USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > Biographical history of Pottawattamie County, Iowa > Part 59
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former church for many years. He is a prosperous man, a good farmer, and a law- abiding and honorable citizen.
Bruce B., his son and the subject of this sketch, was born in St. Joseph County, Michigan, February 26, 1845, and in early life was inured to farm work. He was mar- ried in Kalamazoo County, when twenty-five years of age, to Flora Cox, daughter of George and Amanda (McHnron) Cox. The father, a native of Vermont, and from an old New England family, settled in Kalamazoo County in 1868. He had two brothers in the civil war. Mrs. Cox was born in New York State, and her daughter, Mrs. Dentler, was born in the town of Lysander, Onondaga County, same State, April 29, 1854. Mr. and Mrs. Dentler have three children: George E., born September 8, 1873, in Schoolcraft, Michigan; Dora M., born March 29, 1876, in Sehoolcraft; and Claude B., born January 1, 1885, in Pleasant Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. After mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Dentler lived for five years on a farm in Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo County; then one year in St. Joseph County; and in 1882 they came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and settled on their present farm. Mr. Dentler has been township clerk for seven years, and in his political opinions is a stanch Democrat. Socially he is an Odd Fellow, belonging to Canopy Lodge, No. 401, Shelby, Iowa, in which he is Noble Grand. He is interested in the schools, and has been a director four years. Ile has an excellent reputation in his township, and is known as a capable and intelligent business man. His children have descended from good old pioneer stock who have aided iu founding the institutions of our country, and also helped to subdue the wilderness and make possible the pleasant homes and privi. leges of the present generation. The Amer-
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ican farmer is a man of wide intelligence and great energy of character, and upon his shoulders rest the hopes of our country, and from his descendants may we look for the future of America.
OSEPHUS KIRBY, an enterprising farmer of Waveland Township, Potta- wattamie County, Iowa, has resided here since 1881. He was born in Warren County, Illinois, March 19, 1858. His father, Isaac Kirby, was born in Greene County, Penn- sylvania, fifty miles north of Pittsburg, son of Joseph Kirby. Isaac Kirby married Eliza Ann Bailey, a native of Greene County, Pennsylvania. They settled in Peoria County, Illinois, in 1850, and two years later removed to Warren County, that State, where they still live. The father is now sixty-five years old and the mother is sixty-three. They have eight children, as follows: Emily Jane, K. B., O. P., Ruth Allen, Josephus, Mary E., George M. C. and Madison. Josephus is the only one in Pottawattamie County. His brother, K. B., is also in Iowa, located in Cass County.
The subject of our sketch was reared on a farm and was educated in the common schools and one year at Monmonth College in Illinois. For a short time he was engaged in teaching. In 1881 he came to Pottawat- tamie County and settled on an eighty-acre farm in section 5, Waveland Township, which he improved and which, in 1888, he exchanged with M. C. Talbert for 160 acres where he now lives, in section 33. Ile has a small frame honse, buildings for stock and other farm improvements.
Mr. Kirby was married, May 30, 1882, to Clara Belle Yoho, who was born in Fulton County, Illinois, danghter of Jasper and
Mary E. (Collins) Yoho. Mr. Yoho, eldest son of Thomas and Eliza Jane Yoho, was born at Mansfield, Ohio, May 25, 1837; was a mechanic; married December 17, 1861, and had three children: Clara B., Dora A. and William J. He died October 15, 1871. Mrs. Yoho was born in Hancock County, Illinois, February 21, 1843, and is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Kirby have five children : George Melvin, Orlaff Ray, William Isaac, Freddy Lewis and Edgar Ellsworth. Politi- cally Mr.' Kirby is a Democrat. Ile is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Walnut Valley, as is also his wife.
AX REIMER, one of the prominent German farmers of Walnut, Iowa, was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Ger- many. October 26, 1844, the son of Ditlof Rei- mer, who was a prominent German farmer. He died at the age of fifty-one years, when our subject was but two years old. His wife, nee Mary Reimer, was of the same name, but of a different family. They had five children: Katie, Maggie, Mary, George and Max. Katie was married in Germany to Claus Roch, a wealthy farmer of Clinton County, lowa, and came to America in 1857. They had one son, named John. She died in 1864, and the remainder of the family are still in Germany.
Max Reimer, our subject, came to Amer- ica in 1866, at the age of twenty-one years, landing at New York from the English steamer Superior. He sailed from Ilolstein, and was four months on the way. He came direct to lowa and engaged in farm work in Clinton County, and also in the brewery at Lyons for seven years. In 1874 he came to Pottawattamie County, where he bought 160 acres of wild land, which, by industry and
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hard work he has converted into a fine, fertile farın, and to which he has wisely added until he now owns 320 acres, and where he has a fine barn costing $1,000, a good honse and windmill and many other improvements. Mr. Reimer is a trustee of his township, and stands high as a citizen of sterling worth whose word is as good as his bond. Politi- cally he is a Democrat, and both he and his wife are members of the Lutheran Church. He is a self-made man, having by his own industry made his property in America, having had bnt 89 when he landed. He well illustrates what good, honest, hard work will do in America.
He was married in Lyons, October 21, 1871, to Maggie Roona, danghter of John and Elizabeth (Frahan) Roona. The father was a native of Germany, was a well edu- cated man and a school-teacher in Holstein. He died in this county, and was the father of four children: Katie, Annie (who died in Germany), Maggie and George. All of the children came to America. Mrs. Roona came in 1884, and is living with her son-in-law, the subject of this sketch, at the age of eighty years. Her daughter, Maggie, now Mrs. Reimer, was born Angust 4, 1850, and came to America in the spring of 1869. To Mr. and Mrs. Reimer have been born nine chil- dren, six of whom are now living: Henry W., Emil W., Alvenia M., Bernhart, Katie P. and Annie.
F. VAN is one of the early settlers and successful farmers of Waveland Town- ship, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. He has made his home here since the spring of 1873. Mr. Van is a native of the Hawk- eye State, born in Jones County, October 11, 1850. Flis father, R. T. Van, was born in
Ohio, and reared in that State and in Indi- ana. He was a son of James Van, a de- scendant of Holland ancestry. Our subject's mother was Esther Ann Van, a native of In- diana. The Vans were among the early pio- neers of Jones County, being the first to set- tle in Wyoming Township. For a time they lived in their covered wagons and tents. The country abounded in wild game, and it was not an infrequent sight to see deer come within view of their camping ground and snort and stamp their feet as if to say, " From whence do yon come, and why are you here on our domains?" Mr. and Mrs. Van reared five children : W. H., Azilda Tompkins, S. F., Lamon and Mary A. The father has been a farmer all his life, and is still living in Jones County, aged seventy-two years. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; was formerly a Whig, but is now a Republi- can. His wife died in 1884, at the age of sixty years.
S. F. Van grew to manhood on his father's frontier farm, and received his education in the typical pioneer school-honse, a log cabin with slab seats and a fire-place. In 1873, as already stated, Mr. Van came to Pottawatta- mie County, and bonght eighty acres of wild land in section 4, Waveland Township. With three horses he broke the sod, and here he has since lived. worked and prospered. He has added to his first purchase, and is now the owner of 240 acres of well improved land. He has a good frame house, stables, granary, cribs, sheds, yards and feed lots, a modern wind pump, and a grove and orchard. His land is fenced into several different fields, and is devoted to general farming and stock- raising.
Mr. Van was married September 9, 1878, in Fremont County, lowa, to Eva J. Lewis, a lady of education and refinement and a popular and successful teacher. She taught
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the first school in the district where they now live. Mrs. Van was born in Warren County, Iowa, and reared and educated principally in this State. She is a daughter of Rev. J. B. Lewis, a Methodist minister, who was born in Illinois, and Martha A. Lewis, a native of Indiana. Her parents are now residents of Republican County, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Van have two sons, Walter Scott and Lemuel Ray. They lost one son, Robert Don, who died in infaney.
Politieally Mr. Van is a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Walnut Valley. Mrs. Van is the efficient superintendent of Walnut Valley Sabbath-school, where she is doing a good work. Mr. Van is a man in the prime of life, and for his many estimable qualities is highly regarded by all who know him. He and his worthy companion are both friends to education, good morals and religion, and any enterprise that has for its objeet the advancement of the best interests of the com- munity finds in them earnest supporters.
ILLIAM V. ROCK, a prominent farmer of Pleasant Township, was born March 19, 1851, on a farm in the Province of Waldeek, Prussia, the son of Frederick Rock, who was born in the same provinee, September 26, 1818. He was mar- ried to Louisa Sehnore, who was born in 1822, and they had eleven children: Caro- line, Louisa, Fred, Carl, William, Christian, Christiana and Henry, three others dying in infancy. The father was a soldier in the Prussian army, but saw no active service. Both he and his wife were members of the Lutheran Church. In 1882 Mr. Rock eame to America to visit his children, nearly all of whom had emigrated here, and spent about
eighteen months in Iowa, and then returned to Prussia. He is yet living on his farm, at the age of seventy-two years. One son and one daughter, Carl and Caroline, are still liv- ing in Prussia. The father is a leading man in his town, having been Justice of the Peace for many years, also School Director, and an Elder in his church. His children are all prosperous in life, owning good farms, and from such sturdy stock the people of Iowa have been indebted for mueh of their pros- perity and steady progress. The hardy Ger- nans bring with them to this country traits of industry and perseveranee which overcome all obstaeles, and these are being infused also into the blood of the young Americans who are destined to become our best eitizens, and who will form a new generation of Prussian- Americans that will be a liberty-loving, loyal and industrious race.
William V. Roek, the subject of this sketeh, received a part of his education in the old conntry, and when but a lad of fifteen years, in 1866, he came with his brother Fred to this country. They went to Davenport, Iowa, and for four years worked at farm labor in Seott County and four more in Clinton Connty. In 1873 he purchased 160 acres of wild land in this county, and in 1874 broke up eighty aeres, on which he built a home. He has been very prosperous in farming, and has added to his first purchase until he now owns 400 aeres of fine land. He is also a raiser and breeder of cattle, and is one of the most energetie and prosperous farmers of Pleasant Township. In 1880 he set out 2,000 fruit and shade trees. In his political views he is a stanch Demoerat, and has filled the offices of Road Supervisor, Township Trus- tee, Assessor, School Treasurer for five years and is Sehool Director at the present time. He is a self-made man, and stands deservedly high as one of the best citizens of his county.
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His children are being well educated, and he - the father died. All the children grew to takes pride in aiding their desire toward im- adult age. For two years John was engaged in boating on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers with his brother, H. M. He after- ward went to La Salle County, Illinois, where he worked by the month on a farm two years and where he attended the common schools in winter. provement and cultivation, and he may well take an honest pride in what he has accom- plished in life. His honest efforts and pur- poses have been well rewarded, and it may be truly said that " his word is as good as his bond."
March 8, 1875, Mr. Rock married Louisa Freese, daughter of Ludwig and Wilhelmina Freese, and to them have been born six chil- dren, viz .: Minnie, born November 15, 1875; Frederick, September 12, 1877; Henry, Jan- uary 23, 1880; Christina, August 17, 1883; Albert, October 2, 1886; and Louis, April 11, 1890. The father of Mrs. Rock died in Prussia, in the sanie town where Mr. Rock's father now lives, and his widow came to America with her children, Wilhelmina, Fred and Louis. She was again married in Amer- ica, and is now living in Clinton County, lowa. Mrs. Rock was born in Prussia, Jan- uary 10, 1856, and was but eleven years of age when she came with her mother to this country. Mr. Rock and family are members of the Lutheran Church.
OHN FLINT is another well-known pio- neer of Pottawattamie County. H cast his lot here in 1856, and has since made this place his home.
Mr. Flint was born in Madison County, Ohio, August 28, 1838, son of Samuel Flint, who was of English extraction and a native of New Hampshire. Samuel Flint married Miss Nancy Dominy, who was born in New York, a descendant of English ancestors. After their marriage they removed, in 1834, to Madison County, Ohio, where the mother died, leaving nine children, when John, the youngest, was six years old. Six years later
In 1856 Mr. Flint came to Pottawattamie County. In 1857 or '58, he entered a quar- ter section of land in Wright Township, which is now owned by Samuel Passmore. In 1860, in company with his brother Han- nibal and others, he went to Pike's Peak on the hunt for gold, and prospected the most of the summer, failing to make it pay. In 1861 he bought his present farm, 178 acres on section 11, Waveland Township. A part of this farm is timber land. During the years of his residence here Mr. Flint lias made great improvements in his place. He has a good frame house, 26 x 32 feet, sitil- ated on a natural building site and sur- rounded by shade and ornamental trees. Other improvements are a barn, sheds, yards. feed-lots and an orchard and grove. The school-house of District No. 1 is located only a few rods from his house, and it is a pleas- ant drive of three miles from his home to Griswold. Like many other farmers of this county, Mr. Flint's attention is divided be- tween stock-raising and cultivating the soil.
During the late war he served eight months and a half in the Thirteenth Iowa Infantry, Company B.
Mr. Flint was united in marriage, January 18, 1863, to Miss Mary E. Pierson, a native of Shelby County, Indiana. She was ten years old when her parents, Joseph and Sarah Pierson, came to Pottawattamie County, where she was educated and grew to woman- hood. ller father died in Griswold, where her mother still resides. Mr. and Mrs. Flint
Houver Everett
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OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
have seven children: Delia A., wife of John W. MeCaskey, of Waveland Township; Alvin also of Waveland Township; Warren, Rhoda, Ada E., lda M. and Edna. Mr. Flint is a Democrat. He has served officially in the township at different times, but never aspired to political distinction. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Nashnabotna Lodge, No. 409, of Griswold. Mrs. Flint is a worthy mem- ber of the Christian Church, as is also one of her daughters. Two other danghters are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Flint is frank and cordial in his manner, broad and progressive in his views, and is well known throughout the county.
ON. HORACE EVERETT, of Council Bluff's, Iowa, descended on both the paternal and maternal sides from the oldest and best known of the early Pilgrim families of Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Leverett, was a daughter of William Leverett, of Windsor, Vermont. The founder of the family in America arrived in Boston in 1633, in the ship Griffin, from England. His son, Sir John Leverett, was Governor of Massachusetts from 1673 to 1679. His grandson was Rev. John Leverett, President of Harvard College from 1707 to 1724. Mr. Everett's father, the Hon. Horace Everett, of Windsor, Vermont, came from Foxborough, Massachusetts, and from the same family as the great and polished orator, Edward Ever- ett. Richard Everett, the forefather, came from England in 1635, and the family for many generations lived in Dedham and Waltham, Massachusetts. Hon. Horace Ev- erett was a prominent lawyer of his State and represented the Windsor district in Con- gress for fourteen years, where he established a reputation that cannot be overrated and ex- 38
ertod an influence which will long be felt. His labors in the cause of justice to the In- dians are in themselves a monument to his memory.
Horace Everett, the subject of this sketch, was born at Windsor, Vermont, February 8, 1819. With the keen desire that the parents of that day had " that their children should be brought up to learning," he was sent at the early age of eight years to the Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. When fourteen years of age he entered the University of Vermont at Burlington, and graduated therefrom in 1837. After grad- nation he spent two years in the study of law under his distinguished father, and was admitted to the bar. In 1841 he decided to seek a wider field for his talents, and settled in Gainesville, Alabama, where he practiced in the courts of that State and Mississippi, for fifteen years.
In 1851 he was married to Mary, daughter of Judge Abiel Leonard of the Supreme Court of Missouri, also a descendant of Sir John Leverett. In 1855 Mr. Everett settled in Council Bluffs, where he resided at the time of his death and with whose best interests he was ever identified. He was appointed by President Lincoln to the responsible po- sition of Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of Iowa, embracing all southwestern Iowa. He served one term as member of the city council, but so distasteful to him were the petty annoyances of the office he declined a re-election. He was one of the trustees of the Fairview Cemetery Association, had been its president ever since its organiza- tion, and to his taste and wise forethought was dne the selection of the romantic and beau- tiful site it now occupies. His interest in the cause of education was great. He was twice clected by the Legislature as one of the Re- gents of the State University in Iowa City,
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and was regarded as one of the most zealous and efficient members of that board. Mr. Everett had a remarkable literary ability, his private and business letters show a decided genins for composition. It is to be hoped that a collection of his letters may be pub- lished. He repeatedly interested himself to have the Legislature abolish corporal punish. ment in the schools of the State, considering the use of the rod on little children as bar- barous and ernel.
Mr. Everett was a member of the Episcopal Church, and had been a member of the ves- try of St. Paul's Church since the organiza- tion of the parish. To his long continued benefactions during all the years of his resi- dence in Conncil Bluffs the church owes much of its present success. Always a lib. eral giver to every worthy objeet, he was sadly missed in the two institutions in which he took a special interest, the church and the public library: of the latter he was really the founder, and was the president of the board of trustees at the time of his death. While Mr. Everett was a snecessful and practical man of affairs, yet his tastes and pleasures were those of a scholar. He enjoyed poetry and literature, and only those who knew him intimately realized how largely sentiment and imagination characterized his mind. In every enterprise relating to the welfare of Couneil Bluffs he was an active factor. Ile was one of the men to whose zeal the city was indebted for the location of the terminas of the Union Pacific Railroad. A life time Whig and Re- publican and strong Union man, always an advocate of the emancipation of the negro, he sacrificed large property interest in the South rather than remain where free speech was denied him. Mr. Everett was a devoted lover of nature; he never tired of the beauti- ful scenery of the Missouri River bluffs, and the prairies bordering on them, and was
never happier than when rusticating on his large " Highland" farm of 4,000 acres near Council Bluffs, where under his personal supervision wero planted 100 aeres of forest trees and forty acres of apple orchards. He had the pleasure of gathering nuts from his walnut groves and of seeing his orchards red with apples. The trees planted by himself in front of his residence are now four feet in diameter and seventy feet in height. Mr. Everett retained to the last a warm place in his heart for his birthplace, "delightful Windsor," as he called it. He never looked upon a Vermonter as a stranger, and never forgot the hills, brooks or mountains of his native State. He was not willing that the old homestead, sitnated on the banks of the beautiful Connecticut River, should ever pass into the hands of strangers: so early in life he purchased the interest of the other mem- bers of the family, and made provision in his will for retaining this beloved old home in the family. Mr. Everett's great interest in everything that related to the early history of the country and his zeal and enthusiasm in the collection and preservation of manu- script and books led to his appointment as trustee of the Iowa Historical Society. Mr. Everett's private library was a very large and well selected one. llis collection of rare old books was complete and interesting. He took great care of all interesting papers and mannscripts which came into his possession and has preserved many autograph letters of great value.
Mr. Everett was a man of unfailing cour- tesy, great dignity and beautiful refinement, one of the most sympathetic of men, but of a retiring nature and wholly unambitious of public life, preferring the quiet comfort of home and society of his family and books. Exemplary in all the relations of private lite, genial, benevolent and hospitable, he was
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OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
tenderly beloved by his family and friends, and honored by the esteem of all who knew him. He was in failing health for a year previons to his death and was stricken with paralysis on the 30th day of September, ren- dered almost helpless thereby, but lived until the 31 day of November, 1890, tenderly and assiduously ministered to by his devoted family until the end. When the appointed time came he had passed to that world where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor erying nor any more pain. He was buried in the family grounds in Fairview Cemetery beneath the beautiful elms he had so carefully planted and cared for. Mr. Ev- erett left surviving him of his family his widow, Mrs. Mary L. Everett, his sons, Leon- ard. Torrey and Edward, and his daughter Ada, wife of Prof. J. A. L. Waddell, of Kan- sas City, Missouri.
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ILLIAM STEELE, a farmer of Lewis Township, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, July 1, 1841, the son of S. K. and Rebecca (Kerby) Steele. Our subject, the second in a family of eight chil- dren, was reared in his native county until fifteen years of age, when he removed to Burlington County, Iowa, where he re- mained until 1869. Ile then entered the United States service in the great Rebellion, in Company H, Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served eleven months and four days, being honorably discharged at Daven- port, Iowa. He participated in four differ- ent battles: Franklin, Tennessee, Nasliville, Wise's Forks, North Carolina, McCarver's Station, Tennessee, and was also in a num- ber of skirmishes. After his discharge he returned to Des Moines, where he was en- gaged in farming for three years, and in 1869
he came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, pur- chasing forty acres of wild land on section 14, Lewis Township. lIere he erected a small frame house, 14 x 16 feet, in which they lived until 1880, when he erected his present neat frame residence, 16 x 26, one and one-half stories high, with an L 16 x 18, one story high. He has added to his first purchase until he now owns eighty acres of land, which is all well improved. He devotes himself to farming, stoek-raising and fruit- growing, and is preparing to devote his en- tire attention to the growing of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. He is one of the live, energetic men of this part of the county, and has by honesty and integrity won a large cir- cle of friends. Ile has assisted largely in opening up and developing this part of the county, and is deserving of all the honor and esteem shown him. Politically he is a stanch Republican, has served his township as Asses- sor for the past four years, and has also served as Constable two years.
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