Horace Soper 1858-1941

SOPER, BOYER, STRAWMAN, ELLIS, JOHNSON

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 5/2/2020 at 10:30:10

19 June 1941 - The Anamosa Journal

Horace H. Soper, 84, succumbed at 2 a.m. at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Clarence Boyer in Cedar Rapids.

Funeral service for Mr. Soper will be held Sunday afternoon at the Smykil funeral home. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Boyer and a son, George Soper, Anamosa.

25 June 1941 - The Anamosa Journal

Funeral service for Horace H. Soper, Anamosa pioneer and constable of Fairview township for many years, was held Sunday afternoon from Smykil funeral home with Rev. J. K. Delahooke, pastor of the Methodist church, officiating. Burial was in Riverside cemetery.

Casket bearers were Charles J. Cash, jr., Wright S. Frazier, Warren Lawrence, Glen J. McLaughlin, Warren Rees and Howard M. Remley. Honorary pallbearers included George Lawrence, R. D. McIntyre, Arthur L. Remley, Alfred E. Walton, James E. Remley and Corliss Yetter.

Mr. Soper died Thursday morning, June 19, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Clarence Boyer, in Cedar Rapids. He was born Jan. 4, 1858, at Anamosa near where the Methodist church now is located. Eldest son of George and Margery Ann Soper, he had six brothers and six sisters. Surviving, besides his two children, Mrs. Boyer and George Soper, Anamosa, are three sisters, Mrs. Eleanor Strawman, Jennie Soper, and Mrs. S. J. Ellis, Anamosa, and a brother, Charles Soper, Anamosa.

Married to Elizabeth Johnson in September 1879, Mr. Soper farmed in the neighborhood of his father's place until 1902 when he moved to Anamosa. He has made his home here since that time.

As a boy, he worked on his father's farm and attended country school. Later, he attended the Anamosa academy taught by Mrs. Francis Springer for four years. This was an outstanding private school in early days. During the two winter terms, 1877 and 1878, Mr. Soper taught at Bunker Hill.

In an account written by him Dec. 19, 1940, Mr. Soper recalled, "When I was about one year and three months old, my father purchased 320 acres of land four miles northeast of Anamosa. There was about 100 acres of timber and he built a farm house on the south side of the timber. This land was virgin soil, never had been plowed.

"My first farm operation was herding cattle with my lunch pail and little dog. I walked back and forth along a one-half mile fence to keep the cattle from getting through the fence into the corn. I had no way of knowing the time of day but ate my lunch when I got hungry.

"My next job was plowing with an ox team at the age of seven. My father marked out a piece of land and left me and the oxen. All I had to do was to hold the plow up straight. The oxen knew more about plowing than I did. We finished the land and the oxen took a bee line for the farm yard, dragging the plow and me with them. A yoke of oxen were very handy. They seemed to know just what you wanted them to do. You guided them with a whip and any way you wanted them to go, they would follow by the motion you made with the whip or stick you had in your hand."

Active in community affairs, Mr. Soper was a member of the Methodist church, served on the city council and held the office of city marshal. He was first elected to the office of Fairview township constable in 1903.

He was an active member and officer in the Iowa Order of Odd Fellows for 50 years. In 1903 he was elected secretary of the Modern Woodmen of America, an office he held continuously until the time of his death.