Nathaniel Cobb Deering, was born in Denmark, Oxford county, Maine, on September 2, 1827. He attended schools in Maine and later became a member of the House of Representatives from Penobscot County, Maine, during 1855 and 1856.
In 1857 he moved to Iowa and settled in Osage, in Mitchell County. There he was involved in the lumber business and built a sawmill. Then for a few years he was a clerk in the United States Senate--resigning that position in 1865.
He was then a special agent of the Post Office Department for the district of Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, from 1865 to 1869, when he resigned that position.
Nathaniel then became a bank examiner for the State of Iowa in 1872 and continued in that for five years. After that he was elected to the United States Congress for three terms, (1877-1883), as a Republican.
He then became involved in agriculture, with a big interest in raising cattle in Montana. When he died, he was serving as president of a large cattle company in the Montana Territory.
Nathaniel died in Osage, Iowa, on December 11, 1887, and was buried in the Osage City Cemetery. He was fifty years old.
Submitted by Kathy Pike -- August 2004.