmer of this county; Mrs. Minnie Retus, living in Illinois, and Otto, whose life history is here delineated.

Otto Saupe came to America when he was twelve years of age, going first to Illinois, where he worked as a farm hand until 1887. He had received a good common school education in his native land and attended several seasons here. In 1887 he came to O'Brien county, Iowa, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Carroll township, at a cost of fifteen and a half dollars an acre. This land had never been broken and he has so improved it that it is today easily worth two hundred dollars an acre. He has built a large and commodious barn, as well as a beautiful home, together with other buildings. He has three acres of orchard and a grove which he set out himself when he came on the land. The same prosperity which has come to all the other German settlers of the county has come to him, and he is now the owner of four hundred acres of fine farming land in Carroll township. He has been a breeder of Durham cattle, Norman horses and Chester White hogs, in addition to general farming, and he also holds a share of stock in the Farmers Elevator Company of this county.

Mr. Saupe was married, in 1888, to Dora Schmidt, who was a resident of Illinois, and to this marriage have been born two sons, Frank and Theo. Theo is at home and Frank is married and is living on one of his father's farms.

Politically, Mr. Saupe is a progressive voter of the independent type and believes in casting his ballot in local elections for the best men, irrespective of party affiliations, and the fact that he has been elected trustee of his township shows that there are other voters in the township who believe the same way. It is an encouraging thing in our political situation of today to note that many of our citizens are becoming independent in the matter of their voting, and vote for the best men, a change for the better which has come about in state and national politics. Mr. Saupe and the members of his family are strong adherents of the Lutheran church and contribute liberally

896 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

of their substance to its support at all times. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Primghar, Iowa. Mr. Saupe has won his success solely through his own individual efforts and deserves a great deal of credit for the clean and wholesome life he has led while accumulating his portion of this world's goods. He is a man of pleasing personality and easily wins friends wherever he goes.

ROY HAMLIN KING.

Roy Hamlin King, cashier of the First National Bank of Primghar, was born April 15, 1886, in Marshalltown, Iowa. His parents were Lincoln H. and Susan (Williams) King, both of whom are now living in the county seat of O'Brien county. Lincoln H. King was born at State Center, Iowa, in 1858, and has been a successful contractor and builder during the active years of his life. He erected the Prudential Life Insurance building in Newark, New jersey, and for many years was employed on big contracts throughout the country. Lincoln H. King and his wife had one child, Roy H., who came to Primghar in 1902.

Roy H. King was educated in the Marshalltown and Primghar schools, graduating from the Primghar high school in 1902. Immediately upon his graduation he entered the Farmers Bank as bookkeeper and two years later became teller in the First National Bank of Primghar. He accepted his present position as cashier of the First National Bank in the spring of 1913. He has shown marked ability along banking lines, and for this reason has well deserved the promotions which have come to him. He has applied himself with all the enthusiasm of youth to his work, with the result that he is rapidly acquiring an intimate knowledge of the many phases of banking.

Mr. King was married August 6, 1908, to Edith D. Hughes, the daughter of Ellis J. and Luella (Squier) Hughes.

Ellis J. Hughes was born November 19, 1856, in Story county, Iowa, and was the son of Thomas and Elinor (Strawn) Hughes, who were natives of Pennsylvania. Thomas Hughes and his wife came to Iowa and settled in Story county in 1855, remaining there until their death, Thomas dying in 1893 and his wife six years later. To Thomas Hughes and wife were born nine children, John, Richard, William, Ellis, Nathaniel, Ruth (deceased), Mrs. Agnes Dodds, Mrs. Mary Brown and one which died in infancy. Ellis

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 897

J. Hughes, the father of Mrs. King, was reared in Story county on a farm and was married in 1876 to Luella Squier, the daughter of Trueman and Elzina (Robbins) Squier. Mrs. Hughes was born in 1859 in Story county, Iowa. Trueman Squier was a native of Vermont and his wife of Ohio. The Squiers came from Germany to this country and settled in Vermont, later moving to Ohio, where Trueman was born in 1826. Elzina Robbins, the mother of Mrs. Hughes, was born in 1827 in Ohio and died in 1868. Trueman Squier lived to the ripe old age of seventy-six. He was married twice. Later in his life Mr. Squier owned a farm in O'Brien county, but died in the state of Minnesota. He had five children, Mrs. Mornilva Sheffield, Mrs. Melissa Hamilton, Mrs. Eveline Upton, Mrs. Olive Wilkinson and Mrs. Luella Hughes, the mother of Mrs. King.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Ellis J. Hughes moved to O'Brien county and for the first two years lived on a farm two miles east of Primghar. In 1895 they moved to the county seat, where Mr. Hughes engaged in the real estate business. He was an extensive land owner and at one time owned seventeen hundred acres of land in Iowa and Minnesota; he also handled real estate in Dakota, and owned a considerable amount of land in that state. Mrs. Hughes still owns a half section of land in O'Brien county.

Mr. Hughes was a member of the Masonic lodge, the Methodist Episcopal church, and was a stanch Democrat in his political views. Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Hughes were the parents of five children: Earl T., born in 1877, deceased; Alma Ruth, who died at the age of nine; Edith, the wife of Mr. King; Earl T., who married Eva Powell and died at the age of twenty-four, leaving his widow and one child; and Golda Medora, who is now twelve years of age.

Mr. and Mrs. King have one son, Ralph Hughes, who was born in June, 1909. In his political faith, Mr. King is an independent voter, preferring to cast his vote for the best men irrespective of their party affiliations. In doing this he feels that he is serving the best interests of his community, and it is a fact that there is an increasingly large number of our best citizens who are thus freeing themselves from the shackles of the old parties. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has taken all of the degrees up to and including the thirty-second. He is a business man, whose heart is in his work, and yet, although he is always busy, he is doing his share to advance the general welfare of his community. He is a genial and unassuming man, with a host of warm and loyal friends in this vicinity where he has lived since entering the business world.

898 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

JACOB HENRY WOLF.

The press is the most powerful instrument in the shaping and molding of public opinion which we have today. It enlightens the people and fights their battles individually and collectively. It makes and unmakes men at will. Likewise it creates or tears down statutes, intended for the good or ill being of the people at large. There is no one power its equal in the length and breadth of the land in this respect. In this land of free speech and free press, it is the most potent factor in the building up of communities. It is conceded that the newspapers of the inland cities enjoy a greater and wider prestige in their locality of circulation and accomplish more direct and lasting good than even the great metropolitan newspapers of today. The local editor chronicles our successes; he smoothes over and condones our failures; he advises us out of the stores of his wisdom gained through long years of experience. He espouses the cause of reform when needed; he advocates publicly in a clarion voice the need of improvments and assists us in pushing them forward to completion. The newspapers of today have advanced with the times and ever keep abreast and even ahead of the procession. O'Brien county boasts an influential newspaper published by a gentleman who has figured prominently in the life of the county for upwards of forty years. He has had a long and distinguished career as a farmer, public official and journalist.

Jacob Henry Wolf was born July 3, 1841, on a farm three miles west of the city of Washington, Washington county, Pennsylvania. His parents were John H. and Maria (Altar) Wolf. He lived on this farm for eighteen years, doing the work incident to an agricultural life; gathering stones off the meadow, so as to clear a way for the scythe; raking grain after the cradlers; cradling, mowing and plowing; making rails and building rail fence; chopping wood, etc., all making a fine hardening process for the muscles.

Mr. Wolf, as a boy and a man, was a keen hunter, a lover of outdoor life, and a very close observer of birds, animals and nature generally. He loved the rod and gun and few of his day could excel his skill in hunting and marksmanship. He received a very meager school education, having to walk a mile distant from his home to the "Log Pile" school house. He rarely had the advantages of more than three months schooling in any one year, being either too small to go during the rigorous winters or being too large to attend during the summer on account of his services being needed on the farm.

Picture of JACOB H. WOLF

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 899

In March, 1859, the family moved to Washington, where Mr. Wolf worked with his father for a short time at the carpenter trade. On May 2, 1859, he entered the office of the Washington Examiner for the purpose of learning the printing trade, being bound out to his employer for four years, with the understanding that he was to receive his board and clothing in return for his labor. He was always attentive to instructions and industrious and soon became a valuable help in the office. When the Civil War broke out he volunteered in 1861, and again proffered his services to the Union in 1862, but was not permitted to go until his indenture was finished, May 2, 1863.

On July 14th of that year Mr. Wolf enlisted in Company H, Forty-sixth Pennsylvania Infantry, and served in that command until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged July 16, 1865. The Forty-sixth Regiment was attached to the First Brigade of the First Division of the Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac. In the fall of 1863 the Twelfth and Eleventh Corps were detached from the Army of the Potomac and made one corps, called the Twentieth, under command of General Hooker and sent west to reinforce the army at Chattanooga. This corps guarded the railroad north of Chattanooga during the winter of 1863-4. Then followed the Atlanta campaign and the march to the sea under command of General Sherman; the campaign through the Carolinas; the close of the great conflict; the march from Raleigh to the city of Washington; the Grand Review, and the muster out and return home. Mr. Wolf served with his regiment all the time except during part of the winter of 1863-4, when he was in the hospital at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, first as patient and then as nurse.

The returning soldier reached his home on Monday, July 24, 1865, at noon. At seven o'clock the next morning he was setting type at a case in the Washington Reporter office. On September 14th of the same year he was married to Sarah Jane Mickey, the "Girl I Left Behind Me." She has been his faithful and loving wife and devoted companion all these years. Five children were born to them: Fannie E., wife of J. E. Turner, of Oskaloosa, Iowa; Harry E., now deceased; Herbert A., with his father in the printing office; William A. and Fred B., twins, born in Iowa, November 2, 1874. William A. is now the proprietor of the Hawarden Chronicle, Hawarden, Iowa. Fred B. is in the employ of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau as Chautauqua superintendent and in booking lecture courses.

In the spring of 1866 Mr. Wolf and wife moved to Hopewell township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and lived on the farm of Mrs.

900 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

Wolf's father for eight years, managing and working the farm in the absence of Mr. Mickey. It was on this farm that the three first children were born to them. In the spring of 1873 the family moved to O'Brien county, Iowa, and settled on a farm two miles north of Sanborn, the southwest quarter of section 14. Here they lived for about ten and one-half years. They were the second family to locate in the township, H. William H. Dummit and family, on section 8, being the first. The county was entirely new. The nearest neighbor was four miles distant. Here they endured all the privations and hardships of pioneer life, seven years of grasshoppers, driving oxen, burning hay for fuel, without school privileges for their children, and six miles away from Sunday school or church.

In November, 1883, Mr. Wolf bought the Sanborn Pioneer, which he owned, managed and published, with the assistance of his sons, for fifteen years. In 1894, in partnership with Thomas Gravenor, he purchased the O'Brien County Bell, which he still owns and publishes in the Bell block, erected by Wolf & Gravenor and the Odd Fellows lodge in 1895.

Mr. Wolf was among the first, if not the very first, newspaper men of the county to attack in the columns of his influential organ the old corrupt political ring which dominated the county for years, and which was responsible in part for the deplorable condition of the county's finances at that time. He wrote, in his capacity as correspondent of the Sheldon Mail, under the nom de plume of "97-41," that being the town and range of Franklin township as known at this time. In 1878, having been brought into prominence by his writings above referred to, he was nominated for county supervisor on the Republican ticket without solicitation on his part, and elected, leading the ticket by about three hundred votes. He served on the board for three years and took an active and influential part in placing the county in a stable financial condition. During his term of oftice the county warrants rose in value from thirty-five cents on the dollar to par, and the county debt was refunded at a lower rate of interest. Mr. Wolf was afterward defeated for the nomination for the county treasurership by W. N. Strong, of Sheldon, who was, in turn, defeated by Frank N. Derby, Democrat. Mr. Wolf also suffered defeat at the polls for the same office by Mr. Derby two years later.

Mr. Wolf was converted to the Methodist Episcopal faith and joined the church at Washington, Pennsylvania, in March, 1863, and still holds membership in the Methodist church at Primghar. During the more than forty years that he has lived in O'Brien county he has been Sunday school superintendent for thirty-five of them. For thirty-nine years he has been a member of the board of stewards, and was appointed exhorter in 1900, and

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 901.

has served as class leader for some years. At this writing he is teacher of the senior bible class in the Methodist Snnday school of Primghar. He joined the Masonic lodge in Sanborn in 1880 and was master of the lodge for five years; he affiliated with the Royal Arch chapter in 1885 and for eight years was high priest of Samaria Chapter No. 105. In about 1898 he became a member of the commandery of Knights Templar, Cherokee, Iowa, and was for four years most excellent prelate in the same. He still holds membership in all these bodies and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine at Sioux City. In point of years of service Mr. Wolf is probably the oldest Mason in the county. For some years he has been commander of the Grand Army post at Primghar and is still in active command of the post. For eight years, from March 1, 1901, until 1909, he served as postmaster of Primghar under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt.

This sturdy and highly esteemed gentleman is now in his seventy-fourth year; his natural force is unabated, and he goes about his daily tasks with the same zest he has used for a half century or more. His proud boast is that he is seventy-three years young, that he is without physical defect, and in excellent health and vigor, being wonderfully active for one of his years. He is Scout Master No. 10,818 of the Boy Scouts of America and is respected and loved by the twenty-five boys of the Primghar troop.

JOHN F. BISHOP.

This honored veteran of the Civil war is to be designated as one of the progressive and intflential citizens of O'Brien county, where for more than thirty years he has maintained his home, figuring as one of the builders of the community and especially worthy of consideration in this work. He has, by his industry and sound judgment, not only improved a fine farm and gained a fairly large competency for his old age, but has materially assisted in the general welfare of the community, in many ways lending his valuable time and influence in the promulgation of varions uplifting movements.

John F. Bishop, an ex-railroad man and now a retired farmer of Sheldon. Iowa, was born in 1842 in New York state and is the son of John F. and Allena (Brown) Bishop. John Bishop was born in 1808 at Belleville, New York, and was a Baptist minister. He traveled over the state of New York and preached for thirty years. He was married in Lorraine, New

902 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

York, to Allena Brown in 1831, and to this marriage were born ten children, seven of whom are living: Judson W., of St. Paul, Minnesota; Luther, of Sheldon, Iowa; Mrs. Anna Chamless, of California; Mrs. Frankie Bidwell, deceased; Levi, who is living on the old home place in New York state; Mrs. Cynthia Gardner, deceased, and John F., whose life history forms the theme of this narrative.

John F. Bishop received his education in the schools of New York and when seventeen years of age on the day after Christmas in 1859, left his parents and settled in the state of Minnesota. He obtained work in a printing office on his arrival there and continued to work there until February 10, 1862, when he enlisted at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in Company B, Fifth Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. He re-enlisted at Black River Bridge, Mississippi, on February 12, 1864, and was mustered in as first lieutenant. He was in thirty-three separate engagements and sieges during his service in the war. Upon his discharge, on September 6, 1865, he returned to Minnesota and became interested in railroad work. He was first in the engineers' corps, at Belleplain, Minnesota, where he continued until it was built through to Sioux City, Iowa. In 1870 he was made superintendent of construction of the road running between St. James and Sioux City. In 1874 he was chief clerk of supplies of the shops in Sioux City and in 1880 was made superintendent of a narrow gauge railroad from Sioux City, Iowa, to Ponca, Iowa. Two years later he was made roadmaster of the road between Sioux City and Omaha, Nebraska, and held that place until 1883. He was then appointed superintendent of construction of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway from Perry to Council Bluffs. In the following year he came to O'Brien county, Iowa, and rented nine hundred acres of unimproved land and which he and his brother, Judson, began to farm. In 1902 he retired from active farm life and moved to Sheldon, where he bought a home and has since lived.

Mr. Bishop was married December 27, 1865, in New York, to Ann Augusta Pinney, and to this marriage have been born nine children, seven of whom are living: Mrs. Frankie Belle Clagg, deceased; Leroy, deceased; Dr. Albert H., a practicing physician at West Bend, Iowa; Mrs. Ella Reynolds, a widow of Sheldon; Walter J., of LeMars, Iowa; George H., a hotel manager t Newell, Iowa; Mrs. Florence Clagg, of Fort Dodge, Iowa; Mable. who is taking a shorthand course at Fort Dodge, and Arthur, of St. Paul, Minnesota.

In politics, Mr. Bishop is an independent voter, with progressive inclinations. He is a member of that class of citizens who cast their vote for

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 903

the Ibest men, regardless of their political affiliations. He and his family are regular attendants of the Congregational church. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Loyal Legion. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and since moving to Sheldon has been a member of the city council. The life of Mr. Bishop has been filled with many interesting incidents. Wherever he has been placed he has always tried to do his full duty; whether upon the battlefield or in the superintendence of construction of railway, he has been found equally efficient and faithful to the tasks imposed upon him. As a public official and as a private citizen he has measured up to the full duty of a true American citizen, and for this reason is highly regarded by everyone who knows him.

WILLLIAM JINKINSON.

There are certain qualities which every man must possess who wishes to make a success of any profession. Among these are honesty and determination. The career of William Jinkinson, a gardener and commission merchant of Sheldon, Iowa, has been strongly marked by these two characteristics and he today enjoys a degree of success which is commensurate with his efforts. He has never known what it was to lay aside the cares of life and retire to ease, having been a hard working man all of his life. Because of his honest endeavor to lay aside a comfortable competency for his declining years and because he has spent such a life as to win the commendation of his fellow men he is eminently worthy of representation in this biographical volume.

William Jinkinson was born in i860 in Woodford county, Illinois, and is the son of Benjamin and Mary Ann (Willie) Jinkinson. Benjamin Jinkinson was born in Yorkshire, England, and after coming to this country settled in Lincoln, Illinois, where he engaged in farming. He lived in that county until his death, in 1889. Benjamin Jinkinson and Mary Ann Willie were married in 1856 and to this union were born ten children, five of whom are living: Alfred, of Gifford, Illinois; Mrs. Lillian Headquest, of Minnesota; Benjamin, of Sheldon, Iowa; Mrs. Anna Monk, of Sioux county, Iowa, and William, whose life history is here portrayed.

After receiving his common school education in his home county in Illinois, William continued to live with his parents until he came to O'Brien county after his marriage in 1890. The first five years he engaged in the

904 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.

retail meat business and also bought and sold cattle and hogs in Sheldon and has always lived here since coming to the state. In 1906 he sold out his business and since that time has been in the vegetable produce business in Sheldon. He not only raises considerable of his own produce, but also buys and sells on commission in the city. He owns one hundred and forty acres in Floyd township and three hundred and twenty acres in Lyons County, Iowa. In addition he has one acre of ground and a fine residence in Sheldon, where he makes his home.

Mr. Jinkinson was married in 1890, in LeMars, Iowa, to Minnie Wolf, and to this union have been born six children, all of whom are at home, Ethel, Reuben, William, Rhoda, Earl and Donald.

Politically, Mr. Jinkinson is a Republican and has always been interested in the success of his party. He has been an alderman in Sheldon, Iowa, for four years and rendered efficient service to the city. He and his family are attendants of the Congregational church and to this they contribute of their means. Fraternally, Mr. Jinkinson is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is well known throughout Sheldon and O'Brien county. In the circles in which he moves he is held in the highest esteem because of his upright life and his wholesome manner of living.

NICK BLOES.

Prominent in he affairs of Floyd township, O'Brien county, Iowa, and distinguished as a citizen whose influence has reached beyond the limits of his immediate community, is Nick Bloes, who is a native of Germany and a successful farmer of the locality where he is living. Coming to this country at the age of twentt-two, he has built up his fortune solely through his own efforts and his achievements represent the results which can be gained by a poor man who directs his efforts along those lines where mature judgment and discrimination lead the way.

Nick Bloes, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Floyd township, this county, was born in 1859, in Luxemburg, Germany, the son of Martin and Elizabeth (Hemmer) Bloes, who never left the land of their birth. Martin Bloes was born in 1837 and lived the life of a farmer all his days, passing away in 1888. His wife was born on June 24, 1837, was married to Martin Bloes in 1858, and died January 29, 1912. They were the parents of nine children: Mrs. Susan Weber, who is a resident of Black Hawk county, Iowa;

O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 905

Joseph, a farmer of Osceola county, this state; Eugene, a farmer of Mitchell county, Iowa; Peter, a hotel man of Luxemburg, Germany; Mrs. Lena Smith, who lives in Minnesota; Frank, a farmer of Montana; Nick, the subject of this brief review, and two who died in infancy.

Nick Bloes came to the United States when he was twenty-two years of age after having received an elementary education in his native land. He first settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a year later went to Black Hawk county, Iowa, where he worked out as a farm hand. In the meantime he married and in 1886 he rented one hundred and twenty-six acres of land, and about a vear later decided to come to O'Brien county. Accordingly he rented four hundred and eighty acres of land in this county and within a short time was able to purchase a quarter section of his own. He set out seven acres of orchard and grove trees and has made ten thousand dollars worth of improvements on his farm. He has an interest in the Ritter Elevator Company, of which company he is now a director. He is an extensive breeder of Hereford cattle and keeps from eighty to one hundred and twenty head of these cattle on his farm at all times. He also specializes in Poland China hogs, and is known as one of the best growers of potatoes in the county. In 1910 he won the first prize on potatoes at the Sheldon fair.

Mr. Bloes was married in Black Hawk county, Iowa, in 1883, to Susan Nie, and to this union have been born twelve children: Mrs. Maggie Kroghman, who is a resident of Osceola county; John, of the same county;; Agnes, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she is a teacher in the schools; Mrs. Lizzie Dillon, who lives in LeMars, Iowa; Susan, of Osage, Iowa; Martin, who is farming the home place; Victorine, who is at home; Joseph, who is attending the Catholic College at Ashton, Iowa; as are Cecelia and Gregor.

Politically, Mr. Bloes adheres to the Republican party, and has always been interested in the affairs of his party. He has been road overseer for two years and is now director of the school board of his township. Religiously, he and all the members of his family are earnest and devoted members of the Catholic church at Ashton, and contribute freely of their means to its support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Roman Catholic Mutual Protective Society. Mr. Bloes is a good example of the man who comes to our land from foreign shores without capital and without a knowledge of the English language, and yet, by his own determination and will power, rears a family to lives of usefulness and lays aside a sufficient competence for his declining years. He has been a faithful citizen of his adopted country and has measured up to the full standard of the good American citizen.