USA > Iowa > Madison County > History of Madison County, Iowa, and its people, Volume II > Part 27
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ANDREW J. HOISINGTON. By E. R. Zeller.
The members of the Historical Society who were present at the annual meet- ing about two years ago have not forgotten the able and interesting paper read at that time by A. J. Hoisington. At the request of the president it becomes my agreeable duty to prepare a short sketch of his useful and active life, which, after more than one year of suffering and decline, ended February 25, 1907, at the home of his sister, Mrs. S. B. Johnson, of Union township.
Mr. Hoisington was born near Quincy, Adams county, Illinois, July 12, 1848. He came with his parents to Madison county, Iowa, in 1859, after residing in Greene county some years previously. His youth and early manhood were spent on and about the old Hoisington farm, where the aged parents still reside. Dur- ing three months of each winter he attended district school, the last term being at the Farris schoolhouse, Edward Sterman being the teacher. One term of three months he spent at the Winterset Academy, presided over by J. S. Mc- Caughan, and this was all the schooling he had. Having worked on the farm and attended school during his boyhood, in early manhood he combined farming
ANDREW J. HOISINGTON, JR.
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with school teaching-farming during the summer and teaching during the winter. He was unusually successful as a teacher and there were many boys and girls, now grown to maturity, who were his pupils, and from whom the writer has heard many incidents related illustrating his force of character, habits of thought and mental characteristics.
As suggested by his name, he came into the world as an Andrew Jackson democrat, but like many thousand other Andrew Jackson democrats, the elder Mr. Hoisington became a republican during the early history of the republican party, and the young man may be said to have imbibed these principles in his youth. When he came to his manhood he was active and influential in political affairs, and we know of at least one man who has held an important official posi- tion in this county who owed his nomination and election to the personal efforts of Andy Hoisington.
When the Granger movement was organized in Madison county, young Hoisington entered heartily into the enterprise and was nominated for county auditor on the Granger ticket. He was defeated by but a few votes, notwithstand- ing the fact that he made no effort to be elected, and the other fact that his oppo- nent was that prince of good fellows and adroit politician, C. C. Goodale. We have heard it said that notwithstanding the very cordial relations existing between him and his father, the elder Hoisington refused to vote for him, giving as a reason that .Andy was on the wrong ticket. This may be true or not, it is imma- terial anyhow. About this time he was doing newspaper work, both in Winterset and Des Moines, and in the mail brought to the office where he was working was some advertising matter describing the glories of Kansas and especially that part where the Arkansas river makes a big bend in the west central part of the state. He was so impressed by this that he immediately resolved to go west and went. This move was the beginning of a long period of prosperity and almost phenomenal success. The beginning of his career in Kansas was just where he left off in Iowa ; the climax was property worth half a million dollars and political influence second to none in the state ; the decline came with bad times in Kansas and the final result was a failure of health and comparative poverty.
On going to Kansas, he first engaged in school teaching near the town of Great Bend, and soon after he established a newspaper, which he called the Register, in honor of the Des Moines Register, a paper for which he always had a feeling akin to reverence. The first issue of the Great Bend Register was on May 9, 1874. He struggled along as the early pioneers of that country alone can realize but prosperity soon came and advancement was rapid and uninterrupted. The Great Bend Register soon became the most influential paper in Western Kansas and it was through this medium that he launched his political and busi- ness career. In a few years he became a leading politician of the state; he was idealized and fawned upon by political friends : feared and avoided by his polit- ical enemies. The writer well remembers the Kansas delegation as it appeared in Chicago in 1884, when Blaine was nominated for president. The members of this delegation were all of tall and imposing appearance. They wore broad brimmed, white cowboy hats ; they were loud and boisterous for the proved knight of Maine. Mr. Hoisington was the leader of this delegation, and through his courtesy many Madison county visitors got tickets of admission into the con- vention. When Senator Ingalls was at the height of his popularity he depended
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upon no one more than on his loyal and enthusiastic ally at Great Bend, and during his tours through the state was a guest at Mr. Hoisington's home. He might have had most any appointment which lay within the scope of that influ- ential distributor of administrative patronage, but he asked for none except early in his career, when he was appointed receiver of the land office. He preferred rather to give his whole time and energy to personal, political and business enter- prises. He organized and was president of a string of banks extending over the west half of Kansas from Hoisington on the north, to Coolidge on the south. He was interested in a dozen or more newspapers throughout the same territory. He participated in some of the most vigorous and holy. contested county seat fights throughout southwestern Kansas and usually conducted the contests so as to come out on the winning side. A recent article appearing in the Great Bend Register records the fact that none in that section wielded the political and busi- ness influence that A. J. Hoisington did at one time. He was uniformly and emi- nently successful in all the enterprises upon which he embarked. Such was An- drew Hoisington at the zenith of his power and influence, and it was at this time that there was a town built on the newly opened Missouri Pacific Railway and named in his honor, Hoisington.
Financial disaster, bank failures, industrial and financial depression, due to crop failure and collapsed business adventures, together with bad crops and grass- hoppers, swept down to ruin thousands of well planned and hopeful appearing enterprises. Mr. Hoisington was one of the victims ; he was helpless ; he could do nothing but stand by and see his fortune dwindle away by the thousands each day. In the midst of his reverses his faithful wife, whom he had married in this county the same year he had left here, and who had always been an inspiration to him, died. She was a sister of George and Sidney Smith, of Jefferson town- ship. Her remains were brought back to this county and interred in the beautiful rural cemetery near her old home in Jefferson township, whither were borne the remains of the subject of this sketch a few weeks ago.
Mr. Hoisington went from Garden City, Kansas, to Kansas City, Missouri, a few years ago, where he published some authorities on banking, but this busi- ness venture does not seem to have been successful. He soon disposed of this and returned to Great Bend, Kansas, where he engaged in newspaper and other literary work until 1905, when he was appointed assistant secretary of the state senate of Kansas. Upon the adjournment of the legislature he returned to Mad- ison county, Iowa, to visit his relatives and write a history of the county. The present editor of the Great Bend Register, in a recent issue says: "There was something in the character of A. J. Hoisington of great worth and that some- thing is not found as often as it should be; he was loyal. No person could ever accuse him of being a traitor to any cause ; in all his political, business and per- sonal associations he never betrayed a man. The writer prized his friendship because it was of the truest kind ; any confidence placed in him was safe ; he would not betray it."
As before suggested, Mr. Hoisington contemplated the publication of the his- tory of Madison county, and he spent the greater part of the year 1905 in exam- ining records, correspondence, and compilation of facts from these sources of information. He was able to draw largely from the fund of information acquired by personal experience in the county during the most receptive period of his life,
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it being from the time he was eleven years old till he was twenty-six. He threw his whole soul and energy into the work, the completion of which was the great ambition of his life. It was probably the strenuous application and close con- finement of this work which caused a gradual and unremitting failure of both mind and body. He was not afflicted with any great bodily pain, neither did he have any violent mental and physical paroxysms of suffering. He gradually faded out. His heroic efforts to put into perfect form facts relating to the early history of Madison county during the first fifty years of its occupancy are greatly appre- ciated by the members of this society and in this he was ably and patiently assisted by our president, H. A. Mueller. The voluminous manuscript which was nearly completed at the time he was stricken down is in possession of either Mr. Mueller or his heirs at law; possibly it is their joint ownership, and in either case it is the sincere wish of the writer, who takes it upon himself to speak for the public, to have it published and thereby leave to the coming generations a befitting memo- rial to A. J. Hoisington and a valuable asset to the Historical Society of Mad- ison county.
BENJAMIN F. BOWLSBY.
Winterset numbers Benjamin F. Bowlsby among its valued and respected cit- izens and Madison county claimed him for many years as one of its leading agri- culturists, but at the present time he is living retired, having now passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey. For more than sixty-three years he has made his home in this state and has been a witness of much of its development and progress. He was born near Muncie, Delaware county, Indiana, September 30, 1839, and is descended from English and German ancestry. His paternal grandfather emigrated from England in company with two brothers and became one of the first settlers of Indiana. He probably served as a soldier in the War of 1812.
William H. Bowlsby, father of Benjamin F. Bowlsby, was born in Union county, Indiana, March 18, 1815. He was but fourteen years of age when his father died and he was bound out to learn the blacksmith's trade, serving a regu- lar apprenticeship. He was reared in the wilderness of Indiana and pioneer con- ditions existed when he opened a blacksmith shop on his own account in Union county. Later he removed to Delaware county, where he married and also con- ducted a blacksmith shop for several years. About 1843, however, he removed to Hollansburg, Darke county, Ohio, where he engaged in blacksmithing until June, 1852. That year witnessed his arrival in Oskaloosa, Iowa. With a team of horses and a wagon he journeyed across the country and after reaching Oska- loosa he rented a shop and followed his trade. He exchanged his team for land at Linn Grove, Jasper county, Iowa, thus becoming owner of one hundred and sixty acres. In the spring of 1854 he came to Winterset and entered two tracts of one hundred and twenty acres each in this county. He also entered two lots in the town, building a shop near the south side of the square. He conducted the business for a year and then built a gravel wall shop on the lots that he had pre- viously purchased. There he conducted business for about a year, when he traded all of his town property for land in Scott township. At one time he was
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the owner of about four hundred acres. However, he built a shop on his farm and continued blacksmithing, while his son Benjamin conducted the farm. The father continued at his trade until November, 1866, when he removed to Osceola, Iowa, where he conducted a smithy until about 1900, when he retired on account of his age. The last year of his life was spent at the home of his son in Clarke county, lowa, where he died June 15, 1901. He was a republican in his political views, active in his support of the party. He belonged to the Methodist church and he ever displayed those sterling traits of character which command respect and confidence. He was a self-made man and his was a successful life, indicating clearly what can be accomplished when determination and energy lead the way.
On the 5th of May, 1836, William H. Bowlsby was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Ann Garretson, who was born in Pennsylvania on the 18th of June, 1817, her parents being Benjamin and Hannah ( Way) Garretson, likewise natives of the Keystone state. On removing westward they settled in Indiana in 1829 and in the year 1851 came to Iowa, establishing their home in Winterset in 1852. Her father was a Methodist preacher and also followed the trade of shoemaking in early life, but in his later years he devoted his entire time to the work of the ministry. In 1861 he removed to Osceola, Iowa, where he engaged in preaching until his death, which occurred in November, 1863. His wife survived him until about 1866 or 1867. Their daughter, Mrs. Bowlsby, went to Indiana with her parents during her girlhood and was married in that state, after which she accom- panied her husband to Iowa, becoming one of the pioneer women of Madison county. As there was no hotel in her locality she entertained all the travelers who came their way, her home being hospitably open. She died in Clarke county, Iowa, August 31, 1904. In the family were nine children, of whom four died in infancy. The eldest of the family were Benjamin F. and a twin, but the latter died in infancy ; Eliza J. is the wife of J. R. Compton, living in Oklahoma City ; James F. is a retired farmer, making his home in Des Moines; Addison K. lived in Clarke county, Iowa, where he passed away; Hannah M. is the wife of An- drew Barr.
Benjamin F. Bowlsby was a lad of about thirteen years when the family came to Iowa. He was a pupil in the first frame school building erected in Winterset. His father was a blacksmith, but Benjamin did not like the trade, so the father exchanged town property for a farm, of which the son took charge, continuing its cultivation from 1856 until he was married in 1860. At that time his father gave him eighty acres of the homestead and he successfully cultivated the place until the outbreak of the Civil war. He and his father, equipped with a drum and fife, made their way all over Madison county, instilling the spirit of patriotism in the citizens and assisting in the organization of Company F, Fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and several others. On the 9th of August, 1862, Benjamin F. Bowlsby joined Company A of the Thirty-ninth Infantry, with which he was connected throughout the remainder of the period of hostilities. He took part in the battle of Parker's Crossroads in Tennessee, in the engagement at Corinth, Mississippi, and in numerous other skirmishes and battles. He was on duty with the Third Brigade, Second Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, commanded by General G. M. Dodge. On the 2d of November, 1863, he was taken to Middle Tennessee, and in the spring of 1864 went with Sherman in the campaign to At- lanta. His division was sent to Rome, Georgia, to take care of the sick and
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wounded and there remained until the troops were started in pursuit of General Wheeler. A month was spent in that way, after which they returned to Rome, where they remained until ordered to Allatoona Pass on the 5th of October, 1864. In the engagement which there occurred the regiment to which Mr. Bowlsby be- longed suffered heavy losses and Mr. Bowlsby, with others of the command, was captured and marched a distance of about two hundred miles to Columbus, Geor- gia, and afterward was taken to the Millan stockade. There he remained until about the time Sherman started for the sea, when the Union prisoners were moved in his advance from place to place. They were first at Savannah, later at Charles- ton for a time and then were taken to the stockade at Florence, where the winter of 1864-65 was passed until the 20th of February, during which time they were kept on quarter rations. In February they removed to Wilmington, North Caro- lina, and two days later proceeded to Goldsboro, but after one day were taken back to Wilmington. While they were there the Union army came up and they had to move on or else the prisoners would have been recaptured by the Union troops. While they were being transported from Wilmington Mr. Bowlsby jumped off the cars and hid himself until he could make his escape. He found some northern sympathizers who hid him in the swamp for about a week and furnished him with food. He was exchanged on Cape Fear river, North Caro- lina. Suffering from swamp fever, he was sent to the hospital in Wilmington, where he remained for six weeks and during that time General Lee and his army surrendered. As Mr. Bowlsby was then able to walk to the boat landing, he took a transport to Fortress Monroe and proceeded thence to Annapolis, Maryland, and on to Benton Barracks, Missouri, where he obtained a furlough and returned home. Ere the expiration of his furlough the war department ordered him to report to Davenport, Iowa, and there he was honorably discharged in May, 1865. He knows all of the experiences of war with its hardships and its horrors and, while he never regretted that he aided in the defense of the Union, he was glad when it was possible to return home, knowing that the country was once more united.
After the war was over Mr. Bowlsby settled on a farm in Madison county and continuously engaged in general agricultural pursuits until 1900, when he retired and took up his abode in Winterset, where he now makes his home. He was married in 1860 to Miss Catherine S. Hyskell, who was born and reared in Pennsylvania and when fourteen years of age came to Iowa with her parents, Jacob and Mary Ann Hyskell. They were also natives of the Keystone state and in 1856 arrived in this county, settling in Walnut township. Mrs. Bowlsby passed away January 27, 1894. There were ten children of that marriage: Ma- rietta, who became the wife of William Southwick and lived in Wisconsin until her death, which occurred in 1904; Minnie, the wife of Sherman Gregory, of Des Moines ; May, the wife of Frank Davidson, of Des Moines; Walter H., who carries on farming in North Dakota; Clarence C., who wedded Miss Emma Brown, of Madison county, and lives in Des Moines; Frank O., a resident of Omaha, who married Miss Elmina Gregory, of Madison county, Iowa; Othello, who died in 1908; Bertha, the wife of William Weyhranch, of Wisconsin ; Fred A., who is a rural route mail carrier living at Winterset and who married Miss Ada Lowden, a native of Madison county ; and Blanche, the wife of Albert Weyhranch, also of Wisconsin. Our subject also has the following grandchil- dren : Ernest, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Southwick, who is married and
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has a daughter; Curtis, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sherman Gregory; Roy and Clara, who are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Davidson, the former being married and having a daughter, Alice May; Edith and Bessie, the daughters of Walter H. Bowlsby, of North Dakota; Everett, Merle and Lucille, who are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence C. Bowlsby; two sons and two daughters who are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Frank O. Bowlsby, of Omaha ; Opal and Emmett, who are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Othello Bowlsby and are living in Kokomo, Indiana, with their widowed mother; Arthur, the son of Fred A. Bowlsby ; and Alberta May, Bernard and a baby boy, who are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Weyhranch. For his second wife Benjamin F. Bowlsby chose Mrs. M. J. Krabiel, a native of Pennsylvania and a daughter of a Methodist Episcopal minister.
Mr. Bowlsby owns a nice residence in Winterset and is still the owner of his farm of two hundred and sixty-one acres of valuable land. He served as drum major of his regiment during the Civil war and is still a good drummer, his serv- ices being in demand at state encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a member of the Des Moines Veteran Drum Corps and National Association of Civil War Musicians, and he is a charter member of Pitzer Post, No. 55, G. A. R., of Winterset. In politics he is a republican and has held various offices, to which he has been elected as the representative of that party. As a veteran of the Civil war, as a pioneer citizen of Madison county and as one of its foremost representative farmers he deserves mention in this volume, and the rest which has come to him is well merited, being the direct result of his perseverance and industry. He has a very wide acquaintance in the county and among his acquaint- ances there are many warm friends.
CLARENCE E. WILSON.
Clarence E. Wilson, of Penn township, is one of the most progressive and energetic of the farmers of that township, and his place on section I is as finely improved as any farm in the township. In addition to growing the usual crops he raises thoroughbred stock and finds that the two phases of agriculture can best be followed at the same time. He is a native of Penn township, born on the 14th of December, 1871, of the marriage of Christopher and Martha (Newby ) Wilson, both natives of Indiana. The father became a resident of Madison county, Iowa, before the day of the railroads and bought land in Penn township of the federal government. For many years he farmed there but the last four years of his life were spent in Earlham. He was successful to a marked degree and acquired almost six hundred acres of land. He passed away on the 26th of March, 1909, but his widow is still living and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Godby.
Clarence E. Wilson attended the public schools in the neighborhood of the family homestead and supplemented the education thus acquired by study in Earlham Academy and in Penn College at Oskaloosa, Iowa. When he reached his majority his father took him into partnership and he continued to remain with his parents until the demise of his father. He then purchased two hundred
CHRISTOPHER WILSON
MRS. CHRISTOPHER WILSON
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and forty acres of land on section 1, Penn township, and has since utilized his energies in its cultivation and development. It is now splendidly improved, the fields are enclosed with durable fencing, the barns and outbuildings are well adapted for the storage of grain and the shelter of stock, and the fertility of the soil has been carefully conserved. His residence is attractive and commodious, and everything about the place is neat in appearance.
On the 4th of March, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wilson and Miss Myrtle Thomas, a daughter of Mark and Almeda ( Barnett ) Thomas, more detailed mention of whom is made in the sketch of E. M. Thomas, which appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have one child, Audrey M., who is in her first year.
Mr. Wilson is a republican and takes the interest in public affairs that he deems to be the duty of every good citizen. His religious faith is that of the Friends church. He is a stockholder in the Citizens Bank of Earlham but derives the greater part of his income from his agricultural and stock-raising interests. He raises nothing but thoroughbred stock, specializing in shorthorn cattle, Shrop- shire sheep and Poland China hogs. He has found farming a very profitable occupation and also a congenial one, as he prefers out-of-door work and as he values highly the independence of the agriculturist. He believes that the suc- cessful operation of a farm demands much expert knowledge and willingness to embody in practice the results of scientific investigators and that the management of the financial phases of agriculture affords ample scope for the exercise of sound business judgment and accordingly endeavors to keep informed as to the latest discoveries in the science of agriculture and to learn exactly the profit that he derives from the various phases of his work. His example is one that con- tributes in no small degree to the development of a scientific attitude toward farming.
FRED HARRIS WILKINSON.
Fred Harris Wilkinson was born upon a farm in Scott township on the 22d of February, 1876, a son of W. S. and Mary ( Harris) Wilkinson, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. He passed the days of his boyhood and youth much as did other lads who were reared in Iowa when it was a frontier state. Much of his time was taken up in assisting with the work of improving and developing the homestead, but his education was not neglected and in the public schools he mastered the rudimentary branches of learning. After reaching years of manhood he continued to reside on the homestead and to cultivate the fields and care for the stock and he is still living on that farm, which is now in his pos- session. The land is naturally productive and its fertility has been conserved by the careful cultivation and rotation of crops, and as his methods are efficient he derives a good annual income from his agricultural labors.
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