Erb, Benjamin

ERB

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/28/2021 at 23:59:38

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.883

BENJAMIN ERB
For the past sixteen years Benjamin Erb has been identified with the farming and stock-raising interests of Lincoln Township, his home being on section 31, where he owns a fine farm of two hundred and seventy acres. He is a native of Ohio, born in Wayne County April 10, 1859, and is the son of John Erb, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1812 and when a young man went to the Buckeye state [Ohio]. There he married Lucy Haynes, also a native of Pennsylvania, and for several years they made their home in Wayne County, Ohio, where all of their children were born. In 1867 they came to Iowa and the father purchased a farm in Marion County and engaged in its operation for a number of years, having always followed agricultural pursuits. His last years were spent in Pleasantville, where he died in 1900, at the ripe old age of eighty-seven years. His estimable wife still survives him and continues to make her home in Pleasantville, Iowa.
In the family of this worthy couple were the following children: Henry, a resident of Pleasantville, John who died at the age of seventeen years; Benjamin, of this review; Cyrus, a farmer of Marion County; Mrs. Maria Hart, a widow living in Pleasantville; Mrs. Sarah Yoder, who was twice married and died in Nebraska; Susan, the wife of Frank Clark, of Pleasantville; Lydia, the wife of Harvey Hatfield, of Nampa, Idaho; Lucy, the wife of A.C. Raine, of Shelby County, Iowa; and Lizzie, the wife of Enoch Strohn, of Conway, Kansas.
Benjamin Erb spent the first eight years of his life in the county of his nativity and then accompanied his parents on their removal to Marion County, Iowa. As his school privileges were meager he is practically a self-educated man. He was married in Marion County December 4, 1879 to Miss Mary J. Sutton, who was born in Kansas, but was reared in that county. Her father, A. J. Sutton, is a native of West Virginia and is now living retired in Indianola. Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Erb, the oldest, Charles K., died in 1902, at the age of twenty years; and Letha E., died at the age of one year; Lola is now the wife of Charles C. Norris, a farmer of Lincoln Township; Chester R., married Ada Hornady, and follows farming in Union Township; and John Q., William A., Harry G., Retha Myrtle, and Flossie J. are all at home with their parents.
After his marriage, Mr. Erb was engaged in farming in Marion County until 1892, when he sold his property there and came to Warren County, having purchased two hundred and fifty-five acres of his present farm on section 31, Lincoln Township, to the improvement and cultivation of which he has since devoted his energies. He give considerable attention to the raising and feeding of stock, fattening one or two carloads of cattle and a number of hogs each year, and in his farming and stock-raising interests he is meeting with excellent success.
By his ballot, Mr. Erb supports the men and measures of the Republican Party and for a number of years he has been a member of the school board of his district. Both he and his wife are earnest and consistent members of the Church of the Brethren and they have the respect and confidence of all who know them.