two years. Mr. Bates has always been identified with the Democratic party, and his first presidential vote was for S. J. Tilden. He has filled the position of assessor, and has been school director for a number of years. He and wife are members of the Evangelical Church. He came to Story County in 1864, and has witnessed the rapid development of the country since that time. They expect to make this county their home, and here, surrounded by their children and many warm friends, will pass the balance of their days.
William O. Bates. Many years ago, in the Emerald Isle, dwelt Mathew Bates. After nineteen summers of happy school-days he ventured forth to test the desirableness of the far-famed United States, and finding it all and more than admirers had painted it, determined to desert the land of his fathers for this broader country. Before reaching Uncle Sam's fair domain William settled for a time in Canada, where he became acquainted with Miss Cynthia Bentley, to whom he was married. Locating in Story County immediately after touching American soil, he appreciated the advantages of this district to such an extent that he started at once to build up a prosperous farming business there, remaining in the same place until his death, September 23, 1885. He had the misfortune to lose his beloved wife by death several years before. Of the family, consisting of four sons and five daughters, William O., the subject of this sketch, is the oldest. He remained at home until his fifteenth year, when he started to Tilford College, and later Webster College, and afterward to Waterloo College, preparing himself in this way to meet with grand success in all intellectual pursuits. For a while Mr. Bates conducted a prosperous school, and still devotes much of his time to teaching in connection with farming. He is the owner of 200 acres of valuable land, which is in an excellent state of cultivation. November 29, 1888, our subject married Miss Carrie Ballard, daughter of H. L. Ballard. Their only child is Florence May. A Republican in politics, Mr. Bates is prominent in all matters; was elected constable in 1886, and is a member of the Masonic Lodge.
Lemuel Holmes Beckley is a farmer and stock-raiser, of Union Township, Story County, Iowa, and is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred on February 15, 1834, he being the fifth in a family of ten children born to George and Nancy Beckley, both of whom were born in West Virginia on the 25th and 24th of December, 1804 and 1803, respectively. He was of German lineage, his parents having been born in Germany, and by occupation he was an agriculturist, and prior to his death, which occurred in his seventy-ninth year, could well remember the scenes of the War of 1812. His widow survives him at the age of eighty-seven years, being a resident of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Their children's names are as follows: Marie M. (Mrs. Morgan, resides in Ohio), Mary Jane (Mrs. Mills, died at the age of forty-three years), Samuel (married Miss Castile, a native of Ohio, and resides in Buchanan County, Iowa), Jacob (was married to S. McCray, a native Ohioan, and died at the age of forty-eight years, having been a school teacher and preacher, his education having been received in Springfield, Ohio), Lemuel H. (next in order of birth), then came Josiah (residing on the old home farm near Mt. Vernon, Ohio, his wife being a Miss Beach, a native of that State), Henry (came to Iowa in 1864, but now lives in Missouri, being engaged in farming; he first married a Miss Parrott, and after her death a Miss Boyle, both natives of Ohio), Sarah Ann (Mrs. Buchanan, resides in Ohio), Louisa (Mrs. Parrott, also lives