USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 68
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William A. Stanzel and his capable wife resided on a farm in Clinton county until 1876. when they sold out their holdings and on March Ist came to Sac county. Their welcome in the county was not a very pleasant nor an in- viting one, as they arrived here while a blizzard was raging with all the characteristic fierceness and extreme cold which accompanies the northwestern winter storm. This blizzard followed an exceptionally mild winter. They invested their capital in three hundred and twenty acres of good land in Clin- ton township. With only a small frame, unlined and unplastered house to shelter them, they lived here during the terrible cold and with the thermom- eter registering twenty degrees below zero. Mrs. Stanzel was then nursing a child but six months old. Their first year's crops were very poor, the corn being small and the wheat very light. To add hardships to their bad luck, the grasshoppers came in the fall and stripped the place of everything edible and left a barren waste in their wake. However, they saved a little from the wreck, for Mrs. Stanzel gathered in the cabbage heads as fast as the greedy "hoppers" stripped off the outer leaves. When it came time to sow the crops for next season it devolved upon Judge Criss, ever the firm friend of the farmers. to offer advice which was acceptable and resulted in a good wheat crop for the ensuing year. Judge Criss advised Mr. Stanzel and others to sow their wheat very thick so as to prevent the "hoppers" from getting into the field in order to eat the grain and the plan worked to perfection.
Mrs. Stanzel recalls vividly the terrible winter of 1880 and 1881 as being the most severe in Sac county of all her experience. From early October to late in the spring the snow was very deep and did not disappear from the ground until April 17th. Another very heavy snow came on April 20th. Nearly all of the early settlers in Clinton township came from Clinton county,
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Iowa, and the township was named in honor of Clinton county. For over forty years these brave and hardy pioneers lived on their fine farm and in May of 1907 they removed to Odebolt, where Mr. Stanzel died in January of 1911. Mrs. Stanzel resides in the fine residence which they purchased.
This estimable and worthy couple have reared the following children : George C., a prosperous farmer in Boyer Valley township; Silas, a farmer living in Wall Lake township; Mrs. Eve S. Fuller, of Odebolt; William A., Jr., a prosperous farmer living in Odebolt; Mrs. Mary Hannah Scott, of Boyer Valley township; Herman R., a merchant in Odebolt; Mrs. Harriet Hooper, of Boyer Valley township; Barnabas, on the old home place in Clinton township. The mother of these children had been previously married and widowed before her union with Mr. Stanzel. She was first married on July 9, 1857, to Phineas Kenyon, a native of New York state and an early settler in Clinton county, Iowa, coming there in about 1855. He was a Union soldier and served his country in Company B, Twenty-sixth Regiment of Iowa Volun- teer Infantry. He was a corporal in the army and served for one year. He died September 23, 1863, leaving fatherless two children, Charles E., who died in 1901, and Alvan B., a resident of Ringgold, Iowa.
Mr. Stanzel was one of the wealthiest farmers and one of the largest landowners in Sac county at the climax of his successful career. He owned in excess of one thousand acres of land, most of which was improved. Be- fore his demise he gave each grown son a deed to one hundred and sixty acres of improved land and gave outright to each daughter eighty acres of land, and gave a third daughter one hundred and sixty acres of land on account of the fact that she remained at home and cared for her parents in their old age. This showed his wonderful wisdom and foresight, as every child is a resident of Sac county, and all are prominent and valued citizens of the neighborhoods in which they reside.
Mr. Stanzel was a life-long Republican in politics and capably filled the office of trustee of his township, served as treasurer for a number of years and was also the honored president of the township school board. He was one of the leading figures in the civic life of the township and county for a long period and was universally respected and admired by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. He was reared in the faith of his fathers, that of the Evangelical Lutheran church, but during his residence in Sac county he be- came affiliated with the Congregational church. Mrs. Stanzel is a devout Christian lady who values her membership in the Methodist church and is a liberal giver to the cause of religion. She is one of the kindliest and most intelligent of women, who, despite her more than three score years and ten is.
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still vigorous and hearty and keenly alive to the desirability of maintaining an interest in the every-day occurrences of this progressive age.
This biographical narrative is respectfully dedicated to the memory of her husband and as a tribute to the wonderful record which she and her hus- band have made in Sac county : again, it will prove to be a priceless memoir to her children and grandchildren in the years to come and serve as an inspira- tion to the present and coming generations. It is of such noble people as they of whom the historian is pleased to write.
JOHN N. SCHMITZ.
A truly capable man but fulfills the plan of his Creator. The life of man, while to a certain extent dependent for its breadth and altruism upon man himself and the exercise of God-given talents in behalf of himself and his fellow human beings, is inevitably controlled by a power unseen, but telt in all of its significance. The individual being is but an instrument in many respects who seems naturally endowed to perform certain deeds ; this done, and his life work apparently accomplished, the Creator calls him homeward, to be judged according to his deserts. The life of man, when measured, not by years alone, but rather by a purpose achieved and by good deeds accredited to it, is true and comforting. While we sorrow be- cause of the departure of a loved one from our midst, and feel many times that he could not be spared, we console ourselves with the knowledge that it was inevitable. The grim messenger heeds not and we are left to mourn and accept submissively. Such thoughts naturally arise when we contem- plate the life work and notable career of John N. Schmitz, pioneer banker of Odebolt, lowa, and who was a useful citizen in every sense of the word.
Mr. Schmitz was born December 2, 1843, in Germany. He was the son of Nicholas Schmitz, a farmer by occupation, who came to America and set- led in Dubuque county, Iowa, in the year 1860. John N. enlisted in the Union army in January, 1862, when he was but nineteen years old and served his country on the battlefields of the great Rebellion for three long years. He was engaged in the great battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee. and many others, while in the Union service. When the war closed he returned to his home near Dubuque and endeavored to finish his interrupted education. He studied in a Dubuque commercial college so as to equip himself for success in the marts of com-
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merce and trade and fitted himself in other ways for a life of active en- deavor. He taught in the schools of Dubuque county for over twelve years. In April. 1882, he came to Sac county and embarked in the retail merchan- dise business in partnership with his brother. Leonard Schmitz, in Odebolt, who also was a Union veteran. In 1886 the brothers dissolved partnership and John N. established an insurance and loan business, which was later, in January, 1901, followed by the opening of the German Bank. Mr. Schmitz became prosperous and wealthy while engaged in business in Ode- bolt, and, like other far-seeing men, he invested heavily in farm lands, which rose rapidly in value. At the time of his death he was possessed of over eight hundred acres of good Iowa lands. for which he paid variable prices ranging from thirty dollars to forty dollars an acre. He had unbounded confidence in the inevitable great future of western Iowa and was one of the most consistent optimists in the community in which he had cast his - lot. He had a sublime and confiding faith in the ultimate prosperity of the community and invested his funds according to his faith. He was always a liberal supporter of public enterprises and his purse was ever open to assist a worthy undertaking for the benefit of the community. He was a Democrat in politics, but always took an independent position in local and county political affairs and generally cast his influence and vote in favor of the most able and capable men according to his judgment. He was a leading member of St. Martin's Catholic church of Odebolt and as- sisted materially and liberally in defraying the expenses incidental to the erection of the handsome buildings owned by the congregation. He held an honored place as a comrade of Goodrich Post. Grand Army of the Republic. His demise occurred July 31, 1905. and he was sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, it being felt that the city had lost one of its strongest characters and a most able citizen.
Mr Schmitz was married October 28, 1873. to Mary Anna Weiland. who was born in Germany in the year 1852 and emigrated to America with her parents in 1853. being reared in Dubuque county. Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Schmitz reared five children. Augustine J. N. Schmitz, Mary, A. F. P. Schmitz. Katharine and A. J. P .. all residents of Sac county. The sons of this excellent and worthy gentleman are following in their father's foot- steps and conducting the banking business which he established in a capable and able manner. Their standing in the community as upright and con- scientious men of affairs is assured.
The German Savings Bank is a successor to the German Bank. estab- lished in 1901 by John N. Schmitz and succeeded the loan business form-
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erly conducted by this gentleman. It was first operated as a private concern and known as the German Bank. In September. 1905, the German Savings Bank was incorporated by his sons. A handsome new building, built of Bedford stone and pressed brick, in dimension thirty by forty-eight feet. was erected at cost of over seven thousand dollars. Modern fixtures were installed and well appointed conveniences for the transaction of business were placed. In addition to a modern vault, the bank is equipped with safety deposit vaults which will accommodate boxes to the number of one hundred and twenty-five. An insurance and farm loan department is also conducted by the proprietors. The farm loan business has always been an extensive department of the business and the sons are gradually increasing its scope and also further developing the insurance department. This bank has a capital of fifty thousand dollars, a surplus of five thousand, and deposits and resources totalling two hundred and fifty thousand. The officers are as fol- lows: Augustine J. N. Schmitz, president: A. F. P. Schmitz, cashier, and A. J. P. Schmitz, assistant cashier.
There is probably no institution of its kind conducted in Sac county with more care and better business judgment than the German Savings Bank at Odebolt. Its managers have been instilled with habits of rectitude and up- rightness in their business dealings through the influence of the example set by their illustrious parents. Aside from this, these young men are known favorably for their individual sterling worth and are possessed of attributes and capabilities above the average, facts which commend them to their fellow citizens.
R. C. SEBERN, M. D.
One of the recognized leaders in the medical profession of Sac county is Dr. R. C. Sebern, of Odebolt. Though a comparatively young man, Doctor Sebern has well established himself in his calling, for which he has admirably equipped himself, and, with judicious discrimination, he has kept fully abreast of the best medical thought of the times. His success offers the most ef- fective voucher of his ability and has been of the most unequivocal order.
Dr. R. C. Sebern was born in Lake City, Iowa, June 25. 1881. the son of T. H. and Martha ( McNish) Sebern, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of New York state, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. T. H. Sebern was a stock buyer and shipper and removed from Indiana to Iowa, locating in Lake City, where he resided for many years.
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Doctor Sebern received his primary education in the Lake City high school. His collegiate training was received at the medical department of the lowa State University at lowa City, from which institution he graduated in 1904. He established himself in Odebolt the same year, and has been en- gaged here continuously in the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1913 he pursued a post-graduate course in New York City. Thus thoroughly forti- fied for the work of his exacting vocation, his success has been on a parity with his distinctive technical ability. The Doctor is an appreciative and valued member of the Sac County Medical Society, the Northwestern lowa Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Ile is also a men- ber of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Surgeons Association, being the local surgeon in Odebolt for that railroad.
Politically, Doctor Sebern gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order.
Doctor Sebern is essentially progressive and public spirited as a citi- zen, and while all other interests have been subordinate to his devotion to his profession, he has not failed in any civic duties, and willingly supports every cause having for its object the betterment of the community.
JOSEPH PARKINSON.
An historical volume always has a place of honor for the pioneer settler ; to him is due the credit of having braved the hardships which accompany the first hard struggles endured as necessary in the herculean task of wresting a home from out of the vast emptiness of the prairie and paving the way for the influx of immigration which usually follows the advent of the first brave and hardy conquerors of the wilderness. He it was who lived in a board shack for a home, or mayhap a dugout, and eked out his existence by hunting and trapping the wild game and lived for months far away from the centers of civilization and at a long distance from neighbors. The pioneer family are of the "salt of the earth" and are deserving of honors and prestige in the community for the noble work accomplished in behalf of rest- less and every moving humanity. Joseph Parkinson, of the city of Lake View, Sac county, enjoys the distinction of being the oldest pioneer settler in point of years of residence in the county residing in his home town and township.
Mr. Parkinson was born in 1836 at Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England,
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the son of Lawrence and Fannie ( Wolwork ) Parkinson. The father of Fannie Wolwark was a fighting soldier in the British army at the time of her birtlı.
Joseph Parkinson came to America in 1851 and located in Philadelphia. He was first married at Chester, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1861, to Sarah Dover, a native of England, who was born in 1831. Their children are as follows: John, born at Upland, Pennsylvania, in May. 1862, and died in 1895; Mrs. Mary Jane Sherwood, born in Walworth county, Wis- consin July 6. 1863, and resides in the town of Wall Lake; Mrs. Har- riet Sonnichsen, born in Grant county, Wisconsin, in April, 1864, and re- sides in Wall Lake township; Priscilla, born in Sac county in 1869 and died in 1874; Emma, born in Sac county in 1872 and died of scarlet fever in 1874 (both are buried in the Grant City cemetery) ; William, born in 1877, residing in Viola township; Frank, born in 1880, lives in Sac county. The mother of these children died in 1882. Her mother was Mary Dover, who had three children, Thomas, Sarah and Mary Ellen.
Mr. Parkinson's second marriage took place in 1889 with Eliza Birch, a daughter of Henry and Agatha ( Troutman) Birch, natives of Germany, who emigrated to America and settled in Ohio in the year 1849. Mrs. Park- inson was born in Springfield, Ohio. To this union have been born the following children: Florence, born January 25, 1890, and died January 29, 1913; Fred, born in 1892 and died when five months of age.
. In the year 1861 Mr. Parkinson was called out by the governor of Pennsylvania to fight for the Union and first drilled in a company of eighty men at Upland, near Chester, under Captain Kirkman. He was mustered into the Fifty-second Regiment, Volunteer Infantry of Pennsylvania, in September of 1861. His nephew, Thomas Parkinson, enlisted in the same company. The call went forth for sixty thousand volunteers from the state of Pennsylvania at this time and it was intended to use this vast array of militia to repel the threatened invasion of the state by the Rebels. Happily the invasion of the state by the Confederate soldiers was forestalled at this time and the company was returned to Upland.
In 1863 Mr. Parkinson removed to Racine, Wisconsin. In 1864 he moved to a farm in Walworth county and two years later he settled in Grant county, where he and his family resided until 1868. He and a good sized company of emigrants, relatives, friends and neighbors, thirteen in all, set out for Sac county in the spring of 1868, arriving at the old town of Grant City on the 30th day of April, 1868. The party set out from the town of Bloomington, Wisconsin. Accompanying the pioneer were his wife and
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three eldest children, and a brother and sister as follows: Christopher, whose son Walter is a resident of Lake View, and who was likewise accompanied by his daughter, Elizabeth : Thomas Nadico Parkinson, who had a son named James. There were also two children in the Dover family included in the party with their parents as aforementioned. The party left Bloomington on April 16, 1868. and were ensconsed in two great "prairie schooners." The trip was uneventful, but was greatly enjoyed by the migrants. Joseph took up some railroad land at a cost of seven dollars an acre, situated at the eastern shores of Wall lake. He sowed five acres to wheat during the first season and received a crop of forty-eight bushels from his five acres. He paid five dollars for the threshing. The family resided in a house owned by George Hicks, of Grant City. during their first year's residence in Sac county. In the fall he set about the erection of a log cabin, sixteen by twenty feet in dimension, hauling the logs from Grant City. Under this cabin he ex- cavated a cellar seven feet in depth and walled it up with "nigger heads" picked up on his land. This served as their place of abode for several years and was later replaced by a larger frame structure. The family resided on this farm until 1900 and then Mr. Parkinson and his faithful wife retired to a pretty cottage in Lake View for a well-earned rest in their remaining years. He disposed of two hundred acres of his land in October, 1911. at an excellent price and then invested in a farm of one hundred and twenty acres located four miles south of Sac City. He is also the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of good land in Saskatchewan, Canada, near the city of Watson.
Politically, this well respected pioneer citizen has generally been allied with the Republican party, and has served as a member of the school board. His good wife is a member of the Congregational church and they both are known for their deep religious convictions and as upright moral members of the community in which they reside and are universally respected and loved.
DAVID S. HUSTON.
Many citizens of Sac county, Iowa, have come from the good old Key- stone state of Pennsylvania and wherever they are found in this county they are among the most prosperous citizens. It is a fact that it is the most ven- turesome and the most ambitious people who have the courage to make their homes in a new country, and this accounts in great measure for the splendid prosperity which has come to Sac county in its history. The fact that its
DAVID S. HUSTON AND FAMILY
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citizens are men of courage and determination, who came here to better their condition, has given this county a citizenship which has made for prosperity in every particular.
David S. Huston, a prosperous farmer of Boyer Valley township, in Sac county, Iowa, was born March 25, 1864, in Perry county, Pennsylvania. His parents, John W. and Mary Jane Huston. were natives of Pennsylvania, who came to Sac commty in 1882. They purchased eighty acres of land north of Early in this township, and later bought two hundred and forty acres in Cook township and later bought eighty acres which David afterwards purchased. In their old age Mr. and Mrs. John W. Huston moved to Early, where they both died in 1909, his death occurring on September 5th and her's on March 30th. Mr. and Mrs. John W. Huston were the parents of six sons, all of whom are living : David S., with whose history we are concerned ; Edward T., a resi- dent of Cook township, this county ; Abner B., of Early ; Frank, a farmer of Boyer Valley township : Charles, of Spencer, Iowa, and George, of Cook town- ship, this county.
David S. Huston was eighteen years of age when his parents came from Pennsylvania to Sac county. He received his education in the schools of his native state and as soon as he came to this county he began to work on his father's farm. When he was twenty-one years of age he began farming for himself, and eight years later bought eighty acres from his father in Cook township. As soon as he was married, in 1888, he located on his mother's farm of eighty acres in Cook township, where he lived for eleven years. In 1899 he began buying his present farm of two hundred and forty-two acres, paying fifty-five dollars an acre for one hundred and forty-two and one-half acres in 1899 and one hundred and sixteen dollars for one hundred acres in 1909. This land is now worth two hundred dollars an acre, because of the many improvements which he has put upon the land, as well as the natural increase which has come to all of the land in this section of Iowa. In 1910 he erected a new barn, forty by seventy feet, in order to care for his stock in a better manner. He prepares a large amount of stock for the markets each year, and averages two car loads of cattle and one car load of hogs annually. Mr. Huston has lately made substantial additions to his fine home near Early, having added verandas, cement walks, and raised the elevation of the residence and completely wired his home and barns for electric lights. With the instal- lation of a furnace for heating purposes, he has now completely modernized his home. Electric power is now utilized in doing the work about the home. His many improvements have cost to exceed one thousand six hundred dollars.
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Mr. Huston was married on September 6, 1888, to Mary L. Ruffcorn, of Delaware township, in this county, and to this union there have been born four children: Mrs. Olive Simpson, whose husband is a farmer in Boyer Valley township: Vaughn H., who was born March 30, 1899; David and Leland, born January 18, 1906, and Harriet Avis, born February 18, 1909. The last three children named are still under the parental roof. Mrs. Olive Simpson is the mother of one child, Dale Orlando, born May 16, 1914.
Politically, Mr. Huston is an independent, although his leanings are toward the Democratic party. and. like millions of other voters in 1912, he voted for Woodrow Wilson, believing that the principles advocated by Mr. Wilson were such as to insure the greatest prosperity to our country. Fra- ternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes an active part in all the work of this fraternal organization. Mr. Huston is a kind and obliging gentleman, who is an independent thinker on all topics. He has always had the interest of his community at heart and has never failed to identify himself with any enterprise or measure which he felt would re- dound to the best interests of his locality.
On September 4, 1913. the Wachs family reunion was held at Mr. Huston's home and descendants and members of the Wachs family to the number of fifty-three were present. On the same evening friends to the num- ber of two hundred and forty gathered at the home to assist Mr. and Mrs. Huston in celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. The next Wachs family reunion will be held in Oklahoma.
EDWARD H. CRANE, M. D.
Citizenship in its highest sense calls for the best that there is in the indi- vidual. It requires the exercise of talents which too often are allowed to lie dormant on account of timidity or lassitude on the part of those upon whom the well being of the people of any community depends. The learned physicians have ever been a potent factor in public affairs when especially gifted with a desire to assist in the betterment of conditions and when en- dowed with qualities of leadership. They are usually found in the forefront of movements having a tendency to elevate the standard of citizenship and wiel a powerful influence in shaping public affairs in many communities. A proper presentation of the manifold attributes and accomplishments of Dr. Edward H. Crane, of Odebolt, reveals the ostensible fact that he is a young
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