Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 680
FRED C. & HORATIO S. OVIATT

Fred C. OVIATT is recognized as one of the energetic business men and farmers of Harrison county, Iowa, who by his enterprise and progressive methods, has contributed in a material way to the commercial advancement of the county where he lives. In the course of an honorable career, he has been successful in many lines of endeavor and today enjoys a distinctive prestige among the representative men of his county. It is eminently proper that fitting attention should be paid to his achievements and due credit be accorded to his work as an enterprising citizen of this great county.

Fred C. OVIATT was born July 25, 1859, in Magnolia, Harrison county, Iowa, the son of Horatio S. and Lucy J. (BENEDICT) OVIATT, the former a native of Franklin county, Vermont and the latter a native of Pennsylvania.

Horation S. OVIATT was married March 22, 1855, at Enosburg, Vermont, and two years later, in 1857, came west to Harrison county, Iowa, and remained here until the death of his wife, February 4, 1902, when he moved toOklahoma, where he lived with a daughter for some time, in fact, until his second marriage to Mrs. Skee. After this marriage, he remained in Oklahoma until his death, November 17, 1911. He was a contractor and mason and followed these two vocations practically all of his life. In early years he did some contracting and erected some of the first buildings in Logan, Iowa. He was the father of eight children, Herbert H., Fred C., Marshall E., who died at the age of twenty-seven; Ella, deceased; John Edwin, Edith V., Ida D. and Mary Addie May.

Fred C. OVIATT was educated in the common schools of Harrison county and took up farming, which he followed until he was thirty-five years old. He then began buying and selling live stock and followed this business in Woodbine for two and a half years, at the end of which time he turned his attention to the real estate business. He was alone for four and one-half years in this business, but subsequently took a partner, A. J. Coe. This partnership continued for eleven and one-half years, at the end of which time Mr. OVIATT retired to look after his personal interests. Fred C. OVIATT is a large landowner in Harrison county, owning two farms, one of one hundred and seventy-seven and another of one hundred and forty-eight acres in Douglass township, and another of one hundred and sixty acres in Boyer township. These three farms are close to Woodbine and all are on the Lincoln highway. Besides other farm properties he owns several small tracts in and near Woodbine and considerable city property.

Mr. OVIATT was married September 28, 1886, to Hattie E. BLACKMAN, the daughter of George J. and Harriett (STALEY) Blackman, the former a native of Canada and the latter of New York State. Mr. and Mrs. Blackman were married in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in 1850, they came to Harrison county, one year later settling in Magnolia, where they remained for forty-five years on the same farm. At the end of this period, Mr. and Mrs. Blackman retired to Woodbine, where he died February 19, 1901, and she on October 10, 1910. To them were born nine children, Stephen M., Charles W., Helena, John H. (deceased), Juliet I., George A., Hattie E., Harry C. and Laura B.

To Fred C. and Hattie E. (Blackman) OVIATT, one son, Frederick H., was born September 28, 1901.

Politically, Mr. OVIATT is identified with the Prohibition party. He has served as a school director and as assessor of Allen township. Mr. and Mrs. OVIATT are members of the church of the Latter Day Saints, in which Mr. OVIATT is a prominent teacher and active worker.

Few men in Harrison county have made a greater success out of farming, real estate and stock raising than Mr. OVIATT. He is a man who enjoys the esteem of the people of Harrison county and is one of the most widely acquainted residents of this county. Mr. OVIATT has always been frank, upright and honest in his business dealings, to which must be attributed no small part of his splendid success in life.

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