USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Past and present of Fayette County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 58
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I272
FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
Orinda, who now lives in the east part of Oelwein, married Elton Wilson, who died in November, 1896, and she is the mother of six children, Leford, Flor- ence, Jesse, Howard, Kyle and Griffith. Of these, Leford, who lives in Waterloo, is married and has one child. Florence and Griffith live on farms in Alberta, Canada. The former is married and has two children. Jesse, who is married and has two children, lives at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Howard and Kyle remain with their mother in Oelwein.
Mr. and Mrs. Cole are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church in Oelwein, to which they give a generous support. Though both are well advanced in years, they retain their physical activity to a remarkable de- gree and are as alert mentally as they ever were. They are people of genuine worth and their home evidences the hospitable and friendly traits of its oc- cupants. Mr. and Mrs. Cole ever extend a hearty and cordial welcome to their friends.
HON. L. L. AINSWORTH.
Lucian Lester Ainsworth, the eldest child of Parmenas and Keziah Web- ber Ainsworth, was born in New Woodstock, Madison county, New York, June 21, 1831. His ancestors were of English descent, having settled in America in the early colonial days. His grandfather moved to New York, where the father of Mr. Ainsworth was born, and where he continued to re- side until his death, March 3, 1901. Mr. Ainsworth's great-grandfather served in the Revolutionary war and died as a prisoner on an English ship, a martyr to the colonial cause.
Young Ainsworth received his early education in the public schools of his native state and subsequently attended Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazenovia, New York. At intervals during his course at the seminary he taught school and was said to be a very popular teacher and educator. After' finishing his course at the seminary he commenced the study of the law in the office of Miner & Sloan, then the leading attorneys at De Ruyter, New York, and was afterwards admitted to the bar in Madison county in 1854. Shortly after his admission to the bar he removed to Belvidere, Illinois, where for one year he practiced law with J. R. Beckwith, under the firm name of Beckwith & Ainsworth.
Thinking the newer West offered greater advantages to young men than those afforded in Illinois, he came to Fayette county, Iowa, in August, 1855, locating at West Union, and shortly afterwards commenced the practice of
HON. LUCIAN L. AINSWORTH.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
law. The country was then new and sparsely settled, the law unsettled and practice crude. Lawyers then traveled the circuit, following the court from place to place-a practice long followed, but now obsolete, as the growth of the counties in population and wealth has produced in each county its local bar, now equal to all usual requirements of the profession. Many of the earlier lawyers of the state became eminent locally through the practice here referred to, and none certainly in a greater degree than the subject of this sketch, who had an extensive acquaintance throughout northeastern Iowa, and the state as well.
Mr. Ainsworth at once acquired a large and profitable business and from his first appearance in Iowa was recognized as a lawyer of unusual strength, a position which he has ever since retained. He was engaged in general practice and his name was connected with many important cases in which legal principles of great importance have been settled. Well grounded in the fundamental principles of jurisprudence, a close student of the law, learned in the technical rules and practice, precise in his application of legal principles, a natural advocate, quick to perceive the point in issue and adapt himself to the situation, he was a lawyer of unusual strength and cleverness as a practi- tioner, and did by years of practice justify the estimate of his friends that he was one of the most successful advocates his portion of the state had ever produced.
A prudent and careful counselor, conscientious in the discharge of his duties as an attorney, advising against litigation when it could be avoided, Mr. Ainsworth possessed in a peculiar degree the confidence of the people among whom he lived and practiced. Possessed of unusual talent as a jury lawyer, a thorough tactician, full of resources, with an unusual knowledge of apt Scriptural quotations and appropriate illustrations culled from his ex- tensive experience and reading, with an active vein of wit and humor, he proved himself always a formidable opponent.
Mr. Ainsworth early evinced an interest in politics and in the fall of 1856 was a candidate for county attorney, but the county was overwhelming- ly Republican, he a stranger, and was defeated as a matter of course. His defeat was expected from the start, but his candidacy gave him an opportunity to become acquainted with the people of his county and educated him in cam- paign work, which at a later date did him good service.
In the fall of 1859 he was nominated for state senator in the district then comprising Fayette and Bremer counties, and was elected over Hon. Aaron Brown, who had then served one term in the Senate and who was afterwards prominent as colonel of the Third Iowa Infantry in the war of the Rebellion,
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
and subsequently as a member of the House of Representatives in the Iowa Legislature, and as register of the land office.
Mr. Ainsworth served during two regular sessions and also during two special sessions of that body. During this early legislative experience he served as a member of the committee on judiciary and railways, and was a very efficient member of each, but particularly the former, which then had charge of the revision of the laws of Iowa and the fruits of which labor was the revision of 1860.
In the meantime the strife of civil war spread over the land and Hon. Samuel J. Kirkwood, the war governor, gave him-Mr. Ainsworth-com- mission as captain in the Third Iowa Infantry, which was then forming in Iowa. But as a special session of the Legislature had then been called he felt that he could be of greater use to his constituents by serving out his term in the Senate than by entering the army, so declined the appointment, but gave the commission to his former law partner, Hon. C. A. Newcomb, late of St. Louis, now deceased, who accepted the position and went to the war as captain of Company F. Afterwards, in the fall of 1862, Mr. Ainsworth re- cruited a company for the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, then forming, and on Janu- ary 31, 1863, he was commissioned as captain of Company C, Sixth Iowa Cavalry, under command of the late Col. D. S. Wilson. The regiment was ordered to the west to engage in the campaign against the Indians, and was for some months stationed at Ft. Randall, Dakota. On August 21, 1863, the command left the Big Cheyenne and on September 3d encountered the enemy at White Stone Hill, at or near the present site of Frederick, South Dakota. A sharp engagement followed. Captain Ainsworth was in com- mand of Company C, and this company, with three others, were detailed as a scouting party. The troops, some two hundred and sixty in number, ad- vanced and discovered a large body of Indians at White Stone Hill. The Indians were engaged in parley until the main body of troops were notified and had an opportunity to advance. Upon the arrival of the balance of the . command the Indians fired upon the troops and then retreated. The fire of the enemy was returned with effect. Under the cover of night the Indians retreated and the prairie was strewn with provisions, packs, tents and ponies, and the Indians speedily placed themselves beyond the reach of the soldiers.
The Sixth Iowa Cavalry in this encounter was detailed to surround the Indians and drive them in and the regiment received a flattering report of its action in the campaign. The regiment took part in several other engage- ments, among others that of Tah Ka Kohuta, on July 28, 1864, and was finally mustered out of the service at Sioux City, Iowa, October 17, 1865.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
Service on the frontier was largely confined to garrison duty, and only oc- casionally were the troops permitted to engage in conflict. The soldiers were just as brave and patriotic as those engaged in Southern service, but oppor- tunity was lacking to most of them to distinguish themselves on the field of battle; but their service, while lacking these opportunities, was just as essential to the welfare of the nation, and was full of hardships and privation and fraught with dangers as great as other branches of the service. After leaving the army, Mr. Ainsworth returned to West Union and re-engaged in the practice of law with Capt. C. H. Millar, which engagement continued until July, 1873.
In the fall of 1871 Mr. Ainsworth was elected to the fourteenth Gen- eral Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives, and served dur- ing the sessions of 1872 and 1873, and was, during his term of service, a member of the judiciary committee, rendering valuable service in the forma- tion of the code of 1873.
In 1874 Mr. Ainsworth was elected to the forty-fourth Congress to repre- sent the fourth district of Iowa, and served as a member of the committee on post-offices, post-roads and private land claims. At the succeeding election he declined a renomination, and enjoyed the distinction of being the first Democrat to represent Iowa in the Congress of the United States in a period of twenty years.
Since his retirement from Congress, he devoted his entire time to his profession, and held no other office except that of school director, a position to which he was elected for several successive terms. Mr. Ainsworth took an active interest in all matters relating to education, and for a number of years was a member of the school board of West Union, and gave this position the same thoughtful care that he did the greater offices held by him, and his work received the commendation of his neighbors by repeated elections to the posi- tion.
In addition to his work in behalf of the public schools he also took an interest in higher education, and served for several terms as one of the trustees of the Upper Iowa University at Fayette, Iowa.
Mr. Ainsworth was considerable of a student, kept abreast of the times in general reading, and had one of the largest and best selected private libraries in the county. In addition to his legal studies he, as a branch thereof, made a special study of the subject of insanity, and with the exception of two terms, occupied the position of a member of the commission of insanity in the county from the time of its organization to the time of his death.
Mr. Ainsworth was married on December 8, 1859, to Margaret McCool,
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
who was born in Louisburg, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1833, and is a daughter of Joseph and Eleanor (Nerius) McCool. She came with her par- ents to Freeport, Illinois, in 1839, and subsequently came to West Union on a visit to her sister, and it was on this occasion she met Mr. Ainsworth. She is a woman of unusual force of character and energy and modest and retiring withal. Of superior natural ability, extensive reading, liberally educated, herself always a student, she was a fitting helpmeet to the subject of this sketch. Six children, five sons and one daughter, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ainsworth.
Mr. Ainsworth was a member of the Masonic order, and a charter mem- ber of the West Union Lodge No. 69, and Langridge Commandery No. 47, Knights Templar. Prominent in social circles, always welcome at the social gatherings of his neighbors and friends, always active in all questions incident to the development of a new country, he was a prominent character in the life of the county. He died on April 19, 1902, leaving his widow; James W. Ainsworth, now of Princeton, West Virginia ; Lester Ainsworth, now of Mason City, Iowa ; Mrs. F. W. White, late a resident of Seattle, Washington ; W. J. Ainsworth, who is engaged in the practice of law in this city; and Fred L. Ainsworth, who died at Newport, Washington, December 12, 1906.
-BY JUDGE A. N. HOBSON.
JOHN H. SHEEHY.
This section of the county is remarkable for the number of men who, be- ginning with nothing, have reached affluence by cultivating the soil. This is true of more persons than is the case in most regions of our country, and is a double tribute to the character and ability of the men themselves, for no com- bination of outward circumstances can give to a man money and keep it in . his hands, and to the productive quality of the soil here, which responds so bounteously to well-directed work placed upon it, in such a way that its tiller cannot complain.
John H. Sheehy was born in Tarrytown, New York, January 1, 1851, the son of James and Elizabeth (Moriarity ) Sheehy, both born in Ireland, but who came to New York at an early age. His father died at Galena, Illinois, in 1854. John is the survivor of two children born to their marriage. Later his mother married Patrick Malone, and bore to him four children, three of whom are living. She now resides in Clermont.
1277
FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
John Sheehy came to Clermont in 1859, then moved to Springfield near Postville, then lived at Postville for five years, then worked on farm and began railroading, at the age of twenty-one. For twenty-one years he worked for one company, nine months with a shovel, nine years as section foreman, twelve years as roadmaster. From his earnings he saved enough to buy the farm of two hundred eleven acres which he now owns and on which he resides. Here he carries on general farming in a very profitable manner.
On February 9, 1875, Mr. Sheehy was united in marriage to Johanna Sullivan, of Clermont, the daughter of Michael Sullivan, an early settler of Clermont. Thirteen children were born to this union, whose names are: Elizabeth, James (dead), Michael (dead), Catharine, two who died as infants, William, Mamie, Nellie, Anna, Thensa and John H., Jr.
Mr. Sheehy and his family are Catholics. Mr. Sheehy is independent in politics, and the confidence which his fellow citizens have in him is shown by the fact that he has been school director and township trustee for some years, and is chairman of the board. He is much interested in the public wel- fare and is a man of progressive ideas. It is justly a matter of satisfaction to him that he can point to all of his property and say that he made it all him- self, that none of it was received by inheritance or gift, but that it is all the product of honest toil and thrift, while many of those who started out when he did, at the same work, with the same opportunities, the same outside aids, are still laboring with pick and shovel, having risen no higher in all these years. It is not opportunities that are lacking, for they are always plentiful ; it is the man to seize the opportunity.
RICHARD FRANKLIN DEWEY.
The well known and successful auctioneer and deputy sheriff of Fayette county, Richard Franklin Dewey, is eminently deserving of a place in his county's history, as a resume of his past record will readily attest. He was born March 18, 1866, in this county, and is the son of William and Lucy (Ropes) Dewey, the father a native of western Indiana, who came to Dover township, Fayette county, Iowa, among the early settlers, when this country was practically a wilderness, and here he bought a farm upon which the fam- ily lived for many years; it was mostly unimproved timber land, one hundred and forty acres in Turkey river valley. Selling that farm, he bought another a mile east of West Union which he improved and on which he ended his
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
days ; however, his death occurred in West Union in 1906 at a ripe old age. The mother died on the farm east of here. They were excellent people of the rugged, honest pioneer type.
The Ropes family, as represented by Mrs. Dewey, came from New Eng- land and located in Dover township, Fayette county, Iowa, prior to the Dew- eys. B. H. Ropes was a merchant of Eldorado in the early days and he served several times as a member of the county board of supervisors. His brother, Charles F. Ropes, was the grandfather of Richard F. Dewey of this review.
Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. William Dewey, five of whom are now living, namely : George and John died in infancy, the former born in' 1862 and the latter in 1864; Richard F. of this review and Charles G. were twins; the latter is located at LeRoy, Kansas, married Minnie Bradley, of Buchanan county, Iowa, and they became the parents of four children, two sons and one daughter, living, and Minnie E., who died when eighteen years of age, unmarried, she having been born in 1868; Anna May is the wife of E. C. Grimes and lives on a farm in Union township; James Baker died when twenty-seven years of age, unmarried; he was a graduate of the Iowa State Dental College, and was a demonstrator in the university when stricken with his fatal illness, thus cutting short a life of much promise ; Addie I. is a resi- dent of Cochran, California ; however, her home is in Los Angeles; she is a stenographer by profession; Alta C. is with her sister in California.
"Frank" Dewey, as he is familiarly called, was educated in the public schools and the Upper Iowa University at Fayette. He followed farming with his father until he was twenty-four years of age, later farmed on his own account until 1900. On April 3, 1890, he married Kittie L. Ordway, a native of Janesville, Wisconsin, and a daughter of Alva Ordway, who located in Fayette county, Iowa, in an early day and died in the town of Fayette. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Dewey was a teacher.
Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dewey, namely: Glenn L., born January, 1891, is living on the old homestead in Dover township; he is a graduate of the West Union high school, is a member of the high school brass band, and he is a vocalist of more than ordinary attainments for one of his years. He is now a student of electrical engineering in the Iowa State College at Ames. Lloyd C. Dewey, born in April, 1895, is attending the local high school; William Earl and Eva M. are also in school.
Mr. Dewey has been an auctioneer since 1894, and has attained an envi- able record as a salesman, his reputation having long since transcended the borders of his own county, and his services are in great demand. He has suc- cess fully handled five hundred sales during the past five and one-half years.
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On March 4, 1904, he was graduated from the Graham Auction School, at Des Moines. This is an institution designed to fully qualify its students for practical work on the auction block. He has sold a vast quantity of goods, almost entirely general farm sales and blooded stock. He is one of the best judges of live stock that could be found, not only of horses, but also mules. cattle and hogs, and he has been a very successful breeder of Poland-China hogs, and he holds a certificate as an expert judge of all kinds of blooded stock; this was granted by the Expert Judge Association of the United States.
Fraternally, Mr. Dewey is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, West Union Lodge No. 69, of which he is senior warden, and he is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and he also belongs to the Knights of Pythias ; he has filled nearly all of the official stations in the Masonic order. Politically, he is a Republican, and the Dewey family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Dewey is a fine example of the successful self-made man and is deserving of the high esteem in which he is held.
JENS HAUGE.
That America still means opportunity, is evinced in the case of Mr. Hauge, a young man, in this country only fourteen years, coming over with no fortune save his own clear brain and the inheritance of good Norwegian blood from that race of powerful men, the modern Northmen, whose capa- bilities and whose fearless independence are marked above those of other European nations. With nothing save this equipment, he has, in a foreign land and solely by his own exertions, raised himself to the position of one of the foremost business men in his county.
Jens Hauge was born in Norway, March 8, 1876, the son of Iver and Gunhilde Hauge, both natives of the country. His widowed mother came to this country to Leroy, Minnesota, in 1896, and now resides in Clermont. His only sister, Mrs. Margaret Anderson, lives at Leroy now. Jens was educated in Norway and at Valder Business College of Decorah, Iowa, where he graduated in 1900. He came to Leroy, Minnesota, in 1893, and began working as a clerk, staying with one firm for six years. In 1906 he came to Clermont and entered business as a partner in the firm of Tongiun & Hauge. In 1909 this partnership was dissolved and the firm is now Hauge & Brorby. They have by far the largest mercantile establishment in Clermont and have built the business up themselves. Mr. Hauge's push and energy
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have been remarkable. In politics he is a Republican, and is a member of the council of Clermont. His religious affiliations are with the Lutheran church.
Mr. Hauge's marriage to Carrie Larson took place on November 3, 1904. She, like himself, is of Norse stock, and was born at Leroy, Minnesota, the daughter of Emil and Anna Larson, natives of Norway, who came to Leroy in 1870, where Mrs. Larson died. Mr. Larson is a farmer and has kept fully abreast of the wave of prosperity which has lately passed over the agricultural communities. Mr. and Mrs. Hauge are proud to be the parents of two very bright and interesting children, Esther Amelia and Glenn Mar- ion. Mr. Hauge's career, though short, is both interesting, instructive and inspiring. No young man can witness his success without feeling that there is indeed a place for the man who makes that place for himself and that a man can make that place if he has the will and ability to do so. If he has accomplished so much in so short a time, we certainly have the best of found- ation to say that his future career will bring him into much greater note and to higher rewards.
JAMES E. ROBERTSON.
In the death of the honored subject of this sketch, which occurred at Fayette, Iowa, on May 22, 1904, there passed away another member of that group of distinctively representative pioneers, who were the leaders in inaug- urating and building up the agricultural and commercial interests of Fayette county, Iowa. His name is familiar, not only to the residents of the immediate section of the development of which he contributed so conspicuously, but to all who have been informed in regard to the history of this particular section of the Hawkeye state. He was identified with the growth of Fayette county for over a half century and contributed to its progress and prosperity to an extent equaled by few of his contemporaries. He early had the sagacity and pre- science to discern the eminence which the future had in store for this great and growing section of the commonwealth, and, acting in accordance with the dictates of faith and judgment, he reaped, in the fullness of time, the generous benefits which are the just recompense of indomitable industry, spotless integ- rity and progressive enterprise.
The antecedents of the subject are traced back to English origin, the family having come to America late in the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth cen- tury. The subject's great-grandfather, Drury Robertson, was a native of Vir- ginia, but removed to North Carolina, where his death occurred. His son,
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
ELIZABETH J. ROBERTSON
JAMES E . ROBERTSON
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FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA.
William Robertson, who was born in Virginia on February 2, 1754, was a patriot soldier during the war of the Revolution and in that struggle he suffered the loss of an arm. After the war he took up the pursuit of agriculture, in which he was prospered. In religion he was a Methodist. On December 25, 1774, he married Rebecca House, and among their children was John H. Robertson, who was born January 10, 1784. He married Anna Burton in 1804 and in 1812 they moved to Bath county, Kentucky. In 1835 they lo- cated in Benton county, Indiana, where his death occurred on October 9, 1878, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. He and his wife were de- voted members of the Methodist church. John H. and Anna (Burton) Robertson were the parents of James E. Robertson, the immediate subject of this sketch.
James E. Robertson was born April 19, 1821, at Sharpsburg, Bath county, Kentucky, one of a large family of children. He spent his boyhood days in the parental home and secured his elementary education in the schools of that day, which were primitive in both method and equipment. When he was fourteen years of age the family moved to Indiana, where on attaining manhood's years he became a tiller of the soil. Two of the most important events of his life occurred in Indiana, namely, his marriage and his religious conversion, both having an inestimable effect on his future career. He was en- ergetic and a good manager and he was prospered in his farming, but, believ- ing that the West offered unlimited opportunities for the man who was willing to hustle, he, with his wife and family, and other relatives, in 1849, came to Fayette county, Iowa, arriving here on the 13th of September. Their first home here was established in a little two-room log cabin, on the west bank of Spring creek, about two miles south of where Fayette now stands. As some one has aptly said, "This was historic ground, as that house was the very earliest permanent home of civilization in Fayette county." There the winter of 1849-50 was spent, but in the following spring the family settled permanently on the homestead which they have occupied continuously since, a period embracing six decades. Mr. Robertson entered at once on the task --- and task it was-of establishing the new home, getting the land in shape for cultivation and making his family comfortable, and as the years passed he was able to realize the fruition of his hopes. He was intelligent and pro- gressive in his methods and gave diligent attention to every detail of his work, and the general appearance of his place gave evidence of the good taste, energetic habits and sound judgment of the owner. Here he continued to reside until his death, which occurred when he was aged eighty-three years, one month and three days.
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