USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 70
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Mr. Rogers is a Progressive in politics, but the nature of his business has been such as to keep him out of the active service of his party. How- ever, he takes an intelligent interest in political affairs. He and his family are loyal members of the Congregational church. Fraternally, he is a mem- ber of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Rogers is a man who has made a scientific study of the butter making industry and is regarded as one of the most expert men in his line in the state. He is a member of the Iowa Butter-Makers' Association and takes a deep interest in all the mat-
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ters which come before that body. While he has been actively identified with the creamery business for many years and has made a success of his chosen vocation, yet he has not neglected his duty as a citizen of the community in which he lives; is a man of honesty and integrity and has won a host of friends since becoming a resident of Lake View.
WV. M. DEAN.
It can not be other than interesting to note in the series of personal sketches appearing in this work the varying conditions that have compassed those whose careers are outlined, and the effort has been made in each case to throw well focused light onto the individuality and to bring into proper perspective the scheme of each respective career. Each man who strives to fulfill his part in connection with human life and human activities is de- serving of recognition, whatever may be his field of endeavor, and it is the function of works of this nature to perpetuate for future generations an authentic record concerning those represented in its pages, and the value of such publications is certain to be cumulative for all time to come, showing forth the individual and specific accomplishments of which generic history is ever engendered.
W. M. Dean, of the Lake View Auto Company, was born February 5. 1877, in Castalia, Winneshick county, Iowa. His parents were Franklin and Lucy (Morse) Dean. His father died in April, 1908, and his mother is still living in Lake View. Franklin Dean and wife were the parents of three children: George, who died at the age of twelve: Charles, of Ros- well. South Dakota, and W. M., whose history is here presented. Franklin Dean and his wife moved to New York state, where they lived for a time and then came to Tama county, lowa, and later settled in Lake View, Sac county, in 1903.
IV. M. Dean was educated in the common schools of Winneshiek and Tama counties, Iowa. He also was in the high school at Toledo, Iowa, and later spent two years in the Western College at Toledo, the county seat of Tama county, Iowa. In the spring of 1898 Mr. Dean enlisted in the Forty- ninth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served from April. 1898, to June, 1899. He saw service in Cuba. in and around Havana. Upon his return home, he spent one year on the farm near Toledo, in Tama county, Iowa, and then worked two years for the John A. Owen Furniture Store
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in Toledo. In 1902 he came to Lake View and operated a furniture store until 1913, when he sold out and devoted all his attention to the automobile business.
In 1908 Mr. Dean and R. N. Moyer established the Lake View Auto- mobile Company. In 1909 Mr. Moyer sold his interest in the firm to A. Armstrong and Peter Smith. In 1911 Armstrong and Smith sold their inter- est to C. P. Armstrong, the firm now consisting of Mr. Dean and C. P. Armstrong. The firm has a large building and sales rooms, as well as a re- pair shop, with all of the necessary tools and machinery for repair work. The firm handles the Rambler, Maxwell and Ford automobiles and employs four men all the time. The company has a capital stock of twelve thousand dollars and sells about one hundred and fifty machines annually. Besides its sale of machines, it does a large business in the repair line.
Mr. Dean was married, November 27, 1902, to Ellen Ramsdell, of Tama county, Iowa. To this marriage has been born one son, Graham, who is now nine years of age. Politically, Mr. Dean is a Republican and identi- fies himself with the Progressive wing of the party. He was appointed city clerk in 1902 and served two terms and has also served four terms as mayor of Lake View. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Lake View and also belongs to the chapter at Sac City. He has also been district lecturer of the Iowa Masonic body since 1907. He served as master of Laurel Lodge 517, at Lake View during 1905-6-7. Mr. Dean is a man of pleasing personality and has a wide circle of acquaintances throughout Sac county, who admire him for his upright- ness in business dealings and his interest in public affairs.
JOHN P. WELLS.
The following is a sketch of a plain, honest man of affairs, who by correct methods and a strict regard for the interests of his patrons has made his influence felt in Lake View and won for himself distinctive prestige in the business circles of that city. He would be the last man to sit for romance or become the subject of fancy sketches, nevertheless his life presents much that is interesting and valuable and may be studied with profit by the young. whose careers are yet to be achieved. Ile is one of those whose integrity and strength of character must force them into an admirable notoriety which their modesty never seeks, who command the respect of their contempo-
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raries and their posterity and leave the impress of their individuality deeply stamped upon their community.
John P. Wells, a prosperous merchant of Lake View, Iowa, was born July 4. 1859. in Davis county, lowa. His parents. C. C. and Sarah J. (Ware) Wells, were natives, respectively, of Kentucky and Indiana. C. C. Wells was born in 1826, and died in April, 1908. His wife was the daughter of James Ware, who settled in Davis county, lowa, in about 1835 and lived among the Indians. C. C. Wells came to Davis county, Iowa, with his father, S. D. Wells, in 1838, and was one of the first settlers in that county. C. C. Wells and his wife spent the remainder of their days in Davis county, where they reared a family of six children: J. P., with whom this narrative deals: Mrs. Mary Brewster, of Davis county; Mrs. Tempy Martin, also of Davis county: Mrs. Ona Brewster, of Kansas, and Ora, of Keokuk, Iowa.
Mr. Wells was educated in the schools of Davis county, this state, and spent his boyhood days on his father's farm. Upon his marriage, in 1882, Mr. Wells began to farm in Davis county, and continued there until 1902. when he traded his one-hundred-and-twenty-acre farm for his present store in Lake View. He began business on October 10, 1903, with a stock of five hundred dollars worth of goods. He has gradually increased his stock until he now carries from eighteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars worth of goods at all times. He has a fine brick building on Main street and uses two floors, including the basement. He employs four clerks at all times and doubles his force on Saturdays and big trading days. He carries all of the goods usually found in general stores and by his courteous treatment of his customers and affable manner, has built up a large and lucrative trade in Lake View and the surrounding country.
Mr. Wells was married in February, 1882. to Bertha Bandle, a native of Davis county. Iowa, and to this union there have been born five children : Fred, who is in the store with his father : Paul, of Sac City ; Mrs. Fay King, who lives in California ; Pearl and Ruth. The members of the family are all faithful adherents of the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically, Mr. Wells is a member of the Democratic party. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Lake View. Mr. Wells has made a decided success in business in this locality because of his honesty of pur- pose in all of his dealings with his fellow men. He is an advocate of clean and wholesome principles in home, society and politics, and because of his excellent character and splendid business ability he has earned and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him.
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PETER SMITH.
There is a little country in Europe by the name of Denmark whose citizens are among the most progressive and alert of any on the continent of Europe, and they are in a great measure very prosperous, this fact accounting for the few immigrants from that country who have made their homes in the United States. Occasionally one of the native sons of Denmark comes to this country, and wherever they are found they are usually among the most pro- gressive and substantial men of their community. Sac county boasts of very few native sons of Denmark, but among these, Peter Smith, a successful stock buyer of Lake View, Iowa, gives a striking example of what may be ac- complished by a foreigner who comes to this country with no financial back- ing, but with willing hands and heart.
Peter Smith, retired farmer and now a successful live stock dealer of Lake View, Iowa, was born June 3. 1850, in Denmark, the son of Fred and Anna ( Petersen ) Smith, who were born, lived and died in Denmark. They were the parents of seven children, five of whom came to America, namely : Thomas, of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Fred S., deceased; Christ Frederickson, a half brother of Peter Smith ; Peter, with whom this narrative deals, and Mrs. Sine Nelson, of Iowa.
Peter Smith received a practical education in his native country and at an early age he began to work for himself. As a young lad he helped his father on the farm operated by the latter and there learned the rudiments of farming. When he was twenty-one years of age he came to America and located at Cedar Falls, Iowa, but six months afterwards he went to Chicago at the time of the great fire, and worked at manual labor on the streets of the city, receiving good wages and saving his money with the intention of later buying western land. He then spent two years in the pine lumber camps of Saginaw, Michigan, and in 1873 went to Lee county, Illinois, where he worked on a farm. After his marriage in 1874 he rented a farm for one year and then decided to come to Sac county, Iowa, with a view of investing in land. For the first few years he rented land and in 1882 bought eighty acres for ten dollars an acre. He has added to his land holdings from time to time until at one time he owned four hundred acres in this county. The second eighty cost him sixteen dollars and a half an acre, the third eighty cost him twenty-seven dollars and a half an acre, the fourth eighty thirty-five dollars an acre, the fifth eighty forty- eight dollars an acre. In 1910 he sold one hundred and sixty acres to his son- in-law and still has two lundred and forty acres in Clinton township, which is worth one hundred and seventy-five dollars an acre. He continued to operate
MR. AND MRS. PETER SMITH
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his farmi until 1903, when he came to Lake View and here built a fine resi- dence, where he has since resided. Since moving to Lake View he has been engaged in buying and shipping live stock in partnership with Alden Arm- strong. In addition to his agricultural interests he has money invested in the Lake View State Bank and is now a director of that financial institution.
Mr. Smith was married in 1874 to Elsa Hansen, a native of Denmark and a resident of Lee county, Illinois, at the time of her marriage, and to this union have been born four children, all of whom are married and prospering. These children, in the order of their birth, are as follows: Mrs. Hattie Jones, of Clinton township, this county, who has five children, Raymond, Leo, Ernest, Fern and A. Peter; Ferry, who is living on the home farm in Clinton town- ship, and has three children, Elsa, Eveline and Elva : Jolin, who has been in the live stock commission business at Chicago since 1906, has three sons, Lloyd, Edmund and Theodore; Edward P., who is now living in Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Smith is a Republican in politics and has served his party as city councilman of Lake View for the past ten years. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is also a member of the chap- ter, commandery and Mystic Shrine, at Des Moines, Iowa. He is an attend- ant of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his wife is a member, and contributes liberally to its support. Mr. Smith keeps well abreast of the times on all subjects, being a wide reader of current topics, and has the respect and esteem of all who know him for his friendly manner. He has keen business ability and is regarded by all as one of the most advanced and progressive citizens of his section of the state.
OLIVER JENSEN.
Successful men of Danish birth, or whose parents have been natives of this progressive European country and who have emigrated to western Iowa and become very prosperous as tillers of the soil, are much in evidence in this section of the country. Wherever they may be found they take front rank among the citizens of the various communities in which they reside. Oliver Jensen, substantial retired fariner of the town of Lake View, is the son of Danish parents who came to America and found fortune in the rich prairie lands of western Iowa and Sac county.
Oliver Jensen was born August 5, 1879, in Clinton county, Iowa, and (45)
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is the son of Olaf V. Jensen, who was born in 1836 and died in October of 1910. His mother's maiden name was Caroline Nicholson, who was born in June, 1836. Olaf and Caroline Jensen were both born on the small island of Fahr in the North sea and which was a Danish possession at that time. Here they were both reared and married. They came to America in 1865. Olaf V. was a sailor who followed the sea for fourteen years from the time he was fourteen years of age. At the time of the breaking out of the Civil War he was in the city of New Orleans. To avoid impressment in the Confederate service he sailed away from New Orleans on a lumber vessel bound for San Francisco and the Puget Sound region. He followed the western seas for some time thereafter and was engaged in sealing far up in the Bering sea. During his seaman's career in America he made several trips around Cape Horn and during his life he traveled or sailed en- tirely around the world. While a sailor he saved over nine hundred dol- lars in gold. With this small fortune he returned to the island of Fahr to get married and then brought his wife to America. He traveled westward by way of Chicago and after a stay of about three months in that city he located in Clinton county, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of partly improved land in 1866. He sold out his holdings in Clinton county in 1881 and came to Sac county, buying a half section of land in Boyer Valley township. After living here for some time, he went to Dixon county, Nebraska, and invested in two hundred and forty acres of land. Later he purchased another half section in Boyer Valley township and also one hundred and sixty acres in Cook township. He afterwards added three hundred and twenty acres in Delaware township to his extensive farm inter- ests.
It is recorded that when he first contemplated a trip to Sac county his neighbors in Clinton county told him that the Indians would kill him and advised him not to venture northward, but he was desirous of getting hold of cheaper land in Sac county and future events showed the wisdom of his choice. At the time of his death he was the owner of one thousand one hundred and twenty acres in Sac county. In the spring of 1896 he re- moved to his second farm in Boyer Valley township and resided thereon until 1900, when he retired to the town of Early, where he died.
Olaf V. Jensen was the father of the following children: Oliver, the eldest; Charles, a farmer in Boyer Valley township; Mrs. Anna Struchen, of Boyer Valley township; Julius, deceased.
He of whom this review is written was educated in the common schools and was reared to farming as a vocation. When he became twenty-five
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years of age he took charge of the home place in Boyer Valley township and cultivated his broad acres until March 1, 1912, when he moved his family to the town of Lake View and purchased a fine residence in the south- eastern part of the town, on the shore of Wall lake. Mr. Jensen is the owner of a half section of well improved land in Boyer Valley township.
Mr. Jensen was married in September, 1895, to Ethel Russell, who was born and reared on a farm in Boyer Valley township, the daughter of Andrew and Neita Russell, the former a native of Ohio and the latter a native of Indiana. The father is now deceased and the mother lives in Washington. Mrs. Jensen is the mother of a family of eight children, as follows: Violet A., George Dewey, Sylvia Neita, Viola, Millard (deceased), Orian, Ellinor and Charlotte.
Mr. Jensen is interested in a financial way in the Early Concrete Stone Company, recently located in Lake View. He is politically allied with the Republican party and has filled various township offices. He is affili- ated with the Presbyterian church and is a member of the Brotherhood of American Yeoman. He is widely and favorably known for his geniality and his many sterling qualities which go far toward making a good and use- ful citizen in his adopted community.
WASHINGTON MCCARTER.
Among the prosperous retired farmers of Sac county, Washington Mc- Carter is one who has played a prominent part in the upbuilding of his com- munity. A man of excellent education and high ideals, he has been a benefit to the community in which he has lived. While he has been interested many years in advancing his own material interests, he has never forgotten the duty which he owes to his fellow citizens. He was born September 9, 1847, in Canada and is the son of Joseph and Phoebe (Hawley) McCarter. Joseph McCarter was born in 1821 in New York and died March 1. 1898; his wife, Phoebe Hawley, was born December 12, 1827, in Canada and is the daughter of Tina and Phoebe (Palmer) Hawley, natives respectively of Vermont and Delaware. The grandfather of Phoebe Palmer was Peter Brown, a Revolutionary soldier and a participant in the raid of John Brown at Osawatomie. Joseph McCarter left Canada in the year 1863 and located in Sac county, Iowa, where he lived until 1878. He then moved to Iowa county, where he died in 1898; his wife is now living with her son, Wash-
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ington, in Lake View, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph McCarter were the parents of five children : Washington, with whom this narrative deals; Mrs. Jessie Atkinson, of Iowa county ; Van Daca, who died in Ohio in 1913; Alceste, deceased, and Phoebe, deceased.
Washington McCarter received his education in the schools of Canada and New York and taught school for several terms in Iowa when a young man. He came with his parents to Clinton county in 1863 and went with them to Iowa county in 1878. In 1888 he came to Sac county and located in Boyer Valley township, where he purchased eighty acres for seven dol- lars and fifty cents an acre. He sold this farm in 1900 and moved to a farm in the east end of Wall Lake. He paid thirty-six dollars an acre for the farm of one hundred acres and sold it in 1908 and moved into Lake View. where he has since continued to reside.
Mr. McCarter was married in 1887 to Anna Disterhoft, of Iowa county, and to this marriage have been born three children : Daca, a teacher of this county ; Bertha, bookkeeper in a bank at Moville in Woodburn county, and Frances, a teacher in Sac county.
Politically, Mr. McCarter has been a life-long Democrat, but has never taken an active part in political affairs. Personally he is a man of pleasing address and kindly manner, who by his very presence inspires hope and contentment among his friends. His life has been marked by high purposes and a diligent devotion to duty. He is a man whom it is a pleasure to meet, being genial and straightforward, and a man whom to know is to trust and respect.
JOHN WESTROM.
The life history of some men contains enough interesting incidents to make a novel of several hundred pages in length. The history of some men who are living in Sac county would make a very readable romance. Given a small boy of fourteen years, with twenty-five cents in his pocket, with no knowledge of the English language, a total stranger in a strange land, but a boy with a clear brain and sound body, and with such a foundation. a good novelist would make a story which would rival "David Copperfield" or "John Halifax," two masterpieces of English fiction. The life history here presented is that of John Westrom, a native of Sweden and now a re- tired farmer of Lake View, Iowa.
John Westrom was born April 16, 1851, in Altsochen, Sweden, in the
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state of Jarrlebordslen. He is the son of Peter and Breta Westrom. Peter Westrom and wife were the parents of four children: Peter, of Lake View, Iowa; Olaf, of Stratford, Iowa; John, whose life history furnishes the theme for this narrative, and Eric, who died at the age of sixteen years. The father of these children died in 1852, leaving his widow with four young children.
John Westrom received a meager education in the land of his birth and when fourteen years of age joined a colony of two hundred peo- ple of his country, who came to America together, led by Reverend Belman. The second chapter of the interesting history of John Westrom opens when he landed in New York with twenty-five cents in his pocket. His history from that time to the year 1914 has been full of incidents, many of which are thrilling in character. He has arisen from absolute poverty to a place where he is now easily worth seventy-five thousand dollars, and yet some people wonder why America is called the Land of Opportunity. After land- ing in New York, John Westrom went with the rest of the colony to Illi- nois and located first at Galva, in Henry county, that state, where he worked at the tailor's trade for a year. His father had been a tailor and that was the only trade he knew sufficiently well at which he might obtain employ- ment. After working at the tailor's trade for a year he began to work on a farm, and after a year of farm labor he began to work on the railroad. Thrift and economy were his watchwords from the beginning, because the young lad wanted to save enough money as soon as possible to bring his mother to this country with him. By 1867, only two years after he had landed here with twenty-five cents in his pocket. he had saved sufficient money to pay his mother's passage to Illinois. He and his mother then went to Chicago, where he worked for a wholesale grocery concern at No. 41 Wabash avenue, for the next nine years. Before he quit work in Chicago he had come to Sac county and bought eighty acres in Wall Lake township in 1877. In the spring of 1881 he permanently located on his farm and from that time forward has ranked as one of the prosperous farmers of Sac county. He now owns two hundred and eighty acres in Wall Lake township. The various additions to his land holdings are as follows: His first eighty acres cost him eleven dollars an acre; the second twenty. fifteen dollars an acre ; the third one hundred, thirty-one dollars an acre and his final purchase of fifty acres cost fifty dollars an acre. The two hundred and eighty acres is now easily worth two hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre and is one of the best farms in the state of Iowa today. It is need- less to say in this connection that he has been a successful farmer, for his standing today bears witness to the fact.
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Mr. Westrom was married in 1876 to Anna C. Swanson, a native of Sweden and a resident of Chicago at the time of their marriage. To this union have been born seven children: Wesley, a farmer of Canada; Arthur C., who is now on his father's farm ; Frank S .. a farmer of Canada ; Fred S .. a fariner and coal operator of Alberta, Canada; Mrs. C. M. Butterfield, of Wetron, Alberta, Canada: Mrs. James Crawford, of Clear Lake, South Dakota, and Mabel, the wife of Reck Keck, of Sandy Point, Texas. Mr. Westrom owns one hundred and sixty acres in Alberta, Canada, and lived there one year.
One of the most interesting chapters of Mr. Westrom's life history is concerned with his trip to the Klondike region in 1898. This trip of six months contains more exciting experiences than falls to the lot of an ordi- nary man, and the historian regrets that he cannot do justice to this exciting chapter in the history of Mr. Westrom. He left Sac county in 1898 with five other men, and to this small company were added three more in Oregon. They met disaster before they reached Alaska. being shipwrecked on their way from Oregon and having to put in at Port Townsend for repairs. After reaching Alaska they had a terrible experience in making their way into the headwaters of Copper river. They prospected for three hundred and fifty miles and for three months slept on the snow every night. At one time they were snowed in with seven feet of snow and for seven days were in a perilous condition on the side of a mountain, not knowing any hour but that the next would be their last. At one time they saw the famous "red snow." which they came across on the top of a mountain. They climbed glaciers, scaled mountains, piled through snow drifts and yet lived to tell the tale. Mr. Westrom returned to Lake View after being gone six months, well satisfied to live the remainder of his days in Lake View, where glaciers come not and raging rivers are never seen. It is interesting to note here that Mr. Westromn has decided that his next vacation will be spent in Texas.
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