EBENEZER OSBURN, b 4 Jan 1832

OSBURN, BARKER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 9/16/2004 at 17:38:36

The subject of this notice is accounted one of the well-to-do and prosperous men of Van Buren Township. His worldly possessions have been accumulated by the labor of his hands and brain, and indicate the industry which he has exercised since coming to this county in its pioneer days. He has one of the best farms in the township, comprising 220 acres on sections 10 and 3, and there with his family lives pleasantly surrounded by all the comforts of life. His idea has been not to make a great display in the world, but simply to gather around himself and his family those things which should conduce to their welfare and happiness. They occupy a commodious frame dwelling, and dispense a cheerful hospitality not only to their friends but to the stranger who comes within their door.

Adjacent to the residence of Mr. Osburn are the buildings which he utilizes in transacting his farming business, these comprising barns and cattle-sheds equipped with special reference to the prosecution of stock-raising, of which he makes a specialty. He has made it a rule of his life to "pay as he goes," and his property is consequently unincumbered, while he has besides a snug bank account. He is fond of the finer employments, bee-keeping and horticulture, and keeps himself well posted in these matters by the perusal of the best works pertaining thereto. His well-stocked library indicates the bent of his thoughts, being furnished as it is with solid and instructive reading. When found by the writer he was making his selection of seeds, shrubs, etc., for the season of 1889, and he sends his orders East. He is called the model farmer of Van Buren Township, and quoted as an example for younger men to imitate.

The native place of our subject was Tioga County, N.Y., and he was born Jan. 4, 1832. His father, Samuel Osburn, also a native of the Empire State, was born in Westchester County, and married Miss Betsy Barker, a native of Tompkins County. The paternal grandfather was Samuel Osburn, Sr., who served as a soldier in the War of 1812. The family came to America during the Colonial times, and comprised a large following, representing in the highest degree respectability and worth.

The parents of our subject were married in Tioga County, N.Y., where the father carried on farming, and where eight children were born. One child was added to the household circle after they took up their residence in Iowa. They started for the far West in the summer of 1849, crossing the Mississippi on the 8th of June. Our subject, the eldest of the family, was then a youth of seventeen years. The other five living were: Louisa, Jane, Angenette, Emily, and Alvira. Ozias died, aged ten months, in New York, and the other child was an infant unnamed. The one born in Iowa was Franklin, and who is now residing on the old homestead. Seven grew to maturity, and received their education in the district school. The father died at his home in Van Buren Township in 1878, ages seventy-three years; the mother is still living at the old homestead with her son Franklin; she is now seventy-seven years old.

In coming to the West the Osburn family, at Ithica, N.Y., embarked on the Erie Canal, by which they traveled to Buffalo. Thence they took a lake steamer to Chicago, which was then an unimportant village. There the father hired a four-horse team to convey them to Savanna, Ill., for which he paid the sum of $45. He had visited this section three or four years before, traveling on foot, and had chosen Iowa as the place of his future residence. From Savanna they crossed the Mississippi to Sabula, and thence made their way directly to Van Buren Township, this county, where the father entered eighty acres of land, and subsequently purchased ninety-five acres of a settler, and the son, Ebenezer, three years later, entered the same amount - eighty acres. This the latter still owns and occupies, and also sixty acres of the old farm.

The 12th of March, 1856, witness the marriage of our subject with Miss Mary Osburn, who was likewise a native of Tioga County, N.Y., and came to Iowa with her parents in August, 1839, and settled in Van Buren Township, this county. She was then a child of six and a half years, and consequently has little recollection of her birthplace. The young people began their wedded life together in true pioneer style, and in a manner corresponding to their means. The exercise of industry and economy served in a few years to affect a great change in their circumstances, although at the time of his marriage Mr. Osburn has already "a cage for his bird" and other improvements. He never allowed himself to run in debt, being strictly a "cash man," and the only notes he ever gave were drawn thirty years ago in order to procure a horse and wagon.

The property of Mr. Osburn comprises his farm of 220 acres in Van Buren Township, and he has ten acres of choice white oak timber in Washington Township. In his stock operations he makes a speciality of full-blooded and graded stock, and has been very successful. Thirty years ago he captured a swarm of wild bees and hived them in a common wooden box. By a course of extensive reading in connection with bee-keeping he has been enabled from this humble beginning to branch out into a considerable business in this line, which has not only been pleasant but profitable. He is also interested in Shropshire sheep and Southdowns, having a flock of 108 head. He has an imported Southdown, "Brandy" by name, which is a remarkably fine animal and valuable. In cattle his favorites are the Short-horns, and in swine he is chiefly interested in Chester-Whites. From these latter he has realized quite a fortune, having shipped for years a car load annually, receiving therefor a handsome sum.

Politically, Mr. Osburn affiliates with the Democratic party. He has made a specialty of attending to his own business, and consequently has spent no time in seeking official honors. Beyond serving as School Director he has carefully avoided the responsibilities of public life. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Osburn only one is living, a son, Albert, who still remains under the home roof, and is a promising young man of twenty-two years. Their first born son, Warren, died when a lad of thirteen years. Willis died when a babe of six months, and Eugene also died in infancy. They have also an adopted daughter, Henrietta, to whom they gave the benefits of a good common school education, and who with their son comprises the home circle.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)