J. S. CROMWELL
J. S. Cromwell located on his present farm in the northwest quarter of section 29, Benton township, in the spring of 1865. He had purchased the place the previous autumn, of Henry Ragan. The farm then contained one hundred and twenty acres, comprising the east half of the northwest quarter of section 29, and the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of the same section. This land was conveyed by the government, to A.L. Grosvenor of Council Bluffs, the date of the conveyance being July 9, 1855. The latter sold it, October 19, 1855, to William Stewart, who built a small frame house and broke a few acres upon it. The land was transferred several times before Mr. Cromwell purchased it in 1864. At that time, there were on the place, the small frame house above mentioned, to which a small addition had been made, a poor log stable and forty acres broken. Mr. Cromwell now has two hundred and forty acres, one of the finest farms in the township, and in fact, one of the best in the county. He has an orchard of three hundred trees, also many evergreen and ornamental trees. Everything pertaining to the place gives evidence of the refined and cultivated taste of the owner. Mr. Cromwell was born in New York in 1833, where he was reared to agricultural pursuits. His father, Charles Cromwell, died when he was sixteen years of age. At the age of nineteen years he went to McHenry county, Illinois, where two elder brothers were living. He lived in Illinois twelve years, and was married to Mary Slater, daughter of Ariel Slater, an early settler of this town. Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell have two children -- Ella, wife of Madison Caughey of Atlantic, and Elsie, at home. The former was born in Illinois, and the latter, here. Mr. Cromwell has been justice of the peace of this township for seven years.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani 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, pp. 643.
