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Wilson PRALL, Wilson PRALL, Stock Dealer, Atlantic, Iowa, was born April 20, 1839, near Cumberland, Ohio, and with his folds moved to Indiana when he was quite young. He remained in Indiana until he was 19 years old and then, guided by the star of his destiny, came to Cass County in 1857. The families were few and far between then and he found employment with David BARNETT, who then kept the hotel at Grove City. Then he worked for R. D. McGEEHON and afterward for Albert WAKEFIELD. In 1859 he concluded to make a home for himself and the wife he had married and he located on Section 28 in Franklin township, and then began to subdue the wilderness in his own behalf. During the eight years he lived there there was not a house in sight. Money was a good deal scarcer than neighbors and employment about as scarce as either, and Wilson PRALL was compelled to work for his living. He did anything that came to hand and chopped in Turkey Grove, making rails, wood, etc., which he exchanged for the things he needed. He was not dressed as men dress these days for outdoor work, and the winters were colder and the snow deeper. He has chopped all day with his frozen feet wrapped in rags and at noon eaten his frozen corn bread to kindle the dying fires of energy. There is not space to tell here of the privations he and his endured, the total lack of comforts and of many necessities, but true hearts and stout hands and a determination to win conquered, and the foundations then laid are now crowned with a thousand hills and the cattle on them, and there is no lack of the needful on the part of Wils, his wife, or the children given to them. In order to find something to occupy his time, Wilson PRALL feeds and buys and sells stock, a better judge of which there is not in the state.

TEMPLE & DITTMAN, Stock Dealers, Atlantic, Iowa, have succeeded in building up in a short time one of the most successful businesses in thie line ever known in Atlantic. They buy principally for the Agar Packing Company of Des Moines and the closeness of that market and the shortness of the haul enables them to keep in instant touch with prices and to pay higher prices for the stuff they buy than others can pay who ship farther and stand the shrink caused by the longer haul. For a time the stock market in Atlantic languished, but under the impetus given it by these hustling and wide awake dealers, it is again the best market in Western Iowa. Both members of the firm are well known and enjoy the business confidence of their constantly growing trade.

From: Exposition Souvenir Album, published by Democrat Publishing Company, Atlantic, Iowa, 1904. Transcribed by Brenda Magee, July, 2012.