George A. Ide

IDE, STONE, WILLIAMS, ALLEN, CHAFFEE, MOORE

Posted By: Ruth Groesbeck McDowell (email)
Date: 3/5/2018 at 12:44:48

From "History of Union County, Iowa - From the Earliest Historic Times to 1908" by George A. Ide

George A. Ide, to whom we are indebted for the compiling of this volume of history, first visited this county in 1869 on a prospecting tour. In 1870, he, with his brother, William T. Ide, purchased land and located in what is now Grant township, and improved farms adjoining. At that time this section was an open prairie and very sparsely settled.

George A. Ide is a native of Bristol county, Massachusetts. His father, Captain William T. Ide, owned a large farm and carried on extensive business in other lines. His mother was before marriage Sarah A. Stone, a direct descendant of Roger Williams. Both father and mother were well educated and of sterling Christian character. The subject of this sketch was second in a family of eleven children and in his home he was taught habits of industry and perseverance. After a common school and academic education he received a rigid business training in the counting room of a Quaker merchant, where he was employed for several years.

In 1866, Mr. Ide went to Bureau county, Illinois, and engaged in farming, and the following year returned to his home and married Ellen Frances Allen, daughter of Samuel B. Allen, a prominent and well-to-do farmer. Her mother, who was Mary Chaffee before marriage, was a woman of culture and of many Christian graces. For three years after marriage their home was on a finely improved farm in Bureau county, Illinois, and then they took up their residence and began pioneer life in Union county, Iowa, on a farm of several hundred acres, where they remained twenty-five years and were identified with the largest and best interests of the community. Mr. and Mrs. Ide took especial pride in the development and improvement of their prairie farm, constructing substantial buildings, planting orchards and groves and in every way seeking to add to the comfort, pleasure and value of the home.

They have four children living, a daughter having died in infancy. Frank A. Ide is a farmer and stockman of Grant township. Alice G. married Dr. James S. Moore, of Providence, Rhode Island, where they now reside. Dr. Arthur W. is a surgeon following his profession in Minnesota. Frederic W. is in partnership with his father. The children all received the advantages of education.

Pioneer life had its elements of interest and pleasure, even though there were inconveniences and hardships to encounter. By industry and economy they converted their land into one of the best farming properties of the county. Mr. Ide has been interested in high grade horses and cattle and has done much to improve the grade of farm animals raised in this section of the country. He was an officer in the Agricultural association and was president and director of the Fair association at different times. In politics he is a republican. At the first election after locating here in 1870, he was elected to office and during the nearly twenty-five years that he lived on the farm he was almost continuously in some official position, filling nearly every office in the township, and serving six years as county supervisor. He was for ten years justice of the peace and twenty years a member of the school board.

Mr. Ide and family were members of the Pilgrim Congregational church, where Mr. Ide was an officer both in church and Sunday school. He endorsed all movements for public good and whatever tended toward the growth and welfare of the community in which he lived. Since leaving the farm he has resided in Creston and associated with his son, Fred, constitute the firm of George A. Ide & Son, investment brokers, real estate and insurance. He has been twice elected to the office of county treasurer, serving the two terms with credit. He is at the present time president of the Old Settler’s association. He has been a witness and had a leading part in the growth and development of the county in which he has made his home for thirty-eight years and has a wide and favorable acquaintance.

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