spective parents when children and there were reared and married. In 1847 they came to Story county, where they lived for one year and then went to Missouri for a year, at the end of which time they returned to Knox county, Illinois, where they resided for twelve years. In 1862 they again came to Story county, locating in Palestine township, but in the spring of 1870 they went to jasper county and for twelve years were residents of the latter place. They migrated to Gutherie county, Nebraska, in 1886 and later went to Washington and Montana. Our subject's mother has passed away and since October, 1908, the father has made his home with his son Isaac.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, the Rev. Isaac Atkinson, was a Methodist minister and came to Story county with his son Eli when the latter first migrated from Illinois and made his home here during the remainder of his life. Not having any means of conveyance, he traveled all over Story county on foot in order to carry the gospel to the people. The story of Christ was told in the log cabin, the primitive schoolhouse, and sometimes in a clearing in the forestGod's first temple. Mr. Atkinson was widely known and highly esteemed throughout the district in which he so long resided. It was said of him that he had conducted more funeral services during the many years he ministered to the spiritual needs of the people than any other divine in the state. During the last thirty-five or forty years of his life he was afflicted with total blindness but no mere physical infirmity could vanquish a spirit such as his and despite the difficulties he encountered in going from place to place he continued to preach the word of God. In 1884 he passed away. He was living in jasper county at the time, where he had removed late in life from the old homestead in Palestine township, this county.
Isaac H. Atkinson, who represents the third generation bearing this name in Story county, was reared at home. His boyhood and youth were very similar to those of all pioneer farmer boys attending the district school, which was conducted in a log schoolhouse very unlike the modern school buildings seen on the Iowa prairies. He assisted in the work of the farm and enjoyed such recreations as fell to the lot of the young people of his day.
On the 7th of August, 1881, Mr. Atkinson married Miss Mary Boitnott, and immediately after this event he began farming on his own account as a renter, but at the end of four years they went to Nebraska and preempted one hundred and sixty acres in Frontier county, where they continued to live for nine years. In 1894 they returned to Story county and remained here for two years, at the end of which time they again removed to Nebraska, residing there until 1900, when they sold their preemption. Returning to this county they rented the farm in Indian Creek township where they still live and which they now own, having bought it in 1904. It is one of the fine farms of the locality, containing one hundred and forty-eight acres of well improved and valuable land.