Horace Everett was born in 1819 to a prominent American family in Windsor, Vermont. He came from a long line of lawyers and educators. Horace attended school in New Hampshire and Vermont and after studying law under the guidance of his father, he passed the bar.
In 1841 he moved to Gainesville, Alabama where he practiced law in Alabama for fifteen years.
In 1851 He married Mary Leonard in Missouri. By 1855 Horace and Mary were in Council Bluffs.
Horace was involved in the sale of real estate for most of his career. He was an early speculator in Sulphur Springs, Nebraska.
Mr. Everett held public office as an alderman, but he didn't much care for politics and instead turned his attention to other ways to serve the city of Council Bluffs.
Horace was a founding trustee of Fairview Cemetery, a founding member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and a regent of the University of Iowa.
His greatest achievement may be the Public library. Not only was Horace Everett instrumental in the creation of the library he also helped stock it's shelves. He donated, from his personal collection, 367 titles, consisting of 601 volumes to the Public Library.
Horace and Mary had five children, Leonard, Torrey, Edward and Ada. A son, Horace, died in infancy.
The Everetts also enjoyed their place in society. A "phantom party" given in February of 1874 was a great success. They traveled often and in 1884 Mrs. Everett took a six month trip to Tokyo, Japan.
Horace Everett owned a very large piece of land just north of Council Bluffs where according the the Biographical History of Pottawattamie County (1891):
Mr. Everett was a devoted lover of nature; he never tired of the beautiful scenery of the Missouri River bluffs, and the prairies bordering on them, and was
never happier than when rusticating on his large “Highland” farm of 4,000 acres near Council Bluffs, where under his personal supervision were planted 100 acres of forest trees and forty acres of apple orchards. He had the pleasure of gathering nuts from his walnut groves and of seeing his orchards red with apples. The trees planted by himself in front of his residence are now four feet in diameter and seventy feet in height.
Horace Everett died November 3, 1890. Mary Everett passed away on July 3, 1916. They are both buried in Fairview Cemetery.
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