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 96

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

USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States > Part 96

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Our subject received his education at the Brighton High School, and after com- ing to Harrison County, taught for sev- eral years, afterward engaged in rail- roading, and was appointed agent, at Salix, Woodbury County, in the fall of 1881. After three years he resigned and taught the winter term of school, at River Sioux. In April, 1885 he removed to his farm near Modale, but the following No-

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HARRISON COUNTY.

vember received the appointment of Post- master at Little Sioux, which place he filled until April, 1889, and the following autumn was elected Auditor of Harrison County, which position he still holds.

December 14, 1881 he was married to Winnefred A. Bonney, a native of Iowa. This marriage was blessed with two chil- dren : Ardivan R., born in July, 1883; and Benjamin B., in June, 1887.

B ENJAMIN F. LA PORTE, of Lo- gan, is numbered among Harrison County's pioneers, coming here as lie did, in the month of May, 1852, and located at what is now called Harris Grove, and there worked on a farm for Daniel Jewell, with whom he came to the county. In 1853 we find him working for Judge Stephen King, and in 1854, at Mag- nolia, where he went to work at the black- smitlı's trade, and remained there until January, 1857, when he went to Pike's Peak, in company with thirty-five other men, mostly from Harrison County. They took a steam sawmill with them, and op- erated it about five months. After his re- turn from the West, he sold out at Mag- nolia, and removed to Reeder's Mills, where he worked at his trade for two years. The next two years he spent in the State of Michigan, returning to Har- rison County in 1864, and located three miles east of Logan, on the Brady farm. We next find him at the village of Whites- boro, working at his trade, and in July, 1867 he removed to Logan, where he started a blacksmith shop, which he still operates. He claims to have built the first frame house on the town site of Lo- gan.

Our subject was born in Harrison County, Ohio, May 5, 1831. His father was George La Porte, born in August, 1805, and died June 9, 1886. His mother's maiden name was Ann Johnson, and she was,a native of Virginia; she died July 3, 1887, in Cass County, Mich. The grand- father of our subject (on the La Porte side) was born in France.

Mr. La Porte attended the common schools in Michigan, to which State his parents removed when he was four years old. He was married December 31, 1854, at Magnolia, to Sylvia Harris, a native of Van Buren County, Mich., by whom two children were born, Frank and Nellie.

Politically, our subject votes with the Democratic party. He has traveled over a vast amount of the Great West, and is well posted on all pioneer events; and is a man possessing many traits of noble manhood. He will ever be known as one who lived an honest and industrious life.

E ZRA WILSON MILLIMAN, house, sign and artistic painter, at Logan, came to Harrison County, in Feb- ruary, 1865, from Saratoga County, N. Y., and located at Harris Grove, where he en- gaged at his trade, which he continued to follow for three years, and then purchased an eighty-acre farm, to which he added until he now has one liundred and eighty acres, also a fourteen-acre tract adjoining Logan, where he resides. He removed to the last named place in the spring of 1882, and built his present house, which . stands on one of the most elevated and charming building sites overlooking the Boyer Valley.

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HARRISON COUNTY.

Mr. Milliman was born in Saratoga County, N. Y., April 1, 1836. His father was Francis Milliman, a native of the Empire State, born April 9, 1809, and came West with his family in 1865, loca- ting at Harris Grove, and died in Logan, May 10, 1883. The mother of our sub- ject, Emily (Hunt) Milliman, was a native of New York, and died in Ballston Springs, N. Y., April 28, 1849. Our subject at- tended the district school, receiving a good business education. He was mar- ried February 22, 1867, to Mrs. Esther Knight. Their children are as follows- Walter, Ada and Francis.

Our subject enlisted in the Union Army, December 25, 1861, as a member of Com- pany D, Fourth New York Heavy Artil- lery, and served three years, during which time he was in the hospital sixteen months. He was honorably discharged December 25, 1864, at Washington, D. C.

Not unlike other members of the Milli- man family residing in Harrison County, this gentleman commands the respect and admiration of a large circle of acquaint- ances, both in a business and a social way.

OHN S. GOSS, (retired), living at Missouri Valley, came to Pottawat- tamie County, in 1851, and located just over the line from Harrison County. Here he lived for twenty years and then moved to Missouri Valley, where he has made his home ever since. He was born August 3, 1833, at White- hall, Greene County, Ill. He is a son of Sherman and Elizabeth (Watts) Goss. The father came from Knoxville, Tenn., and was of French-Irish extraction, while the mother was of Irish parentage,

but reared in Statesville, N. C. The family were very early settlers in Illinois, the father having been in the Blackhawk Indian War. He was a carpenter by trade, but after coming to Iowa, followed farming: The family consisted of six sons and two daughters, our subject be- ing the second child. Four of the chil- dren are now living, our subject and H. W. A. Goss, of Missouri Valley ; Hugh W., of Council Bluffs and J. C., who resides in California. Mortimer W., en- listed in 1862, in Company E., Twenty- third Iowa Infantry, and was killed in the battle of Anderson Hill, near Port Gib- son, on the morning of May 1, 1863, and was buried where he fell.

The father died August 29, 1855, and is buried in Branson's Cemetery, near Love- land. The mother died April 24, 1881, and was buried beside her husband.

Our subject was married June 1, 1856, at Loveland, Iowa, to Mary S. Copeland, who came with her parents from Putnam County, Ind., to Pottawattamie County, in the autumn of 1852. Her father's name is Thomas Newton Copeland, who still resides in Rockford Township, Pottawat- amie County. In the Copeland family there were nine children. Of the number Mrs. Goss has one brother living, three deceased, and three sisters living and one deceased.

Mr. Goss enlisted as a soldier in the Uuion army, during the Civil War, on April 15, 1862, in Company H, Seven- teenth Iowa Infantry, and was assigned to the Western army. He was first sent to St. Louis, and from there to Corinth, Miss., but on account of ill health, was sent North, and discharged the following December, for disability.

After returning home from the army, Mr. Goss was sick for many months, but

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finally got so he could labor about half the time. On August 13, 1867, he com- menced to build a flat-boat, upon which to run lumber and wood down the Mis- souri River on to Omaha. He ran on the river until 1871, when he sold out and moved to Missouri Valley. In 1876 he sold out his furniture business. His has been a varied experience. In 1867 he went on the Upper Missouri as carpenter on steamer "Gen. Mead," and the fall of that year obtained his license as a first class pilot on steamboats from Omaha to Cow Island, Mont .; also on the Yellowstone. Since then he has secured license as Master Pilot for the Mississippi River and tributaries, and has been on the rivers more or less ever since. Two years of the time running on boats for the Govern- ment between Sioux City and Kansas City.

Since living in Missouri Valley, he was engaged in the furniture and undertaking business, also was in the insurance busi- ness. He belongs to Belden Post No. 59, Grand Army of the Republic, and is also a member of the Subordinate and En- campment Degrees of the Odd Fellows Order. He and his wife are active mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Missouri Valley, of which he is one of Trustees, and was also Trustee of the Loveland Methodist Church, where he erected a church edifice in 1891.

Z ACHARIAH TAYLOR NOYES, the leading business factor of Mon- damin, came to Harrison County in 1856, with his parents, Capt. and Mrs. John Noyes. He was born April 13, 1849,

in Morgan County, Ohio. His father, John Noyes, and his mother, Mary (Starks) Noyes, were prominent in the early settlement of the county, and are made the subject of a personal sketch elsewhere in this volume. The father died in 1855; the mother still survives and is living at Mondamin, at the advanced age of seventy-three years. The Noyes family are of English extraction and emi- grated from Maine to Ohio at a very early date.

Zachariah Taylor, of whom we write, was but a small boy when Capt. Noyes came with his family to Harrison County. His education and early training have all been within this county. His success as a business man and citizen speaks well for the family with which he is associated ; also of the type of manhood produced by pioneering on the frontier of Western Iowa.

When our subject was a mere stripling of a boy he worked in and around his fa- ther's steam sawmill and upon the farm. He soon exhibited good executive and business ability, and in 1872 he began mercantile life at Mondamin, in company with his father, who was an extensive dealer in general merchandise and a grain shipper. Upon the death of his father he took charge of the whole business, hav- ing previously bought the entire mercan- tile business. His present store is a double-room building, well arranged for the conducting of the large amount of business he now transacts. He is a first-class, modern business man, possessed of those manly and busi- ness-like methods that ever win friends, and is almost certain to insure success among men in business callings. No man stands higher in the estimation of his neighbors and also among commercial

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HARRISON COUNTY.

circles than he of whom we pen this no- tice. Like his father, Capt. John Noyes, he is a strong man, in almost any sense this term may be rightfully applied.

To measure a man's worth in a comniu- nity we must needs sound the opinion of those with whom he lias lived and labored for a term of years. In the vicinity of Mondamin, where Mr. Noyes has grown to mature years, the universal opinion is that he possesses great merit as a busi- ness man, as well as abiding friendship and candor as a citizen and neighbor.

Our subject's father's family settled just northwest of where Mondamin stands on section 20, of Morgan Township. The father had been twice married and was the father of thirteen children, of whom Z. T. was the ninth child. Of the eight children who still live, six reside in Har- rison County : Etta, Mrs. Bryan; Maria, Mrs. Doolittle; John H .; Fillmore; G. W. Jr., and our subject.

Jane Pyle, daughter of Hayes and Nancy Pyle, of the Buckeye State, be- came Mr. Noyes' wife, September 9, 1873. Four children have come to bless their home-circle, three of whom still sur- vive:the second born died when eighteen months of age. Ray, born February 10, 1876; Neddie, July 14, 1877, now deceas- ed; Bessie, September 28, 1880, and Helen July 3, 1888.

In his home circle, Mr. Noyes takes much delight and is never so happy, as when surrounded by his interesting fam- ily, within the sacred place called home.

Politically, he believes in and supports by voice and ballot, the general principles of the Republican party. He is an hon- ored member of Mondamin Lodge, No. 392, of the I. O. O. F. Mrs. Noyes is a consistent christian and identified with the Congregational church.

There are but few men who have not yet passed the prime of their manhood, who have achieved the almost enviable business and social reputation enjoyed by Mr. Noyes. Parentage and nature first gifted him with many talents and the school of every day experience has mold- ed him into a man of eminence, of whom the world has none too many. The esti- mate thus placed upon him is but the universal opinion of his wide circle of admirers.

OSEPH A. DEAL, a representative farmer of St. John's Township, came to Harrison County before its or- ganization. He accompanied his father's family from Putnam County, Ind., in 1862. They came overland, the trip consuming twenty-three days' time. The train consisted of three wagons. The father leased land on section 35, until he bought a claim held by a Mormon family. Our subject was a man nearly grown when he came to Harrison County, and in 1861 he purchased forty acres of land on sec- tion 26, known as County Swamp Land, upon which he built a small frame house. His place now consists of two hundred and forty-four acres, one hundred and sixty being under the plow, while the re- mainder is in meadow and pasture land. During the winter of 1856-57, the family were living on the old homestead, and were snowed in (that being the hard win- ter all over Iowa). They had very little flour and meal, and their nearest mill was where Logan now stands. About two weeks after the snow came he started to mill with an ox-team, which trip required four days' time.

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Mr. Deal traces his ancestry back to William Deal, the grandfather, a German by descent, but a native of North Caro- lına. He was married and had five chil- dren-John, the father of our subject; Joseph, Levi, Mary, (Mrs. Zahner) ; and Eliza, (Mrs. Groven). John Deal, the father of our subject was born in North Carolina in 1800, and in 1822, accompan- ied his parents to Putnam County, Ind. His father was a blacksmith and also fol- lowed farming. John worked with him in his blacksmith-shop, and when he grew to manhood married Sarah Barnett, the daughter of James and Betsy Barnett. They were the parents of eleven children, eight of whom still survive. The children were as follows-William, deceased ; Mary Ann, (Mrs. Cox) now living in Allen Township; James, of St. John's Town- ship; Peter, deceased; Barbara, (Mrs. A. R. Cox), of St. John's Township; Rachel, (Mrs. Kirkland), of St. John's Towship; Sarah, (Mrs. Barnett), of Missouri, Eliza, Mrs. Case, of this county; Joseph, our subject ; John, who lives with our subject, and Eli, deceased.

Joseph, our subject, was born June 11, 1836, in Putnam County, Ind., where he spent his early life and attended the dis- trict schools of that county, coming to Harrison County, in 1852. In 1859, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Smith, the daughter of Andrew and Lu- cinda (Walker) Smith. The paternal grandfather, James Smith, married Mary Scarbury, of Tennessee, who was of Scotch descent. She came to Harrison County in 1857. On the mother's side, James and Sarah (White) Walker were her grand- parents. Eight children have been born to our subject and his wife, seven of whom are still living-James, now of Harrison County, born May 10, 1860; Sarah, (Mrs.

Jones), of this county, born November, 17, 1861; Jane, (Mrs. Mullnix), of this county, born March 12, 1863; Martha, (Mrs. Harder), born April 19, 1865, resid- ing in St. John's Township; Elizabeth born April 15, 1867, died April 14, 1868; Lida, at home, born July 7, 1871 : Nettie, (Mrs. Varns), of this county, born October 4, 1873; and William at home, born May 14, 1875. Politically, Mr. Deal affiliates with the Democratic party. Heis a mem- ber of the School Board, to which he has belonged for several years.

NDREW M. ELLIS, a successful farmer of sections 17 and 18, of Little Sioux Township, is the per- son forming the subject of this sketch.

He is a native of Ohio, being born July 12, 1839. He is a son of John and Hannah (Martin) Ellis, natives of the Buckeye State. His grandfather Ellis was named Hezekiah, and was of Welsh extraction. On the mother's side, the father was named Elijah Martin, and his wife's maiden name was Boggs, and this branch of the family was of Scotch-Irish descent. Our subject was the ninth in a family of thirteen children, eight of whom still sur- vive, all living in this county but one.

Mr. Ellis' early education was obtained in Ohio and Iowa, at the common schools. He came to Harrison County in 1855 and began farming, which pursuit he has fol- lowed ever since. The first land he owned was forty acres on section 30, but his pres- ent farm comprises one hundred and twenty acres, seventy acres of which are under cultivation, and the balance in timber and pasture land.

Mrs. Anna Schultz.

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HARRISON COUNTY.

Our subject was united in marrfage in Little Sioux, February 22, 1866, to Miss Alice L. Bonney, born April 10, 1844, be- ing the daughter of Benjamin and Betsy (Jinks) Bonney, natives of Pennsylvania, who originally came from NewHampshire. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis are the parents of four children-Alice May, now Mrs.Scott; Frank L., in Council Bluffs; Susan L. and Dora E., at home.

Mr. Ellis enlisted as a member of Com- pany H, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, No- vember 28, 1861, as a private, and was as- signed to the Army of the West. He was at the battle of Shiloh, and was with his regiment until the evacuation of Corinth, and on account of sickness, was discharged August 10, 1862, at Bolivar, Tenn.

Politically, our subject gives forth no uncertain opinion, but has always voted for and supported the Republican party. He was a member of the Board of Super- visors in 1868, and has always taken much interest in the welfare of Harrison County, and has watched its growth almost from its earliest history. When he came to the county, the nearest mill was on Pigeon Creek, near Crescent City, and the near- est postoffice and trading point was Coun- cil Bluffs. He has endured the pioneer hardships, in common with the remainder of the vanguard to civilization, detailed accounts of which appear throughout this volume.

OHN SCHULTZ (deceased), came to Harrison County in 1855, and the date of his demise was April 26, 1888, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He was born in Germany, March 22, 1824, and when but a young man, bid

farewell to the scenes of his Fatherland, and sailed for America in 1852. After three years of wandering, he settled in Harrison County, Iowa, where he re- mained until the date of his death. He first engaged in business at the old village of Calhoun, which he followed for several years, and also followed farming at the same time. In 1869 he removed to Mis- souri Valley, where he continued in the mercantile business as well as farming in connection. He was an honored member of the Masonic fraternity.

Politically Mr. Schultz was ever an ardent Republican. His life was marked by a quiet demeanor, retired disposition, and a general respect for his neighbors, that made him the friend of all. He was a strict business man, honest in all his dealings, and by his uniform kindness and uprightness of character, he succeeded in surrounding himself with an army of friends whose name was legion. Through his business enterprises, he succeeded in accumulating considerable personal prop- erty and real-estate. Like most of his fellow-countrymen, he loved the word home, and knew well how to provide for a household, consequently on April 29, 1860, he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Jesme, a native of Norway, They are affectionately remembered by the oldest inhabitants of this county, for they were merchants at Old Calhoun, in war times, and their life's record has been one of honor and usefulness. Kind and char- itable to all, they became leaders in the great moral world around them.

Regarding our subject's wife and her own personal history, it may be said that more than a passing notice is due to her. She was born in the month of December 30, 1843, in the North of Europe, and in that romantic country known as Norway,

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where the landscape is ever a feast to the eye. Her parents were, Jens O. and Car- rie (Vangum) Jesme, the mother died in her native land, and the father in North Dakota, November 15, 1886.

When eleven years of age, Mrs. Schultz came to this country with relatives. She now has a brother living in South Dakota, near Brookings. She was the leading spirit in establishing the Library Associa- tion at Missouri Valley, as well as the or- ganizing of the Good Templars of that place, and as an evidence of her valuable services rendered to the last-named order, it only needs to be said that during 1890, she was appointed as a delegate from Iowa to represent the World's Lodge for 1891, of the Independent Order of Good Tem- plars, which convened in the city of Ed- inburg, Scotland, and during her sojourn in Europe, visited ten different countries, including the land of her nativity.

That woman has been a potent factor to the cause of temperance reformation in this country, goes without saying, when one reflects for a moment on the rapid ad- vancement made in the last quarter of a century, even in our own Hawkeye State, through such brilliant, brainy and devoted Christian ladies as are found among the charter members of the Woman's Chris- tian Temperance Union, including Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Mrs. J. M. Aldrich, of Cedar Rapids; Mrs. Mattie Bailey, of Shenandoah, and a score of others, in- cluding our subject, who have made a brave, Christian warfare against the rum power, and in favor and defense of their own home firesides, and the general moral and religious standard of a Republican form of Government. While woman is denied the right of suffrage, yet their no- ble work in an "irrepressible conflict" has given many a strong temperance plank to

the various political platforms, and to them is due in a great measure the fact that Iowa, Kansas and other States, are as near saloonless as they are. And in the sphere in which our subject has operated both in the temperance and educational cause, no one has accomplished more last- ing good than she has. Let this personal notice go down as a memento and record of the good work she has wrought.

S AMUEL ELLIS, a highly respected citizen of Little Sioux Township, came to Harrison County with the vanguard of civilization in 1854, and hence very naturally finds a place in this connection. He was born in Brown County, Ohio, and is the son of John and Hannah (Martin) Ellis, natives of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively. The father's father was Hezekiah Ellis, and the mother's parents were Elijah and Rebecca Boggs, of Virginia. Our subject is of a family of thirteen children-Elijah, living at Omaha; Samuel; Ephraim J., Hiram, and Sylvanus, deceased ; Alexander, living at Missouri Valley ; Silas, deceased; John H., Andrew M., Clark, and Eliza Cooper, living at Little Sioux ; Hannah (Mrs. Bon- ney),deceased; and Luella, (Mrs.Murray.)

Mr. Ellis passed his early years in Brown County, Ohio, the date of his birth being June 3, 1826. He was educated at the district schools of his native county, pass- ing his youthful days on his father's farm and in the mill. Later on he leased the mill of his father and operated it a while, the same being sold to other parties in 1854. His father died in June, 1849, during the Asiatic cholera epidemic.

In November, 1853, our subject came to

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Council Bluffs and remained there until the following March, and then came to what is now Jackson Township, Harrison County, and cultivated the old Martin farm, now occupied by Mr. Roberts. He came to his present farm in 1857; the same is one hundred and sixty acres situ- ated on section 1, one half of which is under cultivation.

Our subject was united in marriage February 10, 1853, at Eagle Creek, Ohio, to Sarah E. Bailey, the daughter of James M. and Cassandra Bailey. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis are the parents of seven children, five of whom are still living: Clark B., Charles E., Dickson, Josephine, Mrs. 'Huff; and Carrie. Frank R. and William W. are deceased. The greatest affliction of our subject's life was the death of his wife, which occured April 10, 1868.

Politically, our subject has always been identified with the Republican party.

G B. SMITH, a successful dry goods merchant, doing business at Mis- souri Valley, and whose mercantile life there is almost as old as the town it- self, coming as he did, in August, 1869. Mr. Smith was born at Syracuse, N. Y., March 17, 1840. He is a son of Thomas S. and Mary (Caldwell) Smith, the father a native of Ireland, and the mother born on the Mohawk River, in New York. The father came to America, when about seventeen years of age, and in 1852, the father and his family came to Rochelle, Ill., and in 1865, to Iowa, locating in Cass County. There the father embarked in the mercantile business, at Lewis, and in 1867 came to Missouri Valley, where he built the first store building in the

place, the same standing a little east of Sixth Street, the ground now being used by the railroad company for switch yards. Our subject's father also built the first store building in Storm lake, Iowa, where he erected what was known as the City Hotel. He died at Storm Lake, in June, 1885. His wife now resides in Chicago, with her daughter. They reared a family of nine children, seven of whom still sur- vive, our subject being the fourth child of the family. He obtained his education in New York and Illinois, and attended the High School at Albion, N. Y., and also an academy at Mt. Morris, Ill.

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History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States, Part 96

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

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