Samuel Elser

ELSER MCMULLEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/20/2010 at 20:31:10

Woodbury County History 1984

Samuel Elser
By Helen Woods

Samuel Elser, son of Peter and Louisa Elser, was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, February 5, 1836. He was one of eleven children. He grew to manhood in Ohio and lived there until the outbreak of the Civil War.

He enlisted in the Union Armey, Company E 74th Indiana Volunteers, at Goshen, Indiana. He was wounded early in the war and, after that he became a driver for an ammunition wagon. He fought in the Battle of Chattanooga and was with Sherman in his ‘march to the sea’. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war.

On October 25, 1865, he was married to Margaret McMullen, daughter of David and Elizabeth McMullen of South Bend, Indiana. In the year 1871, the Elsers came by covered wagon to Harlan, in Shelby County, Iowa, where prairie land was selling for $3.00 to $5.00 an acre. Then in 1882, they came to a farm, two and one-half miles northwest of Pierson.

Some twenty-five years later, they bought an acreage on the west side of Pierson and built a home there. Mrs Elser died there in 1912.

They raised a family of ten children. Mr Elser was not only a farmer, but also did carpentry work. The United Brethren Church was built and dedicated in 1886, and Mr Elser was chief carpenter, assisted by membrs of the church.

‘Grandpa’ Elser never failed to vote in a presidential election from the time he voted for Abraham Lincoln before the Civil War. When he was 91 years of age, he was awarded a diamond pin at the Methodist Church for perfect attendance for three years.

Mr Elser died in 1931 at the age of ninety-five and one-half years.