completing the journey in two days. He was then married and took his bride to his sixty-acre farm, to which he afterward added by additional purchase. He became the owner of two farms, aggregating one hundred and ninety acres of land, and in the summer of 1870 he sold this property at sixty dollars per acre. In the spring of 1871 he arrived in Ames, accompanied by his family, and soon after settled on a farm about a mile from the place, upon which Charles F. Ruth now resides. The father, however, was not long permitted to enjoy his new home, for he passed away in 1875 at the age of fifty-five years. The mother died in 1881 at the age of sixty-one years. Their family numbered seven children: Hannah, who is the widow of Michael Gretten and resides in Gilbert; Lavina, the wife of L. Oliver, also of Gilbert; Carrie, the wife of Floyd Sibley, of Los Angeles, California; William, who married Rachel Bingham and lives in Salem, Oregon; Linus, who was a judge in one of the Chicago courts and died in 1908; Charles F., of this review; and Alma, the wife of Frank Palmer, of Arapahoe, Nebraska.
Charles F. Ruth spent the first fifteen years of his life in his native county and during that period became familiar with the duties and labors of the home farm. He then accompanied his parents on their removal to Story county in 1871 and has since resided in Franklin township. The occupation to which he was reared he has made his life work and in 1880 he located upon his present farm which was then a tract of raw prairie land. The fact that it is today a well improved property is due to his energy, determination and unfaltering industry. The place comprises one hundred and ninety acres of rich and arable soil on sections 11 and 14, Franklin township, and in addition to the cultivation of the fields he is engaged extensively and successfully in the breeding of Chester White hogs and Jersey cattle. Besides his farming interests Mr. Ruth has other business connections. He had the management and was secretary of the Gilbert Creamery Company for five years and he was one of the organizers and the first secretary of the West Milford Telephone Company. He has been a hunter from the age of eight years and finds his chief recreation as a follower of Nimrod. He killed eight wild carrier pigeons in Plymouth county in 1878, these being the last seen in Iowa. He has killed all the game native to this state and in New Brunswick, in September, 1908, he killed a moose weighing eleven hundred pounds, the head of which he had mounted, and it now adorns his home. On the same hunt he succeeded in getting two black bears, the hides of which he has in his home. He spent three weeks on that hunting trip and felt well repaid.
On the 2d of November, 1880, Mr. Ruth was united in marriage to Miss Minerva B. Kooser, who was born in Milford township, Story county, September 19, 1861, and is a daughter of George B. and Margaret (Boucher) Kooser, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania and were there married. On coming to Iowa in 1856, the father entered land from the government. He devoted many years to farming and passed away on