USA > Iowa > Washington County > History of Washington County, Iowa from the first white settlements to 1908. Also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Vol. II > Part 53
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To James Hervey Young and Margaret Morrison Henry Young were born seven children: Elizabeth J. Conger : Nancy A. Anderson ; Mary S .; Robert S., who was a member of Company C, Eighth Iowa Infantry and was taken prisoner at Shiloh and died in Macon prison in 1862; James H .; Letitia H. Palmer ; and Gilbert G. Only three survive: Mrs. Conger, Mrs. Palmer and James H. Young. The family came to Iowa and settled in Washington county, in July, 1849.
James H. Young, the surviving son of this estimable family was one of the pioneer bankers of Washington county, being one of the men who organ- ized the Washington County Savings Bank and having served as its first cashier. He was educated in the public schools of Washington, Iowa, and later attended Washington College. He did not graduate, he left his books to join Company C, Nineteenth Iowa Infantry. He was studious, particu- larly strong in mathematics and the languages. After the war he engaged in farming for a few years and later went into the mercantile business. After serving as cashier of the Washington County Savings Bank for a number of years, he became president of the bank and acted in that capacity for several years more.
He was always a republican, quiet and non-combative in his politics, as in everything else. He was a member of the Second United Presbyterian church of Washington and was repeatedly a delegate to the general assembly, as well as to the presbytery and the synod. He was an elder in the church, and a member of the G. A. R. He was an independent man in his views and actions, unassuming, careful and absolutely honest. He was far-sighted in business and unqualifiedly successful.
He was married in November, 1867, to Nancy Elizabeth Laughead, the daughter of Rev. Isaac N. Laughead. They have no children. They resided in Washington until in 1902, when they removed to Pasadena, California, to enjoy the milder climate.
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Mrs. Young was a member of the well known Laughead family. Her father was the son of David Laughead, and was born November 12, 1810, at Morris Creek, Greene county, Ohio. Her mother, Nancy Anderson, the daughter of David Anderson, was born in Indiana, January 26, 1812. Rev. Laughead came to Washington, Washington county, Iowa, in 1865, with his family, and they resided first in the Vanatta property, now known as the Beaman house.
Rev. Laughead spent about three years in Dog Wood Academy in Ohio, attended Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, for eighteen months, and graduated in the fall of 1834, studied theology in Canonsburg, and was licensed by Miami presbytery, July 10, 1838. He was married on April 13, 1837, and the following children were born to him: William B., who died in the war of the Rebellion; Nancy Elizabeth Young ; David A., who died in Ohio in the spring of 1863: James Harvey ; and Leander. Mrs. Laughead died December 3, 1884, in her seventy-second year. She was a fine business woman. Rev. Laughead says in his history of "The Laughead Family," "Our success is mainly to be attributed to my wife's indomitable energy and prudent management." Rev. Laughead was for many years and from the time of its organization, vice president of the Washington National Bank and afterward became a director. He died July 22, 1894, his wife having preceded him ten years. The Laughead family has always been considered one of the best in the county ; and no history of the county would be complete without a substantial mention of its members.
FRANCIS W. CUSHMAN.
On May 8, 1867, a son was born to Dr. and Mrs. Cushman, one of the pioneer doctors of the county, at Brighton, and he was named Francis W. He was educated in the public schools there, and at the Pleasant Plain Acad- emy nearby. To earn the money with which to attend the academy he secured the position of "water-boy" on the railroad in the summer time, attending school in the winter. After the completion of his course, he worked for a time as a common laborer or "section hand" on the railroad. At the early age of sixteen, he moved to the then territory of Wyoming, where for five years he worked as a cowboy on a ranch, in a lumber camp, teaching school and studying law. When his law reading was completed he moved to Ne- braska and began the practice of his profession, being admitted to both district and supreme court bars of that state. In 1891 he moved to Tacoma in Washington, where he has ever since resided and where he was engaged in the practice of law until his death, with the exception of the time he de- voted to his duties as a representative in congress. He was elected to the fifty-sixth congress and each succeeding congress until his death in 1909.
Mr. Cushman was the humorist of the house. He made his reputation very shortly after entering congress. In his youth it is said he was different from the other boys and yet every one liked and delighted in his droll and
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laughter-producing sayings and ways. He was an unusually popular and trusted public official. His actual achievements in congress were many and valuable. For a time both Tacoma and Seattle were in his district. When gold was discovered in Alaska his duties were very onerous, and he was called upon to do a prodigious amount of work for his constituents. During his terms of service he had no private life, all his time was taken by the public.
As a public speaker, he was in great demand all over the United States.' He spoke repeatedly at the Gridiron Club dinners at Washington, and on April 27, 1909, he delivered the principal address before the Middlesex Club of Boston at their Grant night celebration. It is said to have been one of the wittiest he ever delivered. He was in great demand as a public speaker in the political campaigns, and at dinners and banquets everywhere, receiving hundreds of invitations which for want of time and his public duties he was obliged to decline.
He had a great fondness for Brighton and within a month before his death said, "Many times since I have been back as a man and as a visitor, but I suppose I can't really claim the little place as home any more, and yet I love every tree and every fence and even every clod in the road." He is the only regular representative in congress whom Washington county can call her own.
H. A. LUITHLY.
H. A. Luithly devotes his time to farming on a well improved place of two hundred and three acres in Dutch Creek township. He was born on this place, October 13, 1866. a son of Lewis and Hannah ( Augustine) Luith- ly. The former was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and emigrated to the United States in the early '40s. Prior to coming to America he learned the tanner's trade. Believing that the far west offered good opportunity in his line of business, he made the overland journey to Oregon and there had an interest in a tannery. At the time of the gold excitement he made his way to California, there remaining six years, during which time he met with success. He eventually came east and located in Washington county, Iowa, purchasing a farm in Dutch Creek township, the place on which our sub- ject now resides. He here engaged in farming up to the time of his death, which occurred April 7, 1874, and he also devoted a part of his time to his trade of tanning. In early life he gave his political allegiance to the democ- racy but voted for Abraham Lincoln and subsequently supported the men and measures of the republican party. He was studious, keeping well in- formed on the current events of the day. His wife, who as above stated, bore the maiden name of Hannah Augustine, was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, whence she came to Iowa in her girlhood and was married in Dutch Creek township, where she is still living, making her home with our subject. By her marriage she became the mother of six children : John A., a retired farmer of Ames, Iowa ; Tobias, a farmer of Clay town- ship, Washington county ; Dorothy, the wife of J. B. McCaleb, a farmer of
MR. AND MRS. H. A. LUITHLY
ORK.
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Dublin, Iowa; Willie and Edward, who died in youth; and H. A. of this review.
The last named spent the period of his boyhood and youth on the home farm and acquired his education in the common schools. Subsequent to his father's death, he assumed the management of the home farm, of which he is now the owner, the place comprising two hundred and three acres. It is improved with substantial farm buildings and the fields are in a fine state of cultivation, annually yielding good crops. Aside from his farming interests, Mr. Luithly is also interested in the bank at Rubio, now acting as its vice president and also as one of the directors.
Mr. Luithly was married February 16, 1909, to Miss Augusta Schloesser, whose parents were natives of Bavaria, Germany, where they were reared and married. Her father, Ludwig Schloesser, was born in Munich in 1824 and for twelve years was a soldier of the German army, not only serving his own time but also that of two other men as their substitutes. Coming to the United States in 1873, he located in Mahaska county, Iowa, where he later served as county recorder. He came to Washington, as clerk for the roadmaster of the Rock Island Railroad.
Mr. Luithly is a stanch supporter of the republican party. Having spent his entire life in Dutch Creek township, he is well known to the citizens of this section of Washington county and wherever known he is highly respected for his excellent traits of character.
MARCUS C. TERRY, M. D.
Dr. Marcus C. Terry, successfully engaged in the practice of medi- cine in Brighton as president of the Iowa Association of Healthi Officers, has in other relations outside of a professional capacity proven his worth as a man and citizen. He has been closely associated with business affairs in Brighton as a banker and as president of the Brighton Telephone Company, and his fellow citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, have called him to serve as their chief executive officer. Dr. Terry is numbered among the native sons of Washington county, his birth having occurred within its borders on the 13th of May, 1845. His parents were James L. L. and Sarah J. Terry. His father, a dealer in harness and leather in this county, was a Kentuckian by birth-a typical southerner, well informed and a close observer. His private character and public record remained untar- nished to the day of his death, which occurred in Washington, Iowa, in 1894. He was a man of very definite opinions, politically, religiously and morally, and never swerved in support of his honest convictions.
Dr. Terry, whose name introduces this review, was educated in the public schools and in Washington College, where he acquired his more specifically literary training, while his professional education was obtained at Rush Medical College in Chicago. Having early chosen medicine as his life work the nature of his studies as far as practicable were always along that line.
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He entered upon the active practice of medicine at Grandview, Louisa county, Iowa, in 1868 and a year later removed to Conesville. Muscatine county, where he remained in active practice until locating in Brighton, Wash- ington county, in 1879. Here he has remained continuously since and his ability in the line of his profession has long been attested in the liberal pat- ronage extended him. He is now the president of the Iowa Association of Health Officers and a member of the Iowa State Medical Society, of its House of Delegates, the Eastern Iowa Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Iowa Association of Railway Surgeons, and the National Association of Railway Surgeons. For a number of years he was local surgeon for the Burlington & Western Railroad Company and also for the Burlington & Northwestern Railway. Throughout all the intervening years between his advent as a practitioner and the present he has kept in close touch with the advance of the medical fraternity, adopting for his own profes- sional requirements such measures and views as his judgment has sanctioned as of value in the treatment of disease. He has been examiner for a number of life insurance companies and has been identified with various substantial inter- ests in Brighton, his labors constituting a potent force in the business develop- ment and progress of the town. He was influential in the organization of the National Bank of Brighton, of which he was chosen president, and when later this was converted into the Savings Bank of Brighton he also became president of the latter. He is likewise the president of the Brighton Tele- phone Company, an incorporated company capitalized for twenty-five thou- sand dollars, and is financially and officially interested in other organizations.
On the 13th of May, 1868, in Brighton,, Iowa, Dr. Terry was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte M. Israel, a daughter of Reuben Israel, a mer- chant and highly respected citizen of this place. Unto them have been born three children: Dr. M. C. Terry, of San Francisco, California, who married Anne Burrell, daughter of Howard A. Burrell, of Washington, Iowa ; Glenn I., of Des Moines. Iowa, who wedded Miss Edith Boynton, of that city ; and Grace M., who died at the age of ten years.
Dr. Terry and his family have ever occupied an enviable position in the social circles of Brighton and he also fills a high place in public regard, as is indicated in the civic honors which have been conferred upon him. He was elected and served as a member of the city council and later was chosen to the office of mayor, in which position he gave a public-spirited and pro- gressive administration, characterized by a needed and substantial reform and progress. He has been a republican in politics since casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln and has represented the party on various occasions as a delegate to the county and state conventions. He is a Free Mason of high degree, belonging to Richland Lodge, No. 38. A. F. & A. M .; to the council of Washington ; to Cyrus Chapter, No. 13, R. A. M .; to Bethlehem Commandery. No. 45, K. T. : and to Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Davenport. His religious faith is embodied in the words : "Walk humbly with thy God, do justly and love mercy. is the whole duty of man." He believes that whoever lives according to that admonition anywhere in the wide world will be accepted of the Father. He was reared under the influence of the Chris-
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tion church, to which a pious father and mother gave allegiance throughout their lives. His own worth of character has gained him the unqualified regard of his fellow citizens and has bound him to many strong ties of affection.
B. P. MOOMEY.
B. P. Moomey is a photographer of Wellman whose ability is winning him merited and growing success. He does artistic work, is familiar with the latest processes and the excellence which he manifests in his art is bringing to him a constantly increasing patronage. Iowa numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Johnson county, July 14, 1876. His parents were Leroy and Cora (Frye) Moomey, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Johnson county, Iowa. When a babe of eleven months the father was taken by his parents to Homestead, Iowa, where he was reared. Having attained his majority, he wedded Cora Frye of Johnson county, and they occupy the farm which Mr. Moomey purchased in early manhood and to the development and improvement of which he has since devoted his energies. In their family were two children, B. P. and W. C. B., the latter at home.
The subject of this review supplemented his early education by pursuing a commercial course at Iowa City. He then took up the study of pharmacy and afterward was employed in a drug store at Centerville, Iowa, for four- teen months. On the expiration of that period he came to Wellman, where he worked in a drug store for eight months. He afterward went to Iowa City, where he took up the study of photography, in which he was interested and in which he has since displayed considerable skill and ability. In May, 1899, he purchased the studio at Wellman and has since been located here in the conduct of a constantly growing business. His gallery is well equipped with all the modern processes and accessories and the work which he does is of a most pleasing and attractive character.
On the 5th of June, 1901, Mr. Moomey was married to Miss Austia M. Brown, who was born in Wellman and is a daughter of C. E. and Patience (Sitler ) Brown, natives of Ohio and Vermont respectively. Mrs. Moomey was the elder of two children and has one sister, Jessie. Her parents are still living in the village of Wellman, where they have now long resided, being ever recognized as worthy residents of the community. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Moomey has been blessed with one son, Ire La Monte, who was born June 21, 1902.
Mr. Moomey gives stalwart allegiance to the republican party, believing its principles contain the best elements of good government but is not an office seeker. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias Lodge, No. 51, in which he has filled office for eight years ; is a charter member of Modern Woodmen Camp, No. 1828, in which he has been clerk for seven years, and is a member of the Masonic lodge at Wellman. His wife is a member of
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the Methodist Episcopal church and they occupy an enviable position in social circles, having many warm friends who esteem them highly for their genuine personal worth.
ABRAHAM AND ELIZABETH BAILEY.
The Bailey family comes of Revolutionary stock. Abraham Bailey's father served in the Revolutionary war. Abraham was born in Pennsylvania, Penn's Woods, in 1808. He was one of five sons. His father died when he was but an infant. When a young man, he moved to Fayette county, Ohio, and there in 1829 was married to Elizabeth Kirkpatrick. She was born in 1815. In 1841 they moved to English River township, Washington county, Iowa, where Mr. Bailey entered two hundred acres of land from the govern- ment, adjoining the town of Richmond on the north and west. This farm was improved with a log house and he began at once to clear away the tim- ber. During the next thirteen years he did much toward making a farm and putting it in a good state of cultivation. He is said to have been a man of strong character, exemplary habits and indefatigable industry. He died August 14, 1854, and his remains are interred in the old Richmond ceme- tery. After his death his widow continued to live on the home farm and keep the family together, educating them as well as the school facilities of the time permitted. Of her seven sons, five enlisted in the Union army, the two youngest not being old enough for the service.
They had twelve children. The eldest, John, died at the age of twenty- two, the year before his father's death. The second child was a daughter, named Sarah, who married James O. Todd and is still living in English River. She has one child Margaret, married to I. N. Arnold. Their third child was a daughter, named Hannah, who married John Brown; they had five children, of whom three, Charles, Alice and Ida, survive. She died in 1908. The fourth child was also a daughter; her name was Mary and she married Simeon Work. They have five children living: James, Dee, Elizabeth, Eva and Rue. Mrs. Work lives in English River. The fifth child, Elijah Bailey, was born August 28, 1840, and has lived continuously in English River from his father's arrival there until this date. He was a mem- ber of the Thirtieth Iowa Infantry. Frances was the sixth child. She mar- ried McDemus Gilbert and lived at Lebanon, Kansas, until her death in 1906. James Bailey, born January 17, 1843, served in the Tenth and Thir- tieth Iowa Infantry. He was married to Margaret Marsh, and they have two children living, Marsh W. and Ida M. Wesley Bailey was born April 19th, 1845, and was married to Martha Cox, daughter of Joseph L. Cox, the old Richmond postmaster. He served in the Seventh Iowa. He resides at Seattle, where he has for several years served as assessor of the county. He has two children living, Charles and Lucy. The ninth child was Ezra, who served in the Sixty-sixth Illinois Infantry and died in the service at Kingston, Georgia. He lies buried in the National cemetery at Marietta,
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Georgia. William Bailey enlisted when a mere boy in the Tenth Iowa In- fantry. He had the misfortune to escape the shot and shell of the battles of the war to be killed in a runaway in Richmond in 1865. Benjamin F. Bailey was born January 12, 1852, and married Anna E. Shipley of Manhattan, Kansas, where they have since resided. They have two children, Charles William and Effie. The youngest child was Samuel, who married Margaret Rosa Rogers and they have four children, Aaron, May, Ada and Winnie.
While her sons were in the army, Elizabeth Bailey moved into Richmond, where she continued to reside until her death in 1866. In the fall of 1843, when her son James was about nine months old, she returned to Ohio, her former home, on horseback, carrying her baby with her. She was a typical pioneer mother of the period. She clothed her family from the flax they raised and wool from the sheep on the farm. She kept her eleven children together, managed the farm and brought them all to womanhood and man- hood in a way that was very creditable to any family.
THE THOMAS FAMILY.
Joseph Thomas was born in West Virginia on June 3, 1790. Margaret McDonald was also born in West Virginia and the date of her birth was October 3, 1800. They were married at the ancestral home in April, 1823. In 1854 they came to Iowa and purchased a farm three-quarters of a mile east of Pilot Grove in English River, Washington county, and here they lived the remainder of their lives. The good wife died January 7, 1858, and her husband survived her until January 22, 1866. Joseph Thomas and his wife were of that class of pioneers who laid the foundation, strong and deep, for a civilization in Washington county which has not been surpassed in any other community in the United States.
Unto Joseph and Margaret Thomas were born six children: Moses McDonald, William A., Samuel H., Hiram Washington, Sophia and Julia. Hiram entered the ministry at an early age and was one of the pioneer pas- tors of the Methodist church at Washington. He held a number of pas- torates in southeastern Iowa and northern Illinois. He has written a num- ber of books on the theological subjects and books of his sermons have been very widely circulated. Later he moved to Chicago and is perhaps the most eminent divine of that city and one of the best known in the entire world.
Moses McDonald Thomas was born in West Virginia, March 29, 1825. He and his brother William came to Iowa in 1850 and settled in Washington county. In 1854. when his father and family came from the east, they built the house that now stands on the old Thomas homestead at Pittsburg. On August 4, 1859, he was united in marriage to Mary A. Britton, who had been born in Johnson county, Iowa, February 22, 1837. When his father died he purchased the interest of the other heirs and continued to own and occupy the old home until his death with the exception from 1871 to 1878, when the family lived in Washington, occupying the house which had been
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the first place of worship of the first United Presbyterian church. They had five children : Ellen B., Clara J., Maggie E., Emma M. and Charles W. Clara J. died in 1866. Maggie E. was married to Dee Work, and they now reside in De Funiak Springs, Florida. Emma M. is a trained nurse, living at Iowa Falls, Iowa, and Charles W. is the editor of the Citronelle Call, Citronelle, Alabama. Mrs. Thomas died March 22, 1874, and her husband lived until August, 1906, having rounded out a career of usefulness to the community in which he lived that falls to the lot of few to fill.
Mr. Thomas was unusually fond of outdoor life in the country and was very well informed upon all subjects touching country life. Besides, he was a great reader and an independent thinker, a trait that is characteristic of the entire Thomas family. Although a member of the Methodist Episcopal church he was very liberal in his religious views and had abundant Chris- tian charity for every one.
He had the reputation of being one of the most honest men in the county. It is related that one of his neighbors who had lived beside him for a gen- eration was about to remove to Washington. Mr. Thomas went to see him just as they were moving away and asked whether he was indebted to him for anything. When asked why, he replied, that they had had so many transactions that he feared he might have forgotten something and might be still owing for it.
Mr. Thomas was a republican in politics, though he never held public office. It is within the truth to say, that no man has lived the long span of his life in Washington county and left it with a higher regard of all of his fellowmen.
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