home until he had attained his majority, when he began working for himself. He was first employed as a farm hand by the month but later engaged in farming on the shares. Economy and industry brought him the usual reward and in 1890 he had acquired sufficient capital to enable him to buy one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 14, Howard township. Through diligence and capable management he has added to his holdings at various times until the present aggregate of his real estate is two hundred and forty acres. His farm contains good improvements, a nice grade of stock and the fields are given the careful supervision which results in abundant harvests. In addition to his realty holdings Mr. Twedt is a stockholder and director of the Farmers Savings Bank of Roland.
He established a home of his own when he married Miss Bertha Pierson, and they have become the parents of six children, five of whom are living: Rose, Howard, Otis, Joseph, Ruth and Mamie, deceased. Ever since age conferred upon him the full rights of citizenship Mr. Twedt has cast his ballot for the candidates of the republican party, believing that its policy of protection is essential to the best development of the country. He is now occupying the office of trustee in Howard township. Almost his entire life has been spent in that township, where he was born, and greater tribute can be paid to the character of no man than that the comrades of his boyhood are the friends of his manhood.
E. ROLAND ROBISON.
One of the most successful farmers and cattle-raisers of Story county is E. Roland Robison, who is one of the substantial and enterprising citizens of Indian Creek township. Born in that township, July 9, 1862, he is the son of Alexander and Nancy (Greer) Robison, both of whom were natives of western Pennsylvania. The father was born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, May 15, 1822, and died at Nevada, Iowa, January 23, 1907, at the age of eighty-four years. He was a representative of one of the early families of this country, his great-grandfather having settled in or near Wilmington, Delaware. His youth was spent in Pennsylvania and he was married in Mercer county, that state, in March, 1856, to Miss Nancy Greer, who survives him.
E. Roland Robison spent his youth at home, attending the public school when not working on the farm. There he remained until attaining his majority, when he married and purchased eighty acres of his present farm, on which he took up his residence. During the succeeding twenty-two years he added to his property from time to time until at present he owns four hundred and thirteen acres of the most valuable land in Story county. When he was married he had two or three hundred dollars with which to make payment on his first eighty acres, and this was unimproved land.