Elias Tierghien

     Elias Tiberghien, pioneer farmer of Sac City was born in LaPort County, Indiana 24 July 1851, the son of Elias and Harriet Meville (Harrison) Tiberghien, the former of Ohio and the latter of Kentucky.  Tllias T. was the son of Zacheus Tiberghien of supposedly French descent, who moved from Ohio to Indiana where Elias and Harriet were married.  Elias migrated to Iowa in 1856 with eight children.  The long trip was mad across country with ox team.  Ten yoke of oxen hauled the wagons, with five families.  They also had one span of mules, owned by Mr. Rose.  It required the ten yoke of oxen to pull the wagons through the Iowa sloughs.   The Tiberghien settled near Cory's Grove, two miles south, in Jackson township, where they lived until about 1876, when the old people moved on their son's place near Sac city.  Elias was born in Miami county, Ohio 7 September 1810 and died 19 December 1883.  His wife Harriet Melville Harrison was born in Shelby County, Kentucky 18 August 1815, and died 10 August 1895.

C. W. Sutton

     He was a prominent and influential citizen of Odebolt, Ia., and a member of the firm, C. W. Sutton & Son, hardware merchants. This business was established in the city, June 1873, in a small store. When they began business, the stock was very small, but then they carried a very large assortment of goods in their line, consisting of hardware, stoves, tin ware, pumps, oils, a full line of farming implements, Cooper and Old's wagons; wagons from D. M. Secler of Moline Buggy Co. Works, and the Hadock Buggy Works of Cincinnati, Ohio.
     In 1892, the firm erected a fine two-story implement building, 100 x 26 ft., which is one of the finest in the county. Under this is a basement. The building was built for buggies, implements, hardware, and cutlery, and a room in the rear accommodates the tin shop. Another room, 26 x 70 feet, contains the paints, oils, pumps, etc. The stock is valued from $12,000 to $15,000.
     C. W. Sutton, the senior member of this firm, was born in Wayne County, New York, July 17, 1835, son of Charles C. H. and Rosella (Bishop) Sutton, natives of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, although of English extraction. Our subject was reared in his native state, and educated at the high school of his native place. At the age of twenty, he came West to Iowa, locating in James County, where he engaged in farming for several years, when in 1875 he engaged in the hardware business which he pursued until coming to Odebolt in 1879 and established the above mentioned firm.
     Mr. Sutton was married, in 1858, to Miss Fannie Hause, who died in 1868, after bearing her husband four children, namely: George, member of the firm of Sutton & Son; Rosella, wife of Allen Duke of James County, Iowa; Florence, wife of West McDaniel of James County, Iowa; and Edith, wife of W. S. Faiker, of Iowa, a graduate of Barton Conservatory of Music. Mr. Sutton was married in Odebolt, in February, 1882, to Lucinda Taylor, and four children were born of this union, namely: Lulu, Nora, Charles, and Alice.
     Mr. Sutton held the office of Justice of the Peace for several years. He held the position of Mayor of the city of Odebolt, and was a member of the School Board.

Orlin Haradon

     Orlin is one of the oldest settlers of Boyer Valley Township, and one who took great interest in the development of the town of Early (Sac County, Iowa) and surrounding country. He was born in Rutland County, Vt., March 13, 1839, son of Eli and Maria (Perkins) Haradon, natives of Vermont.
     Orlin’s father was a farmer who emigrated in 1845 to DuPage County, Illinois, making the trip with teams, being 3 months on the road. After two years there, he moved on to Will County, Illinois, where he opened up a farm on Gov’t. land.
     There Orlin was reared and educated in a public school, together with a family of 5 children (3 boys and 2 girls): Eli, Jr., Frances, Angeline, Marvin, and Orlin. Eli, Jr. is the oldest; Frances, wife of Josiah Carpenter of Sumner, Bremer County, Iowa; Angeline died at age of 21; Marvin married and resided in Early, Ia.
     In 1853, Orlin married Parna Hart, a native of Branch Co., Michigan. In two short years, she died leaving a little girl only 9 months old, who died at 3 years. Now he moved on to Bremer Co. and married Mary Ann Hart, daughter of Jason & Clarissa (Nelson) Hart, natives of Pa., who moved to Branch Co., Mi., at an early day. Mary Ann was a younger sister of Parna Hart (the first wife) who were left orphans when but small children, Mary Ann a mere babe. Their only surviving brother, Wesley, enlisted in 1862, Co. K, 100th Reg., Illinois Infantry, for 3 years, or during the war. He died at Nashville, Tn., in January 1863 of measles.
     Mr. Haradon and wife settled on a farm in Bremer Co., Iowa, near Wilson’s Grove and commenced life in real earnest. The country was then almost a wilderness. The nearest town was West Union, 20 miles away, but an inland town with a post office.
     A yoke of oxen was his only team at that time, and at sunrise he might be seen well on the road crossing the prairie to West Union for a few groceries and to get his mail. There was not a house after leaving Wilson’s Grove until almost at the town. It was nothing unusual in the winter time for the snow to fall 3 to 4 feet deep on a level, making it impossible to drive a team across the prairies without a road when obliged to go to town. Mr. Haradon and one or two of the neighboring men would adjust their snow shoes and strike out for West Union, making the round trip during the day and bringing home on their backs whatever their purchases might be.
     Wheat was the main marketable crop at that time, and as soon as the wheat was threshed, the farmers would haul it to market. They would load their wagons with sacks of wheat, put a cover on the wagon, hitch on 2 or 3 yoke of oxen and drive to McGregor, a distance of 60 miles, camp out and cook their meals by the wayside. They would often make the round trip without spending a cent or stepping inside of a house, leaving home Monday morning and reaching home again Saturday night. Sometimes they would get as high as 50 cents a bushel for their wheat. Money was scarce and labor cheap; and Mr. Haradon thought himself in luck if he could get a job at chopping wood or splitting rails for 50 cents a day and take his pay in wheat or other farm produce.
     Mr. Haradon hauled most of the fencing for his farm from the Wapsy timber with oxen, a distance of 6 miles, eating a cold and often frozen lunch at noon, making one trip a day. It was nothing unusual in the Wapsy timber to see an Indian, with gun in hand, bounding past him on a fresh deer track, and quite often there would be a deer shot in Wilson’s Grove.
     In 1866, Orlin sold his farm in Bremer Co., and moved to Benton Co., Iowa, where he set up a blacksmith and wagon shop in the near town called Norway Station. He was in partnership with his brother, Eli, and successfully carried on for several years.
     In 1868, he was called home to Will Co., Illinois, to care for his sick father and old grandfather. His father was past 60 and his grandfather 97 years of age. They both died in 1869, the father only surviving the grandfather a few months.
     In the fall of 1871, Orlin rented the old homestead, having come into his possession at the death of his father, and moved to the then wild and uncultivated State of Kansas and took up a homestead of 160 acres of land in Cloud County. The same fall the prairie fire swept through, bringing desolation to the country and leaving many homeless, burning hay and whatever came in its way. At that time, Orlin and family were staying in a tent while their house was being built, and it was only by throwing wet quilts over the tent before the fire came up that the tent and goods were not burned. The family took refuge on a strip of breaking, expecting to see the tent and goods all burned. A box of goods setting by the tent door took fire, but the flames were soon extinguished.
     The deer and antelope were all around and the buffalo but a few miles away. The following summer the grasshoppers made a raid on the country and not a green thing was left, the grasshoppers forming a perfect carpet over the ground and every corn stalk bending with their weight. Then followed drought and hot winds, year after year, until discouraged and heart-sick, Mr. Haradon was glad to prove up on his claim, take a deed of it and leave bleeding Kansas for a more promising country.
     He then resolved to try Sac County, Iowa. In the fall of 1876 he came to Iowa and located in what was then the town of old Early, where (with his brother Eli), he again set up blacksmith and wagon-making. His nearest railroad point at that time was Storm Lake, on the Illinois Central, a distance of 18 miles. Sac City, the county seat, was then in its infancy and but an inland town.
     All coal, lumber, etc., had to be hauled from Storm Lake, and whatever produce the farmers had to dispose of was taken to Storm Lake across the prairie. The roads were unbridged and unworked. After leaving Early, Ia., a few miles, it was all a homestead country nearly to Storm Lake.
     Money was scarce and coal high, and many of the farmers burned corn instead of coal. The productions of the soil were wonderful, and the country settled up and improved rapidly. But the blizzards were terrible, there not being groves or even fences to break the winds.
     In 1878 the Maple Valley railroad, a branch of the Chicago and North Western, went through and the town of Odebolt was located, it being only 12 miles away. About that time Wall Lake was started and in 1881 another branch of the Chicago and North Western ran through Sac City, leaving old Early two and one-half miles. The new town was then located on the railroad 2 � miles north.
     He afterward bought what was then known as the Sanborn farm (having previously sold the old home in Illinois) one-half mile east of old Early, consisting of 120 acres. With his young son Vernon, then but 15 years of age, successfully carried on the farm and at the same time worked in the shop. He soon after traded the homestead in Kansas for an 80 acre farm, 3 miles south of old Early. In 1880 he bought the Cory homestead, joining old Early on the east, consisting of 80 acres. In 1881 when the new town of Early was located, Mr. Haradon sold his share of the shop to his brother Eli, who moved the shop to the new town. Orlin Haradon turned his attention to farming and stock raising. He was successful and prospered and built a fine frame house on the farm, 22 x 38 feet, two stories high, with a barn 30 x 40 feet. He bought the 40 acres that old Early stood on. The buildings of old Early had been moved to the new town of Early. He moved to new Early February 1892, in order to give his children better school privileges.
     They had 6 children living, two boys and four girls: Alta died when a baby, Vernon married and moved to Kansas, Alice (wife of Hugh Mead) moved to Boyer Valley Twp., Louella (wife of Will Simpson), Emory, Carrie, and Cora. Alice and Louella were successful teachers of the county for a number of years, the former of whom attended the State Normal at Cedar Falls.

 

J.M. Carter (Civil War Veteran)

J.M.Carter resided in Cedar Township, Section 20, Sac County. He was an ex-soldier of the Civil War. He enlisted in the 14th Infantry Volunteer Company F.  He saw much hard service and was at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Pleasant Hill.  At the latter place, he was wounded in the leg, and again under fire at Old Oaks, Louisiana and Yellow Bayou. He was taken prisoner at Shiloh and was in the following prisons; Memphis Ice House, Cahaba Warehouse, Mobile Cotton Sheds, and Macon, GA., Fairground. From there he went to Chattanooga, to Huntsville, to Nashville, and back to Cairo, Illinois, where he arrived July 2,1862.  On May 18,1864 he was wounded between the shoulders by a piece of shell, and was confined to the hospital in Jefferson Barracks for sometime.  He was honorably discharged at Keokuk, Iowa, and returned home in 1865 to Van Buren County, Iowa.  In 1883, he came to Sac County and bought a farm of 240 acres.

He was born in Cedar Township in Van Buren County, Iowa on September 4,1843, a son of Samuel Carter and Rebecca (Watson) Carter. Their children were; J.M., Elizabeth E., Robert, N.H., Nancy, Katie, J.H. and Annie M.

J.M. Carter was married at the age of 24 in Polk County, Iowa to Mary A. Cross. She was born in Delaware County, Ohio. Her parents were David H. Cross and Lydia Blaine. Their children were; Barbara, Emma J., Clinton M. and Homer C.  The subject of this biography was a member of the G.A.R., William T. Sherman Post 284.

 

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