DAVID E. McKERCHER

David E. McKercher, who follows farming in Lincoln township, Worth county, was born on the 2d of January, 1852, at Burlington, Wisconsin, a son of John and Mary (McDonald) McKercher. He acquired a common school education, supplemented by study in the Rochester Seminary of Wisconsin and in the University of Wisconsin at Madison, being graduated from the latter with the class of 1876. He was thus liberally educated and became well qualified for life's practical and responsible duties. Returning to the home farm, he continued its cultivation for a year and then drove across the country to Northwood, Iowa, to the home of his uncle, Duncan McKercher, with whom he remained for a short time. Later he taught school at Carpenter, Iowa, and afterward took up his abode upon his present farm, which his father had previously purchased. During the first year he broke two hundred acres of land. Upon the farm he built a little frame shanty and as the years have passed he has carried on the work of development and improvement, his labors bringing about a marked transformation in the appearance of the place and also in its productiveness. He is today one of the leading and substantial agriculturists of Lincoln township and his friends and neighbors recognize him as a man of sound business judgment and enterprise. Aside from his farming interests he is a director of the Farmers Savings Bank of Manly.

On the 9th of May, 1882, Mr. McKercher was united in marriage to Miss Addie V. Albee, a daughter of Justin and Harriet (Whitman) Albee. Mrs. McKercher was born in Rochester, Wisconsin, while her parents were natives of Vermont. They removed westward from New England in the early '40s and settled at Waterford, Wisconsin, where her father took up government land upon which not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made. He thereon built a log house and began the cultivation and improvement of his property, which continued to be his place of abode throughout his remaining days. To Mr. and Mrs. McKercher were born three children: Ellery, who was killed in a cyclone in 1894, when but ten years of age; Alice; and Harold. The wife and mother passed away on the 30th of August, 1907, at the age of fifty-four years, her birth having occurred in 1853.

Mr. McKercher is a republican in his political views and has been called upon to fill a number of local offices, serving as assessor and as a member of the township board. He has also been justice of the peace and his decisions have been strictly fair and impartial. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is ever loyal to the teachings and purposes of the organization. Those who know him-and he has a wide acquaintance in Worth county -esteem him highly both as a man and citizen, for his life has ever measured up to high standards.

SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; PAGES 581 & 582

Transcribed by Gordon Felland, October 26, 2006