JEREMIAH BALDING
Jeremiah Balding came in the fall of 1855, and entered land on sections 2 and 10. He did not build there, but purchased a home in Grove City, where he lived. He died in the State. His widow, Mrs. Lucy Balding, is now living on section 10, this township.
Jeremiah Balding was born in Connecticut in 1820, and was a son of Jeremiah and Martha Balding. He went to Illinois when quite young, and a part of his boyhood days were spent in Warren county, that State. He afterward went to Cayuga county, New York, and there, August 21, 1855, was married to Lucy Bell, daughter of Samuel and Mary Bell. They had two children -- Finley, who is now married to Delia Conover and living two miles from his mother's home; and Emma. Mr. Balding died September 19, 1876, at the age of sixty-six years. Mr. and Mrs. Balding came to this county in 1855, when there was but one house between their place and Lewis. They wer obliged to obtain their provisions in Council Bluffs. They returned to Illinois in 1857. From there they went to California, where they remained three years, returning by the Isthmus of Panama to Illinois. They lived in that State until they came back to Iowa, in 1872. Mrs. Balding owns one hundred and twenty acres of good land, all under cultivation, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Her parents are now living in California, also two brothers and two sisters. Her father, Samuel Bell, was for several terms a member of the New York Legislature, representing Cayuga county. He is a native of New York State.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 838-839.
