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BIRD LEFFLER.

Hard and laborious work was the lot of Bird Leffler during his youth and early manhood, but his fidelity to duty has won for him the respect and confidence of those with whom he has been thrown in contact, and by patient continuance in well-doing, he has gradually risen from a humble station to his present standing as a progressive young farmer of Audubon county. He has worked his way from a modest beginning to a position of considerable prominence by efforts which have been practically unaided; a fact which renders him the more worthy of praise, and this is freely accorded him by his fellow citizens.

Bird Leffler was born on January 3, 1880, at old Hamlin, this county, a son of George and Josephine (Wilson) Leffler, the former of whom was born on October 18, 1847, in Pennsylvania, a son of John and Barbara (Weaver) Leffler, also natives of Pennsylvania, of Dutch and English descent, respectively, who, in 1851, migrated from Pennsylvania to Jefferson county, Iowa, settling first at Fairfield, where they remained for four years, or until 1855, when they removed to Decatur county, Iowa, and made that their permanent home, spending the rest of their lives there.

George Leffler was married on March 25, 1877, to Josephine Wilson, of Decatur county, Iowa, who was born on February 10, 1860, in Mahaska county, Iowa, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Richards) Wilson, natives of Ohio and early settlers in Mahaska county. In 1880 the Lefflers came to Audubon county and settled at old Hamlin, where they lived for a time, and then moved to a farm in Leroy township. Mr. Leffler now resides in Audubon. He and his wife were the parents of but two children, Bird, the subject of this sketch, and Mrs. Barbara A. White, who lives in Melville township.

Bird Leffler was educated in the district schools of Audubon county, and has been farming for himself since 1901. He first rented a farm one and one-half miles west of his present farm, but in 1910 he moved to a farm one and one-half miles west, where he lived for a short time, after which he moved to his present farm. Mr. Leffler owns one hundred and twenty acres, and is farming two hundred and forty acres. He purchased forty acres in September, 1907, and eighty acres on February 3, 1911, both tracts located in section 31, of Melville township.

On February 24, 1904, Bird Leffler was married to Anna Sunberg, who was born on August 3, 1882, daughter of Henry Sunberg, whose biographical sketch, found elsewhere in this volume, gives the history of the Sunberg family, and to this union two children have been born, Dessa Fay, born on October 24, 1910, and Gladys May, May 12, 1905.

Mr. Leffler is a Republican, but he has never been active in politics, and has never held public office nor cared to do so. He has devoted his time and attention to his family and to the cultivation of his farm, and in this respect has contributed materially to the progress and prosperity of Audubon county. He is well worthy of representation in the annals of his county, and is held in high regard by all who know him.



Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 556-557.