Theodore J. Stage

STAGE, BRINTON, MC LANE, MORRISON, KIZER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/6/2007 at 11:42:04

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

THEODORE J. STAGE.

The history of any man is interesting inasfar as he has taken a more or less prominent part in the history of his country and it is often the force of circumstances which puts a man into the limelight. While it is not true that we are mere creatures of circumstances, yet there is much truth in the statement of the poet. He said that "Many a mute and inglorious Milton" is never recognized by his fellow men. It is easily understood that the history of a man, who, when a mere lad of fourteen, enlisted in the war for the Union and fought through four years of the bloodiest fighting which the world has ever seen, could not be otherwise than interesting. After serving-through the entire war Theodore J. Stage became a prominent railroad man before he was twenty years of age and was one of the first settlers of Osceola County.

Theodore J. Stage, who is now living a retired life in the county seat of Osceola County, was born August 5, 1845, at Wassaic, Dutchess County, New York. His parents, James J. and Martha A. (Brinton) Stage, were natives of Scotland and Connecticut, respectively. In 1854 James J. Stage went West to buy land and was killed in a railroad wreck on the Great Western Railway in Canada on his return to New York. His widow married Solon D. McLane in 1857. In 1855 the mother and two children, Theodore and his sister, now Mrs. Martha Ann Morrison, moved to Dodge County, Wisconsin, where they lived one year. After her marriage to Mr. McLane the family moved to Freeport, Illinois, in 1858 and a year later moved to Davis, Stephenson County, Illinois. In 1861 the family moved to Rockton, Illinois, where Mr. McLane was foreman of all the masonry construction on the railroad from Weston to Beloit in Wisconsin. In 1866 the family moved to Jessup. Buchanan County, Iowa, where they lived until Mr. McLane died. Mrs. McLane, the mother of Theodore J. Stage, then sold the home and went to Spokane, where she lived until her death.

Theodore J. Stage was only about a month past his sixteenth birthday when he enlisted for the Civil War at Freeport, Illinois. He enlisted on September 25, 1861, in Company B, Twenty-sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was in continuous service until March 9, 1864, having seen three full years of service and, being then a veteran of nineteen years, he decided to re-enlist and accordingly he re-entered the service and was not mustered out until July 20, 1865. He had served four years and two months and was mustered out before he reached his twentieth birthday. It is impossible in this brief historical sketch to detail the war record of Mr. Stage, but enough is given to show that he was in some of the hardest fought battles of that memorable struggle. The battles and sieges in which he participated may be briefly enumerated as follows: New Madrid; Island No. Ten; Farmington; three days' battle of Corinth; siege of Corinth; Iuka; battles and siege of Vicksburg; siege of Jackson, Mississippi; Missionary Ridge; Lookout Mountain; all the battles of the Atlanta campaign and siege; Sherman's march to the sea; burning of Columbia, South Carolina; Bentonville and Raleigh, North Carolina. He was present at the final surrender of Johnston in North Carolina and, with his regiment, marched to Richmond, Virginia, and thence to Washington, where he was in the Grand Review.

This is truly a marvelous record and is rendered more striking because of the youth of Mr. Stage.

Mr. Stage returned to Iowa after he was mustered out in July, 1865, and began to work in the railroad shops of Woodbine, in this state. Shortly after he was made a railroad engineer, but served only three months in this capacity. His disability incurred in the service compelled him to retire from the strenuous work of an engineer. He was then a brakeman, baggageman and conductor until 1870, being employed part of the time on the Union Pacific Railroad. He was then twenty-three years of age and had seen enough service for a man of twice his age. His last work as a conductor was on the Missouri Pacific from Kansas City to Holden, Missouri. In the winter of 1871 he returned to Jessup, Iowa, and in the spring of 1872 came to Osceola County with a team and homesteaded in Viola Township in section 30. He reached this county at a most unfortunate time, for the grasshoppers came along and ate his first crops, with the result that he was so discouraged that he left his farm to the grasshoppers. He again returned to railroading and was conductor on the Illinois Central from Waterloo to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and remained with the company for a few years. He then returned to his farm, where he lived until 1892, having been married in 1883. He was successful as a farmer and still owns his homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, which is one of the finest farms in the township. In 1892 he moved to Little Rock, in Lyon County, where he lived for one year. In 1893 he moved to Sibley, where he has since resided.

Mr. Stage was married September 4, 1883, in Sibley, Iowa, to Mrs. Ida Kizer, who was born in 1866 near Independence, Iowa. To this union have been born four children: Dana, born July 16, 1884, now in Seattle, Washington; Adalbert, deceased; Emory, born July 26, 1888, a hotel proprietor in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Cecil, born November 27, 1892, a lyceum entertainer and professional musician. He is now a student of Grinnell College and has studied in Chicago under one of Richard Mansfield's students. Mr. and Mrs. Stage are justly proud of their children, who are making an enviable record for themselves in the world.

In politics, Mr. Stage has been a stanch Republican all his life and has filled practically every office in his township. Religiously, he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the thirty-second degree. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while he and his wife are both members of the Daughters of Rebekah. As might be expected, he is a loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic of Sibley. Such is the life history of Theodore J. Stage, a man who is well deserving of being remembered in a history of his. county. He has always done his duty as he saw it and whether upon the battle field or in the official chair, he has never wearied of his duties. It is needless to say that he is widely respected and highly honored by everyone in the county, for the clean life he has lived and the good he has done.

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