ORMSBY, John F.

ORMSBY, EGAN, WEBER, CARROLL, BLAKE, GORDON, MULLEN, FLEMING, WALTER

Posted By: Jennifer Gunderson (email)
Date: 3/14/2021 at 20:24:42

John F. Ormsby, who owns and operates a fine three hundred and twenty acre farm in section 31, Dougherty township, is a man well known in the community in which he resides. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, August 22, 1846, and like many of his neighbors he is of Irish extraction, his parents being Thomas and Catherine (Egan) Ormsby, both natives of Erin. The father was born in county Sligo and the mother in county Mayo, both emigrating to this country, where the former died in 1887, at the age of eighty-one years, and the latter in 1855, at the age of thirty-one years. They were the parents of the following seven children: John P.; Mary, wife of Joe Weber, of Mina, Arkansas; Thomas, living in Hancock county, Iowa; Ellen, wife of Michael Carroll of Omaha, Nebraska; Catherine, deceased; Robert, a citizen of Clayton county, Iowa; and Catherine, (single) living in Minneapolis. The father came to America in 1828, the voyage taking six weeks. After working for a time in Vermont he came westward to Cincinnati, where he married. In 1854 he went down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi to Clayton county, Iowa, where he purchased two hundred and forty acres of wild land. Upon this land was an old log school house, sixteen by twenty-four, and this served as a home until a better one could be built. The father spent his life improving and operating this land and was living there at the time of his death.

Mr. Ormsby spent his early years in Cincinnati and attended the public schools of that city for a time. He was nine years of age when his parents moved to Clayton county and there he attended the district schools and reached manhood. In 1875 he started out for himself in the world and came to Cerro Gordo county where he purchased eighty acres of wild land in section 31. There was only one house between his place and Rockwell and there were the usual difficulties to be encountered in a thinly settled district. He made nine trips to and from the old homestead in Clayton county before he finally took up his residence there. He proceeded to break some of the land and put up a house, eighteen by twenty-four feet. In 1877 he put his land into wheat and raised a thirty bushel crop. The following year he did the same thing and had prospects of a forty bushel crop, but in July the hot winds swept over it and cooked it and as he expresses it he had on his hands eighteen hundred bushels of chicken feed. This calamity, which ruined a great many people, put an end to Mr. Ormsby's wheat raising in Iowa. He is a philosopher and able to take the bad with the good and his varied experiences have made a successful farmer out of him. He has also been fortunate in his feeding and raising of stock. He keeps informed of the latest movements in scientific agriculture and his farm is finely improved.

Mr. Ormsby is a loyal Democrat and his fellow citizens have imposed upon him several public trusts. He is at present township trustee ; has served as township assessor and held all the school offices;, and has filled the office of road supervisor and justice of the peace. He holds membership in the Knights of Pythias of Mason City and he and his family are members of St. Patrick's Catholic church at Dougherty.

On the last day of the year 1878 Mr. Ormsby was united in marriage to Miss Mary T. Blake, born in county Clare, Ireland, August 15, 1857. She is the daughter of Michael and Hannah (Gordon) Blake, who left their native country for America and settled in Clinton, Canada, in 1858. In 1872 they removed to Winneshiek county, where five years later the father died at the age of seventy-nine years. The mother lived for a number of years with Mrs. Ormsby, her demise occurring in 1893, at the age of seventy-four years. Mr. Ormsby was married in Clayton county and then set out with his bride for Rockwell. The weather was cold and the snow was very deep, but nevertheless Mr. Ormsby wished to go to his farm and got a man to consent to drive them there. Mr. and Mrs. Ormsby are the parents of the following six children: Loretto, wife of Martin John Mullen of Dougherty; Mattie, who is at home; May, the wife of Dr. J. L. Fleming, of Chicago; Robert F., living on his father's farm in Dougherty township; George who is in Cheney, Washington; and John Walter, who is still at home.

Source: WHEELER, J. H. History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. Vol. II. Lewis Publ. Co. Chicago. 1910. Transcribed by Jennifer Gunderson (Mar 2021).