(Source: “As Time Goes By”, Odebolt, Iowa 1877-1977,
printed by The Odebolt Chronicle May, 1977)
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H.B. Smith farm
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The Leonard farm is located southwest of Odebolt and was purchased in 1876 by Hiram Smith from Iowa Railroad Land Company for six dollars and fifty- nine cents an acre. Hiram B. Smith, son of John Z and Ruth (Scott) Smith, natives of New York and of Holland descent, was born in 1846 on a farm near Waukegan, Illinois.
Hiram enlisted in the Union Army in 1864 and served until 1865. Eleven days after leaving home he was at the scene of the Great Battle of the Wilderness, but his regiment was held in reserve due to the fact the new soldiers were all young, raw and untrained. In June 1864 he was severely wounded in the battle at Richmond, recovered and in August 1864 he received a wound which disabled him for life and he was sent home and honorably retired from the service.
In December 1870 Hiram Smith married Jennie Marsh of Otsego County, New York, daughter of Nelson and Amanda (Marker) Marsh. Jennie was born in 1846 and died in 1936.
Hiram and Jennie lived in Ohio, in Wood County for a while. In 1876 Hiram Smith came to Sac County and bought three hundred and twenty acres of prairie land, in west Wheeler Township. Not a furrow had been turned on this land and no houses were in sight. One of his first tasks was to set out a number of trees. When he brought his family in 1880 they brought with them a small house ready to put up.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith raised four children; Ada, Lenore, (Mrs. Ellis Marvin), Edmund and Maury Marsh.
Hiram B. Smith died February 1, 1914 at Port Orange, Florida where, owing to the condition of his health it was necessary to spend the winters. Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Smith had what was possibly the only museum of its kind in Sac County. An entire room of their large residence was set apart for the housing of relics and stuffed animals and birds, both Mr. and Mrs. Smith being skilled taxidermists. They spent considerable time in creating works of art and preparing animal and bird exhibits in life-like position. Before Mrs. Jennie Smith died she presented these birds and animals to the Odebolt-Arthur School. Mr. Smith also had one of the first herds of Black Angus cattle.
Lenore Smith was born in 1893 and died in 1931. She married Ellis Marvin who was born in 1880 and died 1948. [Information on more recent generations has been removed.]
There were only two owners of this century farm other than the railroad; Hiram B. Smith and Jane (Mrs. Howard Leonard), the present owner. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Leonard are living on this farm now [1977] .
(Transcribed by Kim Tholl, Dec.2002. Photo available - contact webmaster if you would like it scanned)