History of Cass County, Iowa - 1884

History of Cass County, Iowa
Springfield, Ill., Continental Historical Co., 1884. 1 v. in 2 parts.

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.

JOHN E. BAILEY resides on section 21. His farm includes two hundred and forty acres in that section, and one hundred sixty acres adjoining in section 22. His first purchase was the part lying in 21, which he bought in 1873. The remainder he purchased in 1879. All, with the exception of forty acres, is broken and fenced. His house was erected at a cost of two thousand dollars, and his barn and other farm buildings cost a similar sum. He is largely engaged in stock raising and makes a specialty of raising hogs. Mr. Bailey was born in Orleans county, Vermont , in October, 1846. His father, Colonel J. P. Bailey, in the spring of 1854, removed with his family from Vermont to Louisa county, Iowa , where he still resides. John E. remained with his parents until he came to Cass county, in 1873. He is the only one of his father's family who settled in this county. He has been twice married. His first wife was formerly Sally A. Hall. She died December 7, 1875 , leaving one son - Johnnie S. He was married the second time to Lottie A. Williamson, daughter of E. T. Williamson, of Mount Pleasant , Iowa . By this union there are three children - Frank, Charles and Cora.

O. R. Ballard is a son of Dr. S. M. Ballard, one of the earliest settlers of this part of Iowa. Dr. Ballard was born in Virginia in January, 1810. His father died when he was a child, and he removed with his mother to Ohio. He studied medicine, and graduated at Cincinnati, having taught school for some time, thereby obtaining funds to pursue and complete his education. He began the practice of his profession in Ohio, and in 1840 removed to Iowa City, where he continued practice, and published the Iowa City Republican for years. He came to western Iowa, locating at Council Bluffs, as early as 1850, and there opened the first land office in that place. He entered a large amount of land in Audubon county in 1852, including a large portion of what is now known as Oakfield township. He had a government contract for surveying land, and surveyed several of the townships in that county. Later, he purchased large tracts of land in Pymosa and other townships of Cass county. At the time of his decease, in May, 1883, he owned thirty-four hundred acres in one tract in Audubon county, also a large amount of land in Pymosa township. He continued the practice of medicine until about fifteen years previous to his death. His widow, formerly Sarah Johnson, a native of Ohio, is now living at Council Bluffs. They had nine children, only two of whom survive - O. R. and Virginia E. (Robinson). O. R. Ballard resides upon section 22 of Pymosa township. He was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1838, and came west with his father. He was married to Sarah L. Lorah, a daughter of Judge Lorah, of this township, and a native of Wayne county, Ohio. They have a family of four sons and three daughters.

JOHN BAUERLE came to Cass County on the 20th of March, 1875, and located in Noble township. In 1877 he bought some wild land on section 10, and since that time has made many improvements, having now a fine orchard, a grove and several fine farm buildings. Mr. Bauerle also owns a farm of eighty acres in Lincoln township, which is nicely cultivated and produces abundant crops. He was born in Germany, on the 20th of march, 1852, and when six years of age came to America with an aunt, his parents having been in America some time before. He joined his parents at Chicago and remained there about two years, when his mother died and john was left with his aunt. They moved to La Salle county, Illinois, soon after, where he remained until coming to Cass county. He was married in La Salle county, Illinois, October 16, 1879, to Sophia Hahn, a native of that country. They have been blessed with two children - Lydia and Charles.

George Bock, a native of New York city, was born September 24, 1842. He is a son of Gottfried Bock, who died in Johnson county, October 10, 1882. His wife, Margaret Bock, is now living in Johnson county. When the subject of this sketch was quite young, his parents moved to Washington county, New York. In 1863 they came to Iowa and Settled in Cedar county. At the age of twenty-two years George left home and worked at general farm work in that county. He was married in March, 1870, to Angeline Chrisman, a daughter of John and Sarah Chrisman. John Chrisman died in Johnson county, April 19, 1882, and his widow lives, at present, with Mr. and Mrs. Bock. Mr. Bock came to Cass county in 1873, and located on section 9, Union township, where he now lives. His farm contains one hundred and sixty acres, all under good improvement and fenced in forty acre fields. Mr. and Mrs. Bock have seven children - Emma, born August 10, 1871; Margaret, born August 17, 1873; Sarah, born September 20, 1875; Susan, born September 17, 1877; George, born September 8, 1879; Gottfried, born June 4, 1881, and Martha, born July 12, 1883. Mr. Bock has served as school director, road supervisor and member of the board of trustees.

H. V. BOGGS, son of Henry Boggs, of this township was born in Galia county, Ohio , February 22, 1846 . His parents moved to Jones county, Iowa , in the fall of 1855, and remained there until June 1869, when they came to Cass county. Mr. Boggs, Sr., bought one hundred and fifty acres on section 29, and H. V., subject of this sketch, purchased eighty acres on section 20. The latter has since purchased eighty acres on section 30. Hiram v. Boggs was married June 17, 1874 , to Esther Lloyd, a native of Wales , born August 16, 1855 . She is a daughter of Thomas Lloyd, who came from Wales to this country in October, 1868, and now resides in Edna township, Cass county. Mr. and Mrs. Boggs have two children - Beryl Margaret, born November 22, 1875 , and Sarah Jane, born June 19, 1883 .

HENRY BOGGS was born in Galia county, Ohio , December 10, 1814 . His father was Andrew Boggs, a son of Samuel Boggs, who was one of the early settlers of Ohio and formerly from Virginia . Henry Boggs was married to Sarah Vashti McDaniel, who died in 1847. He was again married to Levina Green, a native of Ohio . He had by his first marriage, one son - Hiram V.; by the second marriage, ten children - Ervin, Tempy Jane, Sarah, Dell, Louisa, Henrietta, Henry Clay, John, Elizabeth and Andrew Jackson.

A. F. Brackman owns two hundred and fifty-five acres of land on section 33, where he now resides, and pays particular attention to stock raising, such as high graded Short-horned cattle, Poland China hogs, etc. He has some valuable horses, but makes a specialty of raising the above. Mr. Brackman was born in Mason county, Kentucky , on the 8th of February, 1823 , his parents being natives of Virginia . When two years of age, he removed with his parents to Montgomery county, Indiana, and there remained about eighteen years. He there received a common school education, and on coming to Linn county, Iowa , in 1842, commenced teaching school, and taught five terms. He then turned his attention to farming, and continued in that occupation. He moved to Cass county in March, 1882, and still makes a specialty of farming and stock raising. He was united in marriage in 1848, with Parenetta A. Gatt, who died in 1853, leaving four children to battle alone in the world. Mr. Brackman was again married in 1855, to Sarah Carson, a native of Vermont . By their union ten children have been born. Mr. Brackman is a member of the United Brethren church, having joined several years ago.

J. W. Brown, one of Atlantic's prosperous attorneys, is a native of Muskingum county, Ohio, where he was born in 1824. There he spent his boyhood days, and as soon as he had arrived at proper age, began attendance at school. among the schools he attended in Ohio was Dennison University. He also studied for the legal profession in Ohio, under Judge James, of Zanesville. In the spring of 1848, he removed to Indiana, where he remained eight years. For seven years of this time he was clerk of the court in Grant county. While in Indiana he also attended the law department of the State University, at Bloomington, where he graduated in 1857. Leaving Indiana, he traveled by team to southwestern Missouri, locating for a short time in Springfield. From there he came to this county, having traveled in all twelve hundred miles by team, with household goods packed in the then almost universal prairie schooner. When he first located in Lewis, there was but a scant foundation of the town which afterward grew up on the site. He bought four hundred acres of land. For the first two years his farming operations were carried on under considerable disadvantages; wood had to be hauled seven miles, and other necessaries like uncomfortable distances. In 1860, he went, like most of his neighbors, to Pike's Peak. While on this trip he was captured, on White river, by the Indians, but was afterwards released, and he arrived at California Gulch, now Leadville, in an almost starving condition. Finding no prospects of making money out there, he returned to Lewis, where he resided till 1862, when he removed to his farm. In 1869, he came to Atlantic, and was elected mayor in 1872, and made his residence here until 1876, when he again returned to the farm, on account of ill health. He has now one thousand acres of splendid stock land, most of which is sown to grass. The place has many valuable improvements. In 1883, he came again to Atlantic, with the determination of making this his future home, and was chosen city solicitor for that year. January 1, 1884, he opened a law and collection office in the Copeland block, where he still continues to transact business. He was married in Indiana, in the spring of 1849, to Miss Hannah A. Gregg, a niece of Colonel Steel. They have had seven children: Martha J., J. A., Preston (deceased); Lewis C., now employed on Des Moines Daily News; Frank E., Ida Russell, and Mary B. Mr. Brown was the second lawyer in the county, having located in Lewis in April, 1856. He was also the first county superintendent of schools, having been chosen to fill that position in 1858. The residence, on Chestnut street, which he now occupies, is the same one he built when he located in Atlantic in 1869, and during the entire time, Mr. Brown has lived in Cass county, he has always been active in all the reforms of the day; county before party, has always been his motto.

ORSON BROWN came in September, 1856, and bought land on James Montgomery, on sections 13 and 14, on which he settled.

Orson Brown resides upon the northeast quarter of section 14. His farm comprises one hundred and twenty acres in that section. He also owns one hundred and twenty acres in section 13. He purchased his home farm of James Montgomery, in September, 1856, at which time he located here. Mr. Montgomery had made a few improvements, consisting of the erection of a log house and the breaking of sixty acres. Mr. Brown has a well improved farm. His present residence, which is among the best to be found in Benton township, was built in 1866, but additions have since been made. He hauled the lumber for building his house from Boonesborough and Des Moines , the trip requiring five days. He has in his orchard about two hundred and seventy-five bearing apple trees, twenty-five cherry trees, and other varieties of fruit. Mr. Brown was born in St. Lawrence county, New York , January 1, 1824 . His father, Luther Brown, removed to Indiana when Orson was about sixteen years of age, and settled in Steuben county, where he lived until his death. Orson Brown went overland to California in 1852, being just three months of the road between Council Bluffs and Placerville . He returned in 1856, and soon afterwards came to Cass county. His brother, Anson Brown, came here in 1854, and pre-empted several pieces of land. He settled on eighty acres, forty of which was in section 11, and the balance in section 13. Later, he removed to Atlantic township, thence to Missouri , and afterward to Ottawa , Kansas , where he still lives. Orson Brown has been twice married. His first wife was Jane Tilletson, who died here in 1870. His present wife, formerly Mrs. Jane (Wood) Brown, was born in Michigan , and came to this county in 1872. Mr. Brown had, by his first marriage, five children - Mary, wife of Cortes Taylor, of Sioux county; Ernest, living in this county; Rosetta, wife of Lewis Anderson, of Anita; Martha, in Sioux county, and Jane, at home. He lost two sons - William and Charles. Mrs. Brown has one son by her former marriage, Elmer.

JAMES E. BRUCE, was born in Poweshiek county, Iowa, on the 14th of April, 1860, and is the son of John and Sarah (Brock) Bruce. His father, was a native of Ohio, and enlisted in Company H., Twenty-eight Iowa Infantry, and died at Helena, Arkansas, on the 14th of May, 1863. James attended the common schools and graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University, in June, 1881. He immediately came to Cass county, and began the practice of his profession in the town of Anita. He was united in marriage in October, 1882, with Miss Luella Voorhees, a daughter of Peter and Hannah (Hoffman( Voorhees, a native of New Jersey, but at the time of her marriage was a resident of Anita. They have one child - Clarence W. Mr. Bruce is a young man of much ability, having attained a good reputation from everyone in the county. He has an increasing practice, and is doing a large business in his profession.

BAR OF ANITA
This is represented at present by J. E. Bruce and C. M. Failing.

James L. Byrd, with his seven sons, Clark, Abraham, Aaron, Thomas J., Jonathan, James L. and William, came in the spring of 1852, and staked out a large tract of land in the southwest portion of Pymosa and the northeast of Washington townships. They erected a cabin and in the fall of the same year Mr. Byrd, senior, returned to Wapello county for his family, which he brought out to this locality, and installed in the cabin. R. D. McGeehon, distant five miles, was his neighbor. Mr. Byrd hauled his first seed wheat and potatoes from Des Moines. He sometimes went one hundred and fifty miles, to the Hackberry Ridge, in Missouri, for supplies. He often sent his grain to Rockport, Missouri, to be ground. Mr. McGeehon and the other settlers sent their grists to the same mill. He attended an election at Cold Spring, or Indiantown in the fall of 1852, at which the voters were: J. Bradshaw, V. M. Bradshaw, Thomas J. Byrd, Mason Gill, Abraham Byrd, V. M. Conrad, William Hamlin, and himself. He was a native of Kentucky and one of the pioneers of Indiana ...

Early Settlement

In the spring and fall of 1851, Jeremiah Bradshaw and party passed through the present limits of Pymosa township on their way to and from Oakfield, Audubon county, where they thought of making a settlement at first, but did not attempt to settle here. And when the Byrd family came, in the summer of 1852, they found no other creatures within the present limits of Pymosa, than the wild animals and game which, at that time, abounded.

During the summer of 1852, James L. Byrd built a cabin on section 30, Pymosa township. He and his sons, Aaron, Thomas, Abraham and Jonathan, and his son-in-law, Mason Gill, all made claims, and when the land was put in the market, they entered a large tract, principally in Atlantic township.

James L. Byrd (deceased) was one of the pioneers of Cass county, having arrived within its boundaries in 1852. He was a native of Kentucky, born in Barnes county, January 5, 1801, and was a son of Jonathan B. Byrd, who in an early day, removed from Georgia to Tennessee, thence to Kentucky. Jonathan Byrd's wife, the mother of James L., was a native of Tennessee and of English extraction, her ancestry having been traced back to the royal stock, which centuries ago, passed away. The grandfather of James L. was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and served in the army from beginning to end, entirely through the struggle for liberty and independence, thus contributing his full share toward the establishment, on a firm foundation, of the liberty and freedom so much enjoyed by the present generation. Many incidents in connection with that remarkable conflict were indelibly impressed upon his memory, and the description of the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington was among the reminisences often repeated to his children. The family removed from Barnes county, Kentucky, to Crawford county, Indiana, and there, at the age of twenty years, James was married to Rachel Randall, by whom he had seven children, five sons and two daughters. She was a native of South Carolina, born near Charleston. The children were - Clark, Abraham S., Aaron, Thomas, Mary, Jonathan and Margaret. Of these, Aaron came to this county in 1852, and made a settlement on section 36, Brighton township. He is now living in Fillmore county, Nebraska. Thomas now lives in Brayton, Audubon county. He settled, on first coming west, in Brighton township. Mary is the wife of Mason C. Gill, and lives in Washington township. Jonathan came with the other boys, but subsequently moved farther west. Margaret died when two years old. The subject of this sketch left Indiana from Putnam county, where he was quite a prominent man, (having, among other acts, given the casting vote that built the court house of that county,) in May, 1852, and came with teams to Wapello county, Iowa, and there put in a crop, consisting of fifteen acres of corn. Not being entirely pleased or satisfied with that location, in company with Mr. M. Gill, and his son Abraham, he started out on a prospecting tour, with a team, going first to Oskaloosa, thence to Boone county, thence to Des Moines, then traveling up the river twelve miles, went across the country to Adel, then crossing Middle Coon creek, followed such trails as could be found, and after looking at considerable country, arrived in what is now Bear Grove township. After looking at various pieces of land in that township and in the vicinity of where Lorah now stands, they started down the Nishnabotna river, and finding on Buck creek a situation suited to their tastes, they staked off the bottom and made claims. They then started for Indiana, carefully observing in every direction if a better or more promising place could be found. The Fourth of July found them in Winterset. Subsequently they came back to Cass county and bought a claim near the mouth of Buck creek, consisting of about one thousand acres, for which he paid one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Six months afterwards one Dr. Ballard came and set up a title to this land. Mr. Byrd paid him one hundred and fifty dollars for a quit-claim deed, built a shanty and began pioneer life in Cass county. Abraham, one of the sons, who is now a resident of Cass county, pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres at Five-Mile-Grove, where he built a shanty and deeded it to his father, except forty acres of timber, and entered an eighty acre tract where his house now stands on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 31, Pymosa township. There he built a small house in 1858, and in 1868 erected his present commodious dwelling, on a beautiful plat of ground, near by, and overlooking the present site of Atlantic. He has added to his original farm until he now owns three hundred and forty-five acres. Abraham S. Byrd was born in Crawford county, Indiana, January 9, 1856, and remained with his father till 1858. He was married May 30, 1864, to Emeline Tabor, of Washington county, Indiana. They have five children.