EDMUND H. STEERE.
One of the successful general farmers and stockmen of Lincoln township, Audubon county, is Edmund H. Steere, who has done well his part in the work of transforming the raw Iowa prairie into its present highlyproductive condition. Mr. Steere came to this county penniless, and the fine farm he now owns is the result of his well-directed efforts in this community.
Edmund H. Steere was born on November 15, 1856, in Minnesota. He is a son of Russell A. and Alice J. Steere. He attended the public school for two years in Minnesota, five years in a public school in Michigan, and later, attended the old Oak Field high school of Audubon county, Iowa, for two years. Quitting school at the age of eighteen, he went to work on his father's farm, remaining with him three years, at the end of which time he rented a farm south of Gray for three years, eighty acres of which he later bought for twelve dollars an acre. In 1892, Mr. Steers bought another farm of eighty acres adjoining his home place, for which he paid thirty-three dollars an acre. In 1906, he bought forty acres in Cameron township, at a cost of seventy dollars an acre, and again, in 1911, he purchased an additional forty acres, paying one hundred and thirty dollars an acre. Mr. Steere has spent about seven thousand dollars in improvements on his home place, including two miles of tiling. His principal crops are corn and small grain, all of which is fed to his stock. Thp corn yields about fifty or sixty bushels to the acre, and the small grain about thirty-five bushels. Mr. Steere is a regular attendant of the Methodist church at Gray, and always votes the Republican ticket.
Russell A. Steere was a native of Ohio, and his wife a native of Jacksonville, Illinois. They were married in Minnesota, and lived on a farm in that state for twelve years. They owned one hundred and sixty acres, which they sold, going from there to Michigan, where they bought a farm of eighty acres, on which they lived five years, and then went back to Minnesota. After remaining there about a year, they moved to the southern part of Audubon county, near Brayton, and bought a quarter section in Cameron township. They lived on this place fourteen years, where Russell A. Steere died in 1890, and Alice J. Steere died in 1910. To this couple were born six children, as follow: Edmund H., Ernest K., Lincoln R., Elanor, Alice and Herbert. Ernest died in Audubon county, in 1892. Lincoln is married and lives in Tennessee. Elanor is married and lives in Audubon county. Alice is also married, and lives in Audubon county. Herbert lives in Wyoming.
Edmund H. Steere was married, in 1887, to Mary Mulloy, daughter of Coote C. Mulloy. Mrs. Mary Steere's father died at Carrollton, Iowa, near Coon Rapids, in 1872, and her mother died at Broadwater, Nebraska, in 1911.
To Mr. and Mrs. Steere have been born three children. Hazel, Ernest and Alice. Hazel spent two years in the high school at Gray, and after two years in the Audubon high school was graduated with the class of 1911, standing at the head of the class and gaining a scholarship. She is now teaching school. Ernest spent two years at the Gray high school and was graduated from the Audubon high school after two years. He is now working at home on the farm. Alice is attending high school at Gray.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 818-819.
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