USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 79
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on every occasion of the trusts reposed in him and measured up to the re- sponsibilities placed upon him at various times in a manner worthy of the highest commendation. Intellectually, morally, professionally and officially, he holds high rank as a citizen of Sac City and his adopted county.
Doctor Townsend was born on a farm in Webster county, Iowa, January 19. 1869. His parents were Isaac and Melissa A. ( Bradshaw ) Townsend, natives of Maine and Canada, respectively. He is a product of a fusion of the best blood of old New England. His grandfather, William Townsend, migrated westward from Maine in a very early day and settled in the state of Wisconsin. Here his parents were married, and in the year 1867 they jour- neyed to Webster county, Iowa, for the purpose of making a permanent home and rearing a family in the great and growing state. They succeeded beyond their expectations in amassing a competence and bringing up a de- sirable family, every one of which has succeeded in becoming a valued mem- ber of the body politic. Isaac Townsend died in 1888, his wife, Melissa, dying in 1893. The children are as follows: Charles, a prosperous farmer and stockman in Nebraska: Samuel, residing in Webster county; Ida, de- ceased : Leroy J., of Webster county; Ernest, living in Chicago; George, of Webster county, Iowa; Ray, of Cherokee county, and Dr. William H., of Sac City.
He of whom this chronicle reads received his education in the public and high schools of Fort Dodge and in the Collegiate Institute of the same city. He became ambitious to enter the profession of medicine and therefore matriculated in the Medical College of the State University of Iowa, grad- uating therefrom in the spring of 1897. Doctor Townsend practiced at Lehigh, Webster county, for a period of two years. In 1898 he hearkened to the call of President Mckinley for the enlistment of troops for service in the Spanish-American war and. on June 26. 1898, enlisted as a private soldier in Company G. Fifty-second Regiment of United States Infantry. He was soon appointed an assistant surgeon and served at Chickamauga Park.
He was released from duty at the close of hostilities and in the year 1899 located in Odebolt, where he practiced his profession until 1900, when he established his office permanently in Sac City. His practice is unusually large and he has a clientele numbered among the best and most substantial residents of the city and county. He is allied fraternally with the Sac County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His political affiliations have long been with the Republican party. Doctor Townsend has served one term as mayor of his adopted city, and four terms as county coroner. In fact, he has served as coroner of the
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county since January 1, 1903. By virtue of his office, he became acting sheriff of the county on May 30, 1911, upon the death of Sheriff Alexander Rogers, and served until his successor was duly appointed. During his in- cumbency of the coroner's and sheriff's offices, a serious murder was com- mitted in the neighborhood, and it devolved upon this versatile gentleman to actually perform the duties of three important offices. He did this ably and to the satisfaction of the people. The inquest was duly held and the mur- derer apprehended without loss of time. Doctor Townsend is the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres in Sac county and two hundred and eighty acres in Calhoun county, Iowa. both being stocked with registered Polled Angus cattle. He has an elegant home on the heights above the down- town section.
Doctor Townsend and his family are attendants of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and the Doctor is a liberal supporter of all church denomina- tions. He is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Sac City.
In the year 1900 the Doctor was united in marriage with Eva Roosa, of Sac City, the daughter of Mrs. E. E. Lewis. They have one child, Harold Wayne Townsend, who was born November 30, 1901.
Doctor Townsend is a genial, well-balanced gentleman, who possesses a highly developed sense of personal responsibility in the performance of his public duties and in the practice of his profession. Ile numbers his personal friends by hundreds and has little difficulty in retaining the friendship of men with whom he is thrown in daily contact during the course of his ministering career
ELIAS TIBERGHIEN.
The life history of him whose name heads this biographical sketch has been closely identified with the history of Sac county, lowa, which has long been his home. He came here in the pioneer days and throughout the years has been closely allied with its interests and upbuilding.
Elias Tiberghien, retired farmer of Sac City, Iowa, was born in LaPorte county, Indiana. July 24, 1851, the son of Elias and Harriet Melville ( Harri- son) Tiberghien, the farmer a native of Ohio and the latter of Kentucky. Elias Tiberghien was the son of Zacheus Tiberghien, of supposedly French descent, who moved from Ohio to Indiana, where Elias and Harriet were married. Elias migrated to Iowa in 1856, with eight children. The long
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trip was made across country with ox team. Ten yoke of oxen hauled the wagons, with five families. They also had one span of mules, owned by Mr. Rose. It required the ten yoke of oxen to pull the wagons through the Iowa sloughs. The Tiberghiens settled near Cory's Grove, two miles south, in Jackson township, where they lived until about 1876, when the old people moved on their son's place, near Sac City. Elias Tiberghien was born in Miami county. Ohio, September 7. 1810, and died December 10. 1883. His wife, Harriet Melville Harrison, was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, Aug- ust 18, 1815, and died August 10, 1895. Their children were as follows : Mrs. Nancy Slavons, deceased; Mrs. Nellie Staton, of near Sac City; James S., of Sac county ; Jeremiah Shelton, of Sac county; Mrs. Elizabeth Cory. who died in 1911 ; Mrs. Julia Cromer, deceased : Mrs. Ellen Jepson, of North Dakota: Elias, the immediate subject of this sketch: Clarissa. of Sac county; Eli, of Sac county.
Elias Tiberghien was married on September 12, 1880, to Thalia Dart, who was born in Wisconsin on May 24. 1858, the daughter of Charles J. and Naomi Jane ( Butterfield ) Dart, natives of Vermont, of New England ancestry. Charles J. Dart was the son of James Dart, whose ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. The Dart family left Wisconsin in 1865 and settled in Sac county, Iowa, near Cory's Grove, on the east side of the river. Charles J. Dart was born in 1824 and died in 1907. His wife, Naomi Jane Butterfield, was born in February, 1826, and died October 13, 1902. They were the parents of six children, named as follows: Mrs. Thalia Tiberghien; Erastus Dart, who lives five miles southeast of Sac City, Iowa: Mrs. Frances Williams, deceased; Mrs. Emma Ahrens, of Sac City, Iowa; George and Warren both died in infancy.
When Mr. and Mrs. Elias Tiberghien were married they settled on a farin of forty acres two miles south of Sac City, on which they lived two years, and then. in 1882. sold out and bought eighty acres of wild prairie land in Coon Valley township. Here they built a home, improved the land and resided until 1896, when they sold out and removed to Missouri, where they bought a farm of one hundred and forty-three acres. In 1000, after a residence of four years in Missouri, they returned to Sac county and bought forty acres on the west side of the river, known as the Warner place, where they lived for five years. In 1908 they again sold out and this time removed to Sac City. Four children have been born to Elias Tiberghien and wife, named as follows : Mark. Mina and Miles are deceased, and Mabel, who was born in Missouri, is a student at the Sac City high school.
Mr. Tiberghien is a member of the Methodist church and, politically. he
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is a Republican. As one of the sturdy pioneers and substantial citizens of his locality, he is well-known throughout the length and breadth of Sac county and is a man respected and honored for his daily life. His reputation among men for integrity and high character has gained for him the good will and commendation of not only his friends and neighbors, but of all who have had dealings with him.
CHARLES W. FIRTH.
One of the most prominent farmers and largest stock breeders of Levey township. Sac county, lowa. is Charles W. Firth, who was born May 7. 1866. in Yorkshire, England, the son of George and Margaret ( Ridgedale) Firth, and his father and mother are still living in England, the father being seventy- three years of age and his mother seventy. To George and Margaret Firth have been born five children, who are living: James, of California; George, of Nebraska; Charles William, whose life history is here presented; Mrs. Sarah Hugh, of Hull, England, and Margaret, who is still with her parents.
Charles W. Firth came to this country in 1885, at the age of nineteen years. He had no money, but he had what was still better, a determination to succeed and an unusual amount of ability in business lines. He first located in Crawford county, Iowa, and was engaged in the stock business with another man for a year. In 1886 he began business for himself and in two years moved to Sac county, after which he engaged in the stock business in partner- ship with P. Sargisson, and this connection continued for the next eight years, and he and Mr. Sargisson own ten thousand acres of land in Nebraska and one section in Iowa. In 1898 Mr. Firth moved onto his present farm, where he built a large house in which he is now living. He owns six hundred and twenty acres of land in Levey township and eighty acres in Jackson county, Iowa. He is the largest stock raiser and shipper in the county, shipping three thousand head of cattle annually. At the time this data was secured for his personal sketch, he had five hundred and forty-six head of cattle on his land, which he was feeding at that time for the markets. In addition to his cattle business, he also buys and sells hogs and averages eight carloads annually. He is undoubtedly the largest cattle and hog man in Sac county, and probably handles more stock than any other man in northwestern Iowa. He employs a force of thirty men to attend to his large herds of cattle in Iowa and Nebraska.
CHARLES W. FIRTH
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Mr. Firth has been twice married, his first marriage occurring August 22, 1893, to Bessie Bancroft, who died September 14, 1895. She was born September 14, 1872, in Anderby, Lincolnshire, England, and was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Bancroft. She came to America with her parents in 1888, and settled in Madison county, Iowa. To Mr. Firth's first marriage was born one daughter, Leona Esther, who is now twenty years of age. She graduated from the West Side high school and also from Denison College, and is now a teacher. The second marriage of Mr. Firth was to Hester Jane Jolly, which occurred November 18, 1896. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. R. Jolly, of Wall Lake, pioneer settlers of this county, and to this second marriage have been born eight children: Charles Robert, born April 3. 1898; Grace Geneva, born May 30, 1899; Arthur Valvern, born June I, 1900; Margaret Lucile, born November 4, 1907: Isla Jane, born December 28, 1908; Helen, born August 30, 1910; Bernice Jeannette, born March 17, 1912. and Pearl, born June 8, 1913. Mrs. Firth was born April 3, 1877, in Clinton township, this county, and is a woman of charming personality and pleasing manners. Few residents of Sac county are as well and favorably known as Mr. and Mrs. Firth and none stand higher in the esteem and con- fidence of the community in which they reside.
Politically, Mr. Firth is a Republican, but his many business interests have prevented him from taking an active part in politics. He and his family are loyal members of the Presbyterian church, and, fraternally, he is a mem- ber of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and maintains his membership in the Scottish Rite, in Parvin Consistory No. 5, at Sioux City. His influence has always been on the side of right living. and while he has been more than ordinarily successful in business, yet he has never forgotten the duties which he owes to his family, his state as a citizen, or to any of the higher duties which make the best American citizens.
GEORGE LUCIAN STOCKER.
One of the distinctive functions of this publication is to take recognition of those citizens of the community who stand representative in their chosen spheres of endeavor, and in this connection there is propriety in according consideration to George Lucian Stocker, a pioneer citizen of Sac county who has figured in the varied life of this locality for a long lapse of years.
George Lucian Stocker was born at Coldwater. Michigan, March 9,
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1841, and reared in Steuben county, Indiana. He is the son of George and Charlotte E. Brown ( Lee) Stocker, the former a native of near Rutland, Vermont, and the latter of New York state, who removed to Steuben county. Indiana, in 1842, and about 1867 removed to Sac county, Iowa, settling on a farm in Douglas township. Here George Stocker died in 1885 and his wife died in 1889 at Salem, Steuben county, Indiana, where she had gone on a visit to relatives, after her husband's death. Mrs. Stocker had been previous- ly married to a Mr. Lee, by whom she had one son, Clark E. Lee, who died in the service of the Union army during the Civil War. Three children were born to her second marriage, as follows: George Lucian, the immediate subject of this sketch, and Mrs. Mary Carver and John L., both of whom are deceased.
George Lucian Stocker came to Sac county, Iowa, from Steuben county, Indiana. in June. 1856. He took up the task of breaking up forty acres of prairie land which his father had bought in 1855. During these days he did a great deal of hunting and trapping, varying the time with occasional trips back to his Indiana home. In 1868 he settled on section 4 in Douglas town- ship.
During the Civil War Mr. Stocker enlisted for service in the Union army but was rejected. He journeyed to Cedar county and resided with an uncle. In the fall of 1862 he joined a government train and went to Mar- shalltown, lowa, where he hired out for four years. He was a "bull whacker" up and down the Missouri river and in the Dakotas, going up the Missouri river as far as Fort Thompson.
On February 20. 1866, Mr. Stocker was married to Mary Jane Barclay, a native of Unadilla. Otsego county, New York, daughter of Hugh Barclay, an early settler of Sac county. She was born July 8, 1841. In March, 1881. they removed to Sac City, where Mr. Stocker engaged in the livery business for two years. He served as deputy sheriff under H. L. Wilson for three and one-half years, under Tom Beattie for one and one-half years, under Had Allen for three and one-half years, and under Adam Teppel for about four years. He was also constable during this time. For five years Mr. Stocker was night marshal of the university grounds at Ames, Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Stocker have two children and one adopted child. Nellie died in 1882: Fred is boss of carpenter crew at the college at Ames, Iowa. and Ebenezar Cook, an adopted son, is county auditor at Washburn, North Dakota.
Politically, Mr. Stocker is a Progressive, and he holds membership with
SAC COUNTY, IOWA.
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias and past noble grand of the Odd Fellows.
JAMES ELMER AUSTIN.
One of the enterprising men of Sac City who, by close attention to busi- ness, has achieved success and risen to an honorable position among the pro- gressive men of the county with which his interests are identified, is J. E. Austin, city marshal of Sac City, lowa. Mr. Austin is one of those estimable citizens who commands respect because he has performed well his duty in all relations of life.
Mr. Austin was born January 22, 1863, and is a native of the state of Nebraska. He is a son of John Gilbert and Maria (Tufts) Austin, the for- mer a native of Ohio and the latter of Wisconsin. John G. Austin was born in the year 1835 and came to Sac county with his father, Leonard Austin, in 1852. Maria Tufts was the daughter of Joseph Tufts, an early settler in Sac county, and she came to this county with an uncle. John G. Austin and Maria Tufts were married in Sac county and went to Nebraska. but returned here in April, 1863, and had a farm near Sac City, where they lived until about 1806. They were the parents of five children, named as follows : John. who lives in South Dakota: Mrs. Almina Fletcher, who also lives in South Dakota: William V., of Fonda, Iowa; Edward, who is the Standard Oil Company's representative at Sac City ; James Elmer, the immediate subject of this sketch. John G. Austin died in 1901. At the time of his death he was city marshal of Sac City, and he was a man who had the respect of all who knew him.
J. E. Austin was reared on the parental farm and followed the active life of a farmer until 1898. At the age of twenty-three he married and rented a farm in Jackson township, where he lived for three years. He then lived for five years on his father's farm of one hundred and sixty acres adjoining Sac City, after which he bought a residence in Sac City and removed to town, and for the following three years was in the employ of the Chicago. Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. In 1907 he became deputy sheriff of Sac county under Sheriff Currie, and served in this capacity for three years, or until 1910. He is now serving as city marshal of Sac City, having succeeded his father in this position at his death. He is generally conceded
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to be a very efficient and trustworthy official, and has the support and confi- cence of the community.
Mr. Austin was married in 1886 to Nellie M. Nichols and they are the parents of five children : Clarence lives at Lake View, Iowa ; Leonard ; Mrs. Eveline Stutzman, of Corning, Iowa; Charles and Lloyd.
Politically, Mr. Austin is a Republican, and he is a member of the Woodmen of the World.
WILLIAM J. FINDLEY, M. D.
It is not always easy to discover and define the hidden forces that move a life of ceaseless activity and large professional success : little more can be done than to note their manifestations in the career of the individual under consideration. In view of this fact, the life of the able physician whose name appears above affords a striking example of a well defined purpose to succeed along the lines of the noblest of professions, for which he was inclined through native ability and a natural heritage. A long and successful career in the practice of medicine has broadened and widened his sphere of influence until Dr. William J. Findley stands in the forefront of the medical profession through sheer worth and excellence of his inherent qualities. Twenty years of continuous exercise of his talents in the alleviation of the pain and suffer- ing of his fellow human beings, several years of this experience being under the direct guidance of his eminent father, who ranks among the most widely known of the pioneer physicians of Iowa, has eminently fitted him for the maturity of his calling.
Dr. William J. Findley, of Sac City, was born January 1. 1860, in Warren county, Iowa. His birthplace was in the town of Green Bush, now better known as Spring Hill. His parents were Dr. David Findley, who was born August 31. 1830, and Martha J. Barr Findley, a native of Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania. David Findley was a native of Guernsey county, in the old Buckeye state, and was a graduate of Keokuk College of Medicine. He came west when a young man and first studied medicine in the office of Dr. William Anderson, of Warren county. He had previously married in Ohio and traveled to the west in a prairie schooner in 1859. He removed to Grove City. Cass county, in 1862, and the following year re- moved back to Indianola. Warren county, and after one year there returned to Lewis. Cass county, where he lived for the following twelve years. In 1876 he removed to Atlantic, Iowa, and it is recorded of him that he prac-
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ticed medicine in Cass county for the long period of forty-seven years: in fact, he continued in the exercise of his calling until his death, in 1910. Ilis highly successful and honorable career is extensively recorded in the annals of his adopted county. Doctor and Mrs. Findley were the parents of seven children. five of whom are yet living, namely: S. C. Findley, of Atlantic, lowa: Dr. W. J. Findley: Mrs. G. W. Noble, of Omaha, Nebraska; Dr. Palmer Findley, of Omaha, Nebraska, and Miss Mayme Findley, of Atlantic. The mother of these children died August 2, 1912.
He with whom this biography is intimately concerned was educated in the Atlantic schools and graduated from the high school of his native city. He then studied in the collegiate department of the State University at Iowa City and later completed a course in the New York School of Pharmacy. For a period of twelve years, from 1879 to 1891, inclusive, he practiced pharmacy. In the fall of 1891 he entered the Northwestern University of Chicago and graduated from the medical department in 1894. He practiced with his father for five years at Atlantic, and in 1899 located at Sac City. Success has attended Doctor Findley from the beginning of his career in Sac City, and his clientele is considerable. Since the date of his graduation. he has pursued several post-graduate courses in Chicago and keeps abreast of all new developments in his chosen profession. Doctor Findley is yet a student and is ever seeking to better and broaden his knowledge of the science of medicine and surgery. He is a member of the Sac County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. By virtue of his position as local surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, he is a member of the Association of Railway Surgeons. Politically, he is allied with the Republican party. He has filled various local offices in the city and has always taken a live interest in civic affairs which concerned the well-being of his neighbors and fellow citizens of the munici- pality He has served as a member of the local school board and is a member of the Presbyterian church.
Doctor Findley was united in marriage with Elizabeth Truesdale, for- merly of Atlantic, Iowa, in 1899. They have two children, who are attending the public schools, namely : Ellinor, aged sixteen years, and Evelyn, aged fourteen. Doctor Findley is also a registered pharmacist, and has had hospi- tal experience in the Cook County Hospital and the Merry Hospitals, located in Chicago.
Reverting to the subject's ancestral record, it may be stated that Dr. David Findley was the son of Rev. Samuel Findley, a minister of the United Presby- terian faith, and who was a traveling missionary in lowa as early as 1847.
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It is recorded of him that he traveled from Ohio to lowa on horseback and for a time spread the gospel according to the Presbyterian faith among the early settlers of the new and growing state. Rev. William T. Findley, a son, had charge of a church in Newark, New Jersey, and cared for his father in his old age until his death. The wife of Rev. Samuel Findley was Margaret Ross, a native of Ireland. Dr. David Findley was married August 26, 1856, to Martha J. Barr, of Monongahela City, Pennsylvania. and daughter of James Barr. He first studied medicine under Dr. W. M. Anderson, of An- trum, and came to Iowa in 1859, receiving a diploma from the Keokuk Col- lege of Medicine a few years later. He was one of the original "Forty- niners" who made the trip from New York through the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco in 1852 and was shipwrecked, having a narrow escape from death when the good ship "Independence" was wrecked on the south coast of California in 1853. two hundred and fifty out of five hundred passengers being drowned. The ancestors of Martha J. Barr, on her mother's side, were named Kennedy, and came to America from county Antrim, Ireland. They first settled at old Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, in 1781. and entered land in Washington county, Pennsylvania, which is vet held by their descendants. Her father. James Barr, was a captain of volunteers in the Seminole War. He enlisted in the United States army two different times and died of fever contracted in the Seminole swamps.
ABSALOM CUNNINGHAM.
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 a concise account of his career from birth to the final rounding out of a life of usefulness such as has been enjoyed by the citizen whose name is inscribed at the head of this brief narrative. His character has been established through the estimation in which he is held by neighbors and friends. Like many successful men of the West. he is selfmade and from a modest and small beginning he has amassed a considerable competence through the exercise of industry and close application to the promotion of his agricultural operations. Absalom Cunningham is one of the respected and substantial retired citizens of Sac City, and during his time was one of the best known and most suc- cessful tillers of the soil within the confines of the county. His sterling worth and great personal integrity is beyond question in the land of his adoption.
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