USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 71
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In politics, Mr. Westrom is a Republican, but he has always been con- tent to serve as a private in the ranks of his party, never having been an aspirant for any public office. He and his family are members of the Con- gregational church and are interested in the increased usefulness of that church in their community. In 1906 Mr. Westrom moved to Lake View. where he purchased a residence, which he has since rebuilt and made it into a comfortable and convenient home. He is now taking life easy and is enjoy- ing the fruits of his many years of hard work. Such is the life history of the poor immigrant boy of fourteen with twenty-five cents in his pocket, but with a heart which has never quailed and a hand never turned from honest labor.
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SAC COUNTY, IOWAA.
MAURICE D. RICH.
One of the many farmers of Sac county who have prospered in this fertile section is Maurice D. Rich, of Cedar township. He is recognized as one of the energetic farmers of Sac county, who, by his enterprise and pro- gressive methods, has contributed in a material way to the agricultural development of the locality where he lives. He has followed farming during all of his life and has met with abundant success, due to the fact that he has used those good qualities of sound judgment and strict integrity which accompany the successful man.
Maurice D. Rich was born March 12, 1871. in Livingston county, Illi- nois, and is the son of John and Helen ( Paddock) Rich. John Rich was born February 18, 1845, in Somersetshire, England. He came in the early fifties with his parents to this country and settled in Lake county, Illinois. Later the Rich family moved to Livingston county, in this state, and were among the pioneer settlers of that county. They now reside in Saunemin, Illinois. Mrs. John Rich had three brothers who were in the Civil War. To Mr. and Mrs. John Rich were born six children: Maurice D .; Mrs. Jennie Kimball, of Saunemin, Illinois; Mrs. Ada Spafford, of Saunemin, Illinois, whose husband is county supervisor; Arthur J., who is a builder and contractor in Chicago, living at Morgan Park; Mrs. Mayme Rhine- smith, of California. and Mrs. Agnes Rilley, of Depue, Illinois.
M. D. Rich was reared and educated in Livingston county, Illinois. receiving a good common school education. At the age of seventeen years he passed an examination entitling him to a teacher's certificate, and at nineteen, the age required by law, he began teaching school, which he fol- lowed for five years. Upon reaching his majority he married and rented a farm in Livingston county, Illinois, on which he lived until the spring of 1903, when he located on two hundred and forty acres at Nemaha, Iowa, which he had previously purchased, and on March 1, 1911, moved to his present beautiful farm home in the east edge of Sac City. In the meantime he had bought and sold a number of farms and at present owns his home farm of ninety-three acres, where he resides, also a very choicely located farm in his native county in Illinois.
Mr. Rich was married in November, 1892, to Viola Carrithers. She was born near Lakin, Marshall county, Illinois, and was educated in the schools of Livingston and Marshall counties, that state, and Grand Prairie Seminary at Onarga, Illinois, after which she successfully taught school
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for a number of years. Maurice and Viola Rich are the parents of five children, namely: Lela, a graduate of the Sac City high school: Merrill, Sinah and John. who are in high school, and Nellie, who has not reached school age. Mrs. Rich is the daughter of J. G. and Sinah ( Wallace) Carrithers. James Carrithers was born November 3. 1844, near Sullivan, Indiana, and his wife was born in Greensburg. Indiana. They are both now living in Livingston county, Illinois, near Saunemin. They are the parents of the following children: Mrs. Viola Rich; Mrs. Nellie Mitchell. of Saunemin, Illinois: Prof. Harry W. Carrithers, of Walkerton, Indiana : Prof. Ira T. Carrithers, of Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
In politics, Mr. Rich has identified himself with the Pregressive wing of the Republican party. He and his family are loyal members of the Metho- dist Episcopal church and take an active part in such interests as are allied with that denomination. Mr. Rich has devoted his lifetime to the agricul- tural profession and has met with success commensurate with his efforts. He is practical in his work and gives his personal attention to every detail of his farm work, with the result that he has an enviable standing in the com- munity, because of his ability and success in his chosen vocation.
ALDEN ARMSTRONG.
It is the progressive, wide-awake man of affairs that makes the real his- tory of a community, and his influence as a potential factor in the body politic is difficult to estimate. The examples such men furnish of patient purpose and steadfast integrity strongly illustrate what is in the power of each to ac- complish, and there is always a full measure of satisfaction in adverting, even in a casual way, to their achievements in advancing their own interests and those of their fellow men and giving strength and solidity to the institutions which make so much for the prosperity of the community. Such a man is Alden Armstrong, a stock dealer and business man of Lake View, Sac county, Iowa, and it is eminently proper that a review of his interesting career be ac- corded a place among the representative citizens of Sac county.
Alden Armstrong, a prosperous stock dealer of Lake View, Iowa, was born in Canada. August 2.4, 1853. He is the son of Platt and Amelia ( Mc- Carter) Armstrong, the former being the founder of Lake View. Amelia McCarter was the daughter of Robert McCarter, of St. Lawrence county. New York. Platt Armstrong left Canada in May. 1854. with his family and
MRS. EMMA ARMSTRONG
ALDEN ARMSTRONG
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SAC COUNTY, IOWA.
settled at Lost Nation, Clinton county, Iowa, where his wife died within a short time. Alden Armstrong was reared in Clinton county and in the fall of 1874 he left Clinton county in company with another man on a well-digging expedition. However, they could find no work to do, so his partner took the team back to Clinton county and Mr. Armstrong took the train from Cedar Rapids and stopped at Ogden, Iowa. Shortly after this he entered the em- ploy of Joseph Gorhanı, of Odebolt, and worked for him about six weeks. He then went to work on the Wheeler farm and later spent a short time in Ida county. By this time he had become convinced of the value of farming land in Sac county, and wrote his father, asking for financial assistance in locating land in this county. With his father's help, he bought all of section 13 in Clinton township, for which he paid six dollars and sixty-five cents an acre. In the spring of 1875 Mr. Armstrong came back to Sac county, after wintering in his old home county, and, with the assistance of Oran Haskins, broke up one hundred and forty acres of land on his Sac county farm. In the fall of 1875 Alden Armstrong and his father came from Clinton county to Sac county and built a honse, but returned to Clinton county for the winter. In February of 1876 Mr. Armstrong married and in the spring returned to Sac county, where he has continued to reside up to the present time. He had to haul his lumber from West Side, Crawford county, and, since there were no roads at that time, he had to haul it by way of the old Levey bridge. For five years he worked on this farm, then his father gave him one hundred and sixty acres of the land, and at the same time gave one hundred and sixty acres to each of his other sons. Mr. Armstrong lived on his farm for twelve years, when he sold it for ten thousand dollars and moved to Lake View in 1887. Upon removing to Lake View, Mr. Armstrong engaged in the grain and live stock business. He continued to follow both lines until 1900, when he dis- posed of his grain business and devoted all of his attention to his live stock trade. He has also been interested in the hardware and automobile business in Lake View and is also one of the stockholders and directors of the Lake View State Bank.
Mr. Armstrong was married February 24, 1876, to Emma G. Pollack, of Grundy county, Missouri, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pollack. To this union have been born two children, Lillian and Claude P. Claude P., who is in the automobile business in Lake View, is married and has three children, Alden, Velma and Robert Allie.
Mr. Armstrong was a Republican up until June, 1912, when he left the old party and joined the new Progressive party. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a Mystic Shriner of Sioux
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City, Iowa. He is also a Knight Templar at Sac City. Mr. Armstrong has lived nearly forty years in this county, and has seen it grow from a broad expanse of prairie to its present thriving and prosperous condition. He re- calls the time when he shot as many as fifteen deer at one time in the vicinity of Wall lake. When he came here the country was all unimproved, and his house was the first one built between his site and Sac City. His house is built on the divide between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Mr. Armstrong has so ordered his course at all times as to command the confidence and regard of the people of his community. He is a man who has always followed the most conscientious methods in his business dealings, and has never neglected to advocate whatever he felt would promote the public welfare of his locality in any way.
WILLIAM PITSTICK.
In this volume there are many biographies of farmers who were either born in Germany, or the descendants of parents who came from that country, and there is not one of the many German families who have settled in this county who have not prospered in this favored region of the United States. No one of them has used better judgment and attained to a more substantial prosperity than William Pitstick, a prominent farmer of Jackson township, this county. Success has attended him at every turn and in all of his ventures he has shown that rare judgment and good business acumen which charac- terizes the successful man. The thrift which characterized his ancestors is strikingly present in his make-up, and yet, while he has been advancing his own material interests, he has not overlooked the duty which he owes to his county and state as a member of the body politic. He has identified himself with various public enterprises and in each has contributed his share to the bringing about of better conditions.
William Pitstick was born April 12, 1865. in Illinois, the son of John and Frances ( Billingsfeldt ) Pitstick. John Pitstick was born in December, 1836. in Germany, and died in Calhoun county, Iowa, in December. 1912. while his wife, Frances Anna Billingsfeldt, was born in Germany in Decem- ber. 1841, and died in Calhoun county. this state, in April. 1913. When William was eleven months of age his parents moved to Polk county, Iowa, from Illinois, where they lived seventeen years. The family then moved to Calhoun county, this state, where John Pitstick became a prosperous and substantial farmer, accumulating four hundred and eighty acres of excellent
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farming land. Mr. and Mrs. John Pitstick were the parents of ten children : Charles, of Calhoun county, Iowa; Louisa, deceased ; Frances, of Rockwell City, this state ; William, with whom this narrative deals: Lizzie and Emma, both deceased ; John, of Calhoun county ; Ella, of Sac City; Edward, who is living in Indiana, and Mrs. Josephine Clark, of Jackson township.
William Pitstick received his education in the Polk county, Iowa, schools, remaining with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age. In 1890 he had bought a farm in Calhoun county, near Lake City, but sold this tract later. In 1801 he bought one hundred and seventy acres in Scott county, lowa, on which he resided for eleven years. In 1902 he came to Sac county and bought two hundred and twenty acres of exceptionally good land in Coon Valley township, paying sixty-five dollars an acre for the land. Some time later he sold eighty acres of this tract for seventy dollars an acre. In 1909 he moved to Sac City in order to give his children the benefit of the excellent schools of that city. His farm of one hundred acres in Jackson township lies within the corporate limits of Sac City, and on this he has lived since 1900. He paid one hundred and ten dollars an acre for this land, and it is now easily worth two hundred and fifty dollars an acre, although it is not for sale at any price. This farm overlooks the valley of Coon river and it is one of the finest improved farms in the county. It has a handsome residence on it and excellent buildings of all kinds, which are set in attract- ively kept grounds. In addition to this farm, Mr. Pitstick is the owner of one hundred and forty-eight acres in Coon Valley township, and has an interest in two hundred acres in Minnesota.
Mr. Pitstick was married on March 3, 1889, to Helen Snider, of Scott county. She is the daughter of Ephraim and Eliza Jane ( Randall) Snider, who were natives of New York and Maine, respectively, and pioneers of Scott county, of this state. Both her parents are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Pitstick are the parents of seven children: Mrs. Janie Mendenhall, a graduate of the high school at Sac City and a student of the Teachers' Col- lege in Cedar Falls, this state. She was a former teacher in the public school of Sac City; May, a graduate of the high school and a teacher ; Mrs. Frances Mendenhall. also a graduate of the high school, now lives in Cedar township, this county ; Henry, a graduate of the high school and now a stu- dent in I. C. S .: Nellie and Virgil, who are students in the high school at Sac City ; Ruth, the youngest, who finishes the eighth grade this year: Scott is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Pistick are justly proud of their fine children, and have sought to give them the advantage of the best education possible and it is a satisfaction to the parents to know that their children have tale?
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advantage of the opportunity given them and have equipped themselves to become useful members of society. When the three younger children get through the high school, there will have been seven children of the same family graduated from the same high school, a record which doubtless cannot be duplicated any place in the state of Iowa, if any state in the Union.
Mr. Pitstick has been engaged in various enterprises besides his agricul- tural interests, having been one of the originators and leading promoters of the Farmers Elevator Company of Sac City. In fact, he was the founder of the company, and it was his plan which, carried into execution, has made the company the prosperous firm which it is today. He is a stockholder in the Sac County Fair Association and is now superintendent of the horse department. Mr. Pitstick is a man of keen business judgment and every organization with which he has been connected has found in him one who quickly comprehends the intricate features of the business in hand and suggests ways whereby the business can be increased. Politically, Mr. Pit- stick is a Republican, but has been so busy with his many interests that he has not had time to engage to any great extent in politics. However, he keeps well posted on the current issues of the day and takes an intelligent interest in the political questions before the American people. Religiously, the family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and to this de- nomination they contribute of their time and substance. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Owing to his splendid success, his genuine worth and his genial disposition, Mr. Pitstick easily wins friends and always retains them. He enjoys a marked degree of popu- larity in the locality where so many of his years have been spent. .
GEORGE W. MENDENHALL.
The office of biography is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments, but rather to leave upon the record the verdict establishing his character by the consensus of opinion on the part of his neighbors and fellow citizens. In touching upon the life history of the subject of this sketch the writer aims to avoid fulsome ecomium and extrav- agant praise ; yet he desires to hold up for consideration those facts which have shown the distinction of a true, useful and honorable life-a life char- acterized by perseverance, energy, broad charity and well defined purpose. To do this will be to reiterate the dictum pronounced upon the man by the people who have known him long and well.
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George W. Mendenhall, a retired farmer of Sac City, Iowa, being a former resident of Cedar township, was born in Butler county, Ohio, March 1, 1860. His parents were W. B. and Mary Ellen ( Neff) Mendenhall. His father, W. B., was born in Preble county, Ohio, of English ancestry, in 1834; and his mother was born in Ohio in 1841 and died in March, 1909. WV. B. Mendenhall and family left Ohio in about 1883 and, after stopping for two years in Illinois, located in Rice county, Kansas, where W. B. Men- denhall is still living. W. B. Mendenhall and wife were the parents of five children, who are living: Charles M., of Lyons, Kansas; Joseph O .. of Wichita, Kansas; Mrs. E. G. Schenck, of Sac county, Iowa; Mrs. Effie Mason, of Hutchinson, Kansas. and George W., whose history is portrayed in this connection.
George W. Mendenhall was educated in the public schools of Butler county, Ohio, and when twenty-one years of age left home to seek his for- tune. He went to Illinois and located in Macon county, where he rented a farm and also engaged in the hardware and furniture business in Macon county. Shortly after he came to Macon county, Illinois, his parents also moved there. In 1907 Mr. Mendenhall moved to Sac county. Iowa, and bought two hundred and forty acres in Cedar township, for which he paid sixty-four dollars an acre. Later he bought forty acres adjoining this farm, at eighty dollars an acre, and now has two hundred and eighty acres of fine land in Cedar township. In 1911 he erected a fine residence, and in the seven years in which he has lived in this township he has built a barn and has done a large amount of fencing and draining. The land in Cedar township, in order to be the most productive, demands scientific drainage and, since com- ing to this farm, Mr. Mendenhall has spent over two thousand dollars in tiling and considers the money well spent. His land has rapidly increased in value and is now worth at least two hundred dollars an acre. In Novem- ber, 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall left the farm in charge of their sons, Harry and Ralph, and moved to Sac City, where they purchased a fine resi- dence.
George W. Mendenhall was married in 1886 to Laura Schenck, of Macon county, Illinois, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Schenck. Mr. and Mr. Mendenhall have seven children, all of whom are living: Harry and Ralph are managing their father's farm: Glen is in the schools at Sac City : Grace, Fern and Bernadine are still with their parents. and Iva mar- ried F. G. Hall and lives northeast of Lytton, in this county.
Mr. Mendenhall has always allied himself with the Republican party and, while taking a deep interest in local politics, yet has never been a candi-
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date for any public office. He and the members of his family are regular attendants at the Methodist Episcopal church and give it their earnest sup- port. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Order of the Eastern Star, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Daughters of Rebekah, the Knights of Pythias, the Rathborne Sisters and the Improved Order of Red Men. Mr. Mendenhall is a quiet, plain and kind-hearted man, respected by all who know him, and one who has always been regarded as honest and upright in all his dealings. Personally, he is a pleasant man to meet. affable, obliging and a man who is esteemed wherever he is known for his many good qualities.
J. H. LOW.
It is a well attested maxim that the greatness of a community or a state lies not in the machinery of government nor even in its institutions, but rather in the sterling qualities of the individual citizen, in his capacity for high and unselfish effort and his devotion to the public welfare. In these particulars he whose name appears at the head of this review has conferred honor and dignity upon his locality, and as an elemental part of history it is consonant that there should be recorded a resume of his career, with the object in view of noting his connection with the advancement of one of the most flourishing and progressive sections of the commonwealth.
J. H. Low, a retired farmer of Douglas township, Sac county, Iowa, was born July 15. 1850, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were William and Sarah (Chapman) Low, natives of New Jersey and Pennsyl- vania, respectively. William Low was born in 1818 and died in 1891. His father was John Low, an uncle of the Hon. Seth Low, former mayor of New York City. The Lows were all seafaring men, and William followed the sea until he was thirty-seven years of age. He then settled in Philadel- phia, where he was in the employ of a chemical company for thirteen years. Later he came to Indiana and settled in New Albany, where he engaged in the commercial business until 1869, then settled in Carroll county, Illinois, where he died in 1891. Sarah Chapman, the mother of J. H. Low, was born in Pennsylvania in 1822, of Quaker parentage, the daughter of John Chaj man, who was a captain in the Revolutionary War. She died in 1902 in Marshalltown, Iowa, at the home of her son.
Mr. and Mrs. William Low were the parents of six children: James,
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deceased : William, deceased : John H., whose history is delineated in this connection ; Charles G., of Burlington, Iowa; Thomas P., of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Eliza D., deceased.
J. H. Low was educated in the common schools of Pennsylvania, but never attended school after he was nine years of age. When he was nine- teen he began railroading, with his headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky, was rapidly promoted because of his efficient work and was soon a conductor on the Louisville & Nashville Railway, a position which he held for ten years. In 1879 he came to Carroll county, Illinois, and hired out as a farm laborer, where he worked for seven years. He then began farming for him- self, and in 1884 moved to Marshall county, Iowa, where he bought a farm. This he sold two years later and went to Sioux county and located at Hawarden. In 1889 Mr. Low came to Calhoun county and in the following year came to Sac county and bought a farm in Douglas township for twenty-six and a half dollars an acre. He sold this farm in the fall of 1913 for one hundred and thirty-seven and a half dollars an acre, clearing one hundred and ten dollars an acre on his investment. He then purchased a home in Sac City, moved his family there and is now retired from active work. He is a stockholder and one of the most influential directors in the Sac County Fair Association. He still holds two hundred and eighty acres in Douglas township, which he rents.
Mr. Low was married in 1877 to Sophia E. Kingry, of Mt. Carroll, Illinois To this marriage have been born four sons : Jesse W., an automobile dealer of Sac City : William, who is living on a farm in Jackson township; Charles G., a farmer in South Dakota; Harry, a hanker and automobile dealer in Lytton. Mr. Low has recently invested in considerable property in Sac City and has become interested in the automobile business, conducted by his son. He has assisted him financially and has had the justification of seeing his son prosper in this line of business. All of Mr. Low's sons proved to be successful business men and have made good wherever they have located. Mr. and Mrs. Low take a great deal of interest in their sons and are naturally proud of their achievements.
In politics, Mr. Low is an independent voter, preferring to cast his vote for the best man in all cases, irrespective of political affiliations. He is a fine type of an ever-increasing number of American citizens who vote for the best men. Fraternally, Mr. Low is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Low has attained his present success because of his natural ability. in- dustry and honesty, and although he has encountered many obstacles in the course of his long career, yet he has overcome them all and today looks back over a career that has been well spent in every particular.
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COL. WILLIAM C. LOOKINGBILL.
The careers of self-made and successful men all abound with lessons from which those of the present rising generation can take comfort and profit. It is by no means an easy task to describe within the limits of this all too brief review a man who has led an active and eminently useful life and by his own individual exertions reached a position of honor and trust in the line of the profession and industry with which his interests are closely allied. But biography finds justification in the tracing and recording of the salient facts of such a life history, inasmuch as the public claims a certain proprietory interest in the career of every individual and the time invariably arrives when it becomes advisable to give the right publicity. It is, then, with considerable satisfaction that the biographer enters upon the writing of the biography of Col. W. C. Lookingbill, eminent auctioneer and breeder of fine live stock, who, from a humble beginning, has achieved a reputation little short of marvelous in the short space of time given him to accomplish his ambition and secure a place in the body politic as a successful man among a host of successful citizens in this wonderfully developed community. Colonel Lookingbill resides in one of the most beautiful homes in the eastern portion of a city noted for its attractive environs and handsome structures. Years ago, when he first came to Sac City to win fortune and renown, he was attracted by the features of a beautiful stretch of woodland elevated in such a manner as to provide an unexcelled setting for a home. This land was then owned by Judge Criss, who at first refused to consider an offer. It was Colonel Lookingbill's good fortune, however, to eventually become the owner of this desirable property. which consists of fifty-seven and five-tenths acres of land. He erected his home at the brow of a bluff overlooking the fair grounds and the city. This tract is part of his original purchase of sixty acres and has steadily risen in value since his purchase of the tract for one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre in 1908. His farm and home are within the corporation limits of Sac City. A large and modern barn is located in the rear and to the east of the residence with other buildings suitably grouped. He is a well-known breeder of pure bred Shorthorn cattle, Poland China swine and Shropshire sheep. His stock is practically all registered as thoroughbreds. Once each month Colonel Lookingbill conducts a great sale of live stock on his place. which is largely attended and patronized by the neighboring stockmen.
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