Unless otherwise noted, these biographies were taken from A History of Clay County, by W. C. Gilbreath, 1889. More biographies will be added as time permits.
Contributions are welcome. If you have any biographies of your Clay county ancestors that you would like to contribute, whether from other sources or written by yourself, please contact me at: Clay County IAGenWeb Coordinator
O - P
O'Donnell, William
Paley, G. A.
Palmer, H. S.
Parisho, E. H.
Parker, James E.
Patterson, G. W.
Peck, Dr. A. L.
Phelps, E. D.
Pitcher, Benjamin
Clay county biographies: A-B, C-D,
E-F-G, H-I, J-K-L,
M-N, Q-R, S-T-U-V,
W-X-Y-Z.
Return to Index.
O'Donnell, William, farmer, was born in Ireland in the year 1845, and came to the "land of the free and the home of the brave" in the year 1862. After remaining a short time in this country he went south, and was in the quartermaster's department of the Army of the Cumberland. In 1872 he came to Clay county, and located on his present home, east one-half, southwest quarter, section 12, Spencer township, containing eighty acres of land, sixty of which is under cultivation. In 1873, he went to California, and remained there until 1876, when he returned to Clay county. In 1877 he went to Montana, and stayed nearly three years, when he again came back to Clay county. During the summers of 1886 and 1887 he was engaged in railroad contracting. He was married to Miss Margaret Mihigan in 1865. They have four children, William A., Jeremiah D., Terrence and Mary E.
Paley, G. A., dealer in boots and shoes, was born in Columbus, Wisconsin, Sept. 22d, 1865, where he lived about two years. His parents then moved to Iowa, and stayed there until he was nine years old, when they moved to Shell Rock, Iowa. At the early age of twelve he began the trade of a shoemaker, and has continuously worked at it for the past twelve years. In February, 1887, he came to Spencer and opened a boot and shoe store, and has since conducted that line of trade. He is a thorough shoemaker, and excellent judge of leather, and carries a complete line of standard boots and shoes. His prices are low, and his goods warranted. He was married September 26th, 1888, to Miss May Sours, of Marble Rock.
Palmer, H. S., was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, January 26, 1853, and lived in that county until 1872, when he came to Iowa. He clerked two years in a store in Independence, then was a traveling representative for six years. After leaving the road he came to Spencer, and has engaged in the hardware trade since that period. He is a member of the firm Palmer & Koch; was married in 1880 to Miss Jessie C. Older; have three children, Henry S. Jr., John W. and Louise B.
Parisho, E. H., farmer, is an Iowan man having been born in New Providence, Hardin Co., in 1859. When eleven years of age his parents came to Clay county; for the past two years he has been engaged most of the time in opening up a farm on sec. 31, Gillett's Grove township. He was married to Miss Zora Allebaugh, in 1888, and they now have one child. Mr. Parisho's education has been gained in the common schools of Clay county, and one year's term at Penn College. He has ever taken an active part in the educational matters of the county, having been a teacher for fifteen years, and is acknowledged to be among the best of his profession in the county.
Parker, James E., farmer, was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, January 20th, 1849. Three years later his parents removed to Benton county, Ohio, where J. E. remained until 1878, the greater part of the time engaged in farming. During that year he came to Clay and located in Gillett's Grove township, where he has since lived. He is the owner of 80 acres of land, 55 of which is under cultivation. He is assessor of Gillett's Grove township and a leading citizen. He was married in 1872 to Miss Jennie Strawn. They have seven children: Clifford, Everett, Earle, Clad, Sarah, Neva and Lavancia.
Senator from the forty-seventh district, including Emmet, Palo Alto, Clay, Dickinson and Kossuth counties, was born at Burt, Iowa, September 4, 1887, of Scotch parentage. Graduate of Burt high school.
Graduated from Iowa State College, animal husbandry department, 1909.
Married December 28, 1913, to Miss Eva M. Stensrud, Lake Mills, Iowa. Has three children, Donald W., Virginia Mae, and Kenneth Howard.
Business, farming and stock feeding. Elected to house of representatives, 1922; re-elected in 1924 and 1926. Elected senator in 1928; re-elected 1932. A republican.
Contributed by: Debbie Clough Gerischer.
Source: Iowa Official Register 1933-1934, Biographies State
Senators.
Peck, Dr. A. L., dentist. Dr. Peck was born in Wisconsin in 1854, and when eleven year of age with his parents, came to Iowa. He received his education in the common high schools in the place in which he resided. Having a preference for dentistry he decided to make that his life's profession. He therefore entered the office of a prominent dentist, where he spent considerable time in study and getting a knowledge of the practical part of his chosen avocation. He afterward went to Iowa City, where he took a course of lectures. Seven years ago he opened an office in Spencer, and has pursued his profession here and in adjoining towns from that date to this. He makes all kinds of gold and rubber plates, also a full or partial set of teeth without plates, in dental parlance called "Bridge Work." He uses either gold or porcelain for crowning roots. Teeth filled and saved after the most improved methods. He makes a specialty of extracting teeth without pain, and without the use of gas or cocaine. He warrants all of his work to be first class in every particular.
Phelps, E. D., express manager, was born in Spring Green, Wisconsin, February 19th, 1866, and lived there until four years old, when his parents moved to Madison, Wis., and lived there eleven years. From Madison he went to Ackley where he learned the printers' trade. In 1881 he went to Sanborn and in 1882 came to Spencer, where he worked some time in the News and Reporter offices. He then opened a store which he ran for about six months. In 1884 he received an appointment as postal clerk in U. S. railroad mail and held that office for four years. A change in administration caused his removal at the expiration of his term of four years appointment. He was recently appointed messenger for the Adams Express Company, his regular runs being between Sanborn and Chamberlain. He was married June 15th, 1887, to Miss Orrie Carr. They have one child, Edward Milton.
Among the residents of Spencer who at one time were closely associated with the agricultural interests of the county and are now enjoying the fruits of their former toil, is numbered Benjamin Pitcher. He is in his seventy-third year, his birth having occurred in Cambridgeshire, England, August 29, 1836. The family is an old one in that country and the grandfather, John Pitcher, spent his entire life there, meeting his death through the kick of a horse. He always followed farming as a source of livelihood. One of his children was Benjamin Pitcher, who was reared in his native land and became a butcher, following the trade in early manhood. Subsequently he turned his attention to farming. He was married in England to Miss Ann Hall, a native of that country and a daughter of Thomas and Ann Hall, who also remained residents of England, passing their lives on farms in that country. The death of Mr. Hall occurred when he had reached the venerable age of eighty-two years. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin began their domestic life in England, remaining residents of Cambridgeshire until September, 1846, when the father with his family sailed to the new world and took up his abode in Rensselaer, New York. There Mr. Pitcher again engaged in farming until 1863, when he removed westward to Illinois, locating in Winnebago county, about eight miles from Rockford. His remaining days were given to general agricultural pursuits in that locality, where he died in 1881 at the age of seventy-nine years. He had long survived his wife, who died in England in 1844. They were both members of the established church of England in 1844. They were both members of the established Church of England. Of their family of three sons and two daughters only three are now living: Frances Ellen, the widow of George Warren, of Seattle, Washington; Benjamin, of this review; and William, of Port Townsend, Washington.
Benjamin Pitcher spent the first ten years of his life in the land of his birth and then came with his father to the United States, living in New York until 1855. In that year he became a resident of Winnebago county, Illinois, where he lived for several years and later removed to Green county, Wisconsin, in which locality he followed farming. A few years later he returned to Winnebago county and on the 7th of August, 1862, offered his services to the government in defense of the Union army, becoming a member of Company H, Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he did active duty until mustered out on June 10, 1865. He was wounded in the leg at the battle of Missionary Ridge and had a part of his heel shot away at Kenesaw Mountain, while at Dallas he was slightly wounded in the hand. He participated in eighteen hard-fought battles including the engagements at Perryville, Stone River, Tallahassee, Dalton, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. He was first a private but was mustered out with the rank of sergeant. After the war he returned to Winnebago county, Illinois, where he had engaged in farming and teaming. He dates his residence in Iowa from the 5th of September, 1872, on which day he arrived in Spencer and soon afterward took up a homestead of eighty acres in Dickinson county, while later he secured eighty acres in Clay county. He still owns the original tract together with eighty acres in Meadow township, Clay county, where he lived until 1893, and during that period transformed his land into a rich and productive farm, supplied with modern equipment and accessories. The place in all of its appointments is neat and well ordered, and Mr. Pitcher continued his personal supervision and practical work upon the place until 1893, when he removed to Spencer where he has since made his home.
On the 29th of November, 1857, Mr. Pitcher was married to Miss Mary W. Barnard, who was born in North Beckett, Massachusetts. Her father, John Barnard, wedded a Miss McClure, and their family included Mrs. Pitcher, who by her marriage, has become the mother of six children. John L., the eldest, a resident of Milford, Iowa, wedded Elizabeth James [Jones] and has five children, Anna, John, Olive, Mary and Walter B [and William D, born 1910]. Mary A. is a bookkeeper and stenographer in Spencer. Homer E. conducts an agricultural implement business in Spencer, and married Tirza Waldo, who has become the mother of two children. Dolly is the wife of George Walker, of Spencer, and has three children, Lou, Leslie and Francell. Agnes is the wife of C. A. Claypole, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and has two children, Agnes and Keith. Benjamin completes the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Pitcher attend the Congregational church, of which she is a member. Mr. Pitcher’s membership relations are with Evening Shade Lodge No. 312, A. F. & A. M., and Walter Post, G. A. R., of Milford. In politics he is a republican and has always voted for the men and measures of the party. There is no more royal American citizen in Clay county than this adopted son who, though born across the water, has spent almost his entire life in the United States and has deep attachment for the institutions of this free land. He certainly proved his loyalty by his service in the Civil war and in days of peace he has been as faithful to his country as when he followed the stars and stripes on the battlefields of the south.
Corrections and additional information provided by Don Pitcher, grandson of John L. Pitcher and son of William D. Pitcher.
Contributed by: Susan Gregory. Source: History of Clay County Iowa – Steele – 1909, page 296.
