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WILKINSON FURNAS, residing on section 7, Grand View Township, is the eldest son of Benjamin and Mary (Patty) Furnas, and was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1827. His parents were natives of that State, and there the father engaged in farming until 1857, when he came to Louisa County, Iowa, settling near Letts. His death occurred on the 20th day of May, 1880, at the age of seventy-six years, and the mother died in 1867, at the age of fifty-nine years.
Wilkinson Furnas was reared to farm life and attended the district schools of his native State. He was united in marriage with Maria Booher in 1846, in Montgomery County, Ohio, of which county she was a native. Her parents, Samuel and Mary (Beadshear) Booher, were born in Pennsylvania, and after their marriage they moved to the State of Ohio when the country was all new and uncultivated. They settled on a farm near Dayton, where the father resided until his death, which occurred in September, 1877, at the age of seventy-eight years. His wife died when she was quite young.
Mr. and Mrs. Furnas began their domestic life in Montgomery County, Ohio, but later moved to Shelby County, where they remained until the spring of 1853, and then came to Iowa, locating in Muscatine for a short time, until Mr. Furnas could find a more suitable location. He soon purchased a farm of 320 acres of partly improved land on section 17, Grand View Township, Louisa County, where he lived for seven or eight years, and then traded for a tract of 160 acres on section 7 of the same township, and forty acres in Concord Township. He now is the owner of a good farm of 200 acres in Grand View and Concord Townships, and also twenty-four acres within the corporation of Letts. This land is highly cultivated, and comprises one of the best farms in the township.
To Mr. and Mrs. Furnas have been born nine children—George B., Mary Ann, Mark P., Maria Jane, Samuel B., Sarah E., Emma Isabel, Edgar Elwood and William Henry. Mary Ann is now Mrs. Siverly, and resides in Oakland Township, Louisa County; Mark P., who is engaged in farming, is married and lives in Letts; George resides at home, but works at his trade of wagon-making in Letts; Maria J., now Mrs. Watson, resides in Johnson County, Iowa; Samuel, who is married and living in Story County, Iowa, is a traveling salesman; Sarah E., now Mrs. Eliason, is living in Muscatine County, Iowa; Emma Isabel has been engaged in teaching music for the past five years, and is very successful. The other children are all at home, and there is also an adopted daughter, a little girl.
Mr. Furnas is not an active politician, but casts his vote with the Republican party. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Letts. During the thirty-five years’ residence of Mr. and Mrs. Furnas, the great torrent of human migration and improvement has been making incessant changes in Louisa County. Since their settlement the land where the village of Letts is now situated was entered, and other improvements have rapidly been made. Mr. Furnas assisted in organizing part of the school districts in this township, and the first school was taught on his farm in a log cabin for two terms. He examined the first teacher, and after the war erected a school building, which was also used for preaching, Sunday-school and singing school. Mr. Furnas always keeps the latest and best improved farm machinery on hand, and has ample buildings provided for its protection from the weather. He is the owner of a sheller and feed-mill combined, being able to shell and do feed grinding at the same time, at the rate of fifty bushels an hour. It is enclosed and placed on wheels, he hauling it from farm to farm and doing all the work in the neighborhood. He also has a fraction engine, which does shelling and threshing through- . . .
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. . . out the neighborhood, and he and his son are now building a threshing-machine on the farm.
The publishers take pleasure in presenting the portraits of Mr. Furnas and his estimable wife on a preceding page.
