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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Edward Edris, living on section 17, Spring Creek township, is one of the prosperous farmers and dairymen of Mahaska county and owns. a well improved and valuable tract of land of two hundred and eighty acres divided into two farms. He has lived in this county since 1854, and is therefore one of its old settlers. His birth occurred in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of August, 1828. His paternal great grandfather, John Henry Edris, was of Arabian ancestry. His son, Andrew Edris, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where occurred the birth of Henry Edris in 1801. The last named was reared in his native state and was married in Bucks county to Miss Mary M.. Walborn; a native of the eastern part of the state. He followed farming in Bucks county and there reared his family, and spent his entire life, his death occurring there about 1847, while his wife passed away in 1844. Edward Edris was reared in the county of his nativity, upon the old homestead farm and acquired a common school education, after which he attended a high school for a year. This was an institution conducted under thc auspices of the Society of Friends or Quakers. When a young man he started westward to Ohio, and after living for a time in Montgomery county, that state, went to Tippecanoe county; Indiana. He learned the cooper's trade in Ohio and followed it also in Indiana. In 1854 he made his way to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he carried on a cooper shop for ten years, when, determining to devote his attention to agricutural pursuits he purchased land and located on a farm. He began here with sixty acres of land, which he at once commenced to improve and cultivate. He later bought more land from time to time and now, owns two farms in Spring Creek township, which are well developed properties. He has a large residence upon the home place, also a commodious barn and all other modern equipments, and in connection with general farming he carries on dairying, which business he has followed for thirty years, having good Guernsey and Jersey cattle and other high grade stock. Mr. Edris was married first in Oskaloosa in October, 1855 to Miss Mary Imus, a native of Ohio, who was reared in that state to the age of ten or twelve years, after which she removed to Illinois and subsequently came to Iowa. She was a daughter of Charles Imus, of English birth, who, after emigrating to the new world, lived at various places prior to coming to Mahaska county, Iowa. Mrs Edris died while on a visit to Ohio in October, 1889. Of the four sons born of that marriage, three are now living, but Charles Henry, who was married and became a traveling salesman, died in 1903, at the age of forty-five years. Those who still survive are Perry F.; a farmer and gardener, of Oskaloosa, who is married and has ten children; Edward Arthur, now of Colorado; and Frank K, who is upon the home farm, which he cultivates in partnership with his father. He is a man of good education and exemplary habits, of strict integrity and genuine personal worth. He was married in Neligh, Nebraska, in 1901, to Carrie Nichol, a daughter of D. F. Nichol, a farmer residing in Mahaska county. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Frank Edris has been born a daughter, Florence.. In 1905 at Grand Junction, Colorado, Edward Edris was married to Anna Baker, a native of England; who resided in Ohio and was educated at Oberlin College in that state. She was a teacher in the south for five years and later engaged in missionary work for twenty- two years She has been an active church worker throughout her entire life and has been exceptionally successful in her educational labors for the intellectual and moral development of her fellowmen. Politically Mr. Edris is now a stalwart republican, but at one time voted with the democracy. Locally he casts an independent ballot, but at state and national elections always advocates republican principles, and his son Frank is a suppporter of the same party. Mr. Edris has served in a number of local offices and in all community affairs is deeply interested, his loyalty being proven by his co-operation in measures for the general good.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy