ED. BYCROFT

BYCROFT

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 19:23:38

ED. BYCROFT, a successful farmer and favorably known citizen of section 36, Nodaway township, bought land there of the railroad in 1873, and two years afterward broke it, and since 1876 he has resided there.

He was born in Lincolnshire, England, May 1, 1833, a son of John and Eliza (Ward) Bycroft, natives also of that shire. His father was a laboring man all his life, and reared to years of maturity four sons and two daughters, three of whom emigrated to the United States and three remained in England. Mr. Bycroft, our subject, sailed from Liverpool in 1866 to New York, and went to Henderson county, Illinois, where he had a brother living, and was employed there two years in ditching, well- digging and in hedging. The brothers bought a team and farming outfit, and worked rented farms till 1876, when our subject came to Adams county. For his present farm he paid $16 an acre for a portion, and $14 an acre for the rest. He first built a small frame house, which is now used for a kitchen. His present residence he built in 1890. It is a fine modern house, 16 x 20 feet in ground area, with 14-foot posts, and well arranged, in Southern style, and nicely situated on a natural building site a few rods from the road, and surrounded with a beautiful grove of trees, - maple, cottonwood, Lombardy poplar, box-elder and elm. There is also an orchard of small fruit, barn and other outbuildings and farm conveniences. He owns 180 acres of land, constituting one of the best farms in the neighborhood.

At the age of twenty-four years, in Lincolnshire, England, he married Jane Proctor, a daughter of Richard and Eliza Proctor, and they have four sons and two daughters, namely: Eliza, John, William, Anna, Eddy and George.

In his political sympathies Mr. Bycroft is with the "Greenback" party. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.