school. He then went to Iowa City, Iowa, and in 1877 was graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University, and in the fall of the same year he came to Nevada, where his practice steadily and substantially increased, until he is now one of the leading members of the profession in the county. He is associated in business with Mr. Gifford, a sketch of whom appears in this work, and both possess, in a more than ordinary degree, the natural attributes essential to a successful public as well as private career. Mr. Funson is exceptionally successful as a criminal lawyer, and is the present city attorney of Nevada. He is one of the active Democrats of the county, and in 1886 was nominee for the State Senate from Boone and Story Counties. Socially he is a member of Sampson Lodge No. 77, of the K. of P. His marriage to Miss Ella Shugart took place December 10, 1879. She was born in Illinois, and is the mother of two children: Harry S. and Harvey T.
Elwood Furnas, a leading farmer and stock-raiser, residing on Section 7, Richland Township, located in this county in the spring of 1869. At that time he purchased 160 acres of raw land, on which his dwelling now stands, and immediately commenced improvements, by erecting a small dwelling and breaking about fifty acres of land. Since then he has added, from time to time, enough to make 800 acres now in his possession, all of which is fenced and cross-fenced into pastures and fields; 330 acres of this land is devoted to cereals, and about 130 acres to tame grass, 100 acres of the same being in a blue-grass pasture, in which there is a flowing well running a three-quarter inch stream continually. His farm is well improved with good buildings, etc., and his dwelling is an extra fine country residence, of large dimensions. Mr. Furnas was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1840, being the sixth in a family of ten children born to Benjamin and Mary (Patty) Furnas, both of whom were of English descent. The father, born in Ohio, was a farmer by occupation, and died in the spring of 1879, at seventy-six years of age, his wife having previously died in 1867. Of their ten children, all but two grew to maturity: Wilkinson (now living in Louisa County, Iowa), Charles (a farmer of Louisa County), John (deceased), Adam (a farmer of Louisa County), Mary (now the wife of Clark Pinkham, of Los Angeles, Cal.), Phoebe (now Mrs. Harrison of Greeley, Kas.), and Sarah (now Mrs. Dillon of Nevada, this State). Elwood Furnas accompanied his parents to Louisa County, Iowa, in 1857. In 1859 he returned to his old home in Ohio, and was married to Miss M. E. Sunderland, daughter of Richard and Eleanor (Reed) Sunderland. Her mother died in 1854, but her father is still living and makes his home in Montgomery County, Ohio. Both Mr. and Mrs. Furnas are church members, and worship with the Presbyterians. He is a Republican in his political views, and has been one among the prime factors to organize the farmers of Story County, that they might better their intellectual, social and financial interests. William Gates is a prosperous blacksmith, residing in Nevada, Iowa, but was born in Ireland on St. Patrick's day, March 17, 1842, being the fourth of five children, four now living, born to the marriage of John Gates and Catherine. Carrigan. They removed to Canada in 1845, the mother dying there the same year, but the father lived to be sixty-five years of age, dying in 1871. The subject of this sketch learned his trade in Canada, serving a four years' apprenticeship, and followed that occupation there until his removal to the United States in 1865, May 14 of that year settling in Nevada, Iowa. He is exceptionally skillful in his calling, and has become one of the well-