History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States, Part 100

Author: National Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, National Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States > Part 100

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Mr. and Mrs. Warren are the parents of twelve children-Charles H., a resi- dent of Pender, Neb .; Frederick W. died August 19, 1861, his being the first death in the township; Mary E., wife of Lewis King, a resident of Woodbury County ; Ada L., at home; Louis H., a resident of Dunlap; Arthur L., at home; Pearl G., Edward R., Rose L., Gilbert S., Bertha L. and Harriet B. The last six are all living at home, besides the others already named.

Mr. Warren is a man who has won the admiration of a large circle of friends by his manly, upright and honest course in life.

OHN T. BOONE, a farmer living on section 34, of Allen Township, ac- companied by his parents to Harri- son County in the autumn of 1856. They first settled on the Willow, in Boyer Township. His father bought one hun- dred and twenty acres of wild land, pay- ing the sum of $1.25 per acre. One year after they came his father died

and his mother sold the place, and took the family and went back to Indiana, and remained there two years and then returned to Iowa, and settled on the Wil . low, where they rented land, for about ten years. When our subject was old to work out and support the family, he did so. A part of the time he worked by the month, and at other times rented land. When twenty years of age, he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land, paying $6.25 per acre, having to go in debt for a greater portion of it. He built a house 14x16 feet, with an addition 12x14 feet ; dug a well, built stables, etc., and here remained about two years, when he sold his farm for $1,200, receiving eighty acres of land near Woodbine as part payment. He sold this place without making any improvements, after which he rented one year, and then bought eighty acres of partly improved land, in Magnolia Town- ship, where he build a small house in ad- dition to the one already on the place. He remained there twelve years, and then sold the place, and bought the place he now lives on, which was partly improved at the time.

He was born in Indiana in 1850, the son of Robert E. and Elizabeth Boone, natives of Kentucky and Indiana respec- tively, and they were the parents of eight children, of whom our subject was the seventh-Ann M., deceased; Jane, de- ceased; Amanda A., Emaline, deceased ; Samuel, Nancy, John T., and Laura L.

Our subject was married October 5, 1875, to Luella O'Banion, daughter of James H. and Flora I. O'Banion, who were natives of Missouri, and who reared a family of four children, three of whom are still living-Isabel, James A, and Luella.

Mr. and Mrs. Boone are the parents of

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three children born as follows-Myrtle H., deceased, born October 12, 1877; Del- pha E., December 16, 1882, and Margaret E., March 20, 1891.

Mr. and Mrs. Boone and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church located on the Willow River.

HOMAS CHAPMAN, whose resi- dence is on the south line of section 33. of Cass Township, has been a resident of the county since. 1865, when he settled on his present place, consisting of a fractional quarter section. He is a native of England, born September 23, 1825, in Wiltshire. and is a son of William and Mary (Green) Chapman, and was the fourth child of a family of ten children. His father was a farmer, and died in Eng- land. Two years after his father's death his mother came to America, and died in Harrison County. When our subject was sixteen years old, in England, he com- menced working at shoemaking, which he followed most of the time until he came to America, as well as one year afterwards. It was during the month of January that he bid farewell to his native land and sailed for America, landing at New Orleans, and from thence by boat up to Council Bluffs, and during the year 1851 purchased the farm in Boomer Township, Pottawattamie County. But like so many others at that date, he saw visions of golden wealth and prosperity, and in 1852 started for Salt Lake, crossing the plains with ox-teams. He remained in that country twelve years. just prior to his settlement in Harrison County. In the fall of 1851 he had assisted in surveying a part of the section lines in Harrison County.

November 20, 1847, he was united in marriage with Amelia Willis, in England. She died in Salt Lake April 9, 1856, and in 1857 he was married to Mrs. Deborah J. Blair, daughter of James and Rebecca (Hall) Bushnell, a native of England, born October 11, 1819. She was the youngest of a family of four children, and was mar- ried in the land of her birth January 2, 1841, to David Blair, who was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, May 5, 1810, and was the son of John and Jane Blair, who came to America in November, 1856, landing in Boston, and from there he took up his journey to Utah, coming in cattle cars to Iowa City, being under the supervision of Daniel Taylor and Edwin Martin, mission- aries of Brigham Young. From Iowa City to Salt Lake City the long march was made by the Mormons, to which sect tliis family belonged, by means of hand- carts heavily laden with their household effects, books, keep-sakes, and trinkets. Nearly the entire way across what was then known as the Great American Desert this little band, our subject's wife, hus- band and three children, which had been driven by persecution from the Mississippi States, were obliged to subsist on a pint of flour per day and it will be remem- bered that this was in the winter. Short- ly after leaving Laramie the snow was deep, and in many places they were com- pelled to wade through it waist deep, as the oxen gave out.

Mr. Blair, Mrs. Chapman's first husband, who necessarily enters largely into this sketch, while in England and a subject of the Queen, was one of the Royal Guards. He was six feet and three inches high, and served in the capacity of one of the Royal House Queen's Body Guards, and Mrs. Chapman now possesses a regimental coat he wore, and a sword which was pre-

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HARRISON COUNTY.

sented to him by his Colonel. While crossing the plains this man fell a victim to starvation, as did one of the children, and died at Rocky Ridge. When the party reached Independent Rock they were compelled to halt for nine days on account of a snow blockade, until tesms reached them from Salt Lake, bringing provisions and some clothing, allowing them to leave their hand-carts and ride the remainder of their journey. Like great military campaigns of the Civil War, the hardships endured, the sacrifices made and the lives lost, can never be fully de- scribed or thoroughly understood by any one who did not march through the enemy's land. The survivors of the late war, and those who withstood the torture of an Andersonville or a Libby Prison can in a measure enter into the spirit of the suffering entailed by that terrible conflict. So it is with the exodus of the Mormon people, from winter. quarters, near the present site of Omaha, across the desert land of Nebraska and Colorado, at a time when they were hundreds of miles from any other human creatures than the sav- age tribes of Indians, and fortunate indeed were the many thousands of their number who became "Apostates" this side of the Missouri River and withdrew from that people on account of polygamy ; for while they sought out homes on the eastern shore of the Missouri River, in many of the southwestern counties, in Iowa as well as in Missouri, and endured the hard- ships co-incident with frontier life, yet they escaped the religious imprisonment and disgrace of those who became Brigham Young's followers in the far West.

While it is true that the Mormon Mis- sionaries, who were sent to England, preached good sermons, and taught re- ligious and moral doctrines, it was only

for an object, as the sequel proved that many of their followers were but slaves to the leaders who advocated polygamy.

Our subject and his wife are members of the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Politically, Mr. Chapman is a supporter of the Democratic party, and stands high in the community in which he lives.

Mr. Chapman adopted two boys in Salt Lake City-George P. and Charles G. Dykes. The former was nine and the latter four years of age, and were mother- less. George P. remained with the Chap- man family until twenty years of age; and Charles until twenty-two years, when he married. He now resides in Muscatine County, Iowa, and has eighty acres of land. They were both cared for and treated as their own children.

OHN T. BURCH, a farmer located on section 24, of Allen Township, came to Harrison County in the spring of 1876, and first located on the Willow, in Lincoln Township. He was a poor man at the time he came to the county, and rented land the first year, and then bought the farm he now occupies, which consisted of two hundred acres of wild land. He subdued this land and made the necessary improvements, in- cluding house, barn, granary, stables and outbuildings. Eighty - five acres of his land are under the plow, while the remain- der is pasture and meadow land. With the exception of one year, he has been quite successful; that being the grasshop- per year, when all of his small grain was destroyed.

Our subject was born in Loudoun

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County, Va., the son of Mr. and Mrs. James Burch, natives of Virginia and Penn- sylvania, who had five children-Emma, John, James, William and Grafton. Three of these children are living; two residing in Iowa. Mr. Burch lived in Virginia with his parents until seventeen years of age, when they moved to Missouri, where the father leased land, and remained until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when on account of the Bushwhackers, he was compelled to leave Missouri, and went to Nebraska, where he farmed for ten years, and then moved to Harrison County, Iowa.

He was married in November 1869, to Eliza Dale, daughter of John and Cyn- thia Dale, natives of Missouri, who had six children-William, Eliza, Catherine, John, Elias, Benjamin, Josephine.

Mr. and Mrs. Burch, are the parents of the following children, born in the order here given-Charles (deceased), October 18, 1870; Barbara, September 4, 1872; John (deceased), February 5, 1874; James (deceased), October 12, 1876; Frederick, September 29, 1879.

In his political belief Mr. Burch is a Democrat.

HOMAS DUHIG, a representative citizen and farmer of section 13, Clay Township, came to Harrison County, in April, 1854, and engaged at work in a saw mill with Thomas Dennis, with whom he remained three years. At the end of which time, he entered two hundred acres of land on section 13, upon which J. Motz now lives. He built a log cabin 16x20 feet, in which he lived for

two years, and then sold to Mr. Motz, and purchased the farm he now occupies, or at least one hundred and twenty acres of it. The improvements upon the place consisted of a small log house and forty acres of plow land. The original log house served as a residence until the autumn of 1889, when he completed his present residence, which is a frame

structure 16x26 feet. It is a two-story building with an ell. In 1876, he built a barn forty feet square .. His farm now consists of two hundred acres, one hundred and forty being under cultivation, while the balance is in pasture and meadow land. He usually keeps about forty head of cattle, and feeds a carload of steers each winter. Upon coming to this county, there were but four families in what is now Clay Township, and Council Bluffs was their nearest trading point. Mr. Dennis, the man above referred to, who operated a saw mill in which our subject worked, employed from sixteen to twenty men, and during the three years Mr. Duhig was with him, he had in his employ two hundred different men. Mr. Dennis kept a wood yard on the river and furnished wood for the steam boats on the Missouri.

Our subject was born in 1830, in the County of Limerick, Ireland. He is a son of David and Henora (O'Brien) Duhig. When our subject was fourteen years of age, his father died, and in 1846, he came with his mother and two brothers to America and located in Kentucky, where he worked on a farm by the month. In 1852 the mother and our subject started North, remained a while in Missouri and Illinois, arriving here in 1854.

August 29, 1859, he was united in marriage with Miss Ann Esley, and they are the parents of six children: Mary,

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HARRISON COUNTY.

and Henora, deceased; David, Ella, Ellen and Thomas.

Ann (Esley) Duhig was born in Ohio, and accompanied her parents to Harrison county, and remained at home until the date of her marriage.

Politically, Mr. Duhig is identified with the Republican party. In religious matters he and his family are believers in the Roman Catholic faith, and belong to the Modale Catholic Church.

LONZO BEEBE, a farmer of sections 30, 31 and 32, of Taylor Township, came to Harrison

County, in the spring of 1868, and settled where the village of Modale now stands. He had bought eighty acres there some time previous to this. He improved the place and sold off twelve acres for town lot purposes. The remain- der of that forty he sold to Job Ross. In 1883 he bought the farm he now lives upon, which is a one hundred and twenty-acre improved tract, having a good farm house, and a substantial barn 30x50 feet. He also has forty acres of timber land in Clay Township.

Mr. Beebe was born in Ludlow, Hamp- den County, Mass., June 2, 1818; the son of Abner L., and Dolly (Miller) Beebe. He remained at home until eighteen years of age. At the age of twelve he went to work in a cotton factory in Jinksville, remaining at that employment for six years, and then went to the village of Ware, where he became a boss weaver. He followed this for two years at that point, and then went to Barre, Mass., and took charge of the weaving depart- ment of a large factory, and remained at

that business for twenty-four years, be- coming an adept at that business. In 1857 he went to Blue Earth City, Minn., entered land, improved it, remained three years and then went back to Massachusetts, and resumed his work in the factory, re- maining ten years, at the end of which time he came to this county.

In 1838 he was united in marriage with Miss Lucretia Kimball, whose home was in Massachusetts. By this union, eight children were born, three of whom are living -- Adelaide, Mary, and Edward E. Our subject was again married at Strat- ford, Conn., July 29, 1864, to Miss Hannah J. Worthington, and by this marriage union five children were born : Jenette, (de- ceased), Albert, Chester, Arthur and Dolly. The mother of these children was born in Stratford, Conn., where she remained until the date of her marriage.

Politically, our subject is a Republican. In religious matters both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

W ILLIAM T. ARTHUR, a farmer living on section 26, Jackson Town- ship, is a native of Harrison Coun- ty, born in St. John's Township, April 24, 1862. For a detailed history of his father's family see sketch of William Ar- thur elsewhere in this work.

When about two years of age our subject came with his parents to Jackson Town- ship, having lived for a time in Jasper County, Iowa. He attended school at Shenandoah, Page County, Iowa, gradu- ating with the Class of '85. He was mar- ried March 16, 1887, to Ida M. Clark, the daughter of John and Christena Clark.

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HARRISON COUNTY.

Her father died when she was four months old, and subsequently her mother married S. C. Bartholomew. By this marriage union one child has been born: Charles L., born December 30, 1887. Our subject is a member of the Farmers' Alliance, and he and his wife are acceptable members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

They were both graduates of the Shen- andoah College, and worked their own way through that institution by teaching.

In the autumn of 1886 he purchased the farm he now resides upon, which consisted of three hundred and sixty acres of partly improved land, the whole enclosed with a good fence. Among the substantial im- provements of this man's place, may be mentioned a well which is one hundred and sixteen feet, over which has been erected a nicely adjusted wind mill.

Our subject is a young enterprising far- mer, and both he and his estimable com- panion's liberal educations are almost sure to crown their agricultural pursuits with success.

B ENAIAH S. MILES, a farmer liv- ing on section 14, Jackson Town- ship, came to Harrison County in the autumn of 1866, and first located on the farm now occupied by William Ar- thur. He moved into a small log house and rented land adjoining and remained eight months. He came to the country in company with his parents. About that time he bought the farm he now occupies, which consisted of one hundred and twenty acres of wild land, and upon it erected a small log house, which stood partly in the bank or hill side. Here he remained for four years, and then built a story and a half frame house, 22x30 feet, with a wing 14x20 feet. He also built a good barn,

double cribs and granary, dug a well, and erected a wind mill. He also set out shade trees, and fenced this farm. He now has seventy acres under the plow, while the balance is in meadow and pasture land. He came to the county poor, and saw his share of hardships during the grasshopper days.

Our subject was born October 7, 1855, in Caledonia County, Vt. He is a son of Joseph G., and Nancy M. Miles, natives of the Green Mountain State, who had a family of five children : Benaiah S., de- ceased; Horatio, deceased; Anna M., Alanson E., deceased; Benaiah S., Jr.

Our subject remained in Vermont until he was ten years of age, when the family came to Harrison County. They came by way of a "prairie schooner" (covered wagon) from Chicago, and camped out by the way, in good old emigrant style.

Our subject was married in June, 1877, to Elizabeth Griffith, the daughter of David and Nancy Griffith, natives of Mis- souri, who had five children, our subject's wife being the youngest. Their names were as follows: Samantha, Melinda, Sarah, Alvira and Elizabeth.

For his second wife our subject married November 6, 1890, Myrtle Linderman, the daughter of Theodore V. and Ellen Lin- derman, natives of Ohio, who had a family of eleven children : Mary, Myrtle, William, Walter, Maude, Myra, Menona, deceased ; Dora, deceased; Mary, Estella, and Thad, deceased.

Our subject and his wife are the parents of five children: Oliver W., Nellie, de- ceased; Minnie, Joseph and Katie.

Mr. Miles, politically, is not altogether in harmony with either of the two great political parties, but at the present time affiliates with the Farmers' Alliance ele- ment.

JOSIAH COE.

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HARRISON COUNTY.

OSIAH COE, the man whose name heads this sketch, has passed through the mill of pioneer hardships in Har- rison County, coming to this sec- ·tion as he did, during the month of April, 1854. He in company with a young man by the name of Cyrus Whitmore, followed the old Mormon trail from Keokuk on foot to Council Bluffs, and was twelve days on the road. The first summer after his ar- rival here he worked on a farm in Boyer Township, for a Mr. Phillips, and in the fall of 1854 he went to Crawford County, where he bought a claim, land not having yet come into market, but the following year, with a party of twelve persons, he went to the Council Bluffs land office, to enter his land at the Government price of $1.25 per acre; the party got together and gave the speculators to understand, that if they wanted to be baptized beneath the clay-colored waters of the Missouri River, to just overbid them on these lands, which they never did. Mr. Coe never lived on that tract of land, but traded in 1856 for an sixty-acre farm in Boyer Town- ship, at what is known as Twelve-Mile Grove. This farm was taken in exchange for two hundred acresin Crawford County. Our subject was a bachelor at the time and boarded with Mathew Hall, who was a near neighbor.

In 1856 he pre empted a quarter-section where he now lives, and by breaking prai- rie and laying a foundation for a house, which was then called bona fide improve- ments, he was enabled to hold his claim one year, and in 1857 he paid the Govern- ment price for the land.

Early in the spring of 1855 Mr. Coe and John Moorhead went to Nebraska with five yoke of cattle and broke one hundred acres of land between Omaha and Flor- ence, at $1 per acre, and returned to Har-

rison County in time for harvest. He only had five acres of wheat, which a neighbor, Luke Jefferson, cut with a cradle, while he bound it up himself. The same year he entered another forty acres of land ad- joining other tract.

To inform the reader of the birth and early years of the man for whom this sketch is written, it may be. said that he was born March 4, 1830, in Athens County, Ohio, where he remained under the parental roof until twenty-four years of age and then came to Iowa. He is the son of James Coe, born .in Connecticut during the first year of this century, and when ten years of age with his parents emigrated to the Buckeye State, his father building the first mill in Athens County. James Coe's wife, the mother of our subject, was Katherine (Hurlburt) Coe, married in 1823, and was the mother of ten children, our subject being the fifth child.

Josiah Coe was married March 20, 1865, to Miss Jessie Kinnis, at Plattsmouth, Neb., and by this union there are eight children-Jennie E., Katie M., Bertha, George W., Mary, Arthur J., Jessie S., and Amy. The last named died March 31, 1891. George and Bertha are now at- tending college at Des Moines. Jennie and Kate have both attended the Drake University, at Des Moines; the former marrying Charles F. Coe March 3, 1891.

Concerning the family history of our subject's wife, she was born in Scotland in the town of Perth, June 14, 1843, and in 1854 emigrated with her parents to America, remaining in New York City until 1859, when the family came to Har- rison County. Her father was Andrew Kinnis, Sr., a native of Scotland and born January 1, 1785, and died in Harrison County February 4, 1864. The mother

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HARRISON COUNTY.

was born June 8, 1798, in the Highlands of Scotland, at Dalquise and died in Har- rison County January 22, 1884. They were the parents of seven children, Mrs. Coe being the youngest. .

In May, 1884, Mrs. Coe with her brother, D. M. Kinnis, sailed for the land of her birth and visited until September. Mr. and Mrs. Coe are members of the Christian Church, the latter having been reared in the Baptist Church, but finding no such denomination here, attached herself to the Christian Church in New York, which faith she still holds, her husband having been a member of this church eight years.

Politically our subject is a stanch sup- porter of the Republican party.

Mr. Coe helped select the swamp land of Harrison County from Logan to the south line of the county. George White was a surveyor in charge and the party consisted of that gentleman, Mr. Coe, Smith Blakely, and George Smothers. This work was executed in the winter of 1854-55, and they camped in the timber which skirts the Boyer River.

The first improvements on Mr. Coe's place was the building of a log cabin which was 16x20 feet and was erected in 1858; this building was originally built by L. D. Butler on the Picayune Creek and still stands on Coe's farmn, a good build- ing ; the same was occupied by the family until he built his present residence, which is a two-story brick house, the main part of which is 30x36 feet with a kitchen 14x16 feet, erected in 1870 and at the time was said to be the best house in the county. Beneath this farmhouse is a cellar nine feet deep, with a wall sixteen inches thick. The total cost of this building was $4,000.

Having due care for the large number of stock he keeps, in 1369 he built a barn

30x40 feet and in 1882 erected a cow barn 20x24 feet. Prior to this he had the ordi- nary Iowa hay and straw shedding.

While the years have been passing by, this man has been busily engaged in the honest efforts to accumulate property, and when one views his present landed estate, comprising something over thirteen hun- dred acres, and realizes that he is Presi- dent of the Commercial Bank at Wood . bine, over which he has presided ever since it was organized in September, 1884, it will go without saying that his efforts have been crowned with success.

AMES A. COFFMAN, residing on section 33, Jackson Township, came to Harrison County in the autumn of 1866, accompanying his parents. At first they rented land in Raglan Town- ship. They continued to rent for ten years, when his father bought forty acres of land, which he broke up and built a small frame house on. James A. re- mained at home until twenty years of age, and the four years following that time, he rented land himself and then bought eighty-five acres of partly im- proved land on the Soldier River, in Jackson Township. Two years later he sold this land and purchased his present place, which was partly improved at the time. He was born in Appanoose County, Iowa, June 19, 1861, and is the son of Pleasant B. and Margaret Coffman, na- tives of Tennessee, who had seven chil- dren-George W., James A., Dorthula J. (deceased), William P., Dora J., Alice E., and Reuben W. (deceased).

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History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States, Part 100

Author: National Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, National Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1150

Author: National Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, National Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1150