O. C. PRIDDY

PRIDDY, EARL, BROWN, FOSTER, POUSH, MILLER

Posted By: Norma Nielson (email)
Date: 5/15/2004 at 22:24:20

"O. C. Priddy, a representative and successful agriculturist of Adair county, has carried on farming here for a period of forty-two years and now resides on section 5, Orient township. His birth occurred near Indianapolis, in Hancock county, Indiana, on the 3d of November, 1845, his parents being D. M. and Thankful (Earl) Priddy, the former probably a native of Indiana and the latter of Ohio. They were married in the Hoosier state and took up their abode on a farm in Hancock county, where they resided until 1855. In that year they came to Iowa, locating first in Marion county and four years later in Jasper county, while in the fall of 1866 they removed to Adair county. For a time D. M. Priddy lived in Greenfield, acquiring extensive holdings in the eastern part of the town, while subsequently he built on the farm where the fair grounds is now located. He owned this property and resided thereon until 1880, when he disposed of the farm and moved back into the town of Greenfield, there passing away at the age of eighty-eight or eighty-nine years. His wife was in her ninetieth year when called to her final rest. D. M. Priddy served as justice of the peace in Greenfield for many years and enjoyed an extensive and favorable acquaintance throughout the county. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted for service with the Ninth Cavalry at Monroe, Jasper county, Iowa, remaining at the front for over three years and making a most creditable military record.

O. C. Priddy was reared under the parental roof and attended the district schools in the acquirement of an education. Though but a youth of about sixteen when his father entered the Union army, he was the oldest son of the family and the operation of the home farm therefore devolved upon him. He remained at home for two or three years after his father’s return from the war and then secured employment as a farm hand, working for wages during a period of seven years. Mr. Priddy did not accompany his father to Adair county but remained in Jasper county and in 1870 took up his abode in Madison county. The same year he purchased his present home farm in Adair county, but he did not remove to this county until 1873. During the following six years he resided upon a rented farm adjoining the property which he had purchased and operated both places. In 1880 or 1881 he erected his present home and here he has carried on his agricultural interests continuously since, meeting with a gratifying and well merited measure of success in his undertakings.

In 1873 Mr. Priddy was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Alcy Brown, of Madison county, Iowa, by whom he had nine children, five of whom survive, as follows: Mabel, who is the wife of Edward Foster, of Summerset township, this county; Leroy, an agriculturist of Orient township, this county; Bessie, who gave her hand in marriage to J. V. Poush, of Orient township, this county; Nellie, the wife of Bert Ady, of Prescott, Iowa; and May, who is the wife of Henry Miller, of Greenfield, Iowa.

In his political views Mr. Priddy is a republican, supporting the men and measures of that party at the polls. His wife is a consistent and devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He stands fearlessly in support of what he believes to be right and the principles which have governed his conduct throughout his entire life are such as are indispensable elements of good citizenship and honorable manhood."

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