S. T. MCCORMICK
Samuel T. McCormick settled on section 8 in the spring of 1859.
Samuel Taylor McCormick, son of Ralph and Nancy McCormick, was born in Morgan county, Illinois, October 13, 1840. His parents were of Scotch-Irish descent, and moved from Kentucky to Illinois in 1831, where they opened a farm near the city of Jacksonville, upon which they resided for thirty-three years. Here his father having died, he, with his mother and family, removed to Mason county, Illinois, in 1864, where he lived for six years, during which time, he being the eldest boy at home, the running of the farm depended mainly upon him. In 1869 he traveled through Iowa, looking at the country, and finding land that suited him, he, in company with his brothers, James and John, removed to Cass county in the spring of 1870, where they opened a farm near the post office of Whitneyville, in Massena township, upon which he lived until his death. Being one of the oldest settlers of the county, and before the townships were organized, he, in company with twelve others, organized the township of Massena, of which he was elected a trustee, and held said office for several years. Mr. McCormick was considered one of the most substantial and influential farmers in the county; a man of conservative ideas, and one who threw his influence for what he thought was right. He was generous and liberal toward all benevolent and religious societies, and being himself raised a Presbyterian, his influence was with that body. He received fatal injuries by falling from a stack while stacking hay, from which he never rallied, but passed quietly and peacefully away on the evening of September 24, 1883.
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. 778.
