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 32
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After leaving Castle Garden, New York, our subject came direct to Honey Creek, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and for two years worked as a track hand on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, after which he commenced to farm on rented land until he came to Harrison County.
When twenty-one years of age Mr. Fitzgibbon was married to Mary Collins, in the county of Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of Thomas and Johan- nah (Murphy) Collins, who came to America several years before our subject and his wife.
Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgibbon are the parents of seven children, James J., Michael J., Johanna C., Minnie, Henry, Margaret and Elizabeth, all living and at home. The family are members of the
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Roman Catholic Church, and he affiliates with the Democratic party, but votes for the man and not for the party.
He is educating his children in the dis- trict schools of Harrison County, which are scarcely excelled in Iowa. Hard work and careful management, by a man who came to our shores from Ireland, and who is now in possession of a valuable and pleasant home, bespeaks well for our Governmental institutions, and no one appreciates the condition of affairs here more than our subject and his wife, who came to this country with three children, but did not have money enough to buy a cook stove.
OHN LAFFERTY, a resident of section 28, Union Township, came to Harrison County, in company with his father, John Lafferty, Sr., and family in the spring of 1882, when they commenced to develop a tract of wild land, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, for which $10 per acre was paid. During the first year they turned one hundred and twenty-five acres of virgin sod over, and commenced the erection of a house 18x28 feet with a wing 16x20 feet, the same being provided with a porch on the west and east. The following year an orchard of four hundred apple trees, together with numerous shade trees was planted.
Subsequently Mr. Lafferty purchased eighty acres more land, at $16 per acre, and his estate has now bought one hun- dred and sixty acres more, for which they paid $14 per acre.
The subject of this sketch, John Laff- erty, Jr., was born in Philadelphia, Pa.,
July 29, 1855, and is the son of John and Ann Lafferty, natives of Ireland, by whom eleven children were born-James, Anna, deceased ; Lizzie, Jolın Jr., William, Pat- rick, Kate, Daniel, Eunice, Hugh and Mary.
John Lafferty, the father of our subject, who possessed many excellent traits of character, died in March, 1889, and his good wife in the month of June, 1888. After the death of the father, the farm, which was left to the heirs was to be equally divided, but since that time John, Daniel and Hugh, have purchased the rights of the other heirs, and these three now hold the property.
The father and mother, together with the entire family, were members of the Roman Catholic Church, and since the deatlı of the parents, the oldest son, James, has gone to Pittsburg, Pa., where he has joined the Order of the Holy Ghost, and his sisters, Mary and Eunice, have gone to Ottumwa, Iowa, to become Sis- ters of Humility. Politically, our subject believes in the general principles of the Democratic party.
Mr. Lafferty, together with the other members of his father's family, are intel- ligent, enterprising farmers, who appre- ciate, to a good degree, the benefits ar- rising from our form of government, and their home farin displays many evidences of order, thrift and good management.
G EORGE N. FRAZIER, of Calhoun Township, was born in Putnam County, Ind., in March, 1847, and is a son of John and Minerva (Hibbs) Frazier, and is the oldest of a family of eight children. He accompanied his
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parents to Harrison County in March, 1855. His education was received in the district schools of this county, except one term in Indiana. He remained at home until he was twenty-one years of age, and then commenced to work for himself upon land his father gave him, in St. John's Township. He was married November, 1868, to Rachel N. Cox, a native of Put- nam County, the daughter of Isaac W. and Mary A. Cox, who came to Harrison County in 1852, and are now residents of Allen Township.
Our subject and his wife have reared a family of nine children, seven of whom are now living; Clara J., Ada J., Henry N., John I., Ora C., Mary A., Olive D., and two who died in infancy.
H. L. BOUSTEAD. One of Har- rison County's substantial freehold- ers and agriculturists who is a resi- dent of section 1, of Jefferson Town- ship, will form the subject of this sketch.
Mr. Boustead was born in February, 16, 1847, in the County of Northumber- land, England. His parents were John and Isabella (Blain) Boustead. He at- tended the schools at Newcastle upon Tyne, and received a common-school ed- ucation. He accompanied his parents to the American shore in the autumn of 1868, landing in New York harbor October 14, and went from there to Harrison County, locating in Twelve-Mile Grove, Douglas Township, where he worked on a farm for five years.
Mr. Boustead was married February 24, 1873, to Fanny Hall, a native of England, born April 22, 1852, and the daughter of Robert and Frances Hall, who came to
America in 1870. Mr. Boustead rented a farm, four years afterward moved to his present home of one hundred and sixty acres. The farm contains five acres of timber land, and is a good stock and grain farm.
Our subject and his wife have been blessed with three children-William L., born May 11, 1877; Robert H., June 25, 1881; and John W., August 15, 1883.
Their first-born, William, died in Jeffer- son Township, October 20, 1878. Our subject's wife's parents are both deceased ; Frances Hall died September-27, 1883, aged sixty-eight years; Robert Hall died November 3, 1884, aged seventy-five years,
Our subject's parents were born in the County of Cumberland, England. His mother, Isabella (Blain) Boustead, died June 16, 1869, aged seventy-eight years. John Boustead, his father, was born in 1812, and was the fourth child in a family of seven. His parents were Thomas B. and Katherine (Taylor) Boustead. The father died when John was two years old.
Our subject is a member of the Wood- bine Lodge, No. 405, of I. O. O. F. Polit- ically he votes with the Republican party, believing that it best serves the inter- est of the class to which he belongs.
ACOB BLACK, a farmer residing in Jefferson Township, has been a res- ident of Harrison County since Sep- tember, 1882, having lived in the State since 1872. He was born in Arm- strong County, Pa., May 15, 1841, and is the son of David and Anna (Lenhart) Black, both natives of the Keystone
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State. He remained at home with his par- ents until he was twenty-seven years of age, after which he followed coal mining until he came toPowashiek County, Iowa, when he commenced farming, continuing until he came to this county, after which he bought a piece of wild land consisting of one hundred and twenty-three acres, the same being located in Union Town- ship. This he improved and lived upon until March, 1889, when he bought his present place.
He was married in Mohaska County, Iowa, in September, 1872, to Miss Anna Saunders, a native of Ohio, by which union five children were born-Jacob, Frank deceased; Myrtle, Elizabeth and Molly. Mrs. Black died in Harrison County, Iowa, October 4, 1888, and was buried in the Harris Grove cemetery. For his second wife Mr. Black married Mrs. Ursula Mckinney, June 20, 1891.
Politically, our subject votes with the Republican party.
Le EVI F. FRIEND, a representative farmer of section 33, St. John's Township, came to the county in 1882 and purchased his present place of Thurston Manderville, the same contain- ing one hundred acres. It is all fenced and under a high state of cultivation. He follows general farming and raises stock for the market.
Mr. Friend hails from the Hoosier State, was born in Putnam County, Ind., February 15, 1838, and traces his ancestry back to Andrew Friend, his grandfather, who married Miss Hoyt, by which union was born John Friend, the father of our subject. He was born in Bourbon County,
Ky., in 1800. His father and mother both died when he was yet an infant and he was " bound out " to serve an apprentice- ship as a fuller of cloth and came to Indi- ana in 1822, entered land and became a prosperous farmer. January 6, 1830, he married Miss Elizabeth K. Fullen, daugh- ter of John Fullen, of Monroe County, Ind., formerly from Virginia.
By this union eleven children were born, six of whom still survive-Francis in Illi- nois; John A. of Missouri Valley; Levi, of whom we write; Mahala, of Indiana; Mary, of Council Bluffs; Sarah, of Indi- ana; the remainder of the children are deceased. Death of mother March 5, 1861.
Our subject's early life was spent in In- diana where he obtained a common-school education. He assisted on his father's farm until he became of age. He became a member of the Masonic order at that time and served as secretary most of the time until 1865. In February, 1865 he enlisted at Indianapolis as Sergeant in Company E, One Hundred and Forty- eighth Indiana Infantry, and was assigned to the Army of the West. He was on special and detached duty, participating in no regular engagements. He was first sent to Nashville and Pulaski, Tenn., and from there to Columbia, Tenn., where he remained until September 5, 1865, and was discharged at Indianapolis, Ind., the same autumn. He returned to Putnam County, rented his father's farm and in 1868 moved to Douglas County, Ill., where he tilled the soil until 1875, removed to Indiana and remained until the death of his father, April 13, 1879, and then came Harrison County, Iowa.
He was united in marriage November 24, 1857, in Indiana, to Delia, daughter of Burr and Almeda (Benedict) Parrott,
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who were from Connecticut. Mrs. Friend ceased from the toils and cares of this life October 26, 1887, just as autumn was put- ting on her robes of beauty. She left three children-Cinderella, Mrs. Wright, of Pottawattamie County, born Septem- ber 19, 1859; Frank, at home, born No- vember 22, 1864; and Andrew, at home, boan January 1, 1868.
Politically Mr. Friend is identified with the Republican party. His wife a devout member of the Baptist Church.
AMES E. KEMMISH, a resident of section 14, of Union Township, ac- companied his parents to Harrison County, from Council Bluffs, in 1865. He was born at Portsmouth, Eng- land, January 16, 1852, and emigrated with his parents to America January 16, 1855. They landed at New Orleans, took a steamboat up the Missouri River to Keokuk, Iowa, from which point they took their departure from civilized life, and with ox-teams, journeyed toward Salt Lake City, their objective point. Our subject's father was a basketmaker and followed this for a livelihood. At the end of three years they moved to the town of Goshen, ninety miles south of Salt Lake, where he worked at his trade and bought wheat of the Mormons and then selling it to the United States soldiers, (Mormons as a rule, would not sell wheat to be used by the soldiers.) Our subject's father was anx- ious to get out of that country and would have been in that terrible encounter known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre, had he been able to get flour to make the trip with. He remained at Goshen until the spring of 1859, when he managed to es-
cape, by telling the Mormons that lie was going to open up a farm.
The first stop was at Provo Valley, where they halted and did enough cook- ing to last them two weeks ; getting ready for their trip across the plains, which at that time was no pleasure ride, as it was to last about four months. They came by the way of St. Joseph, Mo., to Fremont County, Iowa, where they remained three years, then moved to Mills County, and in the autumn of 1862, to Pottawattamie County, settling five miles east of Coun- cil Bluffs. A year later they moved to Council Bluffs and ran what was known as the "Farmer's Inn." They remained there three months, and then came to Harrison County in 1865.
Our subject considered himself his own man when twenty years of age, but re- mained at home working for his father, until twenty-five, during which time he had accumulated some little property. His father gave him forty acres of land for three years' work, and he in a short time added forty acres more, and has cultivated as high as sixty acres of corn alone, and has not unfrequently harvested as high as fifty bushels of corn per acre.
This man of industry has from time to time added to his possessions, until now he has three hundred acres of highly-im- proved land, two hundred and thirty acres of which he cultivates, while the remain- der is in meadow and pasture land. In order to carry on this extensive farm, Mr. Kemmish usually keeps eighteen head of horses. In speaking of his early farming, he relates how that his first plow was a cast-iron one and never was known to scour a rod, all the time he used it.
In addition to his farm property he owns the Hilburn House at Persia, which was built by C. H. Alle, in 1888.
Jacob TAStern
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HARRISON COUNTY.
Our subject was united in marriage February 25, 1877, to Leona Lyons, a na- tive of Illinois, born October 10, 1860; she is the daughter of Andrew and Matilda (Peckenpaugh) Lyons, and is the oldest of two children. Mr. and Mrs. Kemmish have been blessed with six children: El- dora, and Leona died in infancy, Cora, William J., Fred and Jesse.
Politically, our subject is a supporter of the Republican party.
ACOB T. STERN, better known as "Father Stern," has been a resident of Harrison County just a third of a century, coming as he did from the old Keystone State, and locating in Harris Grove, or what has come to be known as the "Linnwood Farm," April 30, 1857. A brief sketch of his eventful career, can find no more appropriate place than upon the pages of a history of the county in which he has lived so long; where he has accomplished so much for himself and for others, and where he is surrounded by a multitude of friends, whose name is Le- gion.
Mr. Stern comes from good old Quaker stock and was born in Kennett, Chester County, Pa., July 2, 1814. His father was John Stern and his mother Phœbe (McFarland) Stern, who were both natives of Pennsylvania and the parents of fifteen children, twelve of whom grew to man- hood and womanhood. None ever came farther West than Ohio, except our sub- ject, Jacob T. Mr. Stern attended the same school which Bayard Taylor, the distinguished poet and traveler did. Very early in life our subject was bereft of his parents, the father dying when he was but
six years of age. His mother died one year prior. He was placed in the family of a Quaker, Lewis Pusey, who was quite wealthy and with whom heremained nine years. He. then went with his brother George to learn the trade of a house-plas- terer, following the same for four years, attending school during the winters. He worked at his trade in Chester County and near Philadelphia, until 1853, after which he followed farming four years, then went West. He went to St. Louis by railway and from that city by water to Florence, Neb., and soon came to this county.
He was married September 30, 1841, to Millicent B. Fletcher, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, January 27, 1820. Her father was John Fletcher, a native of England, as was also his wife. The father died February 9, 1874, and the mother, Lydia, died October 23, 1885, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-three years.
Our venerable subject and his estimable wife are the parents of five children-Amy Ann, born October 10, 1842, died January 26, 1874, wife of H. S. Milliman. Ettie R. born March 4, 1844, wife of J. C. Milli- man, died January 14, 1883. Ernest died in infancy; Almor, born April 21, 1854, is now a resident and highly-respected busi- ness man of Logan, and is engaged in the loan and abstract business. Wilhs L., born June 11, 1860, is also a resident of Lo- gan.
Politically, our subject is a firm be- liever in the principles of the Republican party, and is always ready to give an in- telligent reason for the political hope within him.
In religious matters both Mr. and Mrs. Stern hold the generally accepted faith of the Quaker church.
In looking over the long list of pioneer
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farmers of Harrison County, no one name stands out in more prominence than does that of "Father Stern." Observing the improvements made on "Linnwood Farm" and a knowledge of the fact that this man has been not only a scientific but practi- cal agriculturist, one sees thenecessity of coupling intelligence with manual labor in order to become a successful farmer. The numerous Farmer's Clubs found in this county, owe their origin and excel- lent workings to Mr. Stern, who has la- bored in season and out of season, for their success.
During a period of thirty-one years he has been a weather and crop reporter from Harrison County to the Smithsonian Insti- tute and War Department, a table of which is given elsewhere in this work.
Having become well advanced in years and been quite successful in farming, he very wisely left his farm and moved to the village of Logan, where he will probably spend the remainder of his days. While time has made its inroads upon this grand old pioneer, yet his mental faculties are but little impaired. The newspaper files of the county as well as of the Eastern journals, together with the Agricultural Society, Old Settler's Association, etc., have all felt the influence and sentiment of this man's practical talks and pen sketches. In the days of Abolition he was a strong anti-slavery advocate, making himself felt in the debating club, and was prominent in the "under-ground railroad" service, (assisting slaves from this country into Canada) and was a personal friend of the abolition agitators, including Fred Douglass, who sent himletters of congrat- ulation, upon his Golden Wedding anni- versary occasion, which took place Sep- tember 30, of the present year.
Mr. and Mrs. Stern, by reason of their
genial whole-souled manners have become very popular in all parts of Harrison County, and indeed their exemplary lives shine forth with a brilliancy which may well be patterned after by the rising gener- ations, as theirs has been a life of true nobility, of which the world has none too many.
RS. MINNIE CHILES, wife of William Chiles. decased, and a res- ident of sections 11 and 12, in Union Township, where she owns one hundred and twenty acres, came to Harrison County in the month of Novem- ber, 1867, in company with her parents, who settled near Reeder's Mills, in Jeffer- son Township, where her father worked in a sawmill.
In December, 1869, she was united in marriage to William Chiles, who was a son of Isaac and Eliza Chiles, who were the parents of four sons-Andrew, William, George and Joseph. The parents were natives of Ohio. After the marriage of our subject, her husband worked his father's farm one year, when he bought eighty acres of wild land, of which he broke about fifty acres the first year, also built a house 14x18 feet, one story in height; built outbuildings, etc. This comprises a part of Mrs. Chiles' present farm, which now consists of one hundred and twenty acres, all under a high state of cultivation.
Mrs. Chiles was born in Illinois in 1854 and her parents were both natives of In- diana. They were Harvey and Sarah A. Peckenpaugh. The father came to Illi- nois in 1831,and to Iowa in 1867. They reared a family of eleven children, as fol-
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lows: Rose A., Minnie, Clarissa, Bell, Hettie, Ellen, Lillie, Stella, William A., Elza and Bird.
Our subject and her husband were the parents of four children-Emmet M., born January 12, 1871; Charles N., Feb- ruary 15, 1873: Lulie B., October 5, 1874; Andrew J., October 8, 1876: and Isaac, August 13, 1879.
Mr. Chiles was born in Indiana in 1846, and lived in Harrison County thirty years of his life, and died January 31, 1838.
G EORGE R. BRAINARD, present Postmaster at Magnolia, is a name so familiar that it hardly needs an introduction in this connection. He came to the county in May, 1855, and has been associated with the county Government, with the newspaper business, and in many other ways by reason of which he has been an important factor in Harrison County for over a third of a century.
He came to the county with his parents, D. E. and Elizabeth Brainard, and their three children. The family are of Eng- lish descent. Upon their arrival in this county the father engaged in merchandis- ing at Magnolia, renting a building which had been erected by James Bates and which he occupied until the autumn of 1857, and then removed to a new building he had erected himself and which was afterward moved away and is now used as a dwelling on John Donners' farm. In this building he remained several years and then sold his building and lot to Dr. Clark.
D. E. Brainard was elected as County Judge in 1857, and served until 1861; was
a member of the State Board of Educa- tion for several years, held the office of Treasurer and Recorder from 1856 to 1858, and was special agent for the Postoffice Department looking after delinquencies. He held this position four years, during which time he resided in Iowa City, but was away from home most of the time.
After leaving this office he returned to Magnolia and remained until the fall of 1890 when he went to Chadron, Neb., to live with his daughter, Mrs. Fannie O'Linn. "Judge" Brainard, as he is familiarly called, was born at Rome, N. Y., Febru- ary 16, 1808, and was the son of Daniel Brainard, and spent his early life in the Empire State. But upon reaching man's estate he entered the mercantile business in Illinois ; he also ran a line of stages from Springfield, Ill., to St. Louis, before the days of railroads. He was married when twenty four years of age to Elizabeth Ann Pickett, in Illinois, by whom he reared a family of four children-Orville V., George R., Egbert, who died in infancy, and Fan- nie M.
George R., the subject of this sketch, was born in Van Buren County, Iowa, February 25, 1840, his father having set- tled there as early as 1837, when Iowa was yet included in Wisconsin territory, and hence was among the first children born in the State. His boyhood was spent in assisting his father on his farm and. attend- ing the schools, which, at that day, were a marked contrast to those of the present time. At the age of fourteen he com- menced serving an apprenticeship as a prin- ter at Keokuk, Iowa, where he remained until his parents removed to Harrison County.
His father fitted out two covered wagons . in the spring of 1855, one drawn by a span of horses and the other by a yoke of oxen.
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All being ready they started, as they sup- posed for California, but upon arriving at Council Bluffs they stopped to wait for a larger growth of prairie grass for their teams to subsist upon. Mr. Brainard chanced to meet an old acquaintance, Elder Moses F. Shinn, who persuaded him to look up a location in Harrison County.
When George R. was nineteen years of age he in company with his brother Or- ville, purchased the newspaper which had been running at Preparation, Iowa, or rather traded for the same, giving in ex- change a small stock of goods, a team of horses and a few notes on parties living in Monona County and then established what was then known as the Magnolia Republican, which was the first Republi- can paper ever published in this part of Iowa. George R. bought his brother's interest and later sold the plant, which, however, came back on his hands, and he finally sold it to P. C. Truman. After re- tiring from the paper in which there was no great amount of pecuniary profit, Mr. Brainard carried the mail between Mag- nolia and Logan for several years. But yet having a hankering for the art pre- servative he established the Dunlap Re- porter in the spring of 1871, conducted it one year and sold it to Ainsworth&Thomp- son, and then returned to Magnolia where he engaged in farming, and holding vari- ous township offices ; also has been Post- master different times and is the present incumbent, taking the office under Harri- son's administration in the month of July, 1890.
He was married at Council Bluffs, No- vember 19, 1859, to Joanna B. Wiggins, a native of New York, born August 31, 1837, by whom seven children have been born, six of whom still survive, and four
of whom live in Harrison County. Their children are as follows: Mabel B., Dora, Ethel, Clara, died at the age of two and one-half years, Fred W., Dean E., and Fannie M.
Politically our subject is a stanch sup- porter of the Republican party.
Both he and his wife are acceptable members of the Methodist Church and he is a member of Magnolia Lodge No. 177, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Magnolia Lodge No. 126, A. F. & A. M., in which order he has filled every im- portant office.
W ILLIAM A. SMITH, a highly re- spectable citizen of Persia, was born in Union Township, Harrison County, Iowa, August 6, 1859, and hence is a genuine Harrisonian Hawkeye by birth. He remained under the paternal roof until 1872, when his parents bought a farm in Washington Township, he living at home most of the time until 1878, after which he worked summers and attended school winters until January 1, 1882, when he was ushered into a new era by by his marriage to Miss Annetta Matocks, who is now the mother of two children- Cora I., and Roy F.
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