USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 56
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To Harry Baxter and wife have been born children, as follows: Clara. a graduate of the Sac City high school, class of 191, and now a teacher in Sac county : George W., who graduated from the high school in 1913, took first honors in his class and won the Ames scholarship; May, a student in the high school.
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This highly esteemed couple are both well educated and readers of good literature. Their tables and book shelves are filled with high class monthly periodicals and the classics of literature. The family they are rearing is a credit to themselves and to the community. Their home is aptly named and the genial sociability and innate hospitality given the visitor to their home breathes the spirit of "sunnyside". The reviews in this volume concerning Sac county people of this character serve to embellish and make more valu- able to future posterity the memoirs of the county.
AUGUST ROSEKE.
It has always been a noticeable fact that the German people are thriftier than we and that, everything being equal, they, as a rule, become the posses- sors of property earlier than the young men of other nationalities. This fact need not be wondered at when we come to consider the matter from the proper viewpoint, owing to the fact that the German is more industrious and less extravagant, keeping in mind the aphorism that "a dollar saved is a dollar made." However, he does not necessarily deny himself the necessi- ties of everyday life, and believes in having a good sprinkle of its luxuries, but he has taught himself to get along with less of the so-called good things of the material world than we of the present generation especially. In other words, Americans are better spenders, and it is no credit to us to say that we are, as a rule, not willing to do whatever falls to our lot with equal grace, being inclined to rebel if we can not secure just the precise line of work that suits our particular fancy, while, on the other hand, the young German com- ing to this country will work at whatever is honorable in order to get a foot- hold in the world.
August Roseke, a prosperous farmer of Cedar township. Sae county, lowa, was born August 11, 1845, in Germany, and was the son of Christian and Elizabeth ( Schroeder) Roseke, both of whom spent all of their lives in their native land. August was the youngest of five chiklren, and received a good common school education in his native country. When he was four- teen years of age, he left school and started to work out at farm labor in Germany in order to make a living, and for the next fifteen years he worked and saved his money. He came to America in 1875, and came directly to the state of Iowa, where he worked for the first year and a half after his arrival in Black Hawk county, this state, for fifteen dollars a month. In
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1876 he came to Sac county, and spent his first year as a farm hand. 1877 he bought a team of horses from his employer for two hundred dol- lars, paid one hundred dollars for a wagon and then rented a farm for one year. He continued to rent land until his marriage in 1880, when he bought eighty acres of his present farm for seven dollars an acre and started in to make his fortune. Beginning with this eighty acres, which he had to buy on time, he has added to his land holdings from time to time until he is now the owner of five hundred and thirteen acres of fine farming land in Cedar and Coon Valley townships, this county. After he had purchased his first eighty, he improved and developed it and brought it to such a high state of cultivation that he was realizing a handsome profit from it, and then bought forty acres adjoining for twelve dollars an acre. Later he bought forty acres of swamp land at six dollars an acre, eighty acres at thirty dol- lars an acre. eighty acres at twenty-six dollars an acre, and in 1908 he pur- chased one hundred and ninety-three acres at seventy-five dollars an acre. Ilis land will now average one hundred and fifty dollars an acre in value, and is increasing in value all the time. In 1913 he had on his farm fifteen head of horses, fifty head of cattle, forty-one head of hogs and raised one hun- dred acres of corn. which averaged sixty bushels to the acre. His farms are well improved in every way, with two barns of general dimensions, fine fencing, good drainage and a fine, new home which he has recently con- structed for his son. It is needless to say that he has prospered for the sole reason that he has been thrifty and economical in his habits and has bent every energy toward the careful cultivation of his land.
Mr. Roseke was married on October 24, 1880, to Friederika Buchholz, who also was a native of Germany, born August 12, 1855, and came to this county with her parents when she was thirteen years of age, in May. 1869. To this marriage have been born eight children, three of whom died in in- fancy and five are living, four of whom are still at home. Those living are Carl, Hulda, Emma (wife of Henry Hinrichs. of Coon Valley township). Fred and Wilhelm.
In politics Mr. Roseke is a Democrat and lends his stanch support to the candidates of that party. He and all of his family are loyal members of the German Lutheran church and give their honest support to it at all times. Mr. Roseke is truly a self-made man who has attained to a respectable posi- tion in his community and enjoys the esteem and respect of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances and his success is due simply to his energy and industry which, combined with sound judgment, justness in his dealings and wise foresight, have brought him a just measure of success in his new home.
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EPHRAIM ADDISON WILLIAMS.
Agriculture has been an honored vocation from the earliest ages and as a usual thing men of honorable and humane impulses, as well as those of energy and thrift, have been patrons of husbandry. The free out-of-door life of the farm has a decided tendency to foster and develop that indepen- dence of mind and self-reliance which characterizes true manhood and no truer blessing can befall a boy than to be reared in close touch with nature in the healthful, life-inspiring labor of the fields. It has always been the fruitful soil from which have sprung the moral bone and sinew of the coun- try, and the majority of our nation's great warriors, renowned statesmen and distinguished men of letters were born on the farm and were indebted largely to his early influence for the distinction which they have attained.
Ephraim Addison Williams, a prosperous farmer of Cedar township, this county, was born July 2, 1845, in Belmont county, Ohio, and reared to manhood in Washington county, Ohio, near Marietta. His parents were William and Margaret ( Hogan ) Williams, natives of Delaware and Mary- land, respectively. When Ephraim was a small child, his mother died and his father then married Mrs. Nancy ( Gregory ) Lang and died in Washing- ton county, Ohio. There were ten children born to William and first wife, five of whom are living: George W., Dennis H., Angeline, Edward H. and Ephraim Addison.
Ephraim Addison Williams lived in Ohio until after the war when he and his stepmother left the state for Polk county, Iowa. They bought a farm in that county and remained there until 1886. Ephraim went to Kansas and lived in Wichita for two and a half years. He was there when the town was started and had the honor of placing the first bank safe into the Wichita Bank, performing this deed with block, tackle and a pair of oxen. He went from Wichita to Polk county, Iowa, and in 1892 came to Sac county, lowa. where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres, and two years later brought his family to this county at a total cost of twenty-three dollars. He has added to his farm from time to time until he now has three hundred and twenty acres. In 1896 he added eighty acres at a cost of forty-three dollars and seventy-five cents an acre and in 1906 he bought eighty acres more at a cost of eighty-two dollars an acre. His land will now average one hundred and fifty dollars an acre in value. Since settling in this county he has taken an important part in the public affairs of his township and has served as trustee and school director. He is a prominent Republican of the township and takes an active interest in the affairs of his party.
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Mr. Williams was married in 1878 to Lydia L. Dietz, of Polk county, Iowa. To this marriage have been born three children: Mrs. Barbara Effie Foster, whose husband is a farmer in Cedar township, Mr. and Mrs. Foster have two children, Nina and Edna; John W., the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, was born July 6, 1880, and is now living on the home farm with his parents; Susanna, his youngest daughter, is still under the parental roof. The family are regular attendants at church and take an active part in the church and social life of their community. Mr. Williams raises con- siderable life stock and in 1913 had fifty cattle, eight horses and thirty-five hogs on his farm. He has a beautiful home and attractive grounds and large barns and good outbuildings of all kinds.
WILL I. MOLSBERRY.
The life of the young dentist and public-spirited man of affairs whose name appears above affords a striking example of well defined purpose with the ability to make that purpose subserve not only his own ends but the good of his fellowmen as well. He is building up a distinctive prestige in a call- ing which requires for its basis sound mentality and intellectual discipline of a high order, supplemented by the rigid professional training and thorough mastery of technical knowledge with the skill to apply the same without which one can not hope to rise above mediocrity in ministering to dental ills.
Dr. Will R. Molsberry, of the dental firm of Molsberry Brothers, of Sac City, Iowa, was born in Worth county, Iowa, February 14, 1884. His parents were William and Anna ( Heiny ) Molsberry, natives respectively of Michigan and Iowa. William Molsberry was born in 1842. the son of Benjamin Molsberry, one of the pioneer settlers of Worth county. The Molsberrys came to Worth county in 1850 and there made their permanent home. Mrs. William Molsberry died in 1887, and her husband is still living with one of his children in Worth county. They were the parents of a fam- ily of ten children, all of whom are living: Mrs. Mary Smith, of Worth county : Mrs. Emma McMurtrie, of Worth county: Jesse, of Worth county; Mrs. Effie Dostal, of Minneapolis, Minnesota: Mrs. Minnie Peshak, of Worth county; Frank R .. of the firm of Molsberry Brothers; Mrs. Bertha Crimmins and Mrs. Carrie Sanderson, of Cerro Gordo county, Iowa ; Mrs. Irene Merrill, of Wyoming, and Dr. Will R., whose history is sketched in this connection.
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Doctor Molsberry was educated in the public schools of Worth county and then graduated from the Manly high school and Nore Springs Semi- nary. of Floyd county. He then entered the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, and graduated from that institution in the department of dentistry in the spring of 1908. He then came to Sac City. where he and his brother formed a partnership for the practice of dentistry. Frank R. graduated from the State University in 1905 and practiced in Sheldon until joining his brother, Dr. Will R., in Sac City in the spring of 1908. The young men are rapidly building up a lucrative practice, because of their technical skill and courteous treatment of their customers.
Doctor Molsberry is a Republican in politics, but the nature of his pro- fession naturally prevents him from taking an active part in political affairs. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he renders sub- stantial support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons and also holds membership in the Eastern Star.
Doctor Molsberry was married in December, 1910, to Irene Brownell, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Brownell. Doctor Molsberry is a man of energy and ambition, who is not afraid to work and within the short time that he has been a citizen of this community he has won the confidence and respect of those with whom he is brought in contact.
JOHN CURRIE.
It is a fact indisputable that a man's standing in the community is determined by two factors: the measure of personal good which he has accomplished in behalf of his fellow men and the degree in which he has achieved personal success and fortune in his own behalf. There are other conditions which have a decided bearing upon the opinion which his acquaintances and friends have concerning him as a part of the body politic, such as his faculty of making friends and his neighborliness, his moral character, the weight of his personal influence when exerted for the right, and the care which he bestows upon his family. The man who measures fully up to these required standards is truly a man worth knowing, and of such is genuine history written which has a decided influence upon the rising generation. Tilling the soil gives but little opportunity for a man to become unduly famous or widely known, except within the borders of his own county, but of such men are the best communities created. The farmer measures up
JOHN CURRIE AND FAMILY
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to the highest standards set for the gauging of manhood if he possesses to a certain extent the foregoing attribute. John Currie, farmer of Clinton township, is a citizen whom it is a pleasure to know and who inspires respect on acquaintance and whose reputation is of the best. He is a pioneer settler of Sac county, one who commenced with little of this world's goods at the beginning of his career, and who has amassed a comfortable competence through diligence, indefatigable effort and honest and straightforward dealing with his associates.
John Currie settled in Clinton township in the year 1874, on the north- west quarter of section 20. The country was at that time a wide sweep of unbroken prairie, with not even a wagon track to mar its even continuity of surface. The waving grass, growing to a height of three feet, covered the land like a vast inland sea of verdure. He was the third settler in this township. Two others had preceded him. H. J. Martin and Mr. Sherwood having previously settled in the township. Mr. Currie paid five dollars and sixty cents an acre for his land on a time contract. During his first year he was able to erect a very small house, twelve by twenty feet in dimension, and raise a fine crop of sod corn and potatoes. His corn yielded sixty bushels to the acre and he raised two hundred bushels of potatoes in this first season. He was enabled to dispose of the greater part of his corn and potatoes to good advantage. He traded some of the potatoes for two brood sows, which gave him his start in hog raising. He has ever been thankful for the smiles of Providence during this first vear, as he had no money when he came to Sac county, and his good fortune came as a Godsend to him and his family. Mr. Currie recalls that money was a minus commodity for several years, and there were times when the settlers became discouraged, he among them, for, in 1877, when the grasshoppers were devastating the land and driving the settlers eastward and westward by their ravages, even his optimistic attitude toward the world was changed, and, becoming thoroughly discouraged, he disposed of eighty acres of his land. Had a really good excuse been forth- coming at this time he would have left the county and remained away. For- tunately for him, there came a change in conditions, and prosperity gradually smiled once more on his efforts, and he was enabled to repurchase his former "eighty" in 1878. December 12. 1875, his son. Malcolm, the first white child born in Clinton township, first saw the light of day. In 1880 he bought eighty acres, containing improvements, for thirty dollars an acre. In 1883 he invested in one hundred acres and in 1886 he added sixty acres to his holdings. Since that time he has bought and sold several tracts of land. His home estate consists of four hundred acres of excellent land, on which is a
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good home, erected twenty-five years ago. He also owns one hundred acres in Wall Lake township. In 1912 he purchased six hundred and sixty-three acres of the Cook ranch, which is now in the possession of his sons, who are cultivating it.
Mr. Currie has long been a breeder of Aberdeen Angus cattle, and the size of his herd ranges from one hundred to three hundred head of this ex- cellent stock. He is also a famous breeder of English Shire horses, and has twenty-five head of thoroughbred animals on the farm. He purchased his present home farm in 1892, at a cost of fifty dollars an acre, and has since resided thereon.
Biographically speaking, John Currie was born October 20, 1846, in Argyleshire, Scotland, and is the son of Duncan and Mary ( Smith) Currie, who emigrated to America in 1873 and settled in Clinton county, Iowa. John had preceded his parents to Clinton county by three years and had sent them such glowing accounts of the new country that they were induced to leave the home of their fathers and come to America. They were the parents of nine children, as follows: Neil, who resides in Scotland: John; Malcolm died in Schaller, Iowa: Mrs. Betsey Patton, of Wright county, Iowa: Mrs. Margaret Calhoun, who died in April, 1914, near Herring. Iowa; Hector, a farmer residing near Schaller: Duncan, formerly a farmer in Clinton town- ship, now deceased; James, a citizen of Oregon: Mrs. Mary Fleming, de- ceased.
When he had attained the age of twenty-four years. John Currie bor- rowed money from relatives in Scotland and set sail for America and arrived in the city of Quebec May 1, 1870. He managed to make his way southward to Whiteside county, Illinois, and obtained employment in the construction of a county drainage ditch at a wage of two dollars per day. In November of the same year he journeyed to Clinton county, Iowa, and worked in a saw mill, drawing wages of one dollar and seventy-five cents per day for his labor. He continued in this employment for three years, and at the time of his departure, in 1873, for Sac county, he was drawing two dollars and seventy-five cents per day. Being of a saving and thrifty disposition, he had managed to save one thousand dollars with which to begin his career in Sac county. Success has been his portion.
Politically, Mr. Currie is a progressive Republican, but he has never sought political preferment. However, he has lent his influence in behalf of good government and the selection of competent officials on every occasion where he could do so. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, and is fraternally affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
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Mr. Currie was married March 2, 1873, in Clinton county, Iowa, to Jeannette McGeachey, and on March 4th he and his bride started for their future home in Sac county. During this long period Mrs. Currie has been a true and faithful helpmeet and an excellent mother to her children. . She is the daughter of Malcolm McGeachey, a native of Scotland, and was born February 14, 1849, in Scotland. This estimable couple have reared a family of eleven children, namely: Malcolm, county attorney, resides at Sac City, and of whom further mention is made in this volume; Duncan, a farmer in Richland township; Mrs. Mary Smith, also in Richland township: John, a farmer in Cook township: Jean, at home; Neil, a farmer in Cook township; Alexander, owner of one hundred and sixty acres in Cook township: Mrs. Jessie Houchins, who resides in Wall Lake township; Margaret, a student at Ames College : Dugald and Donald, at home.
Mr. Currie is recognized as a man of sterling worth, whose life is closely interwoven with the history of the community which he has taken such an active part in building up, and his efforts have always been put forth in behalf of the advancement of the neighborhood. The well-regulated and industrious life which he has led entitles him to representation in this work, thereby leaving an imperishable memoir for the future edification of his descendants and friends.
BENJAMIN F. COLLENBAUGH.
In Sac county are two classes of pioneer settlers and pioneer families. But few remain of the first families which came into the county over half a century ago, but a large and increasing number of descendants of those who settled in the county in the second settlement decade are found and are occu- pying permanent positions as exponents of the science of husbandry in its most advance form in the fertile sections of this great subdivision of a great and wealthy state.
Those settlers who came in the second migration to the fertile areas within the borders of the county, journeyed hither with the intention of stay- ing and providing opportunity for their children. Land was then much cheaper in Sac county and the thrifty husbandmen from the older counties of Iowa were wise in their day and generation inasmuch as they disposed of developed farms in the older county and invested in large tracts in Sac county. The father of the well-known agriculturist whose name forms the caption of this review was among those whose foresight and power of vision drew him
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onward from his former home in Clinton county, Iowa, to the newer lands of Sac county, wherein he would be better enabled to found a home and pre- sent better opportunities for his sons to follow in his footsteps. Christopher C. Collenbaugh, father of Benjamin F. Collenbangh, was one of a large num- ber of Clinton county people to settle in Cook township in the period which includes the year of his migration in 1883. B. F. later removed from his home township to Cedar township where he now has one of the finest and most productive farms in the county.
Benjamin F. Collenbaugh, proprietor of the Fairmont farm of two hun- dred acres in Cedar township, Sac county, Iowa, was born November 22, 1867, in Greene county, Indiana. He is the son of C. C. and Rosanna S. (Maxwell) Collenbaugh, natives of Ohio, who were among the early settlers in Indiana. C. C. Collenbaugh and family left Indiana for lowa in 1877 and located in Clinton county, where they remained for six years. In 1883 they settled in Sac county, where they bought a large farm in Cook township, on which the father died August 6, 1905, at the age of seventy-seven; his widow is still living in Odebolt in this county, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Collenbaugh were the parents of five children : Mrs. Mamie Flathers, of Odebolt; John M., of Doone, Iowa; Mrs. Alice Davenport, of Odebolt: Benjamin F., whose history is portrayed in this connection, and Charles M., of Odebolt.
Benjamin F. Collenbaugh received his early education in Indiana and after his parents came to lowa he finished his schooling in Odebolt. Upon reaching his majority he rented a farm in Cook township for five years and later bought forty acres in the same township at forty dollars an acre. In 1907 he moved to a farm near Sac City, where he remained until he moved to his present farm of one hundred and twenty acres. He paid one hundred dol- lars an acre for this land and in 1912 bought another eighty acres, paying one hundred dollars an acre for it. He now has two hundred acres of land which is easily worth two hundred dollars an acre. In 1913 he had out sixty acres of corn which averaged fifty-five bushels to the acre, forty acres of oats which averaged thirty-seven bushels to the acre, besides live stock, consisting of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. His farm is well improved in every way, has a good house set in a handsome grove and a bank barn which he constructed in 1911 at a cost of twelve hundred dollars.
Mr. Collenbaugh is a member of the Republican party and, although he keeps well informed on the current issues of the day, he has never taken an active interest in the deliberations of his party. Fraternally, he is a member of
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the Yeomen, while he and the members of his family are regular attendants at the Christian church.
Mr. Collenbaugh was married in 1892 to Agnes Falconer, of Manchester, Iowa, and to this union have been born five children : May, the wife of Newton Penninan, of Douglas township. this county ; Verna, who is now eighteen and a senior in the high school at Sac City; Leonard, who is fifteen and in the high school, class of 1914: Gladys and Lloyd, who are now in the grade schools of Cedar township. Mr. Collenbaugh has, by his conscientious methods and up- right dealings, made a success of his farming and because of his kindness of nature and generosity of heart he has won a large circle of friends and ac- quaintances throughout the community.
PERRY S. HOSKINS.
An enumeration of the representative citizens of Sac county, Iowa, would be incomplete without specific mention of the well known and popular gentleman whose name introduces this sketch. A member of one of the old and highly esteemed families of the central part of the state and for many years a public-spirited man of affairs, he has stamped the impress of his individuality upon the community and added luster to the honorable name which he bears, having always been serupulously honest in all his rela- tions with his fellow men and leaving no stone unturned whereby he might benefit his own condition as well as that of his neighbors and friends, con- sequently he has long ago won the favor of a great number of people of the county where he maintains his home.
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