LACY, JOHN F.

LACY, JAHU, BUELL

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 1/27/2004 at 13:11:15

Biography reproduced from page 178 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

John F. Lacy is living retired in Burt, Iowa, at the age of seventy-eight years, and can look back upon a business career of more than ordinary prominence, and can review a life which has been a developing force in commercial growth. Mr. Lacy was born in Cattaraugus county, New York, March 17, 1834, and grew up upon his father’s farm. He was educated in the public schools and remained at home until 1854, when he came west with his father and located in Dane county, Wisconsin. He was married in that section and afterward removed to Green county in the same state, where he rented a tract of land and carried on agriculture until 1864. In that year he and his wife started west across the plains, traveling with mule teams. They journeyed through the mountains where Mr. Lacy prospected for gold with remarkable success. His mining enterprises were prosperous from the beginning and he soon accumulated a fortune. When he had saved sufficient money to meet his desires he and his wife started on the return trip to Wisconsin. His son, W. H. Lacy, was born on the journey in Salt Lake City. Mr. Lacy arrived in Green county, Wisconsin, after a varied and eventful trip, and went immediately to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he took his gold dust to the United States mint and had it coined at government expense. He returned home and purchased a fine and well improved farm of two hundred and forty acres near Albany, where he carried on a successful agricultural enterprise. The land which he purchased was a tract which he and his wife had looked at and admired in their less prosperous days and had determined to buy when they had acquired a sufficient sum of money. It was improved with two fine residences, one a large two-story structure, beautifully furnished and artistically designed. In this Mr. Lacy and his wife lived for a number of years, making it their home until they sold the property in order to locate in Albany. Here Mr. Lacy engaged in the lumber business, and met with the same success in his commercial enterprise which had attended his efforts in the development of his farm. During the period of his residence in Albany he had purchased another farm in Green county but never lived upon it. In 1883 he rented his acres and moved to Iowa, where he bought a section comprising six hundred and forty acres in Kossuth county. The land was unimproved, and its development is a tribute to Mr. Lacy’s agricultural skill. He erected substantial buildings upon his holdings, fenced his property into fields of one hundred and sixty acres each, and developed his land along the most modern and progressive ideas. During this time he formed a partnership with Mr. Morris, and started a private bank in West Bend, Iowa, in the conduct of which he was successful for three years. At the end of that time he disposed of his interest to his partner, trading his farm for another section of land in Kossuth county, getting in exchange over eight hundred acres of virgin soil and a business lot and store in Algona. He located in the last mentioned city and resided there for some years, carrying on a successful mercantile business. This he later traded for half of a business block and a livery barn, to which he added a feed yard, and under the name of the Lacy Feed Yard, carried on, in partnership with his son, a large livery business in the city. Mr. Lacy has now retired from active life and is making his home with his daughter, Mrs. H. O. Buell, of Burt, Iowa. He is regarded as one of the representative and successful men of Kossuth county, and dates his residence in this section from 1883.

In 1855 Mr. Lacy was married to Miss Elizabeth Jahu, a native of Wisconsin who was born and reared in Dane county. To their union were born two children: William H., who is a prominent business man in Algona; and Mrs. H. O. Buell, of Burt, Iowa. Mrs. Lacy aided her husband faithfully in his early career and was a constant help to him during her life. She passed away on February 15, 1910, after fifty-five years of happy married life.