Ezra Van Fossen was born in Allegheny county, Pa., May 28, 1817; he died at Adel, Iowa, April 26, 1901. He studied medicine in Columbiana county, Ohio, whither his parents had removed, but finished his studies at Rush Medical college, Chicago, about the year 1850. In 1852 he removed to Adel where he settled permanently. As a pioneer physician he had visited the homes of most of the early settlers in the region of Adel, to whom he had proved a friend in many a time of trial and distress. Hw was a man of generous impulses and his life had been a pure and useful one. He represented Polk, Dallas and Guthrie counties in the Fifth general assembly (1854-56).