Fred R. Lyford

Fred R. Lyford is county engineer of Worth county and makes his home in Northwood. He is well qualified for the responsibilities of his present position by former experience as a civil engineer in connection with railroad interests and by the thorough scientific training which he received in early manhood.

He was born north of Osage, in Mitchell county, Iowa, November 18, 1871, a son of Horace K. and Sophia (Stinchfield) Lyford, the former a native of St. Albans, Maine, while the latter was born near Skowhegan, that state. They were married in the Pine Tree state and soon afterward came west, settling on a farm north of Osage, which Horace K. Lyford rented for a short time. He afterward removed to Worth county and purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres a mile south and two miles west of Manly. This he further improved and developed until 1903, when he sold the property and bought a quarter section adjoining the old homestead farm. He then gave his attention to the further development and cultivation of that place until 1909, when he removed to Northwood, purchased a residence and for a time retired from active business life. Subsequently he took up his abode at Ames, Iowa, where his children completed their education as students of the State College. The family home was maintained at Ames for four years, after which a removal was made to Aberdeen, South Dakota, where Mr. Lyford invested in three hundred and twenty acres of land. He is now living upon that place and is giving his undivided attention to its further cultivation, having transformed it into a valuable farm. He is now seventy years of age. His first wife died in Osage at the age of twenty-rive years, after which he wedded her sister, Miss Clara Stinchfield.

Fred R. Lyford spent his boyhood days upon the old home farm near Manly and acquired a common school education, which he supplemented by one winter's term of study in the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, Iowa, and through the following winter he engaged in teaching. In the spring of 1892 he entered the Ames Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa, and was graduated therefrom in the fall of 1895, on completing the civil engineering course. His first work was that of sewer inspector at Ithaca, New York, in the summer of 1896. Later he was connected with the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad Company for four years as a civil engineer, and in the spring of 1901 he went to Missouri with the Rock Island Railroad Company, which he represented for four years as a civil engineer. He was afterward with the Northwestern Railroad Company in the same capacity and continued with that corporation until 1908, when he returned home, there remaining for one year. In the spring of 1909 he accepted the office of county surveyor and in 1912 became county engineer of Worth county, in which capacity he is now acceptably and efficiently serving, making his home in Northwood.

On the 18th of March, 1903, Mr. Lyford was married to Miss Addie Crowe, a daughter of John T. and Elizabeth (Hendricks) Crowe. Mrs. Lyford was born in Union, Missouri, and her parents were also natives of that state, where her father served as sheriff and as probate judge of his county. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in the Union army and was promoted to the rank of captain. He participated in many hotly contested engagements and after four years' active service in defense of the stars and stripes was honorably discharged, the war having been brought to a successful close. To Mr. and Mrs. Lyford have been born three children, F. Russel, Harold and Marjorie.

Mr. and Mrs. Lyford are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in the work of which they take a helpful part, Mr. Lyford serving as superintendent of the Sunday school. His political endorsement is given to the republican party, while in his fraternal relations he is a Mason and in his life exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the craft. Those who know him-and he has a wide acquaintance-bear testimony to his upright career and his high purposes. With thorough scientific training, he has kept abreast with the trend of progress in his profession and is occupying a position of responsibility, the duties of which he discharges in a most acceptable and creditable manner.

SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; PAGES 181-182

Transcription by Gordon Felland, 9/21/2006