USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume II > Part 38
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On the 19th of August, 1903, Dr. Young wedded Miss Alice Dawson, a daughter of Thomas Dawson, of Center Junction. Three children have been born to the couple: Roy D .; Esther M., deceased; and Ralph E. Fraternally Dr. Young is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and with the Mystic Workers of the World, while he keeps in touch with the best interests of his fellow physicians through his membership in the Jones County and State Medical Societies and in the Iowa Union Medical Association. A skilled diag- nostician and painstaking in his conduct of cases, Dr. Young has won a large
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competence from the citizens of Center Junction. A more concrete idea of his success, however, may be gained from the fact that he owns a farm in Scotch Grove township, one in Idaho and considerable property in Center Junction. While this indicates his worldly prosperity it fails to do justice to the respect of those to whom he has ministered-this he considers the greatest reward of his labor.
FRANCIS MARION GLENN.
Francis Marion Glenn, one of the progressive farmers of Jackson town- ship, is a native of Jones county, having been born in the township where he now resides, October 26, 1858, a son of Joseph M. and Mary J. (Ireland) Glenn. The father was born in Madison county, Kentucky, March 19, 1834, his parents being Wright and Margaret (Bogg) Glenn, also natives of Ken- tucky, where they were reared and married. After their marriage Wright Glenn and wife went to Indiana and spent two and one-half years, when they decided to push on westward to Jones county, Iowa, and arrived here October 15, 1837, having made the journey with an ox team, as was the custom of the sturdy emi- grants in those days. They located three miles west of Olin, where Mr. Glenn took up a claim. His death followed, however, in a year, and the family sold the claim and moved two miles southwest of their first home in Jackson town- ship. Here Joseph M. Glenn remained on the forty-acre farm they secured until his marriage and for three years thereafter, when he removed to the farm which was his home for nearly forty-six years. He eventually became the owner of six hundred and forty acres, divided into three farms. Forty acres of this is yet timber land, but a large part of it was in bottom land, and is now very fertile and exceedingly valuable. In March, 1898, Mr. Glenn removed to Olin, which has since been his home, and he not only owns three houses there but forty acres adjoining the town. Later in life, the mother of Joseph M. Glenn re- turned to Kentucky, where she died in the city of Richmond. She had three children of whom Joseph M. was the eldest, the others being: Elizabeth Gates, now a resident of Smith county, Kansas; and Martin, who enlisted from Mis- souri as a soldier of the Civil war and died in the service of measles, which disease was very prevalent among the soldiers.
Joseph M. Glenn was married in the fall of 1855 to Mary Jane Ireland, who was born in Indiana in March, 1837, a daughter of James Ireland. She came to Jones county, Iowa, with her parents in 1854. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn became the parents of seven children: James W., who lives in Jackson town- ship; Francis Marion, of this review; Margaret M. Houstman, who is now de- ceased; Rebecca Ann, who married John Glick, of Olin; Clara Viola, the wife of Tice Platner, of Jackson township; Jesse and Mary Jane, who are at home. There is also a grandson, Ralph Irwin Glenn, who has lived with his grand- father since he was six months old. He is now a clerk in the First National Bank of Olin and has been for the past four years. Mr. Glenn is a member of the United Brethren church, and is active in its good work.
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Francis Marion Glenn, son of Joseph M. Glenn, remained with his parents until his marriage, when he began farming on his own account upon rented land. He then went to Olin, where he bought a dray business, but, losing his wife, he returned home for four years and then married again. Mr. Glenn then began farming upon eighty acres he purchased on sections 22 and 23, Jackson town- ship, upon which he has made many improvements, and now has in process of construction a fine, modern farm house. He is an excellent farmer and is doing well, making his farm pay him a good interest upon his investment. He is a republican in political faith and has served as township clerk. The United Brethren church of Olin claims his membership, and he enjoys his association with it.
The first marriage of Mr. Glenn was celebrated October 26, 1886, Miss Eloise O'Brian, of Linn county, Iowa, becoming his wife. She was a daughter of John and Phoebe O'Brian, the former now deceased and the latter a resident of Springville. One son was born of this union, Ralph, now assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Olin. Mrs. Glenn died June 29, 1888. On Septem- ber 22, 1892, Mr. Glenn married Susie Strickell, who was born in Cass town- ship, May 14, 1868, daughter of William and Sarah (Munn) Strickell, na- tives of England, where he was born July 16, 1834, and she was born January 19, 1832. Mrs. Strickell came to New Orleans when twenty-one, arriving in November, 1853, and her husband landed in New York city when a young man. They were married at Freport, Illinois, and came to Jones county, Iowa, in a prairie schooner, in December, 1864. The death of Mr. Strickell occurred in 1886, but his widow survived him until November 5, 1906. By occupation he was a farmer. There were four daughters and three sons in their family. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn are the parents of five children, namely: Clinton, Alta, Hubert, Francis and Winnie.
GEORGE B. HALL.
For a number of years George B. Hall was one of the leading farmers of Clay township, but he has now given up agricultural pursuits and has retired to the village of Onslow, though he continues to practice, to some extent, his profession as a veterinary surgeon. He was born in New York state, August 10. 1849, and is a son of James L. and Amelia (Cronkheit) Hall, both natives of that state. In 1852 they came to Iowa, taking up a government claim in this county, which remained their home for the rest of their lives. During the progress of the Civil war Mr. Hall enlisted in Company K, Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He survived the hardships of the battlefield and was ac- corded many years of active life after he returned to his farm, but his wife passed away while he was in the army. Four children were born to them: George B .; Charles A., who lives in Onslow; Eva, who is the wife of E. N. Walker, of Jackson county, Iowa; and Lyman C., also a resident of Jackson county.
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George B. Hall received a fair education in the public schools of Clay town- ship, and obtained a practical preparation for the problems of life at home through the cultivation of the farm, for being the oldest of the family, when his father left to enter the army he and his younger brothers did the work and assumed the responsibilities of operating the place. Their difficulties were in- creased with the death of their mother, after which Mr. Hall, who was four- teen years of age at the time, went to live with an uncle. After one year spent in his home, he went to work upon a farm and then two years later bought a team, which he took to the lumber region and used in the hauling of logs. He was only nineteen when he married and engaged in agricultural pursuits for him- self. First he rented the old homestead and, then in 1882 bought eighty acres in Clay township. on which he lived for three or four years. That property he traded for eighty acres adjoining his father's place, which two years later he was able to buy. It consisted of one hundred and twenty acres, and remained Mr. Hall's home until 1889, when he sold it to purchase two hundred and sev- enty-two acres, which was the scene of his labors for about eighteen years. At the end of that period he felt justified in relinquishing the heavier of his cares and retiring to live in comparative ease in the village. He has, however, not wholly given up his practice as a veterinary surgeon, in which he had been very successful while he followed it in connection with his agricultural in- terests.
In the fall of 1868 Mr. Hall was united in marriage to Miss Jennie J. Hodge, who was one of the seven children born to her parents, Simon and Jane (Dun- ham) Hodge, both deceased. They were natives of Pennsylvania, which was also the birthplace of Mrs. Hall, who was born in Mercer county in 1847. To Mr. and Mrs. Hall have been born four children : George E., of Onslow ; Frank E. who lives in Nebraska; Albert E., of Onslow; and Elta A., who is the wife of Wil- liam L. Brown, of this county. Albert E. Hall was born December 1, 1875, and after having received a common-school education and worked upon his father's farms for several years, in 1907 came to Onslow where he engaged in the livery business. On the 16th of September, 1908. he wedded Miss Jessie Johnston, who was born in this county in 1888 and is a daughter of Frank and Mary (Hanna) Johnston. Her mother was born in Jones county, while her father was a native of Jackson county. He followed farming for a number of years but has now retired to Onslow where he and his wife are living. Mrs .. Albert Hall is one of a family of four children and has become the mother of one son, Herbert Dillon, who was born June 14, 1909. Albert Hall is a republi- can in his political views but has never sought public office. He is a member of Onslow Lodge, No. 2120, M. W. A., and his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church.
George B. Hall has always given his support to the republican party, finding himself most nearly in sympathy with the principles enunciated in its plat- form. while he has been interested in public matters generally, he has never sought official preferment, although he has served as a member of the school board for a period of ten years. With his wife he belongs to the Presbyterian church in accordance with those teachings he tries to order his life. A man who with courage and fortitude endured the hardships of his early years and
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through industry and frugality has acquired a handsome competence, he is well entitled to the rest he enjoys and to the respect which those who know him generously give him.
REV. ROBERT POWERS.
As the procession of years which make up this-the most wonderful age in human history-advances in its solemn march, each observer naturally takes a special interest in the question, "What constitutes or wherein consists the su- periority of our age above all others?" The answers are as diversified as the minds that look at the subject. The statesman sees it in political forces, the merchant in finances, the mechanic in inventions, the litterateur in education, the husbandman points to the ground, and the laborer holds out his strong arm. But the Christian-and that signifies a fair proportion in every class-will for- ever give most of the credit to religion as a factor in the progress of the world. Religion, which values time chiefly in its bearing on Eternity, which refers all civilization to the immortal character of the individual, which works in the domain of mind, not matter, which guides the heart before the hand of man ; religion, whose chart and compass and guiding star is the Golden Rule, "Do unto others whatsoever you would have others do unto you;" religion is not only the coun- terpart, it is the source and center and motive power of all progressive civilization. Without religion society should inevitably sink back in its physical, productive and progressive capabilities to the condition of the aborigines, where the hand of might was ever uplifted against the weak in open warfare, and one generation took a pride in tearing down as much as the preceding generation had built up.
Religion, or the relation of the creature to the Creator, is not a new thing. It is as old as Adam in some form or other. A great Englishman says, "Man is naturally a religious animal." Again our race has been called "incorrigibly religious."
There is too in western civilization an organized religion-the religion of Jesus Christ. It also is believed to have in it the seeds of immortality. In what consists its vitality that it should not die forever? Is it that it is a "feeling," a little personal keepsake, to be used privately within the darkness of one's domicile and aired on the Sabbath in "pious platitudes" and "glittering gen- eralities?" Or is it rather a power to rouse and raise up and drive men out to do something-to dare and do and die-good on the Sabbath and just as good and necessary every other day of the week? What other religion is worth while? What else is the conception of the religion of the Baptist, who hurled defiance at a king on his throne, though he well knew that his head should pay the forfeit? What else the religion of Jesus who "taught as one having au- thority and not as the scribes," though he foresaw that his words should be sealed by the blood of the gibbet? Religion in this sense means much. It is not sustained by sweet "uplifting" talks which never reach the springs of action. It implies an authoritative power which brooks no other alternative than "thou shalt," and "thou shalt not."
REV. ROBERT POWERS
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Now if these things be true ; if religion was implanted originally in the heart of mankind, if its meaning was taught and exemplified by Jesus in the flesh and his Baptist herald, if it is immortalized for the safe-guarding and success and salvation of society, the inference is no less certain that there is no conceivable possibility of preserving, propagating and perpetuating religion except by the au- thorized teaching of the Christian church. America, like other nations, is in- herently religious and American intelligence approves of Christianity, but our present people refuse to attach much importance to the church and-strange to find-the more learning Professor Ethics and Dr. Supernatural pretend to possess, the less seriously they are taken. Consistency, if not gratitude for freedom, should compel us to be Christians. We are a nation of equals who are brothers-brothers of Jesus Christ-one as nearly related as the other. The Redeemer is both our preceptor and pattern. He "hath put down the mighty and exalted the lowly." He declared of himself that he "came to minister, not to be ministered to." In America all are servants-the president is a servant, merchants are servants to their customers, doctors to their patients and the clergy to their parishioners. Americans, too, are all workers. Among them work is honorable-the useful is always noble. God grant that it may remain so. When we get to despise work we are going a long way back to the eighteenth century-back to pre-Christian paganism.
History, profane, sacred and ecclesiastical, is said to be the recorded lives of a few individuals-kings, heroes, authors, inventors, saints-their names in life are on every tongue and after death they go ringing down the corridors of time. But in a democracy where all are servants are not all kings, too? In a sense every man is a hero-the hero of his own destiny. There is no man born into this world without a destiny-he is sent here for a special end and purpose. If he is true to his colors, faithful to his Creator, strong in the pursuit of his life purpose, he is verily a hero. His name may not shine of "Fame's eternal bede- roll worthy to be filed," still though hidden here in the ranks of the unknown he has his angelic Plutarch who will make full record of his deeds in the "Book of Life," and beyond the stars his name and fame will reverberate down through the ages of eternity. The statesman and the soldier may hold up their hands and swear allegiance to the flag, that is to say they are willing to shed their heart's blood for it-a noble thought-it swells every heart that walks to war, but there is a loyalty higher than obedience to purpled royalty or popular congress, it is fidelity to the flag of the Cross-a holocaust of service to follow in the foot- steps of a crucified King and, like Peter, the Hermit, induce others to enter the ranks-"God wills it"-"Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war."
The call of the modern crusader of Christ to come, take possession of the "kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world," seems to fall on deaf ears. People have reversed the order of seeking (secondly) "the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and have transferred their dependence from reli- gious to secular societies. Indeed it takes a great deal of courage to be a preacher nowadays, when what was once regarded as "beatitudes" are looked upon as simple platitudes, when the hearers are so saturated with worldliness that not only the manner of delivering the message is criticised, but the matter of the message is questioned and doubts raised as to whether it came from God, and
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when, moreover, the only weapon the speaker can appeal to-the power of an unanimous church-lies broken into two hundred and fifty fragments in his hands. Well, how much is the church herself to blame for this powerlessness? Has not the human mixed with the divine-weeds with roses? It is a poor sort of piety to kneel down and pray the prayer of the Prince of Peace-"Love one another as I have loved you," and then to stand up and preach the practice described in Butler's Hudibras, of "hating each other for the love of God." The old axiom will forever hold true, "United we stand, divided we fall." The only Archimedean lever to lift the world is the unadulterated Word, spoken first by the Man of Galilee and repeated by the undying voice of an united church. The church is the agent commissioned by the Savior to "teach all nations," and the preacher speaks not in his own name but in the name of a divinely established church.
A great American once asserted that he acknowledged no leading light except the lamp of experience. He meant, no doubt, the experience of his own country ; he thought nothing of the rest of the world. After its independence America is even more unwilling to learn in any other school than that of actual experience. But later or sooner the day will dawn-good for church and state-when the American people will be convinced by experience that "man does not live on bread alone," neither do churches live on mutual contradictions alone. Oh, for the time when all God's children will be one, as God is one, in the faith of St. Augustine-"non essentials, liberty-essentials, unity-all things, charity." The prayer of Moses comes to mind, "Oh, that they were wise and would understand." It was his last word for his chosen people.
Many elements make for success in the ministry of the church. First, genius is not a necessity. Alexander Hamilton was a genius. He created the United States treasury. He could not keep his own accounts. Napoleon was a matchless genius. He could conquer nations. He could not drill a single regiment in the manual of arms. A minister needs talent, though not extraordinary brain bril- liancy. The secret of success is difficult to detect and is not the same in all. There is a talent of the heart, often more potent than power of mind. But an indis- pensable requisite is what is called the "personal equation," that is, broadly speak- ing, a certain something in the man. Is it magnetism, is it born, or is it acquired -a faculty of managing other men-a gift of effectiveness possessed by not one person in five hundred ?
A churchman's standing in his community is not altogether owing to personal merit. It is official. He is a representative of a great service-the ministry of the church-the greatest service that ever was or will be instituted on this earth. Any recognition accorded him is a tribute to the ministry of the church. It is furthermore, perhaps, an implied estimate not of what he is, but of what he ought to be-a man of God.
Jones county has a minister endowed with some of the attributes, positive and negative, that contribute to the good of Christianity and the growth of the church. He has helped, more than a little, to raise the standard of the Cross, break down the walls of prejudice, bring all men to see one another over denominational picket-fences, and make the church pastor respected in the ranks of the com- munity. This is the Rev. Robert Powers, rector of St. Patrick's church, Ana-
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mosa. He is the oldest minister in the county, both in point of years and service. He has done parochial duty in two churches for twenty-eight years. He has baptized and shrived and married and buried alınost a generation of people. He has walked daily before the populace, rejoiced in their rejoicings, borne a part of their weight of woe, and tried to help others to bear their burden. In season and out of season, in every work-mental, manual, social and spiritual, he has taken a man's part.
Of his childhood little is known. His experiences were probably the same as were common to other children brought up in the same country, marked pos- sibly by the prophecies of partial friends as to his future. Neither was his mature life distinguished by any glamour of circumstance. Born on the 18th of August, 1851, in Kilkenny county, Ireland, he saw the sun set behind the hill of Slieve- na-mon every evening for more than a score of his youthful years. Attending the common schools of the locality, gifted with a good memory and mental vigor. he utilized the advantages received in preparation for the work which he believed he might some day be able to accomplish. A "divine vocation" as it is termed, is one of the secrets hidden in the heart of the Eternal. "There is a divinity that shapes our ends." To what extent that divinity is controllable by our own selves, there are numerous reminders in the lives of men. Possibly nature and grace and Providential and parental care combine to carry out the decree of Omnipotence. "The Spirit breatheth where he will." Nature alone can do nothing more than employ its native ability, in obedience to reason, and reason itself in obedience to the mandates of Mount Sinai-unto the end which will have solved the great mystery.
In his seventeenth year, with an ordinary share of school learning, with gen- eral impressions of the world of the present and of the future, the subject of this sketch entered a classical school conducted by the Carmelites. From the be- ginning he showed little taste for muscular amusements but devoted himself to books with a singular determination and ambition.
In 1871 he went to a college (seminary) in charge of the Trappist monks, at Mount Melleray, the parent house of the monastery of that name in Dubuque county. The lives of the recluses residing in that retreat, admirable if not en- viable as they are, make an impression which can never be effaced from the memory of any one who witnesses their modus vivendi, even from a distance. There, more than in any other spot at this side of heaven, will a youthful sec- ular see illustrated the object lesson, "what profiteth it a man to gain the whole world ?"
After spending two years at that abode of solitude, sanctity and scholarship in the study of the "humanites" and mental philosophy, our graduate took his place in the theological seminary at Carlow for a four years' course in physics and divinity.
May 26, 1877, he was promoted to Holy Orders for the diocese of Dubuque, Iowa. The usual period of vacation, given in order to rest, recruit, and enjoy the associations of relatives and friends before the final farewell, was cut short in this case by a despatch to appear at the opening of the scholastic year in Sep- tember to serve as teacher in St. Joseph's College, Dubuque.
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In August, 1877, looking his last on the scenes of home and childhood and friends and country, he crossed the Atlantic, with the greater part of the con- tinent, and on the morning after arrival on the west banks of the Mississippi he began his life work of teacher and preacher and pastor, which has continued without interruption up to the present and is likely to continue, without change of operations or scenery, until the Fates call on him to "shake off the mortal coil."
After six years spent alternating between parochial work at the cathedral and teaching at the college, sometimes combining both, half the day at one place and half at the other, he came to reside in Jones county in October, 1882. Here his face has been to the grindstone of pastoral duty, with only a single month's inter- mission, for nearly three decades. No hope of revisiting old scenes except in dreams, no hope of earthly reward except a sufficiency of food and clothing, that is all the world can give anyway and that is all it is asked to give. It is surely a relief to be one's own executor in every sense of the word, financially, socially and spiritually. Like Longfellow's Village Blacksmith, "he can look the whole world in the face." Like him who had not "whereon to lay his head" it is abun- dant compensation to be able to sit down and rest on the accumulations of a third of a century of toil, to challenge the multitude, "which of you will accuse me of eating the bread of idleness?" As Abraham Lincoln well said. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in." The Nestor of the clergy in Jones county is satisfied. He has no further ambition or desire than to be able, whilst yet he "encumbereth the ground," to administer to the people that a merciful God has committed to his charge, to be laid out in final farewell before the white altar of St. Patrick's church and to rest in the shadow of its steeple until the Archangel's trumpet will call him to come-at the head of his parish- ioners-into the Valley of Judgment.
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