USA > Iowa > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, and its townships, cities and villages from 1836 to 1882 > Part 110
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of the Johnson County Agricultural & Mechanical Association for two years; was elected for the three years, but refused to serve, and is a member of the Masonic lodge at North Liberty. He has sold his farm upon which he has raised some extraordinary crops. Has an orchard of over 200 apple trees.
N. ZELLER, JR., farmer, post-office, North Liberty: was born April 18, 1849, in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. When he was only four weeks old his parents, Nicholas and Catharine Zeller, came to Iowa, where he was raised on a farm. On the 11th day of March, 1880, he was mar- ried to Miss Emma Myers, daughter of Valentine Myers of Madison township. To them have been born one child, Raymond. Mr. Zeller follows farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of draft horses and horses for all purposes, grade Short-horn cattle and Poland China hogs. He now has twelve horses, sixty-three head of cattle, and for the present year has, including sales made, 150 head of hogs.
MICHAEL ZELLER, farmer, post-office North Liberty. The sub- ject of this sketch was born Aug. 14, 1824, in Cumberland county, Penn. In the fall of 1851 he came to Johnson county and purchased the land he now lives on. He went back to Pennsylvania, remained there five years, then returned to improve his land. On the 21st day of August, 1856, was married to Miss Mary Doner, daughter of Daniel Doner, deceased. To them have been born five children, four of whom are liv- ing: Alice J., Effie J., Martha E. and John D .; Charley, deceased. Mr. Zeller owns a good farm of 190 acres, well improved with good buildings. He is a member of the Lutheran Church, and one of its present officers.
DAVID B. ZEIGLER, post-office North Liberty; was born in Cum- berland county, Penn., in 1862, where his parents, William R. and Rebecca Zeigler now reside. Their family consists of six children living: James C., David B., Ira J., Sarah A., Minnie and William E. David B., the sub- ject of this sketch, is the second son. March 15, 1881, he came to Iowa with Jno. Beecher, and worked that year for Cyrus Abbott; the present year he works for J. Myers. On the 28th of December, 1881, he embraced religion at a revival held by Rev. D. W. Fink, in the Evangel- ical Church of this place; of which church David is a member.
NICHOLAS ZELLER, Sr., is the son of David and Mary Zeller; was born March 19, 1819, in Cumberland county, Penn. When he was seventeen years old he moved with his parents to Franklin county. He was educated in the common schools. While in this State he followed teaching school, private surveving and farming. In 1846 he came to Iowa and bought R. B. Groff's claim, then went to the land office at Dubuque to enter some land, after which he started for Pennsylvania with only seventeen dollars. Living and traveling as cheap as he could, he got home with forty cents left. Three years after he left Pennsylvania
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with his family; came to Iowa, and settled on his land in Johnson county, where he now resides. After toiling hard for a number of years he gave up the farm to his son, Nicholas. In the year 1843 he was married to Miss Catharine Sleichter, of Pennsylvania. They have five children, all living: Mary, Barbara, Nicholas, Martha and Sarah. Mr. Zeller was converted to God in the fall of 1850, since that time he has been an earn- est advocate of the faith, and an exemplary christian. He and his wife are members of the Church of God at that place. He was seven years a member of the board of supervisors of Johnson county, and has held sev- eral offices of honor, profit and trust, all of which he filled with credit to himself and great satisfaction to his constituents.
WILLIAM ZIMMERMAN, post-office, Lone Tree; was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, September 9, 1853; at the age of thirteen he came to America with his parents and settled near Davenport, where he lived until 1872; when he came to Fremont township, this county, and followed farming and raising stock, and has made a good property, being successful in all his undertakings, and in partnership with his brother, now owns 320 acres of fine land, well improved, and also owns prop- erty in Lone Tree, where he has a hotel and billiard hall. He also owns one-half of a self-propeling steam thresher and has followed threshing five years. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias at Columbus Junction, also of the "Druids" of Nichols, and speaks three languages.
LOUIS ALDER, (deceased); was born October 28, 1814, in West Jefferson, Ohio; died November 23, 1879. He came to Iowa in 1855. He was the father of Ira J. Alder, a resident attorney of Iowa City. Louis was the son of Jonathan Alder, and Jonathan was the son of a soldier of the Revolution, who in his turn was the son of an English family whose name is perpetuated in Aldershot, and Aldersgate. Jonathan was born in 1773, and when a little boy was captured by the Shawnee Indians, who killed his little brother David, but saved Jonathan because he had black hair and "would make a good Indian." He lived with the Indians until he was 25 years old. He was a playmate of Tecumseh, met Logan face to face, grew up as an Indian and never wore aught but a breech clout and blanket from the day of his capture in Virginia woods until his delivery at Wayne's treaty in 1795 when he had forgotten the English language. The story of Alder's captivity, told in Howe's History of Ohio, is of absorbing interest. The case affords interesting study in another direc- tion. Jonathan Alder returned in 1795 to civilization after living as an . Indian for twenty years. He reared a family, of which Louis was one, and they all showed in gait and carriage, in habits of thought, and to a great extent in appearance, strong Indian traits, as do their children in a modified degree, though he and his wife were of the purest English blood.
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Mr. Louis Alder was a man of much force of character, of great energy and was a valuable citizen.
AUGUSTUS B. BAUMGARDNER, born April 26, 1852. In 1871 and '72 he attended the academy at Iowa City, and commenced teaching in the winter of the same year. Has farmed during the summer and taught during the winter since, until the fall of 1881 he was elected prin- cipal of Solon graded school, which position he still occupies with honor. He is a hard worker and close student, being a self-educated young man. The year 1854 was full of stirring events to the little family. The great unbounded and almost unbroken west lured them from their eastern home. They chose Johnson county as a final resting place, and engaged in farm- ing, the occupation they followed in the east. Two sons have been born to them since they came to this State: Walter D., born April 24, 1836, and Alonzo P., born August 12, 1858.
BENJAMIN BLOOM, son of the Hon. M. Bloom, of Iowa City; died at Las Vegas, New Mexico, June 21, 1882, aged twenty-one years. The rapid development of pulmonary disease admonished the thoughtful father of the deceased to seek for him a more clement climate. He visited Los Angeles, California, in company with his father, where some encouraging improvement was apparent and the hope was felt that a complete cure might be wrought. The malady, however, was more deeply seated than its short duration appeared to warrant and suddenly the slowly gathered strength declined and his father hastened to his side. The journey home- ward was taken by easy stages and at Las Vegas hot springs, a spot on which nature has lavished her beauties, the boy passed into a sleep that ushered the rest eternal, with his father by his dying bedside, in a strange land. His ashes were taken to Cincinnati, Ohio, and put to rest in God's acre on lovely Walnut Hill. The broken circle may well sorrow, but not without hope, for the inspiration of the life so early ended is not lost and the bright memory that garlands it is more than a glint of sunshine and of comfort.
JESSE BOWEN, born in Virginia in 1805, died near Iowa City, Tues- day, March 14, 1882, in his 77th year. His parents removed to Ohio in his childhood, and he grew up there on a farm until his eighteenth year, when he began the study of the honorable profession of medicine. His course completed he began practice in Indiana, where he married and lived several years. He early took an active part and had an intelligent interest in public matters. Attached to the whig party and an ardent dis- ciple of Henry Clay, he bore a great part in those public movements in behalf of that statesman, which now make up the basis of many of the heroic political traditions of the Wabash Valley. He was elected to the Indiana senate, and was active in laying the foundations of that common- weath. He came to Iowa territory in 1840, settled in this city and began
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the practice of his profession and took part in the politics of the period, repeatedly leading the whig party, and by voice and pen enforcing its views of public policy and contributing to its energies. He was, we believe, the first president of the State Agricultural Society, was a Taylor elector in 1848, and was selected as messenger to carry the vote of Iowa's electoral college to Washington. He was appointed register of the State land office, and laying aside that public trust lapsed into private life with the decay of the whig party. When party ranks were reformed he was in the van of the new republican organization, his house was the center of activity. To an hereditary hatred of slavery he united the clear- est conception of the means of hardest warfare against it. Let it be said now in praise of his courage that when even Gerritt Smith quailed before popular opinion and slunk into the shelter of an insane asylum after the John Brown arrest at Harper's Ferry, Dr. Bowen, with the dauntless courage that was his highest attribute, faced a nation in arms, and when Seward and even Phillips and Garrison were frightened into seclusion, he walked abroad clothed on with the courage of his convictions. He returned to public life as a member of the Iowa Senate, was then appointed adju- tant general, an office which he surrendered early in the war to accept promotion to the post of paymaster in the regular army, which he held through the civil struggle and until he resigned it some time after the war. His whole life betrayed the high blood of Virginia ; self poised, brave pub- lic spirited, with a dash of the cavalier in him, few men have so well filled the space in life allotted to them. Five daughters survive him, one the widow of Ex-Senator Howell, of Keokuk, is in Europe, Mrs. Cadwallader lives at Stockton, California. Mrs. A. Beach is in Washington City, Mrs. Brad Pendleton, lives in Kansas, and Mrs. Capt. Sterling in Iowa City.
JAMES CAVANAGH, born in Hamilton, Ohio, November 29, 1806, died in Iowa City, February 14, 1880, aged 73 years, 2 months and 15 days. For forty-one years Judge Cavanagh was actively and creditably identified with Johnson county. His father was a native of Ireland, of that Cavanagh family which left its name stamped upon the geographical nomenclature of Ireland, but was driven from its native soil by the oppres- sions which sent at one time 450,000 of the flower of Irish youth to fight in the armies of every country of Europe. A Cavanagh and a McMahon offered their swords to France and in our day a Cavignac has sat upon his war horse and kept order in Paris when paving stones were flying into barricades almost without hands, and a McMahon has been the Marshal-President of the Republic which sprouted in the bloody ground of Sedan. In the scattering of this and other Irish families, the elder Cavanagh came to America, and married an Irish born girl. Of this pair James Cavanagh was born. In 1828 he removed to Michigan with his family and there James, two years later married Amy Kinney Town- send, of the New York Townsends. In Michigan he was successively
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justice of the peace, and for four years elected associate judge of the cir- cuit court for Cass county. Removing to Iowa in 1839, he was one of the early commissioners of this county, was county assessor under the old law, and was commissioned by Gov. Stephen Hempsted to select the lands in the great 500,000 acre grant of the Federal government to Iowa. He was next a representative in the legislature and was the last county judge of this county, being the incumbent of that office when its duties were enlarged and its title changed to Auditor. He served acceptably as auditor under the new law and was subsequently several times elected justice.
EMILY F. CUSTER, wife of James T. Robinson, born in Herkimer county, New York, February 26, 1822, died near Iowa City May 2, 1881. Mrs. Robinson was a sister of Messrs Paul and A. B. Custer. She was of that stout Knickerbocker race which settled not only the Island of New York but the shores of the Hudson as far north as Albany and away up that lovely valley threaded by the silvery Mohawk, leaving for all time its impress upon all the country in the names of its streams and mountains and valleys and villages. Of that blood were Van Ransellaer and the other great patrons, whose manors, larger than feudal baronies, spread their borders over a great part of the Empire Colony. The domestic virtues of her race and its graces of character were marked in Mrs. Rob- inson. She was married in 1842 and came to Iowa the following year. Of her twelve children, seven daughters and one son survive her, mourn- ing one who was indeed to them a mother in the tenderest implications of that tie which binds hearts but once and is broken never to be mended.
GEORGE B. DE SELLEM, a farmer, residing in Pleasant Valley, post-office address, Iowa City; was born February 22, 1849, in Jefferson county, Ohio. He settled in Pleasant Valley township, Johnson county, in the fall of 1858, and resides on section 26. He acquired his education in Iowa City and was a graduate of the law school of the class of 1877. He was married October 24, 1873, to Miss Mary Guant, the daughter of William Guant, of Pleasant Valley. They have two children: Zou, five years of age, and Annie. He is a republican in politics. A member of the I. O. O. F. of Iowa City, also a member of the A. O. U. W., and Legion of Honor.
CHARLES H. FAIRALL, farmer, post-office, West Branch; residing on section 2, Scott township; was born July 14, 1847, in Maryland, came to Johnson county in 1861. He was married November 30, 1872, to Miss Mary Lanning, of Iowa City. They have five children: Mary, Truman Mattie, Clara and Charles. Mr. Fairall is a democrat in politics, and has the honor of being elected to the office of clerk for Scott township. The only democrat ever filling that office since Scott township has been repub lican. He resides on the old Harris farm, owns 320 acres, 100 acres of it
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is the finest grove of timber in Johnson county. His specialties are rais- ing hogs, cattle and corn; on his farm is a fine apple orchard, the oldest in the county, and plenty of small fruits. A good dwelling and a bank barn 50x75 feet, add to the value of his farm. He is one of Scott town- ship's successful farmers. He is a son of Truman Fairall, who died near Iowa City in 1869, and a brother of the Hon. S. H. Fairall, a prominent attorney of Iowa City.
WILLIAM L. FIGG, of South Liberty, was born in Richmond, Old Virginia, on the 12th of June, 1812. In 1844 he left his native town and State, and emigrated to Indiana, where he lived two years. In 1846 he came to Iowa, found his way to South Liberty, entered land from the government, and went back to Indiana. In 1846 he returned to South Liberty, and settled on his homestead, where he died on the 8th of April, 1879. He was then in his sixty-eighth year at his death. Esquire Figg was by no means a common man. For fourteen years a justice of the peace, a member of the board of supervisors, besides filling other offices of trust, he had the respect and confidence of his neighbors and a large circle of acquaintances. He had a family of fifteen children.
JOSEPH KOZA, a resident of Iowa City, a butcher doing business on College street near Dubuque; was born Sept. 21, 1848, in Bohemia, Austria. Came to America in 1867, landed in New York. He came to Iowa City in August of the same year. He was married June 14, 1868, to Miss Mary Pechman. They have three children, Joseph, Emma and Eddie. He is a member of the Eureka Lodge, I. O. O. F. He i's inde- pendent in politics.
ROBERT LORENZ, residing at No. 624 East Market street, and a furniture dealer doing business on Dubuque street, Iowa City; was born May 31, 1852, in Berlin Prussia, came to America in August, 1852, with his parents, Herman Lorenz and wife. They lived in Philadelphia for a while and finally settled in Iowa City in August, 1856. Herman Lorenz was married April 6, 1850, to Miss Bertha Berg, of Berlin; they had nine children: six are dead, and three living, Robert, Henry and Frank. Robert began the furniture and undertaking business in Iowa City in 1880; keeps a fine stock of goods, and a perfectly equipped shop, being a practical cabinent-maker by trade he enjoys the confidence of a large number of customers, and is recognized as a first-class business man. The family are members of the German Lutheran Church. He is inde- pendent in politics. He was married October 25, 1882, to Miss Louisa Volkringer, of Iowa City.
HON. CHARLES McCOLLISTER, was born January 8, 1799, in in Maryland, died May 23, 1876, at his home in Pleasant Valley township, Johnson county, Iowa. At three years of age his parents settled in Ross county, Ohio. He was married October 15, 1818, to Miss Mary Stinson,
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and settled in Pike county, Ohio. The young couple began life in ear- nest, and life in Ohio in 1818 was different from life in the west now. At that date no railroad took the farmer's wheat to the sea and no steamboat had ruffled the current of western waters. Indian foot-prints were fresh in the forests where the young farmer hewed him out a house and cleared away the trees to let sunshine upon it. Here he tilled the soil and those of us who have seen his tall and stalwart form in old age, can judge how matchless must have been the force and how tireless the energy thrown into the labors of his prime. As the country settled around him and neighbors came nearer, his talents for public business were frequently called into use by his fellow citizens, and the sturdy young democrat was often called from his fields to administer such offices as the growing soci- ety and the polity of his State required. To civil administration was added service in turn in each of the lay offices of the Presbyterian Church, which he had joined early in life and to which he remained a faithful adherent. About 1830 he was made associate justice of the court of com- mon pleas, and during seven years service on the bench was distinguished by a natural aptness and a judicial ability which made it evident if he had been trained for the bar that he might have won the foremost honors of the profession. In 1837 he was entrusted with the finances of his county, by election as county treasurer, which place he held for three terms. His home was now no longer the frontier, but was teeming with population, and furnished young men to migrate, as their fathers had done before them, and to found new homes in Illinois and younger Iowa. In 1851 he was chosen to the important office of probate judge, which he filled very acceptably for two terms. In 1855 he left the old home, consecrated by the memories of youth and hallowed by the trials of manhood, and com- ing to Iowa settled in Pleasant Valley upon a rich farm that bloomed around him like a principality. Here for a score of years he lived, surrounded by his children and respected by all who came to know him. The talents which had served so well in the trusts committed to him by the pioneer neighbors of 1820, had grown with the growth around him and ripened into that solid capacity and judgment which never erred, which so distinguished his very latest years.
HON. SAMUEL H. MCCRORY, was born August 6, 1807, in Rock- bridge county, Virginia, died in Iowa City, March 13, 1878. He came to Johnson county, Iowa, in 1837. He was married April 6, 18+1, to Miss Elizabeth P. McCloud. He was a member of the convention that drafted the first state constitution of Iowa. He was a member of the legislature in 1855. He held many positions of honor, profit and trust in Iowa City and Johnson county.
MARGARET HAYDEN MEDOWELL, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, May 28,1814. When she was a child but five years of age her parents, Miles Hayden and Sarah Caskey Hayden, moved to
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.
Orange township, Richland, (now Ashland) county, Ohio, and settled on a farm April 19, 1819. The family consisted of five sons and two daugh- ters, James, George, John, Morgan, Ellzey, Nancy and Margaret. John and Ellzey are still living. Margaret Hayden married Henry Medowell June 15, 1837, and with her husband and father came to Johnson county, Iowa, and settled in Big Grove township upon a farm in June, 1842, her mother having gone to her reward April 9, 1834, while the family lived in Ohio, and her father closed his earthly career January 25, 1849, and was buried near Solon in this county. And now, after nearly forty-five years of blissful married life the subject of this sketch, on the 5th day of May, 1882, departed this life and her noble spirit winged its everlasting flight to the God who gave it, leaving a kind and indulgent husband, a faithful and dutiful son, and a large circle of friends and relatives to mourn her depart- ure. Her son, Arthur Medowell, the present popular and efficient auditor of Johnson county, has lost the best friend he ever had, the husband a true and devoted wife, and the friends and relatives a kind and affectionate friend. Her life was adorned with the Christian graces of love, purity and truth, her heart was always warm with a mother's love, with sympa- thy for the afflicted, herself a child of suffering. She patiently waited death's messenger to close a well-spent life surrounded by kind and loving friends who did all in their power to soothe the fevered brow and allevi- ate her suffering. We can only say to the bereaved ones, "That into each life some rain must fall, some day be dark and dreary, but but never mind, behind the cloud there is a silver lining," and your resignation should be in the spirit expressed by the poet, when he says:
" Strike thou, the master, We thy keys, the anthems of thy destinies, Our hearts shall breath the old refrain -- Thy will be done."
FRANK H. O'RILLY, a resident of Iowa City, was born May 27, 1848, in New York. Came to Iowa City, Sept. 18, 1854. He was married Jan. 18, 1870, to Miss Mary A. Jennings. The following named children compose the family circle: Katie, born 1872; Theresa, born 1873, died 1875, of whooping cough; Nonama, born 1879; James B., born 1881.
MICHAEL O'RILEY, a resident of Iowa City and a contractor ; was born 1851 in County Meyo, Ireland; came to America in 1867, landed in New York city; came to Iowa City, 1871. He was married May 27, 1875, to Miss Maggie Kelty, of Iowa City; she died July 18, 1876. He is a democrat in politics, and served on the police force in Iowa City in 1881. He met with a severe accident in 1881, but has nearly fully recovered, and is engaged in contracting for digging large ditches, draining lands along the Iowa river in Johnson county; he understands his business and can get plenty of good work from his men, for he uses then well. He is a member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Iowa City.
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JAMES ROBINSON. Was born in Durham, Connecticut, Novem- ber 4, 1791; died in Worcester, Massachusetts, January 13, 1881, aged eighty-nine years, two months and nine days. The deceased was the the father of Mr. James T. Robinson, of West Lucas. He came to Iowa City in 1841, was our most prominent early leader of the Masonic order and we believe organized here the first lodge. He was the first mayor of Iowa City, under a municipal organization which was made before 1849, and was abandoned for the special charter. He returned east many years ago and reached a great age. Always an active and prominent and wise citizen, a trusted counselor and man of stout judgment, he was a leader in any community and retained these faculties to the end.
MRS. CATHARINE ROHRET, widow of the late Wolfgang Rohret, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John Sueppel, in this city, March 8, 1881, Monday at 7:50 A. M. She was a native of Bavaria, and last September reached the great age of eighty years. With her husband she came directly from the old world to Iowa in 1840, and here reared her four sons and one daughter. She was a good woman in all relations, and leaves a serene and beautiful memory to her many descendants.
ROBERT WALKER, born in Schenectady county, N. Y., Oct. 4, 1802; died Oct. 28, 1879, in Johnson county, Iowa. Mr. Walker came to Johnson county in 1838, and was the first justice of the peace of Johnson county, Iowa. In that official capacity he administered the oath of office to the Capital Commissioners who located the territorial capital on what is now Iowa City. In 1853, he married a sister of Hon. Le Grand Bying- ton, who survives him. In 1860, he moved upon his farm near Tiffin, where he died. During all his long life and his residence of forty-one years he worthily filled an influential position, and earned and deserved the respect which was accorded him.
AQUILLA WHITACRE, was born at Hopewell, near Winchester, Virginia, the 7th of 9th month, 1797, and removed with his parents, Rob- ert and Patience Whitacre, in 1805, near to Miami Monthly Meeting at Waynesville, Warren county, Ohio. In 1820, or near that date, he was united in marriage with Ruth Anna Potts, daughter of Samuel and Mary Potts. After the death of his first wife, which was in the year 1838, he was united in marriage with Ann Cook, daughter of Abram and Ruth Cook, in the spring of the year 1844; died April 23, 1876. In 10th month, 7th, 1865, certificates were received for him, his wife, and minor children, at Wapsononoc Monthly Meeting, Iowa, from Miami Monthly Meeting, Ohio. Three years afterwards, through his influence, a meeting house was built, and an indulged meeting established at Highland, Johnson county, Iowa, and at his death he bequeathed funds to build an addition, which has been done, a preparative meeting established there, and the monthly meeting held alternatively there, and at West Liberty. Soon
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after his removal to Iowa, he was appointed to the station of Elder, which station he filled until the time of his death, and of him it may be truly said, "He was indeed a Father in Israel." He was divinely inspired with the true spirit of discernment which enabled him to judge rightly in reference to the ministry, sometimes in a feeling manner, to extend a word of cau- tion or reproof, at other times when any of the little ones were in a low, discouraged state, he could enter into feeling with them, and as a true father, he was sent by his Divine Master to extend to them timely words of encouragement, to stimulate them to persevere in well-doing, to faith- fully obey the impressions of duty, and thus receive the sure penny of reward. He was one who was not only able, but willing, to be useful to his fellow beings, by rendering them pecuniary aid, when such aid was required. Being kind and benevolent in disposition, he was well calculated to do much good in the community in which he lived. Being of a social, genial disposition, it was a real pleasure to be in his company. Carrying out both by precept and example, those lovely traits of a true christian character, he was indeed worthy of esteem. He was concerned to exer- cise christian charity toward those who did not see things just as he did. He was, when in health, a consistent attender of all our meetings.
HON. SAMUEL WORKMAN, died at the age of fifty-six, in Memp- his, Tennessee, January, 1881, and was buried in the God's acre, near his old home in Washington, Pennsylvania, which holds the dust of many generations of his house. Mr. Workman came to Johnson county, Iowa, a youth, in early days and was for many years a powerful figure in public affairs. An acute and successful business man he took an active part in politics, and represented this district in the State Senate with credit to himself and his party. He revisited this city a few years ago and then showed but few signs of age or declining strength. His sister, Mrs. Samuel H. Fairall, and their nieces the Misses Koontz, and their nephew George Koontz, are representatives of his family left here.
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