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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
William O. McCurdy owns and occupies a comfortable, home on section 17, White Oak township, and is one of the wide awake and enterprising farmers of his locality. His property comprises three hundred and twenty-four acres of rich and productive land, and the farm is well equipped with all modern conveniences. He is a native son of Iowa, having been born on the farm where he now resides, about a mile west of his present residence, on August 10, 1864. He is a son of Jonathan and Sarah McCurdy and a brother of Oscar McCurdy, who is represented elsewhere in this work. He was reared upon the old homestead farm and is indebted to the public-school system of the locality for the educational privileges he enjoyed. From the time of early spring planting until the crops were harvested in the late autumn he assisted in the work of the fields and he remained at home until after his father's death, which occurred in January, 1886. He then built his present residence upon his share of the estate, having inherited ninety acres. He has since bought more land from time to time until he has three hundred acres where he now resides. He has erected here a good dwelling and substantial barn, has put up a windmill and has cleared twenty acres of land of the brush and stumps. Nearly the entire farm is now under a high state of cultivation and he also raises a good grade of stock and buys and ships stock. He raises pure-blooded Buff Orphington poultry, having a large flock of those fine chickens. His place is well fenced and he has three hundred acres under cultivation, annually harvesting there from good crops. In all of his work he is systematic and energetic, making his labors count for the most possible and his work is attended with a gratifying measure of success. Mr. McCurdy was married on the 25th of November, 1885, to Miss Addie Witt, a native of Iowa, and a daughter of Michael Witt who was born in Indiana. Coming to Iowa about 1859, he settled in White Oak township, Mahaska county, and here his remaining days were passed. When called to his final rest his remains were interred in White Oak cemetery. Mrs. Witt still survives her husband and now lives with her sons in White Oak. Mr. and Mrs. McCurdy are the parents of six children, all of whom are yet under the parental roof, namely: Warren O., Clarence E., Alvah R., Lena M. and Earl W. and Pearl F., twins. The parents and children attend the Methodist Episcopal church at White Oak, of which the father and mother are members. Politically Mr. McCurdy is an earnest republican, being in thorough sympathy with the principles and policy of the party and upon its ticket he has been chosen to several local offices. He has served as township trustee for nine years and was justice of the peace for two years. His farm is well fenced and shows the supervision of a master hand in the completeness of its buildings and improvements. While manifesting a spirit of lofty patriotism and devotion to the general good at all times, his chief attention is given to his farm labor, and he is classed with the representative agriculturists of his native county.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy