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 63
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In his religious belief, Mr. Ford accepts the orthodox theology, and is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church at Logan. He is a member of Chrysolite Lodge, No. 420, A. F. & A. M., at Logan.
He of whom this sketch is written, hav- ing been a resident of Harrison County for over a quarter of a century, has spent the best years of his life in various busi- ness callings, and in the performance of official duties, which have brought him in actual contact with nearly every free- holder in the county, and be it said to his credit, he is well and favorably spoken of throughout Western Iowa.
W ILSON DOTY, a representative farmer of La Grange Township, came to Harrison County with his parents twenty-five years ago-in the au- tumn of 1866. They settled in Taylor Township, near Modale, and three years later they removed to St. John's Town- ship and were there until 1872, when they came to La Grange Township, where he and his father at first purchased forty
acres of wild land, having to borrow the money to make the first payment with. They built a frame house 16x26 feet and in 1883, erected a barn 30x44 feet. The farm now consists of one hundred and twenty acres.
Mr. Doty was born in Morgan County, Ind., December, 28, 1847, and when he was seven years of age his parents re- moved to Madison County, Iowa, where they remained until the spring of 1866 and then moved to Berry County, Mo., remained there one season and then came to Harrison County. Our subject re- mained with his parents until the time of their death.
Preston Doty, the father of our subject, was born in Kentucky, in 1807, and in April 1814, came with his parents to Indi- ana, becoming a pioneer of the Hoosier State, and remained there until 1855 and then removed to Madison County, Iowa, from there to Missouri, and so on to Har- rison County, Iowa. He died January 1, 1887. His wife, Maria (Lee) Doty, was born in South Carolina, December 2, 1804. Her parents came to Indiana, where she married John Bolds, January 1, 1824. They were the parents of two daughters and three sons. Mr. Bolds died in Indi- ana, September 10, 1831, and January 1, 1841, she married Preston Doty, by which marriage three children were born. our subject being the youngest of the family. The children were as follows: Lucetta, born October 31, 1842; Evan, born August 5, 1844; and Wilson, born December 28, 1847. Our subject's father married for his first wife Nancy Shrum, by whom one child was born, John, April 1, 1823, and who died June 1, 1832. Nancy (Shrum) Doty, died March 31, 1834, and Septemn- ber 25,1835, he married Elizabeth Murphy, and they were the parents of two children :
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Samuel born August 17; 1836, and James born September 10, 1837. The mother of these children died June 11, 1838.
Our subject was united in marriage in Harrison County, Iowa, August 3, 1875, to Miss Winnie E. Jones, and they are the parents of six children, born as follows : Oscar, June 14, 1876; Leroy, January 17, 1878; Chloe M., May 28, 1879; Edgar, May 22, 1882; Winnie E., September 19, 1883; Earl, February 23, 1883. Edgar died Au- gust 30, 1882.
Mrs. Doty was born in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, December 11, 1858, and removed with her parents to Harrison County when a small girl. Her father, William M. Jones, was born in Putnam County, Ind., June 8, 1820. He first mar- ried Miss Tabitha Aldridge, and they were the parents of five children : Emily, Martha A., Allen S., Silas A.and John H. Tabitha (Aldridge) Jones died in Indiana, and Mr. Jones married for his second wife, Miss Sarah Ellis, and by this marriage eleven children were born-William M., Euen G., Acenath T., Amanda J., Win- nie E., Sarah A., (deceased), James E., Joel L. (deceased), Stephen R. (deceased), Perry R. (deceased), and Harvey L. The mother of these children was born in In- diana, April 22, 1829, and remained in the Hoosier State until the date of her mar- riage, and is now living in La Grange Township, this county. Both she and her husband were members of the Predes- tinarian Baptist Church. The father and mother of Mr. Doty, belong to the same church, the father being a minister of that denomination.
Politically, our subject is identified with the Democratic party. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace, being elected in 1889, and still holding such position; he is also a member of the School Board,
and has been for six years, and was elected Trustee for La Grange Township at the November election of 1891.
0 RLANDO L. FRENCH, furniture dealer at Missouri Valley, was born June 8, 1829, in Windsor County, Vt. He is a son of Carter and Betsy (Shurtleff) French. Two branches of the French family came to America in the seventeenth century, one from Wales and the other from Ireland, our subject belonging to the latter. His grandfather, Ephraim Carter French, was born in Ver- mont, and was noted for his skill as a fine cabinet-maker. Our subject's father was a farmer in Windsor County, Vt., and in 1853 the family removed to near Mendota, Ill., and continued farming until his death, which occurred in 1859. The mother died in 1876, and both were buried in the country cemetery near Mendota, Ill., called "Four Mile Grove Ceme- tery."
Our subject is the fourth child of seven born to his parents. Of this number five are still living. Elvira W., a maiden sis- ter, is a resident of Ottawa, Ill .; Jasper H. is engaged in the grain and coal trade at the same place ; Ephraim C., deceased, was buried at Eldora, Hardin County, Iowa. He died in 1885, leaving a wife and two children, who still reside at that place; Hosea V. resides at Woodstock, Vt., and is in mercantile business. The sixth child died when two months of age. The youngest child, Jane E., is the wife of Chester Martin, and lives in Ottawa, Ill.,
In 1851 our subject removed to Dixon, Lee County, Ill., working at the cabinet- maker's trade, he having served an ap-
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prenticeship in that craft at Woodstock, Vt., and Boston, Mass. In the spring of 1852 he went to St. Paul, Minn., where he engaged in the same business for a few months, when he was induced by George F. Brott, a carriage manufacturer of St. Anthony's Falls, to build some sleighs for him, which he did. Mr. Brott was soon elected Sheriff of this county, when he sold lis shop to our subject, who contin- ued the business, employing seven men. He was doing a prosperous business until the month of December, 1853, when mis- fortune overtook him; his manufactory burned, destroying $6,000 worth of new work. This left Mr. French without means, with some debts, which he after- ward paid off, earning the nioney by days' work. Some of his creditors, out of sym- pathy for him in the loss he had sus- tained, presented him with bills receipted in full.
In the fall of 1854, his parents having removed to Illinois, he returned to that State and continued to work at his trade in Dixon until 1855, when, in company with his brother, E. C. French, he en- gaged in the furniture business at Men- dota. His brother remained with him only one year, but our subject continued the business until 1861.
In the spring of 1862 he returned to Dixon and engaged in business until the following August, when lie disposed of his interests and enlisted in what became Capt. James A. Watson's "A" Company, Seventy-fifth Illinois Infantry. Dixon was the rendezvous of thirty companies. Our subject was made Post Quarter-Mas- ter Sergeant, and at the organization of the Seventy-fifth was made Quarter-Mas- ter Sergeant of the regiment.
The regiment left Dixon October 1, for Louisville, Ky., and was there assigned to
the Thirtieth Brigade, commanded by Gen. Robert Mitchell, and eight days after leaving home were in the battle of Perrysville, where the regiment lost more than three hundred men in killed and wounded. Immediately after this battle the army was marched to Nashville, Tenn., where the army corps were re-or- ganized, the old Thirtieth was made the First Brigade of the First Division of the Army of the Cumberland, and was com- manded by Col. P. Sidney Post, and on the 26th of December, were in the for- ward movement that culminated in the long and stubborn fight at Stone River. The regiment camped at Murfreesboro, where they remained until the following spring, and on the 28th of April, 1863, our subject was commissioned First Lieuten- ant and Adjutant. Adj. French was on duty with his regiment every day for the remainder of the year, and participated in all of its engagements and skirmishes, among which may be mentioned Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and the assault on Bragg's left at Mission Ridge during the second day's fight, which materially hastened Mr. Bragg's unceremonious retreat.
T'hey camped in and around Chatta- nooga until spring, when they were put in the Fourth Army Corps, D. S. Stanly commanding, and were with Gen. W. T. Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign, dur- ing which time they were under fire sixty days. They were in the battles of Buz- zard's Roost, Resaca, Kingston, Kene- saw Mountain and Atlanta.
Our subject was left by the roadside near Marietta, Ga., being completely ex- hausted. He was picked up by an ambu- lance, carried to the field hospital, not re- gaining consciousness until the end of the fourth day. From there he was taken
44
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to the officers' hospital on Lookout Mountain, and after remaining in the hospital forty days he was allowed to join his regiment, when, his health again fail- ing, he was sent home, where he remained about forty days, and then attempted to return to his regiment ; but as there was no communication with his army corps at the time, he was assigned to duty at Chattanooga, as Adjutant General of a
brigade of drafted men, recruits, substi- tutes. and men returning from furloughs who were not able to reach their com- mands. After two weeks about three thousand of these men were assigned as guard to accompany a herd of four thous- and cattle, for Sherman's Army, with Ad- jutant French on duty as A. A. G. Col. Orr, 124th Indiana, in command of the troops.
On arriving at Kingston, Ga., Adjutant French was relieved from duty and al- lowed to rejoin his regiment, which he did at Pulaski, Tenn., and was just in time to take a hand in the terrible battle of Franklin, Tenn., which soon followed; also in the battle of Nashville, under Thomas, and the pursuit of Hood's fleeing army in their mad hunt for the "last ditch;" resting for the winter at Hunts- ville, Ala., and the following spring were at Strawberry Plains, E. Tenn., at the time of Lee and Johnson's surrender; after which our subject returned to Chi- cago, receiving his final discharge July 1, 1865. After his discharge at Chicago Mr. French returned to Franklin Grove, Ill., and engaged in the furniture business, for one year ; sold and went to Clinton, Iowa, where he worked at his trade one year. We next find him in Moingona, Buone County, Iowa, where he remained in the furniture business until the summer of 1872, when he went to Des Moines and
was foreman of a large furniture factory for nearly three years, and from there he came to Missouri Valley, where he has made it his home ever since, with the ex- ception of three years spent in Council Bluffs.
Politically, Mr. French has always been identified with the Republican party. At the general election of 1836, he was elected by the Republican party to the office of County Recorder, and re-elected in 1888, retiring from that office January 1,1891.
Upon the organization of Belden Post, No. 59, Department of Iowa, G. A. R., he was made its commander, and held the office for six years in succession.
Under Department Commander Cook was appointed Judge Advocate, and at the encampment held in Des Moines, in April, 1890, was elected Senior Vice-Com- mander of the Department of Iowa, and was Aid-de-Camp to General Alger, Com- mander in Chief.
May 22, 1855, Mr. French was united in marriage to Lydia Brown, a native of Vermont, the daughter of Rufus Brown, a carpenter by trade. Her parents are both deceased and their remains repose in the cemetery at Warren, Vt.
Mr. French's life has been one full of interesting events. In looking over the names of Harrison County's business men, none stand higher in point of ability and integrity of character, than the man of whom we write this sketch.
SAPH E. CHASE, a farmer resid- ing on section 27, Jackson Town- ship, was born at Bigler's Grove,
. Harrison County, in November, 1852, and remained at home with his par-
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ents until he had reached the years of his majority, when he rented land for a year, and then bought a partly improved farm consisting of eighty acres. About this time he engaged in the photograph busi- ness, which he followed for three years. After leaving that business he removed to his farm, where he has made substantial improvements, including the erection of two good barns, the planting of an orchard of two hundred apple trees and other valu- able additions to his premises. He is a son of Amos and Sarah Chase, natives of Vermont, who had a family of four chil- dren-Anjean, Asaph, May and Milton A.
Our subject was married in January, 1876, to Agnes Clark, the daughter of Sylvester and Margaret Clark, natives of New York and Pennsylvania respectively. Their children were-Agnes, George, Jane (de- ceased), Sherman, and John (deceased.)
Mr. and Mrs. Chase are the parents of five children, born in the following order : Elsie M., November 30, 1877; Earl O., July 21, 1879; Minnie M., August 6, 1881; Scott C., June 7, 1883; Franklin R., June 14, 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Chiase are con- sistent members of the Latter Day Saints Church.
IRAM M. HUFF, of Missouri Val- ley, has been a resident of Harrison County for thirty-six years. He came June 8, 1855, and located in what . was then Little Sioux Township, but is now described as section 22, Jack- son Township. He came to the country with a family named Martin. In 1856, Mr. Huff went to section 4, remained a few months, and went to Raglan Town-
ship and lived one year. In the spring of 1858 he purchased a quarter-section of land on section 2, Little Sioux Township, and their located.
He was born in Fleming County, Ky., in 1832. He is a son of Samuel and Hes- ter (Blair) Huff, both of Pennsylvania. Mr. Huff's father was in the War of 1812, serving in an Ohio regiment. He and his wife are the parents of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. Eleven of the children grew to maturity, and our subject was the eleventh child, and there are four in all still living. William, Ben- jamin and Thomas, brothers of our sub- ject, are living in Nichols and Mason Counties. William is seventy-five years old, and retired from active life; Benja- min is a carpenter; and Thomas, the youngest brother, is a farmer. The father was a farmer, and also a wagon-maker, and passed from earth August 22, 1877, in Kentucky. The mother died in June 1857.
Our subject's early education was re- ceived in Fleming County, Ky., which lo- cality he left when he was twenty-three years of age, and went by rail to Louis- ville, and by boat to St. Joseph, Mo., and from that point came to this county by wagon.
Politically Mr. Huff belongs to the Re- publican party, and has served in the ca- pacity of a local officer in various ways, including the office of Justice of the Peace of Little Sioux Township, which he held for many years, and was also Township Trustee. He served the county as Drain- age Commissioner at an early day, aud lias also been Justice of the Peace since resid- ing in St. John Township. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Valley Lodge, No. 232, and wasa char- ter member of the Magnolia Lodge, No. 126; also of Frontier Lodge, No. 382, at
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Little Sioux. He was made a Mason in Millersburg, Bourbon County, Ky., in January, 1855, and was the first Worship- ful Master in Harrison County. He also conducted the first Masonic funeral in the county, taking charge of the last sad rites connected with the burial of Isaac Parish, of Calhoun, August 17, 1860.
Our subject was married January 24, 1856, in Harrison County, Jackson Town- ship, to Lucinda McGahan, a native of Illinois. Her father was of Irish ances- try, while her mother was a native of Ten- nessee. By this marriage six children were born, three sons and three daugh- ters : John W., a practicing physician at Onawa, Iowa; Lenora, deceased at the age of eleven years, and buried in Jackson Township; Clara M., wife of M. T. West- on, of Missouri Valley; Hattie B., de- ceased in infancy, and buried in Jackson Township; Benjamin F., a registered pharmacist employed by Shiley Bros .; Thomas C., also a registered pharmacist, now in the employ of Goodwin & Mun- ger, in the drug business.
At the age of thirteen our subject left home and began battling in life for him- self. Has seen many hardships, but may well count his life thus far a success, rear- ing as he has a family of intelligent chil- dren, who will be fitted to take up the work where he laid it down.
J OHN VORE, of La Grange Town- ship, son of Pierson and Cynthia Vore, is the second of a family of eleven children. He was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, May 10, 1824. His early schooling was received in his native county, and when his parents
moved to Athens County all was new and wild, and he had very few school privi- leges after that. The last term of school he attended the lady he afterward mar- ried was attending. He remained at home until the date of his marriage, September 15, 1846, when he was united to Zilpha Ann Whitmore, who was one of a pair of twins, born July 18, 1823, in Athens County, Ohio. She was the fourth child of a family of eight children. Her twin mate was Cyrus B. Her father, Aaron Whitmore, was born in Connecticut, Sep- tember 24, 1790, and died in July, 1875. Betsey B. (Warren) Whitmore, was born September 27, 1793, and died January 22, 1885.
Immediately after the marriage of our subject lie located on a tract of land he bought of his father, and lived upon the same eight years, when he sold out, fitted out two wagons, with horse teams, and started for Harrison County, arriving November 11, 1854. He first located in Twelve-Mile Grove, in Douglas Town- ship, where he bought eighty acres of land, which he lived on until March 29, 1855, at which time he traded his land for a larger tract in Crawford County, and was there until March, 1867, when he rented his land and moved to his present place, selling his Crawford County place two years later. Since he moved to his present place he has erected a house, the upright of which is 16x34 feet, with four- teen-foot posts, also an ell 16x32 feet, one story high. He lias an orchard of two hundred bearing trees, and the total amount of land he owns in Harrison County is six hundred and eighty acres. Mr. and Mrs. Vore have reared a family of six children-John Morris, Pierson E., Margaret L., William O., George W. and Albert A.
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John Morris is a carpenter at Wood- bine; Albert is a farmer in LaGrange Township; Pierson lives in Nevada; Mar- garet died June 29, 1871, aged twenty- seven years; William O. lives in Nevada; and George W. is a locomotive engineer in Minneapolis.
When Mr. Vore came to the county he had but little means, and passed through the general hardships co-incident to pio- neer life. He well remembers how he and his wife commenced keeping house, with what furniture they had on a sled, and also that small change was very scarce, and he does not believe that he ever spent $5 foolishly until he was past twenty-five years of age. He is now sur- rounded with all the comforts of life, and contemplates retiring from the farm in the near future.
ENRY R. COLEMAN, a resident of LaGrange Township, is a native of Harrison County, born June lu, 1860. His parents moved to Cin- cinnati Township when he was fourteen years of age, and he remained there until 1883, when he came to LaGrange Town- ship and purchased the farm he now lives upon, forty acres of which was improved, and forty acres wild land. Our subject commenced to work for himself when he was eighteen years old, working by the month on a farm, then renting land, after- ward taking charge of his mother's, she living with him.
Our subject was married in Harrison County, Iowa, March 5, 1889, to Miss Belle McElderry, who lived in Pottawat- tamie County. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman
are the parents of two children-an in- fant, deceased, and John A.
Mrs. Belle (McElderry) Coleman was born in Jefferson County, Iowa, in 1862, and when twenty years old came to Har- rison County, stopping in LaGrange Township two years, and then moved to Pottawattamie County, where she re- mained until the date of her marriage.
His father, Erastus Coleman, was born in Ohio, and remained there until the autumn of 1852, when he came to Harri- son County, Iowa, with his family, con- sisting of his wife, one child, his mother and stepfather. He rented land of his stepfather until the Civil War broke out, when he enlisted in Company H, Fif- teenth Iowa Infantry, and was shot and killed at the battle of Atlanta. His wife, the mother of our subject, Margaret (Wolf) Coleman, was born in Pennsyl- vania February 29, 1832, her parents re- moving to Ohio when she was yet a small girl, and remained tliere until the date of her marriage. They were the parents of five children, our subject being the third. Bothi our subject and his wife, as well as his father's people, were all identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
E. PEASE, a pioneer liveryman of Dunlap, established himself in his business and let the first livery horse in Dunlap, on June 20, 1863, when he erected his present barn, a por- tion of which was 25x60 feet; two stories high. He started in with six horses and four buggies, but now keeps on hand twenty head of good livery horses, with a corresponding number of vehicles. He
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established the first public scales, January 1, 1882, and named them the city scales and on March 1, 1887, he embarked in the undertaking business and now carries one of the largest stocks of fine caskets and burial goods in this part of the state and also keeps a fine gold trimmed hearse. The first telephone in Dunlap was hung in his office on February 15, 1884, and his office is still used for the central.
Mr. Pease is a native of the Wolverine State, having been born in Lenawee County, Mich., October 29, 1845. He is the son of Henry C. and Louisa Pease. He was reared and educated in his native State, to the time he was fourteen years of age, at which time he went to Chicago, and for two years served in the role of ֏ newsboy, running out from Chicago. In 1861 he entered the employment of the United States Government, and worked on the United States military railroads, as brakeman for two years, spending his time at various points in the South. He was on the second train that entered Atlanta after the bombardment, and was the last to leave on the evacuation of the place. His run extended from Nashville to Atlanta through the hottest of the fight. He relates that while working on that run, just one trip over the road, he counted seventeen locomotives "ditched," which was but a sample of the dangers he was daily exposed to. The last year of his stay, and until the close of the war, he was conductor on the train between Chat- tanooga and Atlanta. He speaks of a little experience he had one night when their train was ditched when going around a curve in a thickly timbered district, which was filled with "Johnnies" (Rebels) and knowing that another train was just in the rear, he felt it his duty to go back and signal the coming train. Tlie bullets
were flying like falling hail all around the ditched train, but never flinching, he caught up two lanterns and started back on a run. The enemy seeing the lights, poured a volley after him, which, perhaps, hastened his speed somewhat. He could hear the bullets humming past his head and ears like a swarm of bees. But he hastened on until he met the coming train, some three hundred yards, which he signalled, but none too quick to save an awful collision and a train of five hundred human beings from the enemy's trap.
After the close of the war, he came to Jefferson, Iowa, and as soon as the rail- road reached that point started a dray, which he operated for two years, and then opened a livery stable and ran a 'bus line for three hotels, and also carried the mails and express for two companies. He re- mained in this business until the year he located in Dunlap, which was in 1868, since which time lie has been an active business man, possessed of total abstinence habits, never having used tobacco in any form, or drank intoxicating liquors, even to a glass of beer.
Politically he is a Republican, and has held the office of constable for twenty successive years, and was Deputy Sheriff two terms, as well as Marshal of the city of Dunlap.
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