USA > Iowa > Cedar County > A topical history of Cedar County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 64
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In 1897 Mr. Frymoyer was married to Miss Amanda Burris Armentrout, who was born in Sugar Creek township, August 2, 1867, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Long) Armentrout. Her mother now resides with Mr. and Mrs. Frymoyer, but her father died in 1907, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Both parents were natives of Virginia and came to Cedar county, Iowa, in 1851, this being the home of the family ever since. Our subject and his wife have three children : Georgia Ray Burris, Margaret Lucile and James Curtis Wayne.
Mr. Frymoyer is an earnest and consistent member of the Methodist Epis- copal church at Wilton and has ever taken an active part in its work, while he is now serving as trustee. His life has been such as to command the respect of all who know him, and he is regarded as one of the leading citizens of his com- munity.
S. C. BAKER.
The farming interests of Cedar county have a worthy representative in S. C. Baker, who was born on his present farm on section 18, Rochester township, February 6, 1864, his parents being William and Belinda (Linsey) Baker. The birth of the father occurred in Pickaway county, Ohio, in 1819. He was one of the early settlers of Cedar county, where he located in 1835, and upon the land which he entered from the government in Rochester township he erected a cabin and prepared a home for his family, who arrived the following year. In 1836 he removed to the farm now occupied by our subject and throughout the greater part of his life was engaged in agricultural pursuits, though for about fourteen years he conducted a mercantile business in Rochester. Later he removed to Moscow, when the Rock Island Railroad was built through that place, and also spent two years in Tipton. He was twice married and by his first wife had two children, James P. and Welcome M. On the 20th of March, 1850, he wedded Miss Belinda Linsey, who was born in Middletown, Illinois, February 3, 1833, and died on the 8th of July, 1904. She had survived her husband for some years, for he passed away August 10, 1884. By this union there were four children : William, now a resident of Tipton; Ida May, the widow of L. T. Munn and a resident of Cedar Rapids; Ulysses S. Grant and S. C., twins, the
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former a resident of Tipton. The father was one of the most prominent and influential representatives of the republican party in his community and was called upon to fill various township offices of honor and trust and also served as deputy sheriff of the county.
Upon the farm which he now occupies, S. C. Baker grew to manhood, early becoming familiar with the duties which fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He remained on the home place until 1890, when he rented his farm and removed to Tipton, where he was engaged in the livery business for about ten years. For some time after disposing of his property there he practically lived retired and about four years ago returned to the farm upon which he was born, owning two hundred and forty acres on section 18, which is a part of the old homestead, consisting of seven hundred and sixty acres. He has given to his place the name of Homestead Farm and has made many useful and valuable improve- ments upon it, so that it is particularly adapted for general farming and the breeding of stock, as he devotes considerable attention to the raising of short- horn cattle.
Mr. Baker was married in 1892, the lady of his choice being Miss Nettie Atkinson, who was born in Illinois on the 24th of December, 1854, but was re- siding in Oskaloosa, Iowa, at the time of their marriage. She is a daughter of Ralph Atkinson. Three children blessed this union, namely: Roy, who died at the age of twelve years; and Gertrude and Genevieve, at home.
Mr. Baker is a member of the Prairie Bell Grange and is quite prominent fraternally, belonging to the Masonic lodge at Rochester, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias at Tipton. He stands high in the esteem of his professional brethren and wherever known is held in high regard. He is a worthy representative of one of the oldest and most prominent families of the county that for sixty-five years has been actively identified with its upbuilding and development.
CHARLES FRANKLIN PORT.
The agricultural interests of Sugar Creek township find in Charles Franklin Port a worthy representative and he now owns and operates a well improved and highly cultivated farm of one hundred and seventy acres on section 13, known as Eagle Forest Farm. A native of Cedar county, he was born in Rochester township on the IIth of November, 1856, and is a representative of an old and honored family, his parents being Nicholas and Catharine (Beach) Port, both natives of Darmstadt, Germany. They were born near the Rhine, the father February 20, 1811, and the mother February 1, 1817. Nicholas Port came alone to the United States and settled in Ohio, where he was married on the 15th of November, 1838, his wife having come to the United States with her parents in 1831. They made their home for some time in Richland county, Ohio, and in March, 1856, came to Iowa and settled on a farm in Rochester township, Cedar county, where our subject was born. Mr. Port made farming his life occupation. Prior to coming to this state he had gone to California dur-
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ing the gold excitement there in 1850, traveling the entire distance from Ohio to the Pacific coast with an ox-team. He spent four years in the far west and returned by way of the isthmus of Panama to New York. He died in this county, March 20, 1883, and his wife passed away on the 27th of December, 1888.
They were the parents of the following children: Mary Ann, now the wife of William Kaiser of Wilton; Augustus, who enlisted from Cedar county in Company D, Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil war and being taken ill, returned home, where he died on the 18th of June, 1862, at the age of twenty-one years; Charlotte, who married D. G. Agnew and died in August, 1881; Theodore, a resident of Wilton; Adolphus, who became a physician but is now deceased; Lavina, the deceased wife of William Lyle; Charles F., of this review ; and Flora, who married J. B. Carl and died in 1882.
Charles F. Port was a lad of eight years when the family removed to the farm in Sugar Creek township, where he now resides and since old enough to be of any assistance has aided in the work of the fields. He is today one of the most progressive and up-to-date farmers of the locality and now owns a well improved place of one hundred and seventy acres that is under a high state of cultivation, including a twenty-acre tract of natural forest. The place has been named Eagle Forest because here our subject killed a large eagle, measuring three feet eight inches from its bill to its tail, and seven feet ten inches from tip to tip of wings. Although he has engaged in general farming he has made a specialty of stock-raising, breeding principally shorthorn cattle.
Mr. Port was married April 12, 1881, to Miss Delina Eleanor Barclay, who was born in Center township, Cedar county, on the 18th of February, 1860, a daughter of Thomas and Sarah Jane (Myers) Barclay. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, February 28, 1835, and now resides in Greenfield, Adair county, Iowa. Her mother departed this life in November, 1867, at the early age of twenty-eight years. Mrs. Port is the oldest of their five children, the others being : Joseph M., who lives near Wilton; Ora Etta, the wife of J. B. Kingery of Missouri; John M., of Sugar Creek township; and Thomas, who died in May, 1882.
Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Port, as follows: Ora Char- lotte, now the wife of C. W. Norton of Phoenix, Arizona; Irwin Augustus, a physician living on Sixty-third street, Chicago, Illinois; Flavel Gibson, a resident of Sugar Creek township; Eva Idella, who is engaged in teaching school and lives at home; Irolene J., who was born February 16, 1888, and died January I, 1909, being at that time a school teacher, having graduated from the Wilton high school; Olga Flell, who is also engaged in teaching school; Arebas Bar- clay, who died at the age of sixteen months; Florence Delina, who is attending high school; Erma Catharine, at home; and Nevin Franklin.
Since age conferred upon Mr. Port the right of franchise he has cast his ballot for the men and measures of the democratic party and has taken quite an active and commendable interest in public affairs, serving as township trustee for eighteen years and school director for twelve years. He has worked untir- ingly to secure better roads in his vicinity and as a public-spirited citizen never withholds his support from any worthy object which he believes will prove of
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public benefit. He holds membership in the Presbyterian church of Sugar Creek and is now serving as elder. Fraternal he belongs to White Pigeon Lodge, No. 240, Mutual Brotherhood of America, at Wilton, and is also identified with the Grange.
J. W. ROCHHOLZ.
Among the prominent citizens and representative farmers of Sugar Creek township is J. W. Rochholz, whose home is on section 4. He is one of Cedar county's native sons, his birth occurring in Rochester township, on the 25th of October, 1858. His parents were J. W. and Anna (Wilt) Rochholz, natives of Kulmbach, Germany, where they were reared and married and where the father followed the trade of a stone-cutter and brick layer until his emigration to America in 1852. On landing in New York he proceeded to Philadelphia and from there came to Muscatine, Iowa. Deciding to settle in Rochester township, Cedar county, he made the trip here on foot, traveling a distance of fifty miles in that way, and purchased twenty acres of land. So successful was he in his farming operations that he at length became the owner of over two hundred acres of very fine farm land, never going in debt but paying for everything when he purchased it. He continued to reside in Rochester township until his death, which occurred when he was eighty years of age, and his wife died at the age of fifty-five years.
The children born to them were as follows: George, now a resident of Adair county, Iowa; Mrs. Maggie Sinclair, of Moline, Illinois; Mrs. Hattie Becker, of Muscatine, Iowa; Mrs. Barbara Cripliver, of Boone, Iowa; J. W., whose name introduces this sketch; August, a resident of Mason City, Iowa; Mrs. Emma Munn, of Muscatine; Mary, a resident of Macon City, Missouri; Mrs. Sarah Grimm, of Chicago; Mrs. Clara Edwards, of Cedar Rapids; and William P., of Center township, this county.
J. W. Rochholz of this review was reared and educated in much the usual manner of farm boys of the period and since attaining man's estate has devoted his attention largely to agricultural pursuits, but for about three years conducted a general store at Lime City in Sugar Creek township and also served as post- master at that place for a time. Soon after his marriage he purchased a tract of eighty acres in Rochester township and was engaged in its operation for three years, after which he rented his farm and removed to Lime City, where he was engaged in merchandising for five years. During the following three years he followed farming near Iowa City in Johnson county and in 1893 purchased his present farm in Sugar Creek township, Cedar county, where he has since resided. His first purchase consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, but he has added to it a tract of one hundred and twenty acres, making in all two hundred and eighty acres, of which two hundred acres are on section 4, Sugar Creek township, and the remainder on section 9. He now follows gen- eral farming and stock-raising and has a well improved and highly cultivated farm, whose neat and thrifty appearance plainly indicates his progressive methods
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and shows that he thoroughly understands the occupation which he is now following.
Mr. Rochholz was married on the 4th of March, 1881, to Miss Wilmina Fulwider, who was born in Sugar Creek township, February 15, 1864, a daugh- ter of Anthony Fulwider, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume. This union has been blessed by five children, namely: B. F., who is now ope- rating his father's eighty-acre farm in Sugar Creek township; H. W., who lives on the home place but in another house that has been erected thereon; Amy, the wife of George W. McCroskey, of Rochester township; Mattie, the wife of Otis Barkhurst, of the same township; and Grace, at home. The parents hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church of South Bethel and the family is one of prominence in the community where they reside.
HERMAN G. COE.
Herman G. Coe was for years classed with the prosperous farmers and wide- awake, business men of Fairfield township, where he owned eleven hundred acres of land. He now makes his home in Clarence in the enjoyment of a well earned rest. He has lived in Cedar county since June, 1853, and has therefore witnessed the wonderful transformation that has been wrought, converting the wild prairie and timber land into valuable farming property. He has now passed the eighty- fourth milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Yates county, New York, January 7, 1826. His father, Hon. Matthew M. Coe, was a native of Rockland county, New York, where he was reared. In 1814 he became a resident of Yates county, and in 1832 removed to Ohio, settling in Sandusky county, where he became a leading and well known farmer. He also figured prominently in the public life of the community and was elected and served for three terms as a member of the Ohio general assembly.
Herman G. Coe was reared to manhood in Sandusky county, Ohio, and sup- plemented his education, acquired in the public schools, by a term's attendance at Norwalk Academy and Republic Academy. Later he engaged in teaching for two terms and early in his business career he was employed as a clerk in a store in Republic for several years. In these ways he received a good practical business training and was thus well qualified for the more onerous and im- portant duties that devolved upon him later in his business career.
Mr. Coe was married in Republic on the Ist of June, 1852, to Miss Katie McClung, who was born in Ontario county, New York, but was reared in Ohio, to which state she removed in 1833. The year following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Coe came to Iowa, making their way direct to Tipton. Soon after- ward he purchased land near Tipton and they lived upon the farm for three years, during which period he built a house and barn. Later he sold that place and bought eight hundred acres of raw prairie land in Fairfield township, his property altogether embracing twelve hundred acres. All this he broke, fenced and improved, putting substantial buildings upon the place. He resided there for nine years, on the expiration of which period he removed to Clarence, but
HERMAN G. COE
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MRS. HERMAN G. COE AND GRANDSON
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continued to give personal supervision to his farming interests. He became a . stockholder in the Clarence Savings Bank, serving as president for some years, and is still one of its directors. He has thus figured prominently in local financial circles as well as in association with farming interests.
While Mr. Coe's business interests have become extensive and of a most im- portant character, demanding much of his time and attention, he has yet found opportunity to cooperate in many measures for the public good. For thirteen years he served as a director of the Clarence independent school district and his labors constituted an effective element in the interests of public education. His family were advocates of the democracy, but Mr. Coe has always been a sup- porter of the republican party, casting his vote for Fremont in 1856 and for each presidential nominee since that time. He helped organize Fairfield town- ship, served as a member of the county board of supervisors for six years and for one year acted as president of the board. He has also been a delegate to county and state conventions and does all in his power to further the political principles in which he believes.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Coe have been born five children: Upton G., who died in Tipton at the age of six years ; Clara, who became the wife of Sullivan Enlow, a lawyer, but both are now deceased; Isabelle, the deceased wife of the Rev. Dobson, a minister of the Presbyterian church; Victor G., a lawyer, practicing in Clinton, Iowa, and Dr. Pliny W. Coe, a physician, residing at State Center, Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Coe are members of the Presbyterian church at Clarence and contribute liberally to its support. They have traveled quite extensively in this country, both in the east and in the west, making numerous trips. They are es- pecially well acquainted with Iowa and Mr. Coe can name the county seat of every county in this state and also in Ohio and New York. He possesses a most retentive memory and, although he is now eighty-four years of age, keeps in close touch with the questions and issues of the day. He has been a resident of the county for fifty-seven years and has ever been regarded as an active and useful citizen. He has a wide acquaintance in Cedar and adjoining counties and is a man of tried integrity and worth, he and his estimable wife being held in the highest regard by all who know them. He has passed far on life's journey and can look back without regret, so honorable and straightforward has been his record.
DAVID W. WALTON.
High on the list of Iowa's pioneers appears the name of David W. Walton, for he was the first white settler in Cedar county, arriving here in the year 1835. He was born in New Jersey in 1789 and was a son of William and Ursula (Compton) Walton, natives of England. His youthful days were spent in New Jersey and in early manhood he learned and followed the blacksmith's trade. Having arrived at years of maturity he wedded Miss Mary Parker of Cross Keys, New Jersey, near Trenton, and soon after their marriage they re-
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moved to Jackson county, Ohio, where Mr. Walton engaged in the milling busi- ness. He remained in that county for a few years, after which he took his fam- ily to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where he remained for several years. He was there residing when he heard of the fertility of the Black Hawk Purchase and determined to ascertain the truth of the statement by personal investigation. Accordingly in the summer of 1835, accompanied by his son George, who was then nineteen years of age, he came to Iowa to assist his son-in-law and daugh- ter, John and Eliza Miller, in their removal to what is now Muscatine county. Traveling over a considerable portion of the state, Mr. Walton determined to lo- cate in Cedar county and chose a tract of land near a small stream, to which he gave the name of Sugar creek because of some sugar maples which he discovered upon its banks, two or three miles south of the place that he had determined to make his home. He staked out two claims on what is now the south half of sec- tion 15, township 79, range 2, and there erected a log cabin which became the pioneer home of the family in a district hitherto unoccupied by a white man. He at once began working the prairie that he might plant crops and thus provide for his family. Continuing his explorations in this part of the state, he named not only Sugar creek, but also Otter creek, Mud, Crooked and Elkhorn creeks, Burr Oak and Coon Groves. For a time he worked for Levi Thornton in a black- smith shop on what is now the Muscatine slough. This was in 1835.
Mr. Walton remained in Iowa until late in the fall of that year, after which he returned to Indiana to spend the winter. In the spring of 1836 he again came to this state, accompanied by his wife, five sons and two daughters. They were amply provided with all the necessaries for frontier life, including an excellent breaking team of four yoke of strong and heavy cattle, together with hogs, cows, horses, dogs and cats. They crossed the Mississippi river at Rockingham on the Ist of May and soon arrived at the place which Mr. Walton had selected as his future home. Then began his actual and permanent settlement on the 10th of May, 1836, entitling him to the honor of being the first settler of Cedar county, while to Mrs. Walton belongs the credit of cooking the first meal ever prepared by a white woman in the county. During the season of 1836 the father and sons put under cultivation one hundred acres of land. The ground, which was broken in 1835, was planted in corn, also other ground was plowed immediately after their arrival and sowed to spring wheat, so that to the Waltons is due the credit of preparing the ground, planting, sowing and harvesting the first crops grown in Cedar county.
Mr. Walton is an excellent specimen of the hardy western pioneer, outspoken in his language but honest and straightforward in all his dealings. He therefore won the esteem and confidence of all who knew him. He was an ardent whig and was elected by that party in the contest of 1841 to the office of probate judge. He was frequently addressed by the title of colonel, to which he was entitled from the fact that he was appointed to the command of a regiment in the territorial militia in 1848 by Governor Dodge of the Wisconsin territory, of which Iowa then formed a part.
Mr. Walton resided in Cedar county for a number of years and worked at his trade of blacksmithing in connection with farming. In the winter of 1850 he took a trip on the Mississippi to hunt and trap and on his return by boat
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became afflicted with the dread disease cholera which was then prevalent and passed away just as his boat anchored at Muscatine on the Ist of May, 1850. His boat and effects were brought to his home and his grave was made in Sharon cemetery near the old claim which he had secured fifteen years before. His wife survived him until March, 1865, and was then laid to rest by his side.
Although none of his children are yet living in this county, some of his grand- children are here found. His son, George Walton, sold his farm in Farmington township and with his family went to live in Texas, where he died in 1895. An- other son, David, owned a large tract of land in Farmington township, which he sold in 1884, and then removed with his family to the vicinity of Miller, South Dakota, where he passed away in February, 1908. William Walton, another son, went to Montana and died in the Bitter Root valley several years ago. John Walton left this county at an early day and died in New Orleans. Mrs. Mary Alkire, the eldest daughter, came to Iowa a few years after the family had settled here and took up her abode in Wayne county, where she passed away. Mrs. Eliza Miller, another daughter, was an old settler of Muscatine county and after living there for a number of years sold her farm and spent her remaining days in Union county. Mrs. Catherine Miller, the third daughter, lived in Sugar Creek township for a long period but spent her last years in Maquoketa, Iowa, her remains, however, being interred in Sharon cemetery near her old home. James C. Walton, the youngest of the family, lived continuously in Sugar Creek township for seventy-two years and passed away June 22, 1908, at the age of seventy-eight years. Such is the history of the oldest family of Cedar county.
JOHN S. HEABNER.
In the cultivation of the rich soil of Cedar county, J. S. Heabner finds. scope for his activities, the result of his labors being seen in the valuable farming property which he owns in Rochester township. He was born in Moscow town- ship, Muscatine county, May 3, 1868, a son of John S. and Margaret (Daefler) Heabner, both natives of Germany, whence they were brought to America in their childhood. The father followed farming throughout his life and at the time of his death owned five hundred acres of land in this state. The mother now resides on the home farm in Muscatine county with her children. By her marriage she became the mother of eight children: Annie, the wife of Adolph Kirchoffer, a resident of Missouri; George W., who resides in Wilton, Iowa; Kate, at home; John S., of this review; Henry, a resident of Moscow town- ship, Muscatine county ; and Frank, Lydia and William, all at home.
John S. Heabner, Jr., was reared and educated in the county of his nativity, there remaining to the age of twenty years. At that period in his life he came to Cedar county and has remained within its borders to the present time. He now owns eighty acres of land on section 32, Rochester township, which for- merly belonged to his father, another sixty-nine acres located on the banks of the Cedar river, of which forty-five acres is tillable, while the remainder is timber land, and he also owns some timber land on section 25, having altogether about
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