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Kinyon Digital Library

History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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John N. Langfitt.

John N. Langfitt is a prominent and highly respected citizen of Adair county and one who wields a wide influence in behalf of agricultural progress and of advancement along lines relating to community interests.  He lives on section 5, Lee township.  His birth occurred in Scott county, Iowa, on the 9th day of May, 1866, his parents being John J. and Mary C. (Gadd) Langfitt.  The father was a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and the mother of Ohio.  They were married in Blakesburg, Iowa, to which place the mother had removed in her childhood days with her mother, following the death of her father in Ohio.  John J. Langfitt went as a forty-niner to California, making the overland trip to the Pacific coast, where he spent three years in mining, returning by way of the Isthmus route.  It was soon after this that he was married and entered the half section of land in Adair county, on which his son John now resides.  The father secured the property in 1853 but continued to live upon his farm in Scott county until within three years of his death, when he removed to his Adair county farm, on which he passed away.

John N. Langfitt was reared in Scott county and attended the public schools to the age of eighteen years, when he began teaching.  On attaining his majority he removed to Adair county and located on his father's land adjoining the city of Greenfield.  Four years later he was married and with his bride went to Snohomish county, Washington, where he engaged in teaching in the city schools of Snohomish for six years.  He was then offered the superintendency of the schools but declined, returning to the farm in Adair county.  After the death of his father he purchased the place from the other heirs.  This farm comprises three hundred and twenty acres of rich arable land adjoining the corporation limits of Greenfield and is among the valuable farm properties of the county.  None of the accessories and conveniences of the model farm of the twentieth century are here lacking and a glance at the place is sufficient to indicate the care and supervision which are bestowed upon the farm.  In addition to his farming interests he is the vice president of the Greenfield Creamery Company and one of its directors.

In 1892 Mr. Langfitt was united in marriage to Miss Clara A. Martin, of Greenfield, a daughter of W. B. Martin, ex-secretary of state and father of the mulct law.  He now makes his home in Des Moines and is one of the most widely known men in the state.  Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Langfitt, four survive, namely:  Harry M., Bernice L., Clara Mildred and John N., Jr.

Mr. Langfitt exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the republican party and fraternally is connected with Greenfield Lodge, No. 386, A. F. & A. M., while in Des Moines Consistory, No. 3, A. A. S. R. he has attained the thirty-second degree.  He also has membership relations with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Modern Woodmen and he and his wife are consistent members of the Presbyterian church.

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