soldier and as a traveler over this country, stored his mind with many interesting incidents, from which he drew at will, making him an entertaining companion, and portions of which pertaining to his South African and Crimean campaigns he wrote up very interestingly and had published in the Nevada Representative.
JAMES E. HALE.
The business interests of Story county are ably represented by many of its energetic and prosperous citizens, among whom is the gentleman whose name introduces this review. He is a native of this county, born in Collins township, December 17, 1872, and is the son of Anthony and Jane (Crouch) Hale. The father was born in England and the mother in Onondaga county, New York. Anthony Hale came to America with his parents at eighteen years of age. After his marriage in New York state he removed to Cook county, Illinois, and with his father engaged in farming and dairying on a place eighteen miles west of Chicago and drove daily to the city with milk. In 1871, on the day of the Chicago fire, he started in a wagon for Iowa, coming direct to Story county, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of raw prairie land. He set vigorously to work and improved the property until about 1891, when he disposed of it at forty dollars per acre. It was the first farm that had been sold in that immediate section at an advanced price and the people of the neighborhood declared that forty dollars per acre was preposterous and altogether too high. However, it is not probable that this opinion prevails today, as the same land could not be purchased for less than one hundred and forty or one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. The father removed to the town of Nevada and later to State Center but is now living with his wife at Webster City. He is an earnest advocate of the republican party and while a resident of Story county was a prominent factor in its councils. He held various public offices and served for six years as a member of the board of county supervisors.
James E. Hale attended the district schools and continued with his parents until about twenty years of age, when the father having sold the home farm, the son started out for himself. After working for a year as a farm hand he began renting land and acquired sufficient capital to purchase eighty acres in Hamilton county, where he lived for two years. Having sold that land he purchased a farm in Story county and subsequently bought and sold considerable property in Collins and elsewhere and has acquired a handsome competence. He is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of valuable land three miles east of Collins, one hundred and sixty acres of which is in Story county and one hundred and sixty acres in Marshall county. In 1905 he became connected with N. E.