Frank W. Ames
Frank W. Ames, carrying on general farming and stock-raising
on sixty acres of fine land in Franklin township, was born in
Cattaraugus county, New York, on the 23d of August, 1856. He is a
son of Alphonso and Matilda (Wheeler) Ames, the former born in
Gennesee county, New York, September 23, 1833, and the latter in
Erie county, that state, in April, 1837. In early life the father
worked as a river lumberman and, possessing great ability in the
handling and controlling of men, made a success of that
occupation. Later he used this ability as the manager of large
gangs of workmen engaged in railroad construction in
Pennsylvania. He afterward turned his attention to carpentering,
contracting and building, trades in which he had served an
apprenticeship, and in 1872 he came west to Iowa, intending to
make a permanent location in the southwestern part of the state,
However, he never carried out this plan, dying one month after
his arrival here. He had been twice married, his second wife
having been Mrs. Dorlesca (Hinman) Wilcox, widow of a veteran of
the Civil war. She also passed away. By that union were born two
children: Alphonso Ames had also two children by his first
marriage, the subject of this review being the elder and the only
one now living.
In the acquirement of an education Frank W. Ames attended school
in Cattaraugus county, New York, studying in the public schools
of Little Valley and afterward in those of Hardin, Allamakee
county, Iowa. He began his independent career at the early age of
fourteen years and working for some time as a farm laborer before
and after coming to Iowa. He was later engaged in railroad
constructions, but at the age of twenty-three rented land in
Floyd county, beginning the development of this property on the
1st of September, 1879. After three years he went to Monona
township, Clayton county, where he had previously purchased land,
and at the end of a similar period of time rented another farm in
the same township. Eventually he removed to Chickasaw county and
then to Oelwein, Fayette county, remaining in the latter locality
for three years. He afterward spent six years in Luana and then
bought the farm where he now lives. He cultivated it successfully
for two years and then returned to Luana where he remained for
six years, coming back to his farm at the end of that period.
Upon this place of sixty acres of highly cultivated land he
engages in general farming, success steadily rewarding his well
directed labors and practical methods. From 1904 to 1913 he
served as rural mail carrier and he is well known throughout this
section of Iowa, holding a high position among the respected and
able citizens.
On the 21st of June, 1879, Mr. Ames married Miss Allie Wilcox,
who was born in New York, August 14, 1858. She is a daughter of
Hiram and Dorlesca (Hinman) Wilcox the latter of whom became the
second wife of the father of our subject. Hiram Wilcox was a
native of Pennsylvania and at an early date came to Iowa,
settling near Monona, from which section he enlisted for service
in the Civil war, dying in an army hospital in the south. His
first service was in Minnesota, when, as a member of the
Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, he fought against the
hostile Indians. Mr. and Mrs. Ames have a daughter, Edna, who was
born June 25, 1880. She is now in the tenth consecutive year of
her service as a teacher in the public schools, having acted in
this capacity in Luana, in Guttenburg and in Hardin, where she is
now employed.
Mr. Ames gives his political allegiance to the republican party
and has rendered his township excellent service as constable and
as road supervisor. He devotes most of his attention, however, to
his farm, which he has made the equal of the finest in his part
of the county, its excellent condition gaining for him a high
place among progressive and able agriculturists.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich
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