Sylvester David LUICK

LUICK, VIERKANT, JOHNSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/31/2008 at 12:04:45

Belmond Herald, Belmond, Iowa
Ca. April 1938

Sylvester David Luick, 89, died Monday morning at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Harry Vierkant, five miles south and two miles east of Mason City. Mr. Luick suffered a broken hip in a fall Jan. 8 and failed to recover from the injury. Funeral services will be held at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon at the Methodist Church in Belmond. The Williams Funeral Home is in charge of the body.

Mr. Luick was born June 14, 1848 in Jackson County, Mich. and came to Iowa with his parents on Nov. 8, 1853, the family settling in Wright County. Mr. Luick in his later years in reminiscing said that the first home was a log cabin in Franklin Grove and for two years the family had to go to Dubuque for its groceries. There wasn't a railroad west of the Mississippi River at the time. The first winter was a mild one and the ducks and geese were in this section throughout the season. In 1854 a larger log house was built and the old cabin was used for a school house. More settlers moved in 1854 and 1855 and the family had a neighbor - 25 miles distant. Their neighbors were Mike Kelland, who lived three miles south of Clear Lake in a log cabin; Van Horn, first settler in Franklin County; Ansen Avery, first settler in Hancock County; and George Avery, the first boy born in Hancock County. The winter of 1856 was a terrible one for the pioneers as snow in Belmond was three feet high and the settlers' supplies were exhausted. The Indians, frightened by the threatened approach of the soldiers, had just left Franklin Grove. Mr. Luick on Sept. 25, 1868, was married to Irene Johnson, who preceded him in death Dec. 2, 1912. Surviving are four sons and a daughter.