John. Mr. Rich moved to Story County in May, 1858, located on Section 7, and has remained in this county ever since, a period of over thirty years. He purchased his present farm in 1868, and now owns the northeast quarter of Section 8 and twenty acres of Section 9, besides improving two other farms in the county. He has about 100 rods of tile on his place, and his farms are well cultivated and well improved. Politically he is a Republican. He is the father of seven sons: Samuel H., Oliver P., Frank, Will, Charles, Willis M. and Wilson D., all now living and grown to maturity. The last two are teachers. Oliver is a member of the I. O. O. F.
Samuel Rich, farmer and stock-raiser, Ames, Iowa. This prominent and successful tiller of the soil was originally from Warren County, Ohio, born in 1834, and is the fourth in a family of seven children born to Jacob and M. Caroline (Carr) Rich, natives of North Carolina. The parents were reared in Ohio and resided there until 1849, when they moved to Grant County, Ind. The paternal grandfather was named Samuel Rich. Samuel Rich, the subject of this sketch, was married in Grant County, Ind., in 1854, to Miss Elizabeth Cochran, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Evaston) Cochran, residents of Grant County, Ind. Mr. Rich left Indiana in the spring of 1855, located in La Fayette County, Wis., and one year later came to Iowa, locating in the township within one-fourth of a mile of where he now resides in 1858. When he first came to Story County there were but three houses between his place and Nevada, and there was no market for anything produced in the county. He settled on raw land in the edge of the timber on Skunk River, and by economy and strict frugality has one of the finest farms in the county, 211 acres in all. Politically Mr. Rich has always advocated Democratic principles, but adhering to Prohibition more than to his old preferences, he supported the Republican party in the heated campaign of 1889. He is a member of the Christian Church, and is an elder in the Christian Chapel located on the same section on which he resides. He is an enterprising and public-spirited man. His brothers and sisters are named as follows: Susanah (became the wife of Joseph Bond, of Indiana; she is now deceased), Christina (deceased, was the wife of Vinage Cox, of Indiana), John H. (now a resident of Story County), Nancy (resides in Story County, and is the wife of Saunders Allen), Robert (deceased), and Margaret (now Mrs. Pickerell, who resides in Furnas County, Neb.)
Robert Richardson, farmer and stock-raiser, Elwell, Iowa. Story County is acknowledged by all to be one of the best agricultural portions of the State, and as such its citizens are men of advanced ideas and considerable prominence. A worthy man among this class is found in the person of Mr. Richardson, who was born in Vermont on July 31, 1827, and is the second of twelve children, only four of whom are now living: John (is engaged in farming in Custer County, Neb., and was married to Miss Eliza Dundas), Harvey, is an agriculturist of Cambridge, Iowa, and was married to Miss Margaret Eggleson), Levi (is a farmer and stock-raiser of Nebraska, and was married to Miss Emma Armstrong). Four of those deceased were between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-eight years. The father and mother were natives of Vermont, and both are now deceased. Robert Richardson obtained his early education in the old subscription schools of Ohio, and commenced life for himself at the age of twenty-two years. He was married on November 11, 1854, to Miss Mary E. Armstrong, a native of Illinois, born in 1836, and to this union were born ten