Samuel R. Read, of section 31, Carson Township, came to this county in 1881. He was born in the Hoosier State, October 12, 1850, the son of Nathan and Malinda (Van Scoy) Read, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Ohio. They had five sons and two daughters, of whom S. R. was the fourth child; two of his brothers, Smith and Jesse Read, are prominent and well-known business men of Dunlap, Iowa.

Our subject was a small boy when his father settled in Bureau County, Illinois, and was fifteen years of age when his father moved to Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, where they were early settlers. The mother died when Samuel was but seven or eight years old, in Illinois, and the father is now a resident of Iowa, making his home in Malvern with his son Carson. The subject of this sketch passed his youth in Cerro Gordo County. They moved in 1874 to Mills County, near Malvern, where he lived until 1881. In that year he came to Pottawattamie County, and purchased eighty acres of wild land, which he has since improved. He is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of thoroughbred stock. He has a thoroughbred Clyde horse, which is among the best draft horses in the county. It was brought from Canada and weighs 1,835 pounds; he has also a Mammoth Jack, which is one of the best in western Iowa. Mr. Read is a practical farmer and a successful horseman.

He married Miss Julia M., a daughter of Robert L. and Margaretta (La Fever) Bushnell. She was born in Rock County, Wisconsin, and her parents were natives of New York city.

Mr. and Mrs. Read have five children: Alice L., Ervin E., Nettie, Margaretta and a baby, Joy. They have lost one by death, Minard, who died when a babe of eleven months; he was the fourth child.

Politically Mr. Read is a Republican, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which they are active workers, and Mrs. Read is a teacher in the Sabbath-school.

Contributed By: Mona Sarratt Knight