History of Corwith, (Hancock County) Iowa United States of America

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O. H. Stilson, a character who has been associated with the growth and progress of the beautiful little city of Corwith ever since that place was founded, is O. H. Stilson, banker and real estate dealer. His father, James M. Stilson, traveled across Iowa in 1851, in company with an old hunter named Rufus Clark, the trapping of beaver and otter and hunting elk being the object of the trip. In the fall of 1852 he returned to Illinois and engaged in farming. In 1855 he was married to Miss Dorlisca R. Stone, of McHenry county, Ill., and in 1856 they removed to Chippewa county, Wis., and entered land from the United States government. In 1888 they removed to Corwith, Iowa, where they now reside. The father entered the union army in 1864, and was honorably discharged at the close of the war.

O. H. Stilson was born on the old homestead near Chippewa Falls, Wis., on February 9, 1857, where he remained until 21 years of age. In the fall of 1878 he came to Iowa, and located in Cerro Gordo county, where he engaged in teaching district school. Shortly thereafter he engaged with E. L. Stilson in the hard ware business at Forest City, at the same time attempting the management of a farm which he had rented. In order to give proper attention to the store he was obliged to hire all the farm work done, and, the season proving a wet one, the crop was drowned out, and the young man found himself woefully in debt. It was about this time that he heard of the new town of Corwith in Hancock county, on the then new line of the Minneapolis & St. Louis railway, and, after settling up his affairs as best he could, he removed to Corwith, and on September 1, 1880, on $500 borrowed from his father, started a general store there, in partnership with E. L. Stilson, under the firm name of O. H. Stilson & Co. The subject of this sketch was given entire charge of the business, and it prospered from the start. Within one year the firm was obliged to erect a new store building, and at the end of the following year had more than $5,000 in stock on their shelves. In 1885 they were doing a business which amounted to $40,000 per year. About this time the firm started a private bank, with a capital stock of $10,000, and shortly thereafter sold out the store and confined their business to banking and real estate. In 1895 the bank was reorganized as the First State bank of Corwith, with a capital stock of $60,000, and a new bank building was erected at a cost of $17,000. Thirty thousand dollars of the stock of the institution was retained by Stilson & Co., and the remainder sold mostly to farmers and merchants. E. L. Stilson was made president and O. H. Stilson, vice-president of the new organization. The real estate business is still continued under the firm name of E. L. Stilson & Co., who now own 6,000 acres of northern Iowa land which, ten years ago, was worth $6 to $8 per acre, but is now selling at from $30 to $40 per acre. He was elected president of the First State bank of Corwith in 1897, and still holds the position. He was postmaster at Corwith during President Arthur's administration.

Mr. Stilson belongs to the Masons and Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a republican. He is a member of the Methodist church of Corwith, and is a steward and trustee of the organization of that faith there. He was married to Miss Lydia Olmsted, a Delaware county girl, on October 2, 1881, and they have four children, Lyell, Mabel, Ethel and Hazel.

SOURCE: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa published by Conway and Shaw, Des Moines: 1899.

History of Corwith, (Hancock County) Iowa

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