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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
ELMER D. GERARD, of Garfield Township, was born in Mahaska County, Iowa, Aug. 25, 1859, and is a son of Edward and Margaret L. (Pugh) Gerard, for biography of whom see elsewhere in this volume. Elmer was raised on the farm where he now lives, and was married, Nov. 3, 1881, to Miss Rosa Hoff, who was born in Van Buren County, Iowa, Jan. 7, 1864, and is a daughter of Zebulon Hoff, of this county. He was born in Alleghany County, Ind., May 19, 1835, came to Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1854, and in 1856 was married to Miss Clarinda Jackson, a native of Muskingum County, Ohio, who was born in Dresden, Feb. 18, 1841. Mr. Hoff was licensed to preach by the Methodist Protestant Church in 1856. He was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, serving through the entire war in Co. C, 15th Iowa Vol. Inf., and dying at his home in Des Moines Township, May 7, 1886, leaving a wife and five children. To Mr. and Mrs. Gerard have been born two childrenÄHarry and Ernest. Mr. Gerard owns forty acres of improved land, and is engaged in farming in the summer season and teaching school in the winter. He has taught the same school for several successive terms, and is very popular and thorough in that profession. He is a member of the Iowa Teachers' Reading Circle, which has its headquarters at Des Moines. Each County Superintendent has charge of the members of the club in his county, which meets annually, when a line of reading is prescribed for the coming year. This is continued for four years, at the end of which time those who have mastered the course receive a diploma as an evidence of proficiency in that respect. Mr. Gerard has been a member of the School Board in his district six years. In 1886 he was a candidate for Township Clerk on the joint Democratic and Greenback ticket, polling a larger number of votes than any man on the ticket.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy