JESSE R. COURTER

COURTER, LYNN, HAVENS

Posted By: Norma Nielson (email)
Date: 7/15/2004 at 20:56:10

Jesse R. Courter owns and operates a excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres, comprising the northwest quarter of section 33, Union township. His birth occurred in Henry county, Iowa, on the 1st of January, 1874, his parents being Jacob and Harriett (Lynn) Courter, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania. Their marriage was celebrated in Lucas county, Iowa, to which place the mother had accompanied her parents. After spending two or three years in Henry county, this state, Mr. and Mrs. Courter resided for a year in Union county and then returned to Henry county. At the end of another year, in 1878 or 1879, they came to Adair county, locating on section 28, Union township, where the mother passed away I 1882. In subsequent years the father made various removals. He is now living at Creston, Iowa, and his present land holdings are in the Saskatchewan province of Canada.
Jesse R. Courter was reared at home and in the acquirement of an education attended the district schools and also studied for one term in Legrand College of Legrand, Iowa. In 1897 he started out as an agriculturist on his own account and for about eleven years cultivated rented land in Union township. It was in 1908 that he purchased his present home farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 33, Union township, which he had operated as a renter for nine years previously. He has won a gratifying measure of success in his agricultural interests and is numbered among the substantial citizens of his community. A man of practical ideas and good judgment, he conducts his work in a systematic and methodical manner, as is evidenced by the attractive appearance of his place.
In 1897 Mr. Courter was united in marriage to Miss Estella Havens, a daughter of Alexander Havens, of Union township, who was graduated from the Howe’s Academy of Mount Pleasant, the oldest academy in Iowa, in 1892, and two years prior to her marriage she followed the profession of teaching in this county, being an instructor in the district schools. By her marriage she has become the mother of two children, one of whom survives, Esther Virginia.
Mr. Courter gives his political allegiance to the republican party. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Christian church, to which his wife also belongs. Viewed from every standpoint his life may be termed successful because he has made his agricultural enterprise prosperous and his private life useful and worth while.
Source: The "History of Adair County Iowa and its People," Volume II. (Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company) 1915.