USA > Iowa > Jasper County > Past and present of Jasper County, Iowa, Vol. II > Part 11
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farming and stock raising on a large scale. He is one of the best known stock inen of the county and he feeds from ten to fifteen carloads of cattle and about ten carloads of hogs annually. He raises full-blooded Percheron horses. He is a good judge of all kinds of live stock.
Politically, Mr. Johnson is a Republican, but locally he votes for the man, irrespective of party politics. He is a member of the Friends church.
Mr. Johnson was united in marriage on October 20, 1903, to Winema Pemberton, who was born in Marshall county, Iowa, the daughter of Henry P. Pemberton, an early settler of that county, where he became the owner of four hundred acres of land. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson two children have been born. namely : Jervis Byron and Henry Maxwell.
ORVILLE AUGUSTUS WHEELER.
Among the enterprising citizens of Sherman township, Jasper county, is Orville Augustus Wheeler, to a review of whose honorable career the attention of the reader is now called. An analyzation of his life work shows that he has been dependent upon no inheritance or influential friends for what he has acquired, but he has through his continued effort and capable management gained a desirable property, whereby he is classed among the self-made and influential men of the county, peculiar interest attaching to his career in view of the fact that he has been a resident of the locality of which this history treats all his life, having figured conspicuously in the agricultural and mercan- tile interests of the western part of the county.
Mr. Wheeler was born in Palo Alto township, this county, January 23. 1861, the son of Joseph R. and Sarah S. (Turch) Wheeler, the father born in Ohio, December 5, 1834, and the latter in Indiana, February 11, 1842. The father grew to maturity in his native community and received his educa- tion there, and when he was twenty years old, in 1854, he came to Jasper county, Iowa, with his father. John Wheeler, and they settled in Kellogg township, being among the early arrivals there when that section was prac- tically a virgin prairie, dotted only here and there !vith a rude cabin. They drove from Ohio with a yoke of oxen. Here Joseph R. Wheeler became the owner of forty acres in Palo Alto township. On this he farmed until 1868. when he traded it for the corner lot in the city of Newton where the opera house now stands. Then for a period of twenty-five years he engaged in buy- ing and selling live stock, becoming one of the best known and successful stock men of the county. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company B,
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA. 861
Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in which he served most creditably for a period of three and one-half years, taking part in many important battles and trying campaigns. He was known to be a man of courage, good habits and public spirit. His death occurred in 1903. There were nine children in his family, named as follows: Mrs. Massilda J. Main, Orville Augustus, of this sketch; Mrs. Clara L. Loomis; Ernest Oliver, of Seattle; Mrs. Viola Mary Couch; Anthony ; Mrs. Eunice Muller ; Lucella died in infancy ; Mrs. Delsie D. Milligan.
Orville A. Wheeler, of this review, grew up in Palo Alto township and received his education in the public schools there and in the schools of Newton. Afterwards he broke prairie one summer in Hamilton county, then for a year he rented and farmed land in Osborne county. He then came back to Jasper county, where he rented land until 1890 when he bought eighty acres in Sherman township. This he sold twelve years later and moved to the hamlet of Goddard where he bought grain and live stock, also sold coal and lumber, building up a very satisfactory business. In 1908 he bought the general store here which he conducted in a successful and satisfactory manner until in January, 1911, when he sold out.
Mr. Wheeler is a Democrat politically and he has been school director in his district, but he has never sought political leadership.
On March 25, 1883, Mr. Wheeler was united in marriage with Amanda Abiah Couch, who was born in Seneca township, Seneca county, Ohio. She is the daughter of Rufus Baker Couch, who lived north of Mingo, Iowa. To Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler two children have been born, Roy Charles and Mrs. Mary Sarah Leonard, living in Poweshiek township, this county.
WILLIAM S. MURDOCK.
It is an unquestionable fact that the biographies of enterprising men, especially of good men, are instructive as guides and incentives to others. The examples they furnish of patient purpose and steadfast endeavor and integrity cannot help but influence others who are thrown in their company. Some men seem to belong to no exclusive class: apparently insurmountable obstacles have in many instances awakened their dormant faculties and served as a stimulus to carry them to ultimate renown. The instances of success in the face of adverse circumstances and unkind fate would seem almost to justify the conclusion that self-reliance with so much as a half-chance can accomplish any reasonable object. William Murdock, one of Mariposa township's most
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enterprising farmers and public spirited citizens, is a man who has succeeded at his chosen life work through his individual efforts and his persistency despite obstacles and hinderments in general. Like the oak which needs the tempests to battle with in order to grow hardy and resisting, so his nature seems to have been made stronger and better through the hard knocks and obstacles that are the common fate of all mankind at some time or other.
Mr. Murdock was born in Iowa county, Iowa, February 2, 1866. He is the son of M. Davis Murdock and Elsie Jane (Jordan) Murdock. the father born in Lancaster county. Pennsylvania, September 17, 1836. and the mother was born in Keokuk county, Iowa, in 1834. The elder Murdock grew up in Pennsylvania and began life on the farm. When he was a small boy his par- ents decided that he should prepare for the ministry and they therefore gave him excellent educational advantages, being helped very largely by his father. who was a well educated man and was at one time a teacher in an academy in Pennsylvania. When a young man M. Davis Murdock came to eastern Iowa and there entered the ministry of the United Brethren church, and he later preached all over the eastern part of the state, doing incalculable good and win- ning the esteem of all who know him, for he was not only an earnest advocate of the doctrine as set forth by the lowly Nazarene. but he was a good man in his every day life and always ready to assist those in need. He was married while living in Keokuk county. He proved his loyalty to the Union by enlisting in Company G. Thirtieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, at the commencement of the war between the states and he served very faithfully for a period of three years, acting first as chaplain. He fell ill and after his recovery he re-enlisted as a private.
After the war Mr. Murdock located in Louisa county, Iowa, where he lived for some time, then, in 1880. he moved to Mercer county, Illinois, where he had the pastorate of a church. He then moved to Rock Island county and there the subject was married. M. Davis Murdock has now retired and is living in Millersburg. Illinois, after a successful and praiseworthy career.
William S. Murdock moved to Nebraska in 1888 and there became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land. In 1894, after the crop failure there. he moved back to Rock Island county, Illinois, and rented land three years, then. in 1897, he moved to Jasper county, Iowa, and rented land in Mariposa township. In 1898 he moved on the old J. M. Campbell place. which he still operates. In 1906 he purchased eighty acres just north of where he lives and he tills this in connection with the two hundred acres which he rents. thus carrying on general farming on a large scale and he is meeting with success as a general farmer and stock raiser, making a specialty of Nor-
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inan horses and shorthorn cattle, feeding annually a large number of hogs. Mr. Murdock is a Democrat and he belongs to the. Baptist church, and his children are members of the Union church. Fraternally, he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. Murdock was married on August 18, 1886. to Sarah E. Elliott, who was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, on December 30, 1867. She is the daughter of Nelson G. and Mary Elliott, early settlers of Rock Island county. Mrs. Murdock's paternal grandfather, L. C. Elliott, was one of the very first comers to that county and there the Elliott family has been well known for several generations. Nine children, named in order of birth as follows. have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Murdock: Mrs. Edna May Paul, Mrs. Cora Dell Antel, Nelson Davis, Louis Cameron, Mary Ellen, Alfred Earl, Ruth Bessie, Esther and Naomi. Personally, Mr. Murdock is a pleasant gentleman to know, broad-minded, well posted and industrious.
S. H. NEWELL.
In the collection of material for the biographical department of this pub- lication there has been a constant aim to use a wise discrimination in regard to the selection of subjects and to exclude none worthy of representation within its pages. Here will be found mention of worthy citizens of all vocations, and at this juncture it is permitted to offer a resume of one of the most active of the younger generation of agriculturists of Jasper county, who, by close application and a willingness to forge ahead despite obstacles, has acquired a very substantial start in life and at the same time won and retained the respect of all who know him.
S. H. Newell was born in Scott county, Iowa, May 27, 1874, the son of S. S. and Frances (Powell) Newell, the mother born in New York and the father in Pennsylvania. They came to Iowa in 1860, while yet single, and here they ivere married. He was a carpenter by trade, but after his marriage devoted his attention to farming, buying a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Scott county, which he cleared and improved and on- which he lived until 1874, when he moved to Davenport, Iowa, where he lived three years, when he moved to Jasper county and bought a farm in Richland township and there became well established and lived until within two months of his death, which occurred on April 12, 1902. His widow is now living in Newton. They were the parents of ten children, four of whom are living.
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JASPER COUNTY, IOW.1.
S. H. Newell, of this sketch. was educated in the public schools and the high school at Kellogg, later attending the Des Moines Commercial College, lacking a short time of graduation. He returned to Jasper county and took up farming for a livelihood, operating the home place until his father's death, in 1902. He is now the owner of a good farm of one hundred and thirty- four acres, a part of the old homestead, but he farms it all, one hundred and eighty acres. He has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser, and he also engages in real estate to a considerable extent. He owns two hundred and ten acres in Jasper and Kossuth counties. These are used for speculation, but he makes this his home. He has remodeled the old home and added such other improvements as to render the place modern and de- sirable in every respect.
Politically, Mr. Newell is a Democrat. He was township.clerk for one term and secretary of the school board for three years, still holding the latter position. He belongs to the Pleasant View Methodist church, and is a mem- ber of the Kellogg Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
. Mr. Newell was married on March 5, 1902, to Elva Allfree, a native of Jasper county and the daughter of J. W. Allfree and wife, old settlers here. One daughter, Katherine Elizabeth, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Newell.
MARK W. BATEMAN.
Realizing that every day is a fresh beginning and that every morning the world is made new, Mark W. Bateman, one of Jasper county's honored citizens, has forged to the front despite obstacles, never permitting the failures of today to thwart his purposes on the tomorrow. Being a man of proper prin- ciples, he has endeavored to help others who, "weary with the march of life, were wont to fall by the wayside and perish." For many reasons he is eligible for conspicuous representation in his county's history.
Mr. Bateman was born on August 13, 1839. in Cambria, Pennsylvania, and he is the son of Wesley and Jane ( Thomas) Bateman, natives of Penn- sylvania, the father born in Center county, he being of French and English des- cent, while the mother's people were Welsh. The father of the subject was a carpenter and cabinet-maker, and he came west in 1856, bringing his son, Mark W .. of this review. They came by steamboat to Glasgow, Missouri, and went from there to Sheridan county. Missouri, where they spent the summer. Later they moved to VanBuren county, Iowa, where they stayed until late in the fall. when they returned to Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1867 the entire
MARK W. BATEMAN
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
family came to Farmington, VanBuren county, and there the father worked at his trade until 1892 when he came to Monroe, Jasper county, and lived with his son. His death occurred at the Soldiers' Home in Marshalltown in January, 1895, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was a member of the famous "Gray Beard" Regiment, of Iowa, in which there was no man under forty-five years of age. He is remembered by his comrades as a brave and efficient soldier, serving until receiving an honorable discharge at the close of the war. He was a member of the Shelledy Post, Grand Army of the Republic, which was named after Colonel Shelledy. commander of his regiment. The mother of the subject died in Farmington, Iowa, several years before the elder Bate- man's deatlı. They were the parents of seven children, two of whom are living at this writing; they were: John T. who is in the National Soldiers' Home in Tennessee; Mark W., of this review; James E. and Anna Jane are bothı deceased; William H. was drowned when a boy ; Milton W. died while in the army ; George C. died in October, 1910.
Mark W. Bateman was married in 1863 to Jane Sulgrove, daughter of Edward and Margaret (Rodman) Sulgrove, natives of Indiana, in which state Mrs. Bateman was born. Her parents were early settlers in Iowa, having come here in 1839 or 1840, when the country was a wild and almost inter- minable prairie and the home of thousands of Indians.
About a year after his marriage Mr. Bateman drove five yoke of oxen to a "prairie-schooner" across the great western plains to Boise City, Idaho. He went in search of gold, but failed in his efforts and about a year later he returned to Iowa, reaching home in September, 1865, proving his courage and sterling mettle by making the return trip on a pony, the distance traversed being two thousand one hundred and fifty miles. It is indeed interesting to hear hin: relate incidents of his western trip in those early days. He was at that time living in Farmington, but with the coming of the Des Moines valley railroad he moved to Monroe, Jasper county, and has since made his home here, moving his family thither on March 26, 1867. At first, after arriving in Monroe, l'e engaged in the grain business: later he began working for the railroad company, but continued to buy grain. He has lived in the same house every since coming here, forty-four years ago. During this time he has seen the county develop from its primitive conditions to what it is today, one of the leading counties of the state, and he has taken an active and praiseworthy interest in the upbuilding of his community.
In the fall of 1873 he was elected constable of Fairview township and in January, 1874. he was appointed deputy sheriff of the county, serving most
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
acceptably in this office for six years, and as constable for sixteen years, finally giving up the office of his own accord. During this long service as a public official, he had many narrow escapes in encounters with desperadoes. but never failed to make an arrest when ordered to do so. In 1889 he was elected township clerk and served in this capacity with much credit to him- self and to the satisfaction of all concerned for a period of twenty years, at which time he was appointed justice of the peace, which office he has held to the present time, discharging the duties of the same in a highly commendable manner. his decisions being unbiased. impartial and fair to all parties con- cerned. and they have seldom been reversed at the hands of higher tribunals. He has also served on the town council and the school board. Fraternally. he belongs to Fairview Lodge No. 194, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. having been a member for many years. At one time he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Bateman is a member of the Baptist church.
To Mr. and Mrs. Bateman six children have been born, all of whom are living, namely: Mrs. Addie Jarnagin : Stella married James Keating, who died seven years ago, and she now lives with her father : Frederick E., Mrs. Ollie Crosby and Mrs. Margaret Ible, all live in Monroe: James E. lives in Omaha, Nebraska. This is one of the best known and most highly respected families in Jasper county.
CHARLES C. CLINE.
Agriculture has been the true source of man's dominion on earth ever since the primal existence of labor and been the pivotal industry that has con- trolled, for the most part, all the fields of action to which his intelligence and energy have been devoted. Among this sturdy element of Jasper county whose labors have profited alike themselves and the community in which they live is the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch, and in view of the consistent life record lived by Mr. Cline since coming to Richland township it is particularly fitting that the following chronicle of his career be incorporated in a book of this nature.
Charles C. Cline was born in Ottawa. Lasalle county. Illinois, March 16. 1860, the son of George W. and America (Fishburn) Cline. His maternal grandparents, Jacob and Catherine Fishburn, were natives of Pennsylvania, but of German descent They moved to Ottawa, Illinois, about 1844 when
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that country was in the first epoch of development. He was a butcher and cooper by trade, but upon his arrival in Illinois he took up farming, but later returned to the butcher business. He did well in the new country and was enabled to spend his last days in retirement. Their daughter, America, moth- er of the subject, was six years old when she was brought to Illinois and there she grew to womanhood and was married. The paternal grandparents of Charles C. Cline, of this sketcli, John and Elizabeth Cline, were natives of Virginia, where they grew up and from there moved to southern Ohio, where they remained two years, then came to Tazewell county. Illinois, locat- ing near Delavan. Mr. Cline was a shoemaker by trade and this he followed for a livelihood, both remaining in the last named vicinity until their death. George W. Cline was born in 1829. He was reared near Delavan, Tazewell county, Illinois, and in 1858 he was married in Lasalle county. In 1865 they moved to Livingston county and there engaged in farming, the father's death occurring in 1900. Politically, he was a Democrat and held a number of local offices, such as township supervisor. He was once a candidate for sheriff. He was very successful in his life work and at the time of his death owned a splendid farm of three hundred and twenty acres. His widow survives, being now seventy-four years of age. They became the parents of eleven children, ten of whom are living. The father was a good and useful man, took particular pains to rear his family in comfort and respectability, and he always set a good example. The mother is a worthy member of the Baptist church.
Charles C. Cline, of this review, received a good common school educa- tion, though, being the oldest son, he was compelled to assist with the general work about the home farm when a boy. He started in life for himself as a farmer and rented in Illinois for five years in order to get a start. In 1891 he came to Jasper county, Iowa, and has operated a good farm of two hun- dred acres in Richland township, on which he has installed up-to-date im- provements. He pays particular attention to live stock and is a breeder of Poland China hogs and roan Durham cattle, selling about one hundred head of the former annually. Up to about eight years ago he raised a carload of cattle annually. Politically, he is a Republican, and he belongs to the Lynn- ville lodge of Masons.
Mr. Cline was married on March 31, 1887, to Ellen Dixon, a native of Illinois and the daughter of Springer and Mary Dixon, old settlers from Pennsylvania. Her father's death occurred on June 23, 1911, but the mother is still living. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cline, named as follows: Grace, Edna, George, Harry and the youngest, who died at birth.
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STEPHEN J. SPARKS.
One of the most widely known and highly honored of Jasper county pioneers is Stephen J. Sparks, of Lynnville, who came to this favored region when a boy and has lived here continuously. He early had the sagacity and prescience to discern the eminence which the future had in store for this great section of the Hawkeye 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 in- tegrity and marvelous enterprise. Few men of the county have played a bet- ter or more noticeable role in the general progress of the locality than he, for while laboring for his individual advancement he never shrank from his larger duties to civilization, and now in the golden Indian summer of his years, surrounded by all the comforts of life as a result of his former years of in- dustry, he can look backward over a career well spent in which duty was well and conscientiously performed and know that he has the good will and hearty esteem of all those who have come into contact with him.
Mr. Sparks was born in Morgan county, Illinois, August 28, 1833, the son of T. M. and Sarah (Gesford) Sparks, both natives of Adair county, Ken- tucky, having been born about forty miles from Louisville. They went to Illinois about 1830, when young, there married and took up farming which they followed there, among the early settlers, until about 1836, when they re- moved to near the Black Hawk settlement in Lee county, Iowa, being pioneers of this state; they lived in that locality for eleven years, then moved to Jasper county about 1846 or 1847, and they established their permanent home by entering the land where Lynnville Junction now stands, the elder Sparks entering about eighteen hundred acres of land in Linn Grove township. Stephen J. Sparks was the second man to own this land, buying it from his father. Part of this T. M. Sparks broke, cultivated and became one of the leading early farmers here, living on this place until old age, when he moved to the village of Lynnville, where his death occurred about 1891 ; his first wife having died about four years previously, he remarried. He was a man of unusual physical strength and endurance, his average weight having been two hundred and forty pounds. He was a fine type of the hardy and brave fron- tiersman. His family consisted of twelve children. He was prominent in local affairs for years.
Stephen J. Sparks received what education he could in the pioneer schools of Lee county, Iowa, and he grew up on the home farm, having been fourteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Jasper county. He
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knew the meaning of hard work early in life and broke much wild land for his father and others on the prairies here, breaking in all about two thousand acres. In the early days he was a great rail splitter and wood cutter and he attributes his long life and good health to constant exercise in the open, his theory being that hard physical work never hurts anybody. When a boy he followed teaming for five years, hauling goods from remote points. He re- calls the fact that when the family first moved to Iowa they lived near the scene of the famous Mormon murder, within a mile, in fact, of the home of Miller and Liza, the father of the subject having built the house in which they were killed.
When twenty-one years of age Stephen J. Sparks started in life for him- self, his father having given him forty acres of land, valued at one hundred and twenty-five dollars. This he traded for seventy acres, building a hewed log house on the latter, got married and started to developing his little farm, his first wife being Martha Loton, and their wedding occurred in 1859; her death occurred in 1861, leaving two children, Amanda, who is still living, and Martha, who died in 1862.
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