Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed by Sharon Elijah October 5, 2020

Will H. Rickerson, founder, editor and publisher of The Citizen at Coon Rapids, began early in life as a printer and learned the business from the foundation up. He has made a success of his business and ranks today among the prominent country editors of Iowa. He was born at Adel, Iowa, March 19, 1859, the only of child of C. G. D. and Amarilla (Simons) Rickerson, the former a native of Ithaca, New York, and the latter of Berrion Springs, Michigan. The mother died in September, 1859, at the age of twenty-three years, and Mr. RIckerson was married to Miss Melinda Caldwell. Three children were born to them, Harry, Guy and Glenn, all of whom are living at Adel. Mr. Rickerson, Sr., came to Iowa in 1846 and located on a farm of forty acres three miles west of Adel, to which he later added one hundred and twenty acres. In his early manhood he learned the carpenter’s trade and not feeling inclined to continue permanently as an agriculturist, he disposed of his farm and located at Adel, where he engaged as a carpenter and contractor. He was the builder of the first two courthouses at Adel in partnership with Charles Rodenbaugh and erected many handsome residences in Adel and the surrounding country. He continued in active work until seventy-five years of age when he retired and has now reached the age of eighty-one, his wife being about seventy. Mrs. RIckerson is a consistent member of the Christian church. Mr. RIckerson has been a useful and patriotic citizen, ever willing to perform his part in advancing the comfort and happiness of his fellow men. At the time of the Civil war he served for four years in behalf of the Union as a member of Company C, Thirty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and for twelve years very acceptably filled the office of city marshal of Adel.

The grandfather of our subject on the paternal side was Ransom Rickerson, a native of Sweden, and his wife was Mary A. (Loomis) Rickerson. After their marriage they came to America and took up their residence at Ithaca, New York, later moving to Lafayette, Indiana. In 1846 they settled in Dallas county, Iowa, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mr. Rickerson died at the age of sixty-three years and his wife passed away in her ninety-third year. They were the parents of one child, Chauncey G. D. The grandparents on the maternal side had only one child, Amarilla, the mother of our subject.

Will H. Rickerson was reared at Adel and received his preliminary education in the public schools, graduating from the Adel high school. He learned the carpenter’s trade in his native town and went to Des Moines, where he served for six months at merely nominal pay in the job office of Mills & Company, state printers. However, he soon demonstrated his interest in his work and his ability as a printer and was given a good position with the company, which he retained for nine years. He then started a newspaper on his own account at Adel, called The New Era, which he successfully published for five years. At the close of the time named he went to Stuart, Iowa, and as a member of a stock company published The Stuart News for three years. In 1891 he came to Coon Rapids and bought the Coon Rapids Reporter which he ran for a while, but perceiving an opening for another newspaper, he established The Citizen, January 14, 1903, of which he has since been the publisher. The Citizen is a democratic newspaper and as it is conducted on broad and progressive lines, it has met with a hearty response on the part of the people and has a wide circulation in Carroll county.

On the 18th day of September, 1902, at Audubon, Iowa, Mr. RIckerson was married to Miss Mary Iphigenia Case, who was born at Hartford, Connecticut, March 3, 1868, a daughter of Will W. and Ida H. (Churchill) Case. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. RIckerson, Delos, Faye and twin, and Don. Delos died at the age of nine years and the twin of Faye died in infancy. Mrs. Rickerson removed with her parents from Connecticut when six years old to Chicago where the family spent five years, coming in the spring of 1879 to Davenport, Iowa. In the fall of 1883 the family moved to Audubon county where the daughter Mary grew to womanhood. She is a valuable assistant to her husband in his newspaper work, as she is a practical printer, having worked at the trade before her marriage. Her father, who was born in Rockville, Connecticut, enlisted in the Civil war in Company B, Sixteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry and served three years, from 1864-65, receiving then his honorable discharge after faithful service. He now makes his home with his children. The mother of Mrs. Rickerson was born in Vermont and died at Audubon, Iowa, November 27, 1890, having arrived at the age of forty-two years. There were nine children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Case, namely: Mary Iphigenia, now Mrs. Will H. RIckerson; Emma Louise, who married Robert Reed Tillman, of Laramie, Wyoming; Elizabeth Marilla, the wife of Jesse A. Nightser, of Manville, Wyoming; Charles Horatio, who makes his home in Nevada, Iowa; Clarence Walter, of Lost Spring, Wyoming; Samuel Herbert, of Manville, Wyoming; Clara Beatrice, a trained nurse of Brooklyn, New York; Ida Alice, who married Harry D. St. Johns, of Peoria, Illinois; and Almyra Jeannette, who died in infancy. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Rickerson was Samuel Case, a native of Massachusetts, who lived to the age of eighty-eight years and died at Orin, Wyoming. He was by his first marriage the father of two children, Clara and William W. The grandfather on the maternal side was Seth D. Churchill, who was a soldier in the Civil war. His wife, Elizabeth H. (Tinkhkam) Churchill, served as a nurse in this war. She was of Scotch descent while her husband was of English origin. They had three children, Ida, Dan and Asa.

Mr. Rickerson of this review is not a member of any religious organization but his wife is identified with the Methodist church. He has been a lifelong democrat and there are few men in Iowa who are better informed as to the history of the party or are better prepared to champion its principles. He served as town recorder for eight years, though he has never been an aspirant for political honors, preferring to concentrate his attention upon his business which under his experienced management has developed to handsome proportions, making him one of the most prosperous publishers in the his part of the state.

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