life at the age of eighty years. Eugene Coggshall obtained a good fund of practical information in the common schools, and is an earnest advocate of good schools and competent instructors. He has held the position of school secretary, on a number of school boards, for a period of eighteen years, and always endeavored to secure practical and thorough teachers. When twenty-one years old he commenced doing for himself, and on the 1st of September, 1873, was united in marriage, in his native county, to Miss Mary A. Boddy, a native of NewYork, but reared in Illinois. To them were born four children: Lena E. (aged thirteen years, now fitting herself for a teacher, is well advanced in her studies, and is an intelligent miss), Willie (who died at the age of sixteen months), Frank A. (aged nine years), and Clarence A. (aged six years). Mr. Coggshall is a Republican, his first vote for the presidency being cast for U. S. Grant; he has filled the office of township assessor two terms. He is a member of the A. O. U. W., of Cambridge, Iowa, and holds the present and important office of master workman in the same. He holds a policy of $2,000 in the insurance department. He emigrated to Iowa in 1867, with his brother, coming overland, at which time Story County was in a very unsettled condition, there being no highways to speak of, and but little land under cultivation. The business portion of Nevada was around the park, and the town consisted of only about 500 inhabitants. Mr. Coggshall is the owner of 120 acres of fertile land, a lovely farm residence, and excellent barns and out-buildings being built on the same. This property has been earned by hard labor, frugality and economy, and is an excellent example of what can be accomplished when one possesses a determination to succeed.
Norman H. Confare, farmer and stock-raiser of Section 22, Milford Township, Story County, Iowa, was born in Wayne County, Ind., on the 8th of July, 1847, and is the seventh of nine children—four daughters and five sons—born to the parents. The children are named as follows: Benjamin (farmer, resides in Story County, and married to Miss Thompson), Ephraim (laundryman, at Tacoma, Wash., and is married), Elizabeth (married, and resides in Washington), John (merchant, married, and resides in Indiana), Caroline (deceased), Mon, roe (died at the age of twenty-five years, was a cabinet-maker by trade), Laura Jane (deceased) and Florence (married Charles Phillips, and resides in St. Paul). The father of these children was a stone-mason, brick-layer and plasterer by trade. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and died at the age of seventy-four. The mother is a native of Ohio, and is about seventy-three years of age at the present time. Norman Confare received his early educational training in the old subscription schools of Indiana, and commenced life for himself when still quite youthful. He was reared to the arduous duties of the farm, but also learned the blacksmith's trade. On the 31st of October, 1871, he wedded Miss Ida McLain, a native of Illinois, and two children were the result of this union : Elizabeth Maud (eighteen years of age) and Rachel Blanche (who is twelve years of age). In January, 1864, Mr. Confare enlisted at Richmond, Ind., in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry Volunteers, Company K, and was assigned to the third division of the Army Corps. He was placed under Gen. Sherman's command of the Army of the Cumberland at the early age of fifteen, and was actively engaged in some of the principal engagements of the Rebellion, viz.: Buzzard's Roost, Dalton, Resaca, Atlanta, Columbus, Franklin (where from 4 o'clock P. M. until sundown, 8,700 men were killed and