My Genealogy Hound

F. B. Terry, a representative and successful agriculturist of Union county, was born near Zanesville, Muskingum county, Ohio, December 31, 1850, a son of Thomas and Julia N. (Robinson) Terry, the former a native of Muskingum county and the latter of Licking county, Ohio. The father followed gardening as a life occupation and had a family of ten children, one daughter and nine sons, eight of whom grew to maturity. Mrs. Terry died when her son F. B. Terry was but nine years of age.

Mr. Terry of this review was reared on the home farm and acquired his education in the common schools. At the early age of eleven years he started out to earn his own living, being employed at farm labor in his native county until 1871. In that year he went to Marshall county, Illinois, where he successfully operated a rented farm for seven years, when he removed to Taylor county, Iowa, there remaining for a year. He was married in the year 1878 and after that important event in his life came to Iowa, where he worked on the railroad for a year. In 1880 he purchased a farm of ninety-two acres near Spaulding in Adair county, which he immediately took possession of and began to farm and improve. He erected a good residence, also barns and outbuildings, set out an orchard and successfully carried on his agricultural pursuits there for twenty-two years. On the expiration of that period he sold out and bought the place where he now resides—a tract of one hundred and twenty acres on section 2, Platte township, Union county. Through his well directed labors and enterprise the land is becoming more valuable year by year and he is meeting with a gratifying measure of prosperity in his farming interests. He also raises good graded stock, principally Chester White hogs, and this branch of his business is also proving a remunerative source of income to him.

On the 12th of December, 1878, in McLean county, Illinois, Mr. Terry was united in marriage to Miss Nettie Bedell, a native of Oswego county, New York, and a daughter of Richard Bedell, who removed from the Empire state to McLean county, Illinois. Our subject and his wife are now the parents of five children, as follows: Cassie, the wife of G. T. Rankin, an agriculturist of Marshall, Minnesota; Orah, who became the wife of B. B. Hartman, a farmer of Platte township; Edward, who also follows farming in Platte township, and married Eva Lyons, a daughter of Joe Lyons; Iva, who attended Creston business college and is now a school teacher, having followed that profession for several terms; and Forris, who is attending school and is still under the parental roof.

Mr. Terry has always stanchly supported the principles of the republican party and held several minor offices in Adair county. He is at present serving as a director on the school board in Platte township but has neither sought nor desired public office, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business affairs. Both he and his wife attend the Presbyterian church of Platte Center, in which Mrs. Terry is a member, and they are highly esteemed throughout the community by reason of their genuine personal worth and attractive social qualities. Save for the assistance of his estimable wife, Mr. Terry has gained his present prosperity entirely through his own well directed labors and untiring perseverance, for he arrived here literally empty-handed and the success which has come to him is therefore well merited. He and his wife are well and favorably known throughout Union county, having witnessed its growth and development for more than a quarter of a century and having also taken an active part in the work which was necessary to bring about its present state of modern civilization.