L. H. EDWARDS

EDWARDS, BECKSTADT, STEINHAUER

Posted By: Norma Nielson (email)
Date: 8/19/2004 at 20:55:53

L. H. Edwards, a successful agriculturist and representative citizen of Richland township, makes his home on section 20, where he owns two hundred acres of rich and productive land. His birth occurred in Fulton county, Illinois, on the 11th of August, 1868, his parents being Haden and Eliza (Beckstadt) Edwards, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Canada. Their marriage was celebrated in Fulton county, Illinois, to which place they had removed as children with their respective parents. In 1869 Haden Edwards came with his family to Adair county, Iowa, spending the winter in the old Avondale schoolhouse in Washington township while he was building a home. In the spring of 1870 they took up their abode in their new log cabin in Washington township. Five years later they removed to another farm in the same township and the father erected a log cabin thereon. About 1880, however, he made his way to Gentry county, Missouri, and three years later went to Holt county, that state, where he has resided continuously to the present time.
L. H. Edwards was reared under the parental roof and received his education in the district schools. He was living in Missouri when he attained his majority and thence returned to Adair county, here working as a farm hand for his uncle David Edwards, during about three falls and winters. In 1895 he purchased his first land, coming into possession of a forty-acre tract in Holt county, Missouri, on which he resided for two years. On the expiration of that period he disposed of the property and bought a farm of sixty acres in Holt county, on which he made his home for a similar length of time. In 1900 he again came to Adair county, Iowa, purchasing eighty acres of land on section 18, Richland township, which he sold two years later. Going back to Holt county, Missouri, he there resided for three years and at the end of that time returned to this county, purchasing his present home farm of eighty acres in Richland township. In 1911 he bought a tract of one hundred and twenty acres on the same section and still owns both farms. His undertakings as an agriculturist have been attended with a well deserved and gratifying measure of success and entitle him to recognition among the prosperous and enterprising citizens of the community. The Nevinville Telephone Company numbers him among its stockholders.
In 1896 Mr. Edwards was united in marriage to Miss Anna Steinhauer, a daughter of Henry Steinhauer of Lincoln county, Illinois, who has passed away. To them have been born three children, namely: Louis F., Herman A. and Mary E. Mr. Edwards gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has ably served in the capacity of road overseer. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to the lodge at Fontanelle. He is one of the hard-working, capable citizens of Richland township, where his honest and upright methods of conducting his business interests have won him the confidence and respect of his fellow townsmen.
Source: The "History of Adair County Iowa and its People," Volume II. (Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company) 1915.