Sands, Richard A.

SANDS, LONG, CHASE

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/25/2006 at 12:44:56

SANDS, RICHARD A.

Richard A. Sands, whose name is well known to a wide circle of friends and acquaintances throughout Garfield township, and indeed Lyon county, as that of a man well qualified by character, attainments and general ability as a farmer, a business man and a loyal and patriotic citizen to be esteemed warmly, was born on a farm in Monroe county, Ohio, in 1847, where his father, Joshua Sands, had long been devoted to the tilling of the soil. The father was born in Maryland, and the family is supposed to be of English ancestry. They reared a large family, having several born to a previous marriage, and several brothers of Richard served in the Civil War. The father died when Richard was only nine years, and the later years of his boyhood and youth were spent in the home of a Methodist minister, the Rev. A. Bell. This excellent gentleman removed with his people to Illinois where young Richard finished his school days by attending a graded school.

When Mr. Sands was twenty-one years of age he began life for himself, and for four years worked as a farm laborer among the neighbors. In this time he had saved four hundred and twenty-five dollars, which added to the one hundred with which he had started, constituted a very handsome sum for a bright and ambitious young man. For a time he attended school, and in 1872 went to Nebraska where he bought some railroad land. This he broke, and put out a grove and an orchard. In the winter of 1873 and '74 he taught school in Nebraska, and during the summer was engaged in farming. Then came the grasshoppers, and in despair of doing anything Mr. Sands abandoned his farm, and located in Cass county, Iowa, in 1874. He had lost everything but a stout heart, and again resumed work as a farm hand. In 1875 he was in Marshall county, where he remained until the spring of 1879, when he began again as a farmer in Grundy county, and where for five years he was absorbed in cultivating the land.

In 1882 occurred the wedding of Mr. Sands and Miss Mary L. Long in Marshalltown, Iowa. She was born in Owen county, Indiana, and came of an old American family.

To this union was born one child, Mary Belle, who is now a school teacher. Mrs. Sands died at her birth. Mr. Sands contracted a second marriage, March 2, 1887, when Miss Mary A. Chase became his bride. She was born in Fulton, Illinois, where her father, Isaac Chase, was an old-time American farmer. By this second marriage Mr. Sands is the father of four children, Charles Henry, Pearl Edna, Winnie Ethel, and Edward Raymond, all of whom were born in Plymouth county, Iowa.

In 1885 Mr. Sands spent the summer in Lyon county, but returned again to Plymouth county, where he had established himself on a farm. In 1897 he bought a farm in Lyon county, where he is now residing, on which he settled his family in 1900. It is located in section 20, Garfield township, and under his capable handling it has become one of the choice places of this part of the county. Mr. Sands and his charming wife enjoy the confidence and respect of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson