Ida County IA Archives Biographies.....Countryman, D. 1841 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 21, 2007, 9:10 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1893)

D. COUNTRYMAN, a farmer and stock raiser of section 31, Grant Township, 31 Ida
county, was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in 1841, a son of Peter and Margaret
(Nicholas) Countryman, the former a native of Canada, and the latter of Maine.
When a young man the father moved to Buffalo, New York, was there married, was
afterward engaged in milling in Ohio, and in 1845 removed to Rock county,
Wisconsin. He built a mill at Janesville, on Rock River, also purchased and
improved Government claims in that county, in 1854 located and erected a mill at
Wadena, Fayette county, Iowa, later built a gristmill, and was engaged in
milling there until 1860. In that year he removed to Kansas, later returned to
Fayette county, and in the spring of 1861 started overland to California. He
drove four yoke of oxen, was six months en route, spent one winter in that
State, and then returned to Washoe City, Nevada, engaging in quartz-milling. In
1865 Mr. Countryman returned to Linn county, Iowa, later went to Davis county,
Iowa, where he died in 1872. The mother departed this life in Woodbury county,
Iowa, in 1888, and both were buried in Linn county, this state. They were the
parents of eight children, viz: Horace, an excellent millwright of Stillwater,
Montana; Alexander, married, and also resides in Stillwater; Eli, deceased in
California; Lewis, married, and resides in Oklahoma, where he was one of the
first settlers; John, who died in California in the winter of 1861; George,
deceased in the same State in the same year; D., our subject, and A. J.,
married, and resides in Woodbury county, Iowa.

  D. Countryman, the subject of this sketch, was reared and educated in Rock
county, Wisconsin. After returning with his parents from California he began
farming for himself in Linn county, Iowa, and in 1875 came to Ida county, having
been the first settler in what is now Grant, then Maple township. He bought
sixty-five acres of raw land on the West Soldier River, which he at once began
improving, erected a small shanty, and after breaking twenty acres returned to
Linn county, for his family. Mr. Countryman now owns 292 acres of well
cultivated land, has a good two-story residence, twenty-eight by twenty-eight
feet, erected in 1890, and about three acres of his place is devoted to a grove
and orchard. He raises good draft horses, also has a fine carriage team, which
took the first premium at the Ida County Fair in 1891. He takes an active
interest in politics, voting with the Republican party, has served as a member
of the School Board, and was the first Assessor of Grant Township.

  Mr. Countryman was married in Linn county, Iowa, in 1865, to Miss Lydia Usher,
a native of that county, and a daughter of Hiram and Lucinda (Williams) Usher,
natives of Ohio. In 1842 they came to Linn county, Iowa, where they were among
the first settlers, and where they still reside. Our subject and wife have had
seven children, namely: Ida M., formerly a teacher of this county, is now the
wife of A. J. Menter, of Grant Township; Rosa, deceased at the age of thirteen
years; C. C., attending college at Lincoln, Nebraska; Sylvia; Hiram, deceased at
the age of five years; Lawrence and Pearl. Mr. Countryman is one of the early
pioneers of Grant Township, has witnessed nearly its entire development, and has
made what he now owns by hard work and frugality, having had comparatively
nothing but health and energy with which to begin.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF 
Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa.

Containing Portraits of all the Presidents of the United States, with
accompanying Biographies; a Condensed History of Iowa, with Portraits and
Biographies of the Governors of the State; Engravings of Prominent Citizens of
the Counties, wth [sic] Personal Histories of many of the Early Settlers and
Leading Families.

"Biography is the only true history."—Emerson.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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