USA > Iowa > Monroe County > Biographical and genealogical history of Appanoose and Monroe counties, Iowa > Part 39
USA > Iowa > Appanoose County > Biographical and genealogical history of Appanoose and Monroe counties, Iowa > Part 39
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL HISTORY.
O. S. CLARK.
When O. S. Clark opened his eyes to the light of the world the territory of lowa had not been admitted to statehood, and he certainly, therefore, can claim the title of being an old resident of the state. Great has been the progress of this state since that time, and among the men who have helped to develop the resources of this favored country Mr. Clark holds a prominent place. His father's name was William G. Clark. He was born in Connecticut and spent his early life there. It. was in 1843 that he came to Iowa and located in Troy township, Monroe county, at a place called Clarks Point. Here he took up a claim of six hundred and forty acres of raw land and was soon engaged in making this virgin soil bring forth useful crops where before it had run to wildness. In the fall of 1855 he bought about four hundred acres in Monroe township and remained on this farm until his death, in 1893. when at the age of seventy-seven. He was married in Van Buren county, in May, 1843, to Jane S. Rankin. She was a native of Ohio and came to Indiana with her parents at the age of fourteen and came on to Iowa in 1844. She became the mother of twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter, of whom all are living. Mr. Clark was a Dem- ocrat, but was an abolitionist in regard to the slave question.
O. S. Clark was the oldest child in the above family, and his birth occurred in Troy township, January 12, 1845. The first nine years of his life were spent in Troy township, and he was then taken to Monroe township, where he completed his mental training in the common schools. He remained on the home farm until thirty years old, and at that age was married to Sarah F. Babb, a daughter of Isaac Babb, who was one of Iowa's pioneer settlers. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs.
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Clark, one of whom died in infancy. The others are as follows: Sarah, Margaret, Susan, Ralph, Benjamin and Luther. Mr. Clark bought the farm on which he now lives in 1875, and at the present time owns two hundred and fifty acres of good land, on which he raises excellent crops. He is a member of the Prohibition party and is one of the highly re- spected citizens of Monroe county, always being found on the side of right and progress.
GEORGE C. McCORMICK.
No paper in Monroe county. Jowa, publishes more news, is more public spirited in its support of all measures affecting the town and county or enjoys more fully the backing of the best citizens of the county, as shown by the large and representative subscription list, than the Albia Republican, whose success is the result of the efforts of its enterprising and energetic editor, G. C. McCormick. And it is most fitting to record the life history of the journal and its owner in this book of biography of two of Iowa's most progressive counties.
Mr. McCormick comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry, who came to America before the Revolution, members of the family taking part in that war, also in the war of 1812, the Mexican and Civil wars, so that they may be listed among the patriotic families of America. The first ancestors settled in Virginia, then migrated west to Indiana, and from there to Iowa, in 1867. The parents of our Monroe county editor were Mont and Hattie McCormick; the former was a farmer and veterina- rian and served three years in Company A, Fifty-ninth Indiana, dur- ing the Civil war; his wife was a school teacher and a most estimable woman, as the lasting influence she exercised over her children proved.
GEORGE MCCORMICK.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL HISTORY. 597
It was after his parents had taken up their residence in Sandyville, Warren county, Iowa, that George C. McCormick came into the world, on October 20, 1872. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and now that he is on the fair road to success he might have considered that an incumbrance rather than a benefit. But he was in- dustrious from the start, and the fact that the first eighteen years of his life were spent on a farm probably had much to do with the shaping of his character and subsequent development. At the age of eighteen he moved to College Springs, Iowa, and entered the preparatory de- partment of Amity College at that place. As he was not afraid of hard work, he paid his way through school by doing chores for his board, teaching school and acting as general agent for a book com- pany, and notwithstanding such restrictions he went through with his class and graduated in 1897 with the degree of Ph. B., having covered the general collegiate course of studies. He had already decided to make a career of journalism, and three months before graduation had bought the College Springs Current Press. He published this paper until January, 1899, when he bought the Albia Republican and re- moved to Albia in order to enter upon his duties as editor and pub- lisher. Mr. McCormick is a man of push and ability, and he has, in the short time he has owned it, made his paper the official organ of the county and has placed it on a firm financial basis, so that it is a paying property. The paper, like its editor, is straight Republican in politics, but on the questions of general policy that are continually be- fore the people for settlement it advocates progress and the general welfare of all. In 1902 he built a two-story printing office, and the entire office has been newly equipped in the last four years, so that there are few country newspapers anywhere which are better fitted up
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for their work. The paper is a six-column quarto, all home print, and the average circulation for 1902 was 2,204 copies.
Mr. McCormick is one of the whole-souled, genial gentlemen who make friends everywhere they go, and his hitherto successful career is due to these and other solid elements of character. He early learned how to work hard and effectively, and this happy quality, combined with his enthusiasm, makes him a winner in whatever field of endeavor he may engage. While he has advocated the principles of the Repub- lican party and thus has been able to be of much assistance to his party, he has never chosen to enter the field of politics, and prefers to devote himself to his business. He is a member of the Methodist church, belongs to the Masons, the Woodmen and the Yeoman frater- nities, and is a willing helper in all branches of social and religious work. On June 22, 1897. Mr. McCormick was married at College Springs, Iowa, to Miss Carrie Sherman, the daughter of S. L. Sher- man. She was born and reared at College Springs, Page county. They have one son, Paul Sherman McCormick, who was born August 12, 1901.
JOSEPH MARINE.
The subject of this sketch is one of those quiet, unpretentious men whose names are not seen in the papers nor on the ballots of political parties, who pursue "the even tenor of their way," and whose industry, in the mass, is the prime factor in making the wheels go round. Mr. Marine owns a good sized piece of land in the matchless farming state of lowa, and this he has worked industriously for many years and still works in person, though now in the seventy-first year of his age.
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Though unobtrusive in manners and inclined to attend strictly to his own business, while letting that of others alone. Joseph Marine is recog- mized by his intimate friends as a man of sterling worth and blameless life. The family came originally from New Jersey in the persons of Moses and Ellen ( Monroe) Marine, who settled first in Ohio and came west to Iowa in 1854. The father was a farmer and followed that occu- pation for a livelihood until his death in 1870, two years after his wife had departed from the scenes of earth. They had the unusually large number of fifteen children, of whom only Moses, Joseph, Alexander, Sarah and Maria are now alive, those dead being Robert, Samuel. John, Nichols, William, Washington, Ilof, Mary, Margaret and Louise.
Joseph Marine, who was the seventh of this numerous family, was born August 25, 1832, in Belmont county, Ohio, and spent his boyhood at home. In 1850, when about eighteen years old, he caught the western fever and crossed the Mississippi into the great state of Iowa, but in two years felt such a longing for a sight of the old Buckeye home that he could not resist the pressure to return to Ohio. However, he did not long remain in his native state, but, again turning his face northwest, came back to Iowa, and from that time until now has been one of its most steadfast citizens.
In 1855 Mr. Marine was married to Lucy, daughter of William and Mary Foster, to which union an only son, Alexander Lincoln, was born. Mr. Marine owns a farm of two hundred and forty-nine acres, which he works himself, despite his more than three-score and ten years of age. He and his wife are both devoted Christians and regular attend- ants of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which they have long been members.
i . ·'le Mering family in Warren Mering 1929)
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL HISTORY.
J. D. CLEVELAND, M. D.
The family to which this eminent physician belongs has double charms for consideration, both as pioneers and patriots. Its first repre- sentatives figured conspicuously in the formative period of Iowa, while later descendants bore themselves bravely in behalf of the Union during the crucial era of the Civil war. Others have done well their part in various employments and in the discharge of diverse duties, such as fall to busy men in a great and growing country. It is fitting therefore that a volume devoted to the representative men of Iowa should contain some particulars of so interesting a family connection, and no apology is necessary for sketching at some length the lives of Dr. Cleveland and his immediate ancestors.
When Zedekiah Cleveland reached Iowa in 1835 the prospect was not so pleasing as it afterward became. It was at the time practically a wild and unredeemed territory. There were no railroads as yet, the principal avenues of communication being the rivers, and population was still very sparse and widely scattered. Only in a few places had the rich prairie sod of this region been broken by the plow, and little promise was given then of the mammoth corn crops which have aston- ished the people of the present generation. Zedekiah Cleveland was still little more than a boy when he reached Iowa, his birth having occurred in Washington county, New York, in 1811, but he was an adventurous spirit and had already seen much of life both on land and sea. He reached the west about the time of the Black Hawk purchase and became a pioneer farmer as well as one of the first hotel men in that locality. Later he moved to Van Buren and from there to Davis county, where he spent the remainder of his days. It is difficult to overestimate the value of the services rendered to those young western
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territories in their incipiency by such men as Zedekiah Cleveland. It is easy enough to travel the road after it is graded or to cross the river after it is bridged, but the pioneer does his best work before there are either roads or bridges. Each one, too, became a nucleus, a rallying point around which by degrees a settlement was formed from which gradually grew a county, eventually to become an integral part of a great state. We hear of this work collectively on account of its last- ing results, but not much individually, as the separate units disappear in the general amalgamation. Zedekialı Cleveland in early life chose for his bride Anna Ware, a native of Orange county, Indiana, who shared all the hardships of his earlier struggles and passed away at the old home in Davis county when about fifty-six years old. The venerable husband survived his faithful companion some years, and finally closed his eyes on the world and its contentions in 1882, when approaching the seventy-second year of his age.
J. D. Cleveland, son of this worthy pioneer, was born in Lee county, Iowa, November 9, 1857, and remained at home until the twenty-first year of his age. He then entered the normal school at Bloomfield and from there went to the Northwestern Medical College at St. Joseph, Missouri, where he was graudated in the class of 1892. His first practice after receiving his degree was at Clearmont, Missouri, but after remaining there a while he returned to his native state. Dr. Cleveland located for short periods at different places in Iowa, growing steadily in reputation all the time, until finally he reached Iconium, where he has been a fixture since 1900. He is quite popular over the territory covered by his professional work and is an excellent example of the self-made man, who rises without extraneous aids until, by slow degrees and steady progress, he reaches that condition of stability which
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is the culminating ambition of every aspiring citizen. In politics the Doctor is Democratic and had the pleasure of casting his first presiden- tial vote for Grover Cleveland. Nevertheless he is rather independent in his political views and does not hesitate to criticise the acts or poli- cies of his party when they seem to him wrong. Dr. Cleveland is justly proud of his pioneer parents and also of his two brothers, who made honorable records on the right side during the great war for the time. One of these, E. Aaron Cleveland, was a member of the Sixth Regi- ment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, while his brother. Cyrus M., belonged to the Forty-sixth Regiment.
In 1888, while still in college, Dr. Cleveland was married to Miss Mally Fraley, by whom he had two children, but only one of these, a son, is now living. In 1895 Dr. Cleveland took a second wife in the person of Miss Belle Sponner, a popular young lady of Centerville, by whom he has an only daughter, having lost one child by death. The family are communicants of the Methodist church, in which Mrs. Cleve- land is a zealous worker, and they enjoy high standing in the best circles of society. Dr. Cleveland is a member of the County Medical Society and is also connected with the Modern Woodmen of America. Both personally and professionally he is much esteemed at Iconium as well as at other places in the state where he has acquaintances.
R. A. SPENCER.
Among the representative business men of Moravia is numbered R. A. Spencer, the proprietor of a livery, sale and feed stable, located one block from the northwest corner of the square. His barn is large, commodious and well arranged for the accommodation of horses and
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL HISTORY. 603
carriages, and he keeps some fine driving stock and good travelers, as well as a nice line of vehicles. He caters to the wants of his customers and makes a specialty of the traveling man's patronage. Genial and affable in manner and strictly fair in his business dealings, he has become very popular and is well known throughout both Appanoose and Monroe counties.
Mr. Spencer was born in Monroe township, Monroe county, about thirty-five years ago, and his early life was spent upon the old homestead there. His father, John Spencer, was born and reared in Kentucky, and from there removed to Indiana, where he married Miss Nancy Alexander, a native of the Hoosier state. In 1855, loading their household goods into a wagon, they came to Iowa and took up their residence in Monroe county, where the father developed a fine farm of six hundred acres, being one of the most successful agricul- turists and stock raisers in his community. There he died, honored and respected by all who knew him. In his family were seven children, as follows: James; Wiliam; Mrs. Lovina B. Wedman, of Nebraska ; John; Roland A., of this review; G. B .; and Mollie, who is living with her mother in Albia, Iowa.
On the home farm Roland A. Spencer was early reared to habits of industry, and his literary education was obtained in the public schools of his native county. He followed farming until 1900, when he came to Moravia and embarked in the livery business, which he has since carried on with marked success, his patronage steadily increasing until he now has a good trade. Beside his business property he has a nice home in the southwest part of the town, where he owns a six-acre plat.
Mr. Spencer was married on the 15th of December, 1900, to Miss Alice Andrews, a woman of intelligence and culture, who presides with
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gracious dignity over his home. Politically he affiliates with the Demo- cratic party, and fraternally he is connected with the Masonic lodge of Moravia.
WILLIAM A. CALLEN.
One of the men of Appanoose county who started in life with few of the artificial aids to success and by pluck, industry and perse- verance and after engaging in many pursuits has now arrived at a place of prominence in the affairs of his city and exerts a wide influ- ence in all public matters is William A. Callen, the mayor of the thriving city of Centerville. He has earned that enviable distinction of being a self-made man and possesses the force of character which always accompanies such a man. The father, Peter H. Callen, was a native of the state of Tennessee, and the mother, Susan F. Willett, a native of Virginia. The parents of both had settled in Appanoose county about 1852, and there they were married. After their marriage they farmed for a few years in Franklin township, then removed to Orleans, where he engaged in the general merchandise business for two years, and then came to Moulton, Iowa, and carried on mercantile pursuits for a period of twenty-one years. The next move was to Eldon, Iowa, where this worthy couple now reside, but he is retired from active business. They became the parents of four children, of whom our subject is the oldest.
William A. was born on his father's farm in Franklin town- ship, Arpanoose county, Iowa, on the 8th of November, 1864, but was reared to manhood and received his early education in Moulton. After studying pharmacy he followed that occupation for one year in
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Nebraska and also one year in Colorado. Then, returning to Moulton, he taught in the country schools for two years. He first came to Cen- terville in 1890, and there served three years as deputy county auditor. Then, in connection with J. M. Willett, he embarked in the grocery business for two years. From 1895 to 1897 he was in the real estate and contract business. On June 13, 1898, Mr. Callen was appointed mayor of the city and was elected in August of the same year, at a special election in March, 1899, was re-elected and again in 1901. As a further proof of his popularity, he was elected to this office in a strong Republican city, although he has been a lifelong adherent of the De- mocracy. Mr. Callen is a prominent member of the orders of the Elks and the Knights of Pythias. His marriage occurred in 1893 to Miss Minnie T. Swearingen, and they have two bright children in their home.
CLYDE E. SAWYERS, M. D.
Above is the name and title of a rising young physician at Center- ville, who has only been in practice there a few years, but has already obtained a hold that is a guarantee of future success. Dr. Sawyers may be said to have inherited his right to adopt the medical profession, as his father was for years a distinguished physician of Appanoose county, whose fame and acquaintance extended all over the state.
Clyde E., son of the late Dr. Sylvester H. and Mary F. (Miller) Sawyers, was born at Unionville, Iowa, July 3, 1868, and grew up in the atmosphere characteristic of the office and surroundings of a busy physician. After attending school in his native town several years he took a course in Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa, where he was grad- uated in the class of 1889. Shortly afterward he entered the College
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of Physicians and Surgeons at St. Louis, Missouri, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1891. Not satisfied with this, however, the ambitious aspirant for distinction in medical science matriculated at the famous Rush Medical College of Chicago and received his diploma there with the class of 1894. In the following year he opened an office for practice at Centerville, subsequent to a short experience at Moravia, and since then his progress towards his ultimate goal has been steady and flattering.
Dr. Sawyers is a member of the Appanoose and Wayne Counties Medical Society and the Iowa State Medical Association. He is promi- nent in Masonry, having reached the Knight Templar degree in that ancient order, and in politics he is an earnest though conservative ad- vocate of Republican principles of government. Dr. Sawyers is equally attractive on the social as on the professional side of life, and his mar- riage in 1902 with Miss Katherine Lockman was one of the interesting events in Centerville society circles.
CHARLES H. STEVENSON.
This gentleman, one of the early pioneer boys of Monroe county, now one of its highly respected citizens, formerly well known as a capable teacher, and now the prosperous owner of the Avery Valley fruit farm in Mantua township, belongs to one of the prominent old families of the Western Reserve of Ohio. His grandfather, John Stevenson, Sr., was born in Ireland, though of Scotch descent, the history of the family going back through three hundred years of high- land annals. He married Fanny Blaine, a relative of the famous states- man, James G. Blaine, and among their children was John Stevenson,
CHARLES H. STEVENSON
THEN -
IIL EX
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Jr., who was born near Ballintraw, Westmoreland parish, Ireland, and was reared there till he was sixteen years old. He then came to America and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, and when he was seventeen years of age he was married to Miss Dorliska Bates, a native of Otsego county, New York. Her grandfather was a cousin of General Putnam, and under that gallant leader served in the Revolutionary war. He married Lucy Love, a resident of Plattsburg, New York, and one of their children was Charles Bates, who was born in Connecticut, and mar- ried Mary Crouch, who was born in Odessa, Russia. In 1851 John Ste- venson, with his family, came west along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Eddyville, Iowa, and on the 8th of November settled on government land in Mantua township, Monroe county. Here he devoted his labors to the development of the virgin soil, and died there in 1896, when seventy-nine years of age. He was liberal in his religious views and a Democrat in politics. His excellent wife lived to be sixty-three years of age. From this marriage of John Stevenson, Jr., and Dorliska Bates there were seven children: Robert, a railroad conductor, who was murdered in Stockton, California; George W .; James Freder- ick: Ebbin C., who died at the age of twenty-seven; Charles H .; G. F., a soldier of the Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry in the Civil war; and Laura J. Stevenson, of Monroe county.
Charles H. Stevenson, the fifth child in this family, was born near Mentor, Lake county, Ohio, April 11, 1846. He was five years old when he came with his parents to Iowa, so that he was reared among the pioneer scenes of what was then a western state. He re- ceived his education under private teachers at home, and for his dili- gence and perseverance in his studies at the age of sixteen he received the first teacher's certificate granted in Monroe county under the new
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school system. He was elected to teach the school in his home district at a salary of thirty dollars a month, the school to open on the first Monday in September. But this intended peaceful pursuit was inter- rupted, and he resigned his position to accept thirteen dollars a month to assist in the preservation of the Union. He enlisted on August I, 1862, in Company D, Twenty-second Iowa Volunteers, with which he served for three years, and his regiment was in some of the hardest campaigns of the Civil war. It was the first to cross the Mississippi river in Grant's Vicksburg campaign; it won honor in the siege of Vicksburg and gained renown for the state of Iowa by its gallant assault on Fort Beauregard, May 22, 1863. Mr. Stevenson was with his regiment when it was ordered to the Department of the Gulf, and was engaged in the Red river campaign. In July, 1864, the regiment was ordered to Norfolk, Virginia, and it participated in the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, remaining there till after the explosion of the mines at Petersburg, July 30, 1864, after which the regiment was ordered to the Shenandoah valley under General Sheridan in the famous Shenandoah valley campaign of 1864. He was captured in the battle of Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864, and for almost seven months following suffered in southern prisons, being confined in Libby fifty-two days, and the remainder of the time at Salisbury and Andersonville. During his prison life he was instrumental in saving the lives of some of his comrades by dividing his rations with them. At the close of hostilities he received an honorable discharge at Daven- port. Iowa, and then returned home.
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