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Pocahontas County >> 1904 Index The Pioneer History of Pocahontas County,
Iowa B Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton. Bendixen, Peter H., (b. 1837), a resident successively of Des Moines , Clinton and Lake townships, is a native of Denmark , the son of Niels and Martha M. (Buck) Bendixen. His father. from his earliest recollection, was the owner and captain of a merchant vessel, which he sold in the spring of 1864, when the family came to America . Peter, coming to McHenry county, Ill. , in 1861, found employment as a farm hand and clerk in a grocery store until the fall of 1863, when he returned to Denmark ; and married Petra Alberta Svendson. The next spring, accompanied by his wife, a sister and his parents, he located in McHenry county, Ill. In the spring of 1869, making the trip in a lumber wagon, he moved to a rented farm in Des Moines township, this county. The next year he bought 80 acres on Sec. 33, Lake township, and his father 80 acres on Sec. 28. Later Peter bought 80 acres more on Sec. 27. Their nearest market then was Fort Dodge , afterward Manson, Humboldt, Algona, Rolfe and finally Gilmore City . The visits of the grasshoppers made it necessary for him to live two years on cornmeal, and to keep his horses the same period without grain. His father died on his farm in 1881 at 81, and his mother in 1898 at 87. Both were devout members of the Lutheran church and are buried at Rolfe. After his father's death Peter became the owner of 240 acres, which he occupied until 1893, when he moved first to southern Missouri and the next year to a farm of 160 acres in Ellington township, Palo Alto county In 1898 he moved to a farm in Lake township and three years later to another one adjoining Gilmore City on the east, where he is now living. He is a man of considerable intelligence and rendered thirty years of public service in Clinton township, as follows: Assessor one year, a justice two years, a trustee two years, clerk four years, and secretary of the school board twenty-one years. In Lake he served as a justice and clerk in 1900. By his strict integrity and faithful performance of every duty devolving upon him he has won and held the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. His family consisted of eleven children. 1 Ñ Erasmus Nelson (b. Ill. 1864) married Elizabeth (Christenson, occupies a farm of 160 acres on Sec. 28, Clinton township, and has a family of six children. 2 Ñ William (b. Ill. 1866) married Minnie Thompson, lives in Minnesota and has one son. 3 Ñ Charles P (b. Ill. 1868) married Carrie Kennedy, lives on 80 acres on Sec. 32, Clinton. 4 Ñ Maggie (b. Poc. Co. 1870) married Peter Hendrickson, a farmer, and has five children. 5 Ñ Alice B. married Charles Borg, owner of 80 acres on Sec. 32, Clinton, and has two children, 6 - Matilda B. married Anton Peterson and lives at Gilmore City. 7 Ñ John (b. 1876) in 1901 married Emma Hanson and is proprietor of a blacksmith and wagon-maker shop at Westbrook , Minn. 8 Ñ Minnie B. married John Lynch, a farmer. Albert G., Peter Hansen and Nellie B. are at home. He died Feb. 11, 1902 , three days after reading this sketch in The Fonda Times. Bollard, Joseph B. (b. 1858; D. 1903) druggist, Fonda, was a native of Crawford county,
Pa., where he received a good education and later graduated from Oberlin
College.
He began to teach school at the early age of seventeen and pursued this
employment three years after he located in 1880, with his elder brother, Richard
D. Bollard, in Pottawattamie county, Iowa.
In 1883, he located on a farm north of Fonda, and the next year became a
resident of that town, where he found employment as a drug clerk.
In 1886, associated with Dr. M. F. Patterson, he became proprietor of a
drug store and maintained it nearly fifteen years.
Others that were successively associated with him in this business were
Henry Brown, S. M. Carleton and Wm. Bott.
In 1891, he erected a two story brick block over the ruins of the frail
structure that was destroyed by fire, Aug. 25th, that year.
He served as a member of the Fonda council six years, 1890-95, and served
several terms as a member of the Board of Education, of which he was president
two years, 1893-94.
He performed a leading part in effecting the organization of the Big Four
Fair Association, and was a member of its first board of directors.
During the period of his official recognition he exerted a potent
influence in the management of the public affairs of the community, especially
those relating to its educational interests, and was an active participant in
the politics of the county.
His pleasant voice, genial nature and natural ability caused him to be
recognized as a leader in the circles in which he moved.
He died at 45 in 1903. In
1885, he married Jennie M., daughter of William Bott, Fonda, and his family
consisted of five children, Roy, Robert, June, Elzina, and Eva. Bollard,
Richard D., (b, Oct. 15, 1847) resident of Pocahontas and Recorder of Pocahontas
county, 1891-98, is a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio.
He received his education in the public schools of Edinboro, Erie county,
Pa., where his father located when he was quite young.
In 1864, at the age of sixteen, he lost his left arm by the accidental
discharge of a gun he was endeavoring to draw across a log while hunting.
In 1867, he went to Grant county, Wis., where he worked on a farm and
taught school.
The next year he returned to his home and on Dec. 25, 1868, married Emma
Lawrence.
The next spring they located in Wright county, Wis., where he taught
school in winter.
In 1878, he moved to Pottawattomie county, Iowa, where he bought eighty
acres of land and continued farming and teaching.
In 1881 he met with another serious accident, the loss of the three
largest fingers of his right hand, while shelling corn.
Undaunted by these misfortunes he continued farming and teaching until
the spring of 1886, when he moved to Fonda and engaged in the coal and grain
business. In
the fall of 1890, he was elected recorder of this county, an office to which he
was re-elected with a constantly increasing majority in 18892, '94 and '96.
The efficiency of the public service rendered during these eight years,
elicited the unstinted approval of the people of this county.
The office was not closed at night until the necessary work of each day
had been faithfully performed. Just
previous to the adjournment of the board of supervisors, Jan. 19, 1899, he was
presented with a solid gold watch, chain and charm, the latter set with a
diamond of purest luster, and inscribed with the words, "A token of esteem
from the county officials to R. D. Bollard, recorder, 1891-1898."
In Pottawattomie county, he served several years as a justice of the
peace, in Fonda was street commissioner, and at Pocahontas he was a councilman,
'92-94, and president of the school board in '99-1900.
He taught twenty-one terms of public school. His
family consisted of ten children, six of whom are married: Walter,
a drayman, married Rose Early, and lives at Fonda;
Mattie B. married John Stream, a traveling salesman, and lives at Fonda;
Mary Ella, July 3, 1899, married Wm. Boyd McClellan, a jeweler, and lives at
Pocahontas; William married Maggie McCormick and lives in Lake township;
Frederick P., in June, 1898, enlisted for the war against Spain in Cuba and
spent several months in Jacksonville, Fla.; Roy in 1900, married Ida Lyon, and
is a druggist clerk at Fonda; May in 1899, married Charles Lucas, and lives at
Pocahontas; Gracie, Lawrence and Gorton are at home. Bott,
William, a resident of Fonda and vicinity since 1870, was born in Stratton,
Rutland county, England, December 18, 1827, and he was the son of Robert and
Charlotte (Bains) Bott.
His father was the overseer of the estate of Sir Gilbert Ethcort.
In 1850 he came to America and spent the first two years on a farm at
Syracuse, New York.
He then engaged as foreman in laying railroad track and resided
successively at Danville, (Canada), Cincinnati, TerraHaute, and Shelbyville
(Ill.).
At this place, April 17, 1859, he married Susan, daughter of Joseph and
Elizabeth Sapp, and soon afterwards moved to Lichfield.
In 1869, he located at Iowa Falls, and superintended the laying of the I.
C. railroad from Iowa Falls to Storm Lake.
As the railroad advanced his family moved to Webster City, Fort Dodge and
Fonda, arriving at Fonda, in August 1870.
He found a home for his family at first in the unfinished depot, and when
he was compelled to leave it about the middle of October, some of his workmen
built him a house in one day.
He continued in the employ of the railroad company until 1879 and among
others laid the track on the road from Judd to Lehigh and on the Webster City
and Crooked creek railway.
As late as July 1886 this veteran track-layer was called to Webster City,
to superintend the laying of ten miles of new track for a mining company. His
farm of 240 acres on section 21, Cedar township was purchased in 1870 for $5 an
acre.
In 1874 he moved upon it and began the work of its improvement.
During a residence of twenty years on the farm he improved it with fine
buildings, fences and groves.
In 1894 he returned to Fonda, where his wife died, May 13, 1895, in her
74th year.
Their family consisted of five children three of whom died young. Jennie,
wife of Joseph B. Bollard, and Lizzie reside in Fonda, the latter with her
father. Wm.
Bott is one of the few men, still living, who have had the opportunity of
witnessing the growth of Fonda and of taking an active part in promoting the
best interests of the town and community.
When he came to this place in the spring of 1870, the town site was a
wild prairie without roads, houses or trees.
Only two small temporary buildings had been erected, one a blacksmith
shop, by Peter Ibson and the other a grocery by Jacob Silbar.
Intoxicating liquors were kept in the latter, and Mr. Bott having about
seventy-five men in his employ, notified Silbar not to sell any of them to his
men.
Silbar, affirming his right to sell to who ever paid him for the drinks,
was advised to be careful or the men would carry his outfit away.
That evening a number of the men gathered about his building, lifted it
and were in the act of carrying it to Cedar creek, when Mr. Bott interfered and
prevailed upon them to desist from their purpose. Wm.
Bott was a member of the board of county supervisors, six years, 1880-82 and
1886-88, and served as its chairman in 1881 and '87.
He has been president of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian
church, of Fonda, since 1890.
Although of a happy and contented state of mind he has never been a
loiterer, but always an industrious and hard worker.
His long experience as a foreman is suggestive of his superior tact and
ability in managing others.
He has been a successful farmer.
On the farm he was careful neither to go in debt nor sell a bushel of
grain.
He raised hogs and cattle successfully by providing for them suitable
buildings and giving them his constant, personal attention.
He endeavored to keep the fences and buildings in the very best shape and
enjoyed what some are pleased to call "good luck."
In addition to his farm and home he also owns a valuable brick block in
the business portion of Fonda. ------------------- In
the fall of 1870, when this part of the county still belonged to Lizard
township, there were four schools established namely, at Fonda, Sunk Grove, and
the homes of Wm. Lynch and A. O. Garlock.
The one at Fonda began about the first of December and was taught by
Edward Calligan (a son of the director for this district) in a small building
that stood on the ground now occupied by the McKee brick block.
The pupils were Lizzie and Jennie Bott (Mrs. J. B. Bollard), John and
Steve Slater, Alice Skinner, Rosa Hay, Mary Wood (Adams) and Ed. Ibsen.
The school building for the fall of 1871 was located on the corner now
occupied by the Roberts & Kenning brick block. William
Brownlee, (b. March 1, 1838), of Pomeroy,
was a resident of Bellville township from the spring of 1869 until the fall of
1892, with the exception of the two years he served as county treasurer,
1884-'85, when he and his family lived at Pocahontas.
He is a native of Welland county, Canada, and the son of Thomas and Sarah
Brownlee, both of whom were of Scotch-Irish descent, and came from the county of
Armaugh, Ireland. On Nov. 3, 1861,
he married Elizabeth H. Owen and one year later, coming to the United States,
they located in Walworth county Wis. During
a residence of six years at this place he found employment most of the time as a
stage driver. In 1869, with a
family of two children, they came to Pocahontas county, Iowa, and located on a
homestead on Sec. 18, Bellville township. After
three years they bought another farm on Sec. 8, which they improved and occupied
until the time of their removal to Pomeroy in 1892. Mr. Brownlee was very highly honored by the
citizens of Bellville, who recognized his excellent qualities of head and heart.
He was enabled to render many years of efficient service in all the
township offices that a good citizen is expected to fill.
He was a trustee in 1872, clerk in 1873, a justice of the peace five
years, president of the school board four years, secretary of it five years and
treasurer of the school fund three years. He
was also the first citizen of Bellville township to enjoy the honor of a seat on
the board of county supervisors (1876-1883).
On Jan. 7, 1884, after eight years of efficient service, he resigned his
position as a member of this board, that he might accept the more responsible
office of county treasurer, to which he had been elected the previous fall. His estimable wife was one of the most efficient
and popular of the early teachers of Bellville, and she joined with her husband
in making their home one of the most hospitable and entertaining in that
section. Their home was situated a
short distance south of the South branch of Lizard creek and also near the
largest lake in the township. This
locality proved to be a favorite camping ground for the roving bands of Indians
that annually frequented this section for the purpose of hunting and trapping in
the days of its early settlement. These
Indian bands were neighborly neigh bors, but everybody was glad when they left
the community, for they were professional beggars of a treacherous character. The early settler, in the interest of peace and to get them
to leave the premises as soon as possible, usually felt if was better to give
them all they wanted, so that many times the larder was emptied in meeting their
demands.* Their family consisted of eight children, three
of whom are dead. William Allen
(single) is engaged in the grain and seed business at St. Paul; Bert O., married
to Harriet Swisher, is clerking in a store at Mallard; Bern R. married to Mabel
Joslyn, is located on a farm in Calhoun county; Mary F. and Howard Lee are still
at home. BRUCE, JAMES JEREMIAH, (b. Nov. 6, 1843 ,) resident of Rolfe, is a native of Oswego , N. Y., the son of Thomas and Mary Bruce. His parents, who were of Scotch-Irish descent, emigrated from the north of Ireland to Oswego in 1842, and soon afterward located in Hastings (then called Simcoe) county, Ontario, where his mother died Aug. 15, 1845. After the death of his mother he was taken care of in the homes of other people. At nine he entered the public school and at sixteen received a second-grade teacher's certificate. At eighteen he taught his first term of school, and then taking a three months' Normal course, taught the same school in Simcoe county during the next three years. He then commenced a term of school in the adjoining district, but at the end of one week - Jan. 10, 1866 - the school house was burned. This occurrence was attributed to a prejudice developed by his unfavorable criticism in the public press of the drunkenness that appeared at the celebration of the Orangemen, July 12th, previous. He relinquished his contract and on march 16th, 1866, started for Chicago , stopping at Toronto a few days to visit some schoolmates on the way. He carried with him a first-grade teachers' certificate issued by the board of education of Simcoe county, that was good for three years, and attested his good moral character and excellent literary attainments. At Chicago he concluded to go west in the hope he might locate in a community where there were no Irish people. He passed by rail to Ackley and thence by stage to Iowa Falls , where he met several Canadians who wished to locate in Pocahontas county. In company with David Wallace he carried his luggage and walked from Iowa Falls to section 8, lizard township, a distance of 77 miles, selecting a homestead and fording the Des Moines river at Fort Dodge . he was surprised to find his new location was in another Irish settlement, and where there were even persons who knew his parents when they lived at Monagan City , Ireland . At the time of his arrival in Lizard there were only four school houses in Pocahontas county, namely, in the Robert Struthers and (Old) Rolfe districts, Des Moines township, and in the Calligan and Walsh districts in Lizard township. On Aug. 20, 1866 , he was examined and received a teachers' certificate at Old Rolfe from W. D. McEwen, county superintendent, and in 1867 taught the summer and winter terms in the Walsh district. In the fall of 1867, he was elected county superintendent and also county supervisor from the Lizard district. On March 4, 1867 , he married Mary J. Price, one of the pupils in his first school in Lizard township. In the fall of 1869, he was elected county treasurer and moved to Old Rolfe where, on Jan. 1, 1875 , he and W. D. McEwen established a store. In 1881 he became president of the Northwestern land Co. , and on Feb. 14, 1882 , was admitted to the bar by Judge Edward R. Duffie, at Pocahontas. In 1882 he erected the building known later as the Tremain Hotel, and became one of the first residents of the new town of Rolfe, where for a few years he engaged in the mercantile business. He took a leading part in the first newspaper enterprise and was identified with the public press of the county a number of years afterward. On June 14, 1869 , he rode to Fort Dodge with Dennis Mulholland, of lizard, and on the nest day arranged with B. F. Gue to print the Pocahontas Journal for one year for $450.00. On the next day, June 16, 1869 , W. D. McEwen, the other editor, arrived and the first issue of the Pocahontas Journal was printed and placed in their hands for distribution. The second issue of this paper was received in Lizard township July 25, 1869 , and the subsequent issues were printed as regularly as the mails could carry copy to the printer and return the printed sheets for folding and distribution. This was the official paper of the county during 1869, 1870 and 1871 (see age 144). He was a regular contributor to the columns of the Pocahontas Times for several years after its removal to Fonda and took the lead in establishing and maintaining the Rolfe Reveille from July 12, 1888 , to Jan. 1, 1894 (See page 306.). His public career in this county covers a period of thirty years and began Oct. 8, 1867 , when he served as a clerk at the general election in Lizard township. On that day he was elected to three public offices, namely, justice of the peace and county supervisor from Lizard township, which then embraced nearly the south half of the county, and superintendent of the public schools of the county. As a resident of Lizard township he served as justice of the peace in 1868, as county supervisor in 1868-69, county superintendent 1868-69, and county treasurer four years at Old Rolfe in 1870-73. As a resident of Clinton township he served as the first mayor of Rolfe in 1884, president of the Rolfe school board in 1891-92, justice of the peace in 1891-92, representative of the 78th district, which included Pocahontas and Calhoun counties, in 1886-87, and county supervisor nine years, 1880-85, '95-97. He was president of the board of supervisors five of the eleven years he was a member of it. In the various offices to which he was called he rendered the people of this county a faithful and efficient service. None ever questioned his ability or his integrity of purpose, and no one was either better acquainted with the county's affairs or endeavored to promote them more unselfishly than he. On May 15, 1897 , he had a tumor the size of a man's hand, removed from the back of his head, that began to appear soon after his recovery from typhoid fever in 1882. A few months later he retired from business and politics and now devotes his attention to the cultivation of his farm on which he lives at Rolfe. In 1857, at the age of fourteen, he united with the Wesleyan M. E. church, Canada . In 1876 he became an elder in the Unity and later in its successor, the Second Presbyterian church of Rolfe . In 1883 he united with the M. E. church of that place. He has been a life-long advocate of the cause of prohibition and has taken a leading part in promoting that cause in this county. His family consists of nine children, one having died in childhood. 1 - William Ulysses Bruce married Belle Fisk, lives in Omaha and has a family of two children. 2 - Marion Bruce married Gussie Wilcox, lives in Rolfe and has one child. He became a workman in the Reveille office at the time it was established and owned a half-interest in it from Jan. 1, 1894 to Aug. 4, 1900 . He was recorder of Rolfe '95-96 and has been postmaster since July 1, 1897 . 3 - George Washington Bruce married Ella Wallace, lives at Rolfe and has four children. 4 - Robert Bruce in 1897 graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University and is now practicing law at Rolfe. On Oct. 11, 1899 he married Carrie Ritchey of Des Moines township. 5 - James Bruce graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University in 1898, was engaged in a law office in Denver a few months and since Jan. 1, 1900 has been bookkeeper for the Pocahontas Savings Bank at Pocahontas. 6 - John e. Bruce in 1899 married Anna Miller, has one child and lives in Des Moines township. Bertha Belle, Edward E. and Harold are still at home. Busby (Plunkett)
Jean Mrs., who died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Peter Kiene,
in Dubuque, May 1, 1898, was a pioneer of Fonda, and a beautiful monument
in this cemetery marks her last earthly resting place.
She was a native of Scotland, and after her marriage to James
Busby, came to America and located first in St. Lawrence county, N.
Y., and afterwards in Chicago, where he died, July 6, 1855, at the age
of 55 years.
That fall, with a family of seven children, she moved to Dubuque,
remained there until the spring of 1872, when, accompanied by four children,
she moved to Fonda.
Her two sons, William J. and Ebenezer, had preceded her and they
had erected, as a home for herself and family, the house now owned and
occupied by Geo. H. Ellis, on the northeast corner of block ten. Ebenezer,
on his arrival in the fall of 1870, engaged in the mercantile business
in which he was joined by his brother William J. in the spring of 1871,
and this partnership continued until the accidental death of the former
August 23, 1873.
After the settlement of her children in homes of their own, Jean
resided most of the time with her daughter Mrs. Geo. L. Brower.
Her family consisted of Elizabeth J. married to George Butterfield,
Plumas Co. Cal.; Matilda, married to C. D. Lucas, Cherokee, Robert A.
married to Elizabeth Borland who survives him at Dubuque; Mary A. married
to Prof. C. Bayless, Dubuque; William J. married to Louisa A. Price,
Fonda; Carrie A. married to Peter Kiene, Dubuque; Ebenezer M. who was
the first one interred in the Fonda cemetery; Ella J. married to George
L. Brower, Rockwell City; and Rebecca who resides with her sister, Mary
A. at Dubuque.
The true nobility of motherhood has seldem been better illustrated
than in the patient, beautiful life of Jean Busby.
It can be truly said of her, that her children arise up and call
her blessed.
The success achieved on the farm by Matthew Byrne is very suggestive and encouraging. He came to the homestead empty handed, never received a dollar from the old country, experienced all the hardships of pioneer life during the 70's but, possessing a genius for hard work, like the instinct of the quiet beaver, he has given a splendid practical answer to the question, "Does the farm pay?" His policy has been to raise and feed all the stock, especially cattle, for which he had pasturage in the summer and protection in winter, and to invest the profits in more land. This is exhibited in the record of his purchases which were as follows: the homestead of 80 acres in 1870; 80 acres more in '78; 40 acres in '80; 80 acres in '88; 80 acres in '89; 80 acres in '90; 160 acres in '91; and the home in Fonda in 1894. His sales of stock in 1899 amounted to $16,000 and he has now 170 head of fine cattle fattening in his large pasture of 240 acres, 160 of which is hog-tight. The old adage "patience and perseverance will perform great wonders," has its fulfillment in these facts. His first wife died July 28, 1889, leaving a family of ten children. James, in 1899, married Mary Carey and resides in Omaha; Katie graduated at the Iowa Business College, Des Moines in 1898 and has since lived in that city; William died in 1898 at the age of 23 years; the others are Thomas, Alice, Mary, Elizabeth, a teacher, Parnell, Maggie and Matthias. On May 3, 1894 he married Mary, daughter of William and Margaret Lynch, no relative of his first wife, and their family consists of two children, Emmet and Leroy, the latter born Jan. 1, 1900. BYRNE, THOMAS (b. 1843), owner and occupant of a farm of 400 acres on Sec. 20, is a native of Ireland. In 1865 he emigrated to New Jersey where two years later he married Ellen Kelley. In 1878 he located in Grant township on a farm of 80 acres, which he has since increased five fold, and improved with good buildings and groves. His family consisted of four children, Mary, Thomas, John and Ellen. Mary in 1896 married Eugene Kirkendall, a farmer, lives in Grant township and has two children, Thomas E. and John. BYRNE, WM. MICHAEL, (b. 1858), is a native of County Roscommon, Ireland, the son of William and Mary (Kelley) Byrne. He was raised on a farm. In 1878 he married Catharine Lynch and, coming to America, worked two months on a railroad in N. J., and then located in Cedar township, Pocahontas county. In 1880 he bought a farm of 80 acres on sec. 14, Dover township, which he was the first to occupy and improve. He increased this farm to 240 acres, improved it with good buildings, grove and orchard and occupied it until 1896, when he built a house and moved to Fonda for the education of his children. He has managed the affairs on the farm several years since his first removal from it and usually carries about 70 head of cattle. In 1900 he formed a a partnership with his nephew, Thos. J. Byrne and has since been engaged in the stock, grain and implement business in Pocahontas. He is a democrat and a member of the Catholic church. His family consists of five children, Michael, Catherine, Anna Ellen, Margaret and Mary Elizabeth. William, the oldest, died from an accidental gunshot wound in 1896. Mary Byrne, his widowed mother, came to America in 1880 and has been a resident of this county since that date. She has dwelt most of the time with her three sons, Thomas in Grant, Matthew in Cedar, and William. Peter Byrne, who was a resident of Grant township 20 years and moved to Minnesota in 1902, was also her son. He married Ann, sister of Jeremiah O. Sullivan, and raised a large family. Her other son, Michael, lives in England.
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