USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Past and present of Fayette County, Iowa, Volume II > Part 64
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Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Webster are the parents of two sons, Ace and Charles. They are prominent business men in Waucoma, where their lives have been spent, except for temporary absences on business.
ELMER ELI FITCH.
Elmer Eli Fitch, formerly of Fayette county, Iowa, but for a number of years a prominent citizen of Illinois, and at this time an honored official of Henry county, that state, is a native of Trumbull county. Ohio, and a son of George and Deborah Fitch, who are noticed at some length further on in the sketch. Born August 13, 1846, his early childhood was spent near the place of his birth, and later he lived for a short time in Mercer county, Pennsyl- vania. Subsequently (1854), in company with his uncle, Samuel Boleyn, and family, the widowed mother and two sons, Martin B. and Elmer E., went to Indiana, and lived two years near the city of LaPorte, at the expiration of which time the family removed to Fayette county, Iowa, locating in Illyria township, where the subject spent the six years ensuing, working on a farm at intervals in the summer time, and during the winter months attending school in a little log building known as district No. 5. In July, 1861, he com- menced carrying the mail from Independence to McGregor, riding a mule, and supplying the following intermediate postoffices : Buffalo Grove, Hazel- ton, Otsego, Fayette, Lima, Illyria, Elgin, Gem and Farmersburg.
Mr. Fitch acted in the capacity of route agent until the summer of 1862. when with the spirit that actuated the movements of young men throughout
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the entire North, he resigned the position to tender his services to his country in another and far different capacity. On the evening succeeding his six- teenth birthday, at a war meeting held in the school house above designated, he enrolled his name as a soldier, was sworn in at West Union the following day, and became a member of Company A, Thirty-eighth Iowa Infantry, J. J. Welsh, captain, J. J. Berkey and John Herriman, first and second lieutenants, respectively. On December 17, 1864, the regiment was consolidated with the Thirty-fourth Iowa and Company A became Company F of the new organization. Mr. Fitch accompanied his command to the front, where he experienced the usual vicissitudes of war, taking part in a number of cam- paigns and battles, and spending but nine days in the hospital during his three years' service. He was mustered out with the regiment August 15, 1865, at Houston, Texas, and on the 5th of September, following, received his dis- charge at Davenport, Iowa, immediately after which he returned home and began planning for his future. Actuated by a laudable desire to add to his scholastic training, he entered the Upper Iowa University, at Fayette, where he prosecuted his studies for a period of two years, and in 1870 became a student of the Iowa State University, at Iowa City, from which he was gradu- ated in 1874, with an humble record as an industrious and critical student. On receiving his degree from the above institution, Mr. Fitch was elected principal of the West High school, in the city of Burlington, and the following year was chosen superintendent of the public schools of Galva, Illinois, which position he worthily held during the eight years ensuing, resigning in 1883 to engage in newspaper work as editor and publisher of the Galva News, which he purchased in the latter year. In connection with his editorial duties he served one year as superintendent of the public schools of Henry county, Illinois, to fill out an unexpired term in that office, and later was postmaster at Galva, from 1891 until 1895, discharging the duties of both positions with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the public. In 1896 Mr. Fitch was elected supreme director of the Mystic Workers of the World, a fraternal beneficiary order now numbering over sixty thousand members, which re- sponsible position he still holds, and in which he has demonstrated superior abilities as an executive officer, and done much to strengthen and give pub- licity to the organization. His other fraternal relations are represented by the Masonic brotherhood and the Grand Army of the Republic. he holding at this time the title of past commander of Galva Post, in the latter order.
Mr. Fitch has always kept abreast of the times on matters of public inter- est, and in close touch with enterprises and measures having for their object the material prosperity of the community, and the social and moral advance-
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ment of his fellow men. Politically, he is a Republican, and in recognition of valuable services rendered his party, as well as in view of his peculiar fitness for the position, he was elected in 1906 county clerk of Henry county, to the duties of which important office he has since devoted his attention. He was re-elected to this position in November, 1910, with a majority exceeding twenty-five hundred, thus emphasizing the degree of satisfaction found in his official career.
On July 5, 1876, Mr. Fitch married Rachel Helgesen, of Winneshiek ยท county, Iowa, daughter of Thomas and Anna ( Holverson) Helgesen. Thomas Helgesen was a native of Norway, and a Quaker in his religious belief. He was of the stuff from which heroes are made, for he suffered persecution and imprisonment for the sake of his religion. The following reply to his jailors, after he had subsisted for two weeks on bread and water, was characteristic of the man : "On the rock of my faith, I take my stand, God helping me, You may starve this poor body, but you cannot starve the soul." For the sake of religious freedom, Thomas Helgesen, in 1848, came to America, and settled in Madison, Wisconsin, where the daughter Rachel was born, April 23, 1850. Her mother died when the daughter was about two years old. In 1856, the family moved to Winneshiek county, where the father purchased land on Washington Prairie, and became a well-to-do farmer. He was in- tensely loyal during the Civil war, and was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, and, despite his religion of non-resistance, was an ardent supporter of the President's war policies. He died at the home of his daughter in Galva, Illinois, August 16, 1895, in the eighty-first year of his age. Thomas Helgesen was three times married. By his third wife four children are liv- ing, viz : Mrs. Mary Passmore, of Chicago ; Hon. Henry T., of Milton, North Dakota (recently elected a member of the national Congress as a Republican) ; Mrs. H. T. Hammer, of Pullman, Illinois, and Albert, of Crookston, Minne- sota. Henry Helgesen was the first commissioner of agriculture of Dakota territory, and the first man to fill that office after the state was organized.
Rachel Helgesen, the wife of the subject of this sketch, was educated. primarily, in the country schools of Winneshiek county, and in Breckenridge Institute, of Decorah. She subsequently attended the Upper Iowa University at Fayette, for about two years, and then went to the State University, at Iowa City, where she completed the work of the junior year and for one year taught in the Iowa city schools. During the progress of her studies she did considerable teaching. She is public spirited in every sense of the term. She labored successfully for manual training and a free kindergarten in the Galva public schools, and was largely influential in securing the present public
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library in Galva. For a number of years she was president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Galva, and also served as president of the Woman's Relief Corps.
Mr. and Mrs. Fitch are the parents of three children: George, born June 5, 1877 ; Rachel Louise, September 27, 1878; Robert Haynes, born Janu- ary 17, 1881, all natives of Galva, Illinois. They were all graduates from the Galva high school, and attended Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois, George and Louise completing the prescribed course of that institution. Robert at- tended two years and for a similar period was a student of the department of mechanical engineering, in the State University at Champaign, Illinois. George is at present managing editor of the Peoria (Illinois) Herald Tran- script. He is a humorist, and his writings appear in a number of the standard magazines. On October 5, 1904, he married Clara- Gattrell, daughter of Horace and Mary (Gattrell) Lynn, of Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. Clara Fitch was born in Columbus, Ohio, April 21, 1876. Her father, Horace Lynn, a native of Newark, that state, was a son of William and Mary (Taylor) Lynn. William Lynn was a Virginian by birth. Mary Taylor was daughter of William Taylor, whose father, Judge James Taylor, served in the Revolu- tionary war. When Licking county, Ohio, was organized, he was appointed one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas. Mary Gattrell was a daughter of Nathan and Mary (Moorehead) Gattrell. Nathan's grandfather, Nathan Musgrove, was a Revolutionary soldier, also a soldier in the war of 1812. Mary Moorehead's mother was Louisa Chapline, who was a descend- ant of Isaac Chapline, an ensign in the British royal navy, who came to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, as king's commissioner, under Lord Dela- ware, in 1610. George and Clara Fitch have two children, Mary Gattrell, born August 8, 1907, and Elinor Moorehead, born December 17, 1909.
Rachel Louise is at home in Cambridge, Illinois. She was for eighteen months editor and business manager of the Galva News, and is at present editor and business manager of the Trident Magazine, the official organ of the Phi Delta Sorority.
Robert Haynes had a position with the Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis for several years, and at present holds a responsible position with the Avery Manufacturing Company, of Peoria, Illinois. On April 16, 1906, he was married to Mary J. Morse, of Pasadena, California. They have two children, Mary Louise, born April 28, 1907, and Rachel Lillian, born August 28, 1909. Mary (Morse) Fitch is a daughter of Henry Wilson and Ida (Throop) Morse, the father a native of Vermont and of Irish-English descent. One of the Throops was a Revolutionary soldier, and another
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Throop ancestor was a soldier in the army of King Charles I of England and fought against Cromwell. Mary Morse Fitch's grandfather Throop was a first cousin of the Throop who founded the Throop Polytechnic Institute of Pasadena, California.
The subject of this sketch was the son of George Fitch and Deborah Boleyn, who was a daughter of Eli and Jane ( Brisbine) Boleyn. Eli Boleyn was born in Virginia, in 1793, and the wife in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1790, their marriage taking place in Ohio, in 1812. The grand- father was a soldier in the second war with England, and was assigned to duty on the frontier of Ohio, where all his toes were frozen off, and he was discharged. Seven children were born unto them, two of whom are now liv- ing, Thomas and David. Thomas came from Pennsylvania to Iowa by boat, in 1852, and the following year settled in Illyria township, Fayette county. Others of the family followed four years later, so that all were residents of Iowa in 1856, except James and Nancy. The mother died in Illyria town- ship, in February, 1858, and her husband followed her twelve years later. George Fitch was twice married, his wives being sisters. By his first wife, Margaret Boleyn, he had one child, Martha Jane, who married Ira Kitch, of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and had George, Willard, Nettie and Iretta. Ira Kitch was orderly sergeant in the One Hundredth Pennsylvania ("Round- head") Regiment, and was mortally wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania, Virginia, May 12, 1864. George Fitch had the following children by his sec- ond wife: Martin Bently, Alice Ann ( who married Thos. Kennedy ), George WV. and Elmer Eli. George Fitch, the father of the subject of this sketch, died in December, 1847, and was buried at Youngstown, Ohio. He was a man of liberal education, a native of New York city, born in 1807. After the death of her husband Mrs. Fitch taught school, and was thus engaged during the greater part of the long period of her widowhood, from 1848 to 1861. As a sincere Christian, of beautiful character, her life was unselfishly de- voted to the happiness and well-being of her children, and all who came within . the range of her influence spoke in high terms of her gracious presence and many estimable qualities. She remarried in 1862, her second husband being William O. Hageman, now of Ringgold county, but formerly of Fayette county, lowa, the union resulting in the birth of two children, Philo F. and one that died in infancy. Mrs. Fitch departed this life on the 17th of Janu- ary, 1895. Philo F. Hageman, the survivor, is a farmer in Ringgold county. He married Louisa Hazlet, August 21, 1886. They have a family of six children living, and one dead. Everett Carlen, born September 15, 1887; Lora Luella, born September 8, 1889, married Clement M. Todd, December
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22, 1909; Clement Frances, born February 1, 1892, died November 15, 1901; Leonard Hazlet, born July 24, 1894; Harwill Elmer, born September 22, 1896; James William, born September 15, 1899; Ila Mae, born July 6, 1908. George Fitch was a son of William Haynes and Hannah (Lockwood) Fitch. The genealogy of the family runs as follows: William Haynes Fitch was a son of Haynes and Anne (Cooke) Fitch. Haynes Fitch was a Revolutionary soldier, serving in the Ninth Connecticut Regiment. His wife, Anne Cooke, was a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Toucey) Cooke. John Cooke was a son of Rev. Samuel and Anne (Trowbridge) Cooke. Anne Trowbridge was a granddaughter of Governor William Leete, of Connecti- cut, who concealed in the basement of his store, at Guilford, for several weeks, the regicides, Goffe and Whaley, two of the judges who pronounced sentence of death upon King Charles I of England, in 1649.
John Cooke, above mentioned, was a half-brother of Gen. Joseph Platt Cooke, of the American Revolution. Haynes Fitch, above mentioned, was a son of James and Mary (Haynes) Fitch. Mary Haynes was a daughter of William and Mary ( Marvin) Haynes. William Haynes was of the same family as John Haynes, of Copford Hall, Essex county, England, and later governor of Massachusettes and Connecticut colonies. James Fitch (above) was a brother of Thomas Fitch, for ten terms governor of the colony of Connecticut. This family consisted of Governor Thomas, the brothers Sam- uel and James, and sister Elizabeth. Samuel and James were colonial officials. Elizabeth married, first, Joshua Raymond, and became the progenetrix of Hon. Henry Raymond, founder of the New York Times. She married, second, Elisha Kent; there was no issue from this marriage, but Elisha Kent was the progenitor of Chancellor James Kent, the world-renowned jurist. The Fitch family came from Bocking, Essex county, England. The widow of Thomas Fitch, who died at Bocking, in 1632, came to America with three of her sons, Thomas, Joseph and Rev. James. Thomas became the founder of Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1652. There were five generations of Thomas Fitches in Norwalk in regular succession, ending with the aforementioned Governor Thomas Fitch.
In a work entitled "Fitch Family," by Prof. G. L. Mills, the statement is made: "In the records of the herald's office in London, the genealogy of the Fitch family is quite full, much more so than common. In the herald's visita- tions to Essex, the family pedigree is traced back from sons to fathers, step by step, to William, second son of John Fitch, who was living in Fitch Castle, parish of Widdington, in the northwest part of Essex, in the twenty-second year of the reign of Edward I, that is 1294." Hannah (Lockwood) Fitch,
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the grandmother of the subject of this sketch, was the daughter of Hezekiah and Catherine (Seymour) Lockwood. Hezekiah was a Revolutionary soldier, a member of the Ninth Connecticut Militia. He was the son of Isaac and Ruth (Whitney) Lockwood. Isaac was the son of Joseph and Mary (Wood) Lockwood. Joseph was the son of Ephraim and Mercy (St. John) Lockwood. Ephraim was the first of the Lockwood settlers in Nor- walk, and was the son of Robert Lockwood, who lived in Watertown, Massa- chusetts, as early as 1630. The Lockwoods seem to have been a military race. Including husbands of Lockwood women, there were one hundred and fifty- six of them in the colonial and Revolutionary wars.
REV. JASON LEE PAINE, A. M.
The subject of this sketch is a man so well known as a citizen of Fay- ette county that no words of introduction are needed. Everybody knows and honors Rev. Mr. Paine. He has been a familiar figure in the town of Fayette for more than fifty-five years, and his residence has been there about as long.
Jason L. Paine was one of the first to enroll himself as a student in the Upper Iowa University, and the first to complete the full course in the preparatory and collegiate departments. He was graduated in 1862, and in September following he engaged in the work which has characterized him through life as a devout and conscientious Christian gentleman. His first ministerial field was in the capacity of a missionary in Dakota territory, which then extended across the Rockies to Washington territory; but the western terminus of Mr. Paine's field was at Fort Randall, one hundred and fifty miles west of Sioux City, which was then on the western edge of civilization.
Mr. Paine next accepted a pastoral call in Cedar county, Iowa, and la- bored in that field until stricken with almost total blindness, and was obliged to discontinue all study for the succeeding eight years. He was unable dur- ing this time to read a chapter of Scripture. In 1873, his eyesight being partially restored, he resumed his pastoral work, but in 1880 nervous pros- tration compelled his permanent retirement from active ministerial labors. Between 1873 and 1880 he served as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal churches at Postville, Cresco and Monticello, in the counties of Allamakee, Howard and Jones, respectively.
Since retiring from the active ministry, Mr. Paine has devoted his
REV. JASON L. PAINE, A. M.
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time and talents largely to educational work, but he has also been active in other fields, particularly in temperance work. In the latter field he was president of the first temperance organization in Fayette county, beginning this career while yet a student in college.
Mr. Paine was county president of the prohibitory amendment campaign in 1882, devoting his time and the services of his team to this work for about three months; and it was largely due to his energy and elo- quence that Fayette county polled a thousand majority for the amendment, decidedly the largest majority in northeastern Iowa. Mr. Paine has organ- ized and superintended campaigns of prosecution which have resulted in closing not less than fifty saloons, and in condemning and destroying at least seven thousand dollars' worth of liquors. He has done this work wholly because of his conscientious convictions as to what is right, and not because of any vindictive or belligerent spirit, these being entirely foreign to his nature. His efforts have been ably seconded by some of the best men in Fayette, who, like himself, were advocates of temperance and so- briety as the underlying principles of morality and purity in society. Mr. Paine's life, though physically weak, has been spent down to the period of the "sere and yellow leaf" in a laudable effort to benefit his fellow man either in body, mind or estate. He has been a leader in every movement for the elevation of human morals, the vindication of the right and the subjugation of the wrong. Recognizing the soil as the original foundation of all wealth, he early advocated the organization of farmers' institutes as a means of mutual interchange of ideas and the final development of agriculture into a science in keeping with its importance. He served many years as the president of the Fayette County Farmers' Institute.
In 1870 Mr. Paine was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Upper Iowa University and held that important office for thirty consecu- tive years, and is yet an honorary member of that body. He has never been an office seeker, but has held the office of county auditor by appointment by the board of supervisors, being the first incumbent after that office was created. He also held the office of superintendent of schools by similar ap- pointment.
The subject of this biographical sketch comes from early colonial stock, and traces his ancestors back in unbroken line to 1638, when the founder of the family on American soil came from England and settled in Massachusetts colony. His name was Steven Paine. In direct line of descent there were four "Stevens," the name being spelled the same in each case. Steven Paine II was active in the King Philip war; Steven Paine III was twice a
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representative in the colonial Parliament; Steven Paine IV moved to Con- necticut and was a soldier in the old French war. He urged his sons to en- list in the patriot army during the war of the Revolution, and the paternal injunction was obeyed by the six stalwart sons. Edward Paine, the fifth generation in America, and the paternal great-grandfather of the subject of this article, enlisted in 1775, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general during the Revolutionary war. He located in central New York after the war, and served in the Legislature of that state in 1798-99. He came to Ohio early in the year 1800, and founded the town of Painesville. He was a member of the first ensuing Territorial Legislature of Ohio.
Joel Paine, the grandfather of the subject, was sheriff of Cleveland, Ohio, and as such official it became his duty to execute the decree of the in the case of two Indians convicted of murder. At the moment of this execution the news of Hull's surrender reached the town and Mr. Paine at once resigned his office and entered the army, his enlistment occurring in August, 1812. He was commissioned a brigadier-general and led his bri- gade against the Indians. But he died suddenly of quinsy, April 8, 1813.
Cortez Paine, father of the subject, was a man of deep religious con- victions, and, though much interested in public affairs, never aspired to public life. He was born at Painesville, Ohio, November 19, 1806, and died in Fayette, Iowa, January 6, 1880. The mother of Jason L. Paine was a native of Peru, New York, born September 6, 1819. Her maiden name was Silva Hallock. She died January 12, 1900, at the age of eighty years.
Jason Lee Paine was born at Hudson, Summit county, Ohio, January 9, 1838. In 1846 he accompanied his father to Rock county, Wisconsin, where they remained until 1855, when they came to Fayette, Iowa.
The father, Cortez Paine, was an Abolitionist and could not tolerate the idea of human slavery. He was one of the first to espouse the cause and voted for James G. Birney for President, in 1844. The life of this noble man was devoted to the interests of downtrodden humanity, and was es- pecially interested in all reform work tending towards the alleviation of hu- man suffering and the upbuilding of righteousness among the people. He was universally respected by all who knew him. The subject of this sketch partook, somewhat, of his father's political views and cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1859. He was an active and zealous worker for the supremacy of Republican principles until 1888, when he espoused the cause of the Prohibition party, since which time he has been an aggressive worker in that cause, as previously intimated in this article.
Mr. Paine was married, July 24, 1861, to Margaret F. Kent, daughter
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of Helmer and Samantha (Fletcher) Kent, of South Hero, Vermont. Mrs. Paine is a sister of the late William Kent, of West Union, Iowa. Four chil- dren have been born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Paine, the eldest of whom, Charles F., is editor and business manager of the Fayette Reporter, a more extended notice of which appears in the history of Fayette; Amy L., the second born, is principal of the high school at Norfolk, Nebraska; Louie B. is the wife of Rev. George Blagg, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Morning Sun, Iowa, and Miss Margaret E. is the companion and helper around the domestic fireside of "the old folks at home."
Of the fraternal organizations, Mr. Paine is a Mason, and it is useless to add that his church affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal denomi- nation.
DAVID SALTSGIVER.
Many of the leading citizens of Fayette county are either natives of the Buckeye state or their parents or grandparents came from there. It seems that they delight to begin life in a new country where conditions are primitive and where hard work is required to wrest a living from resisting Nature, but they always succeed and whatever community they move into is developed in every way. Of this class is David Saltsgiver, a highly re- spected citizen of West Union, who was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1840. He is the son of John and Mary (Capper) Saltsgiver, the father a na- tive of Pennsylvania and the mother of Ohio. The paternal grandfather of David Saltsgiver was Henry Saltsgiver, a native of Germany, who, in a very early day crossed the broad Atlantic in a slow-sailing vessel and set- tled in the state of Pennsylvania. He left that state, however, and moved to Ohio where he was a pioneer farmer and a man of great courage and honor. The subject's maternal grandparents, David and Mary Capper, were natives of Virginia. They grew to maturity there and married in their native state, coming soon afterwards to Ohio, where Mr. Capper conducted a horse-power grist-mill and farmed, beginning as a pioneer.
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