the fields or did the chores, gradually becoming more and more familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops. At length he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of the old homestead and to this has added until his place now comprises two hundred and twenty-three acres. The land is rich and productive, and the Evergreen farm is known as one of the excellent properties of Franklin township. Upon the place is a ten-room brick residence which was erected by his father in 1880, and the barns and outbuildings are in good condition, furnishing ample shelter for grain and stock. He has made a specialty of breeding and raising Percheron horses and Shetland ponies and in this connection has become widely known.
On the 28th of February, 1894, Mr. Davis was united in marriage to Miss Dora E. Lawson, who was born in Polk county, Iowa, June 11, 1871, and is a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Highland) Lawson. They now have four children: Hazel A., Ida S., Esther Elizabeth and Fredericka.
In 1888 Dr. Davis with his mother attended a reunion of the Davis family at Canandaigua, New York, where he met over eighty relatives. These reunions are held annually. A member of the Congregational church of Ames, he has endeavored to guide his life by its teachings and his fellow townsmen recognize in him an honorable, upright man and a public-spirited citizen.
SAMUEL M. McHose.
Samuel M. McHose, a well known tile and brick manufacturer of Nevada, was born in Geneseo, Illinois, August 17, 1856, and is a son of Samuel and Mary (Dillin) McHose, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter at Jefferson, New York. The family comes of Scotch ancestry on the paternal side and also of good Revolutionary stock. Early in his career the father learned the brick-maker's trade but worked at the cooper's trade in winter. He removed to Henry county, Illinois, in 1850, and in 1854 established a brickyard at Geneseo, continuing there until 1876, when he became a resident of Grinnell, Iowa, and was identified for ten years with the brick and tile business at that place. He is now living retired at the age of eighty-seven years, one of his sons having succeeded him in the business. Being an energetic man of good judgment, he attained a fair measure of success, acquiring a competence, so that at the present time he is in the enjoyment of the results of many years of well applied energy. Politically he gave his allegiance to the republican party during the greater part of his life but now votes independently. The mother of our subject departed this life in 1863, being then about forty-six years of age. She was of Irish descent and was a sister of the late James Dillin, a record of whom appears elsewhere in this work. She was