USA > Iowa > Monroe County > Biographical and genealogical history of Appanoose and Monroe counties, Iowa > Part 20
USA > Iowa > Appanoose County > Biographical and genealogical history of Appanoose and Monroe counties, Iowa > Part 20
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go to make the excellent housewife. Her father, John F. Temple, who came from North Carolina, farmed for a number of years in Iowa, but is at present living in Oregon. He married Anna Bell Long of Penn- sylvania, who bore him three children and died some years ago near Moravia. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle lived for some years in that economical way suitable to a young couple beginning life on limited means, but they were industrious and thrifty and were soon able to indulge in some of the luxuries of life. Their residence up to 1899 was a small house about 14x28 feet, where they contented them- selves until the present commodious residence was built and ready for occupancy. They are now agreeably situated in every way, and Mr. Tuttle's skill as a farmer, aided by his wife's excellent management, has brought prosperity to their hospitable home. Though his farming is chiefly of the mixed or general character customary in that section, Mr. Tuttle pays considerable attention to breeding roadsters, using only standard bred trotters as sires, and has turned out some fine speci- mens of this kind of stock. He leads a quiet, unobtrusive life, attends strictly to business and performs punctually every duty devolving upon a good citizen and good neighbor. The household has been brightened . by the advent of eight children, whose names, arranged in order of birth, are Warren W., Etta L., Lora, deceased, Dessie D., Robert W., Marcia and Marie, twins, and Grace H. Lora died at the age of two years, Warren W. is attending college at Grinnell, and the others re- main at home. The entire family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and the political affiliations of Mr. Tuttle are with the Republican party.
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DAVID THORNTON STARK.
A visitor to Moravia, Iowa, who calls at a certain farmhouse on a tract of land adjoining the village on the south will get acquainted with samples of the very best afforded by American rural life, and see a specimen of the agricultural development of the United States which is the wonder of the world. The recent owner of this farm was a man who came to Iowa in the year that saw its admission into the Union as a state, and whose career therefore covered the whole of that period which has seen this great commonwealth develop from raw prairie land to leadership in farm products among all the states of the Union. He and his good wife grew up with this western state, and at every step of its progress were found doing their full share toward accomplishing its manifest destiny. Each commenced life poor, and knew what it was to work and work hard. Each was one of a large family and com- pelled by circumstances to do drudgery of the most grinding kind when, under happier auspices, they would have been at school or play. Know- ing misfortune and hardships, equally inured to privation and care, they joined hands together when those hands were practically their only reliance, and side by side they struggled and hoped and prayed until fortune at length smiled upon them, with the result that they were able to spend the evening of their lives in one of the happiest homes that is to be found in all the region around.
When David and Edith Stark came from their southern home to Indiana there was little in the prospect that was pleasing. It was early in the nineteenth century, when the Hoosier state was still enveloped in its massive forests of walnut, oak and beech, when comparatively little land had been cleared, and when the task before the agricultural pioneer was little less than appalling. But the Starks set resolutely to work
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like so many others of their courageous compatriots, and somehow or other, by hook or by crook, managed to grub out a living from the reluctant surroundings. In the course of time the first comers were gathered to their fathers, but a son was left to represent them and per- petuate the family name. When Caleb Stark grew up he married Rhoda Burney, and lived some years thereafter in his native state, but after re- peated discussions around the family fireside it was decided that they could do better by moving farther west. So, in 1846, the very year in which Iowa was made a state of the Union, this little caravan might have been seen wending their way toward the setting sun to cast their destiny with the new commonwealth just emerging into existence on the banks of the Mississippi. One of this party was David Thornton Stark, who had been born in Scott county, Indiana, in September, 1837, and was consequently at that time only nine years old. With a boy's freshness and watchfulness, however, he well remembered that trip and often loved to tell about its incidents in after years. In due time the emigrants reached Iowa, and shortly thereafter settled on a farm in Appanoose county, in the vicinity of what is now Walnut City. But within one year after their arrival a great and what, under the circumstances, seemed an irreparable calamity fell upon the little family from the Hoosier state. The father fell sick, and after lingering a short while was carried away in the very prime of life, before he had reached his fortieth year. This blow seemed to be irremediable, but the widow and the little ones braced themselves for the inevitable, and by dint of a desperate struggle managed at last to pull through. Foremost among the little workers who strained every nerve to help his mother was David Thornton, and many a time in later life he told of the hardships of those trying times. He worked hard and he worked late, he worked
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at home and he worked for others. He found out what it was to be a hired boy for exacting neighbors, who hustled him out of bed to eat breakfast by candle light, then to the barn to feed the stock, later to the field for a hard day's work, back to the house to do chores and to bed thoroughly exhausted by the day's labor. This routine, begun at ten or twelve years of age, went on for some years, his compensation being a mere pittance, but that pittance went to help mother, and David was satisfied.
So things ran along until he began to think of marrying, his choice falling upon a neighboring girl of great worth, who also knew what it was to work for a living. Sarah Burrows was the daughter of Will- iam and Margaret Burrows, the former of North Carolina, and the latter of Tennessee, who had married early in life and settled in Lee county, Iowa. There were eleven children in this family, nine of whom are yet living, and as they were poor Sarah had to assist from early girlhood in keeping the wolf from the door. She and David Thornton Stark, therefore, were kindred spirits and knew how to sympathize with each other when, after their marriage, March 10, 1858, they "set up housekeeping" on a rented farm. Their only capital was willing hands, good health and ambition to succeed, backed by mutual love and confi- dence in each other. The struggle was a hard one during the years they lived on rented places, but by the closest kind of economy they managed to save some money for a rainy day. With this Mr. Stark found a chance to buy at a bargain eighty acres of land that was sold at sheriff's sale, paying half in cash and the rest at the end of a year. This tract, which lay near Walnut City, on the west, proved the starter or nest egg, and from that time on affairs went more smoothly with our worthy friends. Prosperity smiled upon them, and a few years later
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Mr. Stark traded his little place for a larger farm lying between Mo- ravia and Iconium. This he afterward disposed of to advantage and purchased the Putnam farm in the same vicinity, which in turn was traded to his son-in-law for three small tracts near Moravia. Those he rented to different parties and retired to Moravia, where he engaged in the stock business and took things more easily for some years. Being at last in easy circumstances, he bought the fine farm adjoining Moravia on the south, and in 1898 built the handsome house in which he and his faithful wife made their home and enjoyed comparative leisure after their arduous lives of labor and self-sacrifice. The venerable father of Mrs. Stark was affectionately cared for by his daughter and son-in-law until his eyes were closed in death, at the age of eighty-three years. Her mother went to live with a daughter in Missouri, where she was tenderly looked after until her earthly pilgrimage was ended, in the sixty-seventh year of her age.
Mrs. Stark has been an active member of the Christian church for more than twenty years, and she and her husband were regarded as pillars and mainstays in the Sunday-school and other religious work. None contributed more liberally than he toward the building of churches and spreading the gospel throughout Appanoose county, and his ex- emplary Christian life is an inspiration for the rising generation. In politics, while never an office seeker, Mr. Stark was always loyal to the principles of the Democratic party and cast his first presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas, when the "Little Giant" was making his race against Lincoln in the memorable campaign of 1860. A few addi- tional words as to the children of Mr. and Mrs. Stark will fitly close this narrative. Rhoda J., their eldest daughter, married happily Harlan Scott, but died at the early age of thirty-five years, after becoming the
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mother of six children; Mary A., the second daughter, married Noble Main and also has six children; William, the eldest son, has a family consisting of a wife and one child; James has had three children, but lost one by death. This record of Mr. Stark's prominence in his community and his worthy and useful life of sixty-five years will indicate how deep was the loss to his wife, family and friends, when on the 26th of Jan- uary, 1903, he was called to his final rest, after a life whose influence will be felt in the future generation.
JOHN G. WILSON.
The above named is a good example of the self-made man, which the free institutions of our great republic make possible of development from all the walks of life simply by allowing full play to the natural ability and resourcefulness typical to American youth. It has become a truism that the humblest child, with poorest surroundings, may in this country aspire to the highest honors, and if he does not reach them the failure is not due to artificial restraints or the obstacles of special privilege. In this country, at least, however it may be elsewhere, pov- erty of itself is no disgrace. The disgrace consists in doing nothing to avoid it. So, with every possible inducement to do well and every en- couragement to honorable ambition, it is a spectacle as common as it is pleasing to see young men all over the Union rising in a few years from penury to plenty and from lowly callings to become rulers of the state. In this honorable list the writer takes pleasure in placing John G. Wil- son of Albia, who, though scarcely yet in the prime of life, finds himself elected treasurer of the prosperous county of Monroe. He has achieved that honor without fictitious aid of any kind, without powerful social
JOHN G. WILSON.
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backing or wealth, which some people believe to be indispensable to success in any great undertaking. These are valuable, undoubtedly, but not indispensable, as is proved in the case of Mr. Wilson and thous- ands like him, and it is always a pleasure to have such examples to bring forward for the encouragement of others who are fighting life's trying battles.
It is possible that but for the slavery agitation in years gone by Mr. Wilson would not be living in Iowa, but in the state down on the Atlantic coast where Sir Walter Raleigh landed the first band of white men that settled on those shores. Jesse M. and Miriam P. (Gardner) Wilson, the former of Irish and the latter of French descent, were living in North Carolina during the exciting period immediately preceding the great Civil war. Mr. Wilson, if not an outright abolitionist, had a dislike to the whole slavery system and no love for the insolent element which in the interests of that infamous institution were ruling things with a high hand in the southern states. During the last years of the fifties residence in any of these states was made very unpleasant for those supposed to hold opinions antagonistic to the ruling classes, and this condition of affairs was the cause of driving away many of the state's best citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, in 1859, determined to leave the land of their nativity and seek a home in the boundless west, where there were no artificial restrictions on worth or hateful caste dis- tinctions to repress honest ambitions. By one living in the age of trolley cars going at the rate of sixty miles an hour and lightning ex- press trains crossing the entire continent in less than five days, something like amazement is felt at the statement that the Wilsons started on their long journey from the Carolina mountains to the upper course of the Mississippi with an ox
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team, and that fifty-five days were consumed on the trip. But "the race is not always to the swift," and even a team of oxen will get there if you give them time enough. So in due course Jesse Wilson and his wife were found settled on a farm in Monroe county, which at that time was filled with virgin land yet untouched by the plow. The newly ar- rived North Carolinans did their share in the way of work, and it is needless to add that the rich Iowa soil did the rest. So it was not long until the emigrants were in comfortable circumstances, possessed of all the substantials and some of the luxuries of life. Mr. Wilson was a carpenter and supplemented his farm labors by working at his trade, a handicraft always in demand in new settlements, and between the two employments he had been able to lay by something when the messenger of death reached him in January. 1900. He espoused the cause of the Republican party during his residence in Iowa, and held several town- ship offices, including that of justice of the peace, which he occupied about ten years. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and taught their children the tenets of Christianity as unfolded in the creed of that denomination. Mr. Wilson was about seventy years old when he closed his mortal career; his wife is still living on the old farm in Monroe township, in the seventy-fifth year of her age. Their children, seven in number, were: Abel P., Mary J., deceased; Nathaniel G., Martha A., John G., Ephraim F., Rachel S., and all the living sons reside in Monroe county.
John G. Wilson, fifth in the list above enumerated, was born on the farm in Monroe county, Iowa, August 16, 1863, and after reaching suitable age assisted his father in the carpenter shop. After the com- pletion of his nineteenth year he entered the employment of a railroad company and continued in this occupation eleven years, during a portion
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of which time he was foreman of a section gang. In 1894 he aban- doned railroading to engage in general merchandising at Foster, and was thus employed when elected treasurer of Monroe county in the fall of 1901. In December of that year he removed to Albia to enter upon the discharge of his official duties, which have ever since demanded all his attention to the exclusion of other business.
In 1888 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Winecup, of Monroe county, and they have had six children, of whom five are living. His religion and politics are in accord with those of his late father, which make him an adherent of the Methodist Episcopal faith, on the one hand, and an advocate of Republican principles on the other.
CHARLES STAUBER.
The late Joseph Stauber, besides being a very worthy and good man in the ordinary relations of life, was an interesting person to know on account of his patriarchal age. His career lacked only four years of covering the whole nineteenth century, and thus embraced the most interesting period of the world's history. He was born about the time that Jefferson was finishing his first administration, and it is well to recall a few events to show how long ago this was. The war of 1812 did not commence until.eight years after Mr. Stauber's birth, and the battle of Waterloo was still eleven years in the future. Queen Vic- toria, whose reign is regarded as phenomenal for its length, was not even born at that time, and yet she passed to her account several years ago. Abraham Lincoln, who was five years younger than Joseph Stauber, lived his wonderful career and passed away thirty-five years
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before Mr. Stauber's death. Scores of people of national fame, who re- mained before the people so long as to seem old men, had their rise, progress and decline far within the period at both ends as measured by the birth and death of Joseph Stauber. He was an eye witness to all the wars of the Union after the Revolution. He was alive at the admis- sion of every state into the Union after Ohio in 1802. Since he came upon the scene the United States has grown from a straggling string of states along the Atlantic seaboard, with a few million inhabitants, to a mighty republic, embracing all the territory between the two great cardi- nal oceans of the globe. Mighty, tremendous, almost inconceivable have been the changes and revolutions since Joseph Staubers' birth in 1804 and his death in 1900.
The family of this name, though long settled in North Carolina, came originally from the north during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Christian Stauber was still a boy when his parents left their home in Pennsylvania to find a new location in the Old North state, and he continued to live there until his death at the age of seventy-five years. He married Maria Baumgartner, and from this union sprang the Joseph Stauber who became the progenitor of the western branch of this numer- ous family connection. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Christian and Anna (Stair) Fogel, and lived for some years thereafter in North Carolina, but eventually decided to try his fortunes in the west. It was in the fall of 1849 that he packed his household goods and with his wife and little ones set out on the long and tedious journey to the distant state of Iowa. The point of destination was Fairfield, where they spent the winter of 1849-50, and in the spring of the last mentioned year removed to the county of Appanoose. At that time Iowa was a con- paratively wild state, and the farms which now "blossom as the rose"
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were almost entirely unimproved. The newcomers, who were rushing in by the thousands, were able to secure these rich lands at what would now be regarded as ridiculously low prices, and in this way poor emi- grants could by very small investments in cash lay the foundations for magnificent landed estates. Joseph Stauber bought warrants for two hundred and forty acres of prairie land, on which stood a little shanty, and set to work with a will to improve his place. The absence of heavy timber made this a much easier task than confronted most of the pioneers in states farther east, and in course of time Mr. Stauber effected such magical changes that the once raw land is now one of the most highly improved and valuable farms in the county. His wife, who was two years his junior, having been born in 1806, passed away in 1878, but his own death did not occur until March 12, 1900.
Six of their eight children are living, and of this number is Charles Stauber, who was born in North Carolina in 1847, and conse- quently was about two years old when his parents came to Iowa. As he grew up he assisted his father in making the old homestead what it is now, and learned the art of agriculture after the Iowa methods, which are perhaps the best in the world. At first, of course, it was necessary for the family to live in a rather rude way, after the manner of pioneers, and for many years they were sheltered in a cabin about sixteen by thirty-two feet in size. This in time was replaced by a commodious residence, completed in 1874. and all the other necessary buildings and adjuncts of an up-to-date farm were added as they were needed. All the children married and went to themselves with the exception of Charles and Ellen, who, since the death of their father, have continued to occupy the home place. Though Mr. Stauber has preferred to re- main a bachelor, his home has not been without the cheerfulness that is
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imparted by the presence of children. His score of nephews and nieces think the world and all of "Uncle Charles," and their frequent visits to the old homestead are the source of much merriment and social pleas- ure. The farm is situated about one mile east of the village of Mor- avia, in one of the most desirable sections of the county, and is culti- vated by Mr. Stauber with the skill and good judgment which come only from long experience. His standing in the county, both as a busi- ness man and model citizen, leaves nothing to be desired, and none enjoys greater personal popularity among those who know him intimately. Though his parents were of the religious sect known as Moravians, Mr. Stauber is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, but his sister still stands by the old church.
DAVID H. SCOTT.
For over half a century David H. Scott has been one of the promi- nent citizens of Monroe county, Iowa, where he has made an enviable record not only as a progressive farmer, but also as a public-spirited man who has been raised to high places of trust in his county, and now in the declining days of his long career he enjoys that satisfaction which always belongs to the man of upright character.
On February 25. 1797, Alexander Scott was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania ; he later removed to Fleming county, Kentucky, where he was married to Martha Wills, who was a native of Fleming county, Kentucky, born in 1806. Shortly after their marriage, in 1827, they came to Putnam county, Indiana. There Mr. Scott, who was a farmer and wheelwright by occupation, located on a strip of timber land and spent considerable time in clearing and improving it. Both of these
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worthy people died in Indiana, the husband passing away in 1879, on the same day and month on which his birth occurred, and his wife in 1847.
David H. Scott, who was a child of the above parents, was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, June 27, 1825, and he attended school and worked on the home farm until he was twenty-one years old. He then married and he and his wife first went to housekeeping in Clinton county, Indiana, where they lived on a rented farm for one year; they next moved to Putnam county and farmed for four years. On October I, 1850, they arrived in Iowa; in the previous year Mr. Scott had come to Monroe county and entered a piece of land six miles north of the present town of Albia, and on this he built a log cabin and a wheelwright's shop and settled down to real life. In the fall of 1854 he sold out and pur- chased a farm that now joins Albia on the north ; much time and money were spent in the improvement of this property, and in 1861 he dis- posed of this land and bought a place four miles east of Albia, to which he removed in the spring of 1862. In August of this year his patriotic spirit aroused him to enlist in Company A. Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry ; he entered the service as first sergeant and was later commissioned sec- ond lieutenant, but after two years' service, while in the discharge of his duty as an officer of the government, he suffered a broken leg and resigned his position and returned home. While away in the army he had left his farm to the care of his wife and children, who right nobly performed the vigorous duties pertaining to its management. On his return he took up the work of improvement and resided there until 1896; in this year he sold out and removed to Albia, where he and his wife now make their home, relieved from the cares and responsibilities of earlier life and enjoying the ease which comes as the result of diligent effort.
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Mr. Scott has an excellent record as a public-spirited man and as a leading member of the Republican party of his county. In 1854. when the movements were on foot to establish what is now the Repub- lican party, he helped to organize the party in Monroe county and has ever since been one of the active spirits in politics. For twenty years he served as assessor of his township and as a final reward for his services and in recognition of his ability, in 1895 he was elected to the Iowa house of representatives from his county ; he served in the session of the following year and also in the extra session which followed, called for the purpose of revising the state laws. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are de- voted members of the First Presbyterian church; Mr. Scott has been an elder for forty-three years and he was twice sent to the Presbyterian general assembly, one at Saratoga, New York,'in 1883, and one at Port- land, Oregon, in 1892. Fraternally he is connected with the Grand .Army of the Republic.
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