Richards, Harry Dallas

RICHARDS, CAMPBELL, GOODMAN

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 4/2/2011 at 14:59:13

History of Hamilton County, Iowa, vol.II, 1912, p.164

Harry Dallas Richards successfully engages in general agricultural pursuits and stock-raising in Independence township, where he owns a valuable farm of one hundred and eighty- four acres, located on sections 31 and 32. He was born in Mattoon, Illinois, on the 5th of February, 1872, and is a son of William and Almira (Campbell) Richards. The parents were born, reared and married in Ohio, but subsequently removed to Illinois. Two years later, in 1873, they returned to the Buckeye state, and there the mother passed away in the spring of 1904, at the age of fifty-six years. The father continued to make his home in Ohio until 1909, when he came to Iowa and is now residing in Hamilton county. He is sixty-two years of age.

The eldest in a family of nine, Harry Dallas Richards remained at home until he had attained his majority. He was educated in the common schools of Ohio, and while engaged in mastering the fundamental principles of English learning, was qualifying for his present vocation by assisting his father with the work of the fields and care of the stock. When he was twenty-one, he left the parental roof and started out to make his own way in the world. He spent the first year he was away from home in Indian Territory, coming from there to Boone county, Iowa, where he worked out as a farm hand for four years. At the expiration of that time he began farming on his own account as a renter in Clear Lake township, this county. He continued to cultivate leased land during the succeeding ten years, and then bought his present place on which he located in the spring of 1908. His entire tract is fenced, one hundred acres of it hog tight, and his fields are tiled. One hundred and thirty-five acres of his land is under high cultivation and the greater portion of it planted to corn and oats, his principal crops. He owns a full blooded Aberdeen Angus bull and makes a specialty of this breed of cattle and he is also raising Duroc Jersey hogs. In addition to feeding his own stock he annually buys cattle which he also prepares for the market.

On the 9th of March, 1898, Mr. Richards was married to Miss Emma Goodman, a daughter of Jacob and Miranda Goodman of Ohio. They were reared in their native state but married in Iowa and subsequently settled on a hundred and fifty-six acres of government land in Boone county, which the father cultivated during the remainder of his active life. He passed away on his homestead on December 4, 1898, at the age of seventy years, but was survived by the mother, who died April 5, 1900. Mrs. Richards, who was born on the 30th of December, 1873, is the fifth in order of birth in a family of eight, and the mother of three children: Leroy, Margaret Wave and Gertrude.

The family attend the Methodist Episcopal church of which Mrs. Richards is a member. He accords his political support to the republican party and is now secretary of the school board. Diligent and enterprising in his methods, Mr. Richards is meeting with success in the development of his interests and is numbered among the prosperous and efficient agriculturists of his community.