Stilwell, Obadiah

STILWELL, STEELE

Posted By: Marilyn Norris Holmes (email)
Date: 11/28/2012 at 11:43:42

1880 History of Poweshiek County Iowa

UNION TOWNSHIP

Page 704-5

STILWELL, OBADIAH--A large and enterprising farmer, living on section 7. He was born in Wayne county, Indiana, on the 29th day of January, 1840. He lived there with his parents till the sixteenth year of his age, working on the farm and going to school in the the winter. In the spring of 1866, he, with all his father's family, came west, taking steamboat at Cincinnati, and after a voyage of about 1,000 miles and nine days' time, landed at Keokuk, thence to Sugar Creek township, this county. Here our subject resided till 1876, when he moved to his present residence in Union township. He married Miss Martha Steele, February 26, 1866. His wife was also born in Indiana, in Morgan county, July 24, 1843, and came to Poweshiek county when three years of age. By this marriage there were four children: Hannah E. (born November 25, 1866), Robert Franklin (born January 22, 1870), Fred A. (born September 2, 1877) and an infant (died January 23, 1880). Mr. Stilwell's farm is one of the oldest and best in the county. Land was broken just south of the house, perhaps the first in the township. It contains 370 acres, ninety timber, remainder tillable, a part of which is under excellent cultivation. There are orchards, young and old; some trees have been planted thirty-five years. At present he keeps about sixty head of cattle, ten horses, 130 hogs, twenty stands of bees. Grapes, currants, and raspberries, are in abundance. He has heretofore raised considerable corn, oats and wheat, but intends soon to give his attention to stock-raising. He has grown this year about seventy acres of corn, and one field of forty acres will yield eighty bushels per acre. He has one of the finest and best arranged dwelling-houses in the county, a large and commodious barn, with granaries for oats and wheat, stalls for eighteen horses, hay-lofts, and other conveniences. There are four living springs of water located at various places on the farm. Although it is an old farm, it has had only three owners. Mr. McIntire, Mr. Watson, and the present owner. Mr. Thos. Rigden first took the land as a claim, but Mr. McIntire obtained a deed from the government.