USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 89
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In the spring of 1874 Mr. Mead first came to this state, coming directly to Sac county, and secured employment on a farm located about three miles south of Odebolt. Here he remained for six years, working by the month. He saved his money and in the fall of 1878 was able to purchase a tract of land of one hundred and sixty acres, for which he paid seven and one-half dollars per acre. He continued at his place of employment for two years more, and in the spring of 1880 moved onto the land which he had bought, which. being raw prairie land, he proceeded to clear and cultivate in true pioneer style. He erected a small but comfortable dwelling, sixteen by twenty-four feet in size, and has since made this his home, making additions and improvements to the original house at two different times. While he has not increased the acreage of his home farm, he has purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land in the Red River valley in Minnesota. For the past several years he has been retired from the active work of the farm, which is in the competent hands of his son.
On December 30, 1879, Mr. Mead was united in marriage with Mellia Leota Gulliford, which union has been blessed with one child, Lester, the son
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above referred to, who is married and resides on the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Mead's religious affiliations are with the Christian church at Schaller, and in the affairs of that society they take a commendable interest. In politics he is a Republican, inclined to progressive ideas. Mr. Mead is a man who easily makes friends and retains them. United in his composition are so many elements of a provident, practical nature that throughout the years they have earned for him a place among the enterprising men of his county and a just recognition of his worthiness.
F. E. WILLIAMS, M. D. C.
Professional success results from merit. Frequently in commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative business through inheritance or gift, but in what are known as the learned professions advancement is gained only through painstaking and long continued effort. Prestige in the healing art is the outcome of strong mentality, close application. thorough mastery of its great underlying principles and the ability to apply theory to practice in the treatment of diseases. Good intellectual training, thorough professional knowledge and the possession and utilization of the qualities and attributes essential to success, have made the subject of this review eminent in his chosen calling and he is recognized as one of the leading veterinary surgeons in northwestern Iowa.
Dr. F. E. Williams, a veterinary surgeon of Odebolt. Iowa, was born in the town where he is now practicing on January 29, 1880. His parents were John and Hannah ( Peterson ) Williams, both of whon were natives of Sweden. John Williams was born in 1847 and came to America in about 1865. His wife came to this country in 1866, when she was about sixteen years of age. John Williams operated a general store in Odebolt, in the early eighties, but retired from business in 1898, though still remaining in Odebolt. John Williams and wife were the parents of seven children: Al- bert J., of Omaha; Emma. deceased; Dr. Charles D., of Woodbine, Iowa; Dr. Frank E., whose history is delineated here; George V., of Omaha; Ed- ward H. and Harry O., of Blencoe, Iowa.
Dr. Frank E. Williams received his common and high school education in the Odebolt schools, graduating from the Odebolt high school in 1898. After graduating he engaged with his brother, Charles, in the flour, feed and coal business in Odebolt, also assisted his brother in the drug business. He
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served for a time as assistant postmaster of Odebolt. However, he decided that he wanted to become a veterinary surgeon, so with this end in view he began to investigate the merits of the various veterinary schools in the coun- try ; he finally selected the Chicago Veterinary College as one with an estab- lished reputation and entered there, graduating with the class of 1907. Upon graduation he started the practice of his profession in Villisca, lowa, but a year later returned to his native town and located. He has met with success in the six years which he has been established at Odebolt. So pronounced has been his success that he felt justified in erecting a veterinary hospital in 1909. where he could more satisfactorily treat the worse cases. His practice now covers a territory of several miles, his trips making him seventeen miles south. ten miles east. ten miles north and ten miles west. from Odebo lt.
Doctor Williams was married in January, 1911, to Anna N. Hanson, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nels Hanson, who were pioneer settlers of this township ; they have one son, Brooks Edward, who was born May 30, 1913. In politics, Doctor Williams is a Progressive Republican, but the nature of his business keeps him from taking an active part in politics. Ile and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and contribute liberally to its support. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and Modern Woodmen of America. In his chosen field of endeavor, Doctor Williams has achieved a notable success and has an eminent standing among the veterinary surgeons of this state. In addition to his creditable career in one of the most useful professions, he has also proved a strong member of the body politic, who is always willing to perform his share of the duties which fall to the lot of the American citizen. He is a man of genial person- ality and has a host of friends scattered throughout a wide territory.
JACOB G. BUEHLER.
The descendants of the German settlers of this county are always char- acterized by those traits which rendered their fathers successful. Heredity seems to have given them a fair share of the good qualities which made their fathers so successful. Among the younger farmers of this county, Jacob G. Buehler is fast coming to the front as one of the most substantial agricul- turists of his township and community.
Jacob G. Buehler was born May 5, 1871, in Lake county, Indiana, the son of Jacob and Eliza Buehler, who were both natives of Germany, and
(57)
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came to Sac county. Iowa, when Jacob G. was only one year old. The history of the Buehler family is given in the sketch of Jacob Buehler, deceased, who is represented elsewhere in this volume.
Jacob G. Buehler was reared and educated in Richland township, Sac county. Iowa, received most of his education in the Willow Tree school, near his old home, and spent his summers in assisting his father on the farm. At the age of twenty-seven he started to farm for himself with eighty acres which his father gave him, and in 1907 he added forty acres, and the year following ereeted a fine home on his farm. He raises all the crops which are common to this section of the state, and in addition gives a great deal of attention to the breeding of live stock, which adds greatly to his annual in- come. In 1913 he had forty-five acres of corn, which averaged fifty bushels to the acre, and this was a remarkable yield. considering the nature of the 1913 season. In 1913 he also marketed twenty-five head of cattle and forty head of hogs, and usually averages at least that much each year.
Mr. Buehler was married on February 1. 1000 to Minnie Hanson, the daughter of William and Mary ( Burgert) Hanson, of Ida county, Towa. and to this union there have been born two children. Lillian, born November 23, 1901, and Orville, born January 10, 1903. The Progressive party has claimed the ballot of Mr. Buehler sinee it was organized, in the summer of 1912, while in his religions faith he and his family are loyal and earnest members of the German Methodist Episcopal church and give to it their earnest and liberal support at all times.
HARRY H. HANSON.
One of the youngest and most prosperous farmers of Sac county is Harry Il. Hanson, who is the owner of one hundred and fifty acres of fine land adjoining the town of Odebolt. Richland township. He is a fine type of the agriculturists who have received a good high school education and then returned to the farm. Too many of our young men today feel that farming does not offer the opportunity that may be found in other professions, and it is an important thing to note that an increasing number of our young men have been born on the farm, returning to it even though they have received a splendid education.
Harry II. Hanson was born November 21, 1887, in Richland township. Sac county, and is the son of Nels and Anna Hanson, who were natives of
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Sweden. Harry H. Hanson was educated in the district schools of his town- ship and in 1906 graduated from the Odebolt high school. For two years after he graduated from the high school he was employed in a hardware store in Odebolt. He then married and moved on to his present farm of one hundred and fifty acres, where he is fast building up a reputation as one of the most progressive farmers of the county. In the summer of 1912 he erected a fine barn of cement block, which is thirty-two by sixty feet in size. The barn has concrete floors-in fact, is one of the very few barns in Sac county which are practically all concrete. This barn was erected at a cost of two thousand dollars and is a model of convenience and stability.
Mr. Hanson was married on September 2. 1908. to Margaretta E. New- com, the daughter of George W. and Sarah M. (McKim) Newcom. To this union have been born two daughters, Sarah Kathleen and Doris Anna.
George W. Newcom, the father of Mrs. Hanson, was born August I, 1852. in Scotland county, Missouri, and is the son of Wilman T. and Mar- garetta Newcum, natives of Kentucky. His parents came from Kentucky to Missouri and from thence they moved to Crawford county, Iowa, in about 1865. In that county George W. Newcom was reared. In 1874 he was mar- ried to Sarah M. McKim, who was born in 1853 in York county. Pennsyl- vania, the daughter of Ethan A. and Elizabeth McKim. The McKims came from Pennsylvania to Crawford county, Iowa, in 1861 and were among the pioneer settlers of that county. Mr. McKim had previously made a trip to lowa in 1857 and was convinced that the county would soon become one of the most prosperous of the state. Ethan A. McKim prospered on his farm in Crawford county, and in 1900 moved to the village of Deloit, where he died. His widow is still living in Deloit, in her eighty-third year. George W. Newcom and wife farmed in Crawford county until 1884, and then moved to Nebraska, where they resided eight years. In 1892 they sold out their hardware store in Gage county, Nebraska, and located in Sac county on one hundred and sixty acres adjoining Odebolt on the north. Mrs. Newcom still owns the two-hundred-acre farm in Crawford county, this state, on which they lived for ten years. Mr. and Mrs. Newcom were the parents of four children : Gertrude, deceased; Jessie. deceased: Clifton T., deceased, and Margaretta, the wife of Harry H. Hanson.
Mr. Hanson, like many other men. felt in the summer of 1912 that the new Progressive party was destined to bring about a revolution in the affairs of this country. Accordingly, he lent his influence to this new party and has not regretted the step made at that time. He and his wife are members of the
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Methodist Episcopal church and contribute freely of their substance to its support. They move in the best social circles of this community, and being genial and unassuming in their relations with their friends, they have a large and loyal circle of friends, who cherish them for their many good qualities.
A. H. ELLIS.
The gentleman to a review of whose life the reader's attention is now respectfully directed is recognized as one of the energetic, well-known busi- ness men of Sac county, who, by his enterprise and progressive methods, has contributed in a material way to the commercial advancement of the locality where he lives. In the course of an honorable career he has been successful in the manifold lines to which his efforts have been directed and, enjoying distinctive prestige among the representative men of his community, it is eminently proper that attention be called to his achievements and due credit be accorded to his worth as an enterprising citizen.
A. H. Ellis, secretary of the Sac City Canning Company, was born in Benton, Iowa, in 1879, and is the son of W. C. Ellis, president and chief stockholder of the Sac City Canning Company. W. C. Ellis was born in Indiana, but has resided in Benton, Iowa, practically all of his life. He has been a man with large business interests, being interested in lumber and bank- ing in addition to his canning interests.
The Sac City Canning Company was incorporated in 1900, with the following incorporators: C. Ellis, W. C. Ellis, H. H. Allison, D. E. Hollet and others. It started out with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars and since then the capital stock has been increased to one hundred thousand dol- lars. In 1908 the company purchased the canning factory at Storm Lake and operate it in connection with the one at Sac City. The president of the company is W. C. Ellis, who is also the chief stockholder. The first secretary was H. H. Allison, who was succeeded in 1911 by A. H. Ellis : L. H. Marietta is superintendent of the Sac City plant. The two plants, combined, have a capacity of eighty thousand cases, or two million cans, annually and employ three hundred people during the canning season. The normal acreage con- tributing to the Sac City plant exceeds one thousand acres, having run as high as thirteen hundred acres. The plant at Sac City is modern in every way, occupies a three-story building, one hundred and forty-five by sixty feet. The boiler rooms are thirty by thirty feet and are equipped with two one-
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hundred-and-fifty-horse-power boilers. There is a two-story brick warehouse, fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, where the canned goods are stored until placed upon the market. The company also operates a seed house.
A. H. Ellis was married in 1908 to Josephine Kirk, of Benton, Iowa. Fraternally, Mr. Ellis is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and takes a great deal of interest in the affairs of that fraternity. He is a young man of exceptional business ability and since taking charge of the affairs of the firm with which he is connected he has been instrumental in in- creasing the output and improving the condition of the company in various ways. He is a pleasant and genial man to meet and one who has a host of friends in this community.
JOHN REINHART.
There's a difference in men, for the standards of ability are different. The measures of success vary with the individual; many of the most success- ful are self made and proud of their achievements ; others have become emi- nently successful by adding to their heritage. It requires a certain amount of intelligence and energy, combined with good judgment and financial abil- ity. to increase a competence until it becomes a fortune, as well as to begin at the bottom and work upward to the top. In western Iowa and Sac county there are representatives of the two classes of men mentioned in the pre- ceding lines and to which the writer refers: First, the pioneers who came and endured the hardships incidental to the making of a home and of whom many became extensive land owners; second, their sons, who have followed in their footsteps and maintained the prestige of the family and have indicated that they have inherited the gifts of their illustrious parents. In John Rein- hart. extensive farmer and stockman of Boyer Valley township, we have a successful son of a widely-known and successful German pioneer settler in Sac county. "Like father, like son," has been exemplified in the life history of John Reinhart and his father.
John Reinhart, of Boyer Valley township, Sac county, was the owner of two thousand acres of land until recently, when he sold some of his land. He is the owner of six farms in Boyer Valley and Eden townships. His home farm. in Boyer Valley township, comprises five hundred and sixty acres, four hundred and eighty acres of which is in section 16 and eighty acres in section 21. Mr. Reinhart raises and feeds over five hundred head of cattle annually,
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and also produces over three hundred hogs for the markets each year. He resides in a fine, modern home of twelve rooms, erected in 1894. and has two large stock barns and grain elevators on the place. No grain is sold from his farms, as everything the land produces is fed to live stock, which is sold on the hoof. Mr. Reinhart is also the owner of a tract of land on the shores of Spirit lake, lowa, which will probably be transformed into a stock farm and buffalo and deer range, he being the owner of a herd of buffalos, pur- chased in 1913.
Mr. Reinhart was born September 22. 1866, in Lee county, Illinois, the son of Henry and Martha ( Hudzell ) Reinhart. natives of Prussia, Germany. Henry came to America with his parents when ten years of age. Martha Hudzell came about the same time. in company with her parents. The fami- lies settled in Lee county, Illinois, whence Henry came to Sac county in 1877. Ile settled in Clinton township, where he prospered exceedingly and became the owner of over three thousand acres of rich farming land. During his later years he made his residence in Sioux City, where he died in 1897. From being a poor boy to becoming the owner of one of the largest farms in Sac county and being rated as one of the county's richest citizens, is a long step forward. and the results were due to foresight, tireless energy and keen finan- cial ability. Mrs. Henry Reinhart died in 1907. They were the parents of seven children, as follows: Mrs. Catharine Fuchs, deceased, former wife of John Fuchs, of Odebolt ; ( 1 ristina, wife of George Stephan, of Boyer Valley township, now deceased; Mrs. Elizabeth Beiser, of Nebraska: John: Mrs. Anna Smith, of Sioux City ; Charley, deceased : Oscar, of Birmingham, Ala- bama.
John Reinhart received his education in the district schools of Clinton township and was brought up to lead the life of a farmer. When he attained the age of twenty-one years his father gave him one hundred and sixty acres of land outright ; this was an ample start for the son, inasmuch as he has added continuously to his acreage and followed in the footsteps of his father, who set him the example of the best methods of conducting his farming operations and of taking care of the financial end of a large and growing business. His first addition of two hundred and ten acres to his first holdings cost him thirty dollars an acre ; he has paid for his land at prices ranging as follows: Fifty dollars, fifty dollars and fifty cents, seventy-five. eighty-five and ninety dollars per acre. This land is now selling at prices ranging from one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five dollars an acre.
Mr. Reinhart was married in 1888 to Paulina Hilleman, of Marshall
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county, Iowa, who has borne him eight children, as follows: Zephra. who is married and lives in South Dakota. Earl. Henry, Alice, Elmer. Edna, Mil- dred and Mabel, ail at home.
Mr. Reinhart is a Progressive Republican in politics and believes in progressive principles of government, being generally found aligned with the better elements in political campaigns. Mr. Reinhart espouses the Presby- terian faith, this church having been that of his parents and forbears for many years. He is essentially a home man and is not a member of any lodges or fraternal societies of any consequence. Ever ready to assist in a worthy undertaking, approachable and unassuming, he is an excellent citizen in every respect. While Mr. Reinhart is one of the largest land owners in the county and one of the most successful stockmen in western Iowa, he is just a plain farmer, honest to the innermost being, who loves the soil, his home and his vocation.
OLIVER MACKEY.
Sac county, Iowa, is greatly indebted to the Irish element which has come here from time to time and became incorporated in the body politic of this county. These loyal sons of the Emerald isle have assisted in the de- velopment of this locality from a wild prairie to its present high standing among its sister counties in the Hawkeye state. These men of Irish descent canie to this country in order to get to live in a country where freedom was the paramount thing, and where they could eventually become owners of a home to themselves, a thing which is practically impossible in their native land.
Oliver Mackey, one of the substantial farmers of Clinton township, Sac county, Iowa, was born May 7, 1840, in Londonderry, Ireland. His parents. William and Elizabeth ( Lindsay ) Mackey, came to this country in 1861, settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they lived the remainder of their lives. William Mackey was a day laborer but was always able to earn an honest living for his family. William Mackey and wife reared a family of six children : Mrs. Jane Mclaughlin, who died in Minnesota : Eliza, who died in Ireland; Lindsay, who died in Minnesota; Katherine Mary, who died in Philadelphia : James, of Minnesota, and Oliver, with whom this narrative is concerned.
Oliver Mackey received a very meager education in the schools of Ire- land, and when a very young lad started to work in order to assist the family. This young boy had visions in his youth, and before he was fourteen years
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of age he had been thinking of coming to America and casting his fortunes in this "land of the free and home of the brave." Before he was fourteen years of age his mind was made up and, with four pounds of English money, he purchased his passage to America on one of the old-fashioned sailing vessels.
May 1, 1854, was a red-letter day in the history of Oliver Mackey, for on that day he landed in this country and when he walked down the streets of New York this little Irish boy little dreamed that one day he would become one of the prosperous farmers of the great state of lowa, but history can tell strange stories and there is no stranger story than one which tells of the career of Oliver Mackey aand thousands of other young men who have come from foreign lands to this country under similar conditions. He had enough money after working a year in New York to reach Minnesota, and as soon as he reached that state he homesteaded a farm and after two years was able to prove his claim. Hle at once sold it for seven hundred dollars and a drove of cattle, and two years later he was in Postville, Allamakee county, Iowa. By this time he was married and something of the courage of this young Irish lad may be gathered from the fact that he was married when he was only sixteen years of age. After landing in Allamakee county, this state, in 1858, he at once purchased one hundred and sixty acres of good land, where he lived until 1889. He improved his land in various ways, and when he sold it he realized sixty dollars an acre for it and, with the nine thousand six hundred dollars in his pocket, he came to Sac county, Iowa, and bought one hundred and sixty acres in Clinton township, for which he paid forty dollars an acre. On this farm he has continued to reside up to the present time, having greatly improved it in the way of erecting new buildings, im- proving, the old ones, and building fences all over the farm, so that he has increased the value of the tract until he has been offered two hundred dollars an acre for it. The h .use on this farm was destroyed by fire and he rebuilt in 1906, placing a fine, modern and up-to-date residence on his farm. In 1913 Mr. Mackey took off one crop from one eighty acres which netted him one thousand dollars, so it can be readily seen why this land is worth two hundred dollars an acre.
Mr. Mackey has been three times married. His first marriage was in 1856, to Mary Love, who died in 1873, and to this marriage there was born one son, John, who died in November, 1911. The second marriage of Mr. Mackey occurred in 1874, to Helen Mitchell, who died in 1883, and to this marriage there were three children born: Mabel, the wife of George Long. a farmer of this township: Mrs. Edna Fox, of Jasper, Minnesota, and Mrs.
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Alta Downey, of Bloomfield, Nebraska. Mr. Mackey was again married February 20, 1886, to Laura Deering, who was born June 28, 1867, in Berlin, Germany. Her parents were Charles and Caroline Deering, who came to America and located in Marquette, Michigan, in 1867. Her father was a copper and iron miner. He saved his money and in 1876 came to Postville, Allamakee county, Iowa, and purchased a farm, where both of the parents died. There were four children born to the third marriage of Mr. Mackey : Ray, a farmer of Clinton township: Ethel, who married A. W. Quick. Febru- ary 20, 1912. Mr. Quick is the son of William Quick, one of the early pioneer settlers of Sac county : Leonard, a farmer of Clinton township ; Laura, who died at the age of six months, and Leland, who is still at home.
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