David W. Buck

BUCK, WOODS, HOOKER, FARMER, GODTLAND

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/21/2010 at 04:41:50

DAVID W. BUCK

David W. Buck, who is living retired in Lake Mills, is one of the ever decreasing number of veterans of the Civil war. He was born on the 5th of March, 1839, in New Hampshire, and is a son of Stickney and Maria (Woods) Buck, also natives of that state. The father engaged in farming there and later in Wisconsin and in Minnesota and reached the age of seventy-six years, dying in January, 1879. The mother attained the venerable age of ninety-three years and passed away in June, 1895.

David W. Buck accompanied his parents on their removal to the west and remained at home until he was grown. He then accompanied his sister to Indiana, where in 1861 he enlisted in Company D, Sixteenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served at the front for thirteen months. At the end of that time, in August, 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Fifth Indiana Cavalry, and after three months' service with that body of troops was given the privilege of joining the regular army and became a member of Company F, First United States Cavalry. He remained in the army for three years after the close of the war, but at the end of that time was mustered out and returned to Minnesota. For four years he operated his father's farm, but in 1879 came to Winnebago county, Iowa, and bought eighty acres of land a half mile east of Lake Mills. He at once set about clearing his farm and made a number of improvements upon the place during the two years that he operated it. His health failed at the end of that period and he was obliged to give up agricultural work. He removed to Lake Mills and for eight years was employed in an elevator here, but subsequently went to North Dakota, where he proved up on a homestead. During the last five years he has lived retired, enjoying the fruits of his former well directed labor.

On March 23, 1866, Mr. Buck was married to Miss Emma Farmer, a daughter of John and Mary Ann (Hooker) Farmer, who lived in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Buck celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage. They are the parents of three children, as follows: Lucian C., who was born February 20, 1867, and is farming south of Lake Mills; Mary M., who was born February 22, 1868, and is residing in Montana; and Ethel L., who was born November 20, 1888, and is the wife of Oscar Godtland, of Lake Mills.

Mr. Buck cast his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln for president and has since stanchly supported the candidates of the republican party—the party which stood for the maintenance of the Union when its existence was threatened. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, which affords him opportunity to keep in touch with his comrades of the Civil war. In religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Buck are Methodists. He has a wide acquaintance in the county and the fact that those who have been most intimately associated with him are his stanchest friends is proof of his sterling worth as a man.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 239-240.