Biographical and historical memoirs of Story County, Iowa, Part 47

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 484

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HISTORY OF IOWA.

this calling, quite successfully, until January, 1889, but has since devoted his attention to his bank, which is proving a decided success. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, in which he was reared.

Dr. John I. Hostetter. The people of Story, as well as adjoining counties, are familiar with the name that heads this sketch. For ten years Dr. Hostetter has been successfully oc- cupied with the prosecution of his chosen pro- fession, and during that time his career as a practitioner and thorough student of medicine has won for him no less a reputation than have his personal characteristics as a citizen and neighbor. His father, Dr. John L. Hostetter, was born in Lancaster County, Penn., in 1821, and there grew to mature years. Having quite a predilection for the study of medicine, he entered the Pennsylvania Medical Col- lege at Philadelphia, and after a few years' close application to his studies, he was gradu- ated from that institution. He moved to Illi- nois early in life, choosing a home in Carroll County, and practiced medicine there for more than thirty years. In 1847 he married Miss Mary Irvine, only daughter of John Irvine, Esq. Her father was born in Scotland, but in his youth emigrated to America, settling in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he successfully con- ducted a merchandise business for a number of years. He subsequently moved to Mount Car- roll, Ill., and there made his home until his death. There were four children born to this union: Mary, Virginia, John I. and Helen O. The eldest child, Mary, is the wife of F. W. Greenleaf, a retired naval officer; Virginia is the wife of D. H. Reichard, Esq., of Mitchell- ville, Iowa; John I. is the subject of this sketch, and Helen O. died in her sixteenth year. Dr. Hostetter, Sr., served as physician and surgeon in the late war in the Thirty-fourth Illinois Regiment Volunteer Infantry, and on

April 11, 1865, was commissioned army sur- geon, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. He died in Mount Carroll, Ill., in March, 1877, after a useful life of fifty- six years. John I. Hostetter was born in Mount Carroll, Carroll County, Ill., in 1857, and there passed his early life, obtaining his education in the schools of his native city. Upon reaching years of discretion and choos- ing his calling in life, he selected that which his father pursued with such marked success, and to that end entered the Chicago Medical College, where after three years of hard study he was graduated in 1880; while at this insti- tution he also took the hospital instruction. Immediately after his graduation he came to Colo, and entered upon the active practice of his profession. He was an entire stranger, but soon built up a fine practice and won many friends by his agreeable manners and genial disposition. In 1881 he was elected coroner of Story County, in which capacity he served until 1889, having been elected four times in succession. He was united in mar- riage, in 1885, with Miss Lillian C. Hull, daughter of John Hull, of Boone County, Iowa, and their home has been gladdened by two interesting little children: John Hull and Mary Greenleaf. Socially Dr. Hostetter is a member of the A. F. & A. M., belongs to the S. of V., and in politics always votes the Re- publican ticket. He is descended from a long line of honorable ancestry. The earliest ancestor known was a merchant and manu- facturer of Augsburg, Bavaria. In 1815 the family emigrated to Austria, where members of the family are still living. The earliest ancestor known in this country was a Men- nonite bishop, exiled because of his religious opinions.

George W. Hoyman, farmer and stock-raiser, Nevada, Iowa. It is doubtless owing entirely

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to the industrious and persevering manner with which Mr. Hoyman has adhered to the pursuit of agriculture and stock-raising that he has risen to such a substantial position in farm affairs in this county. Born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1856, he is the son of George and Harriet (Korns) Hoyman, and grandson of John and Elizabeth (Hay) Hoyman, both of whom were natives of the Keystone State. The grandfather was born in 1808, and is still living, as a retired farmer, in Linn County, Iowa. He was the father of the following chil- dren: George, Margaret, Caroline, William, Mary A., Harriet, Jacob, Henry and Eliza. Those now deceased are George, William and Jacob. George Hoyman, father of subject, was a native of Pennsylvania. When but a young man he started for Iowa, intending to locate, but died before reaching his destination. The mother afterward, or in about 1859, married again, to James Claney, and by him became the mother of five children: Ella, Frank, Or- pha, Daniel and John, all of whom were born in Ohio, but who later came with the mother to Cedar County, Iowa, where the latter died in 1868. George W. Hoyman was reared by his grandparents, who located in Cedar County about 1870, and in 1880 he came to Story Connty, where he purchased the southwest quarter of Section 16, on which he has since resided. He was married, in 1883, to Miss Flora A. White, daughter of Warren T. and Sarah White, who were born in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respectively, and three chil- dren have blessed this union: Gertrude M., Mildred and Ada. Politically Mr. Hoyman has at all times supported the Republican party, and is one of the representative men of the county.

Leigh S. J. Hunt, of Seattle, Washı., was born in Whitley County, Ind., August 11, 1855. He was elected president of the Iowa

Agricultural College in the early part of 1885, being then less than thirty years of age, and probably younger than any man previously chosen to the chief executive chair of a great college. He had been engaged in pedagogic work in Mt. Pleasant, Cedar Falls and East Des Moines, being at that time superintendent of the schools in the latter city. He had also done very acceptable work in Normal or Teach- ers' Institutes, had lectured on kindred subjects, and had originated a system of savings bank- ing for school children which had given him wide and favorable advertisement. His energy, administrative ability, tact, pleasant address and previous success in educational work pointed to him as one who might be expected to reconcile some factional jealousies in the board and faculty. There is reason to be- lieve that had he remained he would have more than fulfilled every reasonable expecta- tion. He took hold of the reins with the hand of a master and established order and discipline, but just as the young men and women of the State began to look hopefully toward the college, ill health caused him to tender his resignation in his second year. The cares incident to the presidency of the college, and the labor involved in setting its interests properly before the public, had been a heavy drain upon Mr. Hunt's highly nervous organi- zation, and he sought milder climatic environ- ment on the Pacific coast. He looked favora- bly on the phenomenal city of Seattle, and cast his lot there. His energy and public spirit were rewarded with a remarkable success. His palatial home on his estate near the city, and his transactions in real and personal property, proclaim him a millionaire. With his culti- vated tastes and generous disposition he may be trusted to enjoy his wealth secure from the envy of those less fortunate. Mr. Hunt's value in educational work was more the result of in-

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dividual characteristics than of advantages ac- cruing from the schools he had attended. He has been his own architect. He may, if he chooses, write "M. A." after his name, but titles are of little worth to one who can in his own person carve a name and acquire a fortune. Mr. Huut married Miss Jessie Noble, of Des Moines, in 1885, and one son cheers the domes- tic hearth. This brief record of a former citi- zen of Story County, who has but reached the years of early manhood, is furnished by a friend rather as matter of historical than per- sonal incident, and under the modest injunction of its subject to pass him by "with as little mention as possible."

Andrew J. Hunter came to Story County, Iowa, about the year 1855, and lived in the county from that time until the day of his death in November, 1886. He was a son of Craig and Margaret (Hipsher) Hunter, who were born in the " Keystone State," and was one of their eight children. He was married in 1862 to Miss Sarah E. Elder, a native of Decatur County, ard a daughter of Robert Elder, and unto their marriage a family of six children were born, four of whom are still living and at home: Minnie (a teacher in the public schools of Sioux County), Inez A., Ernest J. and Daisy. Miss Minnie was educated in the schools of Ames, graduating in 1887 from the high school of that place, and is now a very successful teacher. Mr. Hunter had a beautiful farm of 120 acres, all of which was earned by hard toil and persistent endeavor, and at the time of his death left his family in good circumstances. They now reside on the farm which he labored so hard to obtain for them, and on this place Mrs. Hunter expects to spend the rest of her days, for here she has many friends and acquaintances. Mr. Hunter was a man whose habits were of the best, and in social life he was kind, courteous and affa-

ble in his demeanor to all, ever being found ready to aid enterprises which tended to the interests of his adopted county. In his political views he supported the measures of Democracy.

James Hutchison, retired, Ames, Iowa, is of Scotch parents, his father, Robert Hutchison, and his mother, whose maiden name was Miss Jean Craige, having been natives of Scotland. In 1831 they emigrated to Pictou, Nova Scotia, there remaining until 1837, when they again moved, going to Minersville, Penn. They were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom three sons and two daughters are now living. James Hutchison, their eldest son, was born in Johnston, Scotland, on the 30th of September, 1829. He received a common- school education in the public schools of Nova Scotia and Pennsylvania, and worked in the coal mines in Pennsylvania until the fall of 1852, when he went to California by the way of the Isthmus and Nicaragua, and worked at mining and washing gold at Columbia and Big Oak Flats and other places, until the fall of 1855. Returning to Plymouth, Penn., he was married to Miss Jean Love, a native also of Scotland, born at Toll Cross in March, 1833. She came with her parents to Nova Scotia in 1842. The father went to Maryland in 1846, the family following a few months after. In June, 1846, the vessel ran on a rock and went down along the coast of Massachusetts, and the mother and four children and some thirty others were drowned. To Mr. and Mrs. Hutch- ison were born these children: R. B., Alex L., Lida Jean, David L., William C., John R., Charles Stuart and James A. - seven sons and one daughter in all. After being mar- ried he went in company with three others and opened a coal mine in Plymouth, Peun., and worked it until 1860. Business being so poor it did not pay, Mr. Hutchison lost four years' work and what money he had

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saved in California. He had to begin at the bottom again and work up, but everything prospered until he saved, from that time till 1872, something over $4,000 in property and money. Then he came West and located in Boone County, where there had just been dis- covered coal on Squaw Creek. He bought the lease from William Parkin, and was joined by his brother John, from Chicago. They opened the mine and carried on business under the name of the Ontario Coal Company, now known under the name of Hutchison Bros. & Son. The Squaw Creek coal, as it is called, has the name of being the best native coal in the State. It is three and one-quarter miles from the Gil- bert Station, on the north branch of the North- Western Railway, consequently much depend- ence is placed on the country for trade. For- merly they supplied the country for thirty miles around, east and north, selling from 6,000 to 10,000 tons of coal during the season, but the last two winters being so mild, and so many railroads through the State, the teams do not come from such a distance as they once did.

G. Hyden, farmer and stock-raiser, Rich- land Township. Mr. Hyden was born in Staf- fordshire, England, in 1828, and was the son of Robert and Elizabeth ( Nokes) Hyden, both of whom were natives of England. The father is still living in his native country, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-seven years, but the mother died in 1849. Of the five children born to their marriage, only two lived to maturity-the sub- ject of this sketch, and his brother John, who is the postmaster at Brereton, Staffordshire, England. G. Hyden was reared to farm life in England, but at the age of twenty-one years emigrated to America, and after working for one man in Chautauqua County, N. Y., for three and one-half years, he came to this county, in 1855, and purchased 160 acres of good land; he afterward sold eighty acres of this land to Mr.

Hansicker, and together they purchased twenty acres of timber land. He then purchased a yoke of cattle and broke prairie with them, and bought others as he was able until he owned four yoke. Then he and Mr. Hansicker each bought a horse, and together they had a team, one using it one day and the other the next. They also purchased a wagon together, when able, and in this way worked along until each could possess his own team and wagon and work independently. Their twenty acres of timber land is still undivided, and by hard work and economy Mr. Hyden is now possessed of a good farm of 280 acres, well improved with all necessary buildings, etc. By his marriage with Miss Lonisa Pool, daughter of John P. and Ann (Jordan) Pool, of this county, he has become the father of seven children, only three of whom are now living: Corrilla (now Mrs. Apple, and a resident of this township) and Rose and Emma (at home). Since coming to America Mr. Hyden has visited his native land but once, and that was in 1875, when he and his wife made an extended trip to England. The latter is a much esteemed member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and she and her husband have always taken a decided interest in every movement tending to the welfare of the community. He helped to organize his school district, and has frequently served as school director, and he always aids with his support and encouragement those movements tending to the upbuilding of schools, churches, etc. In politics he is a stanch Republican. He is a very peaceable gentleman, and has never had a lawsuit in his life.

M. D. Illingworth, farmer and stock-raiser, Cambridge, Iowa. Among the successful agri- culturists of Story County, whose merits are such as to entitle them to representation in the present work, is Mr. Illingworth, the subject of this sketch. He was born in Northern New

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York, Lewis County, in 1827, and was the eld- est of ten children-six sons and four daugh- ters: Agnes (died at the age of two years), Augustus (died in the United States service, while in the army), Jane (resides in Cam- bridge, and is a milliner and dressmaker by trade), William (married Miss Martha Batter- son and is engaged in farming in Oregon), Amelia (resides in Cambridge and married Samuel Bossuot, who is proprietor of the North-Western Hotel ), Charles (deceased, was married and left two sons), Lemuel (de- ceased, was in the whole service of the United States and never received a scratch; he left five children), Mary (resides in Dakota) and John (married Miss Vadah Jones and is en- gaged in tilling the soil in Oregon). Mr. Illingworth's father was a native of New York, and was an agriculturist by occupation. The mother still survives at the age of eighty years. Mr. Illingworth obtained his early education in the common schools of New York, and when twenty-four years of age started out to make his own livelihood without a dollar in his pocket. He was early trained to the duties of the farm, and it was but natural, perhaps, that he should choose that occupation as his calling in life. He was married, in New York, on the 27th of August, 1848, to Miss M. Nellis, a native of the Empire State, and to them have been born eight children-two sons and six daughters (two of whom are deceased) viz .: Nancy (died at the age of sixteen), William (married Miss Ella Meyers, a native of Penn- sylvania, and is now engaged in cultivating the soil), Adeline (married a farmer by the name of Derwin Alfred, and now resides in Cherry County, Neb. ), Julia (resides in Cherry Coun- ty, Neb.), Agnes (died at the age of nine years), Jane (married a farmer by the name of George Posegay, and now resides in Story County), Ella (married a farmer by the name

of Henry Meyers, and now resides in Story County) and Nature (the youngest, who is quite a student). Mr. Illingworth is a mem- ber of the Democratic party, but has not been an ultra-partisan, and has upheld men of honor, integrity and sterling merit. He has been president of the school board of his district for the last twenty-three or twenty-five years, which is the longest record as a school director in Story County. He has also held the posi- tion of township trustee for years. Mr. Illing- worth is a Spiritualist, and his testimony has been corroborated by many things which have come to pass. He is a firm and consistent believer in this wonderful revelation of a power which seems divine. Many visions have come to Mr. Illingworth, which have been told previously, and which have transpired. He graphically tells of one which came to him: One day while at home he closed his eyes, and a peculiar sensation crept over him. He saw in the vision a house on fire, at the window. He sprang up immediately and ran to investigate, but everything seemed all right, and he again sat down and closed his eyes, when he saw the flames still rising. When they got to the eaves of the house they seemed to lap over the roof, continu- ing to mingle together over that portion of the building. All the furniture and the family had moved out. The blaze finally died away, and as the windows and doors seemed open, he noticed that over the floor were scattered old papers and other things of a like character. The interpretation came to him like this: The fire at the window sills was a mortgage. When the flames came together and mingled, a fore- closure was indicated; also when the doors opened and the goods were gone out. This eventually came to pass, as Mr. Illingworth had predicted fifteen or seventeen years before. He contributes liberally to all worthy enter-

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prises, and is a man who is universally re- spected. He emigrated direct from Lewis County, N. Y., in 1863, to Story County, and here he has been a resident ever since. He and Mrs. Illingworth have seen the county de- velop from its primitive condition to its present state of prosperity. Mr. Illingworth is the owner of 340 acres of excellent land, and has commodious and substantial buildings on the same. They have a sufficiency of this world's goods, and are comfortable and happy. Mr. Illingworth's religious belief is largely as fol- lows: Relative to the spirit or the soul of man, so much spoken of by the people and churches, he considers that a man has a fleshly body and a spiritual body at birth, the two stand- ing side by side, and not distinguishable. A mark on one is supplemented by a mark on the other. But it requires a certain condition to see the spirit body and to see it move. Ap- parently it has bones and sinews, and seems to be possessed of bodily senses as in the flesh. When the fleshly body is clothed the same comes on the spirit body. He states that he has seen spirit people walk on the floor, and in the mid air, and watched them move in the mid air at will power. Any person procuring the condition can send his spirit from his fleshly body and it will enter the spirit body. There is a life-cord attached to the two bodies which is like a telephone or telegraph wire. What the spirit body may do is seen through the life telephone. A manifestation of will-power to return brings it back at once. This may be repeated at will. On a long trip, however, this fleshly body will begin to get lonesome, and the longer this opposite force is gone the more one feels depressed, because the very life is being poured out. After he had found this work to be true here on earth, he resolved to make a trip to the place called heaven, and found it on a planet by itself. This was a long

trip, and he thought for some time that the spirit body would not get back until the last life would pass out of him. When the spirit body came and the life-cords shortened he was all right again, and might have sent it the next minute had he so chosen. He believes that the first resurrection of the spirit body is when the spirit body receives the life of the fleshly body. Then the fleshly body goes to dust from whence it came.

Thomas Jarvill, farmer and stock-raiser, Cam- bridge, Iowa. Mr. Jarvill owes his nativity to Harpswell, Lincolnshire, England, where his birth occurred on the 25th of December, 1840, and is now following a calling that has for ages received undivided efforts from many worthy individuals, and one that furnishes sustenance to the ready worker. He was the sixth of eight- een children, all of whom were living when he left England in 1869. They were named as follows: William (is a miller by trade), Betsey (resides in England), John (manager of a landed estate in England), Mary (married John Oxley, and resides in Story County, Iowa), Joseph (a cabinet-maker in England), George (is a miller in the city of Sheffield, England), Godfrey (deceased), Sarah (married a ship- carpenter, and resides in England), Charles ( is a policeman on the patrol service at Redford, Nottinghamshire, England), Carrie (married William Scorah, a curer and meat supplier, and resides in Sheffield), (Harry (is a farmer and resides in Kansas), Benjamin ( is a miller and resides in England), Fannie (married a ship-carpenter, and resides in England), Fred (was a sailor and crossed the Atlantic, but is now living in England; he early evinced a strong inclination to become a sailor, and during his voyages visited many of the important sea- ports of South America), Joshua (is a miller and resides in England). and Nellie (resides in Lincolnshire, England, with her brother,

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nicely improved, and has erected a beautiful residence in Grant Township at a cost of over $2,000.

John). The parents of these children were both natives of Lincolnshire, England, and there they received their final summons, the father in 1866, at the age of fifty-five, and the John W. John, farmer and stock-raiser, Maxwell, Iowa. All his life Mr. John has fol- lowed, with substantial results, the occupation to which he was reared and in which he is now engaged-farming. He is justly recognized as one of the leading farmers and stock-raisers, and as a man, no less than a citizen, he is highly esteemed. His birth occurred in Car- roll County, Ind., on September 14, 1837, being the son of Bowen and Cynthia A. (Todd) John, the father a native of Pennsylvania and the mother of Kentucky. The father moved to Ohio with his parents when a child, grew to mother at the age of seventy-five years. The latter died on the 25th of September, 1889. Thomas Jarvill received his education in the common and select schools of England, but his inclinations led him to choose the independent life of a farmer as his occupation. He began for himself at the age of twenty-one with limit- ed means, and in the spring of 1869 he sailed for the United States, taking passage on the " City of Paris," and landing at New York City on the 1st of June of that year. He passed the first summer with an Englishman in Wau- kesha County, Wis., then went from there to | manhood near Dayton, and was there married Sangamon County, Ill., thence to Peoria, Iowa, to Miss Todd. After their marriage the parents of our subject moved to Indiana, lo- cating in Carroll County, and there the father tilled the soil for a number of years. In the fall of 1853 he moved to Iowa, located in Wa- pello County, where he resided for a few years, and then moved to the northeastern part of the State. Subsequently he moved to Story County, where his death occurred about 1878. His wife died in 1861. John W. John was but seventeen years of age when he moved to this State, and he remained at home until his marriage, which took place on March 31, 1861, to Miss Sarah J. Bell, daughter of John J. Bell, one of the first settlers of Nevada. Mrs. John was born in Ohio, and reared principally in Story County, Iowa. After his marriage Mr. John located on a farm near Nevada, where he raised several crops, settling on the farm where he now lives in 1867. He first purchased a small tract, but this he has increased from time to time until he is now the owner of 480 acres, all good tillable land, and he has 320 acres in the home place. He has a large two-story house, good barns, cribs, where he remained four years, and finally to Story County ( Center Grove) about 1873. On the 23d of December, 1875, he married Miss Marie E. Griffith, a native of Ohio, born Au- gust 26, 1850, and the third of a family of six children, all residing in Story County: Sarah (married W. K. Woods, a farmer, and resides in Story County), Belle (married William R. Kirk, a farmer, and resides in Nevada), Mrs. Jarvill, John W. (is a farmer, residing in Story County, and married Miss Myra Grose- close), S. P. (married Miss Carrie Chamber- lain, and is now engaged in farming in Story County), and Lena (married J. W. Matthews, a farmer, and resides in Story County). Mrs. Jarvill received her education in the common schools, and is a worthy member of the Method- ist Episcopal Church. Mr. Jarvill is a Repub- lican in his political principles, and his first presidential vote was for James A. Garfield. He is also a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and is an active supporter of all educational and religious enterprises. He is the owner of nearly 293 acres of land, has it

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Story County, Iowa, Part 47

Author: Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Goodspeed Number of Pages: 484

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 484