N. D. CHADWICK

CHADWICK, VAN WORMER, JOHNSON, CLAYTON, VANDEVORT

Posted By: Norma Nielson (email)
Date: 5/15/2004 at 22:20:11

"N. D. Chadwick, an agriculturist residing on section 35, Summerset township, owns an excellent farm of eighty acres which he has operated continuously and successfully for the past third of a century. His birth occurred in New York on the 9th of June, 1846, his parents being Clark and Hester Ann (Van Wormer) Chadwick, who were likewise natives of the Empire state. They came west to Iowa in 1854, locating in the town of Big Rock, Scott county, where the father conducted a wagon-making shop until 1862. In that year he took up abode on a farm in Cedar county and there carried on agricultural pursuits until 1880, when he removed to Adair county, here spending the remainder of his life with his sons. His demise occurred in 1895, when he had attained the venerable age of eighty-eight years.

N. D. Chadwick attended the district schools in the acquirement of an education and spent the first twenty-five years of his life under the parental roof. In 1871 he started out as an agriculturist on his own account, purchasing a tract of fifty acres in Cedar county which he cultivated until 1879, when he came with the family to Adair county. Here he bought a quarter section of wild and unimproved land in Summerset township at seven and one-half dollars per acre, erected a small frame house thereon and began the development of his property. As the years have passed he has brought the place to a high state of cultivation and improvement and now owns a valuable and productive farm which yields him a gratifying annual income. He is a stockholder in the Greenfield Creamery Company and has long been numbered among the substantial and enterprising citizens of his community.

Mr. Chadwick has been married twice. On the 1st of March, 1884, he wedded Miss Ella O. Johnson, of Hardin county, Iowa, by whom he had three children, as follows: Ross G., a farmer residing in Summerset township; Carroll D., who operates the home farm; and Grace A., who is the wife of Orville Clayton, of Richland township. The wife and mother passed away in 1891 and ten year later Mr. Chadwick was again married, his second union being with Mrs. Mary Vandevort.

In politics Mr. Chadwick is a stanch republican and he has ably served in the capacity of supervisor and school director. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias and his religious faith is that of the Congregational church, to which his wife also belongs. He has ever led a busy, active and useful life and commands the respect and high regard of all with whom he comes in contact, for his conduct has ever conformed to the highest principles of morality."

Source: The "History of Adair County Iowa and its People," Volume II. (Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company) 1915.