Buena Vista County, IA
USGenWeb Project

Nathan A, Couch well deserves mention in this volume for he is numbered among the valued and highly honored citizens of Newell and Buena Vista county.  He has lived a straightforward, busy and useful life, having for many years been identified with agricultural pursuits, but is now enjoying well earned rest.  His birth occurred in Guilford county, North Carolina, June 2, 1888, his parents being Meshach and Elizabeth (Mills) Couch, both of whom were natives of North Carolina.  The father was a son of Meshach Cough and the mother was the daughter of Jeremiah Mills.  Meshach Conch, Sr., was born September 8, 1743, and in 1773 was married to Mary Couch, whose birth occurred April 16, 1758.  They were the parents of the following children: Sally, Samuel, Phebe [sic], James, Joseph, Mary, Nathan, Meshach, Percy, Joshua and Priscilla.

Meshach Couch, Jr., learned and followed the cooper’s trade and afterward became a farmer.  On leaving the south he removed to Indiana and cast in his lot among the early settlers of Fayette county, whence he afterward removed to Randolf county, where he died in 1858 at the age of sixty-three years, while his wife passed away at the age of fifty-seven years.  She was a member of the Society of Friends.  Their family numbered four sons and three daughters: Joseph A., deceased; Charlotte, the deceased wife of John Gilbert; Jeremiah F., who has passed away; Mary, the deceased wife of Washington Gilbert; Meshach, who has also departed this life; Mary Elizabeth, the wife of Louis Macey, of Adel, Iowa; and Nathan A.

The last named was nine years of age when the parents removed from Guilford county, North Carolina, to Indiana.  He was reared upon the home farm in Randolph county, that state, and attended the district schools.  In the periods of vacation he worked in the fields or did other labor incident to the development of the farm and when he was married he began farming on his own account on rented land.  In 1861 he removed to Wisconsin and purchased forty acres of land in Sauk county, where he resided until 1869, when he went with his family to Dallas county, Iowa, and in 1871 came to Buena Vista county.  Here he secured a homestead claim of eighty acres in Coon township and from time to time extended its boundaries by additional purchases until he owned a large tract of land.  He now has a valuable farm of two hundred and eighty acres in that township and resided thereon until the spring of 1893, when he removed to Newell and purchased a good home which he still occupies.  He has since lived retired, deriving a good income from his farm property, so that he is now enabled to enjoy all of the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.

On the 10th of August, 1856, Mr. Couch was married to Melinda Jackson, a daughter of Samuel and Jemima (Cox) Jackson.  Mrs. Couch was born in Randolph county, Indiana, May 14, 1837, while her father was a native of North Carolina and her mother of South Carolina.  Her paternal grandparents were Samuel and Hannah Jackson, also natives of North Carolina, where the former followed the occupation of farming.  The maternal grandparents were William and Elizabeth Cox, of South Carolina, who lived to an advanced age and reared a large family.  Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Jackson, Jr., became parents of eleven children; three sons and eight daughters, of whom five are now living:  John; Annie, who became the wife of Thomas Hutchins and after his death married a Mr. Covey; Jemima, the wife of John Cox; Rebecca, the wife of Alvin Owens; and Melinda, the wife of our subject.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Couch have been born four children:  Samuel E., who is now serving for the seventh year as county treasurer and has been nominated for another term, married Sarah E. Davis and has one son, Allen; William P., who is a blacksmith by trade but is now engaged in the real-estate business in Marathon, married Lizzie Waterman and they have three children, Bernice, Harry and Jay; Addy, a farmer, married Laura Pickering, who died leaving one son, Loys, after which he married for his second wife Delia Hutchins, by whom he has two children, Ora and Samuel; Mary, the only daughter of the family, is the wife of Hiram Waterman, who resides in Ontario, California, and has two children, Wilbur and Russell.

Mr. and .Mrs. Couch celebrated their golden wedding August 10, 1906, at which time one hundred and twenty guests were present and many were the congratulations they received.  On Christmas day they always have a family dinner, their children returning home on that occasion to partake of the feast.  Mr. and Mrs. Conch are members of the Congregational church in which he is serving as deacon and church trustee.  He has been an Odd Fellow since 1867 and now belongs to Newell lodge, No. 232, which he joined as a charter member on the day of its organization, October 17, 1872.  Politically he is a republican and has served as school director, school trustee and constable.  In every relation of life he has been found loyal to the trust reposed in him, whether in political office or out of it.  He is an honorable and upright man respected by all for his genuine worth and he is numbered among the valued citizens of this part of the state.  Moreover, he is one of the early settlers of this county, having lived within its borders since pioneer times, while in the work of development and improvement he has done his full share.  No longer does the county represent the appearance of a thinly populated region for it has all been divided into productive farms, nearly every acre being under cultivation while all the' advantages of the older east have been introduced.