as he had lost everything he had. A few months after locating on his new place, on the 7th of June, 1867, his wife passed away, her death being caused by fright at the sight of a runaway team in charge of her son, whom she supposed had been killed. Shortly after her demise the father went to live with his daughter, with whom he made his home until his death, which occurred seven years later and on the same day of the month as that of his wife.
The early years of Matthew C. Reagan were spent under the paternal roof, and at such times as his services were not required in the work of the farm he attended the district schools, where he acquired his education. The most of his schooling was obtained in the old Center school in Clay Creek township, Jasper county. At the age of twenty-three years he started to work for himself, hiring out as a farm hand, but after a short time he became ill and was compelled to return home, where he remained until the following spring, when he began farming as a renter on eighty acres of land in jasper county, which belonged to his father-in-law, remaining there for five years. At the end of that period he leased a place in Collins township, Story county, which he cultivated for three years, and then returned to jasper county and after remaining there for one year again removed to Story county, settling upon eighty acres of raw prairie, which he had bought in Collins township. This he improved and cultivated for two years and then sold it, purchasing another eighty acres of unimproved land in the same township, which he also disposed of at the end of three years. Following this he bought eighty acres of improved land, also in Collins township, and after living there for four years he sold it and removed to Marshall county. After two years' residence in the latter place he again returned to Story county for a few years and subsequently bought a hotel in Rolfe, Pocahontas county, but soon disposed of this, buying a farm in the same county, where he resided for a time and then moved to Union county, where he lived for four years. At the end of that time he returned to Story county, where he has since resided. He gave up farming in 1906 and removed to Nevada, Iowa, and then in October, 1910, he purchased the livery stable in Maxwell with which he is still identified.
On the 7th of February, 1870, Mr. Reagan was united in marriage to Miss Mary L. Plumb, of jasper county, but a native of Licking county, Ohio. Eight children were born of this union, five of whom survive : Rachel, who is the wife of John Hardin, proprietor of the electric light plant at State Center; Belle, the wife of W. T. Norris, of Nevada; Andrew George, a farmer of Shipley, Iowa; John H., a resident of Clyde, North Dakota; and Grover C., farmer, Grant township, this county. The mother passed away on the 6th of October 1908, and after her death Mr. Reagan made his home with his son at Shipley until he located in Maxwell.