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Kinyon Digital Library

History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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Ardon B. Comly.

Ardon B. Comly has wrought a marked transformation in his farm since taking possession of the place, which comprises one hundred and twenty acres on section 29, Walnut township.  He was born in Brooklyn, Poweshiek county, Iowa, July 29, 1874, a son of Jesse R. and Alice M. (Buck) Comly, natives of Pennsylvania and of Ohio respectively.  In the year 1871 the father came to Iowa and began farming in Poweshiek county, where he lived until 1876, when he removed to Adair county and for two years rented land.  He then purchased forty acres of the place now owned by his son Ardon and at once began improving it.  To his original purchase he kept adding from time to time, thus extending the boundaries of his farm until it comprised three hundred and sixty acres.  He continued its cultivation throughout his remaining days, his death occurring November 15, 1898.  His widow survives and now makes her home in Grinnell, Iowa.  At the time of the Civil war Jesse R. Comly responded to the country's call for troops and joined the boys in blue of Company K, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry, with which he served for about a year, taking part in a number of hotly contested engagements.  In all matters of citizenship he was loyal and in his business affairs displayed marked enterprise.

Ardon B. Comly was reared and educated in this county, having been but two years of age when brought by his parents from Poweshiek to Adair county.  He attended school at Dexter and at Casey and he remained with his parents, assisting in the work of the home farm, until his father's death, which occurred when he was twenty-four years of age.  When the property was divided among the heirs, Ardon B. Comly received as his share one hundred and twenty acres of rich and productive land situated on section 29, Walnut township.  He has made wonderful improvements upon the place, the work of transformation resulting in converting this into one of the splendidly improved farms of the district.  There were three children in his father's family, of whom one died in infancy, while his brother Troy F., who was born December 7, 1882, lives upon the farm adjoining that of Ardon B. Comly.  In addition to tilling the soil the latter has other business concerns, being a stockholder in the Farmers Creamery Company at Casey and a stockholder in the Casey Lumber Company.  He is a man of good business judgment, persistent and energetic in carrying forward his plans to successful completion, and his intelligently directed efforts have brought him to a creditable and enviable position among the representative farmers of the district.

On Christmas Day of 1901 Mr. Comly was married to Miss Algia E. Allen, a daughter of Harlan and Jemimah J. (Young) Allen.  Three children have been born to this union:  Aleta W., twelve years of age;  Thaddeum A., who died in March, 1912, at the age of four years;  and Alice J., now four years of age.  The political views of Mr. Comly are in accord with the principles of the republican party.  He and his wife hold membership in the Methodist church and they are highly esteemed in the community where they live, the hospitality of many of the best homes being freely accorded them.

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