WARD, CYRUS D.
WARD, SCHENCK, ORVIS, GARDNER
Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/8/2003 at 20:35:09
Biography reproduced from page 564 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:
A worthy representative of the farming and stock-raising interests of Kossuth county is Cyrus D. Ward, who for twenty-eight years has been a resident of Union township, where he owns a highly improved and cultivated farm of two hundred acres. He was born in Ohio on the 18th of October, 1858, and is a son if Isaac and Polly Ward, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania. The father was an agriculturist, engaged in farming in the Buckeye state until 1865, when he decided to remove to Kansas and disposing of his interests in Ohio started across the prairies with an emigrant wagon for the west. When they reached Illinois, Mrs. Ward positively refused to go any further away from civilization and prevailed upon her husband to purchase a farm in the latter state, which he cultivated until 1886. In the latter year he disposed of his land and came to Kossuth county, where our subject, was located and remained one year with his son. During the three years of his residence in this county he then cultivated rented land, but at the expiration of that time he purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres located east of Algona, and there continued his agricultural pursuits for four years. The state of Kansas still had an irresistible attraction for him, however, and in the latter year he disposed of his property, selling it for twenty-five dollars per acre, and started west. Upon his arrival in Kansas he purchased a farm, which he improved and cultivated for fifteen years, but at the end of that period he sold it and returned to Kossuth county and made his home with our subject for a year. He subsequently went back to Illinois to reside with a daughter with whom he was living at the time of his death, which occurred in August, 1911. He had long survived the mother, whose death occurred in Illinois in September, 1887.
Cyrus D. Ward was only a lad of seven years when his parents started on their journey to Kansas. On their way westward they stopped to visit an aunt of our subject, who was very deeply attached to her nephew and wanted him to remain with her. As the offer was agreeable to the other members of the family he remained behind when they resumed their journey, continuing to make his home with his aunt until the death of her husband nine years later. He then returned to his parents with whom he remained until he had attained his majority, when he started out to make his own way in the world. Having been reared on a farm he was early trained to agricultural pursuits and has always devoted his energies to this vocation, in which he has met with success. In 1884, he came to Kossuth county and bought eighty acres of land in Union township that formed the nucleus of his present farm. Property in this section of Iowa was very cheap at that period, and Mr. Ward only paid ten dollars per acre for his first tract, which could not now be bought for many times that amount. He increased his holdings as he was able until he now holds title to two hundred acres of as fertile land as can be found in the county. He is progressive in his ideas and conducts his agricultural pursuits along modern methods, and as a result owns not only one of the most attractive but profitable farms in the community. He has expended over five thousand dollars in tiling his land and gives equal care and attention to the fertilization and tilling of his fields. During the long period of his ownership he has built substantial fences about his holdings, constructed commodious barns and outbuildings and a comfortable residence, all of which are kept well in repair. He makes a specialty of raising stock, particularly hogs, marketing about one hundred of these annually, while he keeps from thirty to forty head of cattle and thirteen horses.
On the 6th of April, 1887, Mr. Ward was married to Miss Fannie Helen Schenck, a daughter of Horace P. and Elizabeth (Orvis) Schenck, who are mentioned at greater length in this work under the sketch of Myron Schenck. Mrs. Ward was educated in the Eastern Iowa Normal school of Columbus Junction, graduating with the class of 1885, and engaged in teaching prior to her marriage. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ward: Ethel May, the wife of Floyd R. Gardner, a farmer in Plum Creek township, by whom she has had two children, Verna and Donald; Harry E., who is a student at Ames; Lottie E., who is taking a course in domestic science at Ames; and Arthur C., who is attending the district school.
The family affiliates with the Congregational church, and in politics Mr. Ward is a republican, giving his allegiance to the progressive faction of that party. He is a stockholder in the Algona Cooperative Creamery Company and is numbered among the highly successful and prosperous agriculturists of the county. During a residence here, covering a period of almost thirty years, Mr. Ward has made many friends, who accord him the esteem and respect commanded by diligence and efficiency, when accompanied by integrity.
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