Eli WILT is classed among the most prosperous farmers and stock raisers of Taylor county, owning a well improved farm on section 11, Platte township, comprising eighty acres where he resides. He is a native of this township, born March 11, 1865, and a son of James M. and Catherine Ann (HAMILTON) WILT, the former born in Darke county, Ohio, and the latter in Preble county, that state. It was in the year 1855 that the father removed to Iowa, establishing his home in Clarke county, where for six years he engaged in breaking prairie with ox teams. On the 1st of September, 1861, he made his way to Taylor county and here purchased two hundred acres of wild and unimproved land in Platte township. This he cultivated and improved and in due time added to it a tract of two hundred acres, making in all four hundred acres. He erected a large residence, three barns, built fences, set out a grove and orchard and made many other improvements on the place. In addition to carrying on farming he also engaged quite extensively in raising sheep, at one time having a flock of seven hundred head of Cotswold sheep. He spent a very active and useful life and was known as one of the prominent pioneer settlers of Taylor county. His death occurred August 15, 1899, when he had reached the age of sixty-seven years. His wife still survives and is very active at the age of seventy years, making her home in Lenox.

Eli WILT, the third in order of birth in a family of six sons, was reared on the homestead farm in Platte township and during the period of his boyhood and youth was busily engaged in the various tasks assigned him by his father. He remained under the parental roof until he had reached mature years, when he started out upon an independent business venture, operating a threshing machine and corn sheller. His time was thus occupied for twenty years and during this time he operated in three counties, while for six years he was in Minnesota. He shelled over nine hundred thousand bushels of corn and a large amount of wheat and oats and in this way became very widely known. Through this means he accumulated the money that enabled him to purchase his home farm of eighty acres on section 11, Platte township. He added to and remodeled the house, built a barn, sheds and other outbuildings, and set out a grove. He has a fine apple orchard, which yields a crop of almost one thousand bushels annually. He is engaged in general farming and, like his father, also gives much of his time to raising sheep, keeping pure blooded Cotswold sheep, and he raises cattle and horses as well, his stock being of the finest grades. He also buys and ships wool on quite an extensive scale. In the fall of 1909 he shipped a carload of Cotswold bucks to the Roberts ranch in Marion, Ohio, which were the finest sheep of that breed ever shipped from Lenox. In addition to this home farm he owns eighty acres of land in Ringgold county, Iowa, which was formerly a part of the farm belonging to his father, and has a tract of walnut and oak timberland. He took an active part in the promotion of the Lenox and Kent telephone system and in many other ways has been interested in the progress and upbuilding of his home locality. Besides his property in this state he owns an interest in a gold mine at Kingman, Arizona, and has several shares in the German-American Coffee Company in Mexico.

Mr. WILT has been married twice and by is first marriage has three daughters, Alma Ellen, Edna Marie and Lulu May. On the 8th of September, 1908, he married his present wife, who bore the maiden name of Etta COX. She was born and reared in Pana, Illinois.

Politically Mr. WILT has been a life-long republican. He served eight years in the office of township trustee but declined to fill the position longer. He has served as a delegate to county and state conventions and for many years has been identified with the school system. He is a member of the Calvary Methodist Episcopal church and is active in both church and Sunday-school work. He is public spirited in a marked degree, his aid and cooperation ever being found on the side of progress and improvement. Having spent his entire life in Taylor county, he is thoroughly familiar with its history and takes a just pride in what has been accomplished here in the last quarter of a century in the way of modern and substantial improvements. He has a wide circle of friends who esteem him for his integrity and worth.

SOURCE:  CROSSON, Frank E. History of Taylor County, Iowa: From The Earliest Historic Times to 1910  Pp. 669 - 670. S.J. Clarke Pub. Chicago. 1910.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, 2008