USA > Iowa > Keokuk County > A genealogical and biographical history of Keokuk County, Iowa > Part 32
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has continued to be a citizen of Richland since that time, and has taken a very active part in the public life of the community. For eleven years he held the office of mayor, and in 1902 he celebrated his twenty-eighth year as justice of the peace for the township in which Richland is located, he being the oldest officer in point of continuous service in that position within the bounds of the county. In 1897 his standing in the community was such as to make it an easy matter for him to be ap- pointed postmaster, since which time he has been an incumbent of that office. His genial disposition and obliging manner make him very popu- lar, and the government finds in him a most efficient officer.
Mr. Allen celebrated his marriage in December, 1866, the lady being Miss Mary Schelp, a native of the state of Maryland; she has borne our subject an interesting family of eight children: Emma, wife of John Goodman, a farmer of the county; Lydia, wife of Edward Hiatt, also a farmer : Anna, a single lady, and one of the efficient and popular teachers of the county for the past twelve years: Cora, wife of Vivian Byers, a farmer; Willis O., a farmer of the county; and M. Grace, a single lady, who is her father's assistant in the office ; John W .. also assistant postmaster, Richland, is the youngest. One of the children died in infancy. The social nature of Mr. Allen has made him a very popular and worthy member of several of the fraternities of his town, the one in which he takes the greatest interest, possibly, being that noble organization, the Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 239, in which he has been honored with election to all of the chairs. He is also a mem- ber of the Modern Woodmen of America. It is unnecessary to state that he is a stalwart in his support of Republican principles, in which organization he is considered a safe counselor. The authors of this volume take pleasure in presenting so honorable a citizen for the con-
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sideration of its readers. Mr. Allen is a gentleman who has by dint of his own exertions raised himself to an honored position in the commlin- ity. His educational advantages were small, but what was lacking in opportunity he made up in diligence and application, and having a natur- ally observant mind has become a very well informed man. From the courageous boy without education or capital, he has risen to be a busi- ness man of affluence in the community. He receives the good wishes of all, and merits the trust imposed in him, and by his upright life in whatever capacity he is called to move, sets forth a fine example for the rising generation.
DAVID P. LEWIS.
There is no class of citizens who deserve more from society than the farming element. The man who passes an entire life time in the cul- tivation of the soil ought to have a right to expect that at three-score he can lay down the implements with which he has been employed and take his deserved rest. There has been no time in the history of agricul- ture in the state of Iowa when honest, persistent labor with a fair amount of executive ability should not have produced a competency in that period. This fact has been demonstrated by the honored gentleman whose name initiates this paragraph, and who is now a retired farmer living in the city of Hedrick.
Mr. Lewis is a native of the Hoosier state, born in Ripley county, March 30, 1830. William Lewis, his father, was a native of the state of North Carolina, and was a farmer by occupation, removing to Indiana some time subsequent to his marriage. He settled on a farm entered from the government, where most of his family were reared to maturity, 55
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and where he died. His wife's name was Mary Mitchler, also a na- tive of North Carolina. They became the parents of thirteen children, of which our subject was the sixth son and the tenth child. The names of the children are as follows, only two of them now living: Abigail, Jacob, Elizabeth, Katherine, Daniel, John, Amelia, Samuel, Mathias, David P., the subject of this sketch; Polly E., William S., and Mary M. The youngest and our subject are the only known living members. The father of the family was a devout member of the Methodist church, and a worthy citizen of the county in which he passed his life. In politics he voted with the Democratic party.
Mr. David P. Lewis, the honored subject of this sketch, passed his early youth and boyhood in the severe labor of farm life in the Hoosier state, receiving a limited education in the few months of winter school. He remained at home until he was nineteen years old, marrying at that early age Mahala Allen. This lady was born in the Hoosier state in 1833 and was the daughter of Meriet and Elizabeth ( Robinson) Allen. The Allens were natives of the Blue-grass state, and later were early pioneers in Keokuk county. Mr. Lewis and his wife were the parents of fifteen children, eight boys and seven girls, as follows : Martha Jane, deceased : William M., deceased : John A .; Mary E. : Jacob R .; Johnson ; Susana, cleceased ; David, deceased; Marguerita ; Samuel; George, deceased : Katherine : Emma ; Charles : Annabell All of these children except Ja- cob were born and reared in Keokuk county. The year following his marriage Mr. Lewis joined the tide of emigration that had set in for the west, and came to Keokuk county, where he settled in Jackson town- ship. The year of this settlement was 1850 He rented different farms for a period of years, and passed one year in farming in the state of Missouri. He finally returned to Keokuk county, however, and pur-
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chased a farm of forty acres in Jackson township. To this original farm he added different bodies, continuing the cultivation and improvement of it until he became a large land owner. He had also other farms in different sections of the county. He retired from active life on the farm in 1895. He continued to live on his farm until 1897, when he moved to the town of Hedrick, and in the following year built himself a tasty resi- dence, in which he expects to pass the remainder of his days. In political belief Mr. Lewis is a Jacksonian Democrat, though he satisfies himself in political matters by simply depositing his vote. never having held any office. He is very generally and favorably known all over the county by reason of his long residence and the worthy life which he has lived among his fellow citizens. Ile is a man of staunch principles and of great integrity of character, and merits the good wishes of a large num- ber of friends and acquaintances.
CLAIBORNE JACKSON NUGENT.
Among the honored residents of Keokuk county for the past five de- cades is the honored gentleman whose nanie precedes this paragraph, and who resides on section 24 in Steady Run township, he having passed his eightieth milestone. Mr. Nugent is one of the most sub- stantial citizens of the county, both in sterling qualities of citizenship and in financial standing. He is in the best sense of the term a "self- made man," having by a life of ceaseless energy and unexampled toil risen from a condition of comparative penury to one of easy affluence. He has retired from the active management of the farm, and is passing his remaining days in the enjoyment of the results of his earlier labor.
As stated, Mr. Nugent is one of the pioneers of Keokuk county, he
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having settled here in 1853. He was born in the Hoosier state, where he first saw the light in Clark county on the 24th of September, 1818. Ile was the son of John R. Nugent, a native of Nelson county, Kentucky. Here his father passed his early youth and married, and from thence settled in Clark county, Indiana, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits during the remainder of his life time. He was the father of seven sons and six daughters, all of whom grew to maturity, married and reared families. On the maternal side of our honored subject's family, Mary O. Connors, his mother, was also a native of the Bourbon state, and of Nelson county, where her father. Richard Connor, was one of the early settlers and a large land owner. It is related of him that he gave away large tracts of land in order to induce the settlement of neighbors in his vicinity.
Our subject was the fifth child of a family of thirteen. He was reared in his native county in the Hoosier state. He remained in that state until he was thirty-five years of age, when he came to Iowa. His first purchase of real estate in Keokuk county was of Mr. Richard Miller, consisting of a tract of one hundred and eighty acres, the land upon which he now resides, and for which he paid one thousand dollars. There were no improvements on this land, except the single house of two rooms. He continued to cultivate this farm, and as he prospered added other tracts to it until he had the present holding of six hundred and eighty acres, highly improved, and with all the buildings necessary for the conduct of a large ranch. This was not done without the most severe labor and the greatest of economy. Mr. Nugent entered the married state in Clark county. Indiana, in the year which marked his coming to Iowa. when he was joined to Miss Susana Lister, a lady of English extraction, but a native of the same county as our subject. Her
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birth occurred in 1826, on the 21st of February. She died May 26. 1902. Mrs. Nugent was a most estimable lady, and had proved to her husband a most faithful companion and helpmate on life's journey, her sound advice and assistance having been important factors in his prosperity. She was buried amid a large concourse of mourning friends and neigh- bors at Mount Zion church in Steady Run township. She was the mother of three children, one of whom died in infancy: Mary Jane married Mr. A. D. Smith and now resides on the farm. where she takes loving care of her remaining parent ; she is the mother of eight children, seven of them now living, as follows: Roscoe, Guy, Pauline, Andrew, Benson, Harold, and Myra. The second daughter, Anna Eliza, is the wife of Mr. Frank Marshall, of Ollie, who is a prominent farmer and stock raiser : they have three children, of whom the eldest died in infancy, and the names of the other two are Raymond N., and Claybourn R.
As stated before, our honored subject started in life a comparatively poor boy, and has accumulated a very nice property. All of this has been done in legitimate farming and stock raising. He has a just pride in stating that he was the first man that paid forty-five dollars an acre for land in Steady Run township. He has been highly respected for his many good qualities during his residence in Keokuk county, and is a Republican of the old school, having got his Republican principles from the old Whig party, having cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison in 1840. He has voted for every Republican President since the organization of that party. He has held many of the local offices of the community in which he resides, the duties of which he administered with credit. He and his wife were life-long members of the Christian church. It is the modest boast of Mr. Nugent that he never defrauded any man of anything, and owes no man a single dollar. The suc-
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cess of Mr. Nugent in financial matters is well deserved, having always been faithful and industrious, continuing through hardships and discour- agements, and now in his riper years he can enjoy the fruit of liis toil, being also favored with the confidence and esteem of his many friends and acquaintances.
FRANCIS P. RICHARDSON.
Among those upon whom has fallen the mantle of the worthy pioneers who have begun to pass to their reward in another scene, and who are in every way carrying on acceptably the work of the old veter- ans in developing and building up Keokuk county, stands high the gentleman whose name heads this paragraph, as a leader among the ranks of our signally enterprising and capable farmers. For fifty-seven years Mr. Richardson has gone in and out among the citizens of Keokuk county, and during that time has built for himself a reputation for up- rightness and probity. He it at the present time living on section 13. Steady Run township. The nativity of Mr. Richardson dates in Mc- Donough county, Illinois, the date being April 25, 1840. He is the son of Mr. Thomas Richardson and a brother of J. M. Richardson, of this county ; and under a sketch of the latter in this volume will be given the ancestral history of our subject.
Francis Richardson is the fourth child and the third son of the family. He removed to Keokuk county with his parents in 1845. being at that time but five years of age. Settlement was made on the tract of land which he now cultivates, and where the primitive log house of that day was built, that interesting old relic of pioneer days still being intact. Mr. Richardson's early life consisted in the hard work and
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few pleasures which came to the boys of his time, but this experience grounded him well in the knowledge and principles which have made him a man of standing in his community. What book education he received was obtained in the little log schoolhouse with its wide chim- ney and rough benches, three months in the winter season. He, how- ever, improved his opportunities and was able to secure such proficiency as has enabled him to carry on business acceptably during his life-time. Ile remained at home until he was nineteen years of age, when he began a farming venture for himself. The only capital which he received, as Mr. Richardson puts it, "was the year and ? half which my father gave me of my time before I was twenty-one." He continued cultivating this land until 1864, when, concluding that a little travel would broaden his views of life. he in company with Mr. Josiah Utterbach took a trip to the west, passing through Salt Lake City and on to Virginia City. They werc engaged during the period of two years absence for the most part in the chopping of wood. They returned by way of Grey- town and New York City, having seen considerable of the world during their absence. Upon his return to his native county, our subject took up the trade of carpenter and cooper, at which he continued to work for several years, but finally returned to agricultural pursuits. He rented a farm in Steady Run township for some three years, and then purchased a tract of forty acres in the same township. This body of land he cultivated for the space of one year, when he sold out and en- gaged with his brother, J. M., in the mercantile business at Ioka. This business he pursued successfully for five years, when he sold out his in- terest to his brother and purchased the interest of the lieirs in the old homestead. Here he removed with his family, and has since been en- gaged in farming and stock raising in that locality. He has a farm
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here of one hundred and eighty acres, which is highly improved, and furnished with all the buildings necessary for the successful conduct of a large stock ranch. In connection with his brother, B. F. Richardson, he lias since 1887 been interested in the operation of a mill in the town of Martinsburg.
In November, 1868, Mr. Richardson married Miss Louisa C. Davis, a daughter of David and Lilly (Smith ) Davis. Mrs. Richardson was born in the Hoosier state and came to Keokuk county with her parents when a child. She is the mother of four children, Nora, wife of J. C. Martin of Keithsburg, Illinois: Arthur; George, at Grinnell College Iowa; and Forest, at home. In political belief Mr. Richardson favors the principles of government advocated by Thomas Jefferson, and gives his vote to the support of candidates of the Dem- ocratic party. He has no desire to be bothered with the cares of office, the only one which he ever consented to accept being that of justice of the peace, which office he resigned after being elcted. Mr. Richardson is an honest, upright citizen, a man who is highly respected in the community in which he has passed his entire life-time, and we take pleasure in giving him representation among the worthy families of Keokuk county.
MRS. MARY J. BOND.
Among the early settlers of Keokuk county is numbered this lady. whose many friends will be glad to see the record of her life in this volume. She now resides on section 11. Richland township, where for many years she has made her home and since her husband's death she has superintended her farming interests. She was born in Jefferson
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county, in eastern Tennessee, January 3, 1838. Her father, James French, was a native of South Carolina, but was reared in eastern Ten- nessee and after arriving at years of maturity he married Miss Lucinda Sasseen, a native of Tennessee, whose parents were born in North Caro- lina and on their removal to the former state located in Jefferson county. The father of Mrs. Bond died when about sixty years of age, and his wife was about that age when called to her final rest. They were the parents of ten children, three sons and seven daughters, all of whom reached mature years.
Mrs. Bond, the eldest of the family, spent her girlhood days in her parents' home, assisting in the duties of the household, so that she was well qualified to take charge of a home of her own at the time of her marriage. She remained a resident of her native county until 1856, when she removed to Adams county, Illinois, and in 1860 she came to Keokuk county, Iowa, locating in Richland township, where she has since made her home. She was first married to John C. . Alderson, a native of Jefferson county. Tennessee, who died in Illinois. Unto them were born four children : Sarah, now the wife of John Rudolph ; James, a resi- dent of Mills City, Montana ; Emeline, who became the wife of Elisha Jones : and Lucy, the wife of Joseph Whittaker, a resident of Albion, Iowa. After the death of her first husband, and following her removal to this county, Mrs. Alderson gave her hand in marriage to William Bond in 1869.
Mr. Bond was born in eastern Tennessee in 1823 and in 1841 came to Keokuk county, lowa, casting in his lot among the first settlers who succeeded the Indians as owners of the land. He was a valiant soldier of the Civil war, enlisting in 1862, as a member of Company K. Eighteenth Iowa Infantry, with which he remained for about a year. 56
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when he was honorably discharged on account of physical disability. He then returned home and resumed farming, which he followed continu- ously until his death. He was practical in his methods of farm work, was progressive and enterprising, and through the careful conduct of his business affairs he won a comfortable competence and was ranked among the well-to-do and leading agriculturists of the community. He was also a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was a member of the Friends church, his life being in harmony with the teachings of that church. He died February 22, 1892, and through- out the community his death was deeply mourned, because he had en- cleared himself to many friends by his kindly, genial nature.
Two children were born unto Mr. and Mrs. Bond. Asbury mar- ried Miriam Sasseen and resides with Mrs. Bond. Viola became the wife of Elsworth Fitch and died at the age of twenty-two years. In early life Mrs. Bond was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, but is now a member of the Friends church She is a most estimable lady, highly esteemed for her many excellent traits of heart and mind. For forty-two years she has been a resident of this county and her mind is stored with many interesting incidents and reminiscences of the early days, which she relates in an entertaining manner. She has become quite widely known in her part of the county and well does she deserve men- tion in the history of the county which has so long been her home.
DAVID JONES, M.D.
David Jones, M. D., a prominent old settler of Richland township. Keokuk county, Iowa, was born in Blount county, Tennessee, October 31, 1829, and is a son of James and Rebecca ( Morgan) Jones, the former
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of whom was born and reared near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thomas Jones, the grandfather of Dr. Jones, was born in Wales and came in boy- hood to America with his parents, who settled in Pennsylvania. This family has been members of the Society of Friends for generations. James Jones was for a great many years an elder and was a man of most estimable life, who died at the age of seventy years. He married Re- becca Morgan, whose great-grandfather accompanied William Penn on his second voyage to America and was one of Penn's admirers and sup- porters. Thomas Morgan, the maternal grandfather of Dr. Jones, was of English descent, a farmer by occupation, and a man of prominence and respectability. The mother died at the age of seventy-three years. The parents of Dr. Jones had six sons to grow to manhood and two daughters to reach maturity.
Dr. Jones was the youngest son of his parents, and he was reared in the old home in Tennessee, and attended the local schools. Later he was sent to a boarding-school at New Garden. North Carolina, which has now been transformed into Guilford College. At the age of twen- ty years he began teaching and followed this profession in North Caro- lina and Tennessee, later becoming one of the instructors at Friends- ville Institute, in the latter state, which position he held for two years. In 1861 he came to Keokuk county, Iowa, and began teaching at Pleas- antplain, in Jefferson county, continuing until 1873 and most acceptably filling positions both in town and country. During this time the young man had been studying medicine and in the fall of 1873 began practice in Richland, remaining active in this profession until 1898. when he re- tired.
In 1852 Dr. Jones was married to Rebecca P. Jones, who is a daughter of James and Sarah (Smitzer) Jones, of Tennessee, and to this union
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was born a family of seven sons and one daughter, as follows: James M .: Elisha R. : Francis A .; Mattie E., who married William A. Good- man ; John L .: Walter S .; Benjamin C .; and Joseph C. Dr. Jones is a leading member of the Society of Friends in this locality, and for more than twenty years has been an elder, in simplicity of life exemplifying the admirable principles he professes. In his early days he was a Whig in political sentiment, and is now a deeply interested Republican. Dr. Jones is one of the most highly respected citizens of Richland.
JAMES WYLLIE
The land of bonnie Scotland has furnished many worthy sons and (laughters who have found a place in this country and have been honored for their sterling honesty and faithfulness to duty, and it is now our pleasure to record a brief history of one of these. The father of our sub- ject, James Wyllie, was born in the good old county of Ayrshire, Scot- land, and after a successful life now lives retired in the enjoyment of the earnings of his younger days. His wife was Jane Pearcy, who died at the age of seventy years. They had five children ; of four daughters. only one survives, residing in Scotland.
James Wyllie was the only son and was born in his father's home in 1854, the eldest of the family. Up to the age of twelve he enjoyed the advantage of the common schools, but then began working in the collieries. He followed this occupation until the year 1881, when he came to America : the first news that he learned on his arrival in New York was of the assassination of President Garfield. He came directly to Illinois, where he engaged in mining and there remained about three years. His services were then sought by the Granger Mining Company
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of What Cheer, Keokuk county, lowa, to plan and establish the "long wall" system of coal mining and this he accomplished in about six months. The company retained his service for about four years. He then rented a farm near What Cheer in Prairie township and worked it for four years; he then took a farm in Van Buren township for one year. Then he bought a farm of eighty acres in the latter township. In 1896 Mr. Wyllie was appointed superintendent of the county poor farm, which position he still holds, and shows excellent management in conducting that important public institution.
Among other business relations Mr. Wyllie is connected with poultry raising and he is an expert, having learned the business in the old coun- try. He is one of the lowa state directors in the Poultry Association. and exhibits at all the poultry shows of the state, in 1891 winning the silver cup given by the Des Moines Poultry Company at Williamsburg ; he had the ten highest scores in bantams, on which he also won a cup and a special prize on the highest scoring bird in the show. He is rec- ognized as a leader in this most interesting and profitable business.
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