Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 111

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1360

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At his native place in Knox county the sub- ject of our sketch spent his youthful days. He attended school in a log cabin school-house that was fitted out with puncheon floor, slab seats, wide, open fireplace, etc., and recalls as one of his first teachers a Mr. McMillen. Fond of outdoor sports, he enjoyed many a hunt and had an occasional shot at deer which still roved over the Western Reserve. After the removal of the family to Illinois, young Bonnett started out in life on his own re- sponsibility, his first occupation being that of school-teaching in Piatt county, where he held forth in a little log structure and with about fifty pupils. Next we find him employed on a stock farm in McLean county, owned by E. Birney. He has herded stock on the place where now stands Rush Medical College and is familiar with all the country about the great city of Chicago. Ever since 1852 he has been more or less interested in the stock business, raising, buying and selling. Through the kindness of his father he secured 100 acres of land in Piatt county, Illinois, which, however, he sold before coming to Iowa. It was in 1865 that he came to this State and his first loca- tion here was at Chariton. He traveled across the country with two yoke of oxen and two teams of horses, and shipped the rest . of his stock. The following year he came to his present location. Here that fall he built a small frame house, which continued to be his

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home until it was destroyed by fire in 1887. In his operations here Mr. Bonnett has been wonderfully successful. He is now the owner of 4,000 acres of land, divided and subdivided into 40, 80 and 120-acre tracts. An excellent supply of water is pumped by windmills and forced through pipes to every field on the es- tate, thus affording excellent conveniences for stock. In his broad pastures are found no less than 4, 000 sheep of the finest and best breeds, and he also has a large number of cattle and other stock. More than a quarter of a century ago he planted a variety of trees, firs, pines, white, Scotch and other varieties, and these with the growth of years have greatly en- hanced the value and beauty of his place.

December 12, 1859, occurred Mr. Bonnett's marriage to Miss Maria Virgin, daughter of John and Margaret (Hughes) Virgin, a native of Ohio, born February 10, 1834, in the same locality in which Mr. Bonnett was born and reared. Her parents had emigrated to Ohio in the early part of this century and in 1851 removed from thence to Menard county, Illi- nois, where her father died, at the age of fifty years; her mother died in 1862. Mr. Virgin was a Democrat and a Universalist, and he fol- lowed through life the occupation of farmer. Mrs. Bonnett was an accomplished lady of pleasing and happy disposition, was a devoted member of the Episcopal Church, and was a true Christian. She died March 17, 1890, and her mortal remains rest in a pretty vault at the Chariton cemetery.

Born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bonnett were five children, as follows : John V., who is a graduate of Drake University, and who studied law at Harvard two years, is engaged in farming in Benton township, this county; Arthur Isaac, also educated at Drake Univer- sity, is on the old homestead; George Y. at- tended business college at Quincy, Illinois, one year and has spent one year at Drake Univer- sity; Louis Rex is a graduate of the Des Moines Business College with the class of 1893 and has also taken a special course at In- dianola; and E. Ruth, who recently graduated

at Davenport, having completed a scientific and German course.

Politically, Mr. Bonnett is a stanch Demo- crat and has always taken a laudable interest in public affairs. He is not, however, nor has he ever been, an office-seeker. But in 1884, through the earnest and persistent solicitation of friends, he allowed his name to be used as a candidate for Congress, and while he was de- feated he received a complimentary vote. He has the respect and esteem of all who know him, and he has a wide circle of acquaint- ances.

EV. AMOS WEAVER is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Tama, Iowa. The story of the life of this gentleman might soon be told, but its far-reaching influences cannot be measured. It is a life devoted to the uplifting of humanity and the cause of Christianity, and for many years he has been an efficient worker in the Master's vineyard. He was born in Corn- wallis, Kings county, Nova Scotia, July 9, 1837, and is a son of Silas and Sarah (Jackson) Weaver, also natives of Nova Scotia, the for- mer born in 1807, the latter in 1809. About 1851 they removed to Walworth county, Wis- consin, locating on a farm where they spent their remaining days.

This worthy couple became the parents of nine children, six sons and three daughters, of whom six are yet living. Eliza died in De- cember, 1881, leaving a husband and three sons to mourn her loss. Louisa, widow of A. I. Swan, resides in Fairfield, Illinois. Amos is the next younger. Silas E., who served for three and a half years in the Union army dur- ing the Civil war, is a farmer of Walworth county, Wisconsin. F. W. is a hardware merchant of Ord, Nebraska. Hannah A. died in 1868. James departed this life in May, 1871. Henry J. is clerking in Detroit, Michi- gan. Alburtus is married and resides at Glen- wood Springs, Colorado, where he is serving as County Assessor.

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Our subject spent the first fourteen years of his life in his native land, and then accom- panied his parents on their removal to Wal- worth county, Wisconsin, where he aided in the cultivation of the home farm until eighteen years of age. He then pursued a three-years course of study in the Wayland Institute of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and in February, 1861, entered the University of Rochester, New York, at which he was graduated on the completion of the classical course in June, 1863. He was a most thorough student, very proficient as a linguist, and has an excellent command of the Greek and Latin languages, as well as his native tongue. The university which he attended is one of the leading educa- tional institutions of the United States, and he was therein ably fitted for life's practical du- ties.

Mr. Weaver's health had become some- what impaired on account of his arduous study and, consequently, in 1863, he returned to his native province. In the fall of the same year, however, he was ordained as a minister of a regular Baptist Church, and took charge of a congregation at Milton, Nova Scotia, where he remained three years. In 1866 he returned to Rochester and entered the Theological Semi- nary, in which he was graduated in June, 1869. While studying there he also supplied the pul- pit of the church in Fairport, New York, and within the time while he was thus in charge fifty members were added to the church. For two years after his graduation, on account of impaired health, he did not engage in active labor, but at the expiration of this period he accepted the pastorate of the churches in Brownsdale and Lansing, Minnesota, where he remained three years. Subsequently he re- ceived and accepted a call from the Baptist Church at Albert Lea, Minnesota, and while there erected a house of worship. His next appointment was at Vinton, Iowa, where he spent four years, but in the fall of 1879 he was forced to leave that place, his health again failing him. Under the direction and support of the American Baptist Home Missionary So-

ciety he made an overland trip to the West in a buggy, accompanied by his wife.

Rev. Weaver was the first Baptist minister and the organizer of the churches at Ord and Loup City, Nebraska, and did general mis- sionary work in other parts of that State. During the succeeding six months he served as supply of the church in Blair, Nebraska, and then accepted a call, based upon his record, from the Baptist Church in Winter- set, Iowa, where he remained two years, dur- ing which time he added about fifty people to the membership of the church. In the fall of 1885 he left that place to engage in evangel- istic work in Iowa and Wisconsin, meeting with excellent success during the winter he devoted to that labor. His next pastorate was at Keota, Keokuk county, Iowa, where he remained for fourteen months, after which he spent five years in Hampton, Iowa, where he performed glorious work, adding about seventy- five members to the church, and leaving its various societies and organizations in good working condition. He was then again obliged to discontinue his ministerial labors for a time, and took a trip to Denver and Glenwood Springs, Colorado. While on this journey he performed a golden wedding ceremony on the top of Pike's Peak, the contracting parties be- ing Mr. and Mrs. Yale, of Peoria, Illinois. After some months spent in the Rockies, he returned to Iowa much improved in health, and since February, 1893, has been the pastor of the Baptist Church in Tama.

Mr. Weaver has been twice married. In September, 1864, he wedded Miss Fannie Fielding, of Parma, New York, who died in Ord, Nebraska, in April, 1881, being the sec- ond adult laid to rest in the cemetery at that place. In Lisbon, Iowa, February 7, 1883, Mr. Weaver wedded Miss R. Agnes Wilson, who was born in Richland county, Ohio, and educated in Shepherdson College, of Gran- ville, Ohio, at which institution she was gradu- ated on the completion of the classical course, in 1874. For four years she engaged in teach- ing in the public schools of Iowa, being at

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Lisbon for three years of that time. Under the auspices of the Woman's Baptist Home Missionary Society, she went to New Orleans in March, 1879, as assistant to Miss J. P. Moore, engaged in missionary work among the colored people. After two years passed there, she inaugurated the Woman's Home Mission- ary work in Richmond, Virginia, where she spent two years, returning to Iowa in 1882. She is a daughter of John and Martha (Mc- Clellan) Wilson, and has indeed been to her husband a faithful helpmeet.

Mr. Weaver is active in temperance and in general reform work, and in politics is a Re- publican. He is a broad-minded man of ripe scholarship, warm-hearted, of generous sym- pathies and kindly impulses, and untiring in his labors for the uplifting of humanity.

J OHN R. CLARK is the secretary and treasurer of the Western Manufactur- ing Company of Albia, Iowa. He is a native son of the Hawkeye State, and possessed of the true Western spirit of enter- prise-that spirit which has within a few years placed this section of the country on a par with the East, whose development covers a period of more than two centuries. He is a wvide-awake and practical business man, and in the successful conduct of his affairs has se- cured a comfortable competence and won rank among the leading residents of Albia.

Mr. Clark was born on a farm in Troy township, Monroe county, January 3, 1855, and is a son of Wareham G. Clark, a native of Connecticut, where he lived until he had at- tained the age of eighteen years, when he went to New York and there became concerned in merchandising. In 1840 he came to the Ter- ritory of Iowa, making the journey by team. He took up a claim in Monroe county, and afterward when the land came into market entered the same from the Government. The traveler of to-day, in seeing the rich farms with their excellent improvements and the enter- prising towns and cities, can scarcely realize

that half a century ago this region was in its primitive condition, alinost untraversed by white men and giving no indication of the de- velopment which would soon follow. Its transformation is largely due to such pioneer families as that of which our subject is a rep- resentative. The farm which his father se- cured was located three miles northwest of the town-site of Albia. He turned the first furrow upon the place and continued the work of cul- tivation until highly improved fields were yielding to him a golden tribute in return for his labor. He was not only a leading farmer, but his fellow citizens, appreciating his genuine worth, called him to public office and he was chosen a member of the Constitutional Con- vention which met at Iowa City in 1846, and he thus took an active part in shaping the pol- icy of the State.

In 1843 Wareham G. Clark was united in marriage to Miss Jane L. Rankin, of Troy, Davis county, Iowa, daughter of W. W. Ran- kin, one of the pioneer settlers, who removed from Indiana to that county in 1840. Mrs. Clark was born in Ohio. The parents begun their domestic life upon a farm northwest of Albia, and the father there engaged in the rais- ing of grain and stock until 1855, when he sold that property and purchased a tract of land southwest of Albia. There he continued to make his home until his death, which oc- curred June 16, 1890, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His father was Oliver Clark, a native of Connecticut, who traced his an- cestry back to the Puritan forefathers who landed from the Mayflower on the bleak coast of New England. Mrs. Clark, the mother of our subject, still survives her husband, and is living on the old homestead in Monroe county, in the seventy-first year of her age, having possession of all her faculties. Of her twelve children all reached years of maturity. and all of the number still survive, namely: Oliver S., William P., W. Grant, A. R., Emily R., John . R., James F., Asaph D., Charles H., Homer I., Benjamin F. and Edwin L.

The gentleman whose name introduces this

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sketch is the sixth in order of birth. He spent his boyhood days on the family homestead and the work of field and meadow early became familiar to him. In the winter season he at- tended the district schools, and when he had at- tained his majority he left the old home and began farming on his own account. He went to Nebraska, where he secured a homestead claim. In his twenty-eighth year he located on a farm in Monroe county, where he made his home until 1886, when he removed to Al- bia, and turned his attention to merchandising, entering into partnership with his brother, W. Grant Clark, under the firm name of Clark Brothers, dealers in farm implements and ma- chinery of all kinds. They also carried flour and seeds and handled large quantities of timothy seed. They now have the largest establish- ment of the kind in Monroe county, and their business has proved a very profitable one.

In 1892 our subject was elected, on the Populist ticket, to the office of County Auditor for a term of two years, and faithfully and ac- ceptably served in that position. On his re- tirement from public office he aided in the organization of the Western Manufacturing Company, and was made its secretary and treasurer. He is one of the principal stock- holders, and the success of this new enterprise is due in no small measure to his efforts. The company, which was formed in January, 1895, with a capital stock of $50,000, now has a large plant in active operation and is doing a good business. They manufacture the cele- brated Gold Standard pump, deep-well puinps, the Chieftain hay-stacker, and the new Tilting rake; also castings, moldings and lintels. A number of commercial men on the road keep the factory busy filling orders and the articles manufactured sell on sight, so excellent are they in quality and workmanship.

In 1883 Mr. Clark was united in marriage to Miss Lillia E. Boggs; a native of Monroe county, and a daughter of Perry and Jemima (Welch) Boggs. Her grandfather, Josiah C. Boggs, was one of the first settlers of Monroe county. In 1840 he left his old Virginia home

and came to the Territory of Iowa, and in 1 843 took up a claim northeast of the town site of Albia. He was a powerful man, six feet in height and weighing 240 pounds. His death occurred at the age of eighty-five years.

Although Mr. Clark is independent in his political adherency he has yet taken quite an active part in political affairs. As a citizen he is public-spirited and progressive, and his con- nection with the business interests of Albia and Monroe counties have done not a little to ad- vance the meterial prosperity of the community.

A NDERSON MARTIN, who follows farming on section 21, Pleasant Grove township, Marion county, was born on Middle Bass island in Lake Erie, on the 9th of August, 1827, being a son of Joseph and Cleora (Graham) Martin. The mother was born and reared in Simsbury, Con- necticut, and was descended from one of the old families of the Empire State, her maternal grandfather, William Merritt, having been one of the first postmasters of New York city. The paternal grandfather of our subject was one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war and was taken prisoner by the British.

The father of our subject was a native of Kinderhook, New York, and about 1818 was married, in Euclid, Ohio. After several years he removed with his family to the island in Put-in-Bay, in Lake Erie, off the Ohio coast, and sailed on the lakes as captain. In 1830 he removed to White Pigeon, Michigan, and for three years was a resident of that State. He then deterinined to take up his abode in Texas, and built a thirteen-ton sloop, on which to move his family and household effects. He had been operating a sawmill in Michigan, ten miles from any deep water, so he placed his boat upon a wagon and hauled it to a place where it might be launched. Starting by way of the Ohio canal, he went as far as Mills Point, Kentucky, where he left his family while he completed the journey alone. At length he arrived in the Lone Star State, but he was not

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pleased with the country, and, rejoining his wife and children, he took them to Davenport, Iowa, whence they went to Scott county. There the father died in 1848, at the age of fifty-six years. His wife there resided until 1857, when she was called to the home beyond, at the age of sixty-three years.

Our subject accompanied his parents on their various removals until 1847, when he left home to enter the service of his country in the Mexican war. He served for one year as a member of Company F, Fourteenth United States Infantry. In 1848 he returned home and secured 160 acres of land on a bounty war- rant. Immediately he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, plowed and planted his land, and in course of time gathered abundant harvests. At length the once wild tract was transformed into rich and fertile fields, and he continued his residence thereon until 1883, when he sold and came to Marion county. Here he purchased 200 acres of land, two miles west of Pleasantville, but now resides on a farm of 228 acres, one mile south of the town. By hard work, persistent application and un- tiring energy he has added to his possessions from time to time, until he is now the owner of more than 1,600 acres of choice land, val- ued at about $50 per acre.

Again he laid aside the pursuits of civil life to aid his country in her military ranks, enlist- ing on the 20th of September, 1864, as a mem- ber of Company F, Fourteenth Iowa Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and served under General Sully until the close of the war, when, in June, 1865, he was mus- tered out. He has always been faithful to the duties of citizenship and to the advancement of his country's best interests.

In his political views Mr. Martin is a Re- publican, having supported that party since its organization. His first presidential vote was cast for Lewis Cass, after which he supported Franklin Pierce for the Presidency. While in Scott county he served as Township Treas- urer, Assessor and Justice of the Peace, but has never been an aspirant for public honors.

His sister Eliza now keeps house for him, care- fully looking after the domestic arrangements. She was born January 14, 1821. Another sister, Minerva D., born in 1824, is the widow of Eli S. Wing, and is living in Davenport, Iowa. A third sister, Olive M., born in 1834, is the widow of Daniel C. Oaks, who was one of the most prominent men in Colorado. They have a daughter, Laura, now the wife of a nephew of Judge Hiram Bennett, of Denver, Colorado. Our subject has always been a great student, reading extensively, and has kept thoroughly well informed on all the ques- tions and events of the day. His life has been well and worthily passed, and he is now en- joying a well earned prosperity.

3 OHN M. M. ROBERTS is an honored veteran of the late war, who marched to the defense of the old flag and the cause it represented. Through many of the most hotly contested engagements he followed the stars and stripes and well de- serves to be numbered among the nation's preservers.

Mr. Roberts was born on the bank of the Ohio river, in Brooke county, of the Old Dominion, August 21, 1839, and is a son of Samuel and Susan (Double) Roberts, the former a native of West Virginia and the lat- ter of Pennsylvania. The father was a shoe- maker by trade and in West Virginia he remained until the hour of his death. They

became the parents of eight children: Martha, deceased wife of James Wells; John M. M., of this sketch; Rebecca, widow of Lester King, who was a clerk in the War Department at Washington, District of Columbia; William G., a minister of the Methodist Church, now in Michigan; Nancy E .; Emma, wife of James Wells; Eli M., who married Miss Fannie Kay, and is now living in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania; Ella, now deceased, was the wife of William Dunn.

Our subject acquired his education in West

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Virginia, and on leaving school learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed until after the breaking out of the Civil war. Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, on the 15th of August, 1862, he enlisted at Wheeling, West Virginia, and was assigned to Company K, Twelfth West Virginia Infantry, which was commanded by Captain White, and later by Captain Jester. He participated in the bat- tles of Winchester, Snicker's Ferry, Kerns- town, Piedmont and Lynchburg, and subse- quently his regiment was assigned to the command of General Grant in the Army of the James. He then participated in the battles of Petersburg, Fort Cregg and Hatcher's Run, and was with Grant at Appomattox, after which he went to Lynchburg, Virginia, under Gen- eral Harris. He then returned to Richmond, where he remained until mustered out, on the 16th of June, 1865.

Mr. Roberts was always found at his post of duty, valiantly defending the Union cause, and when the war was over returned to his home. He then resumed shoemaking, which he followed until 1869,-the year of his emi- gration to Monroe county, Iowa. Here he engaged in farming for three years, and then returned to Pennsylvania, where he worked at his trade until 1877. He then again came to Monroe county, and in the fall of 1878 located on his present farm in Mantua township, where he now carries on agricultural pursuits, and is also interested in the manufacture of cheese, as secretary of the Mantua Cheese As- sociation.

On the 8th of December, 1859, Mr. Roberts married Miss Emeline Valentine, who was born March 16, 1841, in Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, her parents being T. H. and Char- lotte T. (Finney) Valentine, both natives of Chester county, Pennsylvania. They had eight children, of whom Samuel, Mary J., John, Elizabeth and Elam are all now de- ceased; Benjamin resides in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Roberts is the next younger; and Catherine has also passed away. To our subject and his wife were born thirteen

children: Eliza A., wife of Albert J. Miller, a farmer of Monroe county; John T., deceased; Katie M., wife of D. C. Carlton, an agricul- turist of this county; Samuel W., who wedded Miss Mary Warner, and follows farming in this county; Virginia B., wife of Henry McCormick, an agriculturist of Monroe county; Franklin, who married Miss Emnia Warner, and here follows farming; Charlotte, Charles, Mary P., Fannie K., Bessie, Gertrude and Susan E., all yet at home.

Mr. Roberts has served as Township As- sessor for fourteen years, and is now the County Treasurer of Monroe county, Iowa, having been elected by the Republican party for a term of two years in November, 1895. He is quite prominent in local political circles and his party recognize in hini a wise coun- selor and able leader. He and his wife and also their children hold membership with the Methodist Church and take an active interest in its work and upbuilding. Mr. Roberts is a valued citizen and a popular man, whose career, both public and private, is above re- proach and is highly esteemed by all who know him.

3 OSIAH T. YOUNG, a native of Union township, Johnson county, Indiana, was born on the 25th of February, 1831, the son of John and Rachel (nee Titus) Young.

His parental great-grandparents, Jacob and Penelope (Watts) Young, were of Scotch-Irish and English ancestry, and natives of Jones Falls, twenty miles from Baltimore, Maryland, whence they removed immediately after the Revolutionary war to Armstrong county, Penn- sylvania, where John Young, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born, on the 20th of November, 1806. They were farmers, as were also his grandparents, Jesse and Mar- garet (Wiley) Young, and also his parents. His maternal grandparents, Peter and Rachel (nee Moore) Titus, were farmers and natives of Maryland. Both his grandparents moved

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Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 111

Author: Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1360

Author:
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1360