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GEORGE W. SMITH

Few farmers in the locatily of which this history treats seem to understand better the way in which to manage Iowa soil in order to get the largest returns from it than George W. Smith, of Tipton township, a man who has

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succeeded because he has given his exclusive attention to his individual affairs, studied carefully the relation of soil to crops, climate and all the phases relative to improved farming.

Mr. Smith was born in Coshocont county, Ohio, on February 14, 1854. He is the son of Christopher and Harriet (Sheldon) Smith, the father a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio, the former growing up in his native state, coming to Ohio when young and marrying there. They came to Hardin county, Iowa, in 1856 and settled in Pleasant township, north of Lawn Hill, and later moved to section 1, Tipton township, where they lived eighteen years. They then moved to Franklin county and remained there two years ant here they both died. They were member of the Baptist church, and politically he was a Democrat and always a farmer. Their family consisted of fourtene children, namely: Margaret, wife of Henry Danger, lives in Pleasant township; Squire J. is deceased; John is living in this state; Thomas lives at Phillips, South Dakota; Cloe lives at Iowa Falls, Iowa; Mary P. lives at Waterloo, Iowa; Jennie is deceased; George W., of this review; Sarah is deceased; Fannie is living at Cannon Ball, South Dakota; Emma lives in Kansas; Nettlie lives in Bismarck, North Dakota; Clark is deceased, Joseph C. lives at Crystal Lake, Iowa.

George W. Smith received a limited education in the public schools, and he started to work out at the age of fourteen. Thus he worked by the month unitl he was twenty-seven years of age. He farmed the home place one year and rented land and thereby got a start. He was first married in March, 1881, to Mary Swark, a native of Germany. She died in 1884, leaving one son, Charlie, who is now farming at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1885 Mr. Smith married Martha Jones, who was born in Tipton township, this county, the daughter of Emalous and Charlotte Jones, of Colon, Michigan, who came to Hardin county, Iowa in 1856, and located on government land; he died on his farm here, but his widow is still living on the old place.

Ten children were born to Mr. Smith and his second wife, namely: Andrew J. is farming at Crystal Lake, Iowa; Frank J., Joe C., George W., Jr., Fannie, Leo, Daisy, Walter; Mary died October 12, 1896, and Bessie.

After his marriage Mr. Smith settled in Tipton township and bought one hundred and twenty acres of land in section 29 and 30, remaining there three years, then he lived at differenct places until 1886, when he bought where he now lives in section 19, Tipton township. He has two hundred and forty acres in the home place, also one hundred and fifty-three acres in antoher part of this township, and one hundred and twenty acres east of the home place. He has some of the choicest land of Hardin county, and he keep is well im

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proved and in first-class condition and carefully tilled. He has a beautiful home, modern and well furnished and many substantial outbuildings and farming machinery of latest designs. In connection with general farming, he raises Durham cattle and does quite a dairy business. He feeds a great many cattle and also raises Poland-China hogs, draft horses, and owning to the high grade stock he handles they always bring fancy prices. He is regarded as one of the best judges of live stock in the county. Everything about his place denotes thirft good management and industry. He is held in high esteem by all who know him, being honorable in all life’s relations. Mr. Smith is a Republican.

Page 589

GEORGE W. SHELDON

A man who possessed the respect and good will of all who knew him and was classed with the representative men of Hardin county, was the late George W. Sheldon, a man whom to know was to admire, for he led a most exemplary life and sought to do his full duty in all relations with his fellow men, being a man of honor, public spirit, charitable impulses and unswerving intergrity and enterprise, consequently he is eminently deserving of conspiculous mention in a history of his county along with other well known and worthy pioneers who did so much for the general upbuilding of the same.

Mr. Sheldon was born in Holmes county, Ohio, June 16, 1834, and he was the son of Thomas Sheldon and wife, a complete sketch of whom is to be found under the caption of T. J. Sheldon, appearing on another page of this work.

The subject attended the public schools in Ohio and he assisted with the general work about the home place until he was married, on November 4, 1854, to Aleva Sevilla Lohr, who was born in Holmes county, Ohio, June 30,

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1834, the daughter of Henry and Eliza (Porter) Lohr, of the county mentioned above. Mr. Lohr was a tinner by trade and he spent his life in Ohio. He was twice married, his last wife being Rebecca Richardson, also of Holmes county, Ohio.

The following children constitute the family of the subject, two of whom are of the first union; Melissa A. married Walter Race, of Eldora township, this county; William H., who is farming in South Dakota, married Ada Bigelow; Loretta J. married Jerry Hayden, of Jackson township, this county; Aleva Catherinedied young; George D. is a merchant at Ratcliffe, Iowa; Leonard Lee is farming near Trenton, Nebraska; Ida May married Ralph Glidden, and they live near Ratfliffe, Iowa; John L. is farming in Hardin county, Iowa; Thomas L. is also farming in this county; Bertha Belle is at home.

Page 635

THOMAS JEFFERSON SHELDON

The subject of this review, a prominent and well-known early settler of Hardin county, now living in Edlora, was born in Licking county, Ohio, near Zanesville, August 31, 1828. His ancestors were pioneers in that country. His parents were Thomas J. and Huldah (Thorpe) Sheldon, both natives of New Jersey, where they were married. They settled in Ohio before the war of 1812, and the father entered the service from that state. They cleared up a timber farm in the wilderness. About 1831 they moved to Holmes county and opened up another timber farm and lived on it about eighteen years. In 1849 Thomas J., of this sketch, came to Iowa, traveling the entire distance across the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on foot, and arrived at the home of a married sister in Louisa county, Iowa. In the spring of 1850 five men started from this sister’s home for California, by the “overland route,” with an ox team and one cow. The entire summer was spent in corssing the plains, and the caravan arrived at Placerville, California, in the fall. Of course it is understood that the subject of this article was one of the five men in the

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party. He had but fifty cents in money, a meal cost a dollar, and there was no “trust”! But a sequel to this deilemma resulted from one of the party picking up an old broken-down horse abandoned to die and trading him for a set of mining tools. He and Sheldon went to the then new “diggin’s” on Weaver creek, and in time relieved their pressing needs. After working two weeks, and demonstrating that there was gold in sight, they hired out for five dollars a day, boarded themselves and slept in an old wagon box. Finally they built a cabin, but an extremely dry winter was upon them and they were unable to accomplish much in the way of separating the gold from the refuse material with which it was mixed. Meeting an old schoolmate from Ohio, Mr. Sheldon was urged to join him for a trip to the Feather river country. At Sacramento they purchased two mules and loaded them with supplies and provisions, and spent a year mining on Feather river. They were well-equipped and lived well, having a tent for their home. They found an abandoned “diggin’s” from which they took out one hundred and twenty-five dollars in a day, and many other days were nearly as profitable. But they tired of the rough life and isolation from friends, and at the end of a year returned to Ohio. Mr. Sheldon took about four thousand dollars home with him. But the spirit of adventure, combined with the “gold fever,” was upon him, and after spending a few months at home, he again (in 1852) fitted out at St. Louis for another trip across the plains. There were four “Buckeyes” in his party. They went direct to the American river county, where the party took out five hundred dollars in a single day. They remained there a year, when they returned to Ohio, via the Nicarauga route, but returned again to the mining regions by way of the Panama route. The final return to the East was made in 1854, and the beautiful prairie country of Iowa was explored on the return. Mr. Sheldon came to Hardin county in November, 1854, his sister having remained here during all the family exploits in the mining country of the far West. He settled on the South Fork of the Iowa river, in Tipton township, but soon thereafter located at Point Pleasant, where he built a log house and put up a log store building, and opened the first store in the place. From the first Mr. Sheldon took an active part in the public affairs of the new county, and was one of the most aggressive workers in the county-seat contest of the late fifties. The question was decided in favor of his town, Point Pleasant, and he at once took active part in the building of a court house, and otherwise providing for the “guest” whose prospective coming had cost him so much time and effort. But when it was sought to remove the records and other county property from Eldora to Point Pleasant, an injunction was filed which brought

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the matter into the courts, and Eldora still held the prize! Mr. Sheldon succeeded in selling out his stock of merchandise to advantage, and he engaged in farming his lands near the village of Point Pleasant, where he had entered eight hundred acres. This he divided into three farms, and considered himself “land poor” for many years. Finally he was able to make a few trades which brought him some ready cash, and this he used in stocking the balance of his land. He was one of the early stock farmers in that locality. In this business he was prosperous, and as a stock raiser, buyer and shipper, a business which he followed for more than thirty years, he became wealthy. His princpial business during these years consisted of rearing, fattening and shipping cattle and hogs, the grain from this purpose being raised on his own farms. But he also carried on an extensive business as a buyer and shipper of live stock. He retired from farm life in 1890, and took up his home in Eldora, where he still lives, and owns a good farm nearby. Up to the time of locating in Iowa Mr. Sheldon was unmarried, his sister being his housekeeper for a time after locating in the Hawkeye state. He wrote a letter to his “girl” in Knox county, Ohio, and asked her if she “would like to come to Iowa and keep his house and live with him!” The reply soon came, in which she stated that she would have to see him again before deciding such a momentous question! (Sensible girl!) He adjusted his affairs and left for the old home countyr, where he married Henreitta Majors, thus closing the “contract” which neither party has ever had occasion to regret having made! Nine children, who are now living, were born to this union, all being married and happily engaged in life’s struggles on their own account. These are Isabella, who is the wife of John Lynn, of Thompson, Winnebago county, Iowa; Huldah R., who became the wife of Daniel Blair, of Hubbard, Iowa; Malinda A., wife of Frank I. Stowe, of Winnebago County’ Evans Hayden Sheldon, a retired farmer living in Eldora; Thomas C., engaged in operating the paternal farm in Eldora township; William C., a farmer at Iowa Falls; Viola, wife of Lem. Harris, cashier of the Citizens Bank, Eldora; Frank, a farmer in Jackson township, near Eldora, and John P., who owns the old home farm near Point Pleasant.

Mr. Sheldon has been an active Democrat in political affiliations and now stands with the “progressives” on questions of internal politics. Throughout his extensive business and political career he has come in contact with the people in every sphere of human effort. He is a reader of men, as well as of current literature, and is thoroughly well informed. He has served as a member of the county board of supervisors, as justice of the peace, etc., and is the present Democratic candidate for the office of county treasurer. In

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point of religious affilicatoins, Mr. Sheldon has been a member of the Baptist church for thirty-five years. The “would-be” court house at Point Pleasant was merged into a house of worship, and in this building, erected for an entirely different purpose, several early church organizations held their services.