Albert H. Agar

AGAR, ROWAN, SAUERMAN, VAN CAMP, GRIMM, BOHNSACK, DRUMM

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2007 at 20:06:08

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

ALBERT H. AGAR.

One of the most prosperous and substantial farmers of West Holman township is Albert H. Agar, who has always taken a great deal of pride in being a plain, every-day farmer. Everything which he has today has been gained solely through his own unaided efforts and therefore he deserves a great deal of credit for his substantial position in the affairs of his county.

Albert H. Agar, the son of Thomas and Sarah (Rowan) Agar, was born November 29, 1867, in Muscatine county, Iowa. Thomas Agar was born in Lincolnshire, England, and came to this country in 1847. He had followed the cabinet-making trade in his own country, but after coming to the United States he worked on a farm by the month. He first worked in New York state for seven years and then became manager of a large thirteen-hundred-acre farm owned by David Pifford. For ten years he worked here as foreman and in 1864 came to Iowa, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres in Muscatine county. Here he lived until 1897 and he moved to Montpelier, where he lived until his death, August 29, 1906. His wife, Sarah Rowan, was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, and came to Iowa in 1848 with her parents, John A. and Catherine Rowan. They went on a steamboat down the Ohio river to Cairo, Illinois, and then up the Mississippi to Iowa and landed at Buffalo, building a log house there and lived as did the other pioneers at that time. Thomas Agar and wife were the parents of seven children: Elizabeth, the wife of C. F. Sauerman; Henry; Anna, the wife of G. W. Van Camp; Lollie, the wife of Fred Grimm, deceased; Albert H., whose life history is here presented; Eugenia, the wife of O. A. Bohnsack, and Thomas.

Albert H. Agar received a good common school education in the schools of Muscatine county, Iowa, and lived at home until he was twenty-nine years of age. He then rented two hundred and sixty acres of land in his home county for three years, later moving to his present farm in Osceola county which he had purchased in 1889. He now owns two hundred and forty acres in section 2 of West Holman township, which he purchased in 1898, and eighty acres which he has since added in East Holman township. When he moved upon his farm in 1898 it wras very much run down, but he has increased its productivity by a system of scientific crop rotation. He has built a comfortable and convenient country home, two large barns and a granary which will hold seven thousand five hundred bushels of grain. He has also fenced his farm and installed a complete system of drainage, thereby adding greatly to the value as well as to the attractiveness of the farm. He has not neglected to provide shed room for all of his tools and implements, thereby demonstrating that he is a careful and methodical farmer.

Mr. Agar was married April 26, 1900, to Lena Drumm. She is the daughter of Thomas and Minnie Drumm, and was born February 7, 1872. in Muscatine county, Iowa. Her parents were both natives of Germany and reared a family of five children, Henry, Rosa, Lena, Minnie and Jacob. Mr. and Mrs. Agar are the parents of two children, Alice and Edward, both of whom are still living under the parental roof. Alice was born February 26, 1901, and Edward was born June 16, 1906.

Mr. Agar is a Democrat in politics but has been content to devote all his time and energy to his agricultural interests. He raises all the crops of this section of the state and in addition raises a large amount of stock and poultry. He is a man who takes a great deal of pride in his farming and is thoroughly in love with his chosen life work. He is a member of the Modern Brotherhood of America and is a charter member of that organization at Sibley. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and while he has never formally identified himself with the church, yet he has always lived a life which conforms to the rules of Christian ethics. He is a man who has won a host of friends throughout this community because of his genial and unassuming manner.

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