of Ohio and the latter of Illinois. They have become the' parents of two children : Ruth and Gertrude, both of whom still reside at home.
The parents both attend the Methodist Episcopal church, in which Mr. Chrisman is a very active worker. He has always been a very public-spirited man and takes an active interest in politics, his support being given to the republican party. He is now and has been for the past six years one of the township trustees, is also a member of the school board, of which he was at one time treasurer, and in addition to these two offices he is serving on the township central committee and is a director of the First National Bank of Nevada.
Both the public and private life of Mr. Chrisman has at all times been such that he has won and held the esteem and respect of those with whom he comes in contact in either a business or social way. He has been successful in the vocation he chose to follow, but it has been a steady progression every step of which has been won and held by his business ability and close application to the course which he had marked out for himself.
NICHOLAS SIMSER.
Nicholas Simser, who for nearly thirty years past has been engaged in the blacksmith business at Nevada, Iowa, and at the present time serving as member of the city council, is a native of Canada. He was born on a farm, November 3, 1843, and is of good Teutonic ancestry on the paternal side, being the son of John and Martha (Woods) Simser. The father was a native of New York and the mother of Canada. His grandfather, John Simser, adhered to the British cause at the time of the Revolutionary war and fought in the army of the king, seeking safety in Canada after the close of the war, where he spent the remainder of his life. The father of our subject passed his entire life in Canada, where he engaged successfully in farming. He died at an advanced age when the subject of this review was a young man. The mother departed this life in 1876 at the age of eighty years. Her father also fled to Canada at the close of the Revolution, having been an ardent sympathizer of the British. Mr. and Mrs. Simser were both members of the Episcopal church. There were thirteen children in the family, the first two being girls and the next seven, boys, Nicholas being the seventh of the latter in order of birth.
He was reared on the home farm and gained his early education in the country schools, also being taught by his father the value of labor. After attaining manhood he learned the blacksmith's trade, and in 1865, believing that more favorable opportunities were presented under the flag of the republic, he came to the United States, his first employment being upon a bridge which was in course of erection at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. After completing that work he worked for four years in a blacksmith shop and then