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 40
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 40
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and forcible, almost brilliant, in public ad- dress, he has a great advantage. He is de- voted to his profession, holding all other avocations subordinate.
He married Miss Mary Jones, of Corning, and his home life is as pure and devoted as luis public is honorable and successful. He is a member of the orders of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, also of the Congre- gational Church, and in his political princi- ples is a Republican.
M ATTHEW DARRAH, a farmer and stock-raiser of section 9, Mercer township, was born in county An- trim, Ireland, October 13, 1837, a son of Robert and Eliza (McAfee) Darrah, natives of Ireland and of Scotch ancestry. Robert Darralı was a weaver by trade, and died in in the old country in 1878, at the age of eighty-four years. His wife died in 1843. They had a family of nine children, all of whom lived to be grown, and four still sur- vive. Five of the children came to this country. The oldest sister, Sarah, was the wife of John Awl, came to America and died in Philadelphia. Robert came in 1856, when twenty-one years of age, and at the break- ing out of the late civil war was one of the first to answer the call for three months' men to go out in defense of his adopted country, enlisting in the Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was killed at Raymond, Mis- sissippi, May 12, 1863. In the spring of 1857 our subject came to America and lo- cated in Peru, La Salle county, Illinois. Daniel was the next to come, but returned to his native country a few years subsequently, where he died. Charles came next, and is now a resident of Corning.
The first three years our subject worked
on a farm by the month, working ten months in the year for $16 per month, the other two inonths working for his board. He afterward rented land in Marshall county, Illinois, for twelve years. He was married in Ireland, February 13, 1857, to Miss Jane Bryson, a daughter of Jaines and Jane (Has- sen) Bryson. In 1876 Mr. Darrah removed to Adams county and purchased 160 acres of land, and now has a fine farm of 320 acres in a high state of cultivation, where he makes a specialty of stock-raising. In 1878 he rented his farm and took charge of what is known as the Vernon dairy farm, which he managed successfully for eleven years, until 1890.
Mr. and Mrs. Darrah are the parents of sixteen children, fifteen of whom are still living: James, Eliza, Sarah Jane, Maggie, Mary, Robert, Matthew, Charles, Samuel, Nancy, John, Minnie, Frank, Carl, Benja- min. Mr. Darrah and wife are consistent members of the Presbyterian Church. He is a member of the A. F. and A. M., In- struction Lodge, No. 275. Politically he is a Republican.
ELANCY M. PARCHER, who resides on section 10, Nodaway township, came to Adams county with Mr. N. N. Odell in November, 1856. He was born in Crawford county, Ohio, February 28, 1833, the son of Simeon Parcher, who died wlien his son, Delancy M., was but eleven months old. His mother remarried, lier second hus- band being Robert Kirkland, and the date of the marriage was March 24, 1836. The mother died February 23, 1885, at her home in Crawford county, Ohio. Delancy M. Parcher was the youngest of six sons and one daughter. The mother also had two daughters and a son by her second marriage.
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The subject of this notice and his brother, John Parcher, are the only survivors of his fatlier's family. Two brothers died in the Union army in the war of the Rebellion- Simeon Beal and George.
The subject of this notice remained at his mother's home until he was sixteen years of age, when he engaged to work for Mr. Eli Odell, and one year later for N. N. Odell, with whom he came to Iowa in 1854, and to Adams county in 1856. Mr. Parcher en- listed, January 4, 1864, in Company D, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry. He joined the regiment at Little Rock, Arkansas, and served one year under General Steele, in the Seventh Army Corps. In the spring of 1865 he accompanied his regiment to New Or- leans, Louisiana, and thence to Alabama- to Spanish Fort-taking part in the siege and battle at that place, thence to Mobile, and thence to Mount Vernon Arsenal, and then again to the city of Mobile and into camp two miles north of that city. There he was taken sick and was sent to tlie gen- eral hospital at Mobile, and about a week later was sent to Sedgwick Hospital, New Or- leans, where he was discharged under general order, May 31, 1865. He left the city of New Orleans on the second day of June of the same year, and arrived at home in Adams county, June 12, 1865.
Mr. Parchier was married January 30, 1859, to Miss Nancy A. Thompson, a native of Indiana. Her parents died when she was a child. While Mr. Parcher was absent in the army his family lived in. the village of Brooks. In August, 1865, Mr. Parch- er removed his family to Nodaway town- ship, settling where he now lives on sec- tion 10. His farm of 125 acres had no improvements when he settled here, but it is now under a good state of cultivation. Mr. Parcher and wife have had nine children,
eight of whom are living-four sons and four daughters-and although four are mar- ried and have families, all are at home but one danghter, having a reunion of the fam- ily by invitation of the parents. They lost their second child, George L., at the age of fourteen montlis. The names of the chil- dren in the order of their birth are: Lyman F., who married Emma C. Bowers; George L .; Edwina, wife of John H. Bowers; Noah D., who married Adne Peregrine; Harriet L., wife of Andrew Brown; Frank O., Han- nah R., Alma L., John T. It has been seen that Mr. and Mrs. Parcher are among the early settlers of Adams county, who came here when the country was new, and have done their part well, enduring the hardships and trials incident to a new country, and making for themselves a comfortable home.
In his political affiliations Mr. Parcher is a Republican. He cast his first presidential vote for Jolin C. Fremont, in 1856. He and family are faithful and consistent members of the Christian Church. Mr. Parcher has been a resident of Adams county for the long period of thirty- five years. He was a faith- ful soldier in the cause of the Union, and is a worthy and esteemed citizen.
ENRY HOWITT LA RUE, lumberman, of Corning, was born in Ingham county, Michigan, July 11, 1852, a son of Frank- lin and Amelia La Rue. In 1866 the family removed to Bloomington, Illinois, where the subject of this sketch attended the Wesleyan University; then until 1879 he followed farming, at which time he came to Corning. Here he first began as clerk for the Rand Lumber Company. At the end of abont five years he opened out into business for him- self, buying the yard of A. M. Beymer.
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Since engaging in the lumber trade here a careful estimate would place the amount sold by him at the enormons aggregate of 10,000,000 feet. The steady growth of his business attests the esteem in which he is held by the people. He has the largest stock in the county.
In 1883 he married Miss Enima Jennings, whose parents still reside at Normal, Illinois, and who was educated at Majors College. Mr. and Mrs. La Rue are exemplary mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
USTUS CLARK .- In close unity to its distinction as the great farm region, it Occurs that one of Montgomery county's wealthiest and most prominent men, Hon. Justus Clark, is distinctively a farmer and is proud of that title. Mr. Clark was the son of Wright and Lucy Clark, and was born at Royalton, Vermont, March 22, 1819. He was born and raised on a farm and never for- sook his calling. Trained in that industry and economy peculiar to his early home, it is to this that Mr. Clark attributes much of his success in life.
In 1830, while he was still a lad, his father acquired the Governor Chittenden farm, in Chittenden county, the largest and finest farm in that State. It has remained in the family ever since. Near here was Williston Acad- emy, taught by the father of President Ar- thur, where Mr. Clark finished his education, young Chester being a lad of about twelve at that time. In 1835 Mr. Clark became a clerk in the store of Lathrop & Potwin, one of the heaviest merchandising houses in Bur- lington, Vermont. He rose rapidly and at twenty was offered a partnership, having then been manager two years. He determined not to accept this offer, however, and returned to
the farm, and in May, 1839, came to Bur- lington, this State. Iowa had then been organ- ized as a Territory less than a year, and Mr. Clark was a witness of the first Fourth of July celebration. In Burlington Mr. Clark became manager in the house of General M. M. McCarver and S. S. White, a prominent firm that built the first permanent cabin in Burlington. Here Mr. Clark was married to Mrs. Cartmill, a relative of Mrs. McCarver, and one of the earliest settlers of Burlington.
In 1842 Mr. Clark purchased a farm in Des Moines county, and began life on his own account. Farming has been his con- stant occupation ever since, he marketing in 1889 liis forty-seventhi consecutive annual crop of farm produce. It is Mr. Clark's strong belief that farming is one of the most remunerative of all occupations. His strong faith was shown at an early day when he be- gan investing his surplus earnings in the cheap lands of Western Iowa, in Union and Montgomery counties. In 1868 he sold his home farm in Des Moines county, increasing his belongings in Montgomery county and improving them. He had, however, in 1857, purchased a farm in Cook county, Illinois, which he made a dairy farm and sent milk into Chicago for fifteen years. Mr. Clark did not personally superintend this farm, having a tenant manager. It proved a very profit- able investment. After disposing of his Chicago farm in 1876, he built his present home in Red Oak on land entered by him from the Government thirty-five years ago. Previously, in 1869, he organized, with his nephew, B. B. Clark, as active partner, the lumber firm of Justus Clark & Co. In 1883 this business was closed out and the Red Oak National Bank established with Mr. Clark as president, B. B. Clark, vice-president, and Paul P. Clark, cashier. The remarkable fact about this institution is that of its $100,000
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capital, $80,000 is retired capital, accrned from Iowa farms. It is as Mr. Clark de- lights to put it, "Iowa farm-made money."
In 1882 the Iowa and New Mexico Ranch Company was organized, with Justus, B. B. and P. P. Clark, owners, for the purpose of raising stock cattle for Messrs. Clark's Iowa farms. This year they bring from their ranch here over 700 head: they have remain- ing 4,000 head on the ranch, the ontgrowth of 1,100 yearling heifers placed there five years ago,-"an excellent investment," re- marked Mr. Clark, "despite the low price of cattle."
Mr. Clark still continues remarkably active. He is at present operating 3,500 acres under fence, land on which no mortgage was ever laid since he was the owner. In addition to superintending his farm, he has exclusive charge of the New Mexico ranch, and con- tinues active in his position as president of the bank,-certainly a busy life.
Politically Mr. Clark has been likewise active. He has, he says, laughingly, filled about every position from school director up to a disappointed aspirant. He assisted in building log schoolhouses, was a Justice of the Peace, six years county Commissioner and six years in the Legislature, both when the capitol was at Iowa City and when the first three Legislative sessions were held in Des Moines. In 1883 he was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with Judge Kinne, "when," as Mr. Clark adds, "though we were defeated, the Republican majority was cut down 60,000 votes." Since this Mr. Clark has not been active as a politician, thongh he has had many flattering offers to become the candidate of his party.
Despite his activity in business, Mr. Clark has been hardly less active as a traveler. In 1850, the year following the gold discovery of 1848, joining four others, be fitted up an
ox team and went across the plains 2,300 miles, 2,000 of which was throngli a hostile Indian country. The trip was successful, they reaching Coloma, where gold was first discovered. They engaged in mining for a time, returning home the next winter by sailing vessel to Panama, footing it across the Isthmus and returning via New Orleans. Since then Mr. Clark has been over every transcontinental line running to the Pacific, having crossed the Rockies fifteen times, in every style of conveyance from a pack train to a palace car. He has also been to Alaska and climbed the great glacier. In 1880 he went to Enrope, not only to see cathedrals and ruins but also to study the agricultural and stock-raising industries. He visited all the great stock markets and farming sections, returning home, he says, with increased con- fidence in the profits of our rich lands for grain and stock purposes, and realizing their high value more than ever. "I have, " he says, "no land for sale."
Six years ago Mr. Clark visited Old Mex- ico, returning to visit the New Orleans Ex- position. He has spent most of his winters for the past twelve years in recreation, trav- eling everywhere from 'Alaskan glaciers to near the equator, skipping meanwhile not a year in active management of his farms. He takes great interest in varions organizations, being Vice-President for Iowa of the Na- tional Cattle and Horse Growers' Associa- tion, and likewise of the National Bankers' Association, and was President in 1887 of the Iowa Fine Stock Breeders' Association. He assisted in the re-organization of the Revenne Reform Club at Detroit and is Vice- President for Iowa. Mr. Clark has lived a long and busy life and deservedly looks back on it not with regret, bnt with pleasure and pride. Probably no man in the State is
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prouder of the prosperity and progress of Iowa than Mr. Clark.
Ben B. Clark, vice-president of the Red Oak National Bank, and his brother, Paul P. Clark, cashier of the same institution, are nephews of the president, Justus Clark, and native of Chittenden county, Vermont, the sons of Philo Clark, deceased. Ben B. was born in 1848 and came to Iowa in 1866, and engaged in the lumber business at Afton, where he continued until 1869, and then came to Red Oak, engaging in the same busi- ness, the firm name being Justus Clark & Co. In 1883 the Red Oak National Bank was organized, with Justus Clark as presi- dent; B. B. Clark, vice-president and Paul P. Clark, cashier; no change has been made in the official management of the bank since its organization. Paul P. Clark was born in Chittenden county, Vermont, in 1856, and came to Red Oak in the spring of 1874. Until the organization of the bank, he was engaged with the lumber firm of Justus Clark & Co.
ACOB F. LUTZ, baker, confectioner and restaurateur, Corning, was born in Craw- ford county, Ohio, in 1847, the son of Jacob and Mary (Hoss) Lutz, natives of Weidenburg, Germany. Coming to America in 1802, the father was a resident of this country under every Presidential administra- tion from the second to Pierce's, his death occurring in 1851. Only six months after- ward his wife followed him to the other world. They were Lutherans.
The subject of this sketch was reared in his native county, and made good use of the meager educational opportunities he enjoyed. At the age of sixteen years he began to learn the trade of baker, at Bucyrus, the county seat of his native county, and completed his
three years' apprenticeship. In 1875 he came to Corning and immediately opened out in his trade, adding first the confection- ery business and afterward a restaurant de- partment. With a brief interval spent in Dakota, he has ever since been stead- ily engaged in his calling here, with snccess to himself and satisfaction to his patrons, who comprise a legion of the best people of Adams county. He is a prominent and en- thusiastic Odd Fellow, having filled in suc- cession all the positions in that lodge, and he is also a member of the Encampment.
In his political principles he is a Republi- can, and both himself and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married February 16, 1873, to Louisa J. Butts, a native of Ohio, and of their four children three are living.
RANK LA RUE, cashier of the State Savings Bank at Corning, was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1861. His father, Franklin La Rue, is a native of New York, was a civil engineer during his active life and is now retired and residing in Corning. His mother, whose maiden name was Emily Chapin, was of an old New England family. He completed his education in a business college and before he was twenty-one years of age he was appointed deputy county Treas- urer. After ten years of service, in 1887, he was elected to the office of county Treas- urer. His record of twelve years as a public officer and employé is one of which he may well be proud. When, in February, 1890, the Corning State Savings Bank was organ- ized, he was appointed cashier; and the con- fidence of the people in the institution is shown by the fact of its amazing growth in business. It is already recognized as an im-
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portant financial institution in the State. Mr. La Rue is a member of the Blue Lodge of the Masonic order, and also of the Chapter and of the Knights of Pythias.
In 1886 he married Miss Anna Beymer, a dangliter of one of Corning's earliest citizens and a lady of more than ordinary culture and piety. They have an interesting son, now three years old, and named Frank J.
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LBERT W. NICKOLS, photographer, Corning, was born in Morrow county, Ohio, a son of Abner and Margaret Nickols, natives of Ohio and now sturdy farmers in this State, having lived here twenty-four years. Our subject received an excellent education in the Afton (Iowa) high school, and then learned photography in the studio of A. A. Healey .. In dne season he began business for himself, being successful from the start. In 1890 be located in Corn- ing and he already ranks as the leading artist of southwestern Iowa. His studio attests the skill of his work both in photographic and crayon processes. Few young men stand as well in the estimation of the people. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He married Miss Olive A. Wiles, in 1884, and they have one child, Carl, who exhibits a very fine intellect.
LAUDE BRONNER, blacksmith at Corning, was born in 1843, in Ingwil- ler, Alsace, France. His father, Fran- · çois Bronner, a linen-bleacher, came to America in 1876 and died in 1884. Clande came to America in 1872, following the trade of wagon-maker, and came to Corning in
1879, as a member of the Icarian colony. Afterward he began blacksmithing, and by skill and honest industry he has built up a large trade. He has all the wit and courtesy of his race. He was a soldier in the French army in the war between France and Prussia in 1870-'71, and did valiant service.
In 1872 he married Miss Elise Klienhoffer, a native of France, and they have become the parents of four children, namely: Lizzie, now Mrs. Edwards; Clothilde, who died at the age of ten months; Claude M., who died at the age of two years and four months, and George, who is a remarkably gifted artist and brilliant musician.
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RVIN BENJAMIN SHAW is a citi- zen of Corning, where he is editor and publisher of the Adams county Union, a leading weekly Republican newspaper of southwest Iowa. The Union was established in 1874, aud was purchased January 1, 1881, by Mr Shaw, who has been the editor and publisher continuonsly since that time. It has been built up into one of the best equip- ped conutry offices of the State and enjoys a prosperous and uniformly growing patronage. The Union has been the constant advocate of the distinctive principles of the Republican party. Mr. Shaw has served for two years as a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Iowa. He heartily believes in building up manufacturing industries in this section and therefore in the fostering prin- ciple of the protective tariff. Mr. Shaw was secretary of the committee for Adams county which organized to establish the amendment to the constitution prohibiting the saloon in Iowa. The Union has been an earnest advo- cate of this vital reform. It has a warm interest in stimulating our youth to a Chris-
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tian education, and endeavors by every means at its command to magnify the happiness and sanctity of the home.
Mr. Shaw is a student of newspaper work; was one of the organizers of the Southwest Iowa Press Association, and has been for five years its secretary and treasurer. A news- paper, properly directed, can be of sucht ser- vice in the up-building, development and ad- vancement of its country and people, and the "Union under the present management has endeavored to fulfill this duty. Its publisher was one of the organizers of the " Blue-grass League of Southwest Iowa," and of the local Board of Trade by which the former is sup- ported. He has for two years past been secretary of the Corning Board of Trade. He appreciates the value of social and frater- nal intercourse, and was one of the organizers of King Arthur Lodge, Knights of Pythias, one of the prosperous orders of the city, and in which he is sitting Past Chancellor.
Mr. Shaw is a native of Iowa, his mother, Almira (Bagley) Shaw, having moved with her parents from the Western Reserve of Ohio to a point between Muscatine and Iowa City, Iowa, in 1837. They named their home West Liberty, and the place has grown into a thrifty young city. His father, Alonzo Shaw, moved from his native place, Tioga county, New York, to the same vicinity, Cedar county, at the age of twenty-one years, in 1844-two years before Iowa entered the Union. He was engaged in making the original Government surveys in north-eastern -Iowa. Everything worthy in himself Mr. Shaw attributes to his beloved parents, who still reside at the old home, Tipton, lowa, where his father has held many positions of honor and trust, and which has been his home ever since the first stakes were driven there in the survey of the plat, with the exception of the years 1866- '71, when he resided at West Liberty. There
has not been a death in the family since the birth of the subject of this sketcli. He has a brotlier, Alfred Frederick, and two sisters, Mrs. Anna Yates and Mrs. Lou M. Hanun. After the manner of the book of Numbers, it may be said that Alonzo Shaw descended from Alanson Benjamin Shaw; he from Jedediah, and he from Jedediah, Sr., who died about 1800, at old Sheshequin, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, aged about ninety years. The family tree is traceable back to several brothers who "came over " early in the seventeenth century. Benjamin Shaw, born 1641, at Hampton, New Hampshire, was a son of Roger Shaw, who is recorded as taking the oath of " freeman " in 1638, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was a repre- sentative from New Hampshire in 1652. Another Benjamin Shaw, boru in 1705, one of twins, was a son of Benoni (also a twin with a Benjamin Shaw) sou of Jonathan, son of John Shaw who lived at Plymouth, Mass- achusetts, in 1632. He was one of the pur- chiasers of Dartmouth. Edward, Abraham and Robert Shaw were others of the family living in Massachusetts in 1632.
The Shaws formed at one time a Scottish clan, their coat-of-arms being a red lion, fir tree and hand holding a dagger.
The subject of this biographical notice entered the State Agricultural College in 1873 and graduated in 1876, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science, in the depart- ment of Civil Engineering. On his return to Tipton he was elected county Surveyor, but soon resigned to enter the newspaper office of his uncle, Hon. B. F. Shaw, of Dixon, Illinois. In 1878-9 he wrote on a history of the lead- mining region of north- eru Illinois, an octavo volume of 900 pagès; also histories of Ogle county, Illinois, Cedar and Linn counties, Iowa. In 1880 he taught
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in the State Agricultural College, and came to Corning in 1881.
May 17, 1881, he wedded Miss Winifred Dudley, a graduate of the same institution and in the same class, who was a daughter of Mrs. President Welch of that college, and of George E. Dudley, who died in her infancy. Her father was a professor of mathematics in the State Normal School of Michigan and a graduate of Amherst. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have a model and happy family of two sons and three daughters, namely: Ret. C., born July 14, 1882; Genevieve and Winifred, twins, August 20, 1884; Arvin Benjamin, Jr., February 9, 1889; and Myra Mary, January 17, 1891.
Mr. Shaw is now combining an active and successful real-estate business with the news- paper work.
OSEPH A. LOVEJOY, county Re- corder of Deeds, was born in Columbia 1 county, New York, March 26, 1819. His parents, Ira and Fanny (Simons) Love- joy, were natives respectively of New York and Connecticut, and finally moved to Ohio, where the father died; the mother died in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of eighty- four years.
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