USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 82
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J. W. Criss was educated in the district schools and did farm work on his grandfather's farm during his boyhood days. When still a youth, he learned the trade of granite and marble cutter and was employed in the shops for a period of ten years. He was appointed to fill the vacancy in the sher- iff's office in Sac county, June 5, 1911. He was elected to the office on the Republican ticket in the fall election of the year 1912. He and his family are attendants of the Methodist church, and he is fraternally connected with the Modern Woodmen, Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons. He values highly a membership in the Sac City commandery of Knights Templar, and the Abu Bekr Shrine of Sioux City.
Mr. Criss was married in 1904 to Susan J. Young, of Buena Vista county, who has borne him one child, Fern Irene, aged seven years. We know of no young citizen of Sac county who is more deserving of this review as a true representative man of the county than Mr. Criss. He has many friends and well wishers who take a just pride in the able manner in which he has conducted the duties of his high office.
REUBEN LEWIS.
Specific mention is made of many of the worthy citizens of Sac county within the pages of this volume, citizens who have figured in the growth and development of this favored locality, each contributing in his sphere of action to the well-being of the community in which he resides and to the advance- ment of its normal and legitimate growth. Among this number is Reuben Lewis, one of the leading stock raisers and large land owners of Sac county. By years of labor and honest effort he has not only acquired a well-merited material prosperity, but earned the high regard of all with whom he has associated.
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Reuben Lewis, live stock buyer and shipper, was born August 14, 1854, in the state of New York, son of John H. and Catharine ( Collitan) Lewis, both also natives of the Empire state. John H. Lewis left the state of New York in 1866 and settled in DeKalb county, Illinois. In the spring of 1883 he came to Sac county, Iowa, and settled in Jackson township, where he died in 1801. Five children were born to John H. and Catharine (Collitan) Lewis, named as follows: Mrs. Emma M. Olmsted, of Genoa, Illinois: Mrs. Anna Wager, of Jackson township, Sac county, Iowa: Reuben, the immediate subject of this sketch; D. C., who died in Sac City in 1907, and George B., of Sioux City, Iowa.
Reuben Lewis received a public school education in DeKalb county, Illinois, where he followed the active life of a farmer. In the fall of 1881 he came to Sac county, Iowa, preceding his father by two years. He located on section 8 in Jackson township, where he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land, paying five dollars per acre for eighty acres and six dollars for the forty acres. This was what was known as railroad land, and was purchased at the time of a great influx of settlers in western Jowa who were seeking this desirable land. Mr. Lewis improved this land, erected buildings thereon and cultivated a portion of it, and here he resided for twenty-one years, except for a short time when he lived on one hundred and sixty acres in section 9 of Jackson township, which he purchased in 1891 at twenty dollars per acre. Previous to this, however, in 1882, he bought forty acres at seventeen dollars per acre. In 1900 he bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 21, at forty-five dollars per acre; in 1903 he secured eighty acres in section 21 at fifty dollars per acre ; in 1909 he purchased forty acres in section 20 at one hundred twelve dollars and fifty cents per acre, and in 1912 he bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 16 at a cost of one hundred fifty-seven dollars and fifty cents per acre. His landed estate thus consists of seven hundred and sixty acres valued at one hundred and seventy- five dollars per acre.
In 1902 Mr. Lewis removed to Sac City, where he built one of the finest modern homes in the city, being located near the college.
Mr. Lewis was married in the state of Illinois in 1877 to Mary Mulcahey, a native of that state. To this marriage have been born three children, only one of whom is living, Mrs. Grace Griffith, of Sac City, formerly of Denver, Colorado. She is the mother of two children, Grace Esther and Reuben. Charles R. Lewis died at the age of thirty-one years, and Catharine Lewis died at the age of nineteen years.
Politically, Mr. Lewis is a Republican, and he has held various township
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offices in Jackson township. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is one of the largest buyers and shippers of stock in western Iowa, shipping one hundred car loads of hogs and cattle annually. In his special line of effort probably no man in this locality has achieved a more pronounced success nor a better record. For over thirty years he has been one of the leading citizens of Sac county, and because of the eminent success he has achieved he has gained a reputation which extends far beyond the borders of his own community. Sound judgment, wise discrimination and good common sense have so entered in his make-up as to enable him to carry on his business along lines that have insured his success. Personally, he is a warm-hearted, genial, kindly man.
CHARLES A. SCHULTE.
A man's reputation is the property of the world, for the laws of nature have forbidden isolation. Every human being either submits to the con- trolling influence of others or wields an influence which touches, controls, guides or misdirects others. If he be honest and successful in his chosen field of endeavor, investigation will brighten his fame and point the way along which others may follow with like success. The reputation of Charles A. Schulte, one of the leading citizens of Sac county, having been unassailable all along the highways of life, according to those who have known him best, it is believed that a critical study of his career will be of benefit to the reader, for it has been not only one of honor but of usefulness also.
Charles A. Schulte, of the firm of Nutter & Schulte, of Sac City. Iowa, was born in Carroll county, lowa, on November 16. 1875. He is the son of Arnd and Mae ( Telcamp) Schultz, both of whom are natives of Germany. After their marriage in Germany they came to this country in 1865 and settled in Grundy county, this state. Ten years later they settled in Carroll county, where they lived until 1880. They then came to Sac county and bought a farm in Sac township, where they remained until they retired to Lake View to spend their declining years. Arnd Schulte died in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Arnd Schulte were the parents of five children: Abraham, a farmer of Sac county ; Mrs. L. G. Newby, of Wall Lake; Mrs. E. P. Hixon, of Peoria, Illinois; Mrs. H. A. Low, of Lake City, lowa, and Charles A., whose life history is here sketched.
Charles A. Schulte was educated in the district schools of Sac county
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and later attended a business college at Des Moines and the Dixon Normal School. At the age of twenty-one, he went to Sioux Falls and was employed in a clothing store for three years. Then he came back to Lake View, where his parents had moved, and worked in a clothing store for two years. In 1900 he came to Sac City and was employed in the store of the Alschuler Clothing Company for three years. In 1903 he formed a partnership with Mr. Nutter in the clothing business and men's furnishing of all kinds. They have a well equipped store and carry a full line of goods which are handled by merchants dealing in this line of business. They have a large, lucrative trade and a full share of the patronage of Sac City and vicinity.
Mr. Schulte is a Republican in politics and has served on the city council of Sac City. He and his wife are regular attendants of the Presbyterian church and give liberally to its support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, belongs to the commandery at Sac City and the Mystic Shrine at Sioux City.
Mr. Schulte was married in July, 1907, to Mabel Wilson, of Sac City, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Wilson. To this union have been born two children, Janice and John. Mr. Schulte is a wide-awake business man and has belief in honesty in all of his dealings. Because of his courtesy and winning personality he has been very successful since becoming a member of the present firm. He has a host of friends throughout this county who admire him for his many good qualities.
CHARLES O. BERG.
In every community there are individuals who by reason of pronounced ability and force of character rise above many others of even greater oppor- tunities and command the unbounded respect and esteem of their fellow men. To the man who is both energetic and enterprising and possessed of honor- able impulses, success is bound to come. To this desirable class of citizens very properly belongs the subject of this sketch.
Charles O. Berg was born in Boone county, Iowa, on January 18, 1871, the son of Charles F. Berg, a sketch of whose career will be found elsewhere in this volume. Charles F. Berg and Katerina, his wife, had been in the country not much over a year when the subject of this sketch first saw the light of day. Both were natives of Sweden and the subject therefore be- longs to that class of citizens of Sac county who trace their origin back to the
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land of the midnight sun. The subject has his home on a farm of some- thing over eighty aeres in section 27 of Wheeler township. The farm resi- dence is beautifully situated on a hill and is reached by a long lane leading from the main highway. A large portion of the land is given over to the cultivation of fruits, there being large orchards and an excellent vineyard. The average production of this vineyard is something like seven thousand pounds of grapes, representing in amount approximately two hundred dol- lars. The orchards also are quite productive and in this line of horticulture Mr. Berg is highly successful. He also gives attention to the raising of grains and live stock and markets about forty-five or fifty hogs annually. The season of 1913 he had in forty acres of corn which averaged better than fifty bushels to the acre. Mr. Berg is a most careful and painstaking agri- culturist and endeavors to keep pace with the times in his chosen vocation.
The subject was seven years of age when his parents came to Sac county and therefore his education was received in the district schools of this county, supplemented by more advanced studies at the Sac City Institute. Since 1898 he has been engaged in farming for himself, for the first three years managing the Berg homestead in Wheeler township, which is now in charge of his brother Martin, the father having practically retired from active labor. In 1909 Charles O. Berg purchased his present farm, paying one hundred and fifty dollars per acre, but he did not bring his family to the farm until in 19II.
Politically, Mr. Berg is a Democrat and is proud of the fact that he voted for President Wilson. His religious affiliation is with the Swedish Lutheran church, in which faith he was reared and in which he is in turn rearing his family.
On February 24, 1899, Mr. Berg was united in marriage with Jennie Peterson, daughter of Peter Peterson, of Odebolt. She was born in Canada, the child of Swedish parents. To their union have been born five children, namely: Jennings, born March 8, 1900: Eveline, deceased; Helen, born November 1, 1905: Frank, born March 6, 1908, and Edna, born April 30, 1911. These children are all to receive good educations and will be carefully trained in all that constitutes perfect manhood and womanhood. Mr. Berg is a man who takes an interest in all the leading questions of the day and gives earnest support to all movements for the upbuilding of the community socially, morally, materially and educationally. The result is that in a large meastire he enjoys the sincere regard, confidence and good will of all who know him.
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WALTER A. NUTTER.
Walter A. Nutter, ot the firm of Nutter & Schulte, dealers in men's clothes and furnishings, was born in Sac City, Iowa, in 1869. He is the son of John William and Addie ( Armstrong ) Nutter, natives of New Hampshire and Wisconsin respectively. James W. Nutter went to Wisconsin when a young man and was employed as a lumber man for some years. He helped to load lumber rafts, which were floated down the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi. Later he came to Sac county, locating in Sac City and engaged in business here in the sixties. He was married on October 24, 1869, to Addie Armstrong, a native of Wisconsin and the daughter of J. E. and Dollie A. Armstrong, who were natives of New York. Mrs. J. W. Nutter's parents came from New York to Wisconsin and later came to Sac City, Iowa, in 1868. J. E. Armstrong was born December 11, 1830, in Lisbon, New York, and when a young man worked on the Erie canal. When less than twenty years of age he went to Wisconsin with a brother and engaged in the lumber and timbering business. They owned the Grundy mill at Princeton, Wisconsin. In 1861 J. E. Armstrong enlisted in the Eighth Wisconsin Battery and was made first lieutenant. He was later promoted to the rank of captain, but became ill and resigned from his command on July 2, 1862. The wife of J. E. Armstrong was Dollie DeMott, who was born at Morris- town, New York, October 5, 1833. and died July 29. 1909. Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Armstrong were the parents of two children. Mrs. J. W. Nutter and Mrs. D. M. Lamoreux, of Sac City. J. W. Nutter, father of Walter Nutter, was a Mason, and had taken all the work up to and including the Royal Arch degree, and was also a member of the Eastern Star. He served as county recorder of Sac county for ten years. Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Nutter were the parents of two children, Walter A., of whom this chronicle speaks, and J. Edward, a banker of Jolley, Iowa.
Walter A. Nutter was educated in the schools of Sac City and has been in the business either as a clerk or on his own account since early manhood. The firm of Nutter & Schulte was organized in February, 1902, and is now located in a large brick corner store room, thirty-five by seventy-five feet, with basement of the same dimensions. The store is fitted throughout with the latest fixtures. including chifferobes for men's clothing. They carry a large and complete stock of men and boys' clothing and furnishings and cater to a large trade in Sac City and throughout the county.
Mr. Nutter was married on June 5, 1895. to Laverne Drewry, a native
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of Plymouth, Wisconsin, and to this marriage has been born one daughter, Lucile, who is now sixteen years of age. Politically, Mr. Nutter is a Pro- gressive, but owing to the nature of his business has never taken an active part in politics. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias. the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
GEORGE B. GOULD.
This is the era of the installation and use of modern machinery and the prolific use of the automobile in lightening the former heavy task which fell to the lot of the average farmer. No one knows the value of labor saving machinery better than the modern farmer. In every department of his work, from plowing the land to harvesting the crops, inventive genius has sought to save him time, expense and labor, and, at a reduced cost, increase and improve his products and add to the productive value of his land. As a re- sult, the farm of today, when completely equipped, affords its owner an ease and facility of operation that his father before him would never have dreamed was possible. The automobile, too, has done much to add to the ease and profit of farm life and work. Time is money to the farmer as much as to the man in any other walk of life. To "hitch up" and drive to the nearest town takes time; the automobile saves three-fourths of it. It serves, too, in carrying small produce to market and it affords a quicker means of trans- portation from one part of the farm to another than the horse affords. Ap- parently the most highly developed industry in Sac county and western Iowa akin to the development of agriculture and indicative of the great prosperity of the region is the automobile business. No town is too small to afford its garage and place of distribution, and some of them boast several finely equip- ped sales rooms and repair departments. In this connection we find that an agriculturist. George B. Gould, quick to see to what extent this industry would be developed on account of the demands of the times, established the Gould automobile sales rooms and garage in Schaller in 1911. The fore- sight and business acumen which made him a successful farmer has alike enabled him to make a success of this business venture. In the fall of 1912 he began the erection of a large concrete structure, thirty-five by seventy-five feet in dimension, for a sales room, with a modernly equipped repair shop twenty-five by fifty feet in extent, and completed the building in May, 1913. Three men are employed. This concern sells such well known makes as the
SAC COUNTY, IOWA.
Jeffrey line, which includes the Rambler and the New Jeffrey car, the Moon, the Overland and the Maxwell.
George B. Gould was born June 6, 1855, in Grant county, Wisconsin, the son of Chauncey and Flavia A. ( Brusseau) Gould. His father was a native of. Vermont and his mother is a native of Canada, of French ancestry. Her father was a Frenchman, who married a lady of English birth. Chauncey Gould left Vermont in about the year 1853, journeyed to Wiscon- sin and settled on a farm in Grant county. In 1885 he migrated to Sac county so as to be in the proximity of his son George. For some years he resided on a farm near Schaller and then retired to the town. He died in December. 1900. Mrs. Gould resides with her daughter in Correctionville, Iowa, and is over eighty years of age. Two children were born to them, George B., with whom this narrative deals, and Mrs. Emma Borali, who re- sides on a farm about four miles from Correctionville.
He whose name forms the caption of this review came to Sac county in the month of May, 1876, while not yet of age, and settled on three hundred and twenty acres of land in section 33, Eden township, paying therefor five dollars and forty cents an acre, the year previous to his real settlement in the county. His first dwelling place was a small house sixteen by twenty-four feet in dimension, which he has twice remodeled from the original plan. It is a remarkable fact and a typical illustration of the great rise in land values that the annual rental which Mr. Gould now receives from this farm is more than the original cost, the rental being eight dollars an acre. Later he bought six hundred and forty acres additional at seven dollars and fifty cents an acre, in Minnesota, which has since become very valuable. He resided on his Eden township farm for twenty-five years and in 1903 he removed to Schaller.
Mr. Gould is a Progressive Republican politically. While not a member of any church, he firmly believes in the usefulness of church organizations as having an excellent moral effect in any community and is a liberal giver to the cause of religion. The members of his family are attendants at the Methodist Episcopal churchi. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Modern Woodmen.
Mr. Gould has been twice married. His first wife was Margaret Borah, of Wisconsin, whom he espoused in 1875, and who died in 1891 at the age of thirty-three years, leaving three children: Samuel C., a dentist in Ashton, Illinois ; Pearl L., wife of Professor Eells, superintendent of the Rolfe, Iowa, public schools: Margaret, whose birth was the unfortunate time of her mother's death, and who likewise died in 1911 at the age of twenty years. Mr. Gould was again married on December 4, 1895, to Ella Parrott, a lady
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of English nativity and who came to America with her parents when thirteen years of age and settled at Dyersville, Iowa, and later came to Schaller. One child has blessed this union, Doris A., who is a student in the Schaller high school. Pronounced attainments and recognized ability in two well defined and important lines, in each of which he has been successful, characterizes the life work of this estimable and worthy gentleman.
JAMES A. CRANSTON.
Within the sight of the city of Odebolt, in the county of Sac, stands a beautiful country home which overlooks a broad expanse of well tilled and the inost fertile land in all Iowa. This is the residence of a pioneer settler of Richland township, and it has been the abiding place for over thirty-six years of a citizen who has a high and unimpeachable standing in the com- munity. The first home which James A. Cranston built out on the unbroken prairie in 1878 was a small, single-story frame building of three rooms, in dimension sixteen by twenty feet. He has since added to this and re- modeled the house until he has a completely modernized residence of ten rooms. Mr. Cranston came to the southwestern part of Sac county when the land was but thinly settled and the prairie stretched unbroken in every direction. His first purchase, in 1873, was of one hundred and sixty acres of land at a cost of five dollars and fifty cents an acre. In 1888 he bought forty acres at a cost of thirty dollars an acre ; in 1892 added one hundred and twenty acres costing thirty-eight dollars an acre; the next addition being forty acres at thirty-five dollars an acre. This made a total of three hundred and sixty acres, although his holdings now comprise but two hundred and eighty acres, eighty acres being owned and tilled by his second son.
James A. Cranston was born September 27, 1850, in Guernsey county, Ohio, the son of John B. and Margaret (Campbell) Cranston. John B. Cranston was the son of James Cranston, a native of north Ireland and of Scotch Presbyterian parentage. James was born in 1785 and was married on February 20, 1812, to Elizabeth Ferguson. This was one year after he came to America. He first lived in the Southland and then settled in Ohio, living there many years in Guernsey county, afterwards coming to Benton county, Iowa, where he died. He was the father of six children, the first of whom were twins, John B. and William, born November 20, 1816; then came Foster, Mary A., Jane and James A. John B. Cranston was married
MR. AND MRS. JAMES A. CRANSTON
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June 29, 1841, to Elizabeth Johnson, mother of David Johnson Cranston and Eliza Jane Cranston, of Dewitt, lowa. She died not long after marriage. His second marriage took place April 25. 1848, with Margaret Campbell, who bore him the following children: William Campbell, born April 19, 1849, and died in Oklahoma: James .\ .: Celissa Ann, born July 17. 1852; John Clark, born April 13, 1854, now a resident of Huron, South Dakota; Robert Alexander, born April 25. 1859, who resides in North Dakota; Foster Addison, born June 13, 1862, resides at Spencer, Iowa.
In 1853 John B. Cranston migrated to Iowa and located in Scott county for a period of two years and then removed to Clinton county in 1855 and resided near Dewitt. In 1868 he removed to a farm in Benton county, where he resided until 1887, at which time he came to Sac county and made his final home with his son, James A .. dying on December 28, 1899. Margaret Cranston was born July 28, 1820, and died August 25, 1893. She was the daughter of William and Anne (Lawrence) Campbell, former residents of Guernsey county and likewise descendants from old Scotch Presbyterian families. The Campbells removed from Ohio to Clinton county in 1855 and there lie buried.
James A. Cranston. with whom the biographer is directly concerned, received his education in the common schools of Clinton county and also those of Benton county, where his parents removed in 1868. He was reared on the farm and knew no other vocation than that of farming. Five years after his marriage, in 1878, he came to. Sac county, having made his first trip here in 1873 for the purpose of purchasing land. Like many others who came about the same time, he returned home and awaited the advent of the railroad before coming permanently to develop his farmn.
Mr. Cranston was married on December 24, 1873, to Sarah Alice McCreight, who was born July 15, 1853, near the city of Aledo, Illinois. She departed this life September 14, 1893. During life she was a good and faithful wife, a Christian woman in every respect, a fond mother, and an excellent helpmeet to her husband. She was the daughter of Ephraim F. and Mary Jane (Voris) McCreight, both natives of the Buckeye state. For five years after marriage James A. and wife resided on a farm in Benton county and then came to Sac county.
The following children were born to this union: Bert Allen, born June 29. 1876, and was married on January 12, 1898, to Birdina Traver, who was born January 6, 1877, and is the mother of the following children : Lee Allen, born December 22, 1898; Warren Everett, born October 22,
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