Horace I. Spear

SPEAR, BLACKMAN, WACHT

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 3/11/2011 at 15:04:08

Horace I. Spear, engaged in general farming in High Lake township, Emmet county, his place being situated on section 9, is numbered among the native sons of the state, his birth having occurred in Dallas county, Iowa, March 17, 1877. His parents, John and Mary M. (Blackman) Spear, were natives of Ohio and Indiana, respectively, and are well-known farming people of Dallas county, where they yet reside. In their family were seven children, Lillian May, Edward 0., Roscoe R., Horace I., Darius, Ethel and Floyd, four of whom are residents of Dallas county. Roscoe R. is living in Los Angeles, California, and Darius makes his home in Oregon.

The youthful experiences of Horace I. Spear were those of the farm-bred boy. He assisted in the work of the fields until he attained his majority and in the meantime had acquired a common school education. For a time he engaged in cultivating land which he rented from his father and others and in 1911 he removed from Dallas to Emmet county and made investment in one hundred and sixty acres of land, constituting the southeast quarter of section 9, High Lake township. Through the intervening period of six years he has continuously and successfully cultivated his fields, bringing the farm to a high state of development and adding to it various modern improvements which indicate his practical and progressive spirit.

On the 7th of November, 1906, Mr. Spear was married to Miss Katherine Wacht, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nick Wacht, natives, respectively, of Germany and of New York. The father is a prominent farmer residing in Dallas county but the mother died when her daughter Katherine was but five years of age and was laid to rest in Booneville cemetery. There were six children, all of whom are living in Dallas county, Frances, Nicholas, John, Henry, Mrs. Spear and Harmon. Mr. and Mrs. Spear have become the parents of six children, namely, Nicholas, Paul, Thelma Ruth, Katherine, Dorothy and William.

The religious faith of the family is that of the Catholic church and they are communicants of the church at Graettinger. Mr. Spear votes with the republican party, which he has supported since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He has never been an aspirant for office, preferring always to give his undivided attention to his agricultural pursuits, which are now bringing to him deserved success.

Source: History of Emmet County and Dickinson County Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1917, page 162.