Igo, Silas (1867-1955)

IGO

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 11/15/2016 at 22:19:38

Advocate Tribune newspaper, Indianola, Iowa, Thursday, Feb 15, 1906, front page
Biography of Silas Igo, written by George E. Epps

Lewis Igo, the father of the subject of this sketch was born in the state of Ohio on the 20th day of December 1832. From Ohio the family moved to the state of Indiana where he grew to manhood. On the 20th day of May 1855 he arrived in Palmyra with his father, the Rev. Silas Igo. Mr. Igo was at this time in his twenty third year. After looking around for awhile, he formed a partnership with George Washington Heiney, now of Indianola, the popular agent of the old reliable Hawkeye insurance company. Their business was to supply the people with lightning rods and clocks. Many of the old clocks are still in existence and occasionally a part of an old lightning rod may be found, which protected the houses and barns from the thunder bolts of a half century ago. After supplying the people with reliable timekeepers and protecting them from the ravages of the lighning’s red glare; Mr. Igo built the storeroom now occupied by “little Jim” as a restaurant and harness shop, and engaged in the mercantile business. While he was selling goods he commenced to buy hogs and drive them to Keokuk. This he kept up for a number of years. When the railroad reached Ottumwa, he would drive to Ottumwa. When the railroad reached Des Moines, he continued to buy and ship hogs and cattle to the Chicago markets in 18. He formed a partnership with General Tuttle of Des Moines and built a packing house in that city. He engaged in that business until 18 when he sold out the business, quit shipping, commenced to buy land, feed hogs and cattle, and let others ship. In 1875 he bought the Kitchel farm and continued to put his money into real estate until he now owns 890 acres of choice land in Palmyra township. Mr. Igo was married to Miss Elizabeth Varner. To this union fourteen children were born, ten of whom are now living. In 1896 Mr. Igo retired from the active labors in which he had so long been engaged and moved to Indianola where he now resides. Silas Igo, the fifth child born to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Igo and the immediate subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Palmyra on the 11th day of December 1867. Here his uneventful boyhood was spent in digging bait, fishing, snaring ground squirrels, going to school, doing chores, working on the farm, and helping his father drive and care for the stock. He finished his schooling days by taking a course in one of the Des Moines business colleges. On the 24th day of February 1892 he was united in marriage to Miss Sue Whipple. Five children have been born to them, two sons and two daughters are now living. Mr. Igo lives in the house in Palmyra which his father built thirty-seven years ago and has under his control the 240 acres of land lying immediately south of the town of Palmyra where he is engaged in breeding Aberdeen Angus cattle and Poland China hogs. Mr. Igo has a herd of forty head of pure bred cattle of the highest type. At a recent sale held at the state fair grounds in Des Moines he sold forty six head of his Angus cattle for $11,056; thirty-two head of these cattle were of his own breeding. The average price received for the herd was better than $540 per head. The highest received for any one animal was $680 for a heafer. This was the highest average price for which any herd of Angus cattle ever sold for in the state of Iowa. The forty head which Mr. Igo now has on hand are just as good as those he sold. Mr. Igo commenced the breeding of Aberdeen Angus cattle on the 14th day of March 1900, and has found it a pleasant as well as profitable business. In January of the year 1898 Mr. Igo was a school director in his native town of Palmyra. A lady teacher had a box supper and asked Mr. Igo to sell the boxes for her to the highest bidder. This he did and in so doing discovered what has since proved to be the ability to sell at public auction. On the 8th day of March 1898 he cried his first sale for Will Sinnard south of Indianola. A few days later he cried his second sale for Lafayette Wade in Palmyra township. From that day to the present time he has been actively engaged in selling property at public auction and for the last three years he has sold more Aberdeen cattle than any other man in the United States and so it has come to pass that old Palmyra stands first in more than one thing. Mr. Igo has sold stock in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri. He has thus been the medium through which millions of dollars worth of property has changed hands. Every man has an opportunity at some period in his life to do something or be something in this world but alas, how many there be who let the golden opportunity pass vainly expecting to make an effort at some other time to avail themselves of the opportunity offered and when too late to accomplish anything the balance of life is spent in regretting the lost opportunities. Every young man should have some definite aim in life and back of the aim there should be a determination to act. Thinking is all right but thought must be followed by action if we would accomplish anything. In that old dingy school house in the old town of Palmyra at a box supper, the young, the gay, the thoughtless had gathered to spend the evening. It was suggested to the mind of Silas Igo that if he could sell a ladies lunch he could sell animals or an implement. The suggestion became a thought, the thought materialized a few days later in crying a sale; he did not let the suggestion pass, he did not put off action tomorrow what should be done today; but he acted in the ever living present and to day he is known far beyond the borders of his own state as a successful stock auctioneer and I want to say to the young men of Warren county that what Silas Igo has done you can do. Will you do it? Mr. Igo is a member of the Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Woodman. He is a member in good standing of the republican party but does not belong to the church. His grandfather was a Methodist preacher, his mother and wife are members of the Methodist church but in closing this chapter we want to caution him not to rely too much on heredity and environment, because self determination is the master influence in this life, making us what we are to be in the great beyond. You are the master of your fate. “It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the soul; you are the master of your fate, you are the captain of your soul.”