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History of Sac County
by William H. Hart -
1914
 FIELD WILLIAM W.
------To have lived an honorable and unselfish life
which has been devoted in the main to the service of
one's fellowmen deserves more than mere mention To be
remembered as a liberal public benefactor and to have
achieved renown and become distinguished in two
commonwealths of this nation is more achievement than
usually fails to the lot of mankind, specifically. We
remember an able man by his deeds, for the fact is well
established that a good man lives onward and forever in
the hearts and minds of the people. Has it not been
said, "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, was not written of
the soul?" The body perishes and returns to the earth
and air from which it was originally created. The man
himself does not die-he lives on and on-and if his life
has been worthy and useful, one in which he has won a
certain definite measure of renown, he is remembered for
years and even ages after his earthly demise. It is a
comforting thought which our religion teaches us that
death in itself is but a brief separation, to be
followed by a grand reunion in the great beyond, whither
all souls must travel and rest in peace if the earthly
life has merited a just reward. William W. Field is well
remembered for his fine attainments, generous
philanthropy and statesmanship, qualities which he
possessed in abundance. He was a high type of man,
descended from a long line of illustrious forbears, and
was born into a family that has furnished wonderful
geniuses and some of the ablest men in  several decades
of the family's history. He came of the famous Field
family which produced Cyrus W. Field, of the Atlantic
cable fame, and Marshall Field, the merchant prince of
Chicago, and a long line of illustrious .Americans
famous in many professions and walks of life.
W. W.
Field was born October 31, 1824, in the town of
Lancaster, New Hampshire. He was the son of Abel Waite
Field, a native of Brattleboro, Vermont. The Field
genealogy gives the line of Fields in the following
succession, beginning with William Field, who was the
first in line, followed by his son William (II), Richard
(III), John (IV). John (V). Zechariah (VI), John (VII).
Zechariah (XIII), John (IX), John (X). Abel W.
(XI), and William Wells (XII).
Mr.
Field was married October 31, 1850, to Mahala J. Howe,
who was born December 1, 1825, and is the daughter of
parents whose residence was in the state of New
Hampshire, where they both died. She was one of eight
children, as follows: Mrs. Hattie S. Taylor, deceased:
Mahala J. Field; Edward B., who died in infancy:
Sophia Ann, deceased in childhood: Edwin Newell, died in
infancy: Althea Perkins, died at the age of twelve
years; Mrs. Mary Farnam, deceased;
Joseph D., a resident of Lancaster, New Hampshire.
He with whom this review is directly concerned
was the son of a farmer who had five sons and a
daughter, to each of whom he managed to give the
advantages of a good school education, and it was given
to William W. to attend the Lancaster Academy and there
finish his education. He taught school at the age of
seventeen years for three winters in succession. When he
was twenty years old his father gave him his "time,"' or
rather gave him permission to make his own way in the
world, as he had no property to give, and had done all
that he possibly could in preparing him to fight life's
battle in the future. In the year 1845 he left home with
thirty dollars in gold as his sole possession and went
to Medford, Massachusetts, and there worked at farm
labor for a period two years. He then engaged in the
marble business in the town of Belfast, Maine.
In
1852 Mr. Field came west and stopped at the town of
Fenniman, Grant county,
Wisconsin, and purchased a tract of land in the
vicinity, on which he lived in a log cabin and there
made his home. In 1865 he rented his farm and moved to
Boscobel, Grant county, for the purpose of affording his
children better educational advantages. In January of
1873 he removed to Madison, the capital of
Wisconsin.
During the Civil War Mr. Field was a
strong advocate of the integrity of the Union and threw
the weight of his influence in behalf of the Federal
government at all times. His public career in Wisconsin
began with his election as a member of the Grant county
board of supervisors in 1861, and he served as chairman
of this board. He served his county as a member of the
state Legislature in the sessions of 1855, 1862, 1863,
1864 and 1865, and filled the position of speaker of the
House during 1862 and 1863 of his legislative service.
He represented the state as presidential elector at
large in 1864. Mr. Field was appointed a member of the
board of regents of the State University of Wisconsin in
1871, and served in this high office until 1873. In
February of 1873 he was elected a member of the
executive board of the State Agricultural Society and
held this position for several years. In April of 1875
he was elected secretary of the Wisconsin state board of
centennial managers.
Mr.
Field migrated from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1879 and
located in the new town of Odebolt. He purchased an
entire section of land in Wheeler township, which he
farmed and developed until 1892, when he made a
permanent residence in Odebolt. He died in April of
1907. He was very active in financial and civic affairs
while residing in Sac county. He was one of the founders
and the first president of the First National Bank of
Odebolt. While he was especially gifted in the line of
public duty, the only office which he cared to accept in
the county was the trusteeship of Wheeler township.
Politically, Mr. Field was always allied with the
Republican party. He was an attendant and liberal
supporter of the Presbyterian church and was a Mason
during the greater part of his life. Mrs. Field has been
a life-long member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Field
was a liberal donor to the fund which was provided for
the erection of the handsome public library in Odebolt ;
in fact, it is a matter of record that he gave a
considerable portion of the necessary funds for
defraying the cost of the erection of the structure. He
did this with the idea of giving some substantial return
to the community in which he had prospered. He will long
be remembered as one of the main donors of this useful
institution.
Something concerning the family
history of Mahala J. Howe Field is not inappropriate at
this point. The Howe family is a very old one from an
American standpoint and numbers among its members and
descendants some of the ablest Americans and men and
women in all walks of life who have been successful. The
family begins with Abraham Howe, who emigrated from
England and settled at Malvern, Massachusetts, in the
year of 1858. From him have descended five generations
of Joseph Howes as they were named respective and have
been prominent in the colonial life of New England.
Daniel Howe, the grandsire of Mrs. Field. located
in Lancaster, Vermont, in about 1778, and married Eunice
Bucknan, a daughter of Capt. Edward Bucknan, one of the
leading spirits in the settlement of Lancaster. He was
justice of the peace, town clerk and a leader of the
community for many years. The father of Mrs. Field,
although defective in eyesight, managed to achieve a
comfortable competency in life and reared a worthy
family. It is worthy of note that Eunice Bucknan.
grandmother of Mrs. Field, was the first white child
born in Lancaster. Joseph D. Field, brother of Mrs.
Field, is one of the substantial and leading citizens of
the Lancaster community and is the owner of a very fine
stock farm, which is noted for the quality of its pure
bred livestock. At the present writing, Mr. Howe and
wife are the guests at the Field home.
Mrs. Mahala J. Field resides in the
old homestead in Odebolt and is one of the respected and
best loved ladies of the city. She is the mother of the
following children: Mrs. Jennie Bashford, wife of Rev.
James W. Bashford, a bishop of the Methodist church, and
at present a missionary located in Peking, China: Mrs.
Ella Frank, wife of a livestock ranchman, located at Ree
Heights, South Dakota, and who is the mother of two
children, Marion Field also a missionary at Nanking,
China, and Howard Price Frank, of Natick, Massachusetts.
It was not to be expected that W.
W. Field could refrain from taking a prominent and
active part in state affairs after he became a resident
of Iowa, but he turned his energies in the direction of
his favorite avocation, that of the agriculturist. He
became vice-president of the State Agricultural Society,
and also served as president of this great body. He was
a strong and able exponent of better and more improved
farming methods and wielded quite an influence in
bettering conditions for the farmers of the state. He
will long be remembered as one of the ablest and most
widely known men who have served in the councils of the
state board. A distinct loss to the
community and state at large occurred with his demise,
and he was sincerely mourned by hundreds and thousands
who knew him and who knew of his many excellent
qualities and accomplishments as a citizen and
statesman.
FINDLEY, WILLIAM J. M. D.
-----It is not always easy to discover and define the
hidden forces that move a life of ceaseless -activity
and large professional success: little more can be done
than to note their manifestations in the career of the
individual under consideration. In view of this fact,
the life of the able physician whose name appears above
affords a striking example of a well defined purpose to
succeed along" the lines of the noblest of professions,
for which he was inclined through native ability and a
natural heritage. A long and successful career in the
practice of medicine has broadened and widened his
sphere of influence until Dr. William J. Findley stands
in the forefront of the medical profession through sheer
worth and excellence of his inherent qualities. Twenty
years of continuous exercise of his talents in the
alleviation of the pain and suffering of his fellow
human beings, several years of this experience being
under the direct guidance of his eminent father, who
ranks among the most widely known of the pioneer
physicians of Iowa, has eminently fitted him for the
maturity of his calling.
Dr. William J. Findley, of Sac
City, was born January 1, 1860, in Warren county, Iowa.
His birthplace was in the town of Green Bush, now better
known as Spring Hill. His parents were Dr. David Findley
who was born August 31, 1830, and Martha J. Barr
Findley. a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania.
David Findley was a native of Guernsey county, in the
old Buckeye state, and was a graduate of Keokuk College
of Medicine. He came west when a young man and first
studied medicine in the office of Dr. William .Anderson,
of Warren county. He had previously married in Ohio and
traveled to the west in a prairie schooner in 1859. He
removed to Grove City, Cass county, in 1862, and the
following year removed back to Indianola, Warren county,
and after one year there returned to Lewis, Cass county,
where he lived for the following twelve years. In 1876
he removed to Atlantic, Iowa, and it is recorded of him
that he practiced medicine in Cass county for the long
period of forty-seven years
in fact he continued in the exercise of his
calling until his death, in 1910. His highly successful
and honorable career is extensively recorded in the
annals of his adopted county. Doctor and Mrs. Findley
were the parents of seven children, five of whom are yet
living, namely: S. C. Findley, of Atlantic, Iowa: Dr. W.
J. Findley; Mrs. G. W. Noble, of Omaha, Nebraska:
Dr. Palmer Findley, of
Omaha, Nebraska, and Miss Mayme Findley, of Atlantic.
The mother of these children died August 2, 1912.
He with whom this biography is
intimately concerned was educated in the Atlantic
schools and graduated from the high school of his native
city. He then studied in
the collegiate department of the State University at
Iowa City and later completed a course in the New York
School of Pharmacy. For a period of
twelve years, from 1879 to 1891 inclusive, he practiced
pharmacy. In the fall of 1891 he entered the
Northwestern University of Chicago and graduated from
the medical department in 1894. He practiced with his
father for five years at Atlantic, and in 1899 located
at Sac City. Success has attended
Doctor Findley from the beginning of his career in Sac
City, and his clientele is considerable. Since the date
of his graduation, he has pursued several post-graduate
courses in Chicago and keeps abreast of all new
developments in his chosen profession. Doctor Findley is
yet a student and is ever seeking to better and broaden
his knowledge of the science of medicine and surgery. He
is a member of the Sac County Medical Society, the Iowa
State Medical Association and the American Medical
Association. By virtue of his
position as local surgeon for the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St. Paul Railway, he is a member of the
Association of Railway Surgeons.
Politically, he is allied with the Republican
party. He has filled various local offices in the city
and has always taken a live interest in civic affairs
which concerned the well-being of his neighbors and
fellow citizens of the municipality. He has served as a
member of the local school board and is a member of the
Presbyterian church.
Doctor Findley was united in
marriage with Elizabeth Truesdale formerly of Atlantic,
Iowa, in 1899. They have two children, who are attending
the public schools, namely: Ellinor, aged sixteen years,
and Evelyn, aged fourteen. Doctor Findley is also a
registered pharmacist, and has had hospital experience
in the Cook County Hospital and the Merry Hospitals,
located in Chicago.
Reverting to the subject's
ancestral record, it may be stated that Dr. David
Findley was the son of Rev. Samuel Findley, a minister
of the United Presbyterian faith, and who was a
traveling missionary in biwa as early as 1842 It is
recorded of him that he traveled from Ohio to Iowa on
horseback and for a time spread the gospel according to
the Presbyterian faith among the early settlers of the
new and growing state. Rev. William T. Findley, a son,
had charge of a church in Newark, New Jersey, and cared
for his father in his old age until his death. The wife
of Rev. Samuel Findley was Margaret Ross, a native of
Ireland.
Dr. David Findley was married
August 26, 1856, to Martha J. Barr, of Monongahela City,
Pennsylvania, and daughter of James Barr. He first
studied medicine under Dr. W. M. Anderson, of Antrum,
and came to Iowa in 1859, receiving a diploma from the
Keokuk College of medicine a few years later. He was one
of the original "Forty-niners" who made the trip from
New York through the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco
in 1852 and was shipwrecked, having a narrow escape from
death when the good ship "Independence" was wrecked on
the south coast of California in 1853 two hundred and
fifty out of five hundred passengers being drowned.
The ancestors of Martha J. Barr, on
her mother's side, were named Kennedy, and came to
America from county Antrim, Ireland. They first settled
at old Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, in 1781 and entered land
in Washington county, Pennsylvania, which is yet held by
their descendants. Her father James
Barr, was a captain of volunteers in the Seminole
War. He enlisted in the
United States army two different times and died of fever
contracted in the Seminole swamps.
 FIRTH, CHARLES W. -----One of
the most prominent farmers and largest stock breeders of
Levey township, Sac county, Iowa, is Charles W. Firth,
who was born May 7, 1866, in Yorkshire, England, the son
of George and Margaret (Ridgedale) Firth, and his father
and mother are still living in England, the father being
seventy-three years of age and his mother seventy. To
George and Margaret Firth have been born five children,
who are living: James, of California; George, of
Nebraska; Charles William, whose life history is here
presented; Mrs. Sarah Hugh, of Hull,
England, and Margaret, who is still with her
parents.
Charles W. Firth came to this
country in 1885 at the age of nineteen years. He had no
money, but he had what was still better, a determination
to succeed and an unusual amount of ability in business
lines. He first located in Crawford county, Iowa, and
was engaged in the stock business with another man for a
year. In 1886 he began business for himself and in two
years moved to Sac county, after which he engaged in the
stock business in partnership with P. Sargisson, and
this connection continued for the next eight years, and
he and Mr. Sargisson own ten thousand acres of land in
Nebraska and one section in Iowa. In 1898 Mr. Firth
moved onto his present farm, where he built a large
house in which he is now living. He owns six hundred and
twenty acres of land in Levey township and eighty acres
in Jackson county, Iowa. He is the largest stock raiser
and shipper in the county, shipping three thousand head
of cattle annually. At the time this data was secured
for his personal sketch, he had five hundred and
forty-six head of cattle on his land, which he was
feeding at that time for the markets. In addition to his
cattle business, he also buys and sells hogs and
averages eight carloads annually.
He is undoubtedly the largest cattle and hog man
in Sac county, and probably handles more stock than any
other man in northwestern Iowa. He employs a force of
thirty men to attend to his large herds of cattle in
Iowa and Nebraska.
Mr. Firth has been twice married,
his first marriage occurring August 22, 1893, to Bessie
Bancroft, who died September 14, 1895. She was born
September 14, 1872, in Anderby, Lincolnshire, England,
and was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Bancroft. She
came to America with her parents in 1888, and settled in
Madison county, Iowa. To Mr. Firth's first marriage was
born one daughter, Leona Esther, who is now twenty years
of age. She graduated from the West Side high school and
also from Denison College, and is now a teacher. The
second marriage of Mr. Firth was to Hester Jane Jolly,
which occurred November 18, 1896. She is the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. R. R. Jolly, of Wall Lake, pioneer settlers
of this county, and to this second marriage have been
born eight children: Charles Robert, born April 3, 1898;
Grace Geneva, born May 30, 1899; Arthur Valvern, born
June 1, 1900; Margaret Lucile, born November 4, 1907;
Isla Jane, born December 28, 1908; Helen, born August
30, 1910; Bernice Jeannette, born March 17, 1912. and
Pearl, born June 8, 1913. Mrs. Firth was born April 3,
1877, in Clinton township, this county, and is a woman
of charming personality and pleasing manners. Few
residents of Sac county are as well and favorably known
as Mr. and Mrs. Firth and none stand higher in the
esteem and confidence of the community in which they
reside.
Politically, Mr. Firth is a
Republican, but his many business interests have
prevented him from taking an active part in politics. He
and his family are loyal members of the Presbyterian
Church, and, fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons and maintains his membership in
the Scottish Rite, in Parvin Consistory No. 5, at Sioux
City. His influence has always been on the side of right
living. and while he has been more than ordinarily
successful in business, yet he has never forgotten the
duties which he owes to his family, his state as a
citizen, or to any of the higher duties which make the
best American citizens.
FOX, HARRY B. -----The
development of Sac county has now reached the stage that
practically calls for the retirement of the pioneers who
have borne the brunt of the hardships and have conquered
the wilderness for all time. The burdens of
responsibility are gradually being shifted upon younger
shoulders. The sons of the pioneers are taking the
places formerly occupied by their sturdy parents. They
are "making good" and are profiting in great measure by
the scientific knowledge now obtainable for the
promotion of agriculture and are endeavoring to increase
the yields of the soils and progress along new
lines.
Harry B. Fox, son of Marshall D.
Fox, and who succeeded his father in the possession of
the Ashlawn farm, which has long been the Fox homestead
in Clinton township, is a progressive farmer and
stockmen of decided ability. He owns two hundred
acres of land, which is equipped with a fine residence
and excellent modern buildings. He has recently, in the
fall of 1911, completed a modern swine pen, which is
built of stucco. His large barn is thirty-six by
forty-two feet in extent and the adjacent shed is
twenty-two by thirty-six feet in size. In addition to
these buildings, the farm boasts a silo built of hollow
tile in the summer of 1912. He is a breeder of Aberdeen
Angus cattle and the farm produces about twenty-five
head annually. It also produces from eighty to ninety
marketable hogs each year.
Harry B. Fox was born November 28, 1878, on the
farm where he now lives and is the son of Marshall D.
and Lidia (Bennett) Fox, pioneer settlers of Clinton
township, and concerning whom the biographer has written
an appreciation in the pages of this volume. He was
educated in the district schools of the neighborhood and
the Odebolt high school. He has been operating the home
farm since 1908. In 1913 he purchased the tract of two
hundred acres from his father.
Mr. Fox is politically allied with
the Progressive party and is now serving a three-year
term as township trustee, having been elected to this
office in the fall of 1912. He belongs to the Methodist
church and is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons. He holds the position of vice-president of the
Sac County Farmers Institute, an important and
influential assembly of Sac county agriculturists.
Mr. Fox was united in the holy
bonds of matrimony with Lydie C. Buehler, November 28,
1900. She is the daughter of George and Lucy M.
Buehler, of Odebolt. Mr. and Mrs. Fox have three
children: Eugene Marshall, born September 18, 1903: Paul
George, born December 6, 1907, and Elinor Elaine, born
October 16, 1910.
While young in years, this talented
young man is already making his presence and
capabilities felt in the neighborhood in which he has
spent his entire life. He stands high in the esteem of
the people who know him and his influence among his
fellow citizens is considerable. Following in the
footsteps of his esteemed father, he bids fair to become
one of the influential figures of Sac county.
 FOX, MARSHALL D. ----The
majority of men who have spent the better part of their
allotted three score years and ten in the active pursuit
of agriculture, or in almost any other vocation which
requires close application and the expenditure of
energy, are ready for rest when they attain such an age.
We take it for granted that this is the acceptable thing
for the worthy retired citizens found in practically
every community and do not expect much activity in the
affairs of the community on their part. There are found,
however, some notable exceptions to what seems to have
become the general custom among us frequently, we have
individuals, who, while practically retired from active
pursuits because there is no longer a necessity for a
continuance of their labors, are still active in the
affairs which concern mankind and, while old in years,
they will be found young in deeds, with hearts still
glowing earnestly for the well-being of their neighbors
and still taking a lively interest in the doings of the
body politic.
An example of this class of
citizens is found in the personage of Marshall D. Fox,
retired veteran farmer of Odebolt.
Mr. Fox was born May 7, 1842, in
Trumbull county, Ohio. His father was Samuel S. Fox, a
native of New Hampshire, and who was a son of Amos Fox,
of English parentage. Samuel S. was born in 1796 and
died in 1878. He was reared to manhood in old New
Hampshire and there married Dorothy Bullock, who was a
member of the famous Shaker colony of New Hampshire in
the early twenties he migrated to Trumbull county, Ohio,
and figured as a prominent factor in the pioneer life of
eastern Ohio. He served his country
in the War of 1812, and it is recorded of him that he
was a brave and gallant soldier. He was twice married
and was the father of fourteen children by his first
wife and three by his second marriage.
All the children of Samuel S. grew to maturity
and were married. Five of them are yet living. The Fox
family removed from the farm to Mentor, Ohio, and from
there journeyed to Illinois in 1854. The mother died in
the year 1856. In 1856 they moved to Minnesota, but
being dissatisfied with the outlook in this newer
locality, they returned in 1857 and migrated to Clinton
county, Iowa, in 1859.
Marshall D. Fox enlisted August 10,
1864 in Company A, Eleventh Iowa Infantry, and served
nine months. During his term of service it was his good
fortune to participate in two great battles and several
skirmishes. He was a member of
the army that conducted the siege and capture of the
city of Atlanta, and fought in the battle of Jonesboro,
Georgia. After the close of
hostilities he returned to his home, in Clinton county,
and took up the vocation of farming. Here he was
married, May 7, 1867, to Lydia F. Bennett, who was born
March 9, 1850, in the city of Brownsville, Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of William H. Bennett,
the son of William Bennett, a scion of an old Virginia
family. The wife of William H. was Mary Ann Wood, the
daughter of Quaker parents.
It is recorded that William H. Bennett was a
tanner by trade and made an overland trip to the West in
the water routes down the Monongahela and Ohio rivers
and thence up the Mississippi and tributary
streams. He bought an ox team
which he drove to Iowa City in 1837, then the capital of
the state, and later returned to Pennsylvania. He
returned from Pennsylvania in the fall of 1854 and
located on one hundred and sixty acres of Government
preemption land in Clinton County.
Many Clinton County people were
talking of the newer and cheaper lands to be had in Sac
county, and it was only natural that a number should
become permanent settlers in the county. Among them was
Marshall D. Fox, who was among
the first to settle in Clinton township. March 27, 1874,
he arrived in Clinton township. Sac county, preceding
his wife, who came to join him in the following May,
after he had finished the erection of a one and one-half
storied house, sixteen by twenty-four feet in size. On
October 3, 1874, disaster overtook them in the form of a
holocaust which swept away the house and barns and
consumed practically all of their furniture and outfit.
The family barely escaped with their lives. This
calamity left Mr. Fox in exceedingly hard circumstances,
but "a friend in need is a friend indeed", and it was a
very good friend who came to his rescue in this time of
privation. A lumber man of Clinton county, who was his
warm friend, furnished him the lumber with which to
rebuild, with the understanding that he was to pay the
bill when able, and by November 3rd of the same war the
new home and buildings were completed. Mr. Fox hauled
the lumber for this second home, a distance of twenty
miles, from the nearest railway station. His land is
located in section 19 and cost him five dollars and
fifty cents an acre at the outset. He soon had a
beautiful grove and orchards growing on the place and
gradually improved it until it is now rated at the most
attractive and well-kept farm in Clinton township. He
recently sold the farm to his son, Harry V. The Fox farm
is appropriately named "Ashlawn Farm," and is situated
on the main highway between Lake View and Odebolt. In
1889 Mr. Fox added eighty acres to his holdings at a
cost of thirty dollars an acre. He was also the owner of
a fine quarter section of land in Delaware township
which he sold at a good profit.
History records the fact that Mr. Fox built the
third house in Clinton township and took a prominent
part in the subsequent organization and naming of the
township.
In 1875, he and N. B. Umbarger
journeyed to Sac City and presented the petition to the
county officials praying for a separate township
organization. This was granted and the county auditor
suggested that the older settler of the two give the
township its name. This naturally
devolved upon Mr. Fox who thereupon bestowed the name
"Clinton" in memory of his old home county. In the fall
of 1904 he and his good, wife removed to Odebolt and
built for their future habitation a fine bungalow on
Park Avenue. At the outset Mr. Fox purchased two and
one-half lots on Park avenue at a cost of one thousand
seven hundred dollars, and later sold one corner lot for
a consideration of nine hundred and fifty dollars. Here
he and his faithful companion enjoy their lives and take
an active part in the social doings of the neighborhood.
He is a member of the library board, the Cemetery
association and the Automobile Club at the age of
seventy years he learned to drive an automobile. He
chops wood every day of his life for needed exercise and
is active, healthy and strong for one of his age. As his
friends and admirers express it, "he is seventy years
young".
He espouses the cause of the
Progressive party and is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal church. Fraternally he is associated with the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a charter
member of Col. Goodrich Post, Grand
Army of the Republic, and has served as commander of
this post.
Mr. and Mrs. Fox have reared six
children on whom they have bestowed exceptional
educational advantages and given on their attaining
their respective majorities, the individual sums of one
thousand dollars for a start in life. The children are
as follows: Mrs. Flora Thomas, a resident of Des Moines,
and the mother of two daughters, Blaine and Kathryn;
Chauncey B., a citizen of Jasper, Minnesota, has four
children, Helen, Rachel, Florence and Bennett: Mrs.
Jessie Carpenter, of Mesita, Colorado, is the mother of
two offsprings, Harrv F. and Dorothy: Mrs. Fannie L.
Quirk, of Clinton township, has one child, Edward L.:
Harry V., on the home farm, is the father of three,
Eugene Marshall, Paul, Elinor Elaine: Howard M., a
resident of Des Moines.
A review of such a life as the
foregoing is worthy of a prominent place in the history
of Sac county. While mere words cannot adequately convey
a just appreciation of his manifold virtues as a
citizen, this chronicle is respectfully
submitted.
FREY, HENRY -----One of the
earliest German settlers of Sac county Iowa, was Henry
Frey, who came to this county forty years ago. and he
has been a witness of the remarkable change which has
come about in this county from the time that the first
land in this county was tilled down to the present time,
when it is covered with some of the finest farms to be
found any place in the world.
He was born February 17, 1836, in
Germany, his parents, John and Katharine (Schwartz)
Frey, belonging to the class known in Germany as High
Germans. His parents were farmers and his father, John
Frey, was ambitious for his children to make a success
in life. Accordingly, in the autumn of the year 1851,
John Frey and his whole family, consisting of his wife
and six children, John, Henry, Phillip, George,
Christina, Barbara and Katharine, crossed the ocean and
landed in New York on November 8, 1851 They came over in
an old-fashioned sailing vessel and their voyage was
nine weeks in length. They came direct from New York
City to Chicago, landing there in the midst of winter.
They at once settled in Lake county, twenty-two miles
out of Chicago, where John Frey bought a forty-acre
farm. A year later he moved to Lee County, Iowa, where
he bought another farm. In this county John
Frev and his wife both passed the remainder of their
days.
Henry Frey was fifteen and one-half
years of age when his father decided to come to this
country with his family. He had received the best
education which the local schools of his Community in
Germany afforded, and upon coming to this country he
began to help his father upon the farm.
He was married in Lee county, Illinois, and lived
there until 1874. On April 30th of that year he bought
three hundred and twenty acres of land in Clinton
township. Sac county paying five dollars an acre for the
land. Eleven years later he
bought eighty acres more, for which he paid twenty-five
dollars an acre, and still owns the four hundred acres
which he purchased in this township. He has two complete
sets of buildings on his land.
When he first purchased these tracts, the land
was raw prairie and the hand of man had never touched
it. His nearest trading place was Storm Lake, and in
order to get the lumber to build his first home he had
to haul it from Vail, Iowa. As he was the first settler
in his part of the township, he was looked upon as a man
of judgment when it came to advising other farmers what
to do and how to manage their crops in the new locality.
Many people came from Lee county and settled in Sac
county, and the Frey home became the center of many new
incoming families. Mr. Frey continued to reside upon his
farm until 1903, when he moved to Odebolt. where he has
since lived, having a pleasant, modern home in that city
equipped with all the latest conveniences.
Mr. Frey was married in 1860 to
Katrina Luft, a native of Germany, whose death occurred
in 1908, at the age of seventy-two. They were the
parents of ten children, only one of whom is living,
George Henry, who was born in Lee county, Illinois,
March 11, 1874. He is the owner of the automobile shop
and garage in Odebolt, and married Katharine Mehlbrech,
and they have two daughters Florence and Anna. The
children who are deceased are Jacob, William, Mary,
Katharine and five who died in infancy.
Mr. Frey has long been identified with the
Republican party in this county and was one of the early
trustees of his township. Religiously, he and his family
have long been members of the German Methodist Episcopal
church, and render it substantial assistance in every
way. The career of Mr. Frey in this county has been one
well worthy of emulation. because it shows what can be
accomplished by a man who applies himself with the
proper determination.
FRIESNER, ANDREW J. -----The
importance that attaches to the lives, character and
work of the early settlers of Sac county and the
influence they have exerted upon the cause of humanity
and civilization is one of the most absorbing themes
that can possibly attract the attention of the local
chronicler of histories. If great and beneficent
results-results that endure and bless mankind-are the
proper measure of the good men do, then who is there in
the world's history that can take their places above the
hardy pioneer? To point out the way, to make possible
our present advancing civilization, its happy homes, its
arts and sciences, its discoveries and inventions, its
education, literature, culture, refinement and social
life and joy, is to be the truly great benefactors of
mankind for all time. This was the great work
accomplished by the early settlers, and it is granted by
all that they built wiser than they knew. Admit that, as
a rule, but few ever realized in the dimmest way the
transcendent possibilities that rested upon their
shoulders; grant it that their lives, in certain
instances, were somewhat narrow and that they realized
but little the great results that ultimately crowned
their efforts, yet there exists the supreme fact that
they followed their restless impulses, took their lives
in their hands, penetrated the wilderness and, with a
patient energy, resolution and self-sacrifice that
stands alone and unparalleled, they worked out their
allotted tasks, accomplished their destinies and today
their descendants and others enjoy undisturbed the
fruitage of their labors.
Among the worthy class referred to
above, there is no one who deserves more honorable
mention among the citizens of Sac county than A. J.
Friesner, who was born July 18, 1859, in Coles county,
Illinois. He is the son of Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Friesner and came to Sac county
from Illinois in 1866, when he was seven years of age.
He has spent his whole life in this county and has
devoted has career to agricultural interests. He now has
eighty acres of excellent farming land in Coon Valley
township, on which he raises all of the crops peculiar
to this climate.
Mr. Friesner was married in 1886 to
Matilda Cleveland, of Sac county, the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. S. C. Cleveland. To this union have been born
fourteen children, Noah, Fred, Herbet, Robert, Joseph,
Archie, Floyd, Henry, Arnold, Lester., Elsie, Laura,
Golden and Pearl, of these children, except the oldest,
are at home with their parents.
Politically, Mr. Friesner has
always identified himself with the Republican party,
but, while taking an interest in the success of his
party, has never taken an active part in its various
activities. Mr. Friesner is one of the farmers in Sac
county who were here in 1870, and for this reason he
thoroughly appreciates the wonderful advance which has
been made in civilization in this county in the past
forty years. He has seen the county grow from a broad
prairie tract to its present prosperous condition and
has taken his full share in bringing about this change.
Being a man of industry and strict integrity, he has, by
his clean and wholesome life since living in this
county, won the esteem of a large circle of
friends.
FRIESNER, HENRY -----Shortly
after the Civil War, Horace Greeley, who was then editor
of the New York Tribune made himself famous and gave a
new impetus to Western migration by the use of two magic
words, "Go west." These words were printed in large
type, from day to day, in his famous newspaper and had a
wonderful effect upon stimulating migration to the
states west of the Mississippi river. There can be no
question but that thousands of young men had this cry,
"Go west," dinned into their ears until they really felt
that fortunes were scattered around over the broad
prairies waiting for some enterprising men to pick them
up and there were fortunes which, like the uncut
diamond, had to be polished before their real worth was
known. Thousands and tens of thousands of acres of land
in Iowa and other Western states were sold as late as
the seventies for five to ten dollars an acre and this
same land, which has now been polished as it were, is
now worth from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
dollars an acre. It required only the touch of man to
convert this apparently worthless land into what is now
a garden spot of the world.
Henry Friesner, one of the earliest
pioneers of Sac county, Iowa, was born January 15, 1830,
in Fairfield county Ohio, about three miles east of
Lancaster. His parents, Jacob and Polly (Whiel)
Friesner, were natives of Pennsylvania, and in 1840 the
Friesner family moved to Coles county, Illinois, and
there bought a farm. Here Jacob Friesner and his wife
spent the remainder of their days. They reared a large
family of children, only one of whom is living besides
the one whose life history is here portrayed, Louis, a
farmer of Calhoun county, in this state. Two of the
brothers, Levi and Louis served in the Union army during
the Civil War.
In 1867 Henry Friesner obeyed that
call of "Go west," and came to Grant City, Sac township,
Sac county, Iowa, and bought forty acres for one dollar
and a quarter an acre. Mr. Friesner built a small frame
house, fourteen by sixteen feet, on his farm in October,
1869. The cost of the house completely depleted his
finances. He had no money with which to buy corn to put
out his crop, so he went to a neighbor in Calhoun county
and tried to borrow some corn, but was refused. He tried
another farmer and met with better success, for the
second farmer let him have corn and potatoes in order to
enable him to make a start. At the Oxen ford mill they
told him he could have anything he wanted to carry with
him. He has never forgotten the kindness which was shown
him at this time of his life and has many times
remembered this incident when he saw some neighbor who
needed help. In this way he got a start and, while
operating his small farm, he worked out for two or three
years and gradually saved enough money in order to buy
more land. When he came to Sac county, he had one yoke
of oxen and a cow and in the fall of the first year he
bought another yoke on one year's time in Carroll
county. The second yoke of oxen cost him one hundred and
thirty-three dollars, and he gave a mortgage on the two
yoke to secure the payment of the pair he purchased.
After he broke up his first forty acres and got his
crops started he commenced to buy land and soon had
another forty acres under cultivation. He and his son
broke prairie land for their neighbors in order to earn
money to pay for cattle. He purchased his second forty
acres in 1872 at four dollars an acre, but he only had
ten dollars to pay down on it.
In 1874 he bought eighty acres for five dollars
an acre and two years later he bought forty acres for
six dollars and six cents an acre. By 1881 the land had
arisen in price and the eighty which he bought in that
year cost him ten dollars an acre. He had now bought
five separate tracts of land, totaling two hundred and
eighty acres and had placed buildings on each of his
farms. The people called him
"land poor," but he felt confident that the land would
increase in value and that he and his son would be able
to make it net good returns. The subsequent success
which attended him in his efforts amply justified his
wisdom in purchasing the land when it was cheap. He now
has one hundred and sixty acres of land and has given
his two sons eighty acres a piece, a result which has
afforded him a great deal of satisfaction in his
declining years.
Mr. Friesner was married in 1857 to
Martha Swisher, who died in 1897. To them were born four
children, all of whom are living: William Lewis and
Andrew, who are farmers in this county: Mrs. Eliza Ann
DeCamp, of Minnesota: Mrs. May Pontious who keeps house
for her father and has five children, Nina, Hazel,
Edith, Lillian and Gerald.
Mr. Friesner was voting the
Democratic ticket several years before the Republican
party was organized. When Abraham Lincoln came out in
opposition to slavery, in 1860, he voted for him and has
voted for every Republican candidate for President from
that time down to 1912. He has always taken an active
interest in politics, but has never been an aspirant for
any public office. Mr. Friesner is now eighty-four years
of age, still hale and hearty and enjoying life. His
life has indeed been a long and useful one and he can
look back over it and feel that the world has been the
better for his having lived in it. He has a host of
friends who admire him for his clean character, for his
wholesome life and for the good influence which he has
brought about him through his long life in this
county.
FRIESNER, WILLIAM LEWIS
-----Among the native sons of Sac county, who have spent
their entire lives within the limits of this county is
William Lewis Friesner whose many years of residence
here have but served to strengthen the feeling of
admiration on the part of his fellow men owing to the
honorable life he has led and the worthy example he has
set to the younger generation. He has ever enjoyed the
respect and esteem of those with whom he has associated
and no one stands higher in the admiration of his fellow
citizens than be whose life is here presented.
William Lewis Friesner. a farmer of
Coon Valley township was born February 26, 1870, in the
township where he has spent practically all of his life.
He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Friesner. After
receiving a good common school education in the school
of his neighborhood, he continued to reside with his
parents until his marriage, at the age of twenty-three
years, and since that time he has lived on part of the
old home farm which he received from his father, and,
with the exception of one year when he lived in Greene
county, this state, he has spent his entire life on the
same farm. He is a practical and methodical man in all
he does and his efforts have been rewarded by a fair
share of success. He knows no such thing as idleness and
has never slackened his efforts in order to maintain his
farm at the highest possible standard of cultivation and
agricultural excellence.
Mr. Friesner was married in 1893 to
Gertrude Richards, of Sac county, and to this union have
been born four children. Viva, Gladys, Ruby and Dorothy,
all of whom are under the parental roof.
Mr. Friesner has always identified himself with
the Republican party and, because of his recognized
ability, his party has called upon him to serve in
various official positions. He has been a school
director for ten years in his township, and is now
serving as trustee of Coon Valley township, filling the
latter position with eminent satisfaction to his fellow
citizens, irrespective of party affiliations, because he
takes an active interest in all of the duties which is a
part of this important office. In his religious
relations he and his family are all loyal members of the
Methodist Episcopal church.
Fraternally, he is a member of the
Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen
of America. His actions have always been the result of
careful and conscientious thought and in all the
relations of life he has done his full duty. He is
active in social life and as a citizen and neighbor he
discharges his duty in a manner becoming an intelligent
American citizen, and has earned and retains the good
will and regard of all who know him.
 FUCHS, JOHN
----Upon a county official rests a certain amount of
responsibility which he assumes when he is ushered into
one of the highest local offices within the gift of his
friends and fellow citizens. The people usually weigh
carefully the qualifications of the candidates for
political preferment for important office.
Upon the county supervisor devolves the business
management of the county affairs.
Naturally, the duties of the position require the
energies of a very capable man. Sac county has such a
man as a member of the county board of supervisors in
John Fuchs, of Odebolt who is likewise one of the most
successful agriculturists in the county.
John Fuchs was born February 3,
1858, in Germany, the son of Henry and Martha Fuchs, who
emigrated to America in 1867 and settled in Lee county,
Illinois, locating at Lee Center. In 1879 the family
moved to Dallas county, Iowa, where the father died in
the winter of 1905. The mother died in 1904. They were
the parents of six children, namely: George, living in
Early; Hattie Ebner, living in Perry, Iowa; John, Mrs.
Lizzie Frohm, deceased; Charles, of Laurens, Iowa; W.
A., of Bedford, Iowa.
John Fuchs was reared and educated
in Lee county, Illinois, where he resided until 1877,
when he came to Sac county. For the first two years he
worked on farms at a wage of twenty dollars per month.
In 1879 he rented land and began farming on his own
account. He had made his first purchase of land before
marriage in Richland township, where he bought eighty
acres of land at a purchase price of seven dollars an
acre, but sold the same six months later for twelve
dollars an acre. He then bought one hundred and sixty
acres in Clinton township, on which he resided until
1912. He removed to Odebolt in that year where he has a
very fine residence. He has a large farm of six hundred
and eighty acres, well improved with fine buildings and
grounds. He has long been an extensive livestock
producer, his large farm producing great numbers of
marketable cattle. Mr. Fuchs has been
twice married: his first wife was Katharine Reinhart,
who died in 1901, and was the mother of six children,
namely: Mrs. Lenore C. Hein, of
Sac City; Ozro C, a farmer in Clinton township, who is a
graduate of Ames College; Mrs. Lucillia Mehlebrech; Iva
B., a graduate of the domestic science department of
Ames College in 1913 and is now the head of the
department of domestic science in the Grand View Normal
College, Tennessee ; Warren, a graduate of the Ames
Agricultural College ; Vern a student at Ames. Mr.
Fuchs' second marriage occurred in 1907 with Lizzie
Pfeiffer who has borne him four children, as follows:
Rufus John, Wayne, Martha and Amber.
O. C. Fuchs, who is managing his
father's large farm in Clinton township, was born March
2, 1884. in Clinton township on the farm where he now
lives. He was educated in the district schools and
Morningside College, where he pursued the preparatory
and business courses. He completed the course in animal
husbandry at Ames College in 1909. After graduation he
took up the occupation of farming and stock raising. He
disposes of over fifty head of cattle annually and over
twenty-five head of swine. He keeps a good grade of
Angus cattle and specializes in Berkshire hogs. O. C.
Fuchs is the owner of two hundred and sixty acres of
land located south of the home farm in Clinton township.
He is a Republican in politics and a member of the
German Reformed church. He is affiliated with the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
Mrs. Elizabeth (Lizzie)
Fuchs
John Fuchs, with whom this
narrative is directly concerned, has long been
identified prominently with the Democratic party in Sac
county and has been high in the councils of his party.
He was elected county supervisor in the spring of 1910
and took up the duties of his office in January of 1911.
It can be said of him that he is an excellent and
conscientious public official. He has been re-nominated
to this office, without opposition, in 1914. He is a
member and a ruling elder of the Odebolt Presbyterian
church. His lodge connections are with the Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons, chapter and commandery, and the
Mystic Shriners of Sioux City and the Knights of Pythias
and the Modern Woodmen. Mr. Fuchs is easily
recognized as one of the leading and enterprising
citizens of Sac county and is a representative of the
large German class who have settled in the county and
taken a high place among the citizenship of many
neighborhoods. He is dignified, intelligent, progressive
and lends his assistance to all matters of merit which
have a tendency to promote the general welfare of the
people of his community and county. No man is more fully
entitled to representation in this history of Sac county
than Mr. Fuchs.
FULLER, ERNEST C.
------Prominent in the affairs of Sac county and
distinguished as a citizen whose influence is far
extended beyond the limits of the community honored by
his residence, the name of E. C. Fuller stands out a
conspicuous figure among the successful men of the
locality of which this history treats.
All of his undertakings have been actuated
by noble motives and high resolves and characterized by
breadth of wisdom and strong individuality and his
success and achievements but represent the result of fit
utilization of innate talent in directing effort along
those lines where mature judgment and rare
discrimination lead the way. He has been identified in a
business way with various local enterprises, in all of
which he has been uniformly successful.
E. C. Fuller, county supervisor
from the first district, and substantial businessman of
Early, Iowa, was born August 4, 1855, at LaSalle,
LaSalle county, Illinois, the son of S. K. and Mary Ann
(Swartauf) Fuller, both natives of the state of New
York, the father born in December, 1826, in Orleans
county, that state, and died at Early, Iowa, in
September 1911, and the mother, also deceased, born in
Niagara county, New York. S. K. Fuller located at
LaSalle, Illinois, at a very early day, and in
September, 1855, migrated to Poweshiek county, Iowa,
locating in the town of Grinnell when that now
prosperous little city was first founded. He came to Sac
county about 1878 and for two years lived on a farm. He
removed to Early when the town was started, and here
established the Bank of Early, a private bank, and in
1890 he organized the State Bank of Early. He thus
became one of the pioneer bankers of this locality. The
success of this bank was largely due to his earnest and
able efforts, for he was a farseeing businessman of
unimpeachable honesty and high integrity. Six children were born
of the marriage of S. K. and Mary Ann (Swartauf) Fuller:
Two children died in infancy; E. M. Fuller lives at Long
Branch, California; E. C. Fuller, the immediate subject
of this sketch, was the fourth in order of birth; Mrs.
Helen G. Wood died in April, 1912;
S. C. Fuller died at Imperial,
California, in November, 1913. E. C. Fuller came to
Sac county, Iowa, May 30, 1875, and located on section 7
in Boyer Valley township, where he bought two hundred
and ten acres of land at fifteen dollars per acre. He
later purchased two hundred and forty acres more at a
cost of twelve dollars and fifty cents per acre. He purchased
additional land from time to time until his holdings
included over four hundred and fifty acres in one tract,
two hundred and ninety-two acres in Boyer \'alley
township and one hundred and sixty acres in Cook
township. He still retains the first farm he purchased,
and is the owner of two other fine farms. He has one
hundred and sixty acres in South Dakota and three
hundred and eighteen acres near Spirit Lake, Dickinson
county, Iowa.
Mr. Fuller lived on the farm until
1888, when he removed to Early, Iowa. For a period of
twenty years or more he dealt extensively in livestock.
For five years he conducted a meat market. He also owned
a drug store for two years and a livery barn for three
years, selling the latter only recently. He has a
beautiful home in Early, which he purchased in 1903, and
which he entirely remodeled into one of the finest and
most modern residences of the community.
Mr. Fuller is vice-president and a
director of the State Bank of Early and has been
connected with this popular institution since its
organization. He is a man whose
judgment on important business matters is valued highly.
Politically, he is a Republican and has taken a more or
less active interest in the political affairs of his
county. He served two years in the city council and nine
years as a member of the school board of Early, as well
as holding all the township offices. In 1906 he was
elected supervisor from the first district and
re-elected in 1912, and it is universally conceded that
his official record is without blemish.
Mr. Fuller was married December 24,
1883. to Ida May Spalding, daughter of Calvin Spalding,
of Early, and they have one son, Ivan L., who has been a
student at Ames, Iowa, and at Morningside College at
Sioux City, Iowa.
Fraternally, Mr. Fuller holds
membership with the Masons and the Odd Fellows, having
attained to the thirty-second degree in Masonry and
being a member of Abu Beke Temple, Mystic Shrine, at
Sioux City, Iowa. He is a member of the
Methodist church. Progressive and public-spirited as a
citizen, Mr. Fuller has shown a commendable interest in
local affairs and lends his support readily to every
enterprise having for its object the advancement of the
community. Personally, he is most genial and
companionable, and his popularity is
universal.
 FULLER, ZACHARY
-----Life holds
possibilities for all of us. We come into the world with
our pathway before us. It is strewn with obstacles which
are ofttimes difficult to overcome but the very nature
of which in the necessary efforts of will and
expenditure of energy, enable us to properly develop the
mental efficiency and capabilities destined to enable
the individual to gain a measure of success.
Some individuals rely to a certain extent upon
the fickle fortunes of destiny; others are inspired by
the lessons handed down by ancestral heredity; some are
tossed about upon the waves of commotion without
attaining a definite course; many are inspired with a
desire to devote their lives for the benefit of their
fellowmen. Ambition is the notable spur which drives men
forward to the attainment of a certain well-defined
goal. When ambition is combined with positive genius and
power of brain success is certain, and comes to him who
patiently exercises the God-lent gifts which are his by
right of birth and endowment. Since the time of the
first Great Healer the history of the medical fraternity
has abounded with tales of the deeds of self-sacrificing
individuals who have given their lives for the
alleviation of suffering. In these days of commercial
exploitation and the pursuit of wealth, it is a
gratification to the historian to be permitted to write
concerning an eminent professional gentleman who has
risen from a modest beginning to one of the leaders of a
profession noted for its learned, scholarly and
self-effacing members. The biographer of this volume is
pleased to chronicle briefly and concisely this tribute
to Dr. Z. Fuller, one of the leaders of the medical
fraternity of Sac City and county.
Doctor Fuller was born May 22,
1853, in the town of Crown Point, Indiana. He is the son
of Aaron Fuller, a native of Ohio, who was born in
Vinton county, of the old Buckeye state, the son of
James Fuller, a direct descendant of an old New England
family, and whose forbears crossed the ocean with the
first brave group of pilgrims in the "Mayflower." James
Fuller was a native of Maine. He began his migration to
Ohio when a young man, but was deterred in the city of
Boston for a period of two years on account of Indian
troubles to the westward. He finally settled in Ohio,
but in 1833 moved to the Hoosier state, and located in
Lake county. Aaron was twenty years of age at this time
the elder Fuller purchased a large tract of land in Lake
county. The family resided in Indiana until the spring
of 1865. During- the Civil War
it was necessary for Aaron to remain at home and care
for an invalid wife, but four brothers served faithfully
during the war in the service of the Union. Aaron was
married in Lake county to Melvina Sprague, a native of
Canada, and who later resided in Vermont and New
Hampshire with her parents and afterwards accompanied
her father and mother to their new home at Crown Point.
In the spring of 1865 Aaron Fuller located permanently
in Buchanan county, Iowa, and engaged in the retail
merchandise and hotel business. In 1868 he traded his
town property for a fine farm in Delaware county and
moved thereon.
He became the owner of two farms,
one of which he traded for a stock of goods and a
residence property in the town of Sand Spring, and there
removed his family. He engaged in merchandising and the
buying and shipping of livestock and grains. He had
previously had considerable experience in the handling
of horses, having been in the employ of the United
States government during the Civil War in the capacity
of horse buyer. He would buy up horses suitable for the
use of the army and ship them to Chicago. In 1873 the
notable panic which swept over the. country caused his
failure in business. After securing all
that he possibly could from the wreck of his fortunes he
moved to Texas and spent his remaining days in Texas and
Louisiana, finally dying in the city of Shreveport in
1911, at the great age of ninety years.
During his residence in the Southland he became
the owner of an immense cotton plantation in the state
of Texas. Aaron Fuller was thrice married.
By his first wife, he was the father of two
children, a son and daughter, both of whom are deceased.
There were three children by his second marriage, two of
whom died in infancy, and he of whom this narrative
reads is the only survivor. Four children were born as a
result of his third marriage, only two of whom are yet
living, namely: Stephen Fuller, a resident of Texas;
Francis, who lives at Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Dr. Z. Fuller was reared on a farm
and grew to sturdy manhood with a knowledge of the
rudiments of agriculture, but while yet young in years
he decided to adopt one of the learned professions as
his life work. He had the advantages of a good village
school as well as fairly good district schools in
securing his initiatory education. He entered the
University of Iowa and studied medicine and literature,
graduating therefrom in the spring of 1876.
He first practiced at Masonville, in the western
part of Delaware county, for six months and then located
in Sac City, in the fall of the same year. He remained
here until November of 1879, when, by reason of failing
health, he removed to the mountain regions of Colorado.
He spent fifteen years in the Mountain state, the first
five years of which were devoted to the practice of his
profession in the mining camps of the Gunnison river
country. He then practiced for ten years in the city of
Denver. The panic of 1892 and 1893 hit the city of
Denver very hard and the Doctor deemed it expedient to
return to the scene of his first successes. He came
again to Sac City and here has remained. He enjoys the
distinction of being the oldest practicing physician in
point of years of service within the confines of the
county.
To Doctor Fuller we are greatly
indebted for the excellent medical chapter which is one
of the important divisions of the History of Sac County.
He is a member of the Sac County Medical Society, the
Iowa State Medical Society, and the American Medical
Association. In 1878 he received appointment of United
States examining surgeon for pensions, being the first
appointee in this county. In the year 1879 he was
elected coroner of the county, but did not remain to
serve out his term. Doctor Fuller has ever striven to
advance himself in the profession, as his high standing
among the medical fraternity will attest. During his
residence in Colorado he was local surgeon of the Denver
& Rio Grande Railroad Company at Creston Butte,
Colorado. He took postgraduate work in the county
hospital of Denver and also pursued a postgraduate
course in Rush Medical College of Chicago, and in 1909
studied in the Post-Graduate Hospital in New York City.
In recognition of his attainments and ability he was
recently appointed state lecturer on tuberculosis, its
prevention and cure, by the state board of health. His
writings and lectures on this subject have since been
widely quoted and read. He is local surgeon of the
Chicago & Northwestern railway. Doctor Fuller is a
member of the Christian church of Sac City, and is a
fraternal brother of Modern Woodmen of America and the
Woodmen of the World.
He has been twice married.
In the fall of 1874 he took to wife Ellen Estella
Cummings, the daughter of his old preceptor, Doctor
Cummings, of Sand Spring. She died in the mountains of
Colorado in the spring of 1882, in the mining town of
Creston Butte, leaving three sons, namely: Elmer Dean
Fuller, a practicing attorney of Mexico City, Mexico;
Garth Cummings Fuller, a real estate dealer of Tampico,
Mexico, and Nathaniel Hayes Fuller, of Mexico City, a
practicing attorney allied with his older brother in the
profession. In the fall of i8go Doctor Fuller was united
in marriage with Miss Nellie Tuggy at Loveland,
Colorado. To them have been born two children: Mary
Elizabeth Fuller, a student in the Carnegie Training
School for Librarians at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in
which school Miss Fuller is specializing on children's
library work; Bayard Craig Fuller, who is attending the
local high school.
FYFE, MORRIS M. -----There is
something about the life story of a pioneer settler in
this western section of our great country that
especially appeals to the imagination and which we are
prone to look upon from a romantic standpoint. For such
it was. They came in the age of romance, when the
prairie was as yet unconquered and wilderness reigned
supreme, waiting for the labors of man to cause the rich
earth to yield forth the sustenance for the support of
the ever-increasing multitudes of the nation. The
pioneers came, they saw. they remained and conquered,
and those who were strong enough to stay and fight the
battle through the first lean years and endure the
hardships of a life out on the great prairie, prospered
exceedingly and their acres are now numbered in the
hundreds.
Prominent among the sturdy pioneers
who built up a section of the great state of Iowa and
caused it to blossom as a garden, was Morris M. Fyfe,
late of Douglas township, Sac county. Mr. Fyfe was one
of the early homesteaders in Douglas township, coming
here from Wisconsin with his young wife when there were
but few settlers in the county and residing here for a
long period of years until his death, August 20, 1913.
He was one of the Almighty's best creations and was
universally respected and admired for his many sterling
qualities and departed this life sincerely mourned by
the hundreds who knew him but to love him.
M. M. Fyfe was born in Orleans
county, New York, September 27, 1834, and was the son of
James Fyfe, a native of Vermont, and grandson of John
Fyfe, a native of Scotland and a Revolutionary soldier.
The mother of M. M Fyfe was Electra Sanford, a daughter
of Reuben Sanford at Vermont.
James Fyfe and his wife removed to Sheboygan
county, Wisconsin, where the wife died at the age of
fifty years and the father died in 1863, at the age of
sixty-nine. Here it was that M. M. Fyfe was reared and
educated in the primitive schools of this wilderness
country. He spent three or more winters in the great
woods of Wisconsin engaged in timbering and
lumbering.
At the outbreak of the Civil War,
Mr. Fyfe enlisted, in 1861, in the Fourth Wisconsin
Infantry and was later transferred to the cavalry. His
command formed a part of the Department of the Gulf, and
the soldier participated in the battles around Baton
Rouge and the capture of Port Hudson.
He was wounded at Clinton, Louisiana, receiving a
ball in the breast, which passed entirely through his
body and emerged from the back. He was taken to the
hospital and was discharged at Madison, Wisconsin, July
28, 1864.
Immediately after his discharge Mr.
Fyfe began to work in Wisconsin in order to get enough
money to pay for transportation to the West, where he
intended to find a home. He was married in the spring of
1866 and set out for the land of his desire and settled
in Douglas township. Sac county, where he and his young
wife located on a homestead. Their first home was a
small affair, twelve by twenty feet in dimension. They
set out fine groves of trees which are now monarchs in
size. A fine orchard was soon growing on the place and
later large and commodious barns housed his grain and
livestock. Near their place was situated Lake Rush,
which at that time was the habitude of ducks and fish,
which furnished the settlers with plenty of game food.
This lake has since been drained, as have been
practically all the lakes and sloughs which formerly
covered the fertile area of Douglas township to a
considerable extent. The Fyfe's kept a considerable
dairy and Mr. Fyfe was one of the earliest fine stock
breeders of Sac county. For many years he was a
well-known breeder of Polled Angus cattle and had a fine
herd. Mr. Fyfe was a man of tireless industry and.
assisted by his faithful and noble helpmeet, he became
the owner of a considerable estate of five hundred acres
of fine land.
Mr. Fyfe was married on March 4,
1866, to Elizabeth Seekins, who was born on March 25,
1848, in Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, and is the
daughter of William E. and Lydia E. (Knapp) Seekins.
natives of New York state. The mother of Mrs. Fyfe died
in Sac county in 1869. Mr. and Mrs.
M. M. Fyfe were the parents of a large family of
children: Mrs. Jennie Horine of North Dakota: Franklin
M., of Sac county, and who is tilling a farm of one
hundred and sixty acres in Douglas township ; Mrs. Celia
E. Hunter, of Douglas township: William A., of Buena
Vista county, Iowa: James Dennis, who is now living on
the old home farm ; Emma Dell and Mary A., deceased.
M. M. Fyfe passed away August 20,
1913. He was a life-long Republican in his political
convictions, but was so busy with his personal affairs
and the management of his large farm that he never
sought political preferment outside of accepting some
local township office. He took a prominent part in the
organization of Douglas township and held the honorable
post of justice of the peace and served as township
trustee for a number of years. He was a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic, Post No. 416. His loss was
felt by the members of his family and his many friends,
and his demise marked the passing of one of the sturdy
and familiar figures of the pioneer days of Sac
county.
Frank M. Fyfe, a son of M. M. Fyfe,
was born October 30. 1872, in Sac county. He was married
January 28, 1901, to Sarah Wallace, daughter of John and
Louisa Wallace. They have three daughters, Opal Alice,
Fern May and Peryl Lucille.
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