USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Vol. II > Part 8
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John E. Stearns moved from New York state to Iowa in 1856. settling in East Waterloo township, Black Hawk county. His wife. Elizabeth Pro- seus, was born in Castleton, New York, and died at Primghar in 1905. The family remained but a short time in East Waterloo township, afterwards re- moving to Cedar Falls, where they lived for a short period, then went to Mr. Stearns' farm, where his death occurred. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. John E. Stearns: John Tyler, the husband of Mrs. Evelyn Stearns, and Esleeck. The latter was born at Castleton, New York, in 1833, and was one of the early settlers of Waterloo, Iowa, and was one of the first engineers on the Iowa Central railroad and died in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1008.
John Tyler Stearns was educated in Castleton, New York, and came to this state with his parents when he was about fifteen years of age. After reaching manhood he became engaged in the hardware business at Hampton. Franklin county, Iowa, and was postmaster of that town when he was mar- ried to Evelyn Pease. While in Hampton he took up the study of law and
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engaged in partnership with Attorney Davidson. Later he was admitted to the bar at Des Moines, and still later was admitted to the practice of law at Chamberlain, after which he was known as a land lawyer and eligible to participate in land litigation. He first came to Sheldon in 1873, and the following year came to Primghar, where he opened a real estate and abstract office. Two years later, however, we find him back in Franklin county, the grasshopper plague practically driving out the settlers of O'Brien county. In 1880 he went to Chamberlain, where he remained for the next seventeen years. In 1897 he went to Primghar and took full charge of all the litiga- tion which was connected with the "Squatters' Association," and carried their causes to a successful conclusion, winning many famous cases, some of the more celebrated ones being given elsewhere in this volume and are only briefly mentioned here. It is sufficient to say here that Mr. Stearns was looked upon as a friend of the settlers in every sense of the word. He be- came the county surveyor of O'Brien county and a city councilman of Primghar.
Al1. Stearns was married on October 13, 1869, to Evelyn Pease, the daughter of Jesse Thompson and Laura Ann ( Mallett) Pease, and who was born March 14, 1848, at Hazel Green, Grant county, Wisconsin. Jesse T. Pease was born February 9. 1808, in Ohio, and was a descendant of an old Massachusetts family. One ancestor of the family served throughout the War of the Revolution. Jesse Pease moved from Ohio to Wisconsin, set- tling in Grant county before that state was admitted to the Union. He worked in the lead mines in Wisconsin in the early forties and in the later forties he went to California, being one of the many "Forty-niners" who made the overland trip to the Pacific in search of gold. Later the Pease family moved to Iowa and settled in Franklin county, that state, where they bought a farm, and Mr. Pease died in this state March 15, 1882. Mrs. Pease was born April 23. 1815. in Medina county, Ohio, and died in Franklin county, Iowa. September 8, 1901. Mr. Pease and wife were married October 4, 1833, and to their union were born six children: Harriet A., born July 4. 1836, died March 16, 1839; George W., born October 25, 1838; Margaret A., born May 23, 1841 : Esther, born February 20, 1844: Evelyn, of whom? this chronicle speaks, born March 14, 1848; Charles H., born June 10, 1855.
Mr. Stearns was a prominent member of the Masonic order and was a life-long Republican in politics. They were the parents of three children : John Jesse, who died in infancy: Mrs. Laura Elizabeth Gregg, of Esther- ville, Iowa ; and she has two children, John Ebenezer and Mary Evelyn ; Mrs. Glow Esleeck Brooks, of Linton, North Dakota. Mrs. Stearns is a member
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of the Daughters of the American Revolution at Estherville, Iowa, and holds membership in the Order of the Eastern Star at Primghar. Mr. and Mrs. Stearns took up a claim in South Dakota and homesteaded it in 1881. In 1909 MIrs. Stearns went to North Dakota and for sixteen months home- steaded on a claim of one hundred and seventy-two acres, which she still owns and which is now worth in the neighborhood of three thousand dollars. The claim is well improved with a stone house, well, and forty acres under cultivation.
Mr. Stearns was a plain, simple, dignified man, who despised sham and pretense of all kinds. Although his life was a busy one, his private affairs and his home making heavy demands on his time, he never allowed it to in- terfere with his Christian obligations or the faithful performance of all his duties to the public. He had the greatest sympathy for his fellow men and was always ready to aid and encourage those who were willing to aid them- selves. He commanded the respect of all classes by his exemplary life and his memory will long be revered by his many friends and acquaintances.
THOMAS D. KAS, M. D.
The man who devotes his talent and energies to the noble work of ad- ministering to the ills and alleviating the sufferings of humanity pursues a calling which in dignity and importance and beneficial results is second to no other. If true to his profession and earnest in his efforts to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, he is indeed a benefactor to all of his kind, for to him more than to any other man are entrusted the safety, the comfort and in many instances the lives of those who place themselves under his care. Among this class of professional men is Dr. Thomas D. Kas, whose name appears at the head of this sketch. He early realized that to those who attain de- terminate success in the medical profession there must be not only given technical ability but also a broad human sympathy which must pass from mere sentiment to be an actuating motive for helpfulness, so he has digni- fied and honored his profession by noble services, in which he has attained unqualified success.
Dr. Thomas D. Kas, a practicing physician and surgeon of Suther- land, O'Brien county, Iowa, was born in Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, in 1883. His father was born in Germany in 1851 and came to Wisconsin with his parents when he was four years of age. Upon reaching his majority
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he engaged in farming and continued in that occupation until 1911 when he retired and moved to Randon Lake, Wisconsin. Peter Kas was married in 1871 to Margaret Block, who was born in Germany in 1853. To this marriage were born eight children: Mrs. Margaret Hann, of Wisconsin : Nicholas P., a farmer of Wisconsin; Mrs. Mary Dimmer, of Wisconsin; Mrs. Kathryn Schomer; John, who is farming the home place in Wiscon- sin ; Jacob; Theresa, and Dr. Thomas D., with whom this narrative deals.
Doctor Kas graduated from the common school and high school at Waldon, Wisconsin, finishing his high school course in 1902. He then taught school for two years and went to the Sheboygan Falls high school, where he studied higher mathematics, chemistry and German. In 1905 he marticulated in the Medical College at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated in 1909. Immediately after graduating he came to Sutherland. O'Brien county, Iowa, and started to practice in his chosen profession. and has built up a large and lucrative practice in Sutherland and the surrounding com- munity.
The nature of Doctor Kas's profession prevents him from taking an active part in politics. However, he takes an intelligent interest in politi- cal affairs and never fails to cast his vote at election time. He prefers to cast his vote for the best men, irrespective of their politics. He is a mem- ber of that large and extensive class of citizens who are not tied down by party allegiance. Doctor Kas is still a young man and has a brilliant career before him, and, with the start which he has already made. it is safe to say that the future holds much in store for hin.
CAPT. FRANCIS A. GERE.
The life of a veteran pioneer is full of interesting details which are not usually discernable in the writings concerning the commonplace and the mediocre. The story of the settlement of the great West will always have a fascinating effect upon the discriminating reader. What at one time was ignorantly referred to as the Great American Desert has been made to blossom like the rose and has been transformed into a garden of luxuriant fertility unsurpassed on the American continent. Many of the early pio- neers of this section were Union veterans, who, becoming restless in the environment of their earlier homes, moved westward, often in company with their parents, and joined the tide of empire, thus becoming important and
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CAPT. FRANCIS A. GERE
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influential fixtures in the stable conditions which naturally followed the con- quest of a wilderness and its subsequent transformation. One of those, who lived a useful and honorable life and was an honored figure in his commun- ity, was Francis A. Gere, of Primghar, who died March 17, 1914.
Francis A. Gere was born April 25. 1835, near the city of Binghamton. New York, the son of Eleazar W. and Polly ( Brown) Gere, natives of the state of Massachusetts. Eleazar was born December 7. 1796, in Chester, Massachusetts, and was married to Polly Brown on July 3, 1822. Both were descendants of old New England families. Polly Brown Gere was born October 16, 1802. In 1856 they migrated to Dodge county, Minnesota, at a time when Minnesota was sparsely settled and Indians roamed the prairies and forests of the Northwest. They resided in Minnesota until 1869, when they located in Cherokee county, Iowa. Here they ended their days and lie sleeping in the Gere burying ground on the old homestead in Cherokee county. They were the parents of the following children: Levi, born March 29, 1823: William Nelson, born December 23, 1825: Mary, born June 27, 1828; John Avery, born July 20, 1829: Samuel Allen. born June 14, 1832; Francis Asbury: Catherine Ann, born June 27, 1838: James Burris, born June 19, 1842: Sarah Jane, born March 4, 1843. Eleazar Gere was a pioneer settler in New York. Minnesota and Iowa, a distinction which falls to but very few men in the course of their natural lifetime.
Francis A., or "Captain Gere." as he was affectionately called, left New York state at the age of nineteen years en route to Illinois. He traveled by steamer from Buffalo to Chicago in 1854 and after his arrival in Illinois was employed in farm work for the summer season. He then went to Dodge county, Minnesota, and varied the time with farm labor and in the timber camps. He became an expert timber man and could run the rivers with a raft of logs with the most expert among the followers of this arduous and dangerous vocation. He resided in Dodge county until 1867, when he re- moved to Lucas county, Iowa. After two years' residence there he came to Cherokee county, traveling by prairie schooner hauled by a team of oxen.
During the Civil War Mr. Gere stayed at home by agreement with his brothers that he should be the one to assume the burden of caring for the family while they were away fighting for the preservation of the Union. However, he enlisted February 1, 1865, in Company A, One Hundred and Fifty-third Ilinois Infantry. He refused a captain's commission and saw active service under General Thomas, his command being assigned to the Thomas brigade. He served under the direct command of Generals Milroy
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and Dudley. During his service he was among the provost guards in Texas and Mississippi and was in many skirmishes with bushwhackers. He was mustered out September 9. 1865.
Mr. Gere homesteaded on eighty acres of land in Cherokee county and eventually increased his holding to two hundred acres. In the spring of 1888 he disposed of his holdings in Cherokee county and came to O'Brien county. purchasing one hundred and sixty acres in Dale township. In the year 1900 he sold his acreage to his son and retired to a well-earned rest in Primghar, where he and his estimable wife lived comfortably and happily in a pretty cottage until his death.
Mr. Gere was a member of S. F. Jordan Post No. 417. Grand Army of the Republic, and was a regular attendant at the post meetings. He was a charter member of the Cherokee post and has served as commander of the local post. He was a Progressive in politics. Mr. Gere was descended from a long line of soldier forbears. His brothers were all enlisted during the War of the Rebellion and it is recorded that his maternal grandfather was a continental soldier who served in the Revolutionary War.
Captain Gere always took an active part in Republican politics and was keenly interested in county and local civic affairs. He held the office of township trustee and frequently was a delegate to state conventions, where he lent his active influence and support to the promulgating of right princi- ples and the nomination of worthy candidates. He was always a man of force and influence in the community in which he resided, and for many years was a well known political leader of recognized power and ability.
Francis A. Gere was married in Dodge county. Minnesota. in 1857. to Nancy Maritta Alden, a direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden, of New England (Doxbury, Massachusetts). The Alden genealogy reads as follows: John Alden married Priscilla Mollens, who bore him eleven chil- dren. The second in line was Capt. John Alden II, who took to wife Eliza- beth Everell and had fourteen children. The third in line was Capt. John Alden III. whose wife was Elizabeth Phelps and who bore him twelve chil- dren. The fourth in line was John Alden IV, whose wife was Anna Brawe. Fifth in order of ancestry was John Alden, of Needham, who married Thankful Parker. Sixth in succession was John Adams Alden. a soldier of the Revolution, who was born at Midway, Massachusetts, July 11. 1762. and fought for independence on the battlefields of Rhode Island : he was married to Hannah Daniels and was the father of Rachel. Reuben. Phineas. Sally, Luther. Hannah. Ira. Mary, John and Lymon. Lymon Alden is the next in
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direct line and was born March 27. 1806: he married Anna Halbert, came west to Dodge county, Minnesota, died there and lies buried in Dodge Center. The children of Lymon Alden were Hannah A., William Halbert, Albert Martin, Wealthy Ann. Nancy Maritta. Charles Luther, Mary Alice and Catharine Emma.
Mrs. Nancy Maritta Gere was born April 28, 1842, and is the mother of the following offspring: Lymon W., now deceased; William Francis, de- ceased ; Mrs. Minnie M. (Schofield) Johnson, of North Dakota. is the mother of four children, Charles E., Walter Francis Schofield. Herbert Leroy Scho- field and James Arthur : Mrs. Mary E. Fraser is a resident of Sorum, South Dakota, and is the mother of one child, Maritta, named after her grand- mother: Mrs. Eva Frances Reaney, of Sheldon, Iowa, has three children, Ethel Arline, Ritta Alice and James Archie: Charles, now deceased : Anna, deceased : Mrs. Kate Alden Smith, of Sorum, South Dakota : Jantes E. Gere, a farmer of this county.
In the full enjoyment of the closing years of a long and eventful life which was replete with good and useful deeds. this worthy couple resided in their cottage home at Primghar. They enjoyed the friendship and esteem of all who knew them and, because of the eminently noble lives which they led, fully deserved this review in the pages of this memoir of O'Brien county.
WILLIAM H. BROWN.
The office of biography is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of himself and his individual accomplishments, but rather to leave upon the record a concise account of his career from birth to the final rounding out of a life of usefulness, such as has been enjoyed by the citizen whose name is inscribed at the head of this narrative. His character has been established through the estimation in which he is held by his friends and neighbors. Like many successful pioncer settlers of the West. he is self-made and, from modest and small beginnings, he has amassed a competence through the ex- ercise of industry and a close application to the promotion of agricultural pursuits. William H. Brown, retired veteran farmer of Primghar, is one of the respected and substantial citizens of the town. His sterling worth and great personal integrity are beyond question in the land of his adoption.
William H. Brown was born in Ross county, Ohio, July 12, 1842. The paternal farm was located near the city of Chillicothe. His father
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was Samuel Brown, a native of Virginia. His mother was Margaret Clark, a native of Pennsylvania and descendant of an old colonial family. The earliest known ancestor of the Clark family in America was John Alexander, a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, and who emigrated to America and set- tled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1732. Hugh, a son of John Alexan- der, also resided in Pennsylvania. Mary, a daughter of Hugh Alexan- der, was born in 1762 and married Robert Clark. A son of this union, Robert Clark, born in January 15. 1781, was the grandfather of William H Brown. Margaret B. Clark, Robert's daughter, married Samuel Brown, October 17, 1833. They migrated to Linn county, Iowa, in 1852 and resided near Springville. They were the parents of the following children: Mary Frances, born October 10. 1834. and died July 2. 1854: Thomas Clark, born July 12. 1837, and who was a soldier of the Union in the Civil War : Jolın Benjamin, born September 24, 1839, and who also enlisted in the Union service; James Allen, born September 28, 1845; Samuel Milton, born Au- gust 5. 1848, and died June 8, 1862; Susannah Catharine, born June 15, 1851. The mother of these children died April 4, 1856: the father died September 10, 1875.
William Hugh Brown received his education in the Springville, Iowa, schools. He enlisted in the year 1863 in Company H. Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and served for one year and seven months. His service was principally along the Mississippi river and in Louisiana, participating in the Red river campaign. His command saw severe service around the city of Washington, in pursuit of General Early and down through the Shenandoah valley, thence by boat to Savannah, Georgia, and there met the army of General Sherman. His command was again sent by water to meet Sherman at Morehead City, North Carolina, on his northward march after the victorious march to the sea. He was discharged at Savannah and re-enlisted December 13, 1863. Mr. Brown's company belonged to the Fourth Brigade. Second Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, which was under the command of General Banks on the Red river expedition and fought at Mans- field. Moss Lane and Pleasant Hill.
This valiant soldier was wounded and crippled in the right knee at the battle of Winchester where he served under the dashing General Sheri- dan. He fought also in the battles of Opequon, Cedar Creek and Fort Fisher. He was honorably discharged from the army July 17, 1865.
In the year 1871 he came to O'Brien county and homesteaded on the southwest quarter of section 8. Center township. He and his family went safely through the grasshopper period of devastation in O'Brien county and,
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unlike others who left the county to their future regret, they were too poor to get away from the county. He has added to his acreage, reared a family of seven children and has two hundred and forty acres of the finest land in O'Brien county. He removed to Primghar in 1904.
Mr. Brown was one of the first trustees of Center township and in con- cert with other settlers organized and named the township. He is a comrade of Sanborn Post. Grand Army of the Republic ; has been a Freemason since 1868 and was a charter member of the Abiff Lodge, which was removed to Sutherland, and is also a charter member of the Primghar Lodge of Masons.
Mr. Brown was wedded July 16, 1864, to Anna Robinson, who was born October 26, 1862, in England, and is the daughter of William and Frances (Currah ) Robinson. Her family emigrated to America in 1853 and first settled in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, where they owned a fine farm. After a residence there of nineteen years they came to O'Brien county and Mr. Robinson homesteaded on the west half of the southwest half of section 32, Center township. Mr. Robinson's sons purchased additional land. The father died in 1882 on the old homestead, leaving the following children : Mrs. Anna Brown: James, who died in Louisiana: Joseph E., of Jackson, Mississippi: George W., who resides near Madison, South Dakota. The mother of these children died in 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were charter members of the Primghar Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown's children are as follows: Mrs. Frances Ann Barkley served three years in India as a missionary of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and married Rev. Barkley, who is a Methodist minister at Merrill : she is the mother of four children, Anna Evelyn, Ada Frances and twins, Alonzo John and Alice Jean; Samuel L. Brown, who is a resident of Madison, South Dakota, and is the father of two children, Vernon Will- iam and Lewis Rowland; Hugh Ernest, who resides two miles south of Primghar: Alice, who is working in the county treasurer's office: Edith M., a teacher in the Sheldon, Iowa, schools; Clara Emma, who teaches in South Dakota ; William R., a farmer, and who has one son, Trueman George.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown have reared and educated an excellent family who are a credit to their parents and well known for their sterling qualities. They are among the most highly esteemed people of the county and enjoy the confidence and good will of all who know them. Kind and courteous in their relations with others, in private life and in the home they shine with a spirit which is always wholesome and elevating to those who come within the range of their influence.
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A. W. McCALLUM.
A native son of Osceola county who has never wandered from the limits of his native heath is A. W. McCallum, formerly clerk of the district court and now a prominent abstracter of titles in Sibley. He is a man of force of will and. with a laudable ambition, has forged to the front in a responsible and exacting calling and earned an honorable reputation in his chosen line of business. His life has been one of hard study and research from his youth and the position to which he has attained is evidence that he possesses qualities of a high order.
A. W. McCallum, the son of Daniel D. and Angelina M. ( Orr) Mc- Callum, was born April 22. 1873, in Osceola county on a farm in what is now Ocheyedan township. Daniel D. McCallum was a native of Canada and his wife of Wisconsin. Daniel D. was the son of Daniel McCallum, a native of Scotland. He first settled in Canada and in 1856 located in Clayton county. Iowa. Daniel D. homesteaded on section 14 in Ocheyedan township, Osceola county, in June. 1872. He had been married two years previous in Grant county, Wisconsin, to Angeline M. Orr. He had served in the Civil War. enlisting in Company I, Twenty-seventh Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and later in the Twelfth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He served altogether fourteen months. He resided on his homestead in Ocheyedan township for seven years and then moved to Sibley and engaged in the prac- tice of law. He served two years as judge of the old circuit court and served for several years as county attorney, holding this position at the time of his death, August 10, 1895. His wife was born in 1840 and is still living and now makes her home with her son. A. W .. in Sibley. Daniel D. McCallum. and wife were the parents of three children: A. W., whose history is here briefly delineated: Mary L., deceased, and Mrs. Florence A. Townsend, of Murdo, South Dakota.
A. W. McCallum was born in a genuine old-fashioned sod house. It was built by his father in 1872, when he homesteaded his farm. In this he lived for only the first year after his birth, accordingly does not have a very vivid remembrance of his first home. He was educated in the Sibley schools. but most of his education has been acquired from wide and extensive read- ing since leaving school. He has been an omnivorous reader all of his life and has never given up the habit of being a student. Early in life he began to take a part in public affairs and when only twenty-four years of age was elected as clerk of the district court of his county. Retiring from this four-
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year office, he engaged in the abstracting of land titles and in this line of business he has been continuously engaged since that time. To be a success- ful abstracter demands the closest scrutiny of details and a preciseness which only comes from good training. It is not too much to say that Mr. McCal- lum has all of those qualities which are necessary for the successful ab- stracter.
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