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 57
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Mr. Thompson was born in Edgar Coun- ty, Ill., October 26, 1827. His father died when our subject was four years of age, and his mother three years later, after which he lived at different places among
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relatives until he was nineteen years old, when he came to Mahaska County, Iowa. This was in 1845, one year before Iowa was admitted into the Union. He worked on a farm a short time in that locality and then came to Polk County and operated a blacksmith's shop, fourteen miles from the old fort, and known as the "Half-way House," now Mitchellville. He remained there eighteen months, went up to what was known as Four-mile Creek and took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres. He improved this place and re- mained two years, and then went to Cali- fornia, remained one year, came back to Polk County and sold out his land, which is situated one-half mile east of the Fair grounds. He then started back to Cali- fornia, with his family. This was in the spring of 1850, but upon arriving at Coun- cil Bluffs he concluded to remain there, which he did until February, 1853, and then came to Harrison County, as above related.
Our subject was married in Polk Coun- ty, to Miss Jane Earnest, and by this mar- riage union six children were born-Har- vey, Martha, Margaret (deceased), Mary, William, and John.
His wife died in 1867, and he was again married in March, 1881, to Miss Agnes Thompson, in Grinnell, Iowa. By this marriage one child was born-Agnes.
Mrs. Thompson is a member of the United Presbyterian Church.
He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic at Missouri Valley. Politically, he affiliates with the Republican party In 1853 he was elected to the office of School Fund Commissioner, holding the same two terms. At the time he was elected he had to go to Judge King's, where Logan is now situated, on the east side of the Boyer River, in company with
two or three others, that they might be sworn into office. The stream was out of its banks, so they tied their horses on the west bank of the stream, threw a part of their wearing apparel off, and swam the Boyer.
Mr. Thompson built the first school house in the county. It was near where W. E. Cutler now lives, in Magnolia Township. He had to go to Pottawatta- mie County for the lumber, swimming his trusty oxen across the Boyer, as there was not a bridge in the county at the time. This school house was built in the spring of 1853.
M AJOR CHARLES MACKENZIE, a practicing Attorney at-Law of Dunlap, Iowa, will form the sub- ject of this notice :
He is a native of New York City, born September 6, 1844, and is the son of D. A. and Mary A. (O'Connor) Mackenzie, and is of Scotch-Irish extraction. In 1855 he accompanied his parents to Dubuque, Iowa, where he received his early education; but subsequently attended the Beloit. Wisconsin, college, from which institution he graduated in 1861. He studied law under D. E. Lyon, of Dubuque, and was admitted to the bar in 1866, and practiced his profession for one year in Dubuque, and in 1869 removed to Eldora, Hadin county, where he remained one year, and then went to Mason City, Iowa, where he remained five years, and in 1875 located in Sioux City. He remained there until 1882, and then came to Dunlap. His prac- tice is especially confined to Harrison, Crawford, and Monona Counties, and in the Supreme and United States Courts.
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By hard study and natural ability he has built up a large practice, and ranks high in the bar of the State.
Politically he was a Republican in the. past, but not being in harmony with some of the principles of that party during the past few years, he has been identified with the Union Labor Party.
He is a member of Shields Post, No. 89, of the Grand Army of the Republic. He enlisted in 1862 in Company H, Ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was dis- charged in April, 1865. He entered the service as Sergeant, was then made Adju- tant, and was discharged as a Major. He was slightly wounded at the fall of Atlan- ta, as also he was at Pea Ridge. He was a brave soldier, always true to the Union cause. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and also of the Loyal Legion. He has never been married, only to his chosen profession, in which he has been an untiring worker, and a successful prac- titioner.
REDERICK W. HAUFF, JR., a farmer living on section 27, Mag- nolia Township, came to Harrison County in March 1857, and stayed a short time on the farm of his uncle, Henry Hannaman, and then went to Council Bluffs, where he worked at brick masonry and plastering. The following autumn he worked in a saw-mill on Horseshoe Lake, in Harrison County, remaining there two months, and in November went to New Orleans, intending to go to Germany after his parents and sister, but took sick in that city, and sent power of attorney to his father to sell the property that his mother bad left him, and came to Harri-
son County, Iowa. As soon as he was well, our subject took the first job that presented itself, that of fireman on a steamboat running on the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio Rivers. He plied the Missouri as far north as Sioux City, the Mississippi as far as St. Paul, and the Ohio to Pittsburg. He followed this oc- cupation for four years, and then came to Harrison County, in the fall of 1861, set- tling in Bigler's Grove, Magnolia Town- ship, where he rented a farm four years, and then bought the farm he now lives on, moving to the same in the autumn of 1865. In the spring of 1865 he bought one hundred and twenty acres of wild land, and in February, 1866, he built a log house upon this land and moved into it during the month of March, and is still living in the same house. It has under- gone some alterations, including weather- boarding and two additions. The roof has been replaced three times on the log house, but the floor is yet in good shape, being of oak, which was sawed by Chat- burn & Mahoney when they first started their saw-mill. His barn was built in 1873, and was 24x42 feet; in 1888 he built another barn, 40x42 feet. He has added to his land until he has two hundred and sixty-one acres, over one-half of which is now under the plow, and the balance in pasture and meadowland.
Our subject is a native of the German Empire, and was born in Geinsheim, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany, May 22, 1836, where he remained with his parents until July, 1852, when he sailed for Amer- ica with his grandmother, Elizabeth Hauff. They were thirty days on the ocean, and after landing, came to Lancas- ter County, Pa., he being only sixteen years of age at the time. His father did not want him to come to this country, as
38
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he was an only son, so Frederick bor- rowed money with which to pay his pass- age, which he paid out of his first year's wages, working in Pennsylvania at $5 per month. He remained in the Keystone State one year and then went to Indian- apolis, where he worked in an insane asy- lum at $20 per month until the spring of 1857, when he came to Harrison County, Iowa.
Among the important events of this man's life was his marriage, which oc- curred October 10, 1861, at Quincy, Ill., he marrying Miss Christina Breitwieser. They are the parents of nine children -- John C., Frederick W., Conrad C., Katie E., Daniel H., Albert W., a daughter still- born, Anna M., and a son stillborn.
The family met with a sad bereavement in the death of their son Frederick, who was born in Harrison County, December 17, 1865. When about eighteen years of age something like a cancer appeared on his shin-bone, and the same year it was found necessary to amputate his limb above the knee, which operation was per- formed in Omaha. Soon after coming home he began to complain of his head, when it was found that a lump was grow- ing thereon. He was taken to many of the eminent physicians of this country, but nothing could be done for him, and October 7, 1884, he died, his last words being, "I am not afraid to die, for I know the Lord is with me." He was a member of the Evangelical Church at Magnolia.
Mrs. Hauff was born at Quincy, Ill., September 25, 1847, where she remained with her parents until the date of her marriage.
Casper Hauff, father of our subject, was born May 28, 1808, in Geinsheim, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany, where he was mar- ried to Mary Hannamann, August 13,
1835. She died there March 28, 1841. They were the parents of Frederick W. and his twin-brother, still-born.
Mr. Hauff married again in Germany, in October, 1842, Elizabeth Steffan, by whom two children were born. They came to America in the fall of 1858, landing at New Orleans, where Frederick W. was at the time his parents left Germany, but he had gone to St. Louis, so his father took the boat "Old Penn," which blew up at Memphis, causing the loss of sixty-five lives, but in some way none of the Hauff family were injured. He came on to St. Louis and searched for Frederick two weeks, without success, although he and his family boarded on the same street that Frederick did. While there his daughter took sick, and while on the boat for Council Bluffs, the poor girl died. They took her off the boat but the fam- ily could not stop to see her buried. When the boat on the Lower Mississippi was burned, they lost all of their effects, ex- cept their money. Upon coming to Har- rison County, he bought five acres of land of his brother, Frederick W., Sr., where he lived from 1859 to 1865, when he moved to twenty acres of land given him by Fred- erick W., Jr., where the family lived un- til 1874, when Mrs. Hauff died, after which Mr. Hauff went to live with Frederick W., and died there May 28, 1884, on his sev- enty sixth birthday.
The grandmother, with whom Frederick came over, Elizabetlı Hauff, was born in Germany in 1790, and died at Henry Han- nemann's, in November, 1857, and was the first German ever buried in Magnolia Cemetery, there being but few of any na- tionality buried there at that time.
The grandfather, Daniel Hauff, was born in Germany in 1779, and in 1807 mar- ried Elizabeth Rinner, by whom three
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sons and five daughters were born, Cas- per being the eldest child. The grand- father died in the land of his nativity, at the home of his so , Casper, April 7, 1853.
Frederick W. Hauff, our subject, has been a Republican ever since the close of the Rebellion. He is a member of Blue Lodge No. 126, A. F. & A. M., at Mag- nolia, as well as of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, No. 177, at Magnolia. Mr. Hauff is a member of the Evangelical Church.
Mr. Hauff is the first German that ever read the Declaration of Independence at Magnolia. This was purely a German celebration, and the Declaration was translated into German by him. He has served in the capacity of the Justice of the Peace for two terms. At one trial all parties were German and he had to trans- late the proceedings, and write them in English on the court docket. He was also the first German Assessor, elected in the fall of 1890. For twenty-two years he was Sub director of the School Board, and for thirteen years and six months .Treasurer of the same Board. He was also Road Commissioner for nine years in succes- sion, and was the first Gorman ever elected to an office in Magnolia Township, which usually gives about thirty-five Democratic majority. He has never been a candidate for an office in which he was not success- ful.
M ARTIN F. LITTLE, a resident of section 4, Jefferson Township, ar- rived in Harrison County, October 4, 1855, and moved to his present place in August, 1867.
We find that Martin F. Little is a de-
scendant of David Little, who was born in Botetourt, Virginia, November 8, 1797, and he was a son of David and Peggy Little. He was married to Charity E. Ross in Tennessee. She was born in North Carolina, February 10, 1803, and they had a family of three sons, Martin F., our subject, born September 21, 1833; Calvin V., born in Overton County, Tenn., June 27, 1836. and died in Indian Territory, February 15, 1889; Daniel A., born in Overton County, Tenn., Novem- ber 22, 1840, and died in Kansas in Feb- ruary, 1882.
David Little, the father of our subject, located in Tennessee in 1830, and came West with his family, locating in Mills County. Iowa, in November, 1854, and one year later came to Harrison County and settled on a farm at Harris Grove, where he remained six years and then removed to Whitesboro, Jefferson Town- ship, and there died March 31, 1863. His wife was Charity Emaline, the daughter of John and Charity E. (Vicker) Ross. David Little was not a rugged man, and at the time our subject became old enough, the care of the family naturally devolved upon him. He took care of the homestead, and in the spring of 1860, pur- chased his present home. On August 14, 1861, and just four months after Ft. Sumter had been fired upon, he enlisted from Harrison County, as a member of the Second Iowa Light Artillery Battery, under Captain N. T. Spoor, and First- Lieutenant J. R. Reed (now Judge). Our subject's brother, Calvin V. Little, also
enlisted, and while in battle acting as "No. 2," was wounded in the arm. Martin F. was acting as "No. 6," but was at the front at the time his brother was wounded. After having faithfully served as a Union soldier for three years, Mr. Little was
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discharged at Davenport, Iowa, August 30, 1864, when he returned to his home.
He was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Rowe, January 30, 1866. She was a native of Virginia, born April 6, 1846, and was the daughter of Abbott and Annie (Diles) Rowe, and was of a family of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. Little are the parents of four children: David A., born March 12, 1866; Amanda E., born August 16, 1867; Anna A., born No- vember 6, 1869; Maggie M., born October 17, 1871. David A., married Edith Lyons March 11, 1891; Maggie M. married J. Orville Bartholomew, January 1, 1891. Amanda E. and Anna are both teachers.
After the death of Calvin V. Little, (the brother of our subject) our subject and his wife took his four children to raise-one gi:l, Vazera M., having been married prior to this time. The other children's names are as follows: Joseph N., Ira I., Eva E., and Laura E.
Politically. our subject has always voted the Republican ticket, except in two in- stances: one for Prohibition, and one for the People's ticket, and in his own language, his political belief is as follows : "I believe in equal rights, and have tried to organize a Labor and Capital Club. I believe that all money should bear the same rate of interest, and that all manual labor should receive the same compensa- tion for the time employed. That any knowledge possessed which leads to the performance of any kind of labor, skilled or otherwise, should be the same as money at interest, and that the possessors should be compensated for their knowledge, ac- cording to their efficiency. I believe that any and all forms of money should only be based on labor products, and that any other form of money is ruinous to the laboring class; consequently certificates
of deposit should be the only money in circulation. I believe that all our laws should be repealed and comprehensive laws enacted in their stead, in the place of the present voluminous and incompre- hensible laws of the present. Further, that every law should be submitted to the people for their approval, regardless of party politics, and that none should be entitled to vote except they have proper educational qualifications, and lastly, that all laws enacted by the Legislature should be published in at least one local paper in each county, that the rank and file of the voting population be enlightened as to the full text of such laws."
S OLOMON G. SPRACKLEN, a representative farmer of Taylor Township, residing on section 19, came to Harrison County in the spring of 1866, just at the close of the war. He bought eighty acres of wild land and built a frame house 14x24 feet, and in Decem- ber of the same year bought eiglity acres of more land adjoining the first tract he had bought. In the summer of 1831 he built his present frame residence, which is a two story building, 14x24 feet, with an ell 14x20 feet. In 1887 he built a barn, 42x70 feet, with fourteen foot posts, which holds one hundred and twenty-six tons of hay. This barn ranks among the best in Harrison County. When he first came to the county Magnolia was his nearest trading town, and there were but few set- tlers on the Missouri Bottoms.
Mr. Spracklen was born in Knox County, Ohio, March 4, 1828. He is the son of John and Lydia (Goss) Spracklen. The father was a native of England, while
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the mother was the first child born at Dayton, Ohio. Our subject remained at home until 1852, when he came to Tama County, Iowa, remained a short time and then went to Benton County. He pur- chased a part of the land which the town of Belle Plaine now stands upon. He lived in that section until 1857, except one year that he spent in Ohio. We next find him in Johnson County, Iowa, where he bought a farm, remained eight years, and then came to Harrison County.
He was united in marriage, April 2, 1857, in Johnson County, Iowa to Miss Louisa J. Avetts, the daughter of Will- iam and Louisa Avetts. Our subject and his wife are the parents of eight children -Ella J., Mary, Dartha, Sarah, Minnie, Nancy, Jesse J. and Alice Grace.
Our subject's wife was born in Tennes- see May 26, 1839, and when but a small girl her parents came to Hardin County, Ill. Her mother died when she was young, and her father remarried, after which she lived with her grandmother and came to Johnson County, Iowa, with a family by the name of Morton, and there remained until the date of her marriage. She is a member of the Christian Church.
Mr. Spracklen is identified with the Democratic party and has held the office of Township Trustee and has assessed his township three times.
ON. WILLIAM M. SHARPNACK, dealer in grain and agricultural im- plements at Modale, came to the county with his father, John Sharp- nack, who in 1854 filed a Swamp Land claim in Clay Township.
Our subject was born in Wetzel County,
W. Va., January 13, 1850, and is the son of John and Sarah (Minor) Sharpnack, both natives of West Virginia. In the fall of 1850 they moved to Washington County, Iowa, and remained until they came to Harrison County in 1854. In the spring of 1860 our subject's father sold out in Clay Township and entered one hundred and sixty acres where Mo- dale now stands on sections 30 and 31, of Taylor Towrship. The same spring with his family he went to Pike's Peak, but returned in the fall, and in the spring of 1861 moved to his place, and there re- mained until the fall of 1865, when he sold out and went into the sawmill business on the river in Cincinnati Township. Our subject remained at home wth his par- ents until the spring of 1871. at which time he was married, but still worked with his father on the farm. In the spring of 1871 they sold out the mill and came back to Taylor Township. and bought eighty acres of land on section 30, and in the spring of 1874 they moved over near Blair, Neb., where the father had bought a half interest in a sawmill, and where by accident he was killed in the mill the fol- lowing autumn. The mother sold out over there and came back to the farm which our subject took charge of, and and run until the fall of 1880. He then engaged in the hardware business at Mo- dale, and continued until January, 1883, when he sold out and engaged in the grain business, and in the spring following formed a partnership with F. H. Ludwig in the grain and stock business. Our subject sold his interest to Mr. Ludwig in the fall of 1834, but continued the busi- ness for Mr. Ludwig that winter, and in the spring of 1885 moved to the farm and remained one season. In December, 1885, he was appointed Postmaster, and in Jan -.
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uary, 1886, he formed a partnership with J. G. Gilchrist in the hardware and im- plement business. The June following he sold out to Gilchrist and a few days later Gilchrist sold to C. S. Brown, and our subject remained with him as clerk. In the fall of 1886 he and Mr. Brown be- came partners in the grain business, and continued until the fall of 1888, when he bought Brown out. In January, 1890, our subject sold his interest in his hard- ware business to C. Schroder.
Mr. Sharpnack was united in marriage in Harrison County, Iowa, February 14, 1871, to Miss Jane Hammer, the dauglı- ter of Jacob and Cynthia Hammer. By this union one child was born-Ella, born August 23, 1872, and the mother died the same day. For his sec- ond wife Mr. Sharpnack, on January 1, 1874, married Miss Susan E. West, the daughter of Edwin and Susan (Rocord) West. By this union five children have been born-Effie I., John E., Charles F., William I. and Laura B.
Susan (West) Sharpnack was born in Jackson County, Iowa, December 24, 1856, and her parents came to Harrison County at an early day. Mrs. Sharpnack is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Sharpnack is a member of the Odd- fellows Order, belonging to Mondamin Lodge, No. 392.
The father of our subject, as before stated, was killed in the mill in Nebraska in the fall of 1874, and was buried at Cal- houn. The mother subsequently married in August, 1884, John Ingram and resided at Cameron, W. Va. She died February 2, 1890, and is buried at Cameron. They were the parents of three children-two sons and one daughter, our subject being the eldest in the family.
Politically our subject is a Democrat and has held the office of Township Clerk for ten years. In the fall of 1888 he made the race on the Democratic ticket for the office of County Recorder. He had about two hundred and fifty votes to overcome and was only defeated by about fifty votes. He has voted nineteen times in Taylor Township, always casting a straight Democratic ballot and is known to be a political fighter "from way back," and only held the postoffice ten days after the change in the administration, and was probably an offensive partisan. At the general election of 1891, he was elected State Representative by a majority of four hundred and seventeen votes.
NDREW D. WALKER, a farmer of section 3, Washington Town- ship, came to Harrison County, in February, 1880, and settled on his present farm, which he had bought three months prior to his moving here. It was all wild land, and the first year he broke thirty-five acres, built a house 16x34 feet one and a half stories high, which forms a part of his present house. His present farm consists of one hundred and sixty- nine acres, in Harrison County, and eighty acres in Shelby County. One hundred and thirty acres are under the plow, forty acres in tame grass, and the balance in meadow and pasture land. The entire place, shows the hand of good husbandry, and the an- nual harvest from this rich soil, is fast making our worthy subject an independ- ent man.
Mr. Walker was born in Blair County, Pa., May 15 1838. He is the son of James and Ann (Cherry) Walker, and he is the
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fourth child of a family of thirteen chil- dren, four of whom still survive. The fa- ther was a farmer, and our subject re- mained at home as a young tiller of the soil, and attending the district school un- til he was sixteen years of age, and then set out to learn the cooper's trade, in Ash- land, Pa. He served three years as an apprentice, after which he worked at gen- eral labor, until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Eighty- fourth Pennsylvania Infantry, and was Corporal, serving nearly three years, dur- ing that terrible conflict, the like of which has never been recorded on the pages of history; he received an honorable dis- charge near Washington, D. C., July 14, 1865, after having participated in the bat- tles of Petersburgh, Cold Harbor, Hatchie's Run, Bull Run, Deep Bottom and Gettys- burg, Weldon Railroad. Notwithstanding the hotly contested fields upon which he fought, he was never wounded, but had many narrow escapes. At the battle of Cold Harbor, he had a bullet put through his hat, and his gun shot from his hands. After coming out of the service he had about $1,000, and came to Iowa City, Iowa, in company with h's parents. In a short time they removed to Iowa County, where the father purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land and there our subject remained until he came to Harrison County.
Mr. Walker was married November 29, 1866, to Mary Agnes Miller, a native of Pennsylvania, born May 16, 1850, and is the daughter of Nicholas and Susan (Rin- sel) Miller, and is the eldest child of a family of seven children. Mr. and Mrs. Walker are the parents of seven children : Charlie N., born August 26, 1867; Clara J., December 13, 1868; George A,, Febrų-
ary 5, 1870; Albert C., November 22, 1872; Francis A., April 16, 1878; Susan A., Jan- uary 2, 1883; Alice C. January 16, 1887. Clara married Francis Elder, October 2, 1888, and now lives at Pierson, Woodbury County, Iowa.
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