USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Past and present of Fayette County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 30
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
In 1848 Martin Frey came to America and located in Painesville, Ohio, where he worked at his trade. He took out his naturalization papers in War- ren county. He became affiliated with the Freesoilers, which later became the Republican party, and he was very active in political affairs. being a very strong Abolitionist. His wife and family did not accompany him to America and in 1850 he returned to his home in Germany, returning to America two or three years later and made a trip to Iowa. He was in Iowa City when it contained only three houses, but on account of cholera he returned to Paines- ville, Ohio. About 1858 he returned to Germany again and remained there until 1872. He remained a Republican until the time of Grant's last admin- istration, when he became a Democrat. He was a member of the Masonic lodge, which he joined in Painesville, Ohio, upon his second trip to America. He was a member of the Protestant church.
Mr. and Mrs. Frey were the parents of nine children, two sons and seven daughters, six of whom are now living, namely: Sophia Reichart lives in the province of Baden, Germany; Robert lives at Sand Point, Idaho; Mrs. Ida Leonhart lives in Chatburn, North Carolina; John M., of this review; Mrs. Annie Cooley lives in Waukon, Iowa; Lissette Jellings lives at Stanley, Iowa.
Mr. Frey's death occurred on December 20, 1903, and the death of his wife occurred on December 29, 1897.
John M. Frey, of this review, remained on the farm with his parents until their death, being a partner with his father, at whose death the farm became the property of the subject. Previous to the death of the elder Frey he and his son bought sixty-one acres in section 35, making in all one hundred and ninety acres. Mr. Frey has carried on general farming very successfully, being a hard worker and a good manager. He has engaged extensively in registered Poland-China hogs and Shorthorn cattle, raising many at present, but not so extensively as formerly. He raises from forty-five to fifty full- blooded hogs each year and about the same number of cattle, and owing to their superior quality they find a very ready market. Mr. Frey has become widely known for the fine stock which he has so long raised. In 1904 he built a two-story hotel in Wadena, which he conducted for about two years, but notwithstanding the fact that this was a promising line of endeavor he returned to the farm and his efforts as a husbandman have always been abun- dantly crowned with success. Politically, he is a Democrat, and he has held the office of township school treasurer for over fifteen years, and has been justice of the peace for the past two years, filling both these responsible positions with fidelity to duty that reflects credit upon himself and with satis- faction to all concerned. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
America, the Yeomen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, all at Wadena. He and his family are members of the Protestant church.
On January 25, 1882, Mr. Frey married Mary E. Leonhart, who was born November 1, 1864, in Arlington, Fayette county, Iowa, the daughter of Phillip and Catherine (Eckart) Leonhart ; he was born in the province of Baden, Germany, in 1841, and she was born in the state of New York in 1845. He came to America with his parents, who located in New York, where Mrs. Leonhart died. Two sons and two daughters came to Iowa and located in Arlington, where Phillip and Mary Leonhart were married. He bought a farm near Arlington, where he still lives. Mrs. Leonhart died in 1889, leaving nine children, one having died previously. Mrs. Frey was the oldest of the ten children.
Mr. and Mrs. Frey are the parents of five children, namely : Lisettia C. is the wife of James H. Wilson, of Illyria township, and they are the parents of two children, Ruth and Charlie; Mrs. Wilson was born on January 9. 1883; Ella, born November 9, 1884, is the wife of Harry R. Humphrey, who lives at Volga City, Iowa, and they are the parents of one child, Bonita ; Robert M. Frey, born March 20, 1887, resides at Wadena, Iowa; he married Ethel A. Moore, of Illyria township, and they have one son, Albert K. ; Wil- liam was born June 20, 1891, and lives on the farm with his parents : Sophia L., born December 7, 1894, also lives with her parents.
Mr. and Mrs. Frey paid a delightful visit to his old home in Germany several years ago, spending several months in the Fatherland. They are both very pleasant, hospitable and well informed and they have the esteem of a wide circle of friends.
ROBERT H. MAY.
A venerable and highly honored citizen of Illyria township, Fayette county, was Robert H. May, a pioneer who made his residence here for nearly fifty-six years, during which time he played a conspicuous part in the general development of the community and watched its growth with much interest. He was born October II, 1820, on the Indian ocean, three days' sail from the Cape of Good Hope. He was the son of Robert H. and Mary A. (Camp- bell) May, the father a native of England and the mother of Ireland, but of Scotch descent. The father and all of his brothers were seafaring men, and during the last voyage of Robert H. May, Sr., his son, the subject, was born. He spent the last part of his life farming in county Wicklow, Ireland, but
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
he died in the prime of life as a result of injuries received from being thrown from a horse. His family consisted of three children, Robert H., Jr., John, who came to the United States and was killed in the Mexican war, and Mary, who married a British officer and went to Australia with her husband and her mother.
Robert H. May, of this review, spent his boyhood and youth in county Wicklow, Ireland, and received a good education there,-in fact he was educated for the Episcopalian priesthood, consequently his text-book training was very broad and complete. When seventeen years of age he went to sea with an uncle, serving for three years as steward. The first vessel on which he sailed was caught in a storm on the Irish channel and driven shoreward and finally shattered to pieces on a sand-bar, but all on board were saved. After three years of "life on the ocean wave," Mr. May made a trip to Canada, in 1841, and after a year moved to Ohio, thence to Pennsylvania, where, for a time, he engaged in mining. While living in Mercer county, that state, on January 18, 1849, he married Martha Alcorn, who was born in Ohio on October 2, 1829, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Callehan) Alcorn, the former of German lineage and the latter of Irish ancestry, but both were born in Pennsylvania, where Mr. Alcorn followed farming through- out his life. The mother died in Fayette county, Iowa, at the age of sixty- six years. Their family numbered nine children, Mrs. May being the fifth in order of birth. By her marriage she became the mother of eleven chil- dren, two of whom died in infancy. They are: William H., born April 21, 1850, lives in Albert Lea, Minnesota ; Edward O., born January 4, 1852, lives in Glendive, Montana; Mrs. Elizabeth J. Bartholomew, widow, was born September 6, 1853, and lives in West Union, Iowa. The above named chil- dren were born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania; those born in Fayette county, Iowa, are, Mary A., wife of John W. Graham, born September 12, 1856, lives in Fayette, Iowa; John J., born August 18, 1858, lives in Smithfield township, Fayette county, Iowa; Martha E., born May 20, 1861, is the wife of Ira Bennett and resides at Elgin, Iowa; Sarah L., wife of Clinton Am- brose, of Hastings, Nebraska, was born December 21, 1863; David D., born May 3, 1866, rents the home farm and lives with his parents ; he is unmar- ried; Mrs. Inez E. Greathead was born August 19, 1868. Mr. and Mrs. May have twenty grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Upon his arrival in Fayette county in the fall of 1854, Robert H. May purchased eighty acres of land, which was covered with brush, this being his first possession of real estate. He set to work and soon developed a fine farm and a good home, adding to his original purchase until he had one of the
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best farms in the township, consisting of two hundred and forty acres, he having cleared one hundred and seventy acres of brush and timber. This place is well watered by three excellent springs and everything about the place indicates good management and splendid taste. The dwelling is sub- stantial, comfortable and neatly kept. Mr. May made what he had through his individual enterprise and was long rated as one of the leading citizens of Illyria township. He was not able to do any active work for some time prior to his death, which occurred on August 27, 1910, being then eighty-nine years of age ; his good wife is in her eightieth year. They lived long and useful lives and enjoyed the friendship and good will of everyone. Mr. May was progressive in everything to which he turned his attention. In politics he was a Democrat, and he always kept well posted on current topics. He was a member of the Illyria township school board for a number of years, and district member of the county board, and as such he was always an advocate of better schools, of higher and better educational advantages, better paid and better educated teachers for county schools.
WILLIAM COLBY.
A man who has long been identified with the progress and advancement of Fayette county, one of the favored sections of the great Hawkeye state, where he has maintained his home for nearly a half century, is William Colby, who has attained gratifying success in connection with the development of its resources, successful in whatever line of business he sought to pursue, but who is now living in honorable retirement in West Union, surrounded by evidences of thrift and comfort as a result of his former years of activity. He was born October 14, 1830, in Oakland county, Michigan, where he re- mained till eleven years of age and received his education in the common schools. In 1841 he came to Rock county, Wisconsin, and in 1854 came to Windsor township, Fayette county, Iowa, and entered government land, twenty acres of timber and eighty acres of prairie land. On September 13, 1863, he was married to Mary Delzene, who was born May 9, 1844, in Missouri, and whose death occurred on May 8, 1875. Two children were born to them, both dying in infancy. William Colby taught school three winters in Wisconsin. Previous to his coming to West Union he also taught two years in Fayette county.
The father of William Colby, Samuel Colby, was born in New York, the
MRS. GRACE COLBY.
WILLIAM COLBY.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
son of Ephraim Colby, who came from New Hampshire and settled near Rochester, New York, the Colby family having been early settlers in Ver- mont. Samuel Colby was reared thirteen miles west of Rochester, New York, and there received his education. He followed farming during his active life and spent his last days with his children in various parts of the United States, and died in Wisconsin. He was a Democrat up to the days of Buchanan, afterwards a Republican, always taking an active part in local politics, and he served as school trustee. Religiously he was a Baptist. David Colby, brother of William, who lives in Beloit, Wisconsin, was a soldier in the Civil war in a Wisconsin regiment, having acted as guard at various places. S. F., another brother, enlisted in 1862 in the Thirteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served until the close of the war. There were five sons and one daughter in Samuel Colby's family.
In about 1878 William Colby left the farm in Windsor township and came to West Union, Iowa. He was married a second time to Grace Jamison in September, 1881 ; she was the daughter of James and Jane (Boale) Jami- son, who were born in Ireland and who came to America, first settling in Pennsylvania and in 1852 came to Fayette county, Iowa. Mrs. Colby was born before the family left Pennsylvania. Mr. Jamison engaged in the mer- cantile business at Auburn when he first came to Fayette county, as a partner of Joseph Boale. He later engaged in farming until his death. One daughter, Jennie Alice, was born to Mr. Colby and his second wife. She was educated at the West Union high school, also spent one year at the Northwestern Univers- ity and had two terms in school at Cedar Falls. She studied oratory at the Northwestern University and became highly educated and cultured. She was first married in West Union to Morton F. Blake, and her second mar- riage was in 1907, to C. W. Forche, a druggist of Kellogg, Jasper county, Iowa. Mrs. Colby, who received her education in West Union and Fayette, taught two terms of school successfully. She is a member of the Woman's Missionary Society and the Temperance and Aid societies of her church, be- ing the treasurer of the temperance organization. She an earnest and effi- cient worker in all good causes.
William Colby was justice of the peace in Windsor township for two years and he held that office for a period of twenty-eight years in Union township while a resident of West Union township and he proved to be a very efficient and faithful public servant, his decisions being fair and unbiased and seldom reversed by higher tribunals. He was a member of the county board for four years while living in Windsor township and was secretary of the school board in that township for a period of eleven years, and he was
(64)
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
also township clerk and held other offices. In Wisconsin he was township collector and treasurer for two years, and he taught school there during three winters. He was the first mayor of the city of West Union, to which office he was elected in 1894 and which he held for a period of four years. during which time many movements were inaugurated that have made for the permanent good of the city, in fact, he has been as faithful in the discharge of his duties in all the offices he has held as if he was looking after his indi- vidual business. He was mayor when the electric lighting plant was in- stalled, also the town clock.
Mr. Colby has been a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church for a period of twenty-eight years; his wife also belongs to this church. They have always been active in the affairs of the church.
Mr. Colby has been a director in the State Bank of West Union for the past twenty years, almost since its organization, and he has been one of the examiners since the first organization of the same. He has been very suc- cessful in his life work, because he has been both honest and industrious, always considerate of the interests of others.
DANIEL G. MATTOCKS.
The Mattocks family has long been a prominent one in Fayette county, Iowa, and several generations of this name have figured more or less con- spicuously in the affairs of the same. They have been industrious, law-abid- ing and always willing to do their full share in the development of the communities in which they have resided. One of the best known and most highly honored of the older members of this family was Daniel G. Mattocks. son of Jacob and Margaret Mattocks, and who was born October 1, 1806, in Venango county, Pennsylvania, his parents being natives of the same. He grew to maturity there and received what education he could in the old- time subscription schools. He was bound out at the age of five years until he was twenty-one years old, and he knew the meaning of hard work: after that he learned the tailor's trade. When he reached maturity he was mar- ried, on April 5, 1827, to Elizabeth Hays, in Pennsylvania, she having been born April 6, 1807, in that state, the daughter of William and Charlotte Hays.
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel G. Mattocks began their married life in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and in 1846 they came to Iowa, among the pioneers. They took up a claim, on which they remained one year. Then they returned to Pennsylvania and remained there five years, when they again came to
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Iowa and rented a farm. After living on the same one year, they purchased a farm in Illyria township and became very comfortably established here, owning, in due course of time, a very comfortable and substantial home.
They were members of the Methodist church, and, politically, Mr. Mat- tocks was a Republican. He took an interest in the welfare of his community and was well and favorably known here. His death occurred on March 7, 1873, at the age of sixty-six years, five months and six days. His wife sur- vived him ten years, dying on June 30, 1883, when seventy-six years of age.
The following data from the family record will be of value to those in- terested in the genealogy of this household :
Elizabeth Mattocks died June 30, 1883, at the age of seventy-six years; Orinda E. was born February 4, 1828, and died March 2, 1880; Permilla was born October 5, 1829, and died March 25, -; Cordelia was born August 27, 1831 ; Ira Eddy was born November 25, 1833, and died October 22, 1866; Wilder Mack was born May 24, 1836, and died March 7, 1899; Aurelia, born September 22, 1838, lives at Wall Lake, Iowa; Jason Lee, born January 13, 1841, lives in Oregon City, Oregon ; Elmina, born September 25, 1843, lives in Lewiston, Idaho; Ross, born February 8, 1846, lives at Jennings, Okla- homa ; Wilder M. Mattocks was born in Pennsylvania and he received a com- mon school education. When twenty-three years of age he enlisted in the Union army and remained in the same until the close of the war, when he was mustered out. In 1865 he was married to Anna E. Henderson and they lived on a farm in Windsor township, Fayette county, Iowa, and later in Illyria township, where they both died. Anna E. Henderson was born in 1836 and died October 25, 1873.
THOMAS GREATHEAD.
One of Illyria township's most progressive agriculturists and highly hon- ored citizens is Thomas Greathead, who has won success in life because he has worked for it along legitimate lines. He was born in April. 1865, in Dubuque, Iowa, and was educated in the public schools of McGregor, Iowa. He is the son of William E. and Mary (Davis) Greathead, the father born in McCon- nelsburg, Fulton county, Pennsylvania, about 1825; she was born in Wales about 1835, having come to America with her parents, who located near Elkader, Iowa, where they lived until their deaths. Mr. Greathead was a carpenter by trade. He left his home in Pennsylvania when a young man and came to Iowa, working in the city of Dubuque for a time, also worked
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in Elkader, and it was there that he met and married Mary Davis. After this event he and his bride moved to Dubuque, where they lived a year or two, then returned to Elkader, thence moved to McGregor and then he moved to Kansas, where he lived until his death, in 1909. He had worked at his trade all the while. His family consisted of five children, four of whom are living, namely: Thomas, of this review, is the eldest; Frances, deceased ; William D. lives on a farm in Westfield township, near Fayette; F. S. lives at Oelwein, being an instructor in the manual training department of the public schools there; Mary E. is the wife of W. J. Whitson, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. .
Mrs. Greathead has made her home with her son, William D., for a number of years.
Thomas Greathead was about fifteen years of age when he began work- ing as a farm hand, continuing to work as a laborer until 1888, when he came to Fayette county, Iowa, and rented a farm in Illyria township, usually renting about one hundred and seventy acres. He continued to rent until 1898, laying by a competency, then he purchased eighty acres, forty acres in section 7 and forty in section 8, Illyria township. He has brought his place up to a high standard, adding some substantial buildings, a gasoline pumping outfit, and has built an addition to his dwelling and made many other changes that makes his place a very desirable one. He has a beautiful home, neatly kept and which is presided over by a lady known in her maidenhood as Inez E. May, whom Mr. Greathead married on January 11, 1894; she was born in Illyria township, this county, August 19, 1868, and is the daughter of Robert H. and Martha (Alcorn) May, pioneers of Fayette county and a highly honored family. Mr. and Mrs. Greathead have no children. A sketch of Mrs. Greathead's parents is to be found on another page. Politically, Mr. Greathead is a Republican, but is not interested in politics to any great extent. He is a man who is well thought of by his neighbors, having always led a quiet, honorable life and tended strictly to his own affairs.
FREDERICK WILLIAM SCHNEIDER.
Enjoying distinctive prestige among the enterprising business men of West Union is Frederick William Schneider, and as a neighbor and citi- zen he is highly esteemed by all who know him. He has earned the right to be called one of the progressive men of Fayette county, having fought his way onward and upward to a prominent position in commercial circles,
FREDERICK W. SCHNEIDER.
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being the manager of a large drug store, and in every relation of life his voice and influence are on the side of right as he sees and understands the right.
Mr. Schneider was born in West Union, November 15, 1876, the son of Frederick and (Ehrhardt) Schneider, the father a native of Al- sace-Lorraine, a province of Germany, and the mother is also a native of Germany. The locality of which the father was native was formerly a part of France and he served in the French army during the Franco-Prussian war. He is a tailor by occupation.
Frederick W. Schneider was educated in the public schools of West Union and Elkader, also at Cresco and Decorah. Deciding to become a pharmacist, he entered the Highland Park College and received full in- structions in this line. He served eight years as a druggist under the tuition of the late A. K. White and others, prior to taking his professional course. He has been in the same store for a period of eighteen years, and has been proprietor of the same since 1903, and has been sole manager of the same since January, 1908. This is an old and well established store, having been operated during the past many decades by some of the best drug men of their day and generation. The prestige of this store is such that a very sat- isfactory trade has been carried on here for many years. Mr. Schneider car- ries at all seasons a large and carefully selected stock of pure drugs, books, toilet articles, paper, paints, and, in fact, everything found in a modern drug store. He has stock in the American Druggists' Syndicate and the Aseptic Products Company, also in the Sanitol Chemical Laboratory Company, be- ing the accredited local agent of all these. He is also a stockholder in the Rexall Company and is the accredited local agent for the famous Rexall remedies. He is a stockholder in the Fayette County Savings Bank, and both a stockholder and director in the Fayette County National Bank. He has been very successful as a business man and is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished owing to the fact that he has acquired his large success unaided and by overcoming numerous obstacles.
Mr. Schneider was married on June 15, 1903, to Grace Hoyt, daughter of H. B. and Hattie A. (Booth) Hoyt, a prominent West Union family. (See sketch of F. E. Hoyt, appearing elsewhere in this work.) No children have been born to this union. Politically, Mr. Schneider is a Republican, but he is independent in local affairs and is no politician, having never aspired to public office. While he belongs to no church, he is a Presbyterian in sen- timent. Fraternally, he belongs to West Union Lodge No. 69, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Unity Chapter No. 47, Royal Arch Masons,
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at Elgin, Iowa; Langridge Commandery No. 47, Knights Templar; Elkadir Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Cedar Rapids ; also the West Union Chapter No. 110, Order of the Eastern Star, of which his wife is also a member. He also belongs to the Modern Wood- men of America, the Homesteaders, the West Union Commercial Club. He belongs to the Iowa Pharmaceutical Association and the National Associa- tion of Retail Druggists and the Pure Drug Association of America. In all these he takes an abiding interest and is well known and influential in many of them.
FRANK K. WHITE.
Descended from pioneers and soldiers, men of bravery and fortitude, tried in those crucial testing places, where man's real self is revealed, in the heat of battle or the solitude of frontier life, this man must needs be proud of his birth. In his position as justice of the peace, he finds an opportunity to exercise much wisdom in a variety of situations, for his duties range from that of tying the knot of marriage for a pair of blushing loveis, to those of advising angry disputants to settle their differences without the law's aid, or if this they will not do, settling the case in his judicial capacity by the ap- plication of his knowledge of the principles of law. His position is unique and important.
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