USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > Biographical history of Pottawattamie County, Iowa > Part 56
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He was married October 3, 1883, to Miss Katie Madden, daughter of James and Ellen (Wallaee) Madden, and born in Council Bluffs August 25, 1863. They are members of the
Catholic Church and reside at 1032 Sixth avenue.
R. FOXLEY, successor to R. Foxley & Son, brick manufacturers, North Harrison street, Council Bluffs. This business was established in 1880 by R. Foxley and was conducted by him until 1885, when he formed a partnership with his son A. R., the present owner. The annual output of this establishment is 1,000,000 brick, and the number made daily is 18,000. Mr. Fox- ley gives employment to about fifteen men, and manufactures both the common and the dry-pressed brick.
Richard Foxley, the father of our subject, was born in Bedfordshire, England, in 1836. He remained in his native land until he was eighteen years old, when he came to America and located in New York State. A few years later he went to Toronto, Canada, where he made his home until 1859, and from there to Ottawa, Canada, until 1879, when he came to Council Bluffs, Iowa. In January, 1888, he removed to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he engaged in the manufacture of brick and where he died, August 17, 1890. He followed the trade of brick-maker and contractor all his life. Politically he was a Demoerat. While in Canada, in 1856, he married Miss Charlotte Newlove, a native of Lincolnshire, England, born in 1838. She is now a resident of Vancouver. They had a family of nine children, viz .: Edith, wife of Joseph Tindale, of Downsville, Iowa; Eleanor, a resident of Vancouver; Alfred R., the sub- ject of this sketch; Emily, a milliner of Van- couver; Herbert, also of that city; Percival, a resident of Council Bluffs; and Louisa, at Vancouver. Two are deceased.
Alfred R. was born near Ottawa, Canada,
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June 21, 1864; was educated in the public schools and learned the trade of brick-making with his father. In 1887 he was married to Miss Carrie Burgess, of Council Bluffs. She was born in 1866 and died in 1888. Politi- cally Mr. Foxley holds to Republican prin- ciples. He is a member of the I. O. G. T., No. 175, Council Bluffs Lodge, and at this writing, 1890, is Worthy Chief.
EV. JOSEPH KNOTTS, deceased, was born in Knottsville, Monongalia Coun- ty, Virginia, September 24, 1832. The village took its name fr un his ancestry; it is now in West Virginia, near Grafton. He completed his school education at the Acad- emy at Clarksburg, Virginia. At a very early age he became pious and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, entering at once with his characteristic zeal into an active Christian life. About this time he obtained his majority and came West to locate lands for his father through Iowa. He spent some time teaching school in the States of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and in October, 1855, be married Rebecca Hall at Carthage, Illinois. Returning to Virginia, he was licensed to preach. After serving on several charges in his native State, he was transferred to Iowa, being a man of strong Union principles, in opposition to the most of his parishioners in Virginia. He was transferred in 1860 to the Western Iowa, now the Des Moines,
Conference, and he fille I successive appoint- ments until in 1865 he was sent to Council Bluffs, and here the next year he built the Broadway Church elitice, in the face of dif- ficulties that would have overcome any man but one of such invincible will and tireless energy as he always possessed. Becoming Church Extension Agent of the Des Moines
Conference, he traveled at large all over the field, laying the foundation of that infant society. In 1869 he was appointed Presiding Elder of the Council Bluffs district, and served it for three years. In 1871 he was elected a delegate to the General Conference which met in Brooklyn, New York, the May following, and at this session he was placed upon committees where he served during the four years following. Failing health caused him to resign his district after serving it three years, when he engaged in publishing the Inland Christian Advocate, in connec- tion with which he established a book store for the sale of Methodist publications. The great fire in Council Bluffs, which destroyed the first Ogden Honse, carried off all his stock of books and publishing material in a few hours, leaving him nothing.
In 1874 or 1875, shortly after the fire, President Grant appointed Mr. Knotts, Consul to Chihuahua, Mexico, to the climate of which country he looked as a refuge from his failing health; but he soon resigned the consulship to engage in mining, and through his energy and enterprise the people of that Republic had their attention turned to the United States as an inviting field of com- mercial affiliation.
()n December 26, 1887, he left his home in Council Bluffs on a business trip to Du- rango, Mexico. Riding in a stage, he suf- fered from the chilly weather, pneumonia set in, and on January 15, 1888, he was taken suddenly worse at Parral, sixty miles from the railroad. He insisted on being conveyed to the railroad, and he was accordingly taken there, reaching El Paso, Texas, Sunday, January 22, and died the next day at 3:15 P. M. His body was brought to Council Bluffs, and laid to rest in Walnut Hill Ceme- tery.
The following tribute was truthfully paid
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to his character by Rev. II. H. O'Neal, in his funeral discourse: " I think he was a man who feared the Lord in early life, who de- voted himself to the service of God, and never in after years did he swerve from that consecrated service. In that whirl of exeite- ment in which so many are ruined, with him the fear of the Lord was ever a pervading element of his character. It modified his aims, fortified his principles, strengthened his affections, was with him a permanent principle which dominated his life, passed with him from place to place and from stage to stage of his career: and when driven by broken health from the active work of the Christian ministry, he did not forget the church or leave his religion behind him. He was a man iron-nerved, strong with tireless energy. The erection of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, which would have dismayed many men, displayed the judgment, enter- prise and persistent energy that possessed him. He could not endure inaction. He was never engaged with trifles, and had always some work to do that was worth doing, and he did it with his might, putting all his energy into it, and also the force of his char- acter.
" In the ministry of the church and in his palmiest days, he was a ceaseless worker. Whether in the pastorate, presiding-elder- ship or helping the public institutions of the church, he was full of zeal and industry, and such qualities, sanetified by grace divine, could not fail to make of him an instrument of great assistance, and he was eminently useful, especially in the ministry. Under his pastorate souls were converted and the churches strengthened. In the wider fields of presiding-eldership the work grew and prospered under his hand, and he won the highest esteem of his fellow ministers by his fidelity and success. He was a man of such
genial spirit and so faithful in the manage- ment of affairs that he commanded the highest respeet of all, and won his way into the strongest and most enduring love of his personal friends."
Mr. Knotts was of English ancestry, com- ing from the north of England, and traceable baek for several generations. His grand- father was a soldier in the American war for Independence. His immediate parents were Absalom and Matilda (Sayre) Knotts. IIe was brought up on a farm. His wife, a native of West Virginia, and also of English origin, died at her home in Council Bluffs, January 26, 1890. They had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The list is: Edith V., now the wife of Samuel Robert- son, of Boulder, Montana; Absalom B., of Plattsmouth, Nebraska; Thomas H., of Des Moines, Iowa; Matilda, deceased; Lemuel G., of Council Bluffs; E. Franklin, also of Coun- cil Bluffs; James E., a resident of Des Moines: Gordon B., of Council Bluffs; Alice, deceased; Joseph, Jr., a resident of Council Bluffs.
Lemuel G. Knotts was born in New Vir- ginia, Warren County, Iowa, April 3, 1865, and was reared from his fourth year in Council Bluff's, receiving his education here except one winter at Denison, Texas. Dur- ing the summer months previous to the completion of his sixteenth year he worked on his father's farm, after which he devoted his entire time to his studies. At the age of eighteen he spent a year in Mexico, in the study of Spanish and mining. Returning to Council Bluffs he graduated here in the elass of 1885. He went again to Mexico to look after the mining interests of his father at Parral in the State of Chihuahua and at Mapimi in the State of Durango, and was there about eighteen months. Returning here he engaged in various pursuits. In the
"ho Officer
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OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
summer of 1887 he took a course at the commercial college here, and then entered the office of Wright, Baldwin & Haldam, to study law, and was there one year, when he engaged in his present business, dealing in coal and wood, in partnership with W. F. Sapp, Jr. On September 2, 1890, Mr. Sapp withdrew from the partnership firm of Sapp & Knotts, since which time Mr. Knotts had been conducting the fuel business alone.
HOMAS OFFICER, of the banking house of Officer & Pusey, Council Bluffs, the oldest and one of the most solid banking firms in Iowa, was born in Washington, Washington County, Pennsyl- vania, December 28, 1822. Ile is descended from those hardy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians so prominent in the history of Pennsylvania and the United States. His grandfather, Thomas Officer, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania; was a man of more than or- dinary ability and intelligence, and held various offices of trust in his county. His great-grandfather, with a brother, came from the north of Ireland to Pennsylvania soon after the Revolution, one settling near Knox- ville, Tennessee, and the other in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from whom have de- scended about all now in America who in- herit the family name. Our subject's father, Robert Officer, was born in Chester County, and when two years of age moved with his parents to Washington County, Pennsylvania. In early life he engaged in merchandising at Washington and Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and died in 1874, at the age of seventy-nine years. Ile was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Scott, the daughter of John and Jane (Patterson) Scott. Mr. and Mrs. Rob- ert Officer were Presbyterians, and were the
parents of eleven children, four of whom are living, viz .: Thomas, our subject; Rebecca, wife of Neal G. Blaine, a brother of the Hon. James G. Blaine (she is now a widow, and resides in Council Bluffs); S. Ellen, wife of the Hon. Win. H. M. Pusey, a banker of this city; Robert, also of this city, engaged in the real-estate and insurance business.
Thomas Officer, our subject, graduated at Washington (Pennsylvania) College in 1840, and went at once to Columbus, Ohio, where he was employed as an instructor in the Ohio State Institution for the Deaf and Dumb for five years. He was then called to Jackson- ville, Illinois, where he organized, laid out the grounds, and built the Illinois State In- stitution for the Deaf and Dumb, and re- mained as principal and superintendent for ten years. He then resigned this position and came to Council Bluffs, Iowa. In 1856 he formed his present partnership with Mr. Pnsey, purchasing the same ground on which their present bank building now stands, and in the spring of 1857 opened their present bank, then as now a private bank. This is one of the solid firms in the county, and is worthy of record, as it is one of the few that passed through the pauies of 1857-'71-'73. Out of seventeen banking institutions in Council Bluffs, this is the only one that sur- vived the panic of 1857.
Mr. Officer was united in marriage, Angust 8, 1848, to Miss Elizabeth M. Pusey, who was born in Washington County, Pennsyl- vania, and is the sister of Hon. William II. M. Pusey, whose sketch appears in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Officer rank among the very best people of Council Bluffs and also of Iowa, and are universally admired and re- spected for their sterling worth. They are members of the First Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a ruling eller ever since its organization in 1856. They are the
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BIOGRAPHIICAL HISTORY
parents of three children: Charles T., teller in the bank with his father and uncle, and married to Miss Boyle, of Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania; Julia E., a talented musician, and a graduate of the Petercilia School of Music, of Boston, Massachusetts, and also of the Rockford (Illinois) Female Seminary; and William P., an assistant with his father and uncle in the bank. Mr. Officer has never songht office, but yet has held varions local offices of trust, such as Councilman and a member and president of the School Board. His known personal experience and promi- nence in connection with institutions for the deaf and dumb in other States was an im- portant factor in securing the location of the Iowa State Institution at Conneil Bluffs. In conjunction with Hon. Caleb Baldwin and Major-General Grenville M. Dodge, he was appointed as commissioner in behalf of the State to select the site, purchase the grounds, decide upon the plans and erect the build- ings, all of which was done under their man- agement. He afterward served, under ap- pointment by the State, as a member of the Board of Directors for a number of years, and part of the time as president of the board. Ile enjoys the confidence and respect of all, and is a gentleman of the strictest integrity.
A. KILLION, an intelligent and suc- cessful farmer of Belknap Township, Pottawattamie County, was born in Menard County, Illinois, September 15, 1858, a son of James E. and Sarah E. (Hornback) Killion, both natives of Kentucky, the former a son of Michel Killion, also a native of Kentucky, and the latter the daughter of John H. and Abigail (Bracken) Hornback. Our subject's father died in Menard County
in 1876, at the age of fifty-six years. IIc had been a farmer all his life, and in his political views he was a Republican. Religi- ously he was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. His widow is still living in Menard County. They were the parents of nine children, six of whom are still living.
J. A. Killion was reared on a farm in his native county until 1883, when he came to his present farin of 146 acres in Pottawatta- mie County. When he first settled on this place it was wild prairie land, but he has since made many improvements, and he now has a fine large farm. He was married in Menard County, Illinois, March 3, 1881, to Miss A. M. Denton, a woman of intelligence and edneation, and the danghter of William G. and Elizabeth (Powers) Denton. Politi- cally Mr. Killion is a Republican.
ILLIAM C. KLEPPINGER, a prom inent farmer of Pottawattamie Coun- ty, is a pioneer settler of Iowa. His grandfather was the founder of the family in America; he was a German by birth, and set- tled on a farm in Northampton County, Pennsylvania He was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and also engaged in the wars with the Indians. He was married to a lady of English parentage, and they had five children: Lewis, Jacob, William, Eli and Catherine. He spent his days in Northamp- ton County, dying at a good old age. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. Lewis Kleppinger, a son of the above and the father of our subject, was born on the old homestead in Northampton County, and learned farming in early life. He was mar- ried in his native State to Barbara Harmon, daughter of Jacob Harmon, a hotel-keeper at
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Cherryville, who owned and built the old Stone Hotel in which every stone was the same size, picked and dressed, and which is still standing. He was the father of four children: Barbara, Catharine, Mary and Con- rad. To Mr. and Mrs. Kleppinger have been born seven children: David, Thomas, Joseph, William C., Lewis, Rebecca and Sarah. Atter inarriage Mr. Kleppinger settled in North- ampton County, near his two brothers, Jacob and Eli, each locating on a large farin. Both he and his wife were natives of Germany, and were respected by their fellow citizens. Mr. Kleppinger was Township Supervisor eight years; was an industrious and honest citizen and a prosperous farmer. He was a devout Christian and trustee in his church for many years, and was also one of the building com- mittee and founders of the church.
Williamn C., the subject of this sketch, was born on the old homestead in a stone house, December 27, 1829, and served an apprentice- ship of three years at the coach-maker's trade in Bloomsbury, New Jersey. He was then engaged in driving cattle, horses and sheep over the Alleghanies for three years, having crossed the mountains hundreds of times. After his marriage he settled at Emans, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, working at his trade, and remaining eight years. In 1859 he moved to his father-in-law's farin, remain- ing nine years; next he went to Kreidersville, where he lived five years, working at his trade; and in 1867 eame to Iowa, settling on a farm in Muscatine County, where he lived thirteen years. In 1879 he came to his present fine farm of 160 aeres, situated near Walnut.
Mr. Kleppinger married Elizabeth Seem, daughter of Conrad and Catharine (Sworit) Seem. She was born in 1829, and was of German deseent. Mr. Seem owned a flax- oil mill and a woolen-mill, and was also a furniture-maker of Northampton County,
Pennsylvania. He lived to the great age of ninety-three years, living ninety years on one farm, which he inherited from his father. The last three years he lived with his son. He was the father of fourteen children, twelve of whom grew to maturity: Joseph, John, Samuel, David, Conrad, Reuben (de- ceased), Lucy, Mary, Patterson (deceased), Elizabeth, Katie, Judy, Polly and Lealı. Mr. Seem was a member of the German Re- formed Church, of which he was one of the founders, and also one of the builders of the church. He taught school in his early life, and was onee a Justice of the Peace. He was truly one of the old patriarch Pennsyl- vanians, who brought up a large family and taught them industry and virtue. To Mr. and Mrs. Kleppinger have been born nine children, seven of whom lived to maturity: Mary A., Adelaide, Abyssinia (deceased at six years), Preston C., Elizabeth C., Rosie B., Robert D., James P., Meda S. (deceased at two years). Mr. and Mrs. Kleppinger are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has been a member of the build- ing committee, and was steward and class leader in Muscatine County. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, and is now Road Supervisor of his township. He is an industrious man and honorable citizen, and one of the many self-made men of which lowa may boast.
ILLIAM WINTERSTIEN was born in Johnson County, Iowa, December 28, 1843, son of William Winter- stien, Sr., a native of Ohio. His grandfather, Nicholas Winterstien, a soldier of the war of 1812, brought his family to Johnson County, Iowa, becoming early settlers of that place. He and his son William and others surveyed the wagon-road from Iowa City to
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Cedar Rapids with breaking plows and ox teams, William driving one of the teams. Among other early settlers in Johnson County there was a family by the name of Laramore who came from Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Laramore were the parents of seven daughters, some of whom remained in the East. Their daughter Susan became the wife of William Winterstien, Sr., and by him had ten children, four of whom are now living, viz .: William, Jr., our subjeet; Je- rome W., who residesin Waveland Township, Pottawattamie County; Philip, a resident of Hastings, Nebraska; and Franklin, who lives near Goldendale, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Winterstien in 1850 went overland to Cali- fornia, with ox teams, spending the first win- ter at Carson City, then called Gold Cañon. After a sojourn of six years in California they returned to Iowa, coming via water to New York and from thence to Johnson County. They subsequently went to Kansas, where they lived some ten or twelve years, and then removed to Washington, where they now reside. The father is seventy-four years old and the mother is seventy-two. During the late war Mr. Winterstien enlisted in the Twenty-second Iowa Infantry, as a recruit.
William Winterstien, Jr., was reared on a farm in Johnson County, Iowa, and when the great Rebellion broke out he entered in the service of his country and fought bravely all through the war. He enlisted in August, 1862, in Company H, Twenty-second Iowa Infantry, and the first battle he was in was that of Port Gibson, near Grand Gulf. The bursting of a shell near his head eaused a deafness in his right ear from which he has never recovered. At that time his regiment was supporting the First lowa Battery. Mr. Winterstien was afterward in the battles of Champion Hill, Black River Bridge, the charge 19th and 22d of May, siege of Vieks-
burg, Winchester, Virginia, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. Ile was honorably dis- charged at Savannah, Georgia, July 25, 1865.
After the war Mr. Winterstien returned to Johnson County, Iowa, where he resided un- til 1870, when he removed to Benton County, same State. In 1871 he went to Montgom- ery County and settled twelve miles northi- west of Red Oak. Three years later, in 1874, he came to Pottawattamie County and settled on his present farm in section 28, Wright Township. It was then wild land, but the well directed efforts of Mr. Winter- stien have caused it to assume a different ap- pearance. He has a story-and-a-half frame residence, 16 x 25 feet, located on a natural building site, surrounded by a grove of two aeres. He also has other farm buildings and improvements. His home farm consists of eighty acres, and he owns another well im- proved eighty acre farm in Waveland Town- ship.
June 10, 1869, in Johnson County, Mr. Winterstien was married to Catherine Louise Burnett, a native of Ohio. IIer father, John Burnett, was born in Ohio, son of John Bur- nett, Sr., and her mother, nee Ann Eliza Veness, was born in York County, Pennsyl- vania. Mr. and Mrs. Burnett came to Iowa about the year 1850 and settled in Cedar County, where they spent the residue of their lives. They reared five children, namely : Thomas, Catherine L., George, Smith and Charles. Mrs. Winterstien was reared and educated in Cedar County. She and her hus- band have nine children, viz .: Grant, Eugene, William Arthur, Ethel, Kate, Thomas B., Ray, Ben Harrison and Susan.
Politically Mr. Winterstien is a Republi- can. He is a member of the G. A. R., Robert Worthington Post, No. 9. He joined the Iowa City Post. He is associated with the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church.
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OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
Mr. Winterstien is a man in the prime of life, is frank and cordial in his manner, and is honorable in all his dealings.
OBERT MILLER, one of the repre- sentative citizens of Washington Town- ship, Pottawattamie County, has resided here since 1882. Ile is justly deserving of honorable mention in a work of this charac- ter, and a resume of his life is herewith given.
Mr. Miller was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, twenty miles from Pittsburgh, near the Allegheny River, February 22, 1831. His father, Joseph B. Miller, was born near Freeport, Pennsylvania, son of John Miller, a native of Ireland. The latter was one of the two early settlers in that part of Alle- gheny County. The mother of our subject, Jane (McCall) Miller, was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Her father, John MeCall, was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. In 1854 Joseph B. Miller and wife removed to Rock Island County, Illinois, where they re- sided until their death, the mother dying at the age of seventy-five years and eleven months, and the father at the age of seventy- six years and eleven months. He was a farmer the most of his life, but for seventeen years acted as a county officer. In politics he was a Whig and an Abolitionist. He was one of the twelve men who first voted the Abolitionist tieket in Allegheny County. In religion he was a Seceder or a United Presby- terian. He and his wife reared eight chil dren, seven sons and one daughter. Three of the sons served in the late war.
Robert passed his youth at farm work in his native county and received his edneation in the public schools. In 1854, when he was twenty-four years of age, he was married
in Allegheny County, to Miss Eleanor McKee, a lady of intelligence and refinement. She was born in Washington County, l'ennsyl- vania, daughter of John and Mary Ann (Crawford) McKee. Her parents were of Irish ancestry, and were born in Belfast, Ire- land. They worshiped with the old-school Presbyterians. Robert Miller resided in Penn- sylvania until 1854, when he removed to Rock Island County, Illinois, where he re- mained until 1868, with the exception of one year spent at Pike's Peak. In 1868 he re- moved to Page County, Iowa, and located northwest of Clarinda, being one of the early settlers of that place. Ile resided in Page County until the spring of 1871, when he moved to Thayer County, Nebraska, then called Jefferson County. After remaining there five years and four months he returned to Page County, and for one year made his home south of Essex. He then went to Atchison County, Missouri, and from there, in 1882, he came to Washington Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. In 1881 he purchased 160 aeres of land from B. F. Clay- ton. The soil had been broken but there were no improvements on the farm. In 1886 he purchased eighty acres more, now being the owner of 240 acres of well im- proved land. Besides his own residence he has two tenant houses. His farm is devoted to general farming and stock-raising.
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