Sidney W. Larrabee, who is engaged in general farming on section 33, Deerfield township, Chickasaw county, was born near Rockford, Illinois, April 6, 1856, a son of William H. and Esther (Tibbits) Larrabee, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the latter was born in the state of New York. They were married in the Empire state, the father having removed to New York with. his parents when a lad of nine years. After his marriage he removed westward with his bride to Mentor, Ohio, where he lived for a number of years, devoting his attention to farming during that period. He afterward spent two years in Cleveland, Ohio, where he engaged in teaming and draying. He was a resident there during the cholera scourge of 1850. From Cleveland he went to Illinois, settling on a farm near Rockford, and in 1856, when his son Sidney was but three weeks old, he brought his family to Chickasaw county, Iowa, then a frontier district in which the work of development and improvement had scarcely been begun. He secured a preemption claim of forty acres on section 8, Deerfield township, for which he paid a dollar and a quarter per acre, and upon that farm he lived for four years. He then sold the property and made investment in eighty acres on section 33, Deerfield township, and occupied that place throughout the remainder of his active business life. His wife passed away in 1878 and after her death Mr. Larrabee took up his home with his son Sidney, with whom he lived until called to his final rest in 1914, when eighty-seven years of age.

Sidney W. Larrabee acquired a district school education and spent his youthful days in the usual manner of the farm-bred boy, early acquiring knowledge concerning the best methods of tilling the fields that has been of great value and use to him in later years. On the 11th of May, 1878, Mr. Larrabee was united in marriage to Miss Alice A. Granger, a daughter of Aaron F. Granger, who removed from Delaware county, New York, to Chickasaw county, Iowa, in 1872, settling in Deerfield township. Subsequently, however, he made his way to Minnesota and thence to Canada, in which country he spent the remainder of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Larrabee have become parents of six children, as follows: William A., at home; Fred F., who is deceased; Nellie, the wife of John North, of Alta Vista, Chickasaw county; Alice the deceased wife of Lee Beard; Hettie A., the deceased wife of Glen Tedey; and Harry S., who went to France with the United States forces and died four days after arriving in that country. Fred F., Alice L. and Hettie A. all died of influenza within a week.

Subsequent to his marriage Mr. Larrabee began farming on the old homestead, which he purchased at that time from his father. In later years he has bought other lands and his holdings now comprise two hundred and forty acres. In 1894 he removed to his present home farm and has thereon since resided. In 1914 he built upon this farm the largest and one of the finest barns in Chickasaw county, the dimensions of which are forty-four by one hundred and four feet. He has added all other buildings and modern equipments, including the latest improved farm machinery, and everything about his plan indicates his progressive spirit and his indefatigable industry, which is one of his dominant characteristics.

In his political views Mr. Larrabee is a republican and for many years he has served as a member of the school board, proving ever a stalwart champion of the cause of education. He has not sought or filled other public offices, however, yet his aid support can be counted upon for any measure that. tends to benefit the community in which he lives or advance its upbuilding. While born in Illinois, practically his entire life has been spent in Chickasaw county and his memory forms a connecting link between the primitive pioneer past and the progressive present.