LEANDER PRALL
Leander Prall, one of the substantial men of Cass county, was born in Ohio, on the 5th of June, 1843, and is the son of Gabriel and Mary Prall. When about two years of age his parents removed to Clark county, Indiana where they both died a few years later. At the age of nine years, Leander removed to Adams county, Illinois, with an older brother, who now resides in Atlantic township, Cass county, and there remained until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in company K, Seventh Indiana Volunteers, and, after serving three months, was discharged. He re-enlisted in the Thirty-third Indiana Volunteers, and was at Laurel Hill, and in the Thirty-third Wild-cat army, at Shelbyville. He was in some of the most famous battles in the history of the Rebellion, and was always found in the ranks when service was needed. He was honorably discharged at Indianapolis, Indiana, at the close of the war, and was received by his many friends, of Adams county, Illinois, as one of the brave defenders of the Union and the old flag. He was united in marriage, in February, 1866, to Sarah M. Allison, a native of Adams county. They have been blessed with six children--Luella, born in 1868 and died in 1871; Everett, born in 1870 and died in 1871; Emmett, born in 1872; Rebecca A., born in 1876; Walter, born in 1880; and Ida, born in 1882. Mr. Prall, in September, 1866, came to Cass county, Iowa, and purchased eighty acres of land in Franklin township, where he remained until March, 1873, when he went to Smith county, Kansas, and was there engaged in farming for one year, when he sold his farm and returned to this county, buying an estate of one hundred and twenty acres, in Franklin township, where he lived until February, 1883, when he came to Massena township and bought land of William Holaday, which was some of the first land broken in the township. He now owns two hundred and forty acres of cultivated land on section 7, and has one of the finest farms in the county.
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. 781.
