My Genealogy Hound

O. D. TYLER.
The White Face farm, a well known property in Dodge township, pays annual tribute to the care and labor of its owner, O. D. Tyler, whose labors have made it productive, while his energy and industry have changed its appearance into one of the best properties of the district. A substantial residence, good barns and sheds, well tilled fields, bearing orchards and high grades of stock are the leading features of this place. In his business career the owner manifests that unfaltering perseverance which is the basis of all prosperity.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, April 8, 1858, and is a son of L. G. and Lydia M. (Ruggles) Tyler. The father was a native of New York but when a young man removed westward to Ohio, where he followed the occupation of farming. His business career, however, was interrupted by his active service at the front at the time of the Civil war. On southern battlefields he demonstrated his loyalty to the Union, faithfully following the stars and stripes. He was married in Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss Ruggles, a native of that state, where they began their domestic life and continued to live until 1869, when they removed to Iowa. After a residence of several months in Dallas county they came in the fall of the same year to Union county, where Mr. Tyler converted a tract of raw prairie land into an improved farm, his home being in the eastern part of Dodge township on section 13. For a number of years Mr. Tyler successfully carried on general agricultural pursuits and is now living with his son, O. D. Tyler, on the White Face farm, at the age of seventy-nine years. His wife passed away in 1893, at the age of fifty-six. They were the parents of four children, of whom three reached years of maturity.

O. D. Tyler, the eldest, came with his parents to Iowa when ten years of age and was reared in Union county, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He attended the country schools for the acquirement of an education and when not busy with his text-books aided in the plowing, planting and harvesting. He continued to assist his father until he had attained his majority, after which he rented land and engaged in farming on his own account for five years. He next bought eighty acres of land, where he now resides, on section 18, Dodge township, and subsequently added to it an adjoining tract of eighty acres in Lincoln township. He has built here a good two-story residence, erected in modern style of architecture. It is double plastered, rendering it cool in summer and warm in winter. In the rear of the house stand substantial barns and convenient outbuildings, including a good hog-shed, while his fields are surrounded with four hundred rods of hog-tight fence. He has put in stock scales and a windpump and in fact his improvements are above the average and the whole place manifests a careful management. The cornices of all buildings are painted white, which in a measure typifies the White Face (Hlereford) cattle and has given to the farm its name. In his business Mr. Tyler makes a specialty of the raising of Hereford cattle, having devoted his attention to this business for fifteen years. He is raiser and dealer in thoroughbreds and registered cattle and the business is proving very profitable. He also raises O. I. C. thoroughbred hogs.

On the 14th of February, 1882, Mr. Tyler was married to Miss Emma Ralston, a native of Mahaska county, Iowa, and a daughter of Joseph and L. A. Ralston. They have two children: Bert, who is now attending the State Normal School in Shenandoah, Iowa; and Lyle, at home.

Mr. Tyler votes with the republican party where state and national questions are involved but casts an independent local ballot. He has served on the school board and as road supervisor and takes a public-spirited interest in community affairs. He attends the Congregational church and withholds his endorsement and cooperation from no movement calculated to prove of public benefit. His life of intense and well directed activity has gained him position with the substantial farmers of Dodge township.