The Pleasant View farm, one of the fine properties of Linn township, was the birthplace of Franklin W. Dance and thereon he is now successfully engaged in raising and feeding stock as well as in cultivating the fields in the production of the crops best adapted to soil and climate. Long a resident of this county, where he has many friends, his life history cannot fail to prove of interest to many of our readers.
His natal day was August 16, 1857, and he comes of English ancestry. His father, Major John Dance, was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1823, and spent his youthful days in that country. In early manhood he became overseer of a large farm but the opportunities of the new world proved an irresistible attraction and in 1849 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Prior to sailing for the new world he was married on the 28th of May, 1849, to Miss Phoebe H. Hodson, whose noble patriotism was evinced during her husband’s absence in the Civil war by maintaining her home at a great self-sacrifice. She was born at Henly Green, England. Following their arrival in America Mr. and Mrs. Dance spent about a year in Ohio and in 1852 became residents of Cedar county, Iowa. They spent one year at Rochester, after which he entered two forty-acre tracts of land upon which his son Franklin now resides. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made upon the place at the time but his unfaltering activity soon wrought a marked transformation in the appearance of his land, which was converted from wild prairie into richly productive fields.
He continued to engage in general farming until after the out-break of the Civil war, when, feeling that his first duty was to his country, he enlisted and joined Company K of the Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the battle of Shiloh and other engagements. Later he was in the hospital for some time from a bullet wound in his right arm, after which he returned home on a furlough. He was then commissioned to raise a company for service at the front and later went to Davenport, Iowa, where he acted as drill master for some time. When he again returned to the front he was elected captain of Company K, Eighth Iowa Cavalry, and served with that rank until promoted to major, holding the latter commission until the close of the war. He was mustered out at Macon, Georgia, August 18, 1865, and received honorable discharge.
The war over, Major Dance returned to his home and family and afterward became well known as pension agent and attorney of Linn county. He was elected and served on the county board of supervisors and in other local positions, his well known ability and loyalty in citizenship leading to his selection for various public offices. He reared his family here and in 1884 removed to Lisbon. He was there also called to public office and about 1886 was a candidate for the state legislature. He filled various positions of honor and trust and over the record of his official career there fell no shadow of wrong nor suspicion of evil. He spent his last years in Lisbon, but he died on the 21st of February, 1905, at Orient, Iowa, during a temporary sojourn there with his daughter Emma, having for a year survived his wife, who passed away January 12, 1904. They were laid to rest side by side in the Lisbon cemetery. Major Dance was a member of the Loyal Legion of Honor, of which Rutherford B. Hayes was commander. At the father’s death the membership and badge reverted to his son Franklin W., who prizes these very highly. In the family were but two children, the daughter being Emma, the wife of Captain James M. Treichler, a brother of Judge Treichler.
Franklin W. Dance was reared upon the home farm, there living until the removal of his parents to the town of Lisbon. He afterward purchased the Cedar Bluff Creamery, which he conducted for two years, and early in his business career he manifested the qualities of perseverance, determination and energy which have been the salient factors in his later success. After his marriage he located upon the home farm, where he has since erected a neat residence, a good barn and convenient outbuildings. This place, appropriately named the Pleasant View Stock Farm, comprises three hundred and twenty acres of rich and productive land. Of this one hundred and sixty acres is fenced and cross-fenced with hog-tight woven wire. He has made a close study of the best methods of tilling the fields and annually garners rich crops. He also engages in buying stock, largely handling steers, which he feeds and fattens for the market. He also fattens many hogs each year and his live-stock interests constitute an important and profitable branch of his business. The farm is equipped with the latest improved machinery and all of the accessories needed for facilitation the work.
Mr. Dance was married in Tipton on the 27th of September, 1881, to Miss Elizabeth S. Beese, who was born at Cedar Bluff and is a daughter of Carl Beese, one of the early settlers of the county and a veteran of the Civil war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Dance have been born four daughters: Arlynn M. pursued her education at Mount Vernon and at Cedar Falls, and now holds a state teacher’s certificate, being recognized as one of the leading educators of Iowa. She is now the wife of Dr. E. W. Bittner, a prominent young physician of Wheatland, Iowa, and a graduate of the State University of Iowa. Gale H., who also pursued her education at Mount Vernon and Cedar Falls, formerly engaged in teaching prior to her marriage to P. O. Clarke, also a student of Cornell College of Mount Vernon and now one of the progressive and intelligent farmers and business men of Linn county; Georgia H., who was educated at Cornell College, is also a teacher and assistant of Professor Aurner in securing data on the schools for this history of Cedar county; and Frankie Evelyn, who was educated at Cornell College of Iowa, completing the teacher’s course, has since been engaged in teaching in Cedar county. The family is a prominent one, occupying a leading position in those social circles where intelligence and true worth are received as the passport in to good society.
Mr. Dance attends the services of the Coon Creek Methodist Episcopal church located on his farm and his daughters are members of the church, while Mrs. Dance holds membership in the Baptist church. He was appointed a delegate to the Farmers National Congress held at Richmond, Virginia, in 1905, and has served altogether four times as a delegate to that body. Politically he has always been identified with the republican party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. The cause of education has ever found in him a stalwart champion and for twenty-five years he has been township school treasurer. He has been a delegate to both county and state conventions of his party and served as census enumerator of Cass and Linn townships in 1900. His loyalty to every public trust reposed in him is one of his strongly marked characteristics. He is a man of excellent business ability, recognized as a successful farmer and stock-dealer. The Dance home is one of education and refinement and of warm-hearted hospitality, and is a favorite resort of the many friends of the family. Their influence is all for good, being at all times given on the side of progress, improvement, justice and truth.
