USA > Iowa > Jasper County > Past and present of Jasper County, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 60
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passed to her rest on October 25, 1899, and eight years later, October 14, 1907, Captain Cozad was united in marriage with Mrs. Celia Therese Worm- ley, widow of Frederick P. Wormley. She was the daughter of Benjamin Hale and Mary A. (Connable) Carlton, and her birth occurred on January 16, 1834, at Keene, New Hampshire, her parents being natives of Massachusetts. Mrs. Cozad is one of three children, a sister, Ellen, was the wife of George R. Parsons and she and a brother, Edgar L., are both deceased.
Mrs. Cozad was formerly prominent in social life. devoting much time to different social clubs and also organized for benevolent and literary pur- poses ; but of late years she has practically withdrawn from society and now devotes most of her time to her home. She is a woman of education, culture and affable disposition which has made hier a favorite with a wide circle of friends. She and the Captain are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Newton, and she is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, and is a charter member of the chapter in Pueblo, Colorado. The Captain belongs to Newton Lodge No. 59, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, having been a Mason since 1862; he is also a member of Garrett Post No. 16, Grand Army of the Republic, which post was named for his colonel.
Captain Cozad has an attractive and substantial home, surrounding which are some beautiful and stately maple trees which he planted from the seed fifty-two years ago.
CHARLES F. SAUERMAN.
One of the best known men in Jasper county and one of her worthiest and most representative citizens is Charles F. Sauerman, for many years a leading farmer and stock raiser, but now living in retirement in his beautiful home in Newton. He is a fine type of the truly public-spirited citizen, and withholds his co-operation from no movement which is intended to promote public im- provement, and as president of the Jasper County Agricultural Society he has done a very commendable service to this locality. What he has achieved in life proves the force of his character and illustrates his steadfastness of pur- pose, his own persistent and well directed efforts winning him not only ma- terial success, but also the good will and confidence of his fellow men.
Mr. Sauerman was born in Frederick county, Maryland, October 24, 1851. He is the son of William F. and Sarah A. (Kershaw) Sauerman, the father a native of Hanover, Germany, and the mother of Maryland, her family having been more or less prominent in the Oriole state for many generations,
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and there she grew to maturity, was educated, met and married Mr. Sauer- man, who emigrated to America in 1840 and located at Baltimore. He learned the trade of shoemaking in his youth, which he followed successfully until he was sixty years of age when he went to farming. He came west when Charles F., of this review, was three years of age, in November, 1854, locating among the pioneers at Blue Grass, Scott county, Iowa, where he developed a good farm, became well established, and where he remained until his death, in June, 1902, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years; his wife survived him until 1905, dying at the age of eighty-six years. Mr. Sauerman was strong in his allegiance to the Union, although he was too old to serve in the Federal army. He was a greatly beloved old gentleman and he and his wife numbered their friends by the scores in their vicinity in Scott county. They were the parents of ten children, four of whom are living at this writing : Henry A., now deceased, served in the Union army for four years; William E. lives at Garner, Cherokee county, Iowa; Mrs. Sarah E. Spratt, of Sac City, Iowa ; Mrs. Anna E. Mewshaw, of Huntsville, Texas ; Charles F., of this review.
The subject was three years of age when his parents brought him to Iowa. and he grew to maturity on his father's farm, where he worked when a boy. He attended the public schools during the winter months and received a fairly good education. He took up farming for a livelihood, which he followed suc- cessfully until March 1, 1910. He remained in Scott county until he was thirty-two years old, then, in 1884, he went to Poweshiek county, Iowa, where he lived sixteen years, moving to Jasper county in the spring of 1900, locating five miles south of Newton, where he lived five years, then bought a farm north of Colfax and lived there five years, moving to Newton on March I, 1910, and retired from active life. He improved a number of good farms and by persistent labor and good management became well established. Besides general farming he made a success of stock raising. He has a modern, com- modious, attractive and neatly kept home on East Main street, the presiding spirit of which is a lady of many attractive characteristics, who was known in her maidenhood as Mary E. Agar, to whom Mr. Sauerman was married on March 31, 1876. She is the daughter of Thomas and Lucy Agar, and her birth occurred in Livingston county, New York, where she was reared and educated, coming west with her parents in 1865. To this union seven children have been born, five of whom are living, namely: Harry C., of Lawton, Oklahoma ; Leroy T. died in 1906; Anna L., Lollie P., Henry A. are all at home : Ernest E. died when two years old : Nellie E. is at home.
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Mr. Sauerman is a member of the board of county supervisors, to which he was elected in 1908, on the Republican ticket and he is still in office, having very ably and conscientiously discharged the duties of the same and winning the hearty commendation of all concerned. This board of three members had charge of building the new court house, which is one of the finest buildings in Iowa. Mr. Sauerman has given a great deal of his time and attention to this work, as well as looking after the bridges and roads of the country. Mr. Sauerman has been president of the Jasper County Agricultural Association for the past three years, during which time he has done much to encourage and strengthen this work, having always taken a great pride and interest in the work of the association, and he has worked for it in a manner that has won the admiration of all concerned. He is active in the Republican party, and he has often refused public office. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order. the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church.
SPENCER H. REES.
One of Jasper county's substantial and representative citizens is Spencer H. Rees, who is essentially a self-made man, and as such ranks with the most enterprising and progressive of his contemporaries. He has, from early life, steadily pursued the honorable course which in due time brought social recog- nition and the high position he has long occupied in the industrial life of New- ton. By a life consistent in motive and action and because of his many fine personal qualities he has earned the sincere personal regard of all who know him, and in his home, which is the center of a large social circle, there is always in evidence a spirit of generosity.
Mr. Rees was born of a sterling old Buckeye family, on August 4, 1847, in Hancock county, Ohio, being the son of Thomas and Mary A. (Prouty) Rees, the father a native of Pennsylvania and the mother of Ohio. In 1840 Thomas Rees came to Ohio, where he followed his trade of stone cutter for about eight years, during which time he met and married Mary A. Prouty. Shortly after the birth of his son, Spencer H., of this review, he emigrated to Iowa, reaching Jasper county in the fall of 1848, settling in Palo Alto town- ship, and there he entered wild prairie land from the government, on which he built a one-roomed log cabin and began life in pioneer style, setting reso- lutely to work to carve out a new home in a new country. Here he became
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well established in due course of time, developing an excellent farm on which he remained until his death, March 10, 1865. For three months during his first winter here the only neighbors seen were Indians, but they were friendly. Wolves, deer and turkey were plentiful. Thomas Rees became a man of much influence in his community, being a man of fine personal characteristics and pronounced public spirit. The first election held in the township was in his barn. At the time of his death he was one of the county's largest land owners, having seven hundred and forty acres in Palo Alto township. After his death his widow married Isaac G. Badger, a native of England. She lived with him until her death, on November 22, 1881.
To Thomas Rees and his first wife nine children were born, one of whom died in infancy ; Lewis died at the age of ten, and Anson B., well known all over the county, died April 6, 1910; those living are, Spencer H., of this re- view; Henriette married Harry McVey and they live in Rathburn, Iowa; Rowland L. lives on a farm in Palo Alto township; Franklin P. is engaged in the mercantile business at Wann, Oklahoma; Estella M. married Dr. D. N. Johnson, of Chickasha, Oklahoma: Effie C. married G. W. Byington, a real estate dealer in Little Rock, Arkansas. After Mr. Rees's death, Mrs. Rees married Isaac Badger and two children were born to them, H. J. Badger, who is now residing in Chinook, Montana, and Mary Belle, who married S. A. Guessford, a farmer of Buena Vista township, this county.
On October 24, 1877, Spencer H. Rees was married to Margaret E. Holmes, daughter of Ranson P. and Mary A. (Duncan) Holmes, the father being a native of Kentucky and the mother of Indiana, Mr. Holmes having been a farmer and stock raiser. His death occurred on February 26, 1893, and that of his wife on October 27, 1891. Their family consisted of six children, of whom five are living, John W. Holmes having died in 1905; those living are : Charles W., of Texas ; Alnora is the wife of Dr. J. W. Hannah, of Tonkawa, Oklahoma; Ida married George W. Maund and lives in Jennings, Louisiana : Verna married A. L. Lewellen, who is living in Rosendale. Mis- souri.
After the death of their father, Spencer H. Rees and his elder brother assumed control of the farm and managed the same until the estate was settled upon the re-marriage of the mother, at which time the subject began working for himself, following farming until 1904, with more than ordinary success, when he was elected secretary of the Mutual Fire and Lightning In- surance Association of Jasper county, which position he has held ever since, discharging the duties of the same in a manner that has reflected much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He has served
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both as trustee and clerk of Palo Alto township for two terms and has been assessor of that township three terms. He has acted as trustee of roads and upon coming to Newton he resigned as clerk of the school board. He is the owner of an excellent farm in Palo Alto township, upon which is the site of the cabin his father built when he came to this county. He also holds considerable property interests in Newton, having been very successful as a business man in whatever he has directed his attention to. During the year 1887 he was traveling mail weigher for the United States government on route No. 27036. In 1889 he was nominated for county auditor by the Union Labor party and endorsed by the Democrats, being defeated by a small margin only. In 1895 Mr. Rees was nominated for county treasurer by the Populists and in the three- cornered fight which followed he polled his share of the votes. Both these nominations came to Mr. Rees unsought.
Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rees, two of whom died in infancy; those living are, Morris H., born April 27, 1880; he received a high education and is professor of biology in the college at Tarkio, Missouri; Edith Glen, born January 8, 1884, is unmarried; Floy Naoma, born October 17, 1887, is unmarried and at home.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Rees are members of the United Presbyterian church. While living in Palo Alto township he was a trustee of the church.
In March, 1905, Mrs. Rees was stricken with rheumatism from which she has been a constant but patient sufferer, having been almost helpless during the past five years, but here severe affliction has not changed her genial and kindly disposition.
Mr. Rees is one of the honored "boys in blue," having proved his patriot- ism and loyalty to his country by enlisting in Company B, Forty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, on May 24, 1864. After serving faithfully for five months he was honorably discharged October 21, 1864.
MAYNARD ELLSWORTH PENQUITE.
Distinguished as an official, an attorney and public-spirited citizen, the name of Maynard Ellsworth Penquite, the present popular and efficient mayor of Colfax, has long been closely interwoven with the history and development of Jasper county ; in fact, few men in this locality are better or more favor- ably known and none have exercised a more potent influence in moulding and directing public opinion. The family of which he is an honorable representa- tive is old and eminently respectable.
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Mr. Penquite was born in this county on January 20, 1872, and he is the son of William H. and Sarah I. (Hoping) Penquite. The father came to this county in 1866, locating near Greencastle and there became well established through years of hard and consecutive endeavor in general farming. He was a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted in the Twenty-second Ohio Heavy Artillery at Wilmington, Ohio, in 1863 and he served very gallantly and faith- fully for three years; however, his knee having been injured early in the service, he was on detached duty most of the time. He was the first post- master at Mingo and for some time he was clerk of his township. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Duncan Post No. 258. His par- ents. John and Mary Penquite, spent their lives in Ohio, of which state he was a native. The death of William H. Penquite occurred on October 24, 1909. His wife was the daughter of Jeremiah and Jane ( Stewart) Hoping, who came to Jasper county, Iowa, in 1857, having formerly lived near Xenia, Ohio. They located near Greencastle and there they both died.
Maynard E. Penquite was the only son in a family of four children, his sisters being Claudia, the wife of Emanuel Fry. of Mingo: Bessie is the wife of J. T. Stitt, of Des Moines : Mae Penquite lives at Ira, Iowa, and is the wife of Leon Richardson.
The subject's mother owns the old home place which she has kept well improved and well cultivated.
Mr. Penquite was married in Jasper county to Lola E. Warell, a most worthy representative of an excellent family, being the daughter of Charles and Eva Warell, the father having located in Clear Creek township when a boy and here grew up with the country. His wife was known in her maiden- hood as Eva Clapper, daughter of Harman and Katherine (Harsh) Clapper, who came to Jasper county in the latter forties or early fifties and located in Clear Creek township. To Mr. and Mrs. Penquite the following children have been born : Leon Maynard, Gladys Mae, Vergil Ellsworth, Morris Oral and Helen Lola.
The subject grew up on the home farm where he worked during his boy- hood while not attending the public schools. Turning his attention to the law, he took a course in the law department of Drake University at Des Moines. where he made a splendid record, and from which institution he was gradu- ated in 1899. Soon afterwards he was admitted to the bar and he began prac- tice at Collins, Story county. January 1, 1903, he came to Colfax, where he has continued to the present time with ever-increasing success, being re- garded as a painstaking, persistent and honorable advocate, ever vigilant of his client's interests and a forceful and logical pleader before a jury. He has
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figured prominently in the local courts for the past ten years and takes rank with the leading legal lights of the county. He has been justice of the peace for three terms, discharging the duties of this office in a most worthy manner, his decisions being characterized by fairness to all parties and given in a man- ner as to indicate his familiarity with all phases of jurisprudence. In the spring of 1909 he was elected mayor of the town of Colfax, which office he has held to the present time in a manner that reflects much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned.
Mr. Penquite is a pleasant man to know personally, genial, honest and straightforward in all his transactions, a man eminently meriting the high esteem in which he is held.
J. C. HAWKINS.
"Unique" is the term that best describes the subject of this review. Not so in a notorious way, nor yet in the realm of cheap tinsel and tawdry accomplishment, but unique as a man who is worth while, who is so original as to be apart from the great rank and file of his fellow men.
J. C. Hawkins looks like Bourke Cochran and can talk almost as well. He is cynical without being bitter, sarcastic without being narrow or unkind. Then he is so absolutely wide awake and alive to what the world is doing and what life means. He was born in Troy, Doniphan county, Kansas, April 30, 1869, being the son of H. C. and Susan (Wormley) Hawkins, his father being a native of New York and his mother of Pennsylvania. His father was one of the best known men and ablest lawyers in Kansas, being elected to the Legis- lature of that state and leading attorney for the Santa Fe Railway Company for many years prior to his death, which occurred in 1874. As a speaker his reputation was equal to his fame as a lawyer. After the death of the father, Mr. Hawkins's mother remarried, her husband being J. Evans Ryan, an Epis- copal minister of Troy, Kansas. This marriage took place when the subject of this review was but six years of age, he being the only child by the former marriage. When his mother and stepfather came to Jasper county in 1880, the little boy came with them and he has since remained in Jasper county, although there was a time when he was absent, while traveling for his health for a period of some five years. His stepfather departed this life in 1893 and since then his mother has made her home in the city of Newton. Mr. Hawk- ins began his career in 1892 by graduating from the law department of the Iowa State University of Iowa City. After this he went to Pueblo, Colorado,
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where he opened a law office in partnership with William Mitchell, practicing one year. Returning to Monroe, Iowa, he practiced law one year in partner- ship with Sloan Coder, afterwards coming to Newton, where he has since re- mained.
Mr. Hawkins, since coming to Newton, has been connected with some of the most important cases in the history of the county, his efforts being char- acterized by signal success. Until the last year prior to this writing, he has given his attention exclusively to the law, but since then has given much at- tention to the manufacture and sale of an excellent office device known as the "Clipless Paper Fastener," of which he is the inventor. This device, standing almost alone among paper fasteners, securely fastens the sheets of paper together by the paper itself and is in constant and ever increasing demand. being on sale in every leading city in the world. As an assistance to his sales- men, who handle his invention, Mr. Hawkins has written a delightfully in- genious little book. "Salesmanship, or How to Make Money," which is well worthy of perusal as it contains much trite information which could only be gained by actual experience.
On October 18, 1904, Mr. Hawkins was married to Eva Ketman, of Humboldt, Iowa, daughter of H. J. and Frances Ketman, she being one of twelve children living: Adrian, Abraham, Hermanus and one sister, Mary Flemeigh, wife of Charles Flemeigh, are all engaged in farming near Hun- boldt; Francis, wife of Fred Morgan, professor in Leland Stanford Univer- sity, California : Jennie, wife of Frank Carpenter, a jeweler, resides in Ireton, Iowa ; Isaac, residing in Winterset, Iowa, is the owner of the Scarless Liniment Company : Peter is in the real estate business in Minnesota ; and T. R., a min- ister, is general manager for the Baptist Publishing Society of Chicago. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins are most affable and cultured people whom it is a pleasure to know. They are among the best of Newton's people.
BENJAMIN S. GILSON.
The enterprise of Benjamin S. Gilson, long connected with the agricul- tural interests of Jasper county, now living in retirement in Newton, has been crowned by success, as the result of rightly applied principles which never fail in their ultimate effect when coupled with integrity, uprightness and con- genial disposition, as they have been done in the present instance, judging from the high standing of Mr. Gilson among his fellow men, whose individual esteem he has justly won and retained.
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Mr. Gilson was born near Emmettsburg, Maryland, October 25, 1846. He is the son of Thomas S. and Susan E. (Groff) Gilson, the father born in Frederick county, Maryland, February 27, 1825, and the mother was also born in that state. There they grew to maturity, were educated and married. They came to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1852, where they made their home until the spring of 1870, when they removed to Marshall county. Mr. Gilson devoted his life to farming, remaining on his place in Marshall county until 1885, when he removed to Marshalltown, where he died in 1892. He was a man of energy, upright character and well liked wherever he lived. He was an enthusiastic worker in the Methodist church, and at the time of his death was trustee of the church at Marshalltown, and he had held other positions in the church. His wife was also a member of this church from her early youth. They were the parents of three children, Thomas R., of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Benjamin S., of this review, the other child being deceased. The mother passed to her rest in 1907, having attained the advanced age of eighty-five years.
Benjamin S. Gilson came west with his parents and was reared on the home farm, where he worked in the summer, and attended the public schools in the winter time. He has always been a farmer and delights in rural sur- roundings. He began life for himself on a farm in Dubuque county, and after he was married moved to Marshall county, and in 1891 located at New- ton and retired from active farm work. For some time he has been speculating in lands on his own account, and his efforts have met with success.
Mr. Gilson was married March 2, 1869, to Frances E. Hamilton, who was born in Dubuque county, Iowa, the daughter of James S. and Mary (Walker) Hamilton, natives of Pennsylvania. To this union three children have been born: Jeanetta Mabel, who keeps house for her father, is a mem- ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is rarely accomplished in china, water color, pastel and oil painting. She is a graduate of the high school and is a young lady of marked intellectual attainments; Charles W., who married Mrs. Grayce ( Mertz) Dixon, August 30, 1911, lives at Scott, Saskatchewan, Canada; James Harold. Both boys are . homesteading in Canada. James H. is a graduate of Northwestern University at Chicago, re- ceiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts ; he is also a graduate of the Comnock School of Oratory of Evanston, Illinois, having spent six years in college. He was offered a professorship, but he preferred outdoor life on the farm. He has financial interest in the Kittleman Leather Goods Company, of Chicago. He was married November 9, 1911, to Ruth Ormiston Warrington, daugh- ter of Rev. Thomas C. Warrington, pastor of McKinley Park church of Chi- cago, and lives in Canada.
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Mrs. Gilson passed to her rest in December, 1906, when fifty-eight years of age. She was a member of the Methodist church, as is also Mr. Gilson and the entire family. The father is a Prohibitionist and so votes. He has a beautiful and neatly kept home on East South street. While Mr. Gilson is a retired farmer, he is still engaged in business, having large land holdings in Canada, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota. Walter, the eldest son, is an expert machinist, and is doing expert work for the International Harvester Com- pany in Canada, making his headquarters at Scott, Saskatchewan.
Mr. Gilson is a class leader in the Methodist church at Newton and has held nearly all the offices in the church. He has been a teacher in the Bible class for fifteen years. He was twice a delegate to the world's Sunday school congress, and he is a member of the Red Cross Society.
The reputation of the Gilson ancestors is most exemplary, there having been no criminals and several preachers among them, and one of them fought in the Revolutionary war. William Gilson was the founder of the family in America. He married Elizabeth Craighead. Their son, Thomas Gilson, mar- ried Nancy Boyd, and their son Richard married Mary Smith, and Thomas, the son of the latter couple, was the father of the subject.
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