ELI LUNDAY
Eli Lunday was born in Marion county, Ohio, September 10, 1826. When eighteen years of age he removed with his parents to Lee county, Iowa. The following year they moved to Mahaska county where they were pioneers. His father resided in that county until his decease. Mr. Lunday was married in Mahaska county, to Lucinda Lathrop, who was born in Union county, Ohio, in 1831. She moved with her parents to Mahaska county, when sixteen years old. Her father, Lord Lathrop, is still living in that county, at the age of seventy-eight years. Her mother, Frances (Lansdown,) Lathrop, died August 15, 1867. Mr. Lunday enlisted October 5, 1861, in company C, of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry and served about fourteen months, when he was discharged for disability, in consequence of which he now receives a pension from the government. He held the office of sergeant, in his company. Mr. and Mrs. Lunday have been residents of southern Iowa for nearly forty years and their recollection extends back to the time when the greater part of the State was almost a wilderness and the most sanguine, had never dreamed of its present prosperity. Mr. Lunday resides on section 5. He purchased his farm of Samuel Smith, in October, 1880.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex 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. 767.
