USA > Iowa > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Iowa, and its people, Volume II > Part 4
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On the 16th of March, 1851, Mr. Dancer was united in marriage to Miss Rosalia Harvey, who was born in Lower Canada on the 31st of January, 1833, a daughter of Hiram and Nancy Harvey. When she was but five years of age she was taken by her parents to Will county, Illinois, and there her mother died on the 9th of August, 1876, when seventy-two years of age. Her father lived to be more than eighty years old. To Mr. and Mrs. Dancer were born five children, three of whom have passed away: Nancy, who died when twenty-two months old; Ella, who was three years old when her death occurred; and Albert, who passed away at the age of twenty years. The two who survive are: Eugene, a resident of Canada, who is mar- ried and is engaged extensively in farming; and Walter, of Myrtle Point, Oregon, who still owns his farm in Fayette township and who is also married. The wife and mother passed away in August, 1893, and on the 20th of November, 1895, Mr. Dancer married Miss Anna Anderson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew K. Anderson, resi- dents of Lamoni. Mrs. Dancer was born in La Salle, Illinois, on the Vol. II-3
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30th of September, 1864. However, when but a child she was brought by her parents to Decatur county, Iowa, and was here reared and educated. Sketches of her brothers, Oscar and Daniel, appear else- where in this work. She has two children: David A., born October 7, 1896, who is attending the State University of Washington at Seattle; and Howard M., born March 30, 1898, who graduated from the Lamoni high school with the class of 1915.
Mr. Dancer was a republican in politics where national issues were at stake but in local elections voted for the best man regardless of party considerations. He served as a member of the city council of Lamoni and gave his influence to those measures which he believed to be calculated to further the public good. He was a devoted mem- ber of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints and a generous contributor to its support. His widow is also active in the work of that organization. Mr. Dancer took a public-spirited interest in the advancement of his community along material, moral and civic lines and was recognized as one of the leading citizens not only of Lamoni but of Decatur county. He passed away on the 23d of October, 1898, and all felt that the community had lost one whom it could ill spare while there were many who grieved for the demise of a personal friend.
JOHN N. BROWN.
John N. Brown, who is now successfully engaged in the real- estate business at Lamoni, was for many years a farmer of Ring- gold county, where he still owns four hundred and eighty acres of excellent land. He was born in Louisa county, Iowa, on the 13th of November, 1849, a son of the Hon. N. T. and Elizabeth (Gib- boney) Brown. The father served with ability as a member of the state legislature from Louisa county and died April 1, 1866, while a member of that body. Representatives McNutt, Burnett and others paid tribute to him and on the 7th of April at a meeting of Des Moines Lodge No. 133, I. O. G. T., the following resolutions were adopted:
Whereas, In the dispensations of Divine Providence, the Hon. N. T. Brown has been removed from us by death, in the midst of his usefulness, honored and esteemed by all who knew him;
Resolved, That in the character of the deceased we recognized all the virtues of the Christian gentleman adorning public life;
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Resolved, That in the death of Brother Brown his family has lost a kind and affectionate husband and father, the church a faith- ful and devoted member, the community in which he lived a worthy citizen, the general assembly an honored member and this lodge and the cause of temperance a true friend;
Resolved, That we ever cherish the memory of his connection with us as a lodge and most cordially tender to his bereaved companion and family our heartfelt sympathy and earnestly commend them to the kind protection of Him who disposes all things for the good of them who love Him;
Resolved, That a copy of the resolutions be furnished the Iowa State Register for publication and also a copy thereof be forwarded to the family of the deceased.
E. M. WRIGHT, WILLIAM RIDDLE, S. A. AYRES,
Committee.
Said preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted. It was also resolved by the lodge that a page in records of the lodge be inscribed to the memory of the deceased and that the hall of the lodge be draped in mourning for thirty days.
Our subject is one of a family of nine children, of whom two brothers are deceased. Basil G. resides at Kellerton, Iowa, and is now living retired. Mrs. Maggie S. Skinner is living at Dodge City, Kansas. W. H. is a resident of Hastings, Nebraska. Asa W. died in Indiana, leaving a wife and five children. George L. lives in Santa Rosa, California. Joe and Oscar are residents of Whittier, that state, and a brother died in infancy.
John N. Brown attended the common schools until he was thir- teen years old and resided in Louisa county until he was nineteen years of age, when the family removed to Ringgold county, where the mother purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, paying therefor six dollars and a quarter per acre, although it is now worth more than one hundred dollars an acre. In 1876 Mr. Brown of this review began farming independently in Athens township, Ringgold county, where he acquired land, and later he became the owner of a farm in Riley township. He now has four hundred and eighty acres of land in Ringgold county and also holds title to over three thousand acres in the Panhandle of Texas, two hundred and forty acres in Oklahoma and eighty acres in Nebraska. He removed to Decatur county in 1902 and is well known as a real-estate dealer of Lamoni. He has gained more than a competence and takes the greater pride
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
in his success because it has been achieved through his own industry and sound judgment. He has given much attention to raising stock and has also invested wisely in land, profiting by the great increase in land values in the middle west. He has given four of his children eighty acres of land each and leases the four hundred and eighty acres in Ringgold county which he still owns. He also has two busi- ness properties in Lamoni.
Mr. Brown was married on the 11th of April, 1872, to Miss Mary Ellen Moulton, who was born on the 8th of December, 1849, near Peoria, Illinois, and who accompanied her parents to Ringgold county when six years of age. The family settled in Athens township, and the father was an extensive and successful farmer, but has passed away, as has his wife also. To Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been born seven children, two of whom are deceased, those living being as fol- lows: E. A., a merchant of Eldorado Springs, Missouri, is married and has three children. Perry O., who owns the homestead in Ring- gold county and is engaged in the breeding of shorthorn cattle, is married and has one child. Nora B. is the wife of A. J. Hawes, a ranchman of Spray, Oregon, by whom she has two children. O. O., a member of the law firm of Folk & Brown, of Stockton, Missouri, is married and has two children. Effie is the wife of Curtis Olsen, a pharmacist of St. Joseph, Missouri.
Mr. Brown is a democrat and is much interested in everything relating to the public welfare. He belongs to Holiness church, but he and his wife attend the Methodist Episcopal church at Lamoni and take an active interest in its work.
OLIVER W. FOXWORTHY, M. D.
Dr. Oliver W. Foxworthy, a prominent and able representative of the medical profession in Decatur county, Iowa, has been con- tinuously engaged in practice at Leon for the past thirteen years. His birth occurred in Mercer county, Missouri, on the 8th of Feb- ruary, 1855. His father, Mason Foxworthy, was a native of Ken- tucky and removed with his parents to Indiana when a youth of about ten years. Subsequently, in 1854, he took up his abode among the pioneer settlers of Mercer county, Missouri, and in 1860 came to Decatur county, Iowa. In 1871 he located at Lineville, Iowa, and there spent the remainder of his life, passing away on the 8th of Jan- uary, 1902, when eighty-one years of age. His wife still survives
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
at the age of eighty-eight and is well known and highly esteemed throughout the communities in which she has resided. To them were born nine children, as follows: Mary F .; Jane, who died at the age of six years; Amanda, who passed away when four years old; Oliver W., of this review; Victor E .; Louella, the wife of A. L. Lesan; William, who died when a lad of six years; Rosa, who passed away at the age of twenty-one; and Nelly, who gave her hand in marriage to A. E. Jordan.
Oliver W. Foxworthy, who was but five years of age when his parents established their home in this county, acquired his education in the graded and high schools of Lineville, Wayne county, and sub- sequently followed the profession of teaching for three years. He then entered the State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri, and was graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1881. Having determined upon a professional career, he began reading medicine under the direction of Dr. E. Glenden- ning, of Lineville, Iowa, and later entered the Physicians and Sur- geons Medical College of Keokuk, Iowa, from which he was grad- uated on the 26th of February, 1884. On the 1st of April following he began practice at Weldon, Decatur county, Iowa, and in 1892 pursued a post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic College, while subsequently, in 1902, he did post-graduate work in the Chi- cago Post-Graduate Medical College of Chicago. In 1902 he located at Leon, Iowa, and has here remained continuously since, enjoying a large and lucrative practice. With the steady progress of the profession he keeps in close touch through his membership in the Decatur County Medical Society, the Southwestern Medical Asso- ciation, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Med- ical Association, and for five years he served as councilor for the eighth congressional district of the Iowa State Medical Society. The Doctor is a man of large means and owns several farms which he leases and which return to him a handsome income.
On the 13th of April, 1879, Dr. Foxworthy was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Elizabeth Willis. Her father was a native of Hanover county, Virginia, and an agriculturist by occupation. Dr. and Mrs. Foxworthy have one daughter, Ollie Elizabeth, who is a graduate of the Leon high school and now attends Drake University.
Dr. Foxworthy gives his political allegiance to the republican party and is an active worker in its ranks, having several times served as a delegate to the state and other conventions of the party. For four years he acted as chairman of the republican county central committee of Decatur county, and he has made a number of cam-
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
paign speeches, especially in opposition to the liquor traffic. For several years he has served as a member of the school board, acting as its president for one year, and for several years he also held the office of trustee of Franklin township. From 1912 until 1914 he served as mayor of Leon, Iowa, giving to the town a most public- spirited and beneficial administration, characterized by many meas- ures of reform and improvement. In fraternal circles he is promi- nently known as a Mason, having passed the chairs in the blue lodge and been a representative thereof to the grand lodge and having served as treasurer of Tripolis Commandery No. 60, K. T., for many years. He is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Knights of Pythias. Through professional, public and fraternal connections Dr. Foxworthy has become so widely and favorably known that his record cannot fail to prove of interest to the great majority of our readers.
WALTER G. BADHAM.
Walter G. Badham, of Lamoni, Decatur county, is engaged in the real-estate, bond and insurance business, maintaining his office in the Farmers State Bank building, and is extensively interested in stock-raising in connection with his brother. A native of Henderson, Iowa, he was born on the 4th of August, 1892, of the marriage of A. and Melvina J. (Peck) Badham. The paternal grandfather, Samuel Badham, emigrated from England to the United States and made his way to Mills county, Iowa, where he became a pioneer settler. He was very successful as a farmer and was prominent in his community. During the Mexican war he served in the United States army and proved a valiant soldier. His son, A. Badham, . was born in Mills county, Iowa, and spent his entire life upon the homestead, where he passed away in the fall of 1909, at the age of fifty-six years. His widow, who is now fifty-nine years old, is resid- ing with her son in Lamoni. Her parents, who were ardent members of the colony of Latter Day Saints at Nauvoo, accompanied their coreligionists on their removal to Utah and there her father passed away. In 1868 her mother returned to Iowa and later affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. Mrs. Badham was about twelve years of age when she removed from Utah to Mills county, Iowa, in 1868, and she resided at Glenwood until her mar- riage. Our subject has four sisters who have passed away and two
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
sisters and a brother living, namely: M. V., who is engaged in stock- raising in Fayette township in partnership with our subject; Mrs. Joseph Roberts, of Lamoni; and Mrs. H. S. Gamet, of Woodbine, Iowa.
Walter G. Badham was reared in Mills county, Iowa, but in 1908, when sixteen years of age, entered Graceland College at Lamoni, Decatur county, having previously graduated from high school in Mills county. After completing his education he turned his attention to the real-estate, bond and insurance business, in which he has been engaged for the last three years. He deals chiefly in local real estate and general insurance, and as he keeps well informed as to the property on the market and represents insurance companies of high standing, he is doing a good business. He is engaged in the stock business in connection with his brother, M. V. Badham, and they ship many cattle annually.
On the Ist of June, 1913, Mr. Badham married Miss Lois Eliza- beth Smith, a daughter of Heman C. and Vida Smith, further men- tion of whom is made elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Badham was born a son, Robert George, whose birth occurred on the 20th of March, 1914. The demise of the wife and mother occurred on the 27th of March, 1914, and her passing was sincerely regretted by all who knew her.
Mr. Badham is a republican and is stalwart in his defense of the principles of that party. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Lamoni and his religious faith is that of the Reorgan- ized Church of Latter Day Saints, of which his wife was also a member. Mr. Badham is one of the youngest business men of Lamoni and is also one of the most energetic and most successful, and is held in high esteem by those who are brought into contact with him by business dealings or social relations.
JAMES F. HARVEY.
James F. Harvey, a well known attorney and vice president of the Farmers & Traders Bank of Leon, is a native son of that city, born on the Ist of June, 1877, of the marriage of the late John W. and Emma E. (Eaton) Harvey. A sketch of the father, who was a prominent attorney, judge and banker of Decatur county, occurs elsewhere in this work.
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
James F. Harvey was educated in the public and high schools of Leon, the Northwestern Military Academy and the State Univer- sity of Iowa, graduating from the law department of the last named institution with the class of 1901. In that year he was admitted to the bar and formed a partnership with his father in the practice of law under the name of John W. Harvey & Son. Since his father's demise he has been alone in practice. He is also connected with financial interests, as he is vice president of the Farmers & Traders Bank and takes an active part in the management of the institution. His interests also connect him with other enterprises in the county and he is a stockholder in the Decatur County Journal. In 1910 he was elected mayor of Leon and for two years served in that office, doing much in that time for the improvement of the streets and sewers of his city.
In 1908 Mr. Harvey married Miss Josephine Slattery, a daugh- ter of Mrs. Margaret Slattery, of Chicago, and to this union have been born three children, Florence, Helen and John W.
Mr. Harvey gives his political adherence to the republican party, in the soundness of whose principles he believes. A prominent mem- ber of the Masonic order, he has been master of his lodge and he is also a Knight Templar Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. The Leon Commercial Club counts him among its enthusiastic mem- bers, he being president of that organization at the present time, and he is in hearty sympathy with its aims and purpose, believing that the commercial and business expansion of Leon should be promoted in every way possible. Mr. Harvey is also a member of the Beta Theta Pi, a well known college fraternity. Like his father before him, he is a conspicuous figure in the life of his city and is carrying on the family tradition of public-spirited devotion to the general good and of efficient and conscientious performance of duty.
HEMAN C. SMITH.
Heman C. Smith, author, minister, editor and lecturer, was born in Gillespie county, Texas, at what was then the town of Zodiac, September 27, 1850. His father, Spencer Smith, son of Heman and Clarissa (Goodale) Smith, was born in Tioga county, New York, December 14, 1817. His mother was Anna Christiana Wight, daughter of Colonel Lyman and Harriet (Benton) Wight. She
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
was also a native of New York, born at Centerville, Allegany county, September 30, 1825.
Although born in the south, Mr. Smith was a thorough New Englander in ancestry, tracing his descent from over thirty families who landed on Puritan soil in the first twenty-five years of settlement. These men were among the founders of Plymouth, Boston, Water- town, Salem, Dorchester, Ipswich, Dedham, Medfield, Eastham, Hingham, Newbury, Roxbury, Amesbury, Northampton and Deer- field in Massachusetts; of Windsor, Wethersfield, Guilford, New Haven and Woodstock of Connecticut.
Among the most prominent were Stephen Hopkins, one of the Mayflower Pilgrims and signer of the first compact of free govern- ment in the history of America; John Chedsey, deacon of the first church in New Haven and a signer of the Connecticut state consti- tution of 1643, the first written constitution in our history; and Wil- liam Phelps, an organizer of Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, the first town in America to have an organized government, also a founder of Windsor, Connecticut, in 1635 and for a long time its chief magistrate.
That branch of the numberless Smiths to which Heman C. be- longs had its American beginning with Ralph Smith, who came to Plymouth in 1633 from Hingham, England, and settled finally in Eastham in Cape Cod, where his son, Samuel, died in 1696, his grand- son, John, in 1734, and his great-grandson, Samuel, about 1760. The family intermarried with the families of Hopkins, Deane and Snow.
The son of Samuel Smith, Heman, was born at Eastham in 1741, emigrated to Berkshire Hills and settled at Sandisfield, Massa- chusetts, before the Revolution. He was captain of a company of the first Berkshire county regiment in the war and in 1793 helped found the town of Berkshire in Tioga county, New York, where he died in 1833. His son, Heman, married Clarissa, daughter of Isaac Goodale, another Revolutionary soldier. They were the grandparents of Heman C.
Upon his mother's side, Mr. Smith was descended from Thomas Wight, who came to Watertown, Massachusetts, before 1635, de- scended from a family of knights with holdings in Surrey, England, since the twelfth century. Thomas Wight helped found Dedham and Medfield and was one of the original donors of "Indian corns for ye building of ye new brick college at Cambridge's in 1636." He died at Medfield in 1673. His son, Ephraim Wight, died at the same place in 1722, his grandson Nathaniel moved to Killingly, Con- necticut, about 1725. Nathaniel's son, Levi Wight (1712-1797),
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
died at Oxford, Connecticut, and his grandson, also Levi Wight, born in 1761, moved about 1794 to Herkimer county, New York, and died in Allegany county, New York, in 1830. The son of this Levi Wight was Lyman Wight, born in 1796 at Fairfield, New York. He served in the War of 1812 at Sacket Harbor and Lundys Lane. He joined the Latter Day Saints church in Ohio and affiliated with that church in Ohio, Missouri, and Nauvoo, Illinois. In Missouri, in 1838, he was commissioned captain of militia by Governor Boggs and fought vigorously to prevent the Missouri mob from seizing his land and that of his fellow believers. He was made an apostle in the church in 1841 and after the death of Joseph Smith, in 1844, he re- fused to recognize the claims of Brigham Young and led a small band of settlers into Texas in 1845. Here his grandson, Heman C. Smith, was born. He lived with his parents in the counties of Gil- lespie, Burnett, Llano and Bandera, Texas, until the spring of 1858, when his father, discerning the probability of war between the states and preferring to be on the northern side of the line, moved north- ward by team, making a temporary home in the Cherokee country of Indian Territory until the autumn of 1860, when he moved into Jasper county, Missouri, and engaged in the milling business. Warned again by the spirit of approaching hostilities, he started northward in the spring of 1861 as soon as grass was sufficiently large to support his team and other stock. This time he got well within the northern lines, making his first permanent stop on the Boyer river in Crawford county, Iowa, just opposite where the town of Arion is now located.
After a few years in Crawford county, residing at different points, the family removed to Shelby county, where they resided at Gallands Grove in Grove township until Heman arrived at his ma- jority. There being a large family to support and his father being a man of limited means, he was obliged to labor on the farm during the summer months, but he improved the winter months in attend- ing the common schools and was always at the head of his classes, especially in mathematics and history.
At the age of twelve years he became a member of the Reorgan- ized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and very early in life became an earnest advocate of the faith promulgated by this church, in the days of Joseph Smith, and an uncompromising oppo- nent of polygamy and kindred ideas introduced by Brigham Young and associates.
He entered the ministry in the spring of 1874 and was occupied constantly in the missionary field until 1909, when he was released to
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
serve more exclusively in his position as general historian of the church, to which he had been elected in 1897.
During his missionary work he traveled extensively throughout the United States and the British Isles, always ranking among the leading preachers of his faith. Since devoting himself to historic work he has gained considerable prominence among men of that class. He is now, in addition to being the authorized historian of the church of his choice, a member of the Mississippi Valley Historical Society, the Iowa State Historical Society, the Nebraska State Historical Society, the Topsfield Historical Society, of Topsfield, Massa- chusetts, the American Church Historical Society, with headquarters at New York city, the National Geographical Society and secretary of the Decatur County (Iowa) Historical Society. He is also editor of the Journal of History, published at Lamoni, Iowa, by the reor- ganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; president of the board of trustees of Saints Children's Home of Lamoni, Iowa; fellow of American and Church History of Graceland College, Iowa, as well as serving on several boards and committees in church work.
Mr. Smith is the author of the authorized history of the Latter Day Saint church, in four volumes; "The Truth Defended," "True Succession in Church Presidency," as also many pamphlets and tracts, besides numerous articles for church and historical magazines.
He was married, June 2, 1886, at Independence, Missouri, to Miss Vida Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Alexander Hale and Elizabeth (Kendall) Smith and granddaughter of Joseph Smith, the "Mor- mon" prophet. Mrs. Smith has been a sympathetic, able associate of her husband in all his activities. She is the author of the "Young Peoples History of the Church" and an author and poet of extraor- dinary ability, her songs being favorites in the Sunday-school serv- ices of her church.
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