Alfred Rush Tate

BARKLEY, EBERHART, GEE, PHILLIP, RHYNO, SPROUL, STEPHENS, TATE

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/12/2004 at 22:37:05

Alfred R. Tate has been for many years actively engaged in agricultural pursuits in this county. He was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 13th of February, 1850, the youngest of a family of eleven children born to Lee and Sarah (Eberhart) Tate, natives of Virginia and Pennsylvania respectively. The paternal grandparents were probably born in Scotland and the grandfather became a farmer of the Keystone state. His son, Lee Tate, also followed farming there until 1865, when he removed with his family to Oskaloosa, Iowa, and there cultivated land. He passed away in 1872, when about seventy years of age. He was a devout member of the Baptist church and an indefatigable student of the Bible, which he read through twenty-four times. The maternal grandfather, Adolph Eberhart, a native of Germany, was a glass blower by trade. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Sarah Phillip, was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. The mother of our subject was reared in Pennsylvania, where her marriage occurred, and passed away in Iowa in 1871, when sixty-six years of age.

Alfred R. Tate was reared at home and received his education in the district schools. In 1865 he took up his residence in Mahaska county, Iowa, where he was identified with farming until 1874. In that year he arrived in Madison county and bought eighty acres of raw land in Lincoln township, which he immediately began to improve and develop. From time to time he purchased additional land until he became the owner of two hundred and eighty acres, which he operated successfully until 1903. In that year he rented and removed to Winterset in order to give his children the advantages of the city schools. As they have all now received an excellent education he intends to remove to a farm of ninety-eight acres in Lincoln township which he has recently bought and which he is planning to operate himself. He is still renting his farm of two hundred and eighty acres. He is a progressive and efficient agriculturist and has found farming a very lucrative occupation and also a congenial one, as he values highly his independence and prefers an outdoor life.

On the 2d of November, 1880, Mr. Tate married Miss Artie Gee, who was born in Davis county, Iowa, of the marriage of William and Mary Elizabeth (Barkley) Gee. The father was a native of Missouri and at the time of the Civil war enlisted in the Union army. He passed away in an army hospital in 1862. His wife, who was a native of the north of Ireland, was brought to the United States by her parents when but a child of seven years. Following her marriage she became a resident of Davis county, Iowa, and after her husband's death she removed to Polk county, this state, where she became the wife of Wallace Wicks. Eventually she became a resident of Madison county, where she passed away on the 2d of June, 1909, when sixty-nine years of age. She was a consistent member of the Church of Christ and was highly esteemed by all who knew her. Mrs. Tate, who is the only child born to her parents, was educated in Warren county, Iowa, and arrived in this county in 1879. By her marriage she has become the mother of six children: Ralph Arthur, a traveling salesman whose territory is in Canada; Edith, the wife of Charles Rhyno, of Lorimer, Iowa; Beth, who married W J. Stephens, of Des Moines, Iowa; Helen, the wife of Phillip Sproul, of Des Moines; Gladys, who is attending Drake University; and Alfred Lee, at home.

Mr. Tate gives his political allegiance to the republican party and fraternally is identified with Evening Star Lodge, No. 43, A. F. & A. M., of Winterset, and with the chapter. He has achieved a large measure of material success and takes just pride in the fact that his prosperity is due entirely to his own work and wise management of his affairs. He possesses those qualities of self-reliance and initiative that are so highly regarded in this country and that have contributed so much to its unprecedented material development.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”