Andrew W. Crouch, a well-known farmer, and honored veteran of the Civil War and a pioneer of Plymouth County, was a resident of Iowa since 1874. Andrew W. Crouch was born on a farm in Chautauqua County, New York, February 16, 1849, to M.F. and Mandana (Hogle) Crouch, the former a native of the state of Pennsylvania and the latter of New York.

Andrew W. Crouch was about eight years old when his parents moved from New York to Wisconsin.  He received his schooling in the schools of Grant County, Wisconsin.  At the age of 15 years and eight months he enlisted for the service in the Union Army.  During the remainder of the Civil War, as a member of Company G, First Wisconsin Cavalry, attached to the Army of the Cumberland, he served with that command for 10 months, until the close of the war.  He was mustered out at Edgefield, Tennessee, July 19, 1865. [Andrew's Civil War Link]

He was married in 1871 to Magdalena Roesch.  In 1874 he came with his parents to Liberty Township, Plymouth County, where he lived on a rented farm for two years.  In 1876, he bought a tract of 80 acres, paying $6.60 an acre. He farmed there for five years, then discouraged by the continued ravages of the grasshoppers throughout this section, returned to his former home in Wisconsin.  He was dissatisfied with conditions there after having lived in Iowa, and in 1882 returned to Plymouth County.

When he returned to Plymouth County, Mr. Crouch bought a farm of 160 acres in section 4, Perry Township, paying $7.50 an acre, and established his home there. During his active years of farming, Mr. Crouch prospered in his operations and gradually increased his holdings in Perry Township to 240 acres of land.

During his residence in Perry Township, Mr. Crouch was chairman of the board of trustees for that township for some time. He was a member of that board for about eighteen years.  He was school director and secretary of the school board.  Mr. Crouch was an active member of Mower Post, Grand Army of the Republic at LeMars, and was quarter-master of the post, and also was adjutant of the same.  He was also a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias.

~Source: Our Life 1882-1982 Akron, Iowa, pp. 194-195