Tice, William Madison

TICE, GODBY, WALLACE, TALBOT

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/22/2009 at 19:33:17

Tice, William Madison

This is an age in which the farmer stands preeminently above any other class as a producer of wealth, and there is a rapidly growing sentiment among the dwellers of the great cities that the rural districts are the best, so they are going back to the soil in ever increasing numbers, for there they not only find a greater independence and really have more of the good things of life, not the least of which is better health of both body and mind. The farmer does not have to put forth such strenuous efforts to feed himself and his family. He simply takes advantage of the winds, the warm air, the bright sunshine, the life-giving rains, and, handling nature's gifts rightly, reaps the rewards that always come to patient, persistent toil. One of this number is William Madison Tice, a young farmer of Linn Grove Township, Jasper County.

Mr. Tice was born in Marion County, Iowa, on October 9, 1880, and he is the son of Theophilus Dunbar Tice and Harriet (Godby) Tice, the father born in Mahaska County, four miles east of Pella; the mother was also a native of Mahaska County, and there they grew to maturity, were educated and married, and they began life on the farm, prospered through hard work and good management, finally becoming the owners of five hundred and fifty acres, two hundred and forty of which were in Jasper County. The elder Tice became one of the leading agriculturists of his community and was a man of excellent characteristics.

Politically, he was a Democrat. The paternal grandfather, Madison Tice, was a very early settler in Mahaska County, coming from Illinois to that locality in 1847 when the county was undeveloped and neighbors were few and far between. The father of the subject moved to Pella in 1907 and retired. His family consisted of the following children: Lester is living in Mahaska County; Ella Jane; Mrs. Bertha May Wallace is living in Minnesota; Veda Grace, and William Madison, who was the second child in order of birth.

William M. Tice, of this review, attended school at the Sand Bridge schoolhouse in his native community in Marion County. After leaving school he assisted his father with the general work about the place until he was married, and in 1907 he began operating his father's farm of two hundred and forty acres in Jasper County and here he has continued to the present time, keeping the place well improved and well cultivated and becoming one of the leading young farmers of Linn Grove Township. He pays special attention to live stock and keeps seven head of full-blooded Percheron mares for breeding purposes.

On October 19, 1904. Mr. Tice was united in marriage with Minnie May Talbot, who was born in Jasper County, the daughter of Warren N. Talbot, a complete sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Tice have one child, Harold J, who was born July 10, 1907.Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1278