George W. Bird

As printed in 1906

GEORGE W. BIRD.

George W. Bird owns, occupies and operates a valuable farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres situated on sections 25 and 36, Marion township. The place is known as the Spring Brook farm, and is a value)le property, which in its neat and thrifty appearance indicates the careful supervision and progressive methods of the owner. His birth occurred in Marion township, August 25. 1868, his parents being James W. and Deborah Elizabeth (White) Bird. The father, Rev. James Bird, was born in Pennsylvania, February 14. 1820, and was raised and educated in the same community. Upon leaving the Keystone state he removed to Ohio, and in 1844 came to Iowa, settling in Marion township, Henry county. He cast in his lot with the pioneer residents and was deeply interested in the growth and progress of the community as it developed from primitive conditions and took on all the improvements of an advanced civilization. Mr. Bird was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church, and at different times held both the Washington and Eureka circuits, besides preaching many times to fill vacancies. He was called upon very frequently to officiate at funerals and has performed innumerable marriage ceremonies, many still living in this community for whom he tied the nuptial knot. He also preached in Ohio before his removal to the middle west.

Flis study of the political issues of the day led him to give his support to the Republican party, and he was likewise interested in the public schools, being school trustee, school director, and president of the board. On November 3, 1865. he was united in marriage to Deborah E. White, born in Virginia, Januaiy 4. 1834. Her parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Kibbler) Wdiite. with their family, drove through from Wirginia to Iowa in 1846, and settled in Jefferson township, when neighbors were few and far between. In religious belief Mr. White was a Quaker, and politically a whig. Death claimed him in 1856. and his widow in 1875. Miss dote was raised in Jefferson township and finished her education in the Iowa Wesleyan University, later teaching in the country schools for fourteen years. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bird were born six children, of whom five are yet living: Pearl I. married to Miss Clara Deal and resides in Scott township, near Mount Union, Iowa; George W., of this review; Alary Bessie, married to L. W. Cutlerand living at Shell Lake, Wisconsin; Frank A., who married Blanche Augusta Courtney ankl resides in Alount Pleasant; and Jennie L.,who makes her home with her mother, in Alount Pleasant. Mr. Bird was claimed by death in May, 1893, but his widow is still living, and at the age of seventy-two years is enjoying excellent health for a person of her age.

George W. Bird is indebted to the public school system of Marion township for the educational privileges he enjoyed. Through the months of vacation he assisted in the labors of the fields and devoted his attention to the further improvement of the home property. After leaving school he continued with his father until the time of his marriage. That important event in his life occurred on the 3d of March, 1891, Miss Letitia Heston becoming his wife. She was born in Batavia, New York, October 3, 1863, and is a daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Canby) Heston. The father followed farming in the east, and after removing to the west, in 1874, settled upon a farm in Marion township, Henry county, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits up to the time of his death, on the 24th of May, 1891. His widow still survives him and is now living in Albany, Oregon, at the age of about seventy-seven years, her Ijirth having occurred in 1829, while ]Mr. Heston was born in 1820.

Mr. Heston endorsed republican principles, served as a school officer, and for fifteen or twenty years acted as school treasurer in Marion township. He held membership in the Episcopal church, of which Mrs. Heston is still a communicant. In their family were eight children, of whom six are living: Rachel, who resides with her brother in Seattle, Washington; Mary, the wife of Edward Price, of Albany, Oregon; Esther, who for ten years has been employed in the pension office at Des Moines; Letitia, now Mrs., Bird; George, who married Lizzie Leonard (now deceased), residing in Seattle; and Elizabeth, the wife of Reuben Golden, of Shell Lake.

Mr. and Mrs. Bird have three children, and the family circle yet remains unbroken by the hand of death. These are: Florence, born October 22, 1892; Esther, born June 4, 1896; and Ralph, born April 29, 1902. The family home stands in a finely improved tract of land of one hundred and seventy-five acres, well known in this part of the state as the Spring Brook farm. The place is attractive in its many improvements and well kept appearance, and Mr. Bird has here carried in general agricultural pursuits since 1893. " is also a stock raiser buys and sells cattle and hogs, and deals quite extensively in horses, and his close application to his business and his unfaltering perseverance constitute the secret of his unvarying and unbounded success.

Mr. Bird votes with the Republican party and has served as township trustee, but is not a politician in the sense of office seeking, although he keeps well informed on the questions of the day and is loyal to the principles in which he believes. He belongs to Henry Lodge, No. 10, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Mount Pleasant, and also to the Modern Woodmen of America Camp, No. 625. Mrs. Bird is a member of the Episcopal church. They are highly esteemed people of the community, and Mr. Bird is a worthy son of Henry county, being a typically representative citizen, possessing the enterprise which has been the dominant factor in the upbuilding of the middle west.

As printed in Biographical review of Henry County, Iowa, containing biographical and genealogical sketches of many of the prominent citizens of to-day and also of the past .. (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.