Marcus J Coombs

COOMBS, WOODFORD

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/12/2010 at 22:02:48

Woodbury County History 1984

Marcus J Coombs
By John Belfrage

Marcus J Coombs was born in Jamaica, Vermont, March 7, 1832 and was a member of a family who traces its ancestors to the Mayflower: Richard and Frances Cook came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

In 1853, Marcus Coombs came to Iowa and Woodbury, Iowa (now Sergeant Bluff) on horse back. He and his brother, Edmond, took up land west of Dakota City, Nebraska, in 1861 and this land is now owned by Howard Beermann. Marcus worked as a carpenter while Edmond did the farm work. He worked in Sioux City and on a fort in Dakota Territory.

He married Olive Woodford on April 15, 1861, a daughter of Luther Woodford, pioneer of Sergeant Bluff. For a time the Coombs lived on a Nebraska Homestead but when grasshoppers took their crop, they moved back to Iowa.

In 1870, Marcus purchased land south of Sergeant Bluff and here he built a brick house in 1881-82. The land was purchased for $1.25 per acre and the house was built for a little more than $1600. Prices included brick at $6 per thousand, clear pine lumber $10 per thousand, $2.60 per day for mason, bread, carpenter, $2.25 for a ten-hour day, nails $1.25 per 100 pounds. The house was two story, plus attic, eleven rooms.

The house was backplastered, taking the place of modern insulation; the basement was divided into rooms and included a smoke house and a slated bin to hold apples. Mr Coombs grew his own apples and stored all the family needed for winter use besides potatoes, smoked meat, canned fruits, vegetables, and jellies.

An extension to the south of the house included a privy, buggy shed, was house, wood shed, and summer kitchen so no need to go form building to building in the cold or wet weather. The house was the most modern of its day. A porch on the rear housed a cistern pump. The house proper included a large kitchen, pantry, a back stairway from kitchen to two upstairs rooms for hired help, a front stairway to bedrooms for the family, eight bedrooms, living room and parlor. Beautiful black walnut sliding doors were between the parlor and living rooms.

Mr Coombs kept two to five hired men and a hired girl. Mrs Coombs baked huge supplies of bread and doughnuts were on the table for every meal. Seven children were born to them, two died in infancy. The five surviving chlldren were: Lillie Coombs Edgecumbe, Emma Coombs Hall, Luther Coombs, Charles Coombs, Bessie Coombs Tuttle. Descendants of the family still reside in the Sioux City area, Oregon, Washington and Red Oak, Iowa.

The farm was a 400 acre one. Mr Coombs kelpt blooded short horn cattle. He once sold some cattle to a Mr Van Hoven who shipped the cattle to St Paul, Minnesota, where they were paraded down the streets with blue ribbons on their horns.

A large barn was built across the road from the house. It was 64 feet by 72 feet which housed form 30 to 40 head of horses. Later the barn burned up and with it 28 head of horses. Mr Coombs raised coach horses and poland china hogs. He also kept bees. He set out many trees and an orchard, he was a great lover of trees.

A cow barn, two large cattle sheds, two corn cribs, an ice house, chicken house, hog house, a milk barn and blacksmith shop were included among the buildings on the side of the road with the house. The family milked six to eight cows for their own milk, butter and cheese. They were self-sustaining family as were most families of the era. Mr Coombs was an excellent farmer and a most up-to-date one. He had one of the first self binders of the country and the first manure spreader in the community. He hired men at the going wage of 50 cents per day and room and board. He even tried artificial insemination on horses at one time.

The family was a good Christian family and devoted to the Methodist Churhc.

In later years the Missouri River began cutting away at the land and took all but 160 acres. This plus the burning of the barn and possibly other ill luck almost ruined Mr Coombs. He and his wife retired form the farm in 1897; she died in 1911 and he in 1921 at the age of 89.

On April 24, 1965, the house and several remaining out buildings were burned to the ground to make way for a new industrial site, Kind and Knox Gealatin Inc, Port Neal Road. The farm was purchased by IPS in 1964. In the intervening years the farm was owned by the Peter Hansen family and the Chris Koch family. Some of the land taken by the reiver was reclaimed as accretion land in later yers.

So ends the epic of one of the largest farming operations in the Sioux City Territory.