USA > Iowa > Monona County > History of Monona County, Iowa; containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 52
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Mr. Carritt was united in marriage. April 8, 1888, with Miss Mary Peabody, a native of Wis-
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consin, and the daughter of Thomas II. and Emily (Perry) Peabody. In this union? their life has been" brightened, and the joy of their domestic hearth increased. by the birth of a child to whom they have given the name of Charles Thomas.
ILLIAM G. WOOD, ar influential business man and large farmer of the county, resid- ing at: Onawa, came here in July, 1871, as agent for II. D. Booge & Co. grain dealers, with whom he remained about a year. At the expira- tion of that time he engaged in the grain and cat- tle business, which he has"followed, more or less, ever since. In 1874, he entered into 'partnership with D. B. Kenyon, and purchased the elevator, and in the fall of 1878, the flouring-mill. " After the latter was destroyed by fire in January. 1879. the firm erected the present mill on the site of the old one, and carried on the business until February 16. 1887, when Mr. Wood sold his interest to Mr. Kenyon. After the dissolution of the partnership the present firm of W. G. Wood & Co., cattle deal- ers, was formed. They are the owners of about twenty-five hundred aeres of land, and are exten- sive feeders of stock, usually having on hand about one thousand head.
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Mr. Wood was born in Waukesha County, Wis., March 21, 1845, and is the son of John and Mary Wood, natives of England, who came to America about 1814, shortly after their marriage, and set- tled in the Badger State. where they still reside. They were the parents of eight children, six of whom were boys. our subject being the eldest.
W. G. Wood received his education in the dis- triet school which he attended until he attained the age of fourteen years, and then entered a store as clerk. The war for the preservation of the I'nion was in progress, when, in the summer of 1864, in order that the veterans might go to the front, the Governors of several of the Western States offered a number of men for a hundred days' service for garrison and police duty, which was accepted by the General Government. Mr. Wood enlisted in Company B, Thirty-ninth Wisconsin Infantry. one
of these regiments. After his discharge, he was employed in a grocery store at Milwaukee until January, 1865, when he re-enlisted in Company E, Forty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry, serving until the close of the war. He was on garrison duty at Mem- phis, Tenn., in 1864, and at Ft. Scott, Kan., in 1865, receiving his final discharge in Jaunary. 1866. Returning to his home in Wisconsin. he was employed as a clerk until April, 1869, when he re . moved to Sioux City, and. after looking around for a homestead, went to work for a flour and feed firm. In the spring of 1871, be entered the em- ploy of Booge & Co .. with whom he remained as mentioned above.
Mr. Wood was married April 23, 1873, to Miss Matilda A. Barber.Ta native off Genesee County, Mich., who was born May 4, 1849, and is the daughter of Henry and Phobe Barber, the former of whom was a native] of Ireland, who died in Genesee County. Miss Barber came to Onawa in the fall of 1871, to visit a sister, and was married here. By this union there have been two children: Zella E., who was born April 17, 1871, and Arthur W., September 30, 1876.
Mr. Wood is a member of Vesper [Lodge, No. 223. A. F. & A. M .. and a charter member of Hans- com Post,5 No. 97, G. A. R. His wife is a member of the Congregational Church.
G EORGE II. HOLLANDSWORTII, the man- ager of the Bowman Lumber Company, at Mapleton, and one of the promising young business men of that village, was born near Peoria, in Peoria County. Ill., July 29, 1863, and is the son of John C. and Sarah ( Bird) Hollands- worth. His father, a native of Witheville, W. Va., was born December 12, 1819, and his mother, a native of Elizabethtown, Hardin County. Ky., was born May 10, 1830. They both removed to Illi- nois, with their parents, at an early day, and settled in Peoria County, where they were married. John C. Hollandsworth followed farming as a vocation until 1866, when he removed to Prairie City, Me- Donough County. Ill., where he embarked in the
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mercantile trade. He remained there. thus engaged until 1879, when he removed to Storm Lake, Buena Vista County, Iowa, at which place he lived a re- tired life until July 15, 1885, when he passed away to his reward. The mother makes her home at Mapleton.
George 11. Hollandsworth removed with his pa- rents to MeDonongh County, Ill., and Buena Vista County, this State, and besides receiving an educa- tion in the common schools, took a full course at Bayliss's Business College, at Dubuque, from which he graduated May 1, 1883. For a short time he was at home with his father, but about July 1, 1884, entered the employ of the Bowman Lumber Company, at Odebolt, with which company he has remained up to the present writing, coming to Mapleton in July, 1886. He is a member of Quarry Lodge No. 104, A. F. & A. M., of Mapleton, Syria Chapter No. 104, R. A. M., at Ida Grove, and Sioux City Consistory, Scottish Rite Masons.
Mr. Hollandsworth, May 1, 1888, was united in marriage with Miss Mary Hart, a native of Clinton County, lowa, who was born November 30, 1867, and is a daughter of Hiram A. and Mary J. Hart. One child has blessed their home, George Hart, born December 6, 1888.
G RANVILLE P. LINVILLE, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Soldier Township, residing on section 8, was born in Platte County, Mo., December 19, 1839, and is the son of G. H. and Sarah (Burriss) Linville, natives of Tennessee and Missouri, respectively. When he was but a child his parents moved to Buchanan County, in the same State, and a few years later to Nodaway County, Mo., and in the latter he received his education. In 1854 he removed again with the family and settled in Mills County, Iowa, upon a farm. He assisted his father in the labor of car- rying on his place, and made his residence beneath the parental roof until attaining his majority, when renting a piece of land in the same county, he commenced agricultural life on his own account. In the spring of 1871, he passed into Fremont
County, this State, where he purchased a piece of wild land and improved it and brought it under cultivation, and remained there until the spring of 1881, when he came to Monona County and settled on the place where he now lives. The farm which he purchased was partly improved, there being two houses upon it, which he moved together, thus making a very commodious residence. Ile has some three hundred and twenty acres of land on the Soldier River bottom, which has no superior, and which he has brought to a high state of culti- vation. He is giving some attention to the raising of stock in which he meets with the usual success.
Mr. Linville was married December 19, 1860, in Mills County, Iowa, to Miss Polly A. Jones, a na- tive of Andrew County, Mo., and daughter of W. Robert and Olive (Dodge) Jones, and by this union they have had a family of nine children: George. Ida, Robert, Brick, May, Lewis, Eva, Delia, and Edwin.
HARLES SMITH. Many of the more en- terprising and progressive farmers of Monona County owe their birth or parentage to the New England States, where, under the stress of a hard climate and a stony soil, they have learned the efficacy of hard work in farm life. Among them is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, who is a leading citizen of Belvidere Township.
Mr. Smith was born in Somerset County, Me., December 17, 1840. Nicholas Smith, his father, a native of the same State, born November 24, 1811, of English parentage, has been engaged in farming near Richmond, a suburb of Portland, ever since attaining manhood. In April 1837, the latter was nnited in marriage with Miss Lucy Nudd, a native of Wolfborough, N. II., born May 28, 1814, of old New England stock. Of this union there were four children: George W., who is carry . ing on the old homestead in Maine; Charles, of whom this sketch is written; Jane, deceased, and Henry F., still living at home.
Charles Smith was reared to manhood on his father's farm in the old Pine Tree State, receiv- ing a good common-school education in the days
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of his youth. ITe remained at home until the fall of 1867, when he came West and located in Grant Township, in this county, in November. He rented land and. as he remarks, was just in time to be caught by the grasshopper plague of 1868. The following spring he removed to Kennebee Town- ship, and on a rented piece of land resided about three years after which he removed to Belvidere Township, settling on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres on section 1. which was purchased in 1871 by his father and still belongs to that gentle- man. Wisely, he is giving considerable attention to the stock-raising interest, and ranks with the enterprising agriculturists of that section of the county.
February 27, 1872, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Claracy Amanda Winegar, the daughter of Frederick D. and Lodema ( Blanchard) Winegar, a sketch of whom is given elsewhere in this volume. She was born in Pottawattamie County, near Council Bluffs, February 2, 1849, and was brought to Monona County, when a child. in 1855. Mr and Mrs. Smith have had a family of three children: Mark N., born February 27, 1879; Agnes L., January 13, 1883; and Ruth A., December 25, 1884.
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AMES MeNEILL, a farmer who is residing on the Holbrook farm on section 29, Ashton Township, which he holds under lease, is extensively engaged in the stock business, having upon his place some thirty head of horses, and over one hundred of cattle, most of the latter being high grade Durham Short-horns.
Mr. McNeill was born amid the beautiful sur- roundings of the now famous Conemaugh Valley. in Somerset County, Pa., July 10, 1831, and is the son of Laughlin and Sarah McNeill, an epitome of whose life's history appears in the biography of Edwin R. McNeill, in this volume. James remained at home with his parents, receiving in his youth facilities for obtaining an education in the district schools of that locality but, at the age of twenty-
one, having married Miss Sarah Siner, a native of the same county, he started in life by tilling the soil of a rented farm in the neighborhood of his father's place. Subsequently he purchased a small farm there which he sold in 1872 and came to Mo- nona County, stopping for a few days in Black Hawk County, this State, on the way.
Mr. and Mrs. McNeill have a family of seven children living. and three that died in infancy. Those who yet brighten their fireside bear the fol- lowing names: Marcellus, Ella, Allen, Emma, Katie, Bruce, and Willie.
Mr. McNeill is one of the representative citizens of Ashton Township and, while not seeking noto- riety, is known over a considerable expanse of country as one of our ablest and most careful stock-raisers and enjoys the esteem and respect of all with whom he comes in contact.
6 SHOMAS MEANS, who is engaged in farm- ing and stock-raising on seetion 2. JJordan Township, was born in Mercer County, Pa., August 10, 1842. His father, Ilugh Means, a na- tive also of the same county, was born about 1807, and was a miller and shoemaker by trade. In 1842 he removed to Jackson County, near Bellevue. lowa, where he died. Hle was married at the age of twenty or twenty-one to Miss Elizabeth Rotroft, a native of Baltimore, Md., who was born in 1811, and who is still living in Jackson County, Iowa.
Thomas, the seventh in a family of ten children, came with his parents in childhood to lowa, and at Bellevue, on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, grew to manhood. On the death of his father he commenced working on a farm and continued in that line of employment until he was some twenty- three years of age, laboring for other parties. For two years, subsequently, he worked on rented land after which he emigrated to Burt County, Neb .. where he took up a claim of one hundred and twenty aeres of land, and made his home for seven years. Selling out, he returned to his former resi- dence, and there and in other places, followed various avocations until the spring of 1875, when
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he came to Monona County and renting a farm in St. Clair Township, took up his residence there. Leaving this county in 1879, he went to Oregon and in that State and Montana Territory remained until 1882, when once more he returned to Monona County. Purchasing eighty acres of land on see- tion 2. he has developed it into an excellent farm, and has there made his home ever since.
Mr. Means was married in 1861, to Miss Lucinda Bicksler, a native of Jackson County, Iowa, who was born March 12, 1845, and is a daughter of Thomas J. and Mary (JJonas) Bicksler. Her mother died April 1, 1869. Mr. and Mrs. Means have had a family of four children: George M., born No. vember 13, 1864; Solomon W., July 3, 1873; William, born March 1, 1866, died November 15, 1871; and Burt, born December 17, 1879.
As a relie of the past Mr. Means still preserves the team of mules that he drove through to the Pacific Coast and back, one of whom is twenty-eight years old, and the other past seventeen. Both of them will run to him on every occasion. well know- ing their old master.
W ILSON M. MeBEATII, one of the most ex- tensive farmers and stock-raisers of Lake Township, bas his neat and tasty residence on seetion 34.
Mr. MeBeath was born in Clinton County, Mo., September 8, 1852, and is the son of James and Amner B. McBeath, and is of Scottish ancestry. He remained at home with his parents, receiving bis education in the district schools of that portion of the State, and had early instilled into him the principles of agriculture, the source of his present success. In search of a place where lands were cheaper and where there was a greater scope for his efforts, in February, 1876, our subject came to Monona County, and on a farm in Lake Township. which he rented, commenced life for himself. This was on section 34. The land and the location meeting lis views to a certain extent, he purchased the place two years later, and there made his home until 1882. At that time some other land in the
same township was offered for sale, and, knowing 'it to be superior to his own, he disposed of the lat. ter and bought the one hundred and twenty-six aeres. Since that time he has been constantly ad- ding to his place. until he has now a fine farm of three hundred and forty-six aeres, all but forty of which, is under cultivation or seeded to grass. Hle is giving a large share of his attention to stock- raising, keeping on hand nearly always from fifteen to twenty head of horses, eighty to one hundred head of cattle, and about one hundred and fifty hogs.
Mr. MeBeath was married June 5, 1876, to Miss Emma J. Swackhammer, a native of Wayne County, Ohio, and a daughter of John and Eliza Swaekham- mer. By this union they have had a family of five children: Ernest V., Grace, Nev, Ethel and Verna.
E DWARD CLARK, a prominent and well- known old settler of Monona County, came from Waterloo, Iowa, by team in the fall of 1855, and October 6, located in Lincoln Township. Ile remained there until March 20, 1856, when he removed to section 34, Lake Township, where he bad pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres upon which he still resides, carrying on these many years the quiet vocation of a farmer's life.
Mr. Clark was born in Richland County, Ohio, January 19, 1828, and is the son of George and Elizabeth Clark. His father, in his early days, had been a shoemaker, but the earliest remembrance of our subject, was upon a farm. In his native county the latter received his education, ard re mained beneath the parental roof until about seven- teen years of age. Going then to De Kalb County, Ind., for some three years he was engaged in clear- ing up a farm, in the heavy timber. for his brother George. Eight years in all he made his home in that locality, and then removed to Iowa, loeating in Waterloo, Black Hawk County, where he engaged at all kinds of freighting and teaming, to that point from Dubuque and Davenport. He removed to Monona County in June, 1855, and found but few settlers here. He passed the next fall and winter
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in Lincoln Township and then purchased the land in Lake Township upon which he located the fol- lowing spring. Many reminiscences of the trials and tribulations of life upon the frontier, are told by this old settler, whose life has been passed within its limits, and his growth has been with its development. Honored and respected by every one who knows him, which includes a wide circle, he is enjoying the fruits of a life spent in industry and hard work.
Mr. Clark was united in marriage July 27, 1848, with Miss Rachel Jane llite, a native of Guernsey, County. Ohio, who was born November 28, 1828, and is the daughter of James and Ann Hite. Of this union there has been born a family of seven children: George W., James, and Iliram E., de- ceased; Millard F .. Gilbert 1., Beecher, deceased ; and Almira C.
B ENJAMIN N. DANFORTII, a farmer in the township of Lake, residing on section 2, where he has a large improved farm of two hundred and thirty-five acres, came to Monona County in July, 1872, and for about two years labored upon a rented farm in the adjoining township of West Fork. At about the expiration of that period, he purchased the land where he now lives, at that time totally unimproved, but by energy, good judgment and business tact, has brought it to its present state of culture and im- provement.
Mr. Danforth is a native of Worcester County, Mass., born March 30, 1840. lle received his ed- ucation in the schools of the Old Bay State, and made his home with his parents until he was eigh teen years of age. In the spring of 1859 he started for the golden shores of California, and re- mained upon the Pacific Coast, in California, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada for ten years. Feeling a desire to visit the scenes of his childhood, his parents, and the friends of his youth, in 1869 he returned to New England, and after visiting in Massachusetts for a few months, came West. He settled in Galesburg, Knox County, IH., where he made his
home until the summer of 1872, when he made his way to this county as stated above.
While a resident of Galesburg he was united in marriage with Miss Bertha Johnson, a resident of that city. By this union there have been born three children : George S., Alice J., and Edwin J., all of whom are living.
HENRY TALBOY, M.D. As a repre- sentative of the self-made men of this eoun- try, who have been, unaided, the architects of their own fortunes, and who have by their own efforts obtained the education that fits them for a professional hfe, there is probably no more interesting example than the gentleman of whom this sketch is written. He is a son of Ben- jamin and Marthia (Garner) Talboy, and was born in Connecticut, December 14, 1860. When he was about two years of age his parents left New England, and settled in Warren County, Iowa, where the father was engaged in a woolen-mill, and where they still reside.
The Doctor first attended school at Palmyra, Warren County, Iowa, at which he continued an attendance until at eighteen years of age, being ambi- tious of pursuing his studies through the higher branches, he commenced teaching school, and for six terms followed that profession, the last two as Principal of the Palmyra schools. During all of this time he was engaged in the study of medicine with J. D. Blake, M.D., in the same city, and in the fall of 1881, having by his own exertions amassed the necessary means, he entered the medi- cal department of the Iowa State University, at Iowa City, from which institution he was gradu- ated with honors, March 5, 1884. Having now grasped the situation and obtained the sought-for qualifications, he located at Carlisle, Iowa, and commenced practice. About this time J. W. Davis of Belvidere, this county, who had been corres- ponding with him, induced him to come to that locality, and should have met him at the train, but, for some unexplained reason, did not. The Doctor procuring a pony at Onawa, rode across the bottom
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to Belvidere, with the water, which owing to the floods in the river over-flowed its surface. up to the horse's sides. On the arrival at his journey's end. he was not much pleased at the prospect, seeing but few people and lots of water, and dis- gusted, returned to his family, telling his wife that Belvidere consisted of a big red barn. The July following, however, through the influences of letters which he received, he started again for Monona County, concluding to stay this time whether he liked it or not. Coming by way of Mapleton, and seeing the country under more favorable aspects, he felt better pleased, and arrived at Belvidere July 10, 1884, and that afternoon received a call to visit J. B. Frazier's sick child, and has been making visits in that locality ever since. In May, 1888, the Doctor removed to Castana, and pur- chased the building, stock and business of the drug- store of R. HI. Loucks, and is the present proprietor of that institution. When he arrived in this county, having used his little capital in furthering his education, he was almost penniless, but his ability and energy are rapidly placing him in a posi- tion of independence.
Mr. Talboy was united in marriage July 13, 1882, with Miss Elizabeth M. Jury, the daughter of Enos and Sidney ( Wright) Jury, and a native of Warren County, Iowa. They are the parents of four children, as follows: Lena C., born February 17, 1884; Arebie L., September 27, 1885; Robert E .. January 12, 1887; and Della Irene, July 14; 1889.
EVI D. KITTLE, the present Sheriff of Monana County, came to Onawa on May 17, 1867, and engaged in real-estate trans- actions. In the fall of the same year he went to the eastern part of this State and purchased a stock of horses and buggies, with which he returned and engaged in the livery business, and was the pioneer in that line in the city. In August, 1868, he dis- posed of his business and entered the store of Charles Atkins as clerk and express agent, with whom he remained two years. Until 1876 he was engaged in contracting and building throughout
this section of the country, but at the latter date was employed by the county board to take charge of its bridge work. He remained in this capacity giving general satisfaction, until the fall of 1885. Receiving a nomination for Sheriff at the Demo- cratie Convention that summer, a nomination that was fully indorsed at a later date by the Greenback Convention, and being a decidedly popular man in the community, he was elected to the office by a handsome majority. He entered upon the duties of his official station with the new year of 1886, and proving an efficient officer, was re-elected his own successor, and at the election in 1889 was re. elected for the third term. He has also been hon- ored by his party by the nomination for the office of County Auditor at different times, but owing to their being in the minority, he has sustained defeat, although he ran much ahead of his ticket. Several times Mr. Kittle has served as a member of the city council, an office which he now holds. He is a member of Monona Lodge, No. 380, 1. O. O. F., and is the present Noble Grand.
Mr. Kittle was born in Wyoming County, N. Y., February 2, 1835, and is a son of Moses and Eleanor (Decker) Kittle, natives of New Jersey, of German descent. His father was engaged in the lumbering business on the Genesee River, in New York, until 1849, when he removed to Wan- kesha County, Wis., and settled in Oconomowoc, being one of the earliest pioneers of that vicinity. Purchasing land, he there engaged in farming until the fall of 1854, when he removed to Clinton County, this State, where he is still residing, and although eighty-five years of age, still lives on the farm. Ilis wife died on the place in 1872.
Levi D. Kittle was the fifth child in a family of seven born to his parents, and removed with them to Wisconsin and to lowa. He was reared at home upon a farm, receiving his education, a most ex- cellent one, in the common and high schools of Oconomowoc, and assisted in carrying on the farm until 1857. On the 31st of May of that year he was united in marriage with Esther Ann Clark, a native of Canada, who was born October 9. 1835. Mr. Kittle then bought a farm in Clinton County, where the young couple commenced honsekeeping, and he carried on the outdoor operations. This he
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continued until the spring of 1865, when selling ont he engaged in the mercantile trade, for abont two years, at Maquoketa, Jackson County, lowa. after which he came to Onawa, as above stated.
Mr. and Mrs. Kittle have a family of six chil- dren: Mary Eva, who was born Feb. 27, 1858; Francis F., born April 16, 1859, who was aeci- dentally drowned May 19, 1871 ; George Vine, born July 13, 1861; Carrie W., August 31, 1867; Ilar- land Spencer, September 21. 1872; and Nelhe Emma, August 9, 1875.
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