Andrew Culver 1846-1904

CULVER, KENNEDY, MARDEN, HAYTER, MITTIMGER, ALPIN, WHITACRE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2007 at 20:59:20

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

ANDREW CULVER.

One of the first settlers of Osceola county, Iowa, was Andrew Culver. He settled in this county on June 13, 1871, on a soldier's claim. This was at the very beginning of the influx of settlers in this county and accordingly he is conversant with the entire history of the county from its beginning. His father was one of the most influential men of the county in its early history and was the first county treasurer elected. Mr. Culver has arisen to his present position without other assistance than a strong will and a willing-heart, coupled with those qualities, of integrity and honor which are always in concomitance of the successful man's career.

Andrew Culver, a contracting carpenter of Sibley, Iowa, and the son of Andrew M. and Anna (Kennedy) Culver, was born February 1, 1846, in Portage county, Iowa. His father was born in August, 1811, near Springfield, New York, and was married in Portage county, Ohio, to Anna Kennedy. Andrew M. Culver's father settled in the Western Reserve of Ohio early in the last century and in 1850 the family moved to Albany, Athens county, Ohio. While living here Andrew M. was mustered into the Ohio National Guard and later served in the Union army in the one-hundred-days' service. Andrew M. and his son Andrew were both in Company H, One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served for one hundred days. The Culver family lived in Athens county until March, 1865, and then moved to Wisconsin, where they lived six years. In the fall of 1870 they moved to southwestern Iowa and in the following spring came to Osceola county, where they homesteaded on section 24, township 29, range 42, about one and one-half miles south of Sibley. During the first summer the family lived in a board shanty, twelve by eighteen feet and seven feet high. In the fall of 1871 they built a house fourteen by twenty-four feet and fourteen feet high and also a sod stable with a roof. The first year Andrew broke up twenty-five acres of land. During the grasshopper years they suffered as did all the other settlers of this section of the state and were oftentimes practically on the verge of starvation. One summer the grasshoppers ate up twenty-five acres of fine corn, after it had a good start. Andrew M. Culver was elected county treasurer in the fall of the first year that they lived in the county and served for two years. He lived on his homestead until about 1879, and then sold out and bought eighty acres near Sibley, where he lived three years. He then moved to Sibley where he lived until his death, April 10, 1904. His wife died June 2, 1876. Andrew M. Culver and wife were the parents of a large family of children: One who died in youth; Alonzo, a soldier in the Thirty-sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was killed at Lewisburg, West Virginia, in a battle on May 23, 1862; Mrs. Drusilla Bean, deceased; Mrs. Melissa Thomas, deceased; Andrew, whose life history is here presented to the reader.

Andrew Culver received a limited common school education in the schools of Ohio and, as had been indicated, moved with his family from place to place until he finally reached Osceola county in the spring of 1871. Like his father, he received a soldier's claim and at once set to work to improve his land. He was married in the fall of 1871 and then started to housekeeping upon his homestead. Here they lived for ten years, starting in with a very small shanty in which they lived for a few months. In 1881 they sold their farm and moved to Sibley where they have since lived with the exception of one year when they resided in Morrison, Iowa. For twelve years Mr. Culver was employed in the Sibley Flouring Mills, but, the work proving too arduous, he engaged in carpentering and contracting. Since engaging in this business he has been very successful and now owns three valuable residences in Sibley as well as several lots.

Mr. Culver was married on November 29, 1871, to Fanny Marden, who was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, July 29, 1851. She is the daughter of Edward and Mary (Hayter) Marden, natives of England. Her parents came from England and settled in Wisconsin, where they were married, living all of their days in that state. The father died in 1869 and the mother in 1894.

Mr. Culver had met his wife while his parents were living in Wisconsin. They were sweethearts in that state before he left for Iowa. Accordingly as soon as he had established his claim in Iowa he returned to Wisconsin, where they were married. They are the parents of six children: Edgar, a druggist and chemist in a wholesale drug house in Sioux City, Iowa; Cleo, a trained nurse and the widow of H. N. Aplin, has three children, Mildred, Bruce and Warren: Airs. Lottie Mittinger, of Minneapolis;, Bruce, who is assisting his father in the carpenter work, and Arthur, who died at the age of four, in 1882. There are now four generations of the Culver family living in Osceola county, as follows: Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Culver; their daughter, Mrs. Leo Aplin; Mrs. Aplin's daughter, Mrs. Mildred Whitacre, and Mrs. Whitacre's daughter, Miss Elva Whitacre.

Mr. Culver is a Republican in politics, but has never had inclination for public office. Religiously, he and his family have been loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal church, while, fraternally, he is a member of the Modern Brotherhood of America and the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Culver is a man of optimistic nature and during his long residence in this county he has won a host of friends who admire him for his genial and unassuming nature.