From the 1911 book Past and Present of Hardin County Iowa, page 648:

WILLIAM DAYTON CUNDIFF.

The life of a farmer is one comparatively obscure, yet such is the peculiar fitness of things that in no other station of life do we find men of sounder character and stronger principles than in the environment of the farm. Surrounded by nature, the farmer's life is one which offers fewer temptations and more facilities for developing strength than does the artificial life of the cities. And as in the last analysis it is character which counts, so in the end the life of an honest, upright farmer, like Mr. Cundiff; may out weigh the life of a man who occupied a much larger place in the eyes of the world.

William Dayton Cundiff was born in Stark county, Illinois, on September 28, 1844, and died in Union township, Hardin county, on July 17, 1903. He was the son of John and Ruth (Stites) Cundiff, whose children were William D., Jacob H., Ada E., Bryant, Elnora, Allen and Stephen. John Cundiff was one of the pioneers of Stark county, Illinois, to which they moved from Kentucky. In 1871 they drove through to Hardin county, Iowa,and in 1873 John Cundiff died on his farm four miles from Union. He was a capable and hard-working farmer.

William D. Cundiff received his education in the common school. In 1864 he enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry. His regiment was stationed along the Chattanooga & Nashville railroad, and remained there to the end of the war. He was mustered out at Nashvifle, and discharged at Springfield in 1865, having served with an honorable record. In 1868 he was married to Letitia Taylor, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Welsh) Taylor, who was born in Pennsylvania on December 2, 1844. Her parents spent the greater portion of their lives on a farm in Pennsylvania but in the spring of 1871 came to Hardin county, Iowa, and there spent the remainder of their lives. Their children were: Esther, who died in Pennsylvania; Mary died in Pennsylvania; Harriet died in Pennsylvania; Jesse served in the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Illinois Infantry, and married Susan Strickler, who, surviving him, is living in Pennsylvania; John H. married Isabel Galley, and died in Iowa; Philip G. married Mary Lamb, of Union, and is living in Kansas; Letitia; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Perry, who died in Kansas in 1887; Martha C., who died at Toulon, Illinois, of fever at the age of seventeen; Phoebe died at the age of nine in Pennsylvania; Zachariah, who died in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1902, had married Flora Thorpe. To Mr. and Mrs. Cundiff four children were born: Arthur Homer, a farmer of Union township, who married Vesta Carter; William Frederick, who married Lavina Babcock; Ella Myrta, who married Richard Bavender, of Union township, and Jesse Dayton, who is operating the home farm.

In 1871 William D. Cundiff, with his father and his brother Bryant and their families, drove across country from Stark county, Illinois, to Hardin county, Iowa, and spent two weeks on the road, meeting with rainy weather and extremely bad roads. William D. Cundiff settled on the eighty-acre farm where his widow now lives, and improved it and made a comfortable home. Though he owned a large acreage of land, having over four hundred acres, he was such a capable farmer that his yields to the acre were above the average of the neighborhood and his stock among the best to be seen in the township, he following intensive rather than extensive farming. He was a member of the Grand Army post at Union and took a great deal of interest in this body. Fraternally, he was a member of the Odd Fellows; in politics a Republican, and had held many offices of trust. He was a, member of the Methodist church and Mrs. Cundiff belongs to the Christian church. Mr. Cundiff was a man well known in Union township and lived in such a manner that he was esteemed and respected by all. A true Christian, he was much devoted to his wife and family, and his taking away to his eternal home was for them a sad separation, although it is but temporary. Mrs. Cundiff is a woman of intelligence and refinement, who takes her full share in the neighborhood activities and has many friends.

William D. Cundiff
Civil War Veteran
Birthdate as calculated for age at death was 28 Nov 1844.

Photo by Larry and Pat Phipps.