Short Biography of Curtis Shedd

I was born in Rindge, in the state of New Hampshire on the 22nd day of February A.D. 1809. My parents were farmers. I learned the blacksmith trade and worked at it in New Hanpshire and a couple of years after I came to Iowa. I married Miss Sophronia Taylor in New Hampshire and with her moved to Iowa territory in 1836 and settled in Denmark township in Lee County, Iowa, near where I now live. I have lived in Denmark since my first settlement in Iowa and have followed farming here except when blacksmithing, until four or five years ago. We never had any children. My said wife died about seven years ago. Six years ago I married Mrs. Monroe, my present wife. When I came to Denmark, there were no houses here, except the shell of a log cabin. I came with Lewis Epps, Timothy Fox and several others, and made the first settlement in Denmark. Indians were about pretty numerous in those days. There were plenty of deer, turkeys and prairie chickens in the country, but I took no pleasure in hunting. The next year after I arrived here, other settlers from New Hampshire here, and in the year 1837 we built in Denmark a house for both school and church purposes. The first clergyman who preached in that building was Rev. Apthorp, who preached about one year, and was succeeded in his clergical duties by Rev. Asa Turner in the year 1838. They both belonged to the Congregational Church of which I am a member.