USA > Iowa > Adams County > Biographical history of Montgomery and Adams counties, Iowa : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each ; a condensed history of Iowa, with portraits and biographies of the governors of the state, engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 35
USA > Iowa > Montgomery County > Biographical history of Montgomery and Adams counties, Iowa : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies of each ; a condensed history of Iowa, with portraits and biographies of the governors of the state, engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 35
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the subject of our sketch; Margaret Boggs, of Monroe county, Iowa. James S., the oldest, died at the age of fourteen years.
John N. grew up in the rural districts of Kentucky, obtaining his education in the common schools of that State. When he was seventeen he learned the trade of carriage- painting. At seventeen he went to Putnam connty, Indiana, where he lived until 1851. That year he came to Monroe county, Iowa. In 1852 he drove an ox team across the plains to California, arriving there after a four months' journey. Two years and two inonthis he mined in the various mining dis- tricts of the Golden State, and in the winter of 1854 returned, via the Nicaragua ronte, New York and Chicago, to Monroe county, Iowa. In the spring of 1855 he came to Adams county, and settled on his present farm, 240 acres, in Carl township, section 15. He at first built a log cabin, 14 x 16 feet, from the humble door of which the lateli- string ever hung out, and where hospitality was dispensed to both stranger and friend.
In December, 1863, Mr. Ramsay enlisted in the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteers, and with his regiment went to the front. He participated in a number of important en- gagements in the South, and while in Texas, at the mouth of the Rio Grande river, was taken sick with fever, and later with chronic disease. He was for a time in the hospital at San Diego, afterward at New Orleans in the Sedgwick Hospital two or three weeks, from whence he was transferred to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, where he was honorably discharged. He then returned to his home in Adams county, and here he has since lived. His fine farm of 240 acres, located in section 15, is one of the best in Carl township. His primitive log cabin has been moved to the rear and used for a tool house, and in its place stands a modern framne
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dwelling, erected in 1875 and surrounded with evergreens and ornamental shrubs and shade trees, with a beautiful grove and orchard near by. Other improvements on the farm indicate the prosperity which has attended Mr. Ramsay.
February 10, 1858, he married Miss Milly Jane Scott, of Carl township, daughter of Joseph Scott, an early settler of Adams county, and Saralı C. (Perkins) Scott. Her parents were married in Kentucky, and came here in 1856. Her father died in 1876, in Carl township, and her mother now resides with her and has reached her three score years and ten. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay have four children living, viz .: Mary C., wife of Frank Mathena, of Carl township; Oliver O. is married and lives in Larimer county, Colo- rado; and Joseph William and Lilly Marga- ret are at home. They lost six children, all dying young.
Mr. Ramsay is a Republican, and in Carl township is one of the wheel horses of his party. He has been assessor and clerk, and has held other offices. He is a member of the G. A. R., Wagner Post, No. 335, and both of his sons belong to the Sons of Vet- erans, Volunteer Camp, No. 125, of Prescott. He and his wife and oldest daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he being a trustee of the same.
AMES M. BROWN, who resides on sec- tion 18, Jasper township, has a farm of of 380 acres on this and section 13, Nod- away township. He purchased this place at different times and of different parties, and it is now one of the finest stock farms in Adams county. It is well watered by the East Nod- away creek, and also by a fine spring near his
residence. He makes a specialty of stock, and now has forty head of horses, abont the same number of cattle, and from seventy-five to one lrundred head of hogs. He intends to continue in the stock business and also to increase it.
Mr. Brown was born in Muskingnm county, Ohio, in 1830, the son of Jolin H. Brown, one of the pioneers of that county. In 1836 he removed with his family to Mer- cer county, illinois, where he lived until his death. His wife, the mother of our subject, Mary McPhersen, survived her husband a number of years, but is now deceased. She died at the age of eighty years, and hier liusband at the age of seventy-four. They had a family of thirteen children, and all but one son, who died at the age of twelve years, lived to years of maturity. There are nine of the family living at this writing, seven sons and two daughters. Alexander, the eld- est child, lives in Mercer county, Illinois; George died many years ago, leaving a wife and two children; John is a resident of Nod- away township; Saralı Jane is deceased, hav- ing died in lier twentiethi year; James M., our subject; William, a resident of Prescott, Adams county; Daniel died at the age of twelve years; Hugh lives in Mercer county, Illinois; Benjamin L., of Jasper township, Adams county; Josiah F. lives in Mercer county; Francis M. was killed in the war of the Rebellion, a member of the Eighty-fourth Illinois; Mary lives in Illinois, the wife of Josiah McClan; Joanna, wife of Squire Will- iams, resides in Missouri.
James M. Brown was married in Illinois, in 1855 to Miss Jerusha Reed, a native of Indiana, but who removed with her parents when but a year old to Mercer county Illi- nois. Mr. Brown continued to live in Mercer county until he came to Adams connty in the fall of 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have
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thirteen children, six sons and seven daugh- ters.
OHN A. ROWLAND, a prominent resi- dent of Colony township, Adams county, Iowa, was born in Orange county, Ver- mont, February 9, 1840, in the town of Cor- inth. He is the oldest son in a family of three sons and four daughters of Richard and Adeline (Bacon) Rowland, the former born in Corinth, Vermont, in 1814, and the latter at Bath, New Hampshire, in 1816. His father left the farm at the age of twelve years and went to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he learned the trade of shoemaker and also the carpenter's trade. After his marriage he returned to agricultural pursuits.
The subject of this sketch was united in marriage February 7, 1866, with Ellen Jeune, who was born April 21, 1846. She is a daughter of Sarah F. (Holden) Jeune, who was born October 6, 1814. Her grand- father Holden was born at Shirley, Massachu- setts, May 20, 1787. Mr. and Mrs. Rowland have had ten children, two of whom are de- ceased.
Mr. Rowland came to Adams county in 1876 and settled in section 21, Colony town- ship, where he now resides. He has 200 acres of fine farming land and is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, giving special attention to the latter occupation. He has shorthorn cattle, Englishshire horses and Poland-China hogs. He has a mammoth Kentucky jack and is raising some fine specimens of that breed; also has an imported Englishshire horse.
During the civil war Mr. Rowland enlisted in Company E, Thirty-eighth Wisconsin Regiment, and served with bravery until he was mustered out at the close of the struggle. He was wounded at the battle of Peters-
burg, and now receives a pension. Politically he is a Republican. He has served as a member of the School Board several terms.
NDREW J. LINN, one of the early citizens and business men of Nodaway, has been a resident of the township since 1865. He was born in Washington, Washington county, Pennsylvania, June 8, 1828, the son of Colonel Moses Linn, an offi- cer in the war of 1812-14, and Nancy (Spears) Linn, a relative of President Buchanan. The parents were Pennsylvanians by birth, and lived there until death. Andrew J. was reared in his native State to the occupation of farming. He went to Ohio in 1852, and in 1853 was married to Miss Harriet Merrin, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Merrin. In 1855 he returned to Pennsylvania; in 1866 went to Morris, Illinois, and in 1874 came to Iowa and lo- cated in Nodaway, where he engaged in hotel-keeping and farming. He discontinued the former occupation after one year, and devoted himself exclusively to farming. From 1882 to 1886 he was engaged quite exten- sively in business, including hotel-keeping, grain and stock buying aud general merchan- dising. In 1886 he practically retired from business, and was succeeded by his sons, Alexander S. and Franklin M.
Mr. and Mrs. Linn have six children: A. S., Stephen A. Douglas, Franklin, Andrew J., Richard M. and William T. Mrs. Linn's parents were natives of New Jersey, but removed to Knox county, Ohio, before the birth of Mrs. Linn, who was born in that county. The father died in Cass county, Iowa, near Atlantic, December 13, 1885. The mother is still living with her son near Atlantic. Mr. Linn has been Justice of the
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Peace for many years, and is also Notary Public, and the duties of thesc offices, to- gether with hotel-keeping, constitute his principal occupation at present. His son, Andrew J., is engaged in the occupation of teaching. Mr. Linn is one of the repre- sentative citizens of Adams county, a gentle- man of much more than average ability, and well informed on the general issues of the day; kind and generous to a fault. In his Christian faith a Presbyterian; in politics a Democrat. He enlisted and was Lieutenant in Company H, Eighteenth Pennsylvania State Volunteers, under the call of the Gov- ernment in 1863, for 300,000 men, and was posted at Hagerstown, Maryland, at the time of the Antietein battle, but was never called into actual service except as an aid in relieving the wounded and suffering after that bloody engagement. As thic ninety days' men were released soon after, he returned home and was engaged in recruiting troops, with head- quarters at New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Mr. Linn enjoys a proud ancestral war rec- ord, dating back to Revolutionary times; came of educated and cultured parentage, and was himself a student at Jefferson Col- lege prior to its consolidation with Washing- ton school after the late war; is a deep and logical thinker, a ready and forcible writer, and well entitled to the honor of being called one of Adams county's most useful, enter- prising and progressive citizens.
OHN P. WEBER, of section 3, Mercer township, was born in Wittenberg, Ger- many, September 12, 1830, the eldest child of Jolın and Eva (Weber) Weber, na- tives of the same country. In 1844 the family emigrated to America and settled on a farm near Williamsport, Lycoming county,
Pennsylvania. where the parents passed the remainder of their days. The father died in 1861, at the age of seventy three years, and the mother in 1865, at the age of sixty- three.
Our subject resided on his father's farm until he had reached his majority. In 1854 he came to Illinois, and two years later to Iowa, settling in Johnson county. He was married March 18, 1858, to Miss Sarah Jane Sınurr, a native of Dalton, Wayne county, Ohio, and a daughter of Hugh A. and Margaret Hemperley Smurr, natives of Pennsylvania. April 1, 1858, Mr. Weber came to Adams county. Ile purchased 160 acres of unimproved land on sections 5 and 6, Quincy township, which he was engaged in improving until the breaking out of the late war, enlisting August 13, 1862, in Com- pany D, Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He par- ticipated in many hard-fought battles; was with Sherman's expedition through Yazoo Pass, in the battle of Helena, Arkansas, Shell Mound, where they were under fire for nearly a monthı; was in the White river ex- pedition, battle of Little Rock, Arkansas, Camden, Mobile. Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort. From there he went to Galveston, Texas, and up the Rio Grande for the pur- pose of guarding the frontier survey, where he served until the close of the war. He was mustered out of service and honorably discharged at New Orleans, September 15, 1865, and paid off at Davenport. He re- turned home and followed farming in Quincy township until 1873, when he sold out and purchased 160 acres of wild land, which con- stitutes his present farm, and now has one of the finest places in Mercer township. He has a fine orchard of two and a half acres and 400 trees, being the best in the county.
Mr. and Mrs. Weber are the parents of eight children, six of whom survive: Ella M.,
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the wife of Elmer C. Mitchell of Mercer township; John E., Cora Leona, Charles A., Jasper P., Eva A., Maggie, who died when three years old, and Minnie, who died at the age of eighteen years. Mr. Weber and wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a member of the G. A. R., Llewellyn Post, No. 334. Politi- cally he is a Republican.
M. FULLER, a farmer and stock-raiser of section 20, Jasper township, las been a resident of Adams county since 1871. He is a native of the State of Ohio, born in Morgan county, in May, 1842, and is a son of John M. and Nancy (Duval) Fuller; the father was a native of Pennsyl- vania, of English descent, and the mother was born in Rhode Island, of Puritan ances- try. Our subject was reared on a farm and remained under the parental roof until the breakingont of the civil war, when he enlisted in Company E, Seventy-eightlı Ohio Volun- teer Infantry. He participated in many hard- fought battles; was in the battle of Fort Donelson, the battle of Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, the capture of Jackson, Tennessee, the battle near Bolivar, Tennessee, was in the march and retreat through central Mis- sissippi, in the Vicksburg campaign, took part in the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, siege of Vicks- burg, was with the Meridian expidition, was in the Atlanta campaign, in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, the 21st and 22d of July near Atlanta and was with Sherman on his immortal march to the sea. He was mustered out of the service at Beaufort, South Caro- lina, and received an honorable discharge January 12, 1865. He then returned to his 27
home in Morgan county, Ohio, and engaged in agricultural pursnits.
In 1871 Mr. Fuller removed to lowa, and engaged in the lumber business in Adams and Montgomery counties for a period of three years.
On January 1, 1873, lie was united in marriage to Miss E. V. Teeter, a native of Licking county, Ohio, and a daughter of C. W. and Mary (Ashford) Teeter, natives of Pennsylvania. After his marriage he settled on his present farm; his first purchase con- sisted of eighty acres, and from time to time, as his means would permit, he has made ad- ditions to the tract until it now covers 255 acres; it is well improved and in a high state of cultivation. Mr. Fuller has made a specialty of raising high grade cattle and hogs and has met with marked success.
Politically he supports the Republican party. He is a member of G. A. R. Post, No. 324.
Mr. and Mrs. Fuller are parents of six children: C. F., C. P., L. G., Mary A., John M. and one who died in infancy.
OHN J. KANE, a farmer and stock- raiser of section 31, Mercer township, has been identified with the interests of Adams county since 1871. He is a native of New York, born January 27, 1833, the eldest of seven sons and two daughters of Allen and Mary (Stockman) Kane, natives of Belfast, county Antrim, Ireland. The par- ents were married on Wednesday, and the following Saturday sailed for America, in 1832, locating in Albany, New York, where the father followed the trade of nail-making. He resided there until 1839, when he re- moved to Philadelphia; in 1846 to Cincin- nati, Ohio; and in 1849 to California
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
leaving Cincinnati on the 1st of April, and arriving where Sacramento now stands the the 20th of September. He located in what was known as Hangtown, on the American river, where he followed mining successfully until the fall of 1851, when lie returned to Ohio, via the Isthinns of Panama and New York. In the spring of 1852 he removed with his family to Iowa and settled on a farın near Dnbuqne, where he resided until his death, which occurred September 21, 1887, at the age of seventy-nine years. His widow still resides on the old homestead, in the eighty-second year of her age.
Our subject's youth was spent in attending school and working on a farm until twenty- three years of age. In the spring of 1856 he went to California, landing in San Fran- cisco in the midst of the vigilance excite- ment, and engaged in inining on the Feather river near Oroville for a few months; then went to the northern part of the State, near tlie Oregon line, where he followed mining successfully until 1859, when he returned to Iowa and engaged in farming in Dubuque county.
Ile was married, November 26, 1861, to Miss Mary Sullivan, who was born near the city of Cork, Ireland, the daughter of Rich- ard and Honoria (Driscoll) Sullivan, who died when Mrs. Kane was an infant. She was brought to America by an uncle, who settled in Philadelphia, where she was reared until eleven years of age. She then came with her uncle's family to Dubuque county, Iowa, where she grew to womanhood. In the fall of 1870, Mr. Kane came to Adams county and purchased 320 acres of land, on which he built a house and the following spring brought his family. By hard work and close attention to his pursuits, he has now one of the finest farms in Mercer township.
Mr. and Mrs. Kane are the parents of eight
children, five of whom are are still living: Allen, Richard, John, Edward, Joseph and Ellen. Three died in chidhood. Mr. Kane was bereaved by the loss of his wife by death, July 3, 1888. He has served on the county Board of Supervisors, in all the township offices, and now holds the position of town- ship treasurer. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Catholic Church. In politics Mr. Kane is a Democrat. He is a self-made man, and by his own industry has accumnu- lated a large property, which he nses to the best advantage in surronnding himself and family with all the necessary comforts of life, giving his children the advantages of obtain- ing a good and practical education. By his many years of honest and npright dealings he has won the confidence and esteem of all who know him.
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ON. EDMUND HOMAN, an early set- tler of Adams county, residing ou sec- tion 25, Washington township (post office Mt. Etna), was born in Johnson county, Kentucky, March 6, 1827. His father, Mark Homan, was a native of Virginia, of Welsh extraction, a farmer, a soldier of the war of 1812, for a time a Justice of the Peace and for several years a member of the county Board. After his marriage he moved to Kentucky and some years afterward to Indi- ana, in 1827, settling in Putnam couuty, where he resided until his death, at the age of eighty-six years. He was clerk of the Baptist Church for many years, and was widely and favorably known. His wife, nee Nancy Bnrson, also a devout member of the Baptist Church, passed from this life in 1837. These parents had six sons and one daughter.
The gentleman whose name heads this
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MONTGOMERY AND ADAMS COUNTIES.
sketch, the sixthi in order of birth in the above family, set out in life for himself wlien of legal age, taught school several years, at- tended Wabash (Indiana) College several terms, and came to Iowa in 1855, settling on a farm of 120 acres, whichi had been entered from the Government the preceding year, since which time he ilas added by further purchases 218 acres. He is nicely located ten miles from Corning, and has many of the surroundings which indicate thrift, comfort and a happy home. His residence, 26 x 28 feet in dimensions, is one and a half stories high. He has an orchard of 160 trees, which is one of the oldest orchards in this part of the township. His principal crops are corn, wheat, oats and hay, more than half the farm being now in meadow.
Mr. Homan was the first county Superin- tendeut of Schools of this county. During the first year of his term of office there were but sixteen teachers in the county and two schoolhouses. For four years he was also a member of the county Board of Commis- sioners, and during his term in that office the county seat was moved from Quincy to Corn ing. In 1879 he was elected a Representa- tive to the Eighteenth General Assembly of this State, where he served on several com- mittees, and took such part as he was able in the debates and proceedings of the House. He is now the clerk of the Baptist Church at Mt. Etna, of which religious denomination he has been a consistent member for twenty years. In politics he lias been independent, generally voting for the best man.
He was married in 1856, in Indiana, to Miss Caroline E., daughter of Joseph M. and Jane Ramsey, of Parke county, Indiana, and they have had eleven children, namely: Laura J., wife of E. M. Chame, a farmer of Adams county, has two children,-Effie M. and Martha E .; Saralı E., now Mrs. S.
W. Cooper of Carl township, having four children,-Weaver, Prentiss, Walker and Anna; Horace G., who married Miss Jennie Hale, and resides in Carl township; James W., engaged witli H. G. on the farm; Al- bert, following farming; Henry, employed at Des Moines; Oscar and Dora, at home. Three childred died in early childhood.
ILLIAM W. ROBERTS, county Surveyor of Adams county, Iowa, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, November 19, 1845. His parents, Daniel and Saralı (Inman) Roberts, were natives respectively of Virginia and Marietta, Ohio. His father was for many years suc- cessfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, and at one time served as Justice of the Peace. He was only five years old when his family moved to Ohio. In Muskingum county, that State, he was married. In 1851 he moved to Henry county, Illinois, back to Ohio the following year, and in 1859 to Adamns county, Iowa. Having been an early settler of three States, he well knew the hardships incident to pioneer life. He drilled the first military company ever formed in Adams county, a company of home guards. He understood the manual of arms, having drilled soldiers for the Mexican war, although he did not take part in that struggle. A Christian man and a member of the Baptist Church, he died February 25, 1889, aged seventy years. His widow is still living, aged seventy-two years, with powers of mind and body well preserved. This worthy couple had four children, namely: Pomelia J. and Mary E., deceased, the former at the age of one year and the latter at the age of eight; William W. and Lewis D.
William W. Roberts attended the common
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schools of Ohio, and after coming to Iowa received instructions in a public school until he was prepared for the freshman class in college. Ile then entered the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, and graduated there June 10, 1870, receiving the degree of A. B. and the same from the literary society of which he was a member. Three years later he received the title of A. M. After leaving college, Mr. Roberts taught in the graded schools in Quincy for two years. Immediately thereafter, in the fall of 1873, he was elected county Superintendent of the schools of Adams county; was re-elected in 1875, and filled that important position most acceptably. He is now serving his second term as county Surveyor, having been elected first in 1887. He has also served as Justice of the Peace. A public-spirited, progressive and enterprising citizen, he has been and is to-day an important factor in promoting the best interests of this county.
Mr. Roberts has been in the real estate business with II. F. Dale of Corning for some four years. He came to his present location in 1882. Here, in section 9, Wash- ington township, he owns eighty acres of well improved land. He raises corn and all kinds of fruits, his land being adapted to any product indigenous to this climate.
September 13, 1876, Mr. Roberts wedded Miss Sadie A. Andrews, daughter of O. S. and Delilah Andrews, residents of Box butte county, Nebraska. Mr. Andrews is a con- tractor and mechanic, as popular as he is ex- tensively known. He was a leading pioneer of Iowa. He and his wife had four children: Patience A., Sadie A., William T. and Leti- tia (). The last named is the wife of H. K. Prickett, of Box butte county. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have been blessed with nine children, viz .: F. Clyde, Lewis W., Jennie M., Jesse E., Daniel C. and Orlando S.
(twins), Ida I., and Mabel and Etliel (twins). Mrs. Roberts, like her husband, was for a time engaged in teaching. She is a lady of much culture and refinement. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In his political views Mr. Roberts is Inde- dendent, voting for men and measures rather than party. He is opposed to monopolies in any form, and believes in keeping pace with nineteenth-century progress. Such is a brief sketch of one of Adams county's best citizens.
RANCIS M. THOMPSON, a leading pioneer of Washington township, Adams county, Iowa, was born in Warriek county, Indiana, April 16, 1838. His parents were John and Saralı (Igelhart) Thompson, the father a native of Kentucky and the mother, of Maryland. In 1820 John Thomp- son settled on a farm in Warrick county, In- diana, being among the pioneers of that place. At one time he was a major in mili- tia company. He moved to Wapello county, Iowa, in 1844, where he continued farming which he had followed all his life. He died in Adams county, Iowa, August 14, 1857, at the age of sixty years. The mother went with her parents from Maryland to Ken- tucky, where, in 1820, she was united in marriage with Mr. Thompson. Of their thirteen children five are still living.
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