Wilbur J. Osgood

OSGOOD, MERRILL, WEAVER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 08:52:00

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

WILBUR J. OSGOOD.

One of the popular and substantial citizens of Osceola County is Wilbur J. Osgood, who gives his support to all measures for the public good, and his name nas long been synonymous with honorable dealings in all the relations of life. He has passed so many of his years in Osceola County that he has a wide acquaintance among its best citizens, many of whom are included within the circle of his warm personal friends. He has always tried to measure up to the standard of correct manhood, and this locality is proud to number him among its progressive and representative residents.

Wilbur J. Osgood was born December 16, 1878, on the farm where he is now living, and the same which his father homesteaded in the early seventies. His father, Clemment Osgood, was a native of New York, and came to Butler County, Iowa, when about thirty years of age. He lived there until Osceola County was open for homesteading and then came to this county and established his claim to a large tract of land. He was one of the first settlers in the county and passed through some very trying experiences in his time. He built a dugout first and then later erected a sod house. He had just finished his sod house when the terrible three-day blizzard from October 10 to October 13, 1873, came. If this blizzard had struck some days before their houses were completed, they would probably have perished. It is remembered as the severest blizzard that ever crossed the plains of this county. In the course of a few years he was able to build a small frame house, to which he later added as the family increased. Mr. Osgood was the first man in the county to have a grain stack, and for many years bound all of his own grain by hand. He went through the experiences incident to the grasshopper period and for three years fed practically all of his crops to these little pests. A few years after he had comfortably settled in this state, he made a trip to his home state in New York, during the winter. He started back in February and got as far as Mason City, Iowa, when the train was blockaded by snow. Not knowing how long it would be before they could proceed westward, he and another man started to walk the rest of the way home, but did not reach home until early in April. During part of their way they walked on snow drifts as high as telegraph poles. In fact the snow was so deep in many places along the railroad track that it was the latter part of April before their train reached Osceola County. When Mr. Osgood settled in this county the nearest postoffice was Cherokee, seventy miles away. Clemment Osgood and wife were the parents of eight children, four of whom are living. He died in 1896 and his wife, Mary M. Merrill, is now living in Sheldon, where she moved in 1908. The children of this family were three who died in childhood; Milo, of Canada; Maud, who is with her mother in Sheldon; Wilbur; Hattie, deceased, aged thirty-two, in 1914; Clifford, with his brother Wilbur.

Wilbur J. Osgood was educated in the schools of this county and from his earliest boyhood has spent all of his spare time upon the farm. In 1907 he was married to Mable Weaver, who was born in Edmund, Wisconsin, May 2, 1884, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Simon Weaver. The Weaver family came to Iowa shortly after the county had been settled. Mr. and Mrs. Osgood have three children, Homer, Lawrence and Dorothy, all of whom are still children.

Mr. Osgood devotes most of his time and attention to stock breeding, making a specialty of Aberdeen Angus cattle. He owns three hundred and twenty acres of land in Lyon County, adjoining Osceola. He and his father were both Republicans, but never were aspirants for any public office. The family have always been Methodists and Clemment Osgood was very active in the work of the church. Mr. Osgood gives character and stability to the body politic. He is a man who has won the admiration and esteem of his neighbors and friends by his clean and upright way of living.

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