ticket, having been a lifelong supporter of the party. He has also served in other offices, filling the position of township clerk in Palestine township for four years.
In June, 1907, Mr. Tesdall was married to Miss Mabel R. Sherk, and they are well known in Nevada and throughout this portion of the state. Mrs. Tesdall received a college education in South Dakota and taught school for a number of years. Afterward she became a clerk in a store in Nevada, being thus employed for about ten years.
The Tesdall home is a hospitable one, always open for the reception of their many friends. Mr. Tesdall belongs to the Modern Woodman camp and also to the Lutheran church and is ever loyal to the principles and causes which he espouses.
J. W. Lanning.
J. W. Lanning needs no introduction to the readers of this volume, for he has been engaged in the milling business in Ames for thirty years and is one of the best known among the representatives of industrial activity here. In citizenship as well as in business he has made for himself a creditable record and the circle of his friends includes almost all with whom he has been brought in contact.
He was born in Jackson county, Indiana, September 10, 1841, a son of Louis and Laney (Wilson) Lanning, natives of Kentucky and North Carolina, respectively. They were married, however, in Indiana, where they resided until 1843, when they came with their family to Iowa, settling in Iowa county. The father devoted his entire life to farming, following that pursuit until his death, which occurred in 1870, when he was sixty-four years of age. The mother long survived him and spent the last fourteen years of her life in Ames with her son J. W. Lanning, passing away in 1894, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. They were both people of the highest respectability and enjoyed the warm regard and good will of all who knew them. Their family numbered twelve children, six sons and six daughters, of whom J. W. Lanning was the sixth in order of birth.
He was not quite three years of age at the time of the removal to Iowa, so that within the borders 0f this state practically his entire life has been passed. He continued a resident of Iowa county until twenty years of age, after which he spent three years in Tama county and then returned to Iowa county, where he made his home until his removal to Ames, his time and energies being devoted to general mercantile pursuits. Thirty years ago, or in 1880, he came to Ames and throughout the ensuing period has been engaged in the milling business, conducting a flour and feed mill for twelve years, since which time he has confined his attention entirely to the conduct of a feed mill. He owns his mill and home property here