H. C. SAUNDERS
H. C. Saunders, real estate agent, was born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, on the 7th day of February, 1841. He is a son of Elias and Mary (Chambers) Saunders, natives of New Jersey, who, in an early day, settled in Columbia county, where they resided for many years. H. C., the subject of this sketch, at the age of sixteen years, was apprenticed to the trade of blacksmithing, receiving during the period of his apprenticeship twenty dollars per year and board. Subsequently he followed his trade a portion of the time and taught school winters. In 1861 he enlisted in company K, of the One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and received the appointment of sergeant. He participated in the battle of Bull Run, and was with McCIellan up to the time of the siege of Yorktown, when he was taken sick and sent to the hospital at Alexandria. He was discharged from the hospital in August, 1862, and returned to Pennsylvania. In 1863 he went to Illinois and settled in Bureau county, and in 1869 came to Atlantic, Cass county. Iowa. In the fall of 1869 he came to Anita, which then contained one dwelling house and one hotel, and opened the first blacksmith shop. He continued in that business five years, when, on account of failing health, he was compelled to abandon it. Since that time he has been speculating in lands. He owns five hundred and eighty acres of land, valued at twenty-five dollars per acre. In 1869 Mr. Saunders was married to Miss H. Powell. By this union four children were born--Richard, deceased, H., Roy E. and Julia. Mr. Saunders has been identified with Cass county for years and has seen the wild prairies transformed into beautiful farms, and the cabin of the pioneer replaced by substantial and comfortable dwellings. He came here in very limited circumstances, but by energy and industry he has succeeded in accumulating a competency. In 1866 he crossed the plains in company with William Bennett, Horace Rogers, John Strouck and Floyd Corson. They started on the 8th day of April, and were eighty-nine days on the road. They then went to Diamond City and engaged in mining a short time. He went from there to Fort Benton, where he remained until fall engaged in boat building. He built a skiff large enough to hold three men and provisions, and in it started down the river, traveling twenty-three hundred miles, and arriving at Omaha after twenty-eight and one-half days. The Missouri river was then lined with wild Indians and the trip was a perilous undertaking.
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, pp. 705-706.
