This was my grandfather, Mary's Wilson's husband. He was born in 1852 and died when my mother was only 12 --so I never met him. I seem to recall being told that he had some ailment (consumption?) that made it so he couldn't lie down.

After he died, Grandmother never remarried. She had enough money left to take care of herself, but not enough to send her two children to college, so she took in boarders at the house on Montgomery Street to finance their school.

Grandfather was in business with two of his brothers. All three of them had moved out from Pennsylvania to set up shop in Iowa. They had the largest horse livery business in the Midwest --and that was back when horses were the heart of the transportation system. They sold stock throughout Iowa and as far aways as Missouri, Nebraska and even Kansas.

I'm not sure whether it was a draft horse or trotter horse business . . .