of Norway. The family emigrated to America in 1847, locating in Illinois. Charles received a good education and located in Story in the spring of 1865, where he taught both the English and Norwegian languages. He also devoted much time to agriculture, but later gave his entire attention to mercantile pursuits. He is a prominent Republican, doing all in his power to advance his party. At one time Mr. Christian served as sheriff of Story County. He was married December 7, 1869, to Miss Ellen Erickson, daughter of Jacob Erickson, of Roland, Iowa, and they are the happy parents of five children: J. A., Ellen C., Alice Christina, Martin and Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Christian are members of the Lutheran Church. The latter's father moved here in 1856, and entered the land where Roland is now located, having made a contract with the railroad company before his death to have thirty acres laid out for a town.
Nathaniel R. Cliff is a banker and dealer in implements, grain and coal at Zearing, Iowa. In any worthy history of Story County, the name that heads this sketch should be given an enviable place among its leading citizens and its self-made, reliable and wealthy business men. His experience in life has been a somewhat varied one, but at the same time one that reflects only credit upon him as a man. He was born in the " Keystone State " in 1849, being the youngest in a family of four children born to Nathaniel and Harriet (Hazell) Clift, whose birthplace was in the land of England. At the age of seventeen years Mr. Clift left the State of his birth and removed to Story County, Iowa, where he has since made his home, having been successfully engaged in farming until about 1880, at which time he embarked in the implement business, and in 1888 established the Farmers' Bank of Zearing. On first coming to this county it was in a very Wild and unsettled condition, and here he set to work to improve a tract of raw land comprising 160 acres on Section 4, and this farm he still owns. The lessons of industry, frugality and economy which he learned as he grew up, he has never forgotten, and they have ever been characteristic of his subsequent life and career. He was married in 1875 to Miss Fidelia Edgett, a native of New York, her father also having been born in that State, and her union with Mr. Clift has resulted in the birth of five children: Sidney R., Mabel V., Bertha F., Guy E. and Ray. Mr. Clift is connected with the I. O. O. F. socially, and in his religious views is a member of the Evangelical Church. His father died in the city of Philadelphia, Penn., in 1873, he and wife having become the parents of the following children: Fannie (now Mrs. E. R. Fry, of Zearing), Emma E. (Mrs. Nelson Hayes, of Philadelphia, Penn. ), George S. (of Jewell Junction, _Iowa) and Nathaniel (the immediate subject of this memoir).
Eugene Coggshall is a well-to-do farmer and stock-raiser of Story County, Iowa, but was born in Stephenson County, Ill., December 22, 1846, being the tenth of eleven children, whose names are as follows: Myron (who is a carpenter and joiner of Story County), Helen M. (Mrs. Fuller, resides in Missouri), Elizabeth (wife of a Mr. Manny, a merchant, died at the age of twenty-three years), Jackson (who is married, and follows carpentering and joining in Story County), then followed three children, who died quite young, Orinda (is the wife of a Mr. Appleton, a furniture dealer of West Point Iowa), Emma (who is a wealthy land owner residing in Nebraska), Eugene (the subject of this sketch), and John P. (who is married and resides in Story County, engaged in farming). The father of these children was a native of the " Green Mountain State," and died at the age of forty-nine years, and the mother was a Pennsylvanian, and passed from