JAMES B. COMSTOCK
Among the men who have come to be regarded as
representative citizens and leading business men of Lucas
county is numbered James B. Comstock, whose many fine
qualities and progressive spirit entitle him to the high
regard in which he is uniformly held. He was born in
Little Rock, Arkansas, March 4, 1870, a son of Francis J. and
Hannah J. (Wood) Comstock, the former of whom was born at
Bentonsport, Iowa, November 17,1837 and the latter at Agency
City, Iowa, December 25, 1839.
The family has been in Iowa since pioneer times, the
grandfather having been the first member of the Iowa
legislature from Wapello county, while the grandmother served
as interpreter for the Indians when the government had an
agency at Agency City. Both
parents were born in the state and grew to manhood and
womanhood here. The
mother passed away at Richland, Missouri, December 14, 1911,
but the father survives and makes his home in Ochelata,
Oklahoma. He is
a veteran of the Civil war, having served as captain of
Company D, third Iowa Cavalry, and having been severely
wounded at Pea Ridge. An
uncle, James H. Comstock, also a Union volunteer, was wounded
at Vicksburg. The
Comstock family have always been prominent and well known in
Iowa and in the early days the post office was for many years
located at the grandfather’s home in Wapello county. On the maternal
side also Mr. Comstock represents an honored pioneer family,
his maternal grandmother having been probably the first white
child born in the state, her natal year being 1833. Her father was a
western ranger and captain of a company and for many years
held the title to a grant of three thousand acres of land in
Texas, which he received as part payment for his services
along the Brazos river.
Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Comstock became the parents of
four children: Mrs.
Anna B. Moss, born October 16, 1864, who is residing at
Hartshorn, Oklahoma; Mrs. Ada Belle Giffin, who was born
February 25, 1867, and who is now residing at Ochelata,
Oklahoma, her husband being principal of schools at that
place; James B., of this review; and John Dorsey, who was born
November 17, 1875, and is now residing at Hobart, Oklahoma.
James B. Comstock went to Richland township, Wapello
county, with his parents in 1884. He attended the common schools and
supplemented this by one year in the Still Osteopathic College
of Des Moines. However,
he never finished this course but laid aside his books and
came to Jackson township, Lucas county, where he took up
farming. For
some time he engaged in the real-estate business in connection
with his agricultural pursuits and is now centering his
attention upon that line of work, in which he has already
attained success. Being
a man of sound judgment and discrimination and possessed of a
comprehensive knowledge of land values, he has built up an
extensive and profitable real-estate business and acquired a
high standing among local business men as the head of one of
the most flourishing offices of its kind in Lucas. On January 15,
1913, Mr. Comstock purchased in the city a restaurant business
and this enterprise is conducted by his wife, who is an able
and farsighted business woman and an excellent executive and
manager.
On November 2, 1890, Mr. Comstock married Miss Fannie
I. Sanders, who was born in Union township, Lucas county,
March 13, 1871. She
grew to womanhood in this section of the state, attending the
pioneer schools, and has always been a resident of the county. Her parents,
William and Annie E. (Castle) Sanders, were among the earliest
settlers in this locality, where her father conducted the
first sawmill and also the first gristmill in Union township,
being for many years the only miller in this part of the
state. He was a
native of Hanover, Germany, born in 1821. He came to America
in 1830 and died in Jackson township, December 5, 1904. He was twice
married and by his first union had three children: Wesley H., who
resides in Greeley, Colorado; Mrs. Minerva Troutman, of
Fulton, Kansas; and Ella, who died at the age of twenty-nine. By his second union
he had two daughters: Fannie
I., now Mrs. James B. Comstock; and Mrs. Kate Nitchman, who
was born February 27, 1873, and who is residing in Union
township. This
family was among the first to settle in Lucas county, having
come here overland to Chariton when there were but two cabins
in that community. There
were no railroads and the nearest trading point was at
Eddyville, where Mr. Sanders drove his live stock to be
shipped to the eastern markets.
Mrs. Comstock has aided her husband materially in the
accomplishment of his success, not alone by her support and
encouragement, but by active participation in his business
affairs. She has
made the enterprise of which she is at the head a profitable
and important one, having built up by fair dealing and
excellent management a liberal and representative patronage. She and her husband
own in addition to the business interests before mentioned one
hundred and forty-seven acres of good land on section 23,
Jackson township, provided with all of the necessary
improvements.
Mr. Comstock gives his political allegiance to the
democratic party and is a public-spirited and progressive
citizen, although he never seeks public office. Fraternally he is
connected with Lucas Lodge, No. 424, I. O. O. F., and Lucas
Castle, No. 133, K. P. He
is identified also with the Improved Order of Red Men, Wapello
Tribe, No. 6. Mr.
and Mrs. Comstock are well known and widely popular in Lucas,
for their lives have been such as commend them to the
confidence and high regard of all with whom they are brought
in contact in social or business life.