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One of the early settlers of Des Moines county, and one who has been honored with many offices within the gift of the people, and has served with great ability, and is now spending the evening of his active life at his pleasant home in Washington township, is Cyrus Green. He is a son of Thomas and Sarah (Marsh) Green, and was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, Jan. 27, 1825. The father was a farmer, and died in Ohio; and later the mother came to Iowa, but did not live long afterward. Our subject received his early education in his birthplace, and remained on his father’s farm till he was twenty-three years of age, which was a great help to his father. About this time he went to Perry county, Ohio, and purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, where he was actively engaged in general farming for four years. In 1852 he moved to Iowa, and located first near Cairo, Louisa county, where he rented a farm and farmed it for two years, and then took up a residence on a place near Morning Sun, Iowa, where he met with much success as a farmer, and which he called home for two years. His next move was to come to Washington township, Des Moines county, where he purchased his present farm of eighty acres in Section 3, upon which he has lived ever since. Not a spade had been put into this land when he bought it, and it presented a very wild and rough appearance; but Mr. Green set about at once to bring it under cultivation, and though he had much of it to do by himself, still today his land is of the best, and all cultivated, and yielding golden harvests each year. Mr. Green has a nice and comfortable house, a good barn, and several substantial buildings for stock and grain, and uses all of the modern farm machinery.
Mr. Green has been a Republican all of his life, and has held the office of supervisor for the last fifteen years. He has ever taken much interest in educational matters, and has represented the township as school director and secretary of the board for many years. He has also manifested a great deal of interest in religious matters, and is a member of the Presbyterian church, where he has been trustee for some time. When Mr. Green was about twenty-four years of age he was married to Miss Mary Fickle, who was born in Perry county, Ohio, and died when twenty-four years old, leaving five children, four of whom are now living: Lucretia, married Anderson Jarvis, resides in Kansas, and has a large family of children; George W., a farmer, near Martinsburg, married Miss Emma Brockway, now deceased, leaving one unnamed child, who died soon after its mother. He married for his second wife Miss Alice Miller, and they have five children: Mary, Leonard, Myrl, Jessie, and Anna; John, also a farmer in Washington township, married Miss Mary Bashford, and they are the parents of six children: Martha, Nellie, Lena, Clara, Acil, and Howard; Millard, resides on a farm in Washington township, married Miss Clara Bozarth, and they have two children, Ivy and Harry; Benjamin F., died in infancy.
Mr. Green’s second wife was Miss May Jane Tatman, who was born in Maryland, and came to Perry county, Ohio when quite young, and who became the mother of two children, Mary and Martha, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Green was called upon to mourn the death of his second wife, and in the course of time, married for his third wife Mrs. Arminda Brown, widow of David Brown. Mrs. Brown had two children, Perley B., editor and proprietor of the Harlan Republican, resides in Harlan, Iowa, married Miss Eva Dougherty, and they are the parents of six children: Leah, Harold, Edna, Bessie, David, and Margaret; Mary married Frank O’Kell, a farmer in Washington township, and has one daughter, Bertha.
By the marriage of Mr. Green and Mrs. Brown, nine children have been born, seven of whom are living: James L., a farmer, living in Washington township, married Miss Rosa Stoner, and they have been blessed with two children, Joseph and Zella; Nellie, the wife of Frank Grow, who lives in Nebraska; May, resides at home; Grant, of Washington township, married Miss Martha Helt, and by this union four children have come to them: Fern, Eveline, Donald, and Delbert; Frederick and Hosea, both of whom died in infancy; Martha F., the wife of David McCahan, a farmer in Louisa county; Blanche, married Albert Grow, a farmer residing in Nebraska; Jessie at home with her parents.
Mr. Green has witnessed many changes of all kinds during his residence of over forty-five years in Des Moines county. What was timber-land fifty years ago, or in many cases hills and hollows, are now built up into cities and villages, which are supplied with all the modern conveniences which tend to lessen man’s labors. Mr. Green is certainly a self-made man, and though he has met difficulties and obstacles in his path, he has overcome these by determined purpose and resolute will, steadily working his way upward, and commanding the respect and admiration of his fellow-men by reason of his honorable life and unfaltering course.
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