USA > Iowa > Buena Vista County > Past and present of Buena Vista County, Iowa > Part 31
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Angust Krause grew to manhood in the Badger state and after the out- break of hostilities between the north and the south he joined the Union Army in 1863, becoming a member of Company I, Thirty-fifth Wisconsin Vohmteer Infantry, with which he served until honorably discharged in 1866. While crossing the Mississippi he was struck by a floating log and the injury which he has sustained has occasioned him trouble ever since. Coming to Iowa in 1866, he located upon his father's farm in Floyd county, which he cultivated for two years, and then bonght a farm four miles from Rockford, whereon he resided for fifteen years. He then put aside agricultural pursuits and removed to Charles City, where he made his home for eighteen years, but is now living retired in Appleton, Wisconsin. He obtained a good common-school education in early life, was industrious and frugal and in the careful management and conduet of his farming interests met with a creditable and gratifying measure of success. Ile has never enjoyed robust health since the Civil war. He maintains pleasant relations with his okl army comrades through his member- ship with the Grand Army of the Republic. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church and is a republican in his political views.
Angust Krause was married in Plattville, Wisconsin, June 10, 1868, to Miss Elfrida Schulung, who was born in Germany, May 25, 1848, and like her linsband is a Methodist in religious Faith. This worthy couple are the parents
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of five children : Henry W., of this review ; John W., who was born May 26, 1874, and is a carpenter and contractor living in Minneapolis; Benjamin E., who was born December 9, 1878, and is a mechanie residing in Neenah, Wis- consin ; Edwin A., who was born December 25, 1882, and is traveling for a Minneapolis drug house; and Mary, who was born June 16, 1884, and is the wife of August Bueholz. a merehant of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Henry W. Krause was reared on his father's farm and lessons of industry and economy were impressed upon his mind and have borne rich fruit in later years. Having mastered the elementary branches of English learning in the public schools, he later attended Galena (Ell.) College, now located at Charles City, Iowa. Before entering college he clerked for an uncle in Charles City and later went to Ada, Minnesota, where he seeured a position in a store. After a year spent at that place, he went with his brother to Duluth, Minnesota, where he accepted a position in the department store of I. Freimuth, with whom he remained for eight years, gaining a comprehensive knowledge of business methods and commercial principles. That he proved capable and reliable is indicated by the fact that after the first year he was given charge of one of the departments and during the last six years of his connection with the house he was buyer for that large store.
In February, 1901, Mr. Krause resigned his position there for he felt that if he could make money for his employers he could also make money for him- self. He then came to Storm Lake at the solieitation of his brother-in-law, A. G. IToch and entered into the large furniture and undertaking establishment of George Witter, purchasing a half interest in the stock and business, at which time the firm style of Witter & Krause was assumed. The business was thus condueted until January 1, 1908, when it was incorporated under the name of The II. W. Krause Company. This is one of the largest eoneerns of the kind in northwestern Iowa. The stock comprises furniture, earpets, rugs and pianos, and an undertaking department is also conducted. Their floor space comprises twenty thousand square feet and the business is capitalized for twenty thousand dollars.
On the 27th of February. 1894, Mr. Krause was married to Miss Julia F. Hoch, who was born in Dubuque county, Iowa, January 16, 1872, and is a daughter of John and Katarina Hoek. Her father was a pioneer shoemaker of that county and is now living retired at Storm Lake, where he took up his abode in 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Krause have become the parents of two sons and two daughters : Harold II., born in 1895; Alvin A., in 1897 ; Katherine F., in 1902; and Leta J .. in 1903.
Mr. Krause votes with the republican party but the honors and emolu- ments of office have no attraction for him. He is a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has held all the offices and takes an active part in its work. He was one of the organizers of the Storm Lake Chautauqua Association, was its first treasurer and secretary, and has been a director. Few men are more prominent or more widely known in the enter- prising city of Storm Lake than Mr. Krause. He has been an important factor in business circles and his prosperity is well deserved as in him are embraced the characteristics of an unbending integrity, unabated energy and
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industry that never flags. Ile is publie spirited, giving his cooperation to every movement which tends to promote the moral, intellectual and commer- cial welfare of the community, while his personal worth has gained him the unqualified confidence and respect of his fellowmen.
PROFESSOR JESSE ELLWOOD CUNDY.
Alert, energetic, realizing the possibilities that lie before the public-school system, and laboring earnestly to seeure the support of the general public in lines of educational progress. Professor Cundy is doing excellent work for the public schools of Buena Vista county. He was born in Taylor county, one of a family of eleven children, ton of whom reached adult age. The father, Edwin L. Cundy, was born in Ontaria. Canada, in 1849, was of English descent, and in the year 1850 was brought to the United States by his parents, William and Mary Candy, who located at Elk Grove, Wisconsin. There Edwin L. Cundy remained for several years and eventually he became a farmer and removed to Taylor county, Iowa. In that locality he bought land which he eultivated and improved for eight years, after which he took up his abode in Corning. Adams county. Ile was engaged in the milling business there until 1890, when he returned to his Taylor county farm, upon which he lived until 1906, when he removed to South Dakota, his death ocenrring in that state on the 12th of January, 1907. He was a good business man and met with fair
snecess in his undertakings. Ever loyal to the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal church, he served as one of its officers, and his life was in consistent harmony with its teachings. His political belief was that of the democratic party and in his fraternal relations he was connected with the Masons and the Woodmen of the World. ITis wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Bell Bosisto, was born in Elk Grove, Wisconsin, is of English lineage and is now living at Artesian, South Dakota, at the age of fifty-six years. She is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Jesse E. Cundy spent his early boyhood on his father's farm. He attended the publie school in the acquirement of his education and for nine years was a pupil at Corning, Iowa. On the expiration of that period his parents returned to the farm, after which he had only the advantages of the district schools to aid him in his educational progress. He was eighteen years of age when in 1894 he began teaching and devoted three years to that profession, but, desirous to promote his own intellectual advancement he became a student in the State Normal School at Cedar Falls in the spring of 1898, and during the succeeding three years completed the work of the regular course. Hle also tanght to some extent at intervals during those years. In 1901 he secured the position of principal in the schools of Brooks, Adams county, this state, where he continued for a year and a half, when he accepted a call from the schools of Massena, Cass county. Hle afterward devoted one year to his pro- fession in Nodaway, and for two and a half years was located at Newell, Buena Vista county.
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In the fall of 1906 he was elected county superintendent on the democratic ticket and so acceptably did he fill the office that he was reelected in 1908, receiving over four hundred majority, while the county went fourteen hundred majority in the national and county elections. He received the largest vote in Storm Lake ever given any candidate regardless of party. Thus his elec- tion has come in substantial recognition of his work and able service.
On the 25th of December, 1903, Mr. Cundy was married to Miss Minnie Newton, who was born in Newell township in 1880, a daughter of Jolm and Anna Newton, of Newell. They now have two little daughters: Dorothy, who was born June 12, 1904; and Carol, born September 4, 1908.
Both Professor and Mrs. Cundy are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he has served as a teacher in the Sunday school. Ile takes an active and helpful interest in church work and in the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and is now a member of the executive committee of the county organization and is aeting as chairman of the religious work committee. In his fraternal connections he is an Odd Fellow and a Modern Woodman. His face is strong with a resolute and determined but altogether genial expression and this well typifies his character. That he is personally popular was indi- cated by the large majority which he received as a candidate for the county superintendency of schools. IIe has made continuous progress in his profes- sional career and every change in his position has brought him deserved promotion. As county superintendent he has done good work in every dis- triet and he inspires teachers and pupils with inneh of his own zeal and enthusiasm for the profession.
WILLIAM LUCIA.
William Lueia, a sueeessful and enterprising agrieulturist residing on see- tion 31, Elk township, was born in MeHenry county, Illinois, April 23, 1873. His father, Eli Incia, a native of Vermont, was there reared and in early man- hood journeyed westward, becoming one of the first settlers in MeHenry county, Illinois. He had to haul his goods from Chicago before the railroad was built and experienced many of the hardships and privations of pioneer life. Subsequent to the death of his first wife he married Mrs. Angeline Deno, a widow, who was a native of Canada. Ile carried on agricultural pursuits in MeHenry county for a number of years and his two sons and two daughters were all born there. In 1878, however, he eame west to Iowa, pur- chasing one hundred and sixty acres of raw prairie, where his son now resides. He broke and improved the land to such an extent that it annually yielded golden harvests, and here reared his family and spent his remaining days, passing away in 1885. His wife, long surviving him, was ealled to her final rest in 1902.
William Lucia was reared on the old homestead farm in this eounty, acquired a public-school education and assisted his father in the work of the fields until the latter's death. Subsequently William and his brother, Nelson
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Incia, now of Los Angeles, California, conducted the place together for three years. On the expiration of that period our subject bonght the interest of the other heirs and has sinee remained in possession of the home farm, which he has brought under a high state of enltivation and improvement. The place is enelosed with woven-wire feneing and is laeking in none of the accessories and conveniences of a model farming property of the twentieth century. In addition to the work of the fields he is also engaged in raising and feeding high grade stock, both branches of his business returning to him a gratifying annual income. He also operates another tract of eighty acres in addition to the home farm and is widely recognized as a progressive and up-to-date agrienlturist, whose success is but the merited reward of his untiring industry and capable management. Ile is likewise a stoekholder in the Farmers' Ele- vator Company.
On the 6th of January, 1898, in Cherokee county, Iowa, Mr. Incia was united in marriage to Miss Hannah M. Henderson, a native of Hamilton county. Nebraska, and a daughter of Elias Henderson. The latter passed away in Cherokee county, and Mrs. Lucia was subsequently reared by an unele. By her marriage she has become the mother of two children, Imneile J. and Dwight W.
In his political views Mr. Lueia is a stanch republican but has no desire for the honors or emoluments of office, preferring to give his undivided atten- tion to his private business interests. Thirty years have passed since he came to Buena Vista county. This region was then a vast open prairie and seemed to hold forth little promise of early development, but Mr. Lucia has witnessed a most wonderful transformation as the wild traet has gradually become a productive and thickly settled distriet.
RUFUS GREENE, JR.
Rufus Greene, Jr., is one of the successful business men and valued eiti- zens of Buena Vista county, who for many years was identified with agricultural pursuits but is now living retired in Marathon. His birth occurred in Carroll. Chautauqua county, New York, June 4, 1830, his parents being Rufus and Mary Shelton (Boltwood) Greene. His aneestry can be traced back to Timothy Greene, Sr., his great-grandfather. who was proba- bly born about the year 1700, but little can be ascertained concerning his parents or lineage. The eminent genealogist, James Savage, the anthor of a genealogical dietionary of the first settlers of New England in four vol- umes, on which he expended twenty years' labor, says: "There were in the New England colonies before 1700 A. D .. eighty persons by the name of Greene, who may be regarded as the founders of the families." Therefore to find the father of Timothy Greene, Sr., is no easy task. The Christian name Timothy figures conspienously on family records, being found in every generation of the descendants of Timothy Greene, Sr., to the present time and in some generations several bear that name. The fondness for the name looks
MR. AND MRS. RUFUS GREENE
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as though it had been in the family before A. D. 1723, and that the family name was only continued when it was given to Timothy Greene, Sr. Though there is no official record to be found, there are various evidenees to indicate that Timothy Greene. Sr., was a soldier of the French and Indian war, that he was in the service for quite a length of time and that he was employed as a scout during a portion of this service. When the Revolutionary war broke ont he was past the age limit that would make him subject to military duty. One of his neighbors, however, belonged to a company which was called out and lamented bitterly being compelled to go into the army, as he said, "to certain death," crying like a baby over his expected military service. Timothy Greene listened to his weak complainings with great disgust and finally exclaimed : "You coward, if you will take my team and do my haying I will take your musket and serve in your place. I know the smell of gunpowder and am not afraid of it." The neighbor replied that he would do this gladly and went to his home. Timothy Greene, Sr., and his son were actively engaged in the battles which preceded the surrender of Burgoyne. The father returned from the campaign late in the fall when the ground was frozen and covered with snow but not a swath of his hay had been eut by his neighbor who had promised to take care of the crop and who had harvested his own erop in good condition.
Tradition says that Timothy Greene, Sr., was. a man of strong will, of great energy and persisteney of character; that he was patriotic and that in troublous times no one was in doubt as to his position. He was firm and con- sistent in his religious convictions and habits and gave freely in support of the church and in aid of every good object. He has been described as tall, broad shouldered, erect, large boned, with large muscles and large joints and very museular hands. In faet he was a stalwart man, having not an ounce of adipose tissue and was of herculean strength. Sometimes he would walk into a cooper shop where his grandsons were at work and, looking at a barrel just completed by them, he would say in sportive mood, "Boy, this is not good work ;" and then without apparent effort he would tear off the hoop made of hickory. By main force he could lift logs onto a sled where two men of ordi- mary strength would use skids and roll or slide the log on with handspikes. Tradition also says that his wife, Emma Ellsworth, was a woman of strong and decided character, hopeful, cheerful. deeply religious, fond of her Bible and church and adorned with a meek and quiet spirit. She was a relative of Chief Justice Ellsworth, being descended from Sergeant Jonas Ellsworth, who was born in England in 1629. His name first appears on the town records of Windsor, Connecticut, in connection with his marriage, November 16, 1654, to Elizabeth Holcomb. In 1665 he bought the property afterward known as the Chief Justice Ellsworth place in Windsor, Connecticut. Sergeant Thomas Ellsworth, son of Sergeant Josiah Ellsworth, was born September 2, 1665, and his daughter. Eunice Ellsworth, born March 29, 1717, became the wife of Timothy Greene, their son, Timothy Greene, Jr., being born January 4, 1748. From this line are descended the ancestors of our subjeet. Another branch of the family included Captain Jonathan Ellsworth, who was born June 28. 1669. and was a brother of Sergeant Thomas Ellsworth. His son, Captain David
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Ellsworth, was born August 3. 1709, and beeame the father of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, born April 29, 1745. This shows that Emma Ellsworth was a first consin of Captain David Ellsworth and a second cousin of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. Timothy Greene, Jr., was also a second eonsin of Chief Justiee Ellsworth. From every fact which can be gleamed regarding the Greene family it is shown that they were stanch, upright. patriotie and God- fearing eitizens.
Rufus Greene, Jr., whose name introduces this reeord, was given a good education in his youth and for five years was a teacher in the public sehools of Chautauqua county. New York, after which he was elected to the office of town superintendent of schools in Carroll, New York. He was also a trustee of the Universalist Society in Carroll. New York, and an influential resident of his community. In 1871 he removed westward to Pocahontas county, Iowa, and located on the farm of Thornton, Greene & Company, comprising nineteen hundred and twenty acres, with its buildings on section 18, Marshall township, then called North Dover. As his outlook on that farm was quite discouraging, Rufus Greene that fall selected a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres on section 30, which was beyond the railraod limits and took up his abode there in the spring of 1873. He improved and occupied this farm until 1892, when he removed to Marathon and has since lived retired. During the first few years of his residence in Iowa there were many discouraging things. The grass- hoppers devastated the country for about three years and as no erops were raised there was little money in cirenlation and times were very hard. Mr. Greene would have sold all of his interests in the county at that time for fifty eents on the dollar could he have secured a purchaser, but as the years passed and the eonntry improved his holdings became very valuable. When the property of Thornton and Greene was divided Mr. Greene came into possession of nine hundred and sixty aeres of valuable land in Buena Vista and Poea- hontas counties, becoming one of the extensive landowners of this part of the state. Ile now owns land in California. ,
Mr. Greene was married in 1857 to Miss Kate Lois Gonld, a daughter of lohn Deoth and Hannah (Buffam) Gonld, of Erie, New York, who arrived in Pocahontas county, Iowa, in 1871. In 1906 he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 18th of December of that year. They had two children, both born in Chautauqua county. New York, but the younger, Mary II .. died in 1898 at the age of thirty-one years. The son, Rufus Erwin, born in 1865, married Frances Jane Kibble, a native of England. For a time he engaged in teaching and farming in Poeahontas eounty, but in 1895 removed to Sioux Rapids and is now engaged in farming in Kansas.
In his political views Rufus Greene, Jr., is a stalwart republican, while his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Universalist church. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Masons at Marathon. He is a tall and stalwart man, six feet in height. In physical makeup he could answer the description of his great-grandfather, Timothy Greene, Sr. His life has been well spent and he enjoys the unqualified confidence of his fellowmen. He has seen the wild unbroken prairies of the northwest converted into fertile fields, while groves have been planted, schools established and churches built.
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Through his labor he has aided in laying the foundation of progressive citi- zenship here and has been known as the enemy of every evil and the advocate of all substantial reforms. He is unassuming, sincere, sympathetic and upright, and his life influence during all these years has been that of a cul- tivated mind and pure character. While he labored diligently for many years, he is now enabled to rest in the evening of life, enjoying well merited retirement from labor. Honorable in every relation, he commands in unusual degree the respect and good will of those who know him.
WILLIAM A. WATERMAN.
William A. Waterman is the oldest merchant of Newell. While promot- ing individual suceess he has also advanced the general prosperity, being a public-spirited citizen who in various ways has displayed marked devotion to the general good. Mr. Waterman was born in Rock county, Wisconsin, Jan- uary 15, 1847, and is a son of Hezekiah R. and Caroline P. (Rounds) Water- man, the former a native of Conneetient and the latter of Bridgeton, Maine. His father, Joseph Waterman, was a native of Providence, Rhode Island, where he engaged in the manufacture of eotton goods. He died at an advanced age, while his wife had passed the ninetieth milestone on life's jour- ney when called to her final rest. They had five children : Andrew, Hezekiah, Joseph, George and Abigail. The mother of William A. Waterman was a daughter of George and Rebecca (Prentiss) Rounds. The father of Rebecea (Prentiss) Rounds was Samuel Prentiss. a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1771. He married and set- tled in Cambridge, but not long after moved to Gorham and was that town's first postmaster. George Rounds was a native of Maine and of Scotch
descent. Ile followed the occupation of farming as a life work and died in middle life, but his wife was more than ninety years of age at the time she passed away. They had several children. including Caroline P. Rounds, who became the mother of our subject. Our subject's maternal grandmother was a half-sister of George L., George D. and Sargeant Prentiss. The last named was a celebrated lawyer, who had the distinction of being the greatest attorney living south of the Masou & Dixon line in his time. George D. Prentiss founded the Louisville Courier Journal and is the author of the Closing Year. and George L. was a famonr preacher of New York and a friend of Henry Ward Beccher. The grandmother was also related to the William Deering family.
Hezekiah Waterman also followed general farming and in the year 1833 left New England for the middle west. He settled in Wisconsin and in 1837 took up his abode at Milton, Rock county, that state, where he purchased and improved a farm, becoming owner of two hundred acres. He held various town offices and was a worthy and influential eitizen of his community. Ilis first wife was a Miss Johnson and they had one son. Henry, who now resides in Janesville, Wisconsin. Following her death he wedded Caroline P. Rounds,
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and William A. Waterman was the only child of that union. The death of the father occurred in Milton, August 11, 1884, at the age of seventy-three years.
Upon the home farm in Rock county, Wisconsin, William A. Waterman was reared, attending the district schools in the fall and winter months, while later he became a student in Milton College. He was also trained to habits of industry, economy and thrift upon the home farm and remained with his par- ents until he had attained his majority. He was a young man of twenty-four years when in 1871 he came to Newell, Iowa, erected a store building and engaged in general merchandising, in which he continued for a few years. He then began dealing in grain, live-stock and machinery, carrying on business in those lines for a few years but for the past quarter of a century he has been connected with the hardware trade and now has a well appointed store. There is today no merchant in Newell who antedates his arrival here and with the commercial development of the town he has been closely associated and at all times has held to a high standard of commercial ethies.
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