Isaiah Roosa, who resides in Garner Township, section 12, is one of the prominent citizens of the township. He came here in July, 1877, from Mills County, Iowa, where he had resided for three years.

He was born in Ulster County, New York, October 6, 1857 the son of John Z. Roosa, who was born in the same county, and the son of Zachariah Roosa, of Holland-Dutch ancestry. Our subject's mother was Catharine (Oakley) Roosa, who was born in Ulster County, New York, the daughter of John Oakley, a captain in the war of 1812, and of an old American family. John Z. Roosa and wife had two children--Isaiah and Phoebe Monroe--who died in New York State at the age of twenty-nine years. She left five children. The father died in Ulster County, New York in November, 1882, and the mother resides with her son Isaiah.

The subject of this sketch passed his youth upon a farm, and finished his education at Ashland, in Green County, New York. He taught school several terms. Arriving at the age of manhood he was married May 29, 1856, in Ulster County, New York, to Mary L. Turner, who was born in Ulster County, the daughter of Josiah and Jane Ann (De La Montonge) Turner, natives of New York.

At the time of Lincoln's call for 300,000 more men, our subject enlisted in the civil war in August, 1862, in the One Hundred and Twentieth Infantry Volunteers, Company C, of New York. His regiment was stationed in Virginia mostly. He served one year and eleven months, and was honorably discharged in July, 1864, at West Philadelphia, where he had been confined some time by a chronic disease in a hospital.

After the war Mr. Roosa returned to Ulster County New York, and in 1869 removed to Clark County, Iowa, where he resided for one year. He then came to Montgomery County, Iowa, where he resided until 1874, and then removed to Mills County, same State, remaining until 1877, and then settled on his present farm, which was then wild land. He now owns forty acres of land in Crescent Township and eighty acres in Garner Township, all under a good state of cultivation.

In his political principles Mr. Roosa is a Republican. He is a man of intelligence, well informed on general topics, and has taken an active interest in educational and religious work of the community where he resides.

Mr. and Mrs. Roosa have six children, viz.: Catherine Wood, Sarah Olive Osburn, residing in Weston, Iowa; Lavinia, wife of Harry Osburn, of Council Bluffs; Frank, who married Lillian Osborn, and resides in Crescent Township; Josiah, who resides at home and owns a farm in Crescent Township; and Emma, at home. They gave their children a good education, and two of their daughters have been successful teachers. They lost one child by death, John, at the age of twelve years. He was the second child.

Contributed By: Mona Sarratt Knight