Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 126

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

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Mr. Driscoll was married January 23, 1882, to Stella M. Agnew, a native of Marengo, and a daughter of John Agnew, a farmer of Iowa county. Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll have had six children,-Mary, Rena, Stella, John, Miriam and Clement. All are living except Mary, who died at the age of three years.

Mr. Driscoll gives only enough time to po- litical matters to be an intelligent voter. He

I.A. M.OKleen.

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is a Democrat. Religiously, he and his family are identified with the Roman Catholic Church and are devout members of the same. He is in every sense of the word a self-made man. He has made every dollar he has. From year to year he has saved some of his earnings, has wisely invested the same, and now has valuable property and money to loan. He owns one farm in Iowa county and has two in Guthrie county.

Thus briefly is sketched the life of a man who has through his own persevering energy and good management won an enviable posi- tion among his fellow citizens.

J OHN ALEXANDER McKLVEEN, M. D., is, one of the oldest physicians of Chariton, Iowa, in years of continuous practice, having located at this place in the spring of 1866. He was born in West- moreland county, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1835. His parents were Henry and Catherine (Lohr) McKlveen. His great-grandfather, Henry McKlveen, was a native of Ireland, who emigrated to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century, his death occurring in Westmoreland county, in 1839 or '40, at the very advanced age of 102 years. His son John, the grand- father of our subject, was also born in Ireland, and during his early youth accompanied his parents to America. He was married just be- fore or soon after coming to America, to Isa- bella Scott, who also was a native of the Em- erald Isle. He died May 13, 1856, in his seventy-fourth year, and his wife died Febru- ary 28, 1852, at the age of sixty-five. He was a soldier in the war of 1812.

The Doctor's father, of Scotch-Irish an- cestry, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1809. He was a farmer and teacher, his death occurring in the county in which he was born, November 21, 1867. His wife, who was of German lineage, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, De- cember 13, 1814, and died in Westmoreland county, February 20, 1855. 50

The members of their family were John A., Jacob L., James Tisdale, William H., Mary, Robison, Isabella, Samuel, Sarah Agnes and Jesse Cramer, of whom James T., Robison and Sarah A. are now deceased, the first and last dying when about two years of age, while Robison died in the Union army during the Civil war, December 6, 1864, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. He was a member of Company C, Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry. The surviving mem- bers of the family are J. L. and Samuel, who are the active members of the lumber and coal firm of McKlveen Brothers, in Chariton, Iowa; Wm. H., who served three years in the Union army, in an Indiana regiment, and is now a minister of the gospel located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Mary, wife of George Kells, a resident of Youngstown, Pennsylvania; Isa- bella, widow of Andrew Cook, now married to a Mr. Bitner, a resident of Donegal, Pennsyl- vania; Jesse C., a mine inspector at Greens- burg, Pennsylvania.

For his second wife the father of this family married Mrs. Elizabeth Cummings, who still survives, and now resides in Donegal, Pennsyl- vania. Four children were born of the second marriage, two of whom are now living, viz .: Kate, wife of Thomas Kelley, a resident of West Newton, Pennsylvania; and Sallie, wife of Isaac Henderson, of Scottdale, Pennsyl- vania. The other two died in childhood.

Doctor McKlveen, our subject, was edu- cated in the public schools of his native coun- ty and at Sewickley Academy. In early man- hood he engaged in teaching, following this profession for several years in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He began the study of medicine in the office and under the tutorship of Doctor James Loar, of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, in 1858, and continued there until the fall of 1860, when he took his first course of lectures at the Physio-Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio. He then engaged in the practice of his profession in Pleasant Unity, Pennsylvania, where he remained for two years. In 1863 he located in Centerville, Ohio, where he re-

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mained a few months, when he settled in La Porte county, Indiana, remaining there for one year. The winter of 1864-5 he spent in Illi- nois, and, not finding a location to his liking, caine to Iowa, in June, 1865, where he spent some time in the search of a satisfactory lo- cation, finally choosing Chariton.

He has never had reason to regret his choice, as in the long years of his residence here he has always had an excellent practice and ranks with the leading physicians of south- ern Iowa. In 1872 he took a course of lec- tures in Bennett Medical College, of Chicago, receiving his degree from this institution. He was entirely self-dependent from the age of fifteen, paying his own way through college. He was railway surgeon for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company for about four years, and was president of the Board of Examining Surgeons for Pensions during Preident Harrison's administration. He served as President of the Iowa State Eclectic Medical Society in 1875-6, and was re- elected to the same position in 1894 and again in 1895. He is a member of the National As- sociation of Railway Surgeons, also of the Na- tional Eclectic Medical Association. In con- nection with his other business interests, the Doctor, on the organization of the State Sav- ings Bank, of Chariton, was chosen its presi- dent and has since remained in that office.

On the 10th of November, 1868, in Free- port, Pennsylvania, Dr. McKlveen was united in marriage with Miss Kate M. Kennedy, whose acquaintance he formed while she was teaching in Lucas county. She was a daugh- ter of Dr. John Kennedy and a native of Arm- strong county, Pennsylvania, was educated in her native State and taught school for several years in Pennsylvania and Iowa. By this union three children were born. Henry Ben- nett, the eldest, is a practicing physician of Coin, Page county, Iowa. He was educated at the State University of Iowa and the Notre Dame University, of South Bend, Indiana. He obtained his medical education. under his fa- ther's instructions and in the College of Physi-

cians and Surgeons, of Chicago, graduating in 1890. He first engaged in practice in Chari- ton, and in the fall of 1894 removed to Coin. He married Miss Lillian De Kalb, of De Kalb, Decatur county, Iowa, December 26, 1894. The second child, Mary Elizabeth, is a grad- uate of Parsons' College, of Fairfield, Iowa, completing the classical course in 1893, since which time she has been employed as a teacher in the high school of Chariton. Jessie is now a student in Parsons' College and will finish the classical course and graduate in the class of 1896. This family was called upon to mourn the death of the wife and mother Sep- tember 22, 1882. She was a most estimable lady, and her loss was most sincerely and deeply mourned by her many friends.

The life work of Dr. McKlveen has been a success, and he has accumulated a fine prop- erty, having a beautiful home and well ap- pointed office, with a good library and all ap- pliances necessary for the intelligent and successful practice of his profession. His time is now largely taken up with his office practice, though he attends calls under all reasonable circumstances.

Socially, the Doctor is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has served as Past Grand and is a member of the Grand Lodge of Iowa. In politics he is a Republican. In his religious views he is liberal. Prominent in his profession, he is also one of the best known and most highly es- teemed of Chariton's leading citizens.

EORGE L. RHINEHART, an hon- ored farmer of Dallas county, Iowa, was born in Parke county, Indiana, March 17, 1847. His paternal grand- parents were Andrew and Christina (Shoey) Rhinehart, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Pennsylvania. The grand- father accompanied his parents to the United States, locating in the Keystone State, but later became a resident of Virginia, where Andrew, Jr., the father of our subject, was

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born. In Indiana the latter wedded Margaret Oldshoe, whose birth occurred in Pennsylvania, and by their marriage they became the parents of five children; but George L. and his sister, Nancy J. Clark, are the only ones now living. The parents came to Iowa in 1853, locating near Des Moines, but the following spring came to Dallas county, where the father pur- chased a mill property on Coon river, in Sugar Grove township. He afterward rebuilt the flouring-mill, but in 1864 sold out and pur- chased a farm, on which he died, at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife had passed away, at the age of thirty-five. In politics he was first an old-line Whig, but later supported the Republican party, and served as a member of the Board of Supervisors, besides filling many other local offices. He attended both the Presbyterian and the Methodist Episcopal Churches.

George L. Rhinehart assisted his father in the labors of the farm and in the mill, while his education was obtained in the district schools of the neighborhood. He remained under the parental roof until his enlistment in the Union service, in March, 1864, at which time he became a member of the Fourth Iowa Battery, under P. H. Good. At the close of the war he was mustered out, at Davenport, Iowa, and now holds membership with Rich- mond Post, G. A. R., of Dallas Center.

On the 29th of June, 1869, Mr. Rhine- hart was united in marriage with Miss Orilla Albin, a native of Elkhart county, Indiana, and by this union three children were born. The eldest died at the age of three years and a half; Charles, who was educated at Lincoln, Nebraska, is at home; and Mary E., who also is still at her parental home. Mrs. Rhinehart is one of a family of twelve children, eight yet living, born to William W. and Mary (Burns) Albin. The father, a native of Virginia, was a son of John and Catherine (Moreland) Albin, who were both born in the same State, but at an early day crossed the mountains to Ohio, where their deaths occurred. . William W. was one of their family of seventeen children.

He brought his family to Iowa in 1855, and died here at the ripe old age of eighty-five years. On the 12th of November, 1829, he had married Miss Mary Burns, whose birth oc- curred in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, Sep- tember 15, 1808, and she yet makes.her home on the farm that her husband secured on his arrival in the Hawkeye State. She is a daugh- ter of Thomas and Martha (Sagers) Burns. Her father, who was a native of Ireland, ac- companied his parents, Thomas and Mary (Polk) Burns, and they located in the Keystone State, when the Indians were still quite numer- ous there. His mother was a relative of Pres- ident Polk. Both parents died in Pennsyl- vania. His death occurred in Ohio, at the age of sixty years, while his wife passed away in Indiana. In their family were nine children, of whom Mrs. Albin and a brother still survive. The maternal grandparents of Mrs. Albin, James and Elizabeth Sagers, were natives of New Jersey, from which State they removed to Pennsylvania but later became residents of Ohio, where they departed this life. Several of the ancestors of Mrs. Rhinehart participated in the war of the Revolution.

After his marriage, Mr. Rhinehart still con- tinued to operate the old home farm for five years, and on the expiration of that time pur- chased 220 acres of wild land, entirely uniin- proved, on which he erected a frame house. Later he bought 120 acres, where his present home is located, and afterward became the possessor of another tract of 120, and still another of 176 acres, making in all 636 acres, all of which he has accumulated by honest toil and close attention to his business interests. Most of his land he now rents and is practi- cally living a retired life, enjoying the fruits of his former toil. He was ever a model farmer, the neat and attractive appearance of his place indicating his progressive spirit and persever- ance, and all the accessories of his place were models of convenience. His first presidential vote was cast for General Grant, at the time of his second election, and he has ever since supported the Republican party. His fellow

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citizens have called upon him to serve in sev- eral local offices of honor and trust, and he is very popular with his many friends and ac- quaintances throughout the county and State. Religiously he is a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church.

ILLIAM A. JONES is probably the most extensive breeder of hogs west of Chicago, and his stock farm is one of the finest to be found in the West. He is known to breeders throughout the country, for he has made a national repu- tation as a successful stock dealer and his hon- orable business methods have gained him the confidence of the public and won him a liberal patronage. His farm comprises 126 acres, and is fitted with every convenience for further- ing his special line of business, having good shelter for his hogs, as well as all the other conveniences which go to make up a model farm of the nineteenth century.

Mr. Jones was born in Wales, August 25, 1858, and is a son of John and Ellen (Hum- phreys) Jones, who were also natives of the saine country and spent their entire lives there, as farmers, the father dying at the age of fifty-two and the mother at forty-eight years. They had nine children, of whom seven yet survive.

From the age of two to seventeen years the subject of this review was reared by a sister, and then he sought a home in the New World, for he had heard that better advantages were afforded young men in the United States, and he hoped to benefit his financial condition by this emigration. He .sailed from the port of Liverpool in 1875, and after a few days landed at New York with only a few pounds in his pocket. He had thirty pounds when he left home, but of this he gave twenty pounds to his sister, and with the meager capital remain- ing started out to win success. On arriving in this country he made his way to Illinois, where he had a brother, a resident of Kane county. For four years he lived in that locality, work-

ing by the month as a farm hand, and then came to Iowa, settling in Polk county, where he again engaged at farm labor in the employ of others until his marriage.

On the 12th of March, 1884, Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss Vera Rein- king, who was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and is a daughter of one of the early and promi- nent settlers of the State, C. D. Reinking. Four children have blessed their union-Alice R., Mabel H., Florence H., and Mildred A., a bright and charming family, ranking high in social circles.

Upon his marriage, Mr. Jones rented land from his father-in-law for about five years, and then purchased the farm on which he now re- sides in Van Meter township, Dallas county. It is a valuable tract of 126 acres, and the residence which stands thereon is one of the finest homes of the community. In 1885 he began breeding hogs, and from the beginning his business has been a profitable and con- stantly increasing one. To-day he has over 250 head of full-blooded swine, valued at from $40 to $1,000 each. He ships his hogs to all parts of the country, and is undoubtedly the most extensive individual breeder west of Chicago. During the cholera epidemic of 1892 his losses amounted to $10,000. His sales for the present year of 1895 will exceed $6,000.

In politics, Mr. Jones is a stanch advocate of Republican principles, and cast his first vote for James A. Garfield. He is a man of genuine worth, whose straightforward, honor- able business record is without a blemish, and who in all the relations of life has followed a course that is well worthy of emulation.

ILLIAM COOK, a German by birth but thoroughly an American at heart, is the owner of one of the finest farms in Dallas county, Iowa, its location being on section 10, Boone town- ship, and Waukee his post-office address; and as he is one of the representative citizens of

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his community we take pleasure in here refer- ring biographically to him.

John G. Cook, his father, was born in Sax- ony, Germany, in the year 1801, and at the age of thirty years was united in marriage to a Miss Friday. William was their first born, the date of his birth being June 8, 1831, and when he was about ten years old his mother died. In 1843 his father married again and seven years later emigrated with his family to America, his children at that time numbering six. They located in the city of Buffalo, New York, where he worked at his trade, that of carpenter and cabinet-maker. He died there in the fall of 1872, at the age of seventy-one years.

After the death of his mother, William, when eighteen years of age, left home to work out and become familiar with agricultural pur- suits, and after spending six months on a farm near Buffalo he went further south to Erie county, New York, where he remained five years, during which time he attended school a part of each year. In 1853 he came west as far as Warren county, Illinois, and in 1858 re- moved from there to Missouri. In the latter State he set up a sawmill and operated the same for some time, in the meantime looking over various parts of the country for a desira- ble place for permanent location, the result being his settlement in Iowa. He spent 1861 in Adair county and the next year came to Dallas county. Here in 1865 he purchased seventy acres of his present farm and at once devoted his energies to the improvement of the same, and from year to year has added to his original holdings until now he is the owner of a magnificent farm, comprising 617 acres.

While in Missouri, September 2, 1860, Mr. Cook married Miss Eliza Robinson, who was born January 10, 1832, in Shelby county, Ohio, the eldest of the seven children of Will- iam B. and Sarah (Madearis) Robinson. Her father, a farmer and stock-raiser in that county, was born February 15, 1806, and died at his home near Pullman, Illinois, Sep- tember 2, 1893; his wife died September 26,

1887, at the age of seventy-four years, after fifty-six years of happy married life. For over sixty years she was a member and earnest worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Cook distinctly remembers her great- grand-parents, although she was of course very young when they died. The John Rob- inson who came over to America in the May- flower and landed at Plymouth Rock was her third great-grandfather. Her grandfather Robinson served in the war of 1812, and died shortly after his return home, his death being the result of disease contracted while in the army.

For the service he rendered in that war his widow received from the Government a land grant, and Mrs. Cook remembers when a child to have seen the papers for this grant. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have had five children, four of whom are living, namely: Emma Jane, born October 24, 1861, was married January 16, 1884, to J. C. Emerick, who died February 10, 1890, leaving her with four children. She and her children reside at her father's. William J., born December 10, 1863, and is yet unmarried; Harvy J., born July 30, 1867, married Rosabella Nutt, of Cal- houn county, Iowa, October 15, 1890, and has two children; and B. R., born November 25, 1869, married Myrtle Jane Lord, of Dallas county, Iowa, the date of their marriage be- ing March 22, 1894, and they have one child. B. R. Cook is engaged in farming in Dallas county. Laura B., born August 24, 1871, died August 9, 1872; and Charles E., born August 26, 1875, resides with his parents.

J AMES A. YOUNG, M. D .- He to whose life history we now revert is one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Van Buren county, retaining his resi- dence at Bonaparte. He is a man of high professional attainments and is thoroughly de- voted to his work, in which he has been emi- nently successful.

The Doctor is a native of the State of Illi-

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nois, having been born in Hancock county on the 23d of July, 1861, the son of Rev. W. M. and Lydia (Swisher) Young. His father was an able member of the clergy of the Baptist Church, and was a zealous worker in the high office to which he was called, having been en- gaged in ministerial labors in the southern part of Iowa for a number of years. His death occurred in 1881, at which time he succumbed to an attack of pneumonia. His demise was sincerely lamented by a large circle of admir- ing friends, and his loss was one which left a vacant field, for he had been faithful to the cause of the Master and had been true to the highest ideals. He had been twice married, our subject having been the son of his second wife, nee Lydia Swisher, who was a native of Ohio, in which State she was reared to woman- hood. There was solemnized her marriage to Mr. Young, and she remained his devoted con- panion and co-worker until the time of her death, which occurred May 12, 1880, at Cro- ton, Iowa, where she had removed with her husband some years previous.

Dr. James A. Young was the second child of the second marriage of his honored father, and his boyhood days were passed in Montrose, Iowa, where he secured his preliminary educa- tional discipline in the public schools. He had early manifested a predilection for the pro- fession of medicine, and had determined to make this his vocation in life. With a view to preparing himself for his chosen work, he entered the office of Dr. T. C. Hayes, of Vin- cennes, Lee county, this State, and continued his reading under such preceptorage for somne time, after which he was a student in the office of Dr. John Benelar, of Revive, Missouri. After thus completing his course of reading the Doctor matriculated in the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, and gradu- ated at that institution as a member of the class of 1894. While attending lectures he also took a course of special, private instruc- tion under Dr. F. B. Dorsey, professor of ob- stetrics, gynecology and diseases of children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on

obstetrics and diseases of women and children, thus thoroughly reinforcing himself for that branch of practice to which he has since given special attention, and in which he is acquiring an enviable reputation.

Dr. Young began the practice of his pro- fession at Acosta, Clark county, Missouri, where he remained for two years, when he re- moved to Bonaparte, Iowa, where he has since continued in the practice of medicine and sur- gery, with a special reference to the branch before noted. His genial presence and his unmistakable professional ability have rapidly gained him prestige, and he is now retained by a representative class of patrons, while his practice is constantly increasing in extent.

In 1881 was consummated the marriage of Dr. Young to Miss S. L. Stewart, the daugh- ter of James and Jane Stewart, of Utica, Van Buren county, whither they came from the State of Pennsylvania.

Fraternally he is identified with the Mcd- ern Woodmen.

ENRY W. BOYNTON, M. D., young- est son of Cyrus M. and Jerusha (Flint) Boynton, was born in the tnan- ufacturing village of Bouquet, Essex county, New York, on the 18th of March, 1837, and he was reared to manhood in his native village, where he received his educa- tional discipline in the public schools and academy.

When quite young (about fourteen years of age) he began to learn the trade of nail-mak- ing, working at it summers and attending school only during the winter terms; but, mastering the trade in a short time, he was compelled, in order to hold his job, to abandon school en- tirely and give his entire time to his trade. Shortly after he had attained his twentieth year, the industry of nail-making languished to such a degree that the factory at home ceased operations permanently, and his native village in after years became, like Oliver Goldsmith's

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" Deserted Village," "sweet Auburn," nearly bereft of the busy populace which once gave it the air of thrift and prosperity. He now sought employment away, and worked at the trade in Providence, Rhode Island; Bridgewater, Mas- sachusetts, and Montreal, Canada, but finally abandoned the vocation, as the industry was waning generally,-probably on account of over-production.

Our subject now "brushed up " his scho- lastic attainments by attending an academy for two terms, after which he began teaching the school in his native village. The institution had but one room, and in this he was installed in charge of about seventy-five pupils, and with no assistant. Not being able to foresee as great opportunities there for young men with- out financial means as he believed were offered in the West, he took Horace Greeley's advice, and, in the summer of 1861, came West to Brooklyn, Poweshiek county, Iowa, reaching his destination with only thirty -seven and one- half cents in money (three "Yorkers," as it was then called) and the best clothes he ever had, nearly all of his money having been picked from his pocket at night in a crowded railway station at Buffalo, New York. After arriving in Iowa he taught a term of school, one and a half miles from Brooklyn, and within the year began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. John Conaway, of Poweshiek county. Dr. Boynton remembers his old preceptor, now de- ceased, with the kindliest regard and apprecia- tion of his personal worth and ability.

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Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 126

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