FYFE, Morris M.

FYFE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 5/30/2021 at 19:38:07

Morris M. Fyfe
born Sep 27, 1834

M. M. Fyfe, one of the prominent residents of Douglas township, a homestead settler of Sac county, who came here in 1866 is the subject of the present sketch. He was born in Orleans county, New York, September 27, 1834, a son of James Fyfe, a native of Vermont, who was in turn a son of John Fyfe who was a Revolutionary soldier, although he was born in Scotland. The mother of our subject was Electa (Sanford) Fyfe, a daughter of Reuben Sanford, a native of Vermont. In 1847 Mr. and Mrs. Fyfe moved to Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, and there the mother died at the age of fifty years and the father in 1863 at the age of sixty-nine. Our subject was reared on a farm in Wisconsin and spent three winters in the woods at lumbering. He enlisted in 1861 in the Fourth Wisconsin Infantry, but later transferred to a cavalry regiment, and took part in the battles of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson. He was a member of the Department of the Gulf in Texas, and was wounded at Clinton, Louisiana, receiving a ball in the breast, which penetrated his body and came out his back. He was for some time in a hospital and was finally discharged at Madison, Wisconsin, July 28, 1864, and in 1866 he came here as one of the first settlers.
Our subject has a fine place within five miles of Newell. His first house was 12 x 20 feet and six feet high. His present house is a very comfortable one, 16 x 24, one and one half stories high with an L, 14 x 24, also one and a half stories. He has a magnificent grove of fifteen acres and an orchard of four acres. His barn is commodious, being 20 x 30 feet, and here are all the necessary building for the carrying on of a first-class farm. Mr. Fyfe has a fine body of clear water near his land, called lake Rush, although there are no rushes here, and there is plenty of fishing in this lake. He keeps a dairy of fifteen cows and on account of his fine location has succeeded admirably with his cattle. He keeps the Polled-Angus breed and has convenient stock scales erected in his grounds with other conveniences.
Mr. Fyfe was married March 4, 1866, to Miss Elizabeth Seekins, a daughter of William E. and Lydia A. (Knapp) Seekins, both natives of New York. The mother died in 1869 in Sac County. Our subject and wife have a family of five children: Jennie Horine, of Clay County, Iowa; Franklin M.; Celia E.; William A., and James Dennis being the living ones, and Emma Dell died at the age of two and one half years; Ellen Lenora at the age of five years; Mary A. at the age of three years. In politics our subject is a Republican and has been Justice of the Peace and Township Trustee. He is a member of the G. A. R. Post, No. 416, of which he is a charter member. He is well-known and much respected in the community.
Source: Biographical History of Crawford, Ida, and Sac Counties, Iowa, 1893, p.482