his time to teaching in Cleveland and Coal Valley, Ill. In the last-named year, in company with his brothers, Hugh B. and John M., as Smith Bros., he commenced business in McCallsburg, and later in Zearing, Iowa. He was married, on the 4th of August, 1886, to Miss Jessie M. Burkhart, daughter of J. C. and M. Burkhart, of Zearing. Socially Mr. Smith is connected with the A. F. & A. M., and is a member of the Christian Church.
George W. Sowers, farmer, stock-raiser and shipper of Milford Township, Story County, Iowa, is a native of Putnam County, Ind., born in 1827, and is the second of six children, the result of the union of Solomon and Rachel (Pickett) Sowers, natives of North Carolina, the former born in 1802, and the latter in 1805. Solomon was one of eight children (Mary, Phoebe, Jefferson, Alexander, Alfred, Emaline and Christina), born to George and Elizabeth Sowers, early settlers of North Carolina. Solomon was of German and his wife of Irish extraction. Their son, George W. Sowers, subject of this sketch, received a common-school education, and was married in 1847 to Miss Melinda Bracken, daughter of Thomas Bracken, and the eldest of six children, Monroe, John, Margaret, Louisa, Thomas J. and Martha, only three of whom are now living. Mrs. Sowers died in May, 1856, leaving a family of two sons: Thomas and James. Mr. Sowers moved to Story County, Iowa, in 1854, locating in La Fayette Township, in what was then called Smith's Grove, in a house made of poles, 12x14 feet, in which he lived from November till the following March. He then moved into a house which he had built on the prairie, and with a very few neighbors began to improve and cultivate the home in the wilderness. In 1855 more settlers moved in, and in the spring of 1856 twenty-seven Scandinavians made their advent in the county and settled in what is now Howard Township. Mr. Sowers entered three eighties on the prairie, and at the same time bought thirty acres of timber, paying $10 per acre. In the spring of 1856 he unfortunately lost his wife by that dread disease, consumption. The fall of the same year his father and four brothers came and located in the same neighborhood, and there the father died at the ripe old age of eighty-four years. Two of the brothers, Charles M. and Alfred, also died in .Story County. Mr. Sowers sold his farm in La Fayette Township in 1863, and bought his present property, which now consists of 345 acres of valuable land. In 1857 he married Miss Margaret Sowers, by whom he had five children: Sarah A. (now Mrs. William Hughes), Minda J. (now Mrs. George Young), Charles W., Elmer E. and Albert. Charles married Miss Metta McClure, daughter of R. McClure, of this county. Mr. Sowers is a Republican in his political views, and with his wife and daughters is' a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For the past twenty-two years he has followed buying and shipping stock quite extensively, and is a man exactly suited for that business. When he first came to Iowa he went to mill at Red Rock, where Perry County now stands, and went to Iowa City for salt. Mrs. Sowers was born in North Carolina on October 17, 1832, and is the daughter of Philip Sowers, of North Carolina.
William Waitt Spring, farmer and stock-raiser, resides on Section 18, Grant Township. It is now nearly thirty-five years since Mr. Spring first became identified with the interests of this county, and during this time, while his financial standing has been steadily advancing, he has always sustained his reputation for honesty, integrity and sterling worth. Originally from Ohio, he was born there on May 16, 1828, being the Youngest in a family of four children, the eldest of whom, John,