George C. Rowe
George C. Rowe is a retired farmer residing in Joice. For many years he was actively and successfully identified with agricultural interests and his unfailing energy and purpose brought to him the competence that now enables him to rest from further labor. He was born in Will county, Illinois, on the 12th of February, 1862, and is a son of Orsamus C. and Frances (Hale) Rowe, both of whom were natives of Vermont. The parents in young manhood and womanhood left New England and became residents of Will county, Illinois, where they were married. The father served for four years as a soldier of the Civil war. With the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south he offered his aid in defense of the Union cause and became a member of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, with which he went to the front, participating in many hotly contested engagements. Immediately following the close of the war he removed westward with his family and settled in Bristol township, Worth county, Iowa, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on which he has continuously resided for fifty-three years. He is now eighty-five years of age and is still hale and hearty, keeping up an active interest in questions and affairs of the day. His wife passed away on the 8th of December, 1897.
George C. Rowe, their son, was reared on the old home farm and acquired his education in the district schools, while in the school of experience he has also learned many valuable lessons. On reaching early manhood he cooperated with his father in the further development and improvement of the home farm and the intelligent direction of his efforts and energy brought a substantial measure of success. Crops were carefully planted and the fields tilled and in due course of time abundant harvests were gathered. Moreover, they kept in touch with the most progressive methods of farm work and utilized the modern scientific knowledge concerning the soils and the crop demand.
On the 29th of December, 1886, Mr. Rowe was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie Gaskill, a resident of Fertile township, Worth county, Iowa, but a native of Ohio. Her father, Thomas Gaskill, came to Worth county with his family about 1869. In the spring following his marriage Mr. Rowe removed to a farm of his own comprising one hundred and sixty acres of land in Bristol township, which he had purchased the previous year. He resided upon that place until 1906 and brought his fields under a high-state of cultivation. His farm always presented a most neat and thrifty appearance and everything about the place indicated his practical methods and progressive spirit. Year after year he carefully tilled the soil and gathered abundant crops until 1906, when he retired from active business and removed to Joice, where he has since resided. He still, however, owns the home farm, with an additional five acres in Joice on which his present residence is located.
To Mr. and Mrs. Rowe were born three children: Albert T., who is engaged in the blacksmithing business in Joice; May, the wife of Frank Owens, a contractor of Idaho; and Frank L., living in Joice. Mr. Rowe belongs to Aurora Lodge, No. 412, I. O. O. F.; also to Winnebago Encampment, No. 178, I. O. O. F.; and to Lake Mills Lodge, No. 306, A. O. U. W. His has been a useful and honorable career fraught with earnest purpose and his well defined plans and unremitting energy brought to him a measure of success that was most creditable. His life record should serve to inspire and encourage others, showing what may be accomplished by individual effort without recourse to speculation. He has always followed constructive methods in his business affairs, his path never being strewn with the wreck of other men's failures, and his persistency of purpose and ambition at length brought him to a most creditable place among the men of affluence in Worth county.
SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; Pages 630 & 631
Transcription by Gordon Felland, 8/17/2006