John Kotas, who is numbered among the enterprising and successful farmers of Grant Township, where he resides on section 25, is a native of Austria, born in November, 1849, son of Joseph and Sophronia Kotas. When he was twelve years of age his parents immigrated, with their family of six children, to America, and located in Johnson County, Iowa, eight miles west of Iowa City, and there our subject was reared to manhood. He was united in marriage April 5, 1875, to Miss Emma Dozeall, a native of Johnson County, Iowa, and one of the nine children born to Winslow and Anna Dozeall. To Mr. and Mrs. Kotas have been born six children—Anna, Jerry, Delpha, Clara, Ernest and Birdie. In 1875 Mr. Kotas purchased his present farm in Grant Township from the Iowa Railroad Land Company, and the following year settled in Carroll County. His land was in a wild state when he bought it, and was one of the first improved farms in his neighborhood. He resided on his farm until 1881, when, on account of poor health, he took a trip to Colorado, remaining there about six months. He then returned to Carroll County, and with his family removed to Johnson County, and thence to Vining, Tama County, where he built a hotel and store, and there carried on the hotel, and engaged in the general mercantile business some three years, when he removed to Tama City, where he acted as foreman of a force of from seventy-five to one hundred railroad men. In 1884 he returned to Carroll County, locating at his old home, and that year erected a fine substantial residence at a cost of $1,200. His farm contains 178 acres of as good land as can be found in Grant Township, and is under a high state of cultivation. Quiet, unassuming, industrious and strictly honorable in all his dealings, he has gained the confidence and respect of the entire community.

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