USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 41
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Doctor Andre was married in 1884 to Cora A. Pettit, of Storm Lake, Iowa, and to this marriage have been born three children : Mrs. Edna R. Reedy, of Amarillo, Texas; Dorothy J., who is at home with her par- ents, and Thomas J., Jr., who was born February 9, 1906.
The Republican party has claimed the vote of Doctor Andre, but the nature of his profession has prevented him from being an active par- ticipant in politics. However, he has served his township as school di- rector for a number of years, in which he has done good service for his community. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accept- ed Masons and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is also a member of various medical societies, among which are the Sac County, Iowa State and American Medical Societies. He is also a member of the Western (27)
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Surgical and Gynecological Society. Doctor Andre's life has been char- acterized not only by the high order of his medical ability, but also by that tact and human sympathy which overleaps mere sentiment and is a prominent factor in the life of the successful practitioner. It is the mix- ture of smile with medicine which wins the patient's confidence and starts him on the high road to recovery. This genial manner is characteristic of Doctor Andre and is one of the reasons for his pronounced success in this locality.
LEONARD L. GOREHAM.
It is not improper to judge of the success and status of a man's life by the estimation in which he is held by his fellow citizens. They have the opportunity of seeing him in his home, about his business, in his church, they hear his views on public questions, observe the workings of his code of morals, witness how he conducts himself in all the relations of life, both private and public. and thus they become competent to judge of his true worth. L. L. Goreham, who has spent practically his entire life in this com- munity, is one of the most respected of the citizens of Wheeler township, and therefore it is safe to conclude that his conduct in all the various affairs of life throughout the years has been actuated by the highest motives only.
Leonard L. Goreham was born in Clinton county, lowa, in August of 1870. being the son of J. P. and Charlotte Goreham, among the oldest settlers of Wheeler township, Sac county, and elsewhere in this volume will be found a sketch of the career of J. P. Goreham. Leonard L. Gore- ham was but four years old when the parents came to this county and has never lived elsewhere than on the homestead where his father established a typical pioneer home so many years ago. Since the time when he was first brought to this county great and wonderful improvements have been made along all lines, this locality at that time not having been occupied by the white man very long. The nearest postoffice to the Goreham home was at Vail, many miles distant, and between the farm and the town of Sac City there was not a house or tree visible. Mr. Gorcham recalls that the favorite Sunday pastime of his boyhood was the hunting of prairie chickens, of which they would sometimes gather scores. When a youth, he attended the district schools of their vicinity and assisted the father in the work about the home, thus acquiring information which has been of incalculable value in later years. In 1900 he received forty acres of land, including the
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homestead, from his father and there he has since made his home. He owns but the forty acres, but farms three hundred and twenty acres. In addition to his substantial home there are many other excellent buildings about the farm. There is a barn in size sixty-four by one hundred and two feet, and containing every convenience for the care of stock, etc. There is also an excellent granary. thirty-four by fifty feet, having a capacity of sixty-five hundred bushels of corn and eight thousand bushels of smaller grain. In addition to carrying on the regular work of the farm as relates to crops, etc., Mr. Goreham has more than local fame as a breeder of Perch- eron horses and Shorthorn cattle. He has eighteen head of thoroughbred Percherons and at the Sac county horse show in January of 1914. at Odebolt, he was awarded the second prize. Expert Kennedy pronounced the Goreham exhibit at the show held in Odebolt as worthy of exhibition anywhere, being a first grade exhibit. In addition to the thought and labor expended on his horses, he also has about fifty head of Shorthorn cattle. good pure-bred stock. The strain he has is of large size and therefore excellent beef pro- ducers. In conducting the business of his farm, Mr. Goreham employs only the latest and most approved methods of handling such business and is an earnest student along the lines in which he is most interested.
Mr. Goreham's political affiliation is with the Republican party and in the affairs of this party he takes more than a nominal interest. He has served Wheeler township as clerk and also school director, for twenty years being a member of the school board, serving as secretary and treasurer part of the time. In addition to the duties devolving upon him by reason of political connections, Mr. Goreham for two years has served as secretary of the Sac County Mutual Telephone Company and is also one of the directors of the Sac County Farmers' Institute. By reason of his connection with the breeding of Percheron horses, he has become a member of the Percheron Society of America. He is a director of the Wixcel Manufacturing Com- pany, manufacturers of hay loaders at Marcus, Iowa. Mr. Goreham is a communicant of Saint Martin's Roman Catholic church of Odebolt and his fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of Columbus at Carroll in Carroll county.
On September 18, 1894. Mr. Gorham was united in marriage with Sophronia Brennan, a native of Sac county and the daughter of Michael and Julia ( Delaney ) Brennan. Mrs. Goreham's mother was a native of Wisconsin, and was of Irish descent. Her father, Michael Brennan, a native of Pennsylvania, was a son of Michael, who was a native of Ireland. and now makes his home with her. He was born on May 2, 1841, and is,
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therefore, in his seventy-third year. The Brennan family came to Sac county in 1892 from their former home in Wisconsin, and took up their residence in Wheeler township. There were originally seven children in the family, four of whom are now living. Those other than Mrs. Gore- ham are Mary, wife of T. D. Hansen, residing in Manning, Iowa: William, who lives in Omaha, and John, who makes his home with the subject of this sketch. In the Goreham family there are three children, namely: Clarence L., born in May, 1897; Irene, born in January, 1900, and Laura, who was born in November, 1901.
Mr. Goreham has demonstrated in an unmistakable manner his eminent ability and efficiency in the discharge of both his private business and public duties and has won for himself from those who know him an enviable reputation as a man of strict integrity and one who has the courage of his convictions. He has, by his indomitable enterprise and progressive methods, contributed in a material way to the advancement of his locality and has in all the relations of life given evidence only of principles that were the highest and best.
SOLOMON PETERSON.
The history of Solomon Peterson is interesting because it shows what can be accomplished by a man who has the determination and persistence to follow any given task to its completion. His history begins in far-away Sweden, where he was born November 16, 1842, the son of Peter Johnson and Eva Ellen Peterson. In that country he was reared and received a good common school education. Sweden was one of the first countries of Europe to pass compulsory education laws and the percentage of illiteracy is lower in that country than in any country in the world. He lived the life of the ordinary Swedish boy until he reached his majority and then. hearing of the fortunes that were made in this New World, he began to consider seriously the question of coming here and finding out the truth for himself. He saved what little money he could get hold of and in the summer of 1864 there were four hundred men from his native country who decided to cast their fortunes with this new land of ours and of this four hundred, Solomon Peterson, aged twenty-two, was one. He barely had enough money to pay his passage, and when he landed at Quebec in Canada on August 16, 1864, he had twenty-five cents in his pocket. The story of his life which follows now, with this twenty-five cents as a basis.
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is one of the most interesting ones to be read in this volume. With this small sum of money he was able to buy enough food to last him from Que- bec to the Lake Superior mine, where he worked one year, but mining was not to his liking and in 1865 he went to Chicago where he worked at every- thing he could find for two months. In the fall of 1865 he went to Indiana and chopped wood and cut timber in the winter time for a farmer, all the time saving his money. In the winter of 1865 he joined his cousin in Henry county, Illinois, and worked there during the summer of 1866; he then went to Colorado and worked in the gold and silver mines in that state for four years. The year 1870 found him in Iowa, where he joined his brother in working in the coal mines in this state. He worked for a year in Logan & Canfield's mine and one year in the Mongona coal mines in Boone county. At this point in the history of Mr. Peterson's career, a new . chapter should be introduced.
When Solomon Peterson left his native country, in 1864, he left behind a pretty little fourteen-year-old girl by the name of Margaret Peterson. When she arrived in Iowa on June 6, 1870, it can truly be said that a new chapter in the history of Solomon Peterson began. They were married and began farming on a farm in Boone county, although he still worked in the mines in the winter. In 1873 Mr. Peterson made a trip to Sac county in order to investigate the prospect of settling in this county. Finally he pur- chased eighty acres of land in Wheeler township, for which he paid five dollars and a half an acre. The next spring he brought his family and built the third house in Wheeler township, a very small and very crude structure. twelve by sixteen feet, and now follows two years when there was a time it seemed that they would have to leave the township. One year the grass- hoppers ate his crops and the next year the rain washed it off, and what little wheat he had to sell brought him only ten to thirty-five cents a bushel, and then he had to haul it seventeen miles to market. There were months at a time when he did not have the price of a postage stamp. But he never gave up. He knew what it was to fight against all sorts of adverse circum- stances. He stuck to his farm and within five years he had his eighty acres paid for and enough money ahead to purchase forty acres adjoining his farm. He secured this for seven dollars and seventy-five cents an acre and within a few years bought another forty, for which he had to pay twenty- five dollars an acre. In 1800 he added another forty acres, but by this time the land had risen to ninety dollars an acre. Today he owns two hundred acres of land in Wheeler township in sections 27, 28 and 33, and can look the whole world in the face, for he owes not any man.
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It must not be thought that Mr. Peterson was devoting all of his time and energy to the accumulation of wealth. It is no exaggeration to say that he has done more for the early history, and later as well, of this township than any other man. He has the honor of making the first wagon track from the southern part of this township to Sac City and this wagon track which he made was used as a high road for a number of years. The second time he made a trip to Sac City was when as a constable he took a cattle thief to jail, and was nearly drowned while crossing Indian creek on the road over. Probably the thing that has redounded to the greatest credit of Mr. Peterson is the work which he did in securing the first public schools in Wheeler township. He is a man of education himself, and wished to see his children and his neighbor's children receive the advantages of an educa- tion. Accordingly one winter he drove from one neighbor to another urg- ing and insisting that they get together and force the authorities to provide school advantages in their township. It is needless to say that with such a man behind the move, it was successful. It is also interesting to note that this man, who has done so much for the township, is not a partisan in poli- tics and characterizes himself as an independent. His fellow citizens have elected him as township trustee and for twenty-five years he has been the director and treasurer of the insurance company of his county. In every enterprise he has been foremost and in everything he has become interested in he has thrown all of his might and energy towards making it a success. For over forty years he has been a Freemason.
Mr. and Mrs. Peterson have reared a family of nine children to lives of usefulness: Mary, the wife of Dr. C. A. Dails, of Sioux City: C. W., a yacht builder and an accomplished navigator now in New York City; Christina, the wife of John Sideris, of South Dakota, who has two children, Roy and Ruby: Alvin G., of Meadow, South Dakota; Ellen P., a nurse in Sioux City: Minnie, who has homesteaded a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre tract in South Dakota; Seth, who is on the home farm with his father ; Edward, of Chicago, Illinois, and Nina, who married Ed Moleen.
Too much credit can not be given Solomon Peterson for the work which he has done in behalf of his own township. As the oklest living pioneer of the township. he has seen it grow from a primitive prairie to one of the prosperous farming regions of the state ; he has seen its prairies turned into fields of waving grain, its swamps into fertile fields and its wagon trails into well-graded highways. Now. in the evening of his life. he can look back over a career which has been well spent in the service of his fellow men, a career which brings credit to himself. honor to his children and grati- fication to the community in which he has lived.
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CHARLES C. COY.
The subject of this review has had much to do in advancing the ma- terial interests of Odebolt, Iowa, and making it one of the important con- mercial centers of this section of the state. The study of such a life can not fail of interest and incentive, for he has been not only distinctively representative in his spheres of endeavor, but has established a reputation for integrity and honor. Though not now actively identified with business pursuits, he is still numbered among the substantial and worthy citizens of his community and none more than he deserves representation in a work of the character of the one in hand.
Charles C. Coy, a retired banker and business man of Odebolt, Iowa, was born October 20, 1866. in Kaneville, Kane county, Illinois. His par- ents were B .A. and Delete ( Crandall) Coy, he a native of Con- necticut. B. A. Coy was born in 1825 and died January 30, 1910. He was a son of John Coy, descendant of an old New England family. John Coy left his native state and moved to New York state, and in a few years moved to Kane county, Illinois, where B. A. Coy was reared and married. Delette Crandall was born in 1832 in New York, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Crandall, and died in December, 1912. She was descended from the Livermore family, who came from England to Boston in 1737. Her father moved from New York state to Marietta, Ohio, where he died. Some years after the marriage of B. A. Coy, he moved from Kane county, Illinois, to DeKalb county, in the same state, where they made their home until 1876, at which time they went to Sac county, Jowa, where they bought a large tract of land in Cook township, owning at one time over two thou- sand acres in this township. When the town of Odebolt was laid out they moved to this town and assisted in building it up. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. B. A. Coy: Dell, deceased: John, deceased; Nat, who resides in Florida; Mrs. Deborah Prichard, deceased, and Charles C., with whom this narrative deals.
Charles C. Coy was educated in the public schools of Illinois and Iowa, and later took a course in Wooster University at Wooster, Ohio. In 1881 he came with his parents to Odebolt, and was employed for six years in the State Bank of Odebolt, of which institution his father was one of the founders and vice-president for many years. Since 1887 he has looked after his extensive farming interests, which consists of one thousand and eighty acres of land in Cook township, four hundred and eighty acres of which he is operating himself.
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Mr. Coy was married in 1890 to Ida Carter, a daughter of Louis and Rachel ( Wheeler ) Carter. Mrs. Coy was born in Pontiac. Illinois, and came with her parents to Iowa in 1877, and lived in Buena Vista county, near Storm Lake, until 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Carter then moved to Odebolt, where they spent the remainder of their days. Mr. and Mrs. Coy are the parents of three children: Dell, who married Grace Fisher, and is now living on his father's farm: Rachel, a student of Grinnell College, Grinnell. Iowa, and Walter, of Tipton, Jowa.
Mr. Coy has always allied himself with the Democratic party and is interested in the success of his party, but has never been an active partisan. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and takes a live interest in the affairs of his fraternal organization. He is a man of kindly disposition, pleasant to every one, honest and thoroughly trustworthy. He is admired by all who know him for his uprightness and business integrity.
JOHN II. DENMAN.
All men are not gifted alike. Through the mysterious ways of an unseen power, individuals, while they are alike given similar opportuni- ties, naturally work out their destinies by diverse methods which yield different results. When the whole is computed, however, and the totals weighed, it will be found that in all countries the most gifted and those who are peculiarly endowed with foresight, which becomes more fully developed, are the persons whose enterprises are the most profitable. These things the biographer does not pretend to thoroughly explain. We can only decide that he who accomplishes extraordinary things is, and must be, deserving, otherwise an all-seeing Providence would withhold from him and his their rightful heritage. The reasonably large fortunes of the West have been created from the cultivation of the soil and by the exercise of a talent for determining land values and having a sincere and abiding faith in the inevitable. prosperous future of a great and growing country. There are many men in Sac county who have achieved wonderful and grati- fying success through the exercise of native talents, a keen financial abil- ity, and confidence in the certainty that land values would climb continu- ously on account of the wonderful richness of the soil and the constantly growing land hunger of the masses. One of the most substantial and repre- sentative citizens of the foregoing class in Sac City is John H. Denman,
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a native of the grand old Buckeye state, and who began with limited ad- vantages and has risen to a place of prestige among the landed agricul- turists of western Iowa through his own efforts solely. He possesses abid- ing faith in the wealth of the soil and its ability to retain its productive- ness and the certanity of its continuous rise in value.
J. H. Denman was born in Licking county, Ohio, August 30, 1846. He is the son of Matthias Denman and Elizabeth (Smith) Denman, who were alike born and reared in the Buckeye state. Matthias was the son of Hath- away Denman, a native of the state of New Jersey, and whose ances- tors came from England. In the fall of 1852 the Denman family migrated to MeLean county, Illinois, and there settled on a farm. Matthias died here, in the month of May, 1001. at the advanced age of eighty-two years. His wife had preceded him to the great beyond a few months before, dying in February, 1901, at the age of seventy-eight years. They were the parents of thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy: Martha, deceased in 1871: Lizzie, deceased in 1871; Charles, who died in 1899; Belle, deceased in 1900; Thomas, a resident of Boswell, Indiana: Mrs. Emma Gillstrap, of Tacoma. Washington: Mrs. Sarah J. Long, of Car- lock, Illinois: Daniel E., a citizen of Normal, Illinois ; and John H.
The citizen to whom this chronicle is devoted had the advantages of but a limited education in his youth. The family resided a considerable distance from a school and he was permitted to attend this very ordinary temple of learning for but four months in the winter seasons. Conse- quently, he is one of the great army of self-educated men who are counted among the successful men of many communities. He journeyed from Illinois to Marshall county, lowa, in the spring of 1875. beginning his journey to the new land of promise April 1I. 1875. He followed agri- culture in Marshall county until February 22, 1880, when he decided that Sac county offered a better field for his operations. His first purchase of land in Sac county was one hundred and sixty acres, in Cook township. which he purchased for thirteen dollars an aere. He resided on this farm for two years and then removed to Ida county where he bought one hun- dred and twenty acres and again sold it in 1884. Returning to Sac county he invested in two hundred acres of excellent land at a cost of twenty- five dollars an aere, in section 6. Cook township. On this piece of land he made his home and resided thereon until his removal to Sac City. Prosperity apparently smiled upon him and rewarded his industry, for in 1888 he added eighty acres, in section 6, of Cook township, at a cost of thirty dollars an acre. In 1890 he added seventy acres more to his hold-
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ings, in the same section, at a purchase price of thirty-three dollars an acre. Later he bought one hundred and seven acres of land in Jackson township which he traded for a fine farm of one hundred and eighty acres located a few miles northwest of Sac City, one hundred and sixteen acres of which is in Delaware township and sixty-four acres in Jackson town- ship. Mr. Denman is the owner of six hundred and sixteen acres of land valued as follows: Four hundred and twenty-six acres in Cook township. marketable at two hundred dollars an acre, and the balance is easily worth one hundred and fifty dollars an acre.
Mr. Denman moved to Sac City, February 22, 1904, and purchased a home in the choice residential section of the city, remodeling and modern- izing the same into a comfortable and handsome place of abode. In politics, Mr. Denman is a Denicorat of the old school and is one of the "wheel horses" of the party in Sac county. While the party has been in the minority since time immemorial in the county, Mr. Denman's allegiance to the prin- ciples of Jefferson Democracy has been shown by his candidacy on the Democratic ticket for county offices at various times. He prides himself on his thorough Democracy. His family are members of the Presbyterian church. He is affiliated with no fraternal societies and prefers his home life to the diversions of club or societies. He and the members of his family usually spend the winters in Florida. He is connected with the State Bank of Schaller, Iowa, in an official capacity. His marriage with Mary Ellis, of De\Vitt county, Illinois, and daughter of Abner Ellis, took place Febru- ary 6, 1877. They have five children: Mrs. Bessie Griffin, of Florida ; Roy, a farmer in Delaware township: Nannie, librarian of the Sac City public library ; Matthias, a farmer in Cook township; Mary, a teacher, resid- ing in South Dakota.
FRED WINKLER.
One of Sac county's many German citizens who have made a success in their adopted country is Fred Winkler, a prosperous farmer of Jackson township and proprietor of three hundred and twenty-six acres of fine farming land. Ile is one of the pioneers of the county and has the unique satisfaction of knowing that the first plow which was ever put in his farm by white men was guided through the tough soil by his own hand. He can sit in the shade of trees which are now ten feet in circumference and feel the joy of knowing that he planted those trees with his own hands
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more than forty years ago. He has fairly grown up with the county and for this reason has a sort of paternal feeling and affection which is common to all pioneers of any country.
Fred Winkler was born in Germany in 1844, the son of Christ and Christina Winkler. In 1856 he came to this country with his parents and settled in Racine county, Wisconsin.
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