HUFFMAN, ABSALOM M.

HUFFMAN, BAUGHMAN, CROWLEY, EDWARDS, LUSCOMBE, WAKEMAN, DKAY, HOLMES

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/19/2004 at 08:54:54

Biography reproduced from page 552 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

General farming and stock-raising engages the attention of Absalom M. Huffman, who was born in Hardin county, this state, on the 19th of September, 1864. He is a son of Solomon and Sarah Ann (Baughman) Huffman, the former a native of Coshocton and the latter of Licking county, Ohio. The father, who was a lay preacher of the Methodist Episcopal denomination and a miner, went to California in 1860, and engaged in prospecting for about five years. At the expiration of that time he returned to the east. He removed with this family to Hardin county, Iowa, in 1864, and bought land, in the cultivation of which he engaged during the remainder of his life. The father passed away on the farm and the mother subsequently passed away in Wright county, Iowa.

In the acquirement of his education, Absalom M. Huffman attended the common schools of his native county, passing his early years in very much the same manner as other lads who were reared in the rural sections of Iowa during the pioneer period. After the death of his father he assisted his mother with the operation of the home farm until she passed away, following which he worked out for a year. Everything on the old homestead, which he had inherited, was subsequently sold and in 1891 he went to Emmet county and bought a half section of land in Denmark township in partnership with his brother Frank. After cultivating this tract for six years he rented it out and removed to Jackson Creek township, that county, and leased a farm, which he operated until 1898, when he came to Kossuth county. The year previous he had bought one hundred and seven and a half acres of land on section 7, Eagle township, where he located. Here he has ever since engaged in diversified farming and stock-raising and during the intervening years has increased his property interests by the purchase of an additional twenty-five acres. Mr. Huffman takes great pride in his farm, which is well improved and equipped and evidences by its general appearance and condition the competent supervision and capable direction that invariably brings success in any undertaking.

In 1893, Mr. Huffman was married to Miss Julia Crowley, a daughter of Daniel Crowley, of Cascade, Iowa, and to them were born four children: Hazel May, whose birth occurred on the 23d of May, 1894; John, who was born in 1895; William McKinley, who was born in 1896; and a baby daughter, Grace, who died just a week before the mother. Mrs. Huffman died on Christmas night, 1899. On New Year’s 1901, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Huffman and Mrs. Frances Ada Edwards, a daughter of Francis Burr and Mary Elizabeth (Luscombe) Wakeman. The former is a native of Schenectady, New York, while the mother was born in England, but they have for many years been residents of Hardin county and now make their home in Eldora, where the father, who is a carpenter and stair builder, follows his trade. Mr. Wakeman is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted and gone to the front as a drummer boy in an Illinois regiment. Mrs. Huffman is the eldest of the five children born to her parents, the other members of the family being as follows: Theresa Ida, now Mrs. Fred D’Kay, of Sioux Cit, Iowa; Lewis Burr, who resides in Eldora; Esther Estella, the wife of Thomas Holmes, of Laurel, Montana; and Ann Jennie, whose home is in Lake Park, Iowa.

Mr. Huffman is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Eldora, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America of Armstrong, while both he and Mrs. Huffman belong to the Rebekahs and the Royal Neighbors. In his political views, Mr. Huffman is a socialist, and he has served as school director in district No. 3 for six years and as township clerk for two. He is interested in various local industries and is a director and stockholder in the Cooperative Creamery Company of Iowa Lake, Minnesota, and also of the Lake Road Telephone Company. Mr. Huffman has been making his own way in the world since he was seventeen years of age, and such success as has come to him is the result of perseverance and diligence, capably directed.