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Jasper County, Iowa
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David
W. Strain The
record of David W. Strain, farmer of Washington Township, Jasper County, is that
of an enterprising gentleman who worthily upholds an honored family name and
whose life has been very intimately associated with the material prosperity and
general advancement of various communities of this part of Iowa during the most
progressive period of its history, and he has always been found on the right
side of questions looking to the development of his community in any way.
While he has been prominent in industrial affairs, he has at the same
time won a reputation for honesty and wholesome living. He is a worthy
representative of one of the County's sterling pioneer families. Mr.
Strain was born in Highland County, Ohio, June 12, 1845, the son of Thomas and
Nancy A. (Winegar) Strain, the father born in Virginia in 1819, but he spent his
boyhood in South Carolina. When a
young man he went to Highland County, Ohio, and there became owner of a farm.
He was a typical frontiersman, and in 1850 he drove a team overland to
Jasper County, Iowa, buying a farm here. There
were few settlers and the country was a wild prairie. He took some land from the government and bought some from
those who had entered land at an earlier period.
He became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of good land in Des
Moines Township and here he went to work with a will and developed a good farm
which he later sold and bought two hundred acres in Polk County, Iowa.
Subsequently trading that farm for one in Mahaska County, he lived there
until his death, which occurred in February 1877. Politically,
he was first a Whig, later a Republican. His wife survived until 1895. They were the parents of ten children, an equal number of
sons and daughters, and it is somewhat remarkable that so large a family should
all be living at their ages, the eldest being now seventy, the Psalmist's
allotted three score and ten; they are Ellen J., John A., of Nebraska, Mrs.
Elvira A. Woods, also of Nebraska, David W., of this sketch, who was the fourth
in order of birth, Libby, Doctor W., Richard P. lives near Altoona, Iowa, Sarah
B., Delilah Emma and Albert Ross. David
W. Strain, of this sketch, spent his boyhood for the most part in Camp Township,
Polk County, having been five years of age when his parents brought him from
Ohio. He attended the pioneer schools of this vicinity. He lived at home until
he was married, having helped his father transform raw land into productive
fields. He became the owner of one
hundred and forty acres in Mahaska County, which he continued to operate until
1891, when he sold out and bought two hundred and forty acres in Polk County,
which he still owns. He lived there, carrying on general farming with his usual
success until 1900, in which year he bought eighty acres in Washington Township,
Jasper County, and moved to the same, since adding eighty acres more to it.
Under his management this place has taken rank among the best farms of the
Township. Mr.
Strain was married on March 1, 1877, to Mrs. Eliza (Myers) Block, who was born
in Posey County, Indiana, the daughter of Isaac Myers, who came to Mahaska
County, Iowa, in 1849; thus being an early settler. The following children have
been born to Mr. Strain and wife: Mrs. Edna R. Freel, Mrs. Mayme F. Wilson, Mrs.
Lilly M. Schlosser and Mrs. Abbie R. Ward.
Personally, Mr. Strain is a man of splendid physique and of a genial,
jovial nature, which makes him a favorite in any crowd. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 744. |
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