Oscar N. Young, 1859-1915

YOUNG, SLEETH, KELLY

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 3/15/2011 at 21:04:38

The feeling of deep sorrow that spread through Emmet county when it was learned that Oscar N. Young had passed away, showed that death had removed one whom the community could ill afford to lose. His splendid qualities of manhood and of citizenship had given him high place in public regard, and his work was of substantial worth to the district in which he lived, contributing to general development and progress as well as to individual success. A native of Mahaska county, Iowa, he was born June 24, 1859, of the marriage of Amos T. and Sarah J. (Sleeth) Young, who with wagon and ox team removed from Indiana to Iowa, casting in their lot among the pioneer settlers of Mahaska county, where the father followed farming for many years. Both he and his wife lie buried at Lacey in that county.

Oscar N. Young, who was one of a family of six children divided his time between farm work and attendance at the district school until seventeen years of age, after which his entire attention was given to the work of the fields on the old home place for four years longer. On attaining his majority he rented a farm in his native county and subsequently purchased land there, which he cultivated until 1896. In that year he arrived in Emmet county and purchased a farm in Jack Creek township which at that time was a tract of raw prairie without improvements. His labors wrought an immediate transformation in the appearance of the place whereon he remained until 1905, when he removed to Ringsted to give his children the better opportunities of the public schools. In 1908 he returned to the farm but again took up his abode in Ringsted, after which he spent his winters in the city and the summer months on his farm near Winnipeg, Canada. He was one of the original directors of the Hoprig Creamery and his business judgment was a contributing element to the success of that undertaking. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Emmet County Mutual Insurance Company. His farm interests were carefully and wisely managed, bringing to him substantial success. He was a man of too great energy to be content without some business interest, and following his removal to Ringsted, having purchased a large amount of stock in the Ringsted Bank, he was elected to its presidency and so continued until his demise.

On the 12th of February, 1888, Mr. Young was married to Miss Ada B. Kelly, a daughter of John and Kathryn (Gross) Kelly, who lived in Henry county, Iowa, for a considerable period but afterward removed to Mahaska county. Her father passed away but her mother still survives. Mr. and Mrs. Young became the parents of three children: Edith, the wife of H. W. Jensen, of Ringsted; Blanche, a teacher in the public schools of Sioux Falls; and Harry L., who is a student in the Iowa College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames.

Mr. Young was a stalwart supporter of the republican party and held a number of township offices, although he was not a politician, preferring to give the greater part of his time and attention to the mange of his business affairs. Since her husband's death Mrs. Young has had the management of his interests, in which work she displays most creditable ability. She owns a half section of land twelve miles from Winnipeg, Canada, besides the interests left her in Emmet county. The death of Mr. Young occurred on the 16th of July, 1915. He was then a man in the prime of life and it seemed that he should have been spared for years to come. One of the local papers wrote of him: "He was a man of generous impulses and never forgot the hospitable ways of the pioneer. He had borne adversity bravely and enjoyed prosperity quietly. In the relations of son, brother, husband, father and friend he had met every duty and obligation. At all times and under all circumstances he walked in the well beaten path of righteousness, and from the beauty of his life one may well gain inspiration."

Source: History of Emmet County and Dickinson County Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1917.

Interment in Armstrong Grove cemetery
 

Emmet Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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