Cass County >> 1884 Index

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

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Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.

J. H. NEEDLES was born in Franklin county, Ohio , on the 20th of September, 1829 , and was a son of John J. and Ann (Hatfield) Needles, both natives of Delaware . He was reared on a farm until 1848, when he learned the carriage making trade. He then established a shop near Columbus , and was there engaged until 1852, when he removed to Indiana , and was there engaged at the same business until 1857. He then removed to Linn county, Iowa , locating near Cedar Rapids , where he again began to work at his trade. In the year, 1869, he came to Atlantic , and has since this his home. He was united in marriage, in July, 1853, with Caroline Fenstemaker, a native of Fairfield county, Ohio . They have seven children, four sons and three daughters. Mr. Needles is a member of the Masonic order, and of the Methodist Episcopal church.

FRANK NORDMAN, settled upon section 18, on the 28th of August, 1856 where he resided until 1859. He is now a resident of the township.

Frank Nordman lives just outside the village limits of Wiota, on the north, where he owns a farm of one hundred and twenty acres. He is one of the pioneers of Cass county, and among the earliest settlers of Franklin township, where he located, August 26, 1856 . At that time he bought forty acres of land from William Judd on section 17, on to which he moved with his family; he fenced and improved this land and carried on the business of blacksmithing. In the fall of 1856, he built the first blacksmith shop erected in the township. He resided on this place and worked at his trade until 1859, when he went to Colorado and removed his family to that Territory where he engaged in blacksmithing until 1866, when he returned to Cass county and bought the farm where he now lives. Mr. Nordman was born in Prussia, April 26, 1827, and came to the United States in 1851, locating first at New Orleans, then went to St. Louis, and thence to Cass county, Illinois, and from there to Cass county, Iowa, where he was married February 22d, to Catharine Stoodt, a native of Germany, who came to this country when six years old. They are the parents of three children Ñ Mary Samantha, a teacher in the public schools at Wiota; George Colorado, now farming his father's farm; and Eureka Isabella, wife of Charles McDermott, of Benton township.