Spear, Samuel P.

SPEAR

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 7/2/2021 at 20:57:53

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.962

SAMUEL P. SPEAR
S. P. Spear is the owner of the Prairie View stock farm, on which he has lived since 1902, although he has been a resident of the county since 1873. His place, situated on section 23, White Oak Township, comprises four hun­dred and eighty acres and the natural productiveness of the soil has been greatly enhanced through the methods which he has followed in its develop­ment and cultivation. He started on life's journey in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, August 22, 1843. His father, Alexander Spear, was also a native of the Keystone state and a farmer by occupation. He was married in Pennsylvania to Miss Hannah Phillips and unto them were born nine children.
S. P. Spear, the eldest of the family, spent the days of his boyhood and youth on the old home farm and in the winter seasons attended the public schools, while in the summer months he worked in the fields. He gave his father the benefit of his service until he had attained his majority, when he began farming on his own account in Pennsylvania. Following his start in the business world, he made preparation for having a home of his own by his marriage on the 1st of December 1871, to Miss Susan Craig, a native of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. They began their domestic life in the Keystone state and after two years removed westward to Monroe County, Iowa, where they lived for three months, and then came to Warren County. Mr. Spear here purchased land near Milo, investing in three hundred and twenty acres in White Breast Township, where he began to till the soil in the cultivation of the crops best adapted to climatic conditions here. He built the first house on the prairie and began to break the sod and make a home. He afterward replaced his original dwelling by a more commodious and modern house and he has also erected barns and outbuildings. In fact, he has added to the place all modern equipments and accessories, using the latest improved machinery to facilitate the work of the fields as he plows the land and harvests the grain. He is engaged in the raising of graded stock and also fine cattle. He remained upon the original farm until 1901, when he purchased his present home place, comprising four hundred and eighty acres, known as the Prairie View stock farm. Here he is engaged in feeding from five to six carloads of feed to his stock each year. He makes a specialty of raising cattle and is meeting with success in his undertaking. He is an excellent judge of stock and has carefully and closely studied the best methods of raising cattle in this part of the country. He is sound in judgment, practical in his methods and far-sighted in formulating his plans, and year after year he is winning gratifying success.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Spear have been born five children, but they lost one in infancy. The others are: A. Elmer, who is living on the home place; Byron, who married Maggie Kellar and is a farmer of Belmont Township; Clara E., the wife of H. H. Walton, a farmer of White Breast Township; and C. C., who married Clydena McGuire and is living on the home farm. Mr. Spear was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife in 1903. She passed away at the age of sixty years and her death was deeply regretted by many friends, as well as her immediate family. His mother, however, survived until 1907 and passed away in Indianola at the age of eighty-seven years. The father's death had occurred in Pennsylvania, when he was fifty-five years of age.
Mr. Spear is a member of the United Presbyterian Church at Indianola and is serving as one of its trustees. Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise he has supported the Republican Party at state and national elections and has been a delegate to county and state conventions. He was township trustee in White Oak Township for two years and a trustee in White Breast Township for three years. While he has never failed in the perform­ance of his duties of citizenship, he has, nevertheless, preferred to devote his time and energies to his business affairs rather than to holding office and that he is a man of unabating energy and one whose industry never flags is indicated by the fact that he is now classed with the substantial and repre­sentative agriculturists and stock-raisers of the locality. His business has ever been conducted along lines that neither seek nor require disguise and knowing that success depends upon individual effort and not upon fortunate circumstances or influential friends, he has labored persistently and earnestly to win the place which he now occupies and which he well deserves.