C. M. Morse has been identified with the lumber interests of Maxwell, Iowa, since the 1st of January, 1889, and is now the junior member of the firm of French & Morse. He was born in Huntsburg, Ohio, October 24, 1844, being the fifth of six children born to Amos and Martha (Brackett) Morse, who were born in New York and New Hampshire, and died in 1848 (at Bloomington, Wis. ) and 1869, respectively, the latter being sixty-seven years of age. The early life of C. M. Morse was spent on a farm, and his education was obtained in the common schools near his home and in the Bloomington (Wis.) high school. On the 10th of September, 1864, he left home and friends to espouse the Union cause, and enlisted in Company H, First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery, and in this capacity served until the close of the war, when he was mustered out of service on the 26th of June, 1865, and returned to his home in Bloomington. After following the hardware business there until 1883 he came to Maxwell, and was here engaged in the same calling until January 1, 1889, since which time he has devoted his attention to the lumber trade, in which he has become very thoroughly experienced in all its details. He has already become a popular man here, and is proving himself a worthy citizen. He has always been an earnest Republican in his political views, and on the 14th of June, 1890, was nominated by the Republicans of Story County for clerk of the district court, being the choice of three candidates for that position. Socially, he belongs to Herald Lodge No. 455 of the A. F. & A. M., and he is also a member of the I. O. O. F. and the G. A. R., being a member of Ewing Post No. 305 of the latter organization. His marriage, which occurred on the 12th of September, 1869, was to Miss Lena Woodhouse, who was born in Wisconsin on the 6th of January, 1850, and to them have been born a family of six children—Maude, Atha, Mary and Martha (twins), Edna and Lena.
John William Neasham, jeweler, dealer in wall paper, books and stationery in Nevada, Iowa, is a native of Easby, Yorkshire, England, and was born on April 8, 1868, his parents, Joseph and Margaret ( Hansell ) Neasham, being also born there, the former's death occurring in 1874 at the age of about twenty-eight years. His widow came with her family to America in 1881, and since then has resided in Nevada, Story County, Iowa. Mr. Neasham is the eldest of five children, and was educated in the country of his nativity, and then came with his mother to Iowa. The same year of his arrival here he began learning the jeweler's trade of his uncle, William Hansell, and remained in the latter's store until July, 1888, when he purchased the jewelry establishment belonging to S. R. King and E. A. Dayton, and in 1889 added books, stationery and wall paper to his stock of jewelry, and being wide-awake, enterprising and obliging he has built up a paying trade. He has one of the finest and most complete stocks of jewelry and silverware in the place, and sells his goods at very reasonable rates. In politics he is a Republican, and he and wife, whose maiden name was Wilda Cessna, and whom he married November 6, 1889, are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Neasham was born in Nevada May 3, 1870.
Hon. Oley Nelson, an old settler of Story County, needs no introduction to the readers of the present volume. That the following brief sketch of his eventful and honorable life is afforded a place just here, will be a matter of much interest to the many who have come to know him so intimately, and felt the helpful influence of his wide and generous acquaintance. Like a number of America's representative men of to-day, he comes of foreign parent-