M. I. B. RICHMOND. At his pleasant country place, two miles north and a little west of Manchester, in Delaware township, Delaware county, resides M. I. B. Rich­mond, a farmer and stock-dealer, widely and favorably known throughout his county, and an enterprising citizen, the entry of whose name, with an account of his personal success, may appropriately be made in this record of Delaware county's worthy people.

Of English extraction throughout, and American ancestry for several generations, Mr. Richmond exhibits in his general make-up many of those strong and dur­able qualities which mark the highest type of American citizenship, particularly that class of citizens whose antecedents made their start in this country in some one of the original thirteen colonies. We have only to go back to the grandparents of the subject of our sketch to reach New England born people, his paternal grand­father, David Richmond, having been a native of Rhode Island, and his maternal grandfather, Anson Brooks, having been a native of Connecticut. These two were reared in the places of their birth, coming on the stage of life in time to witness some of the more stirring scenes that marked the history of this country in its change from a colonial form of government to an independent republic, in some of which scenes they were also actors. With the cessation of hostilities between this and the mother county, in 1781, and the con­sequent opening of western New York and Pennsylvania to settlement, about that date, it will be remembered that many of the sturdy, more adventurous New Englanders made their .way to the western districts of these two states, where they took up their residence, and there began what has since grown to be the civilization of the great West. The grand­parents of M. I. B. Richmond were of this number of adventurous home-seekers, and strong-armed and stout-hearted common­wealth builders. His grandfather, David Richmond, settled in Madison county, N. Y., when it was a forest wilder­ness, and gave the greater part of a long life to the task of subduing the natural wildness of that region, and preparing it for the coming of the industries and arts of civilization. He died in his adopted county, at the great age of ninety, a per­fect type of the strong-bodied, strong-willed, thrifty and industrious class of men who have constituted, from the first, the advance guard of American civilization. There, also, in Madison county, New York, was born Joseph S. Richmond, the father of our sub­ject, who came upon the theatre of life only a year before the second war with Great Britain, having been born July 13, 1811, and passing his childhood and youth still amid the stirring scenes of border strife and pioneer settlement.   The maternal grandfather, Anson Brooks, also settled in Madison county, N. Y., and in the settlement growth and development of that county bore the part of a good cit­izen, contributing  his   full share to the common stock, closing his career with the approval of all who knew of his services, and was laid to rest near the place  where he settled in the county of his adoption. His daughter, Mary,  who subsequently   be­came the wife of Joseph S. Richmond, was born in Madison county, the place of her birth being near that of her husband. The youth of these, Joseph S. Richmond and Mary Brooks, was passed in their na­tive place and  there they also married and began the serious duties of life. They subsequently moved to Chenango county, N. Y., and lived again in Madison county, and  then  came in 1869 to Iowa and set­tled  near Earlville, in Delaware county, in which vicinity they have since lived, being now residents of the town of Earl­ville.   They are now well advanced  in years, the  father being   in   bis seventy-ninth year and the mother in her seventy-fifth year.    They have always been  en­gaged in the peaceful- pursuits of agricul­ture and have lived lives  worthy of the industrious, intelligent, home-loving New England stock from whom  they are de­scended.   They have been the parents of seven children, only two  of whom, how­ever, now survive, these being the subject of this notice and a sister younger than himself, Helen Le Vern, now wife of  C. S.  Barr, of Dyersville, Dubuque county. The eldest child, a daughter, Sallie, died at the age of  twenty, unmarried.     Cor­delia, the second, died in infancy. Frances Josephine died at the age of twenty-three, unmarried, and Arthur V., and Clinton DeWitt died in infancy.

Melville Irving Brooks Richmond  was born m the town of Smyrna, Chaenango county, N. Y., February 8, 1847.    He was reared  in his native county and in Madi­son county in the same state, whither his parents moved when he was a lad about fourteen years old.    He grew up mainly on the farm and, dividing his time between his duties as a farm hand and  his attend­ance at the  Hamilton Union school and Hamilton seminary,  he received   a fair common-school   education.     He accom­panied   his parents to Iowa in 1869, and settled in Delaware county.   He has lived in this county since, except during tempo­rary absence, and has  been engaged for the past twenty-one years in farming and in the stock business.    Only two years of the past twenty-one have been spent out of the state.    In 1884 and 1885 he was in the Yellow Stone valley of Montana, fur­nishing cattle for the ranges along that valley and part of the time also superin­tendent  of a ranch near Billings.     For some years past, Mr. Richmond has re­sided on his farm in Delaware county, two miles from Manchester, where he car­ries on considerable farming and engages also in buying and shipping stock.    His farm lying on the Maquoketa river and in the immediate vicinity of Manchester, is one of the most desirable places in Dela­ware county.    It consists of five hundred acres, all of which lies favorably, is pro­ductive and   well   improved, being   fur­nished with every convenience for use and comfort.    Into the business of conducting the farm, as well as the more extensive business of   buying and  shipping stock which he   conducts, Mr. Richmond   has thrown an amount of energy and zeal which have won for him success, and which, with his correct and straightforward business methods, have also won him the respect and esteem of all those with whom he has come in contact.

            Mr. Richmond married after coming to this county, not taking this important step until June 17, 1875, he being then in his twenty-eighth year. The lady on whom his choice fell for a companion was Miss Eliza Hoag, then of this county and daughter of Jacob Hoag, a very worthy citizen of this county. Mrs. Richmond is a sister of Egbert and J. J. Hoag, of Manchester, and reference is here made to a sketch of the latter for the facts concerning her family history.  It is entirely proper in this connection to add that Mr. Richmond has been materially aided in meeting the labors which have fallen to his hands in the last fifteen years by his excellent wife, he having found in her sympathy and devotion to his interests a strong inspiration to his best efforts, and in her one who is equally capable of sharing with him his misfortunes as well as his triumphs.

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