Pike Township Family Stories
GAD AND HARRIET KYLE JAMES FAMILY
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 213
By Lillian Nelson JamesGad James, son of William James and Elizabeth Phillips James of Wales, came to Utica, New York, in 1852. He had worked for a farmer in Wales for $7.50 a year and a sheep, from which his mother wove him a suit of clothes to come to the United States.
He and his brother, Stephen James, broke the prairie with oxen, south of West Liberty. Chinch bugs took their crops three years. He went with a neighbor, Mr. Mountain, to Montana to mine gold, driving a mule team. In 1866 he came back to Iowa and married Harriet Kyle of Nichols.
They built a spacious, double brick house with white picket fence on a hill overlooking their land three miles northwest of Nichols. He later gave parts of his land to his children who farmed near by.
Gad James became a member of Stainless Lodge No. 445 of Nichols on 22 June 1889 and DeMolay Commandery No. 1 Knights Templar of Muscatine. At his funeral, there was the largest body of Masons from the county ever assembled for such an occasion, all in full uniform.
Gad and Harriet Kyle James had ten children: George Elmer James, Curtis William James, May Frances James Birkett, Edwin Gad James, Bertha Elizabeth James Bigsby, Jesse Kyle James, Clayton Stephen James, Leota Harriet James Waite, Harirson Phillip James and Warren Ward James, who farmed the homestead when his father retired.
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Page created December 15, 2010 by Lynn McCleary