Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 85

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

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honor and integrity of the interested principals. The success which has attended the operations of the bank has been in a large measure due to the able and effective management of our sub- ject, who is held in the highest esteem in busi- ness and financial circles, and who has proved himself possessed of marked executive ability, while as a man among men he holds the re- spect and confidence of his fellows, who have pronounced unmistakably upon his sterling worth of character and have not found him wanting.

Politically Mr. Brown has ever maintained a stalwart allegiance to the principles advo- cated by the Republican party, believing them best calculated to conserve the prosperity and welfare of the nation, and he has served for a number of years as Treasurer of the city of Keosauqua. In religious matters he is an at- tendant and supporter of the Congregational Church. Mr. Brown is one of the leading cit- izens of Keosauqua, and has ever manifested a lively interest in all that pertained to her prog- ress and stable prosperity, contributing a due quota to every worthy enterprise of public na- ture. He is to be considered as one of the city's pioneers and as one of the representative men of this section of the State.

In the year 1864 was consummated the mar- riage of Mr. Brown to Miss Margaret McAr- thur, daughter of William McArthur and a lin- eal descendant of Governor McArthur, of Ohio, the agnatic line being of Scotch derivation. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents of three daughters and one son, namely: Mary G., wife of Craig Miller, of Keosauqua; Maggie, who remains at the paternal home; Bessie, wife of Stanley Manning, the prominent banker of Keosauqua; and Archibald, who is also a resi- dent of this city.

0 AVID H. STEVER, M. D .- One of. the leading and most honored mem- bers of the medical profession in Jef- ferson county, and a man of fine at- tainments and most scrupulous integrity, the

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subject of this sketch well merits the recogni- tion here accorded, but superadded to the circumstances noted is the fact that he is a representative of one of the most prominent pioneer families of the county, and is thus ren- dered all the more eligible for biographic honors.

Dr. Stever was born on a farm one mile west of Fairfield, Jefferson county, Iowa, on the 16th of September, 1844, his birthplace having been the first brick house that was built in the county. His father, Adam Stever, was a native of Berks county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 10th of May, 1799, and he devoted his life to farming and to work at his trade as a gunsmith. The mother of our subject, nee Elizabeth Park, is also a native of the old Keystone State, having been born in Huntingdon county, August 3, 1803, being the daughter of John Park, a prosperous farmer of that county and of German descent.

May 20, 1844, represents the date of the arrival of Adam Stever and his family in Jef- ferson county, Iowa, and they forthwith lo- cated on a farm one mile west of (the present) Fairfield, and there the father continued his agricultural operations until the time when he was called upon to obey the inexorable sum- mons of death, his demise occurring on the 15th of August, 1856. His venerable widow still survives and maintains her residence on the old homestead, which is endeared to her by the associations of many years. In 1846 Adam Stever erected a fine barn on his place, the same being 40x80 feet in dimensions, and as it was the first pretentious structure of the sort in the county it attracted no little atten- tion and admiration among the pioneer settlers. His farm, which comprised 260 acres, was brought into effective cultivation and is now recognized as one of the finest places in the county. The grandfather of our subject in the agnatic line was Joseph Stever, and he traced his lineage to German origin, while the mater- nal ancestry is of blended Scotch and German extraction.

Adam and Elizabeth Stever became the

parents of four sons and eight daughters, ten of whom lived to attain mature years. The four brothers are all residents of Jefferson county at the present time. The names of the children, in order of birth, are as follows: Catharine, Margaret, Solomon F., George, Rachel, Anna M., John W., Almira, Elizabeth, Jane, Frances, and David H. Besides caring for their own progeny, Mr. and Mrs. Stever also reared eleven orphan children, their benev- olence and kindliness being proverbial. The mother of our subject has lived to attain the patriarchal age of ninety-three years and is still in possession of intact physical and men- tal faculties. She is a devoted member of the Lutheran Church.

Dr. David H. Stever, the immediate sub- ject of this review, was the youngest of the twelve children, and he grew up under the sturdy discipline of the old farmstead, receiv- ing his rudimentary education in the district schools, after which he entered the Fairfield University, where he pursued his literary studies for three years. After this he returned to the farm and remained there until he had attained the age of twenty-eight years; then, in pursuance of his long-cherished ambition, he began reading medicine under the precep- torage of Dr. P. N. Wood, of Fairfield, sub- sequently entering the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, where he graduated in 1876. He forthwith began the active prac- tice of his profession in Fairfield, and has not only gained a distinctive prestige and a large supporting patronage, but holds distinction as being the oldest physician, in priority of prac- tice, in the village, retaining the affection and confidence of the entire community. Dr. Stever lent loyal support to the Union army in the late war of the Rebellion, having become a member of the Forty-fifth Iowa Infantry, on May 3, 1864, and having served until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged, at Keokuk.

The marriage of our subject was celebrated December 5, 1878, when he was united to Miss Harriet A. Shaw, the daughter of Enos

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B. Shaw, who was one of the early settlers in Fairfield. She was born in Iowa county, this State. The Doctor and Mrs. Stever are both devoted members of the Lutheran Church, and in politics our subject exercises his fran- chise in support of the Republican party.

LMER ELLSWORTH ILGEN- FRITZ, pastor of the Methodist Epis- copal Church at Stuart, Iowa, has oc- cupied this position since September, 1893. The Methodist is the largest Protestant church of Stuart. It has a membership of 300, and a flourishing Sunday-school and Ep- worth league, the latter having 125 members. The church edifice was erected in 1891, at a cost of $10,000, and the parsonage, a modern and commodious residence, was built in 1894, and cost $2, 500. A church representing this much wealth and this large membership would naturally be choice in its selection of a minis- ter, notwithstanding the rules by which the Methodists are governed; and in the person of the Rev. Mr. IlgenFritz they have found a man of more than ordinary ability, and one whose services are greatly appreciated. Some per- sonal mention of him is appropriate here, and we are pleased to present the following sketch of his life:

Mr. IlgenFritz was born in York county, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1861, son of Levi and Mary Frances (Schrock) IlgenFritz, both natives of that same county. His paternal an- cestors were Germans, as the name indicates, and some of them were among the early set- tlers of Pennsylvania. His mother was of Scotch and English descent, her father having been born in Scotland. Levi IlgenFritz was a shoemaker by trade, and was a man whose life was characterized by honesty, industry and simplicity. During the Civil war he served three years in the Union army. He was a member of a company of Pennsylvania cavalry, and among the important engagements in which he participated was that famous march to the

sea with Sherman. Nearly the whole of his life was passed in York county. He was born in 1839, and died in 1888. He was twice married, the mother of our subject being his first wife and this son his only child. The mother died in 1865, at the age of twenty- three years, and when young IlgenFritz was a mere child.

At the death of his mother Mr. IlgenFritz went to live with an uncle who kept a toll- gate on the Baltimore pike in York county, and was reared by him. He received his edu- cation in the common schools, the York Col- legiate Institute and the Dickinson College. His father was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and early in life he, too, gave his heart to the Lord and united with this church, and, more than this, he conse- crated his whole time and energies to the work of the Master. Having fitted himself for the ministry, he came West in 1883, and in Sep- tember of that year joined the Des Moines Conference, with which he has since been identified. His first appointment was at Elli- ott, where he served acceptably three years. From 1886 to 1889 he was pastor at Fonta- nelle, from 1889 to 1893 at Audubon, and since 1893 at Stuart. His whole service has been characterized by that deep earnestness and love of the work which never fails to bring good results.

Mr. IlgenFritz was married at York, Penn- sylvania, in 1883, to Miss Mary E. Seacrist, a native of that place and a daughter of Jacob Seacrist, a contractor and builder of York. They have tive children :. Edith, Gertrude, Edwin, Alma Faye, and an infant.

Mr. IlgenFritz has been initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry and maintains a membership in good standing in the lodge at Audubon; St. John's Chapter, R. A. M., at Fontanelle; and Alhambra Commandery at Stuart. He is a member of the Union Philo- sophical and Literary Society, is a man of fine literary tastes and has done considerable work in this line. Now in the very prime of life and with every prospect for a long and useful ca-

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reer, it is fair to predict that he will be a power for good in the world, but the influence of such a character can never be estimated.

a ILLIAM N. MOON .- Having been identified with the business interests of Albia, Monroe county, for a pe- riod of nearly thirty years, the sub- ject of this review holds prestige as one of the pioneer merchants of the town and as one of her representative and most honored citizens, being manifestly entitled to particular recog- nition in this compilation. He is the senior member of the well known and popular firm of W. N. Moon & Son, who are dealers in dry goods, carpets, groceries, and boots and shoes, and whose establishment represents one of the leading mercantile industries of the place.

A native of Clinton county, Ohio, Mr. Moon was born in the vicinity of the city of Wilmington, on the 14th of October, 1833, being the son of Jeremiah and Rachel (Nixon) Moon, the former of whom was born in Clin- ton county, Ohio, where his father, a descend- ant of Scotch lineage, was one of the early pio- neer settlers. The mother of our subject was also a native of the old Buckeye State, her father having taken up his residence in Clin- ton county in the early pioneer days.

In the year 1837 Jeremiah Moon removed with his family to Hancock county, Indiana, where he took up his abode on a farm, de- voting his attention to its cultivation until 1845, when he emigrated to Iowa, and located on a farm near West Point, Lee county, where he continued his agricultural pursuits until within a short time of his death, which occurred in 1867. His widow was summoned into the life eternal two years later. They were people of spotless integrity and they were devoted to their home and their children. Their chil- dren were eight in number, their names as fol- lows: Mary. Ann, Elizabeth, Rachel, Will- iam N., Ruth, Barbara and Havilah B., who served in the late war, as a member of the Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and who was

seriously wounded in the battle of Shiloh, dying from the effects of his injuries, in the hospital at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1862.

William N. Moon, the immediate subject of this review, was the fifth in order of birth of the eight children, and he was still a mere boy at the time his parents consummated their re- moval to Iowa. . He passed the greater por- tion of his youth in Lee county, this State, and his scholastic discipline was practically con- fined to that afforded in the pioneer district schools of the place and period. He attended to his studies in the primitive log school-house, and when he had attained sufficient age he as- sisted in the work of the farm during the sum- mer months and learned his lessons in the lit- tle school-house during the intervening winters, later being enabled to attend a select school maintained at Salem, Henry county. His ex- perience is one almost perfectly analogous to that of many another youth, who in later years won for himself a place in the world and at- tained a due measure of success in his chosen field of endeavor. This sturdy youthful dis- cipline has been the making of many a true and useful citizen, and the "graduates" of the old log school-houses have in many instances played important parts in the history of our nation.

Upon attaining his majority Mr. Moon as- sumed the responsibilities of connubial life by uniting his destinies with those of Miss Lucinda Sherod, daughter of Joseph Sherod, who was one of the leading pioneer farmers near Eddy- ville, Monroe county. After his marriage our subject removed to Hardin county, this State, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits about nine years. August 2, 1868, he came with his family to Albia, where he entered into partnership with Isaac Millersack, under the firm name of Millersack & Moon, and opened a general mercantile establishment and suc- cessfully continued the enterprise for a period of four years, when the partnership was dis- solved and Mr. Moon assumed full control of the business. His connection with this line of enterprise has been consecutive from the time

தலைவாரிநீர்

FRAXKEIN ON CHICAGO.

James J. Wilson.

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of his arrival in Albia, and his correct business methods, his genial personality and his scru- pulous integrity have gained him a trade which ramifies through a wide radius of territory tributary to the town, while his acquaintance- ship is very extended and his popularity as- sured as one of the pioneer merchants of the place. In 1892 Mr. Moon admitted his son, Joseph S., to partnership in the business, and this association has since maintained, the junior member of the firm proving an able coadjutor to his father and relieving the latter of much of the burden which he had borne for so many years. Their establishment is most eligibly located, is complete in all its accessories and equipments, a floor space of 2,280 square feet being utilized, while the stock carried in each of the several departments is select and com- prehensive. The one son is the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Moon.

In his political adherency our subject sup- ports the principles and policies of the Repub- lican party, and he has been called upon to serve in local offices of trust, having been for two terins a member of the Common Council of the village, and having served for three terms as a member of the School Board. He has maintained a lively interest in all that has conserved the welfare of the village and has ever done his quota toward advancing its pros- perity. He and his wife are zealous and prom- inent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, our subject having united with the same in 1852. He holds official preferment as Steward and Class-leader of his church, and is also a member of its Board of Trustees. In 1895 he was a delegate to the general confer- ence of the State, assembled at Ottumwa. Mrs. Moon is a woman of gentle refinement and gracious presence, and she is greatly loved in the community for her sterling attributes of character and for her many kindly deeds, which are unostentatious in every instance. She is an ardent worker in the church and renders a willing support to its collateral benevolences and charities. The family home is one of the most attractive in the village, 34

being surrounded by beautiful grounds and having the conveniences and comforts of a well ordered modern residence. Here is dis- pensed a gracious hospitality to the large circle of warm friends whom Mr. and Mrs. Moon have won to themselves during their long resi- dence in Albia.

ON. JAMES F. WILSON, deceased. -In the opening sentences of his lec- ture on " Heroes and Hero Worship" Carlyle says: "For, as I take it, universal history, the history of what man has accomplished here in this world, is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked here. * * * One comfort is that great men taken up in any way are profitable com- pany. We can not look, however, imper- fectly, upon a great man without gaining something by him." Into the life of the hon- ored subject of this memoir there entered the distinctive and unmistakable elements of great- ness, and, as is ever the case under such cir- cumstances, the writer who would essay the task of giving a pen picture of the man and his accomplishment, finds that the most force- ful English ill serves the delineation of a char- acter of which the mind has cognizance, but with feeble power of expressing a clear defini- tion of its nobility and sterling worth. En- dowed with a rugged honesty of purpose, a man of independent thought and action, one whose integrity and honor were so absolute as to compel the respect and confidence of his fellow men, one whose life was filled with " ceaseless toil and endeavor" and whose strength was as the number of his days, one whose motives were of that ideal order that practically made his life a consecration to duty and to the measure of his possibilities for ac- complishing good, -it is not strange that the biographist should hesitate when he attempts to render the lines which shall pay fitting memoir to such a good man and true as was ex-United States Senator James F. Wilson. Superadded to these more intrinsic elements of

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character are the high professional attainments of the man, his fine mind, and his power as a leader of public thought and action,-and along this line also must there be accorded a due consideration and a recognition of the high relative precedence gained.

The impregnable citadel where honor sits enthroned was his to guard, and that he did it well is manifest when, in noting his death, the Fairfield Ledger of April 26, 1895, pays trib- ute to one whose life had been inseparably connected with the history of that community, in words of glowing eulogy. We need but to quote briefly from the article in question: " Fairfield is in deepest mourning. Her most eminent and most highly honored citizen is gone. The earthly career of James F. Wilson, student, legislator, constitutional lawyer and statesman, is closed. He has crossed to the great beyond just at the end of a long and use- ful public life, and his last moments were passed just as he might have wished them-amid the surroundings he loved so well, in the peace and quiet of his own home, surrounded by those who loved him and whom he loved. As no resident of Fairfield, in her history of half a century, had risen to the height which James F. Wilson attained, so no man so generally commanded the respect, the admiration, the love of her people. Strong as his convictions were, partisan as he may have been in his political beliefs, there was a rugged honesty about the man, a candor in his treatment of public questions, a freedom from guile in his methods, which early won and ever retained to him the confidence of his fellow citizens and led them to seek opportunity to do him honor. An impartial history of State and nation will show that James F. Wilson was a great man. It will give him a high rank with the legis- lators, the lawyers, the statesmen of his time. It will show the impress of his wisdom on the affairs of his commonwealth and his country. It will concede the keenness of foresight, the shrewdness of judgment, the honesty of the motives which governed the man, the ability and capability with which he dealt with great

questions through a long and eventful public career. It will show that the people of Jef- ferson county did not err when they sent the young lawyer to represent them at the State capital; that the First district of Iowa passed righteous judgment upon the abilities of the man when it promoted him to the halls of Congress; that the management of affairs of great moment, as entrusted to him, could not have gone to a small man nor one of mediocre ability; that the friendship of a Sumner and a Blaine, the trust and confidence of a Grant, were not misplaced."

The death of James F. Wilson occurred at his home in Fairfield, at nine o'clock and thirty- eight minutes on Monday night, April 22, 1895, his dissolution resulting from nervous prostration, which had been induced by the excessive labors incidental to his senatorial campaign, and which had been aggravated by a severe attack of la grippe, which he endured at the national capital some five years previous. Not a community, but an entire State mourned the loss of its true and noble citizen, and the news brought deep grief into many loyal ad- mirers throughout the length and breadth of the nation.

A native of the old Buckeye State, James F. Wilson was born in Newark, Ohio, on the 19th of October, 1828, being the eldest of the three children of David S. and Kitty Ann Wil- son, whose marriage was consummated in Newark, the former having been a native of Morganstown, Virginia, and the latter of Chil- licothe, Ohio. The record of their lives is that of "the simple annals of the poor," but they were people of utmost rectitude, of much na- tive intellectuality and of sterling worth. Both were devoted members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, exemplifying their faith in the common walks of life. The father died in Newark, Ohio, in 1839, while the venerable mother was a resident of Fairfield, Iowa, at the hour when came her summons to enter in- to eternal rest, -January 28, 1875.

A lad of ten years at the time of his father's death, it was a stern responsibility that de-

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volved upon our subject; but here, as ever in his after life, the dominating loyalty of his na- ture shone forth and he flinched not from duty, but gladly lent himself to caring for his mother and his younger brother and sister. For a term of years he served an apprenticeship at the harness-making trade, and it is needless to say that his educational advantages were neces- sarily of a very limited order. But such was the vitality of his mind and such his intuitive perception of the value of knowledge that he bent circumstances to his will, and through in- dividual application and the timely assistance of immediate personal friends he managed to secure a good practical education, including a knowl- edge of the Latin language. In the connec- tion it is interesting to recall the great interest which he manifested in the cause of education in the later years, when he had attained to dis- tinguished position and to financial independ- ence. Vigorous and self-reliant, it is to be con- sidered as but in natural sequence that the young man should have early formulated dis- tinct plans for his future career, and thus we record that he early determined to prepare himself for the legal profession. His deter- mination was one of action, and his desire having become known to William B. Woods, then a member of the bar of his native town and later an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the latter placed at the command of the aspiring youth the nec- essary books, and voluntarily became his legal preceptor. These initial steps in the career of a self-made man are ever to be noted with in- terest, for they tell of the hardest of battles and of the surmounting of seemingly insupera- ble obstacles. In 1851, Mr. Wilson was duly admitted to the bar of his native county, and there continued in the practice of his profes- sion for a year and a half. November 25, 1852, was solemnized his marriage to Mary A. K. Jewett, the second daughter of Alpheus and Aletha Jewett, of Newark, Ohio. Soon after this important event the young couple started bravely forth to make for themselves a home in what was then designated as the far West,

proceeding by the Ohio river to St. Louis, thence up the Missippippi to Burlington, Iowa, and from there by stage to Fairfield, in which pioneer locality they took up their abode and there retained their residence during all the long and grateful years that elapsed ere the de- voted husband was called to the life eternal in the fullness of honors. As touching the early professional career of Mr. Wilson we can not do better than to draw again from the columns of the Ledger, which says:

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Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Part 85

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