USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Vol. II > Part 5
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Albert Romey, a distinguished veteran of the Civil War, was born April 12, 1844, in Dantzig, Prussia, Germany. His parents. Frederick and Louisa (.Adams) Romey, spent all their lives in the land of their birth with the exception of six years which Frederick spent in America. He was a cabinet-maker in his own country and was in the United States from 1856 to 1862, when he returned to Germany, where he lived the remainder of his days. One daughter, Mrs. Mary Otto, had previously come to this country and settled in DeKalb county, Illinois, and it was to visit her that Frederick Romey and his son. Albert, came to this country.
Albert Romey was only twelve years of age when he came to the United States, and when fourteen years of age had hired out to work for a doctor in DeKalb county, Illinois. In the same year, however, he came to Fayette county, Iowa, where he worked on a farm until the opening of the Civil War. Although but a mere youth of seventeen and a resident of this coun- try but five years, he was seized with the same patriotic zeal which caused the millions of native-born sons to flock to the standard of their country. He enlisted in the spring of 1861, immediately after Lincoln's first call, in Company F. Third Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served for four years and four months. His regiment was first stationed in Missouri, and while in that state he participated in engagements at Monroe Blue Mills, on the Missouri river, Hickory Woods and Mexico. He was then sent to St. Louis to embark on gunboats which were sent down the Mississippi river, up the Ohio and down the Tennessee to Fort Henry. He was in the sieges of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Island No. 10, Fort Pillow and Memphis. From Memphis he went to Vicksburg and was in all of the fighting up to the
ALBERT ROMEY
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surrender of that stronghold on July 4, 1863. He was then sent up the Yazoo river with their gunboat "Corandelett," which fought with the rebel ram "Arkansas." From here he went again to Island No. 10, in the Missis- sippi, where his regiment was stationed to prevent General Price from re- taking the island. From Vicksburg his regiment was sent to Meridian, Missis- sippi, later returned and went to assist General Banks upon the Red River expedition and went up the river toward Shreveport. Louisiana, and was detached and assigned to duty with the First Missouri Artillery. His next engagements were the battles of Yellow Bayou, De Glase and Cross Roads. For twelve days he was in continuous action and on horseback all the time. After the Red River expedition was concluded he returned to Vicksburg and from thence was sent to Memphis ; here he returned to his original regiment and was sent to Georgia, where he followed Sherman on his memorable march to the sea. He was finally mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, at the close of the war. having been a participant in engagements in eight dif- ferent states and passed through hardships which would try the nerve of the strongest heart. During his entire service he lived out in the open. his command having lost their tents at the battle of Shiloh in the spring of 1862. He was wounded on two different occasions, but fortunately not seriously at either time. At Yellow Bayou, in Louisiana, he was wounded by a piece of shell while on a gunboat and later was wounded on the back by a sabre cut while a rebel cavalry were charging the battery.
Immediately after the close of his long service at the front Mr. Romey returned to Fayette county, lowa. where he farmed for a year. In 1866 he was married to Lucy Carpenter, and the following year they went to Ne- braska looking for a place to locate. However, the Indians were giving trouble in that state and they returned to Iowa and lived in Fayette county until 1871. At this time Osceola county was being opened for settlement, and in that year they went to the latter county and homesteaded five miles southeast of Sibley, on the northwest quarter section of township 98. range 41, and here they lived until 1880, at which time they moved to Sibley, where Mr. Romey engaged in the grocery business, and he has been engaged in that business continuously since that time, a period of more than thirty-three years. He still owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Dickinson county, about nine miles from Spirit Lake.
Since coming to this county Mr. Romey has been in office practically continuously. He was postmaster at Sibley from 1897 to 1906. He has been county supervisor of Osceola county for two terms and while living in
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the county was township clerk and a member of the school board for several years. He has also been assessor of Sibley since becoming a resident of the city. He has always taken an active part in Republican politics and has been one of the leaders of his party in the county for more than forty years. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic post at Sibley, and has been a quartermaster since its organization. He and his family are loyal men- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church and render to it their earnest support at all times.
Mr. Romey and his wife have reared five children, all of whom are still living : E. A., a hotel proprietor of Dante, South Dakota : George A., cash- ier of the bank at Melvin. Iowa: Mrs. Lucile Ruth Velin, whose husband is a farmer of this county: Mrs. Abbie Wilburn, of Sibley, Iowa; Mrs. Bessie Wilson, who is railroad agent at Elko, Nevada.
And this is the history of a sixteen-year-old German lad who came to this country without any knowledge whatever of its language, customs or institutions and yet by his own indomitable energy and pluck has made a name for himself in this great republic. Fortunate, indeed, is the county which receives such emigrants, and Osceola county is to be congratulated that Albert Romey decided to make his permanent home within its borders. He has been devoted to his adopted country, and has always taken an active interest in everything which he felt would benefit his community in any way. No man stands higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens in this county today than does Mr. Romey, and when the work which he has done is taken into consideration it can be truthfully said that he is one of Osceola county's representative men.
GEORGE F. PHINNEY. .
Among the many substantial farmers and stock buyers of O'Brien county. Iowa, who are now living lives of ease and comfort, there is no one who is more deserving of honorable mention in this volume than George F. Phinney. From the Buckeye state he has come to make his home in this garden spot of the world, and since coming here has been classed among the most industrious and prosperous farmers of his locality. He comes from an honorable and distinguished ancestry, his forefathers being prominent people in the history of Massachusetts.
George F. Phinney, the son of William Wirt and Cecilia (Clemens) Phinney, was born in Ohio in 1866. William W. Phinney is the son of Caleb
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and Rebecca ( Hunter) Phinney, both of whom were born in Massachusetts in the years 1805 and 1804, respectively.
Caleb Phinney was a farmer in Massachusetts and a man of great ability. He was a selectman in Massachusetts from 1847 until 1850, and served in the state Legislature from the Boston district in 1852. He died about 1882 in the state where he had lived a long and useful life. Caleb Phinney and wife were the parents of six children. Mary. John, William Wirt. Elizabeth and twins, Edwin and Edward. Mary became the wife of H. K. Whitten, an at- torney of Chicago. She was a graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary and a woman of great refinement and culture. She and her husband are both de- ceased : John married and moved from Massachusetts to Kansas, where his death occurred; Elizabeth died in infancy, while Edwin and Edward, twins, are both married and living in Springfield, Massachusetts.
William Wirt Phinney, father of the immediate subject of this review, received a good education in the schools of his native state, and when twenty- one years of age began working for himself. He was engaged in business in the South for a few years and then went to Michigan and engaged in the lumber business, which line he followed for two years, after which he went to Ohio, where he received an appointment to a position in the State Reform School, and here he remained for several years. From Ohio he came to O'Brien county, Iowa, at the time that the town of Sutherland began to boom. He had made a trip to this county the year before and purchased three hun- dred and twenty acres of land, and on coming here the second time he settled on the farm and remained there for three years. Later he purchased eighty acres of improved land and kept the four hundred acres for several years be- fore he disposed of it. William W. Phinney was married in 1852 to Cecilia Clemens, of Montrose, Pennsylvania, who was born in that state in 1838. To this union were born five children: Nettie, who died in infancy ; William, who died at the age of forty years, dying suddenly on his way to Chicago; Bert, who is engaged in business in Sutherland, this county; George F., re- tired, and Bernard, of Superior, Wisconsin.
George F. Phinney received a good, common school education in the schools of Ohio and came to this county with his parents when he was sixteen years of age. He began farming for himself at the age of twenty-one by renting land in this county. In 1892 he purchased an eighty-acre farm and three years later added another eighty acres. To this tract of one hundred and sixty acres he added a third eighty in 1905, so that he now has two hun- dred and forty acres of highly improved land in O'Brien county. He has put fifteen thousand dollars' worth of improvements on this land and it is now
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worth several times the amount which he originally paid for it. He lived on this farm until 1910, when he rented it for a year and then disposed of it. buying twenty acres of city lots in Sutherland. He has improved his town property and now owns three valuable residences in the city of Sutherland. For the past four years he has been engaged in the buying and selling of live stock and has been meeting with success in this line of business.
Mr. Phinney was married in 1890 to Carrie Bickerton, of Clay county. lowa, who was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1871, and to this union have been born two children, Frank and Marion, both of whom are now attending school.
Politically, Mr. Phinney is a stanch Republican, but has never felt that he could spare the time from his agricultural duties to engage in politics. However, since moving to Sutherland he has taken an added interest in po- litical affairs, and is an active supporter of all measures which he feels will benefit his home town in any way. He and his family are loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of Sutherland, and contribute liberally of their means to its support. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Mr. Phinney is a man of pleasing personality and good business qualities and is recognized as a representative citizen of his town and county.
ED GASTER.
Among the men of the younger generation in Osceola county who are taking their part in the life of the community is Ed Gaster, the present postmaster of Ashton. Although he has been a resident of the county only about twenty years, yet such has been his life since coming to this county that he has become recognized as an influential citizen of his town and com- munity. He is guided by correct principles of conduct, and with the business ability which he has shown since becoming a resident of Ashton. it is safe to conclude that in the years to come he will be numbered among the prosperous men of his home town.
Ed Gaster, the son of F. W. and Susan ( Ratzlaff) Gaster. was born in Pierce, Nebraska, April 30. 1885. His father was born in Wisconsin in 1850, while his mother was a native of Germany, her birth occurring in 1855. F. W. Gaster and wife were married in Nebraska and later moved to Yankton, South Dakota, where he followed his trade as a brick and stone mason. From Yankton the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where
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they lived five years. In 1895 they moved to Ashton, where they are now living. They are the parents of seven children, all of whom are living in Ashton: Henry, Louise. Ed ( whose history is here presented ), Frank. Mrs. Anna Adkins, Will and Alice.
Ed Gaster was educated in the schools of Sioux City and Ashton, coming to the latter city with his parents when he was ten years of age. After leaving the school room he commenced to work in a general mercantile establishment in Ashton and clerked there for twelve years. In 1910 he was appointed postmaster of Ashton and has been filling that position since that time. In addition to serving as postmaster he also conducts a novelty and confectionery store, and has his full share of the trade in his par- ticular line of business. Two rural routes are served from Ashton and make daily trips through the surrounding country.
Mr. Gaster is a Republican in politics and has always been interested in the affairs of his party. He is a wide reader of current events and keeps well informed on the main issues of the day. He is a member of the German Lutheran church and is a liberal supporter of that denomina- tion. He is still unmarried and lives with his parents. Mr. Gaster is a young man on the threshold of life, and his career so far justifies the pre- dictions of his many friends that he will eventually become one of the substantial men of his community. He lives a clean and wholesome life and is faithful to every duty which has been thrust upon him, and for this reason he enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who have been associated with him in any capacity.
JAMES JOHNSON BILLINGSLY.
The life of the scholarly or professional man seldom exhibits any of those incidents that seize upon public feeling and attract attention to himself. His character is generally made up of the aggregate qualities and qualifica- tions he may possess, as these may be elicited by the exercise of the duties of his vocation or the particular profession to which he belongs. But when such a man has so impressed his individuality upon his fellowmen as to gain their confidence. and through that confidence rises to high and important public trust, he at once becomes a conspicuous figure in the body politic of the community and state. James Johnson Billingsly, the effi- cient and popular superintendent of the O'Brien county schools, is one of the scholarly men of northwestern Iowa who, not content to hide his talents
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amid life's sequestered ways, has by the force of an indomitable will and a laudable ambition, forged to the front in an exacting and responsible calling and earned an honorable reputation as the head of one of the most important branches of public service.
James Johnson Billingsly, the present county superintendent of O'Brien county, was born May 3. 1859. in the western part of Pennsylvania. His parents were Robert and Jane ( Gilliland) Billingsly. Robert Billingsly was born in the northern part of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish, Protestant, Calvinistic Presbyterian ancestry. The Gilliland family traces its ancestry back to colo- nial times. Robert Billingsly and family left Pennsylvania and settled in Michigan, where the parents lived the remainder of their lives.
James J. Billingsly was educated in the rural schools of southern Mich- igan and at the Coldwater high school, then entered Valparaiso University. at Valparaiso. Indiana, and graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Science. . At the early age of nineteen he began teaching and taught for several years in the district schools of southern Michigan. In 1884, at the age of twenty-five years, he came to Iowa and taught two years in the eastern part of the state. Following this he was principal of the Onslow (Iowa) school for three years, principal of the Monmouth ( Jackson county ) school for one year. superintendent at Wyoming. in Jones county, for two years, and in the fall of 1892 came to Primghar as superintendent of the city schools. He continued in this capacity from 1892 until 1898; in the latter year he was superintendent of the Sanborn schools and was retained in that capacity for the following six years. He then spent two years out of the school room and in 1906 took charge of the Paullina school for two years. In 1908 he was elected county superintendent of schools of O'Brien county and was re-elected in the fall of 1912.
Since taking charge of the schools of O'Brien county. Professor Bill- ingsly has brought them to a high state of efficiency. He has one hundred and thirty rural schools and six city schools under his charge. The county has two hundred and seven teachers: during his administration he has had their salaries increased and the general standard of education in the county greatly improved. He has had several new buildings erected, and has installed forty modern heating and ventilating plants in various parts of the county. At the present time five of the broadest young people of O'Brien county are taking the extension course at Ames. in order to return to the county and do better work in the school room. At the last of the year there were twenty teachers of the county who were attending the summer schools at various universities and colleges in the state.
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Professor Billingsly is a Republican in politics and, being a man of wide reading and close observer of men, he is naturally well posted in all these political questions of the day. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Mystic Shrine. While he has devoted all of his time to his school interests. he has made some careful investments in land and now owns eighty acres in O'Brien county and one hundred and twenty acres in Grant county, Minnesota. Since coming to this county, Mr. Billingsly has identified himself with the community life and has taken an important part in all of the various measures of the social, intellectual and moral life of Primghar and the surrounding community. He has proven him- self equal to any emergency in which he has been placed. and to every posi- tion in which honored, and as a ripe scholar and gentleman of cultivated taste and high ideals, he fills a large place in the public view. For this rea- son he enjoys the esteem and confidence of all with whom he comes in contact.
HENRY RERICK.
Henry Rerick, a prominent abstracter and business man of O'Brien county, was born in Boone county, Iowa, August 8, 1858, and is the son of Isaac L. Rerick, whose history is presented elsewhere in this work. Mr. Rerick was educated in the public schools of O'Brien county, and remained on the home farm until he was nineteen years of age, then went into the ab- stract business in Primghar and was engaged in the abstract and banking business for the next eight years. He came to Primghar December 25, 1878. having lived on the homestead with his father's family the eight years pre- vious in the southern part of O'Brien county. He drove the stage frequently+ for his father, while the latter was employed as mail carrier between Cherokee and Primghar.
Mr. Rerick was elected treasurer of O'Brien county in the fall of 1889. taking the office January 1. 1890. He served his county well and faithfully for the next six years in this capacity, and upon his retirement from the office of county treasurer he organized an abstract and loan business. under the firm name of Boyer Abstract Company.
Mr. Rerick is a Progressive Republican in his political belief, while re- ligiously he is affiliated with the Congregational church. He was married . May 10, 1882, to Clara, the daughter of Thomas G. Stewart, a pioneer settler who came to this county in 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Rerick are the parents of
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three children: Mrs. Hallie C. Rosencrans, of Primghar: Kenneth H., who is associated with his father in the abstract business, and Dana, who is still under the parental roof.
As an abstracter, Mr. Rerick has been remarkably successful and lias made few mistakes in his career and he enjoys a reputation far beyond the limits of this county. To be successful in this line of endeavor, much de- pends upon sound judgment, knowledge of law, probate, real estate and court. as to what can affect title. Mr. Rerick has written an enormous amount of records, systematically showing every transfer affecting real estate in the county, indexed both ways as to the property and in the name of the owner.
HON. WILLIAM DAYTON BOIES.
Iowa has always been distinguished for the high rank of her bench and bar. Perhaps none of the newer states can justly boast of abler jurists or attorneys. Many of them have been men of national fame, and among those whose lives have been passed on a quieter plane there is scarcely a town or city in the state but can boast of one or more lawyers capable of crossing swords in forensic combat with many of the distinguished legal lights of the country. While the growth and development of the state in the last forty years has been most marvelous, viewed from any standpoint, yet of no class of her citizenship has she greater reason for just pride than in her judges and attorneys. In Judge William Dayton Boies are found many of the rare qualities which go to make the successful lawyer and jurist. He possesses. perhaps, few of those brilliant, dazzling, meteoric qualities which have some- times flashed along the legal horizon, riveting the gaze and blinding the vision for the moment, then disappearing, leaving little or no trace behind ; but rather has those solid and substantial qualities which shine with a con- stant luster, shedding light in the dark places with steadiness and continuity.
William D. Boies, judge of the twenty-first judicial district of Iowa. comprising the counties of O'Brien, Osceola, Sioux. Lyon, Plymouth and Cherokee, was born on January 3, 1857. in Boone county. Illinois. According to tradition apparently reliable, the Boies family is descended from old French Huguenot stock of northern France. where the family was substan- tial and influential. The founder of the Boies progeny in America was a native of Ireland, whither his ancestors had gone to escape religious perse- cution in their native land. The first record of the American branch is
. Baier,
x
RATT
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found in Massachusetts, where a direct ancestor of Judge Boies settled in 1700. It is likewise recorded that both the paternal and the maternal grand- parents of W. D. Boies fought in the Revolution in behalf of the American colonies.
The father of Judge Boies was William Dayton Boies, Sr., a native of Erie county, New York. His mother was Sarah C. ( Bugbee ) Boies, also of New York state. William D. was the son of Eber Boies, a resident of New York and whose wife was a Miss Henshaw. The mother of Sarah C. Bugbee was a descendant of the Lovejoys.
In the year 1845 William D. Boies, Sr., migrated to Boone county. Illinois, and settled on a government homestead with his family. Here he lived the life of a pioneer and his children were born. In 1873 he removed to Buchanan county, Iowa, and purchased a farm. The remainder of his days were spent in Buchanan county, dying in 1905. He was the father of the following children: Eugene M., deceased ; Horace L., a farmer in BI- chanan county; Inez M. Hoyt, deceased in 1887, formerly of Sycamore, Illinois ; Charles E., a farmer and stockman of Independence, Iowa ; Alice, who died at the age of two years, and William D.
Judge Boies received his education in the public schools near his Illinois home and in the Belvidere high school. He entered the State University at Iowa City and graduated in the law department in 1880. He began the practice of his profession in Sanborn, O'Brien county, where he remained until 1887, gradually building up a wider acquaintance throughout the terri- tory until such time as he deemed it advisable to remove to a larger city. In 1887 he removed his office and place of residence to Sheldon and has built up a splendid law practice. He was successful from the beginning of his career in the county and, previous to accepting the appointment as district judge, had the largest clientele of any attorney in O'Brien county and is one of the most widely and favorably known attorneys in western Iowa.
Judge Boies received his appointment as district judge on January I. 1913, having been appointed by Governor Carroll. Judge Boies' term will expire January 1, 1915. At the June primary, 1914, (nonpartisan ) he was nominated as his own successor for four years more. He has not been un- mindful of his duties as a citizen while attending to his extensive law prac- tice, and it is worthy of record that he served for ten years as a member of the Sheldon city school board. Like many other successful men of this sec- tion, he had an abiding faith in the inevitable rise of land values, and nat- urally invested in a considerable acreage. At the present time his land pos- sessions include fine farms of eight hundred and eighty acres near Sheldon.
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