Des Moines

The history of Polk County, Iowa

Biography of E. P. Corbit of Commerce, Iowa

Of the firm of Corbit & McClees, grain dealers, Commerce, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, April 6, 1849, and in the spring of 1870 came from there to Des Moines, this county, and has been a resident of the county since. For a time he was engaged in teaching school in East Des Moines, and in July, 1876, he came to this place and commenced the grain business. The firm has been very successful, as they shipped for the year ending June 4, four hundred and sixty cars containing two, hundred thousand bushels of grain. Mr. Corbit has been …

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Ira Cook

Biography of Ira Cook

A very prominent man in Des Moines in the early days was Ira Cook. He came to Davenport in 1836, with his father, a small boy, worked fourteen and fifteen hours a day helping his father start a farm, and plant by hand what he declared was the first field of corn in Scott County. He came to Des Moines in September, 1852, on foot, with ten men, his supplies and camp equipage drawn by two horses, en route to sub-divide, as United States Surveyor, a district of ten townships in what are now the counties of Carroll and Sac. …

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