USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, from the earliest historic times to 1907, Vol. II > Part 12
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The parents are supporters of the Lutheran church and Mr. Lippold gives his political allegiance to the democracy. He has served as school director and is also constable of the township. He is recognized as a young man of excellent business capacity, with an aptitude for successful management, and as the years have gone by he has met with success in his farming opera- tions because of his untiring diligence and perseverance.
EMMET TINLEY.
Emmet Tinley, an able representative of the bar of Pottawattamie county, who has sucessfully engaged in practice at Council Bluffs for almost twenty years, is a western man by birth, training and preference. He was born on the 22d of September, 1867, in Macon county, Missouri, but was only two years old when brought to Council Bluffs by his parents, M. H. and Rosa (Dolan) Tinley, in whose family were eight children, five sons and three daughters, all residents of Council Bluffs except one sister who lives in New York. The father removed from Illinois to Missouri and from the latter state came to this city in 1869.
Emmet Tinley passed the days of his boyhood and youth here and is indebted to the city schools for the educational privileges he enjoyed, com- pleting the high-school course by graduation in the class of 1886. Deciding to enter the legal profession he took up the study of law with Colonel D. B. Dailey and on passing the required examination was admitted to the bar on the 3d of October, 1888. Forming a partnership with Ambrose Burke, he immediately began the practice of his profession, but this connection was dissolved on the 1st of June, 1890. In October, 1902, he became a member of the firm of Burke, Harle & Tinley and since the death of Mr. Burke, in July, 1903, the firm has been known as Harle & Tinley. They are today at the head of a large and lucrative practice and are recognized as two of the most prominent attorneys of the city.
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On February 19, 1901, Mr. Tinley was married in Council Bluffs to Miss Elsie Pusey, a daughter of N. M. Pusey, an old resident of this city, and to them have been born two children, namely: Gertrude Mary and Elsie Pusey Tinley. In his fraternal relations Mr. Tinley is connected with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The democratic party has always found in him a stanch supporter of its prin- ciples and he is recognized as a man of influence in the community. He was made a member of the school board in 1907 and is now serving as presi- dent of the same, having always taken a deep and commendable interest in educational affairs. As a public-spirited citizen he does all in his power to promote the interests of the city and never withholds his support from any measure which he believes will advance the general welfare.
AUGUST KLOPPING.
August Klopping, who in former years was actively and closely associated with agricultural interests, is now living retired with his children and the fact of his long residence in this county, combined with his sterling worth, renders it imperative that mention be made of him in this volume. He was born in Prussia, Germany, July 20, 1834, and there resided to the age of twenty years, when the opportunities of the new world attracted him and he bade adieu to friends and native land preparatory to sailing for America. Landing in 1854 on the eastern coast, he continued his way across the country to Freeport, Illinois. He is largely a self-educated as well as self- made man, having few advantages in early life. After his arrival in Illinois he worked at farm labor by the month for a year and in 1855 journeyed west- ward to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where for two months he was employed in a brickyard. He then secured a situation on a farm, spending a year in that way, after which he bought a team and engaged in hauling lumber from St. Joseph to Council Bluffs, thus spending one winter. He afterward engaged in teaming for several years.
In the county seat, in 1858, Mr. Klopping was married to Miss Ann Hatcher, a native of Germany. They located on a farm in Shelby county, Mr. Klopping opening up a new place of one hundred and twenty acres, which he cultivated and improved, bringing the fields under a high state of cultivation during the four years in which he lived on that place. He then sold out and returned to Illinois, where he resided for a year, after which he again made his way to Council Bluffs. Soon afterward he bought a tract of land where the town of Underwood now stands, a part of it lying within the corporation limits. This was in 1866. He took up his abode thereon and improved and farmed the place until 1901, rearing his family there and developing from his land one of the best improved farm properties of the community. He owns altogether six hundred and seventy-two acres of land, of which forty acres lies within the corporation limits of Underwood.
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There are three sets of buildings upon this place and the land is now very valuable owing to the care and labor which has been bestowed upon it.
He afterward purchased a home in Underwood and lived retired there for three years, during which time his wife died on the 31st of December, 1904, and was laid to rest in Fairview cemetery of Council Bluffs. In their family were ten children but three are now deceased, the others being: K. W., who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume; A. L., a substantial farmer of Norwalk township; Anna, the wife of Ed Geise, a farmer of York township; Sophia, the wife of John Anderson, an agriculturist of Norwalk township; Emma, the wife of J. W. Stageman, of Randolph, Nebraska; Louis, a farmer of Wayne, Nebraska; and August, a rancher of Cherry county, Nebraska.
Mr. Klopping was reared in the faith of the Lutheran church but now attends the services of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. He is a democrat in his political views and has held various local positions of honor and trust, serving as school treasurer for fifteen years. His life is indeed com- mendable, for in its various phases he has commanded and enjoyed the esteem and trust of his fellowmen, while in business circles he has won that success which arises from honorable, well directed and consecutive effort. He has made judicious investments and as the years came and went he car- ried on the farm work so ably that his place constantly increased in value. His record shows what may be accomplished when one has determination and energy, these constituting the key that will always unlock the portals of prosperity.
JOHN G. WADSWORTH.
John G. Wadsworth, who is successfully engaged in the farm loan busi- ness in Council Bluffs, was born in Pierce county, Wisconsin, in 1859, and is a son of John G. and Mary A. (Wainwright) Wadsworth, who were pioneers of that state, having located there in 1852. The father was born in East Aurora, New York, and died in Blair, Nebraska, in 1900, at the age of seventy-five years, while the mother, who was a native of Newark on Trent, Nottinghamshire, England, died at the same place in 1905, when eighty years of age.
In 1865 John G. Wadsworth of this review accompanied his parents on their removal to Eaton Rapids, Michigan, but a year later they took up their abode in Chippewa county, Wisconsin, remaining there until he entered the Illinois State University at Champaign, Illinois, in 1876. Owing to ill health he was obliged to leave school in 1877 and went to Dakota to recuperate, remaining there about two years. He then returned to Champaign and was graduated in 1882.
After completing his education Mr. Wadsworth went to Arizona as assistant bridge engineer for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company, in whose employ he remained for two years, and in the summer of 1884 came to Council Bluffs and entered the service of Burnham, Tulleys & Company in
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the farm loan business. On leaving that firm in 1888 he went to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he engaged in a similar business for four years and then returned to Council Bluffs. In 1892 he became a member of the firm of Tulleys, Walters & Wadsworth, which in 1895 was changed to Walters & Wadsworth and since the death of Mr. Walters in 1906 business has been carried on under the name of J. G. Wadsworth, our subject having entire charge.
In 1886 Mr. Wadsworth was united in marriage to Miss Katharine M. Baker, a native of Champaign, Illinois, who died in 1899, leaving one son, John B., who was born November 8, 1898. He was again married in 1906, his second union being with Mrs. Lora L. Crossland, of Chillicothe, Missouri, and to them has been born a son, Edwin H., born May 22, 1907.
Mr. Wadsworth is a member of the First Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder, and also belongs to Bluff City lodge, No. 71, A. F. & A. M .; Star chapter, No. 47, R. A. M .; Ivanhoe commandery, No. 17, K. T., and- to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His political support has always been given the men and measures of the republican party and he has been a delegate to several conventions-state, congressional and judicial. He is prominent in business circles in Council Bluffs and is chairman of the executive committee of the Commerical Club. Keen and clear headed, always busy, always careful and conservative in financial matters, moving slowly but surely in every transaction, he has few superiors in the steady progress which invariably reaches the objective point.
JOHN B. LONG.
John B. Long is prominent both in business and social circles of Council Bluffs and has for twenty years been engaged in the wall-paper and paint business in this city. He was born in Clermont county. Ohio, in 1858. In 1869 he removed to Iowa, settling first in Knoxville, where he spent two years attending the public schools, so completing the preliminary education which he received in his former home. His family removed at the end of two years to Council Bluffs and Mr. Long decided that he would no longer attend school but would enter the business world. For eighteen months he was a most efficient clerk in a store and at the end of that time concluded that the man who made a success of his life in a business way was the man who had a trade in which he was proficient. Accordingly Mr. Long began to learn the painter's trade and in 1887 opened a store for the sale of wall paper and paints, taking contracts for both and making a specialty of fine work.
Mr. Long was married in Council Bluffs to Viola S. Niles, and this union has been blessed with three children: Elmer R., Hazel G. and John B., a bright and interesting family. Though he belongs to no church, he has always attended the Baptist church and has given it a generous and hearty support. He is a member of the Elks lodge and of the Ancient Order
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of United Workmen as well as a most active member of the Commercial Club, always ready to further its every interest. He is an artist in his line of business and those who desire exclusive designing always find Mr. Long expert in satisfying the most fastidious tastes. He is frank and open in his dealings and devoted to the interests of his business and of his family. For the twenty years that he has been in business in this city he has always been surrounded by a large circle of friends who hold him in the highest esteem.
GEORGE W. CROSSLEY.
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George W. Crossley is numbered among the pioneer residents of Pottawat- tamie county, having resided within its borders since 1853. At that time there was not a home between the family log cabin and Council Bluffs. Almost the entire countryside was 'a trackless and windswept prairie without indication of the work of cultivation which was soon to transform it into one of the most productive agricultural districts of the entire Union.
Mr. Crossley was born in Lincolnshire, England, August 6, 1851, and was therefore but two years of age at the time of the emigration of the family to the new world. His parents, William and Susan (Hand) Crossley, were both natives of England and spent their last days in Garner township, Potta- wattamie county, Iowa, where the mother died in 1862 and the father in 1882 at the age of seventy-two years.
In early life William Crossley . crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel which was sixteen weeks in making the voyage. They encountered a storm, in which the mast was blown off and the ship was given up for lost. At length, however, anchor was dropped in an American port and, proceeding into the interior of the country, Mr. Crossley purchased land in Washing- ton county, Ohio. He then returned to England, was married there and remained a resident of his native country until after the birth of all of his children, when he again came to the United States, this time accompanied by his family. He never returned to his Ohio property and got nothing from his first purchase.
It was in 1853 that Mr. Crossley brought his family to the United States, landing at New Orleans, whence they proceeded up the Mississippi river to Keokuk and thence crossed the state with a wagon and ox team, arriving in Pottawattamie county in the month of June. The father bought eighty acres of wild land where the house now stands and continued to add to his first purchase from time to time as opportunity offered until at his death, in connection with his son, George W. Crossley, he was the owner of three hundred and twenty acres, the greater part of which was improved.
At the time of the arrival of the family in this state there was not a single dwelling between their farm and Council Bluffs, nor was there a railroad in the state. Many evidences of pioneer life were seen, the homes being largely little cabins which sheltered brave frontiersmen, who had penetrated to the very borders of civilization in order to found homes for
TE PULLI LIOMAR,
ASTOR, LINUX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
Georger. M. Grossly
WILLIAM
CROSSLEY
THE NEW YOR. PUBLIC LIBRAR.
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILD N FOUNDATIONS.
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themselves and family in a district where land could be secured at cheaper rates. There was much wild game, and George W. Crossley remembers seeing many deer, but most of these perished in the severe winter of 1856-7. During the first winter after the arrival of the family in Pottawattamie county they lived in a dugout and the following spring moved into the log cabin which was their home until 1861, when a frame dwelling was erected that was occupied by the parents of our subject for many years. To the east of their home there was not a house for five miles when they came to the stage station, and the next stage station was ten miles still farther. They endured many hardships and privations incident to the settlement of a new country, being far from market and mill, while the implements for break- ing land and developing farms were very crude as compared to the modern machinery of the present time.
William Crossley had four children, as follows: Mary, who died at the age of sixteen years; Margaret, the wife of Sidney Fletcher, of Council Bluffs; Helen Jane, the widow of John A. Orr, of Harrison county; and George W., of this review. The parents of these children were members of the Church of England while living in their native land, but came to the United States to unite with the Mormon church, but on account of the health of Mrs. Crossley they did not continue their way to Salt Lake City and in due time left the church.
George W. Crossley, the only son of the family, always remained at home and worked with his father. Since the latter's death he has continued to add to his and his father's original holdings until he is now one of the most extensive landowners of this part of the state, his holdings embracing twelve hundred acres, extending two miles east and west and one mile north and south. Moreover, his farm is one of the best improved properties in this section of the country. About 1892 he erected a good residence upon his place, but five years later it was destroyed by fire and upon the original foundation he built his present home, which is one of the most attractive in the township. In 1884 he built a large stock and grain barn, and has ample shed room for the shelter of grain and stock. In all of his farm work he has been progressive and he is now devoting his time and energies almost exclusively to the raising and feeding of stock, keeping between four and five hundred head of cattle. Altogether, with his son, he has nearly eight hundred head of cattle, horses and sheep, his cattle being mostly graded shorthorns and Herefords. He has recently taken up the sheep industry and now has about five hundred head of sheep on his place. He also has twenty-five head of work horses and employs a number of men in the cultivation and improvement of his farm. His agricultural interests are equaled by that of few other agriculturists of the county and his success makes him one of the most prominent farmers of western Iowa.
In 1885 Mr. Crossley was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Holland, a daughter of Thomas Holland, and unto them have been born five children, namely: Bruce William, who was graduated from Ames College on the 6th of June, 1907, and is now teaching in that institution; Ralph, Mabel, Belle and George, all at home.
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In his political allegiance Mr. Crossley is a republican and keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day but has never been a poli- tician in the sense of office seeking. He has, however, served as a mem- ber of the school board for many years and the cause of public instruction finds in him a stalwart champion. He is noted for his generosity, always contributing liberally to worthy causes and the most envious cannot grudge him his success, so honorably has it been won and so worthily used. He shows none of that arrogance or ostentation which is so often manifest in those who have risen from humble financial positions to a place of affluence, but on the contrary has a cheery word and pleasant greeting for all and is quick to recognize the true worth of character in others. The name of Crossley is inseparably associated with Pottawattamie county and its development, especially along agricultural lines, and it would be difficult to find one in Garner township who has more intimate knowledge of its history than he whose name introduces this review.
H. W. GITTINS.
H. W. Gittins, who is successfully carrying on general agricultural pur- suits and the raising and feeding of stock, owns and cultivates a farm of two hundred acres on section 32, Neola township. This is a well improved and valuable property and in its careful management Mr. Gittins displays his keen business judgment and practical ideas.
Born in the county on the 20th of September, 1855, he is a son of Henry Gittins, a native of England, whose boyhood and youth were spent in that land. He was a farmer there and was identified with agricultural interests until after his marriage and the birth of their eldest child. Emigrat- ing to the United States in 1853 or 1854, he came immediately to Iowa, settling near Council Bluffs. Locating on a farm, he bought land in Boomer township and continued the cultivation of his fields until he reached the evening of life. He is now living with his son, H. W. Gittins, and is a hale and hearty man of eighty-six years. His life has been one of activity and energy crowned with success, and in the community where he resides he is respected as one of the worthy pioneer citizens.
H. W. Gittins early became familiar with the environments and condi- tions of pioneer life in Pottawattamie county, for his birth occurred here more than a half century ago. All around was the unbroken prairie, save here and there a settlement had been made by some sturdy pioneer. H. W. Git- tins was here reared and to the common-school system is indebted for the educational advantages he enjoyed. After putting aside his text-books he worked by the month as a farm hand for two years and then, ambitious to engage in farming on his own account, he rented land which he cultivated for three years. During that period he carefully saved his earnings and invested the capital in eighty acres on section 32, Neola township, where he now lives. It was then a tract of unbroken land. Today it is largely a
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model farm. He fenced it, cleared it, broke the sod, planted his crops and in due course of time gathered rich harvests. As his labors brought him success he added to the original tract as opportunity offered until he now has two hundred acres, constituting a splendid farm property. The fields are rich and well tilled and the buildings comprise a good residence, barns and commodious sheds. He has planted an orchard and some small fruit and on every part of his farm is seen the evidence of his careful supervision and practical methods. In the pastures are to be found good grades of stock, which he raises and feeds, making a specialty of high grade Poland China hogs and Hereford cattle, shipping from three to four car loads each year.
In Council Bluffs, on the 15th of August, 1881, Mr. Gittins was married to Miss Lucy Wilson, who was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a daugh- ter of J. G. Wilson, one of the early settlers of Pottawattamie county. Mr. and Mrs. Gittins have six living children: W. H., who is married and lives in Harrison county; Raymond W., who is with his brother in Harrison county ; Frank; Lee Morris; Pearl; and Myrtle.
Mr. Gittins politically is a republican, having supported the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. His official service is limited to four years' connection with the school board, for he has never sought or desired public office. His wife is a member of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Gittins is a Knight of Pythias. In the community where he lives and where he has labored to goodly ends he is greatly esteemed for the pos- session of those traits of character which render him a progressive citizen and an enterprising business man.
FRED HOLST.
Fred Holst for the past ten years has lived retired in Treynor, but for a long period was closely associated with agricultural interests. His residence in the county dates from 1869, in which year he arrived in Council Bluffs. Born in the northern part of Germany, January 29, 1849, his parents were Fred and Margaretta Holst. The father died in Germany and the mother afterward married a Mr. Kiel, with whom she came to this country, settling in Council Bluffs in 1866. Mr. Kiel is now located at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and while in this city was engaged in the wholesale liquor business as a member of the firm of Linder & Kiel. His wife died at Sioux Falls in 1904 at the advanced age of eighty-three or eighty-four years. She had four children, one son, Jacob Kiel, of Sioux Falls, being born of her second mar- riage. The three children of her first marriage were: Fred, of this review; Dick Holst, who is proprietor of the Kiel Hotel at Council Bluffs; and Henry, deceased.
At the usual age Fred Holst entered school and pursued his studies in Germany until he became a youth of fifteen years. He then hired as a cabin boy on board a sailing vessel for a voyage to the west coast of South America
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by way of Cape Horn. The captain of the vessel was his unele and the trip consumed one year. Later he made three round trips, thus passing Cape Horn six times. He spent five years on the ocean and one year-1868-in studying navigation at the suggestion of his uncle. He passed examination and was captain before he was twenty years of age. Leaving Germany in order to avoid military service, he made his way to Boston, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1869, sailing from Liverpool in March. Following his arrival at the American port he sailed again to the Mediterranean, to France and along the Atlantic coast of America. In the fall of 1869 he rejoined his mother and the family in Council Bluffs and since that time has never been connected with the sea. His experiences were in many respects novel and interesting, bringing him a knowledge of many ports and of the peoples of various countries.
At Council Bluffs Mr. Holst hired cut at common labor and in this county worked as a farm hand, being entirely inexperienced when he took his place in the fields. He found the pursuit congenial, however, and has made it his life work. As an agriculturist he has been very successful, the years bringing to him a desirable prosperity as a reward for his persistence, his energy and capable management. In 1876 he located in Washington township, where he rented a farm from Mr. Casady, after which he engaged in the cattle business. His operations in live-stock have been extensive and profitable and as his financial resources have increased he has made judicious investments in real-estate, until he is now one of the large landowners of the county, his possessions aggregating over twelve hundred acres lying in Wash- ington, Silver Creek, Keg Creek and Belknap townships. He continued actively in business until about ten years ago, when he retired to enjoy in well earned rest the fruits of his former toil.
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