DAVID D. STURGEON
One
of the most successful agriculturists and stockmen of Wayne
county is David D. Sturgeon, who resides on a farm of six
hundred and eighty acres the greater part of which is located
on sections 5 and 6 of Jackson township, and the remainder in
Corydon township. He
has long been a resident of Iowa, having settled here when
this section of the state was largely undeveloped prairie and
gave little promise of its future prominence as an
agricultural district. Mr.
Sturgeon was born in Centerville, Pennsylvania, on the 20th
of May, 1836, and is a son of Robert and Eliza (Rogers)
Sturgeon. The
parents, who were born, reared and married in the Keystone
state, removed to Ohio in 1839, and there resided for
seventeen years. In
1856, they continued their journey westward to Appanoose
county, Iowa, where they passed the remainder of their lives,
the mother passing away in 1869, at the age of sixty-five
years, while the father was eighty at the time of his death,
his natal year being 1799.
They were the parents of twelve children, our subject
being the eighth in order of birth.
David
D. Sturgeon was a child of only three years when he
accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, and a youth
of twenty when the family came to Iowa. In the acquirement
of his education he first attended the district and public
schools of Martinsburg, Ohio, completing his course of study
in the academy at Chesterville, that state. At the age of
seventeen years he laid aside his text-books and began his
apprenticeship at the silversmith’s trade. When he was
twenty-one he identified himself with the commercial interests
of Centerville, Iowa, where for twenty-five years he
successfully engaged in the jewelry business. Owing to failing
eyesight at the expiration of that time he was compelled to
seek another occupation and disposing of his store he came to
Wayne county and bought a farm, and has ever since been
engaged in general agricultural pursuits and stock-raising. He has directed his
undertakings in a well organized, capable manner and has met
with more than an average measure of success, and now holds
the title to three thousand acres of land, the greater portion
of it being located in Wayne and Appanoose counties and the
remainder in Missouri and Kansas. The land in his home place has a natural
drainage and has been brought to a high state of productivity. The entire tract is
fenced with barbed wire, and the improvements on the place are
consistent with the spirit of progress and enterprise he has
always manifested as a business man. In connection with the cultivation of
his fields he raises graded Jersey cattle and hogs for the
market and also horses and mules.
In religious faith Mr. Sturgeon is a Methodist, and fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has passed through all of the chairs and encampment. During the Civil war he volunteered his services three times, but was always rejected because of an injury he had sustained to his hand. However, he went to the front to take care of a brother-in-law, who had previously joined the army and was ill, remaining in the south until the close of hostilities. His allegiance in matters politic Mr. Sturgeon gives to the republican party, but has never been identified with official affairs. He is interested in the Corydon Lumber Company of Corydon, and is numbered among the substantial citizens of Wayne county, where he is accorded by all who know him the esteem and respect ever extended to enterprising men of honorable and upright business methods. Mr. Sturgeon has been an interested observer of the progress and development of this section of Iowa, toward the advancement of which he has contributed his quota both as a business man and agriculturist. When he first came here the country was but sparsely settled, and the woods still abounded with wild game, deer being plentiful, while the settlers were compelled to protect their stock from the wolves.