Sandy, William T.

SANDY

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 7/2/2021 at 20:16:07

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.764

WILLIAM T. SANDY
William T. Sandy is connected with agricultural interests but manages his farm property from his home in Indianola. He is numbered not only among the pioneer settlers but also among the native sons of this county, his birth having occurred in Union Township on the 15th of October, 1856. His father, Ephraim G. Sandy, was born in Owen County, Indiana, in 1832, and was a son of Jeremiah Sandy of that state, who in the early '50's [1850s] came to Iowa and entered a tract of land in Union Township, Warren County, on which the town of Sandyville has since been built and thus named in his honor. He was one of the prosperous pioneer residents of the community. His son, Ephraim G. Sandy, inherited the father's business talents and enter­prise and remained actively engaged in the work of the farm until after the outbreak of the Civil War, when in 1862 he responded to the country's call for aid and joined the Union army with the boys in blue of Company D, Thirty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He served for about two and a half years and was in the commissary department during a portion of that time. When the war was over he returned home and resumed his identifica­tion with general agricultural pursuits here. In his business affairs he ac­cumulated considerable property but died in 1868, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. Politically he was a Republican but the honors and emoluments of office have no attraction for him. His widow, who bore the maiden name of Eliza Jane Stitt, was born in Indiana in 1836 and survived him until 1875. She was a devoted member of the Christian Church. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Stitt, both of whom died in Indiana. By her marriage Mrs. Sandy became the mother of five children: Elijah F., who died at the age of twenty-six years; William T.; Alice, who has departed this life; an infant son, deceased; and Inda, who has also passed away.
William T. Sandy, now the only surviving member of the family, was reared upon the home farm and attended the country schools. The occu­pation to which he gave his attention in his boyhood has since claimed his energies during the greater part of the time. In 1884 he made a trip to Montana and upon a ranch which he there purchased he engaged in raising horses. Later he returned to his Union Township farm whereon he resided until 1892, when he removed to Prairie City, in Jasper County, this state. There he filled the position of cashier of the State Bank for three years and in 1895 he came to Indianola, where he has since resided but gives his at­tention to the management of his farm. He is extensively engaged in feeding cattle and hogs and finds this a profitable source of income. His landed in­terests are valuable and comprise eighty acres in Lincoln Township and two hundred acres in Union Township, while his wife is also the owner of one hundred and sixty acres in the latter township.
In 1877 Mr. Sandy was married to Miss Isadore Brown, who was born January 10, 1858, in Pleasantville, Marion County, Iowa, her parents being William J. and Margaret Brown, who removed to Sandyville in 1868. Her father is now deceased but her mother is living and makes her home in Indianola. Mr. and Mrs. Sandy have three children: Maggie M., the wife of Fred Peck, a farmer of Valley Junction, by whom she has a daughter, Lucile Marie; Clyde B., who is farming east of Indianola, is married and has a daughter, Dorothy; and Flossie I., at home. Mrs. Sandy is a member of the Christian church and Mr. Sandy belongs to the Mutual Benevolent Asso­ciation. They are both highly esteemed and he is well known as a citizen who gives loyal support to the Republican Party and stands firm in his allegiance to every cause in which he believes. Great changes have come during the period of his residence in this county, for in his boyhood days it yet bore many evidences of the frontier but he has seen it transformed into one of the most progressive districts of the state, and has borne his full share in the work of general development and progress, His connection with any un­dertaking insures a prosperous outcome of the same, for it is in his nature to carry forward to successful completion whatever he is associated with. He has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of busi­ness and in his dealings is known for his prompt and honorable, methods, which have won him the deserved and unbounded confidence of his fellowmen.