HASTINGS, Sidney W.
HASTINGS, IVES, THUNA, HAMMOND, FISKE, NIXON, MCCURDY
Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 3/25/2010 at 22:32:55
With the history of pioneer development in Mitchell county Sydney W. Hastings was closely associated and as the years went by he contributed in marked measure to later progress and improvement.
He was born in Windsor, Vermont, December 11, 1833, a son of Willard and Lorinda (Ives) Hastings. The ancestral line is traced back to Deacon Thomas Hastings, who was a deacon of the Baptist church and who came to America in April, 1634, crossing the Atlantic from England and settling in Massachusetts. The record of the family can be traced back to the time when the Danes first invaded England before the battle of Hastings in 1066. The line of descent comes down through Deacon Thomas Hastings and his wife, Martha (Thuna) Hastings, through John and Abigail (Hammond) Hastings, John and Sarah (Fiske) Hastings, Nathaniel and Lois (Houghton) Hastings, Samuel and Polly (Martin) Hastings to Willard Hastings, who married Lorinda Ives and had a family of seven children, including Sydney W. Hastings. In 1840 the parents removed westward to Lee county, Illinois, where the father entered the field of merchandising, there continuing for some years, after which he took up the occupation of farming. He was a very active and industrious man and was prominent in the public life as well as in the business circles of his community.
Sydney W. Hastings, when seven years of age, started westward with his parents, who made the trip by way of the Erie canal to Lake Erie, thence by lake boat to Chicago. They were wrecked, however, at Detroit, Michigan, and from that point journeyed by stage to Chicago and on to Lee county, Illinois, settling in the village of Pawpaw Grove.
When Sydney W. Hastings was fourteen years of age he carried the mail on horseback to a point forty-five miles from his home. There was a ten-mile stretch of country that intervened and was uninhabited. The work, however, developed self-reliance and independence and, in fact, those qualities were strongly cultivated in the midst of the pioneer environment in which he was reared.
On the 28th of March, 1856, he started west with team and sled, reaching Mitchell county, Iowa, where he cast in his lot with the pioneer settlers. It was in that year that Osage was established as the county seat. In April of that year he embarked in merchandising and made a trip to Chicago for goods, having to travel overland to McGregor, from which point a train carried him through to his destination. He built a new store building from timbers cut near by, which would surely be quite a novel experience for a present-day merchant. At that time there was one other store in Osage, occupying the present site of the Osage National Bank and established by Eldridge Garry in the same year. After a time Mr. Hastings entered into partnership with a Mr. Kemp, an association that was maintained until 1865.
In 1867 he formed a partnership with William Woods, who was widely known as Uncle Billy Woods, and that connection was continued until March 29, 1889. The firm enjoyed an extensive business and built three stores in Osage during that time. During two years, from 1865 until 1867, for the benefit of his health, Mr. Hastings lived upon a farm of three hundred and forty-five acres near Osage and cultivated the land, making many improvements upon it. However, merchandising was his real life work. The merchants in that early day had to haul their supplies first from McGregor and afterward from Cedar Falls. While engaged in merchandising Mr.
Hastings also bought wheat and was so engaged during the widespread financial panic of 1857. He bought wheat by the carload and hauled it to Osage from Cedar Falls, employing from eight to ten teams, after which the wheat had to be run through a fanning mill and again put into sacks. It required about a week to make the trip from Cedar Falls, and while en route the teamsters spent the night with hospitable farmers. At one time there was only one carload of wheat to be purchased at Cedar Falls. All of the buyers wanted it, but because of the fact that Mr. Hastings had driven sixty-five miles to get his wheat, a longer distance than any other buyer had traversed, he was given the preference.
The hard times of 1857 were severely felt by the people here, for there was no ready money on hand and they traded largely in cattle and other stock in order to secure supplies. Much butter was made in this section of the state and not infrequently Mr. Hastings had two tons or more on hand at a time. Store accounts on many occasions ran for a year, for the people could not make enough to meet their indebtedness. Mr. Hastings did the buying for the store and the bookkeeping, while Mr. Woods attended to the trade. The partnership was dissolved in 1889, owing to the ill health of Mr. Woods. In 1894 Mr. Hastings built three new store buildings on Block 33 and he also made extensive improvements on his farm.
In April, 1879, suffering from ill health at the time, Mr. Hastings started across the prairie to Spink county, South Dakota, where he took up public land, going one hundred and seventy-five miles by team to the land office and traveling thirty-five miles before coming across a house. From that point it was twenty-four miles to the next habitation. Mr. Hastings was one of twenty-four men in Spink county at that period. Upon his claim he built a story and a half house, hauling the lumber fifty-four miles. The following April, however, he returned to Osage very much improved in health by his sojourn in South Dakota, which kept him largely out of doors. In 1876 he paid a visit back to his old home, accompanied by his wife and son George, and they spent a very pleasant vacation in Vermont.
In early life Mr. Hastings gave his political allegiance to the whig party, but upon its dissolution joined the ranks of the new republican party in 1856 and remained one of its stalwart supporters until his demise. From 1875 until 1879 he filled the office of county supervisor. When he took the office he found the county forty thousand dollars in debt and when he retired from the position all this indebtedness had been discharged. To his official duties he applied the same thorough methods which made his private business interests so successful and the county profited by his labors and his efforts. Many dollars which had been taken wrongfully from the county treasury found their way back through his vigilance. In religious faith he inclined to the Unitarian church but believed little in specific creeds, adhering to strict integrity and the golden rule, and conforming his actions thereto.
In 1867 Mr. Hastings was united in marriage to Miss Ella I. Nixon, who was born at Mottville, St. Joseph county, Michigan, on the St. Joseph river, and was the seventh in order of birth in a family of ten children. Her father was of Pennsylvania birth. Her mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary McCurdy, was a native of Youngstown, Ohio. The former died in 1849, after making an overland trip to California at the time of the gold rush. He had hardly reached the Golden state when he passed away. The mother, with the three youngest children of the family, afterward came, in company with Dr. A. H. Moore and his family, to Osage, and settled on a place a mile and a half from the county seat, known as Spring Grove. There Mrs. Hastings resided up to the time of her marriage. She attended school at the courthouse and also in the old Bell schoolhouse, where she came under the instruction of Professor Bush. For two years she was a student in the seminary. She belonged to a family of ten children, namely: Mrs. H. Gray, who was born in Ohio and died at the age of eighty-three years; Mrs. A. H. Moore, whose husband, Dr. Moore, was one of the most prominent early residents of Osage, both having now passed away; Mrs. J. C. Blakeslee, whose husband was also an early physician of Osage and both of whom are now deceased; Mrs. Mary Ramsdell, of Flandreau, South Dakota; Mrs. Catherine Coss, deceased; Mrs. Louise Schmedes, living in San Diego, California; William, who has passed away; Frank, living in Osage; one who died in infancy; and Mrs. Hastings.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hastings were born four children, but Willard and George, who were the eldest, have departed this life. Wood is now in Havana, North Dakota, where he is engaged very successfully in general merchandising. He is married and has two children, Willard and Elizabeth. Donald Hastings, the other member of the family, is now living at Lisbon, North Dakota, where he is engaged in the real estate business.
Mr. Hastings was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. He became a charter member of the lodge in Osage and afterward joined the chapter, commandery and consistory. Besides being a Knight Templar, he also was a Shriner and for several years served as eminent commander. Not long before his death he purchased four blocks of land in the heart of Osage and built thereon a beautiful home, surrounded by a magnificent park, making one of the most attractive residences not only in the city but in this section of the state. He retired from active business in 1900 and spent his remaining days in the enjoyment of well earned rest. The property which he secured had formerly belonged to Mr. Holship, who laid out the town of Osage and reserved four blocks for his personal use. This Mr. Hastings purchased and afterward erected thereon the present residence.
His demise was the occasion of deep and widespread regret, for he had left the impress of his individuality for good in many ways upon the public life of the community—upon its material development, upon its political interests, upon its social and moral advancement. He held friendship inviolable, was a devoted husband and father and his marked characteristics were those which in every land and clime awaken confidence and regard. Mrs. Hastings still makes her home in Osage. She is one of the charter members of the Literary Club and she was its secretary for six years. She has taken an active part in the work of the Universalist church, was a member of the choir for several years and was a teacher in the Sunday school for a considerable period. She has always been a lover of music and of good literature and of all those refining influences which have to do with the uplift of the individual and which are matters of cultural value. She is one of the most honored of the pioneer women of Osage— one whom personal experience has made familiar with the history of the county, the development and growth of which she has witnessed since this region was largely one great unbroken stretch of prairie. She has seen towns and cities builded, business enterprises established, churches and schools founded and the work of development carried steadily forward until there is no advantage of the older east that is not also to be found in Mitchell county.
Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, Vol. II, 1918, pages 174-179.
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