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 74
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Our subject was united in marriage in Mills County; Iowa, December 31,1874, to Miss Allie Davis, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Hobson) Davis. By this marriage two children have been born, Nellie C., deceased, and Lenna F.
Allie (Davis) Ockerson was born in An- drew County, Mo., and when young ac- companied her parents to Mills County, Iowa. His father was a native of North
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Carolina. Politically our subject is iden- tified with the Republican party.
This man's life has been one of a check- ered character, coming as he did, from a foreign land and being bereft of both par- ents when a small boy, his lot was indeed a hard one. But being possessed of the sterling characteristics found in the most of his fellow-countrymen, he overcame all of these obstacles, and now in his own pleasant home may count life a success.
Thomas Davis, father of Mrs. Ockerson, was born in Serry County, N. C., March 17, 1813, and lived there until twenty-three years of age. In 1836 he went to Henry County, Ind., and was married to Eliza- beth Hobson, August 30, 1838.
Elizabeth Hobson was born in Surry County, N. C., December 20, 1819, and taken by her parents to Henry County, Ind., when nine months old. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Davis settled on a farm in Henry County, near Newcastle, and remained there three years. In the fall of 1841 they removed to Missouri, and settled on a purchase claim, erecting a cabin 16x18 feet, which they moved into in December. In 1855 they removed to Mills County, Iowa, where they lived and prospered for over twenty years. Mr. Davis departed this life August 13, 1877.
when they erected their large two-story brick warehouse which is 40x65 feet with a basement beneath. The second floor of this building is used for an Opera House, with a seating capacity of three hundred. The building is said to be one of the best of the kind in the county.
The business of this firm is dealing in all kinds of agricultural implements, bug- gies, lumber, grain and coal.
Mr. Kling was born in Walworth Coun- ty, Wis., May 23, 1845. His father, Jacob R. Kling, was a farmer, who married Emily (Bliss) Kling the mother of our sub- ject. Henry attended the Academy at the village of Milton, remaining at home until he was twenty-two years of age and then went to Milwaukee, and worked at various things for a year, after which he went to Stoughton and engaged in the broom busi- ness in company with his present partner which business he followed until coming to Harrison County.
He was married April 11, 1871 to Flora E. Allen, a native of Wisconsin, who is now the mother of two children, Bessie E., and Hurbert.
Mr. Kling is a member of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 405 at Woodbine.
Politically he casts his vote with the Republican party.
By a life of industry, and legitimate business operations Mr. Kling has sur- roun led himself with the comforts of life. and is to-day in the possession of a com- fortable home and a good business.
ENRY B. KLING, of the firm of Matthews & Kl ng, agricultural implement dealers at Woodbine, came to Harrison County, in August 1877, from Stoughton, Wis. When he and Mr. ARSHALL E. OVIATT, deceased, who resided on section 35, Jackson Township, located at Magnolia in October, 1865, and four months la- Matthews embarked in business on the site of their present place of business, in a building that had been erected in 1866-7; they occupied that building until 1883, | ter moved to Loveland, Pottawattamie
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County, where he worked in a flouring mill until July, 1867, and then went to the present site of Logan, and made a tem- porary house, by setting boards up edge- ways to make a shelter. He erected the first building upon what is now the plat of Logan, and that building was the Wat- erman drug-store. The next building was erected by a man by the name of Jones, and he completed the work on that bu ld- ing, and then built the cellar of what is now the Logan House. and from there went to Magnolia, and from there over to Loveland, and worked in a flouring-mill for eight years, and then bought the place he recently occupied, which consisted of eighty acres of wild land. Upon this place he built a house 16x24 feet, with a wing 12x21 feet. He also built a barn, hog house, cribbing, and brought water through gas-pipe a distance of one hun- dred and twenty rods from a spring. He set out an orchard of one hundred trees of the fruit-bearing kind, as well as a large amount of shade trees. His farm now comprises two hundred and ninety-six acres, seventy five acres of which are under the plow, and the balance in pasture and meadow land. The whole tract, includ- ing sixteen acres of timber, is enclosed by a substantial fence. Our subject came to the county "$27 worse off than noth- ing," but by hard work and good manage- ment, with the endurance of many hard- ships, has provided himself with a good home.
He was born in Franklin County, Vt .. March 9, 1847, and is the son of William and Sarah Oviatt, natives of Vermont, who had a family of twelve children, our subject being the tenth child. The child- ren were as follows : William (de- ceased), Eliphalet, Rosette, Horatio, Harriet, deceased, Almon, Sarah,
Cordelia, Fred, Marshall, Addie, and Nettie. £ The father is still living at at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Our subject remained in the Green Mountain State with his parents until he was eighteen years of age. and then came to Council Bluffs, by the way of St. Joseph, Mo. The first night he stayed iu Iowa was at a stage station, about seven miles south of Missouri Valley, his ob- jective point being Magnolia.
Our subject was married March 22, 1870, to Emily Foreman, daughter of Mason and Sarah Foreman, who were natives of West Virginia, and who were the parents of ten children, our subject's wife being the oldest. The children were named as follows: Emily, Agnes, Henry, Joseph, Margaret, Evaline, Elizabeth (deceased), William, Charles and John. Two of these are in Kansas, one in Ne- braska and six in Iowa.
Our subject and his wife are the parents of six children -- Harry, bornJune 3, 1873; Nettie (deceased), May 10, 1876; Hattie, September 6, 1879; Ora, November 26, 1881; Owen, December 10, 1884; Jessie, April 17, 1888.
In 1866 Mr. Oviatt was sent with four hundred sacks of flour to the Indian Res- ervation in Nebraska, sixteen miles south of Sioux City. He did not get it loaded until one o'clock at night. He had to pay $1.00 per hundred freight, to get it up the river, and being so long detained, and anxious to get home, he stole a canoe, and crossed the river to get on a boat that was carrying ties to Omaha, knowing that he could get as far as the Blair Bridge, and then went on foot ten miles in the night time to get to his place of business.
The notes for this personal sketch were given the historian by the deceased Au- gust 25, 1891, when he bid fair to live
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many years yet, but "in the midst of life we are in death." So it was with the late Mr. Oviatt, whose name occurs many places within this volume in an historical way; but his race is run and he is now numbered among those who inhabit the "City of the Dead." He departed this life September 14, 1891, aged forty-four years, six months and five days.
NDREW J. GRAYBILL, a farmer and stockraiser, on section 32 of Washington Township, came to Harrison County in the spring of 1865, and lived with his brother, William A. Graybill, until April, 1878, when he built on the place he now occupies; this structure was a frame house 14x18 feet in which he lived until 1884, and then built an addition 12x14 feet. His barn is 32x36 feet, with twenty-foot posts, and was erected about 1885. He was one of the joint owners of the half section of land purchased by his brother, William A., William Spears and O. H. Stoker, and in the division our subject got seventy-five acres, to which he has added from time to time, until he now has three hundred and five acres, all of which is well im- proved, and adapted to stock raising, and upon which he usually keeps seventy-five head of cattle.
Our subject was born in Adams County, Ill., December 29, 1842, and in 1848 his parents removed to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where he remained until the autumn of 1864, at which time he drove an ox-team, across the plains, to Denver, Col .; and in the spring of 1866, located in Harrison County, as above re- lated. having farmed a year previous in Pottawattamie County.
Another important event in the life of Mr. Graybill occurred April 1, 1878, upon which day he was united in marriage to Miss Mary L. Miller, the daughter of Abram and Sophronia A. Miller. She was born. at Decatur, Iowa, in 1856.
Mr. and Mrs. Graybill are the parents of five children-Elmer A., deceased, Lucella B., Zenos H., Alva, and Mary M.
Politically, our subject is identified with the Democratic party, and in religious matters is a believer in the Latter Day Saints' faith.
During his quarter of a century's resi- dence in this county, Mr. Graybill has been an untiring worker, honest and up- right in all his dealings, and stands to-day among the representative men of his por- tion of the county, and is in the posses- sion of an excellent farm home.
OHN WILLIAMS, proprietor of 'Pleasant View " stock farm, Jeff- erson Township, has been a resident of the county since March 19, 1871, when he located on his present farm, sit- uated on section 34, which he had bought in the autumn of 1870. At first he had six hundred and forty acres-an even sec- tion-upon which he has made excellent improvements in the way of buildings, fences and stock yards, with windmill and a complete system of water-works, bring- ing the whole tract under a high state of cultivation. He does a large stock busi- ness, handling grade and full blood Short- horn cattle, Percheron Norman horses, Poland-China hogs. He is an extensive live-stock feeder and shipper.
Mr. Williams was born in Fayette
55
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County, Ohio, December 17, 1827, and is the son of John and Sarah (Dungan) Wil- liams. The father was from near Lexing- ton, Ky., born in 1800, and came to Ohio when a young man. He died in Noble County, Ind., during the month of Sep- tember, 1851.
His wife, the mother of our subject, died in Noble County, Ind., when John was but a small boy.
Mr. Williams, before and after he was of age, worked out and divided his earnings with his father, who was a poor man and afflicted with a rose cancer on his neck, and had broken down his health by hard work. He was married July 8, 1849, to Sarah Anderson, daughter of David and Mary (Shafer) Anderson, both natives of Ohio. The father died in Taylor County, Iowa, and the mother in Noble County, Ind., in March, 1853.
In October, 1852, Mr. and Mrs. Wil- liams left the Hoosier State, and went to Mason County, Ill., where they remained on a farm until they came to Harrison County, in 1871.
Mr. Williams' early experience in farm- life was in a timbered country, where it was necessary to clear the land with grub- hoe and axe, and when sufficiently clear to raise grain upon the harvesting was accomplished by the use of a sickle, and the threshing by use of a flail.
In those early days money was very scarce, and the youth of the land did not squander the money as they do at the present time, for they knew too well its cost. Seventy-five cents was the most that our subject or any of his companions ever spent on any public day. It may be justly claimed that he of whom we write is purely a self-made man, never having the advantages of the excellent schools which obtain at this time, or even of the
early-day district schools; but by appli- cation and self-study at spare moments through his life, he has become a fairly posted man, the knowledge he possesses being of that practical type which enables him to do business on correct principles and cope with his fellow - men.
Mr. Williams was the fourth child of a family of seven children-Benjamin, Isaiah, Saralı J., John, Rebecca, Johile, Amanda. Isaiah was the mainstay of his father (the elder brother being married and away from home). While Isaiah was making a wagon-hound, as he was hewing on a block with an axe, the handle striking a mis- guided blow, cut his left hand nearly off, which in nine days caused his death from loss of blood.
After the death of this brother, John, . as soon as he was able, was forced into the harness and took the main charge of the work at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having been identified with the denomination since 1855, previous to which time our subject had been a member of the Free Will Baptist Church, uniting with the same in 1849.
Our subject and his estimable wife have been blessed with nine children-Mary, who died when two years of age; David, Josiah, Hattie, Elenor, Jolın H., Adelia, Laura A., and Luella.
Hattie married Thomas B. Dakan, who is a partner of Mr. Williams and lives on the same farm. Their marriage occurred October 28, 1871. John H. is in Omaha working at contracting with Petrie Bros., formerly of Logan. Laura A. married Perry E. Gardner, and lives in Kansas, while the balance of the family are resi- dents of Harrison County.
In reviewing the lifework of this busy
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man of rural pursuits, and recounting the early hardships through which he passed from his earliest boyhood days until he crossed the threshold of young manhood, engaging in life's conflict for himself, to- gether with the fact of his care and kind- ness for his father, one can but feel that this is a character of nobility and manli- ness of which the world has none too many.
ATHEW L. JENNINGS, one of the representative farmers of Harri- son Township, was born near Pitts- burg, Pa., April 9, 1832. He is a son of Levi and Emily Jennings, whose sketch will be found at another place in this work. When our subject was two years of age, the family removed to La Salle County, Ill., where he was reared and spent his early life, and remained nearly always until 1881, when his family came to Harrison County, Iowa. He has always devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. He was married January 5, 1870, to Clara C. Pherguson,, who was born in McKeen County, Pa., April 30, 1851. She is the daughter of Ambrose S. and Lydia, (Morse) Pherguson, both nat- ives of York State, and possibly of Scotch extraction. The father was born April 30, 1815, and died November 29, 1887. His wife was born July 24, 1831, and is still living in Harrison County. The father was a farmer, and came to Harrison County, Iowa, in 1881. They had a fam- ily of six children : Mary, deceased ; infant daughter, deceased; Clara C., the wife of our subject; DeWitt C., a resident of Harrison County ; Frank, a resident of the
county ; Martha, wife of Charles Tedman, residing in Harrison County.
Our subject located on a one hundred and twenty-acre improved farm on section 27, of Harrison Township. Here he has made his home for the past ten years, having been engaged in farming and stock raising exclusively. He has a family of five children : Jennie, deceased ; Emily L., deceased; Arthur L., Minnie and Edna, at home.
Politically, Mr. Jennings is a Republi- can, and in religious affairs it may be said that heis a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is looked upon as one of the leading citizens in his part of the county. Mrs. Jennings is a member of the Farm- ers Wives Society; she and her husband are hearty supporters of anything which tends to better the condition of society around them.
OHN G. NELSON, of section 4, Taylor Township, came to Harrison County in the autumn of 1865, and worked by the day getting out rail- road ties for the Union Pacific Railroad. He worked in Clay Township by the day and by the month until the fall of 1869, when he purchased eighty acres of land where he now lives, the same being im- proved. In the fall of 1872 he built a house twenty feet square, in which he lived until 1884, when he built his pres- ent residence, consisting of a two-story frame house, 22x30 feet, with an ell 22x25 feet. His farm now consists of three hun- dred and ninety-six acres. This valuable farmhouse has all been accumulated by hard work, as our subject brought no means to the county with him.
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The birthplace of our subject was in that goodly portion of Northern Europe known as Sweden, which country fur- nishes so many of our best adopted citi- zens in this country. He was born March 2, 1844, and remained there until the au- tumn of 1865, at which time he camne di- rect to Harrison County. From the time he was fourteen years old he was a sailor on the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Both- nia, and also sailed sixteen months on an English ship, making a voyage to the East Indies and return in 1864-65.
He was united in marriage in Harrison County, Iowa, November 30, 1873, to Miss Orella Jenkins, the daughter of Lloyd and Elizabeth (Love) Jenkins. By this union seven children have been born to them: Bessie, deceased; Charles I .; Harry L., deceased; Arthur R., Clyde E., Lloyd L. and Mary L.
Orella (Jenkins) Nelson was born in Shelby County, Iowa, June 6, 1856, and when a small child her parents came to Harrison County.
Polit cally Mr. Nelson adheres to the principles of the Democratic party, and in religious matters both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Modale.
RANCIS M. DANCE, attorney-at law, practicing at Missouri Valley, came to the place in 1868. He was born May 5, 1838, in Grant County, Wis., near Plattville. The father of our subject was Drewry R., and the mother Amelia (Saide) Dance. The father came from Plattville to Iowa in 1840, and settled near Delhi, Delaware County, where he followed farming, and there died in 1848.
Our subject is the second child in a family of three sons and one daughter. His mother, after the death of our subject's father, married John W. Penn, and by this second union there were five children born.
Our subject's early education was re- ceived at the common-schools of Delaware County, and later on he attended Cornell College at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, for one year, and then went to the Epworth Sem- inary at Epworth, Iowa, for one year, and from there went to the Michigan Uni- versity, where he took a course in law, and was admitted to the bar in Dela- ware County in 1867, and later was ad- mitted to practice before the Supreme Courts. In the month of May, 1868, Mr. Dance opened an office in Missouri Val- ley, since which time he has been in con- stant practice there, and is the oldest attorney in the place. He has served the county as Deputy Treasurer under George S. Bacon, and has served as Justice of the Peace for twelve years. Was Mayor of the city four years, City Attorney two years, City Clerk for many years, and Sec- retary of the School Board for over ten years. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Valley Lodge No. 232, A. F. & A. M., is a member of Triune Chapter No. 81, being its present High Priest. He also belongs to Ivanhoe Com- mandery, No. 17, of Knights Templar, at Council Bluffs. He belongs to the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of both the Subordinate and En- campment degrees.
Both he and his estimable wife are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Dance was united in marriage Oc- tober 11, 1876, at Logan, Iowa, to Miss M. E. Van Hosen, a native of Iowa, born near Knoxville, Iowa. She is the daugh-
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ter of C. N. and Almira (Cunningham) Van Hosen. Both of her parents are de- ceased. The Dance family are of German descent, also the Van Hosens trace their ancestors to Germany. The Cunningham family are Virginians.
Politically, Mr. Dance believes in sup- porting the best man for the place for President of the United States, but has always voted with the Democratic party.
7.
R OBERT P. McTWIGAN, proprie- tor of an extensive harness business at Missouri Valley, has been a resi- dent of Western Iowa for thirty years. He was born near Providence, R. I., June 3, 1845, and is the son .of James and Mary (McGill) McTwigan, both of whom were natives of Scotland, and were married in that country. In 1840, they came to America. The father was a dress-tender in a cotton factory, and fol- lowed the same until 1856, when he immi- grated to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. His family coming the next spring, re- mained until July and then went back East. In 1861, he and the family went West again and remained one year, but returned, except Robert P., and his brother William H. The father died in December, 1887, the mother having died in 1850. Their family consisted of five children, one of whom, our subject, was the youngest. Three of the children are still living, one brother and a sister living in Providence, R. I.
William worked in a hotel for a time in Council Bluffs, while our subject worked for George McGavren, at old St. John's, and in the summer of 1862, engaged with John Henthorn, to do freighting across
the Plains, under the management of Ephraim Brandriff, who died in Missouri Valley. Mr. McTwigan made two round trips to Denver in the summer and winter of 1862-3, and in the spring engaged with William Peabeler in the same line and went to Denver and from there to Atchi- son, Kan., returning to Denver with another outfit, and there remained until the next season, when he engaged with the Government to do freighting from Denver to New Mexico, during which time much trouble was experienced by reason of their stock being stampeded by the Indians. After this he continued in the employ of the Government under the management of Thomas Pollack, into Kansas and down the Arkansas River. At this time the Indians were very hostile, and many a thrilling incident is narrated by our subject concerning these early day experiences beyond the bounds of civili- zation. The first trouble they experi- enced was a water spout, which caused a rush of water as high as their wagon bed early one morning while they were camped on the Fountain Ka-boyer, which flood raised the stream beyond its banks. Part of the train had crossed over, while the remainder halted the night before on the opposite side, and the only way the last part of the train could cross the stream, was by making the wagon box water- tight and swimming the mules. When they saw the flood coming the wagon master ordered the mules turned loose, and the men that were the least thought- ful turned all the mules loose, without saving one to ride on themselves, and had it not been for our subject, with more foresight, two or three of the men would have been drowned. On proceeding down to Ft. Larned from Lyons, a distance of about two hundred miles, they were
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followed by the Indians, and it is interest- ing to hear our subject, in his own pecul- iar way, relate how that he intended to have the first Indian's scalp. The company were always on their guard, hence man- aged to avoid any serious trouble. Upon arriving at Ft. Larned and seeing about thirty thousand Indians in camp, one third of whom were warriors, our subject said to himself : "Mr. Injun, you let me alone and I will you." From the last named place to Council Grove, the trip was made safely, but upon their return trip, when they arrived at Cow Creek, they saw where eleven white men and two negroes had been massacred, while two boys had been scalped alive.
In the winter of 1864-'65 he started for Rhode Island, but stopped at Council Bluffs and farmed the following season, and made a trip to Ft. Collins, eighty miles north of Denver, and farmed the following summer in Pottawattamie County. In 1868 he was employed in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, and in the spring of 1869 went into the fish trade, but again in 1870-71 we find him tilling Harrison County soil. In 1872, he bought a farm in Crescent Township, Pottawat- tamie County, which he sold the follow- ing year, and then spent a year in Rhode Island, and from there came to Missouri Valley, where for eight years he was en- gaged in the sewing machine business, but since then he has been engaged in the harness business.
Politically he is a stanch Republican, and has been a member of the Council, and was City Marshal of Missouri Valley.
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Drucilla Jones a native of Indiana be- came our subject's wife November 7, 1869. Herparents came to Wayne County, Iowa, in 1854, and ten years later to Harrison County, Iowa. They are now both de-
ceased. The mother was buried in Wayne County, Iowa, while the father's remains were placed in St. John's Cemetery, Har- rison County. Our subject's parents are both buried in Providence, R. I .. his father having served in the Greybeard Regiment from that State during the Civil War. No man under forty-five years of age was allowed in that regiment.
Mr. and Mrs. McTwigan are the parents of three children, James Nathan, de- ceased in infancy; Robert Alexander, born August 27, 1871, still at home with his parents, and William Arthur, born April 28, 1878.
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