USA > Iowa > Polk County > Portrait and biographical album of Polk County, Iowa, containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 59
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A marriage ceremony performed on the 22ud of December, 1812. united the destinies of Henry C. Hargis aud Miss Elizabeth Kennedy. a daughter of Robert and Margaret ( Flemming) Kennedy. Her father, a native of Virginia, was of Scotch-Irish de- seent, and her mother, who was born in Washington County, Pa .. was of Scotch origin. The death of Mr. Kennedy occurred in 1838, It hi- wife sur- vived him many years, passing to her final rest in May, 1889, at the advanced age of ninety-nine years and eight months. This worthy couple were parents of eleven children, six of whom are yet liv- ing; Sarah, widow of W. I podlegraff, of Walnut. Pottawattamie County. lowa ; Peter, a resident of Shelby County, Ind .; Elizabeth, wife of our sub-
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jeet : Mary, wife of J. Flemming of Linn County. Kan .. and George W. of Shelbyville. Ind.
Mr. and Mrs. Hargis have spent nearly their en- tire ionist lives in their present home in Poll County. w re their ch ton, three in number. were reared. All. however, Have left the parental roof - - 'Thomas P. is a resident of Bloomfield Township; Zachary T. is engaged in farming near the old homestead; and John H. is a farmer of Warren County. Jowa. When the parents settled in Polk County, their nearest neighbor west was twenty miles away. The now beautiful and prosperous city of Des Moines, of which the people of lowa are so justly proud, was but a mere hamlet contain- ing about font hundred inhabitants. They have witnessed almost the entire growth which has taken place since that time, have seen countless manufac- tories and industries introduced, elegant churches and schools have been built. cities and towns have sprung up and the wilderness has been made to blos- som as the rose. It is certainly an honor to have been an active participant in these changes as Mr. Hargis has been and we take great pleasure in thus mentioning him in this volume. In politics, he is an Independent and has taken quite an active part in political affairs. He attended the first Republi- can convention ever hekt in Polk County. and has been candidate for many important offices, but was not elected on account of his party being in the minority. He was the nominee for State Treasurer in 1872, and for State Senator in 1883 on the Green- back ticket and for Representative in 1885 on an independent ticket. He was an elector on the Green- back Presidential ticket in 1876. He is a popular citizen, highly esteemed for his worth and ability and has led ay upright, honorable life.
A FAYETTE HARTER. who since April, 1851. has made his home in Des Moines, . claims Ohio as the State of his nativity. He was born in Mansfield. Richland County, December 21, 1827. and is a son of John W. and Cordelis (ratliff) Harter. His father was born near Hla- ger-town, Md., in 1799, of German parentage,
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while his mother was a native of Connecticut and was descended freat old l'uritan ancestry. In his young manhood, JJohn W. Harter removed to Rich- land County. Ohio, where he married and after- wards went to Lucas County. of the same State in 1835, and in 1851, accompanied by his wife and children came to Iowa, settling in Saylor Town- ship. Polk County. There were tive children in the family. two sons and three daughters, but one daughter, Mary Ann, died soon after their emigra- tion to lowa, Eben S .. the oldest. married Miss Charlotte C. Howell. and is now President of the American Savings Bank of Des Moines ; La Fayette is the next younger; Deborah is the wife of A. G. Taylor of this city; and Elizabeth is the wife of David M. Ayers of San Jose County, Cal. The father died in 1867, the mother in 1883.
Our subject was reared and educated in Lucas County, Ohio, acquiring a knowledge of the com- mon branches in the district school. Ere he left the Buckeye State. on the 12th of October. 1851, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Martha Spaulding, daughter of William and Rebecca Spaulding. The lady was born in Maine, and removed with her par- ents to Ohio in childhood. In the spring of 1851, they came to Des Moines and soon afterward Mr. Harter engaged in farming in Saylor Township, Polk County, which he continued until the fall of 1861, when he sold out and returned to this city. The succeeding year he was engaged in the grocery business, following which he operated a sawmill and carried on a wood yard for several years. In 1876, he closed out in those lines and resumed farming in Delaware Township, successfully engag- ing in agricultural pursuits until 1886. when he re- turned to Des Moines. In the meantime, in 1882, he went to Florida and purchased an orange grove of ten acres in extent situated in Sumter County. where he has spent four winter, The trees are just beginning to bear and a part of the carload of oranges just brought by him from Florida to Des Moines was gathered from his own grove.
Mr. and Mrs. Harter have three children, a son and two daughters-Mary is the wife of Z. T. Reed of Des Moines, Jowa; Cordia is the wife of Charles Rossiter and resides in Des Moines; George W. married Alice Arthur and is a farmer of Delaware
Township, owning a farm adjoining his father's land. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and have been connected with that society since early life. He is a Republican in politics and has tilled various offi .. cial positions, having represented Saylor Township one term in the County Board of Supervisors, served as Township Trustee and in other offices of lesser importance. During his residence of thirty- six years in Polk County, he has always been ree- ognized as an honorable, fair dealing man, of indus. trious habits and good business ability. His record has been such as to command the respeet and es- teem of a wide circle of acquaintances.
E DWARD I. MCCOY, attorney and counsel- or-at-law and also a real-estate dealer of Des Moines, is a recent acquisition to the bar of Polk County, having resided in this city only since September, 1889. However, he has been a practicing attorney of Iowa since September, 1877. in which year he located in Tipton, where he continued the practice of his profession until com- ing to Des Moines.
Mr. McCoy is a native of Pennsylvania, his birth occurring in Huntington County, in 1817. He was liberally educated and is a graduate of the Franklin and Marshall College of Lancaster. completing the course with that institution in the class of 1874. While still a student in college, in 1873, he began the study of law and in 1875 was admitted to the bar in Huntington. Pa. Shortly afterwards he en- tered upon his professional career in Wilkes Barre in his native State, but believing that the West offered better advantages for young men just start- ing out in life as he was doing, he decided, after a year and a half spent in Wilkes Barre, to cast his lot with the people of lowa and as before stated opened an office in Tipton in 1877. Mr. McCoy svenred a good practice in Cedar County and also served in a capable and acceptable manner as County Attorney. He was first appointed by the County Board, by virtue of which appointment he
Philo les Cenyou.
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served one year; and when the new law, regulating the election of County Attorneys went into effect. he was elected and served two years longer.
Mr. MeCoy has been twice married. his first wife having been Miss Mary Moreland of Tipton, who died at her home in that town in 1880, leaving one daughter, Susie, who is still with her father. Ilis present wife was formerally Miss Maria Cheney of Topeka, Kan.
Mr. McCoy is a gentleman of good education, courteous and affable in manner and a lawyer of excellent ability. He combines the dealing in real estate with the legal profession and in that is alike successful. In politics he affiliates with the Repub- lican party and is esteemed as a worthy and useful citizen.
P HILO C. KENYON, proprietor of one of the leading printing establishments of Des Moines, is a native of the Empire State, and a son of William F. and Susan E. (Allen) Kenyon. He was born in Oxford, Chenango County, June 28, 1815, and with his parents came to Des Moines in September, 1855, when little more than ten years of age. Hle here attended the public schools, and was one of the first newsboys of the city. In the winter of 1856-57 he began working in a printing-office, and in April, 1863, commenced a regular apprenticeship to the busi- ness in the ofce of the State Register. which was then published by F. W. Palmer, now the Govern- ment Printer at Washington. Mr. Kenyon spent four years in the Register office. and six years as a journeyman printer in the office of Mills & Co., general joh and book printers. Later he was in the employ of Carter, Hussey & Curl. printers and blank book manufacturers, with whom he continued three years. In July, 1875, he began business for himself. Soon after starting he admitted to part- nership R. J. Pearson, or rather made a contract of partnership with him, but no capital was furnished by that genthemus. and in consequence the connce- tion only continued fifteen months, since which time Mr. Kenyon has carried on the bustress alone. He started with only one press, but gradually en-
larged his facilities as the increased volume of business demanded until now he has five presses operated by electric power, and employs about sixteen men. Hc makes a specialty of the better class of work, law printing, and does a general job printing business. Mr. Kenyon is one of the old- est job printers in the city, and is a thorough mas- ter of his business. and the good feeling existing between himself and employes (and printers gener- ally ) is shown by the fact that his hands have continued in his service for an average length of time of about six years. He believes that to be a good printer one must needs be a reliable man, and has always done everything in his power to en- courage those working under him to avoid dissi- pation, believing that to be profitable, employes must grow in moral character as well as in the knowledge of their trade.
On the 19th of November. 1865, Mr. Kenyon was married, in Des Moines, to Miss Lida Chad- wiek, a daughter of JJ. B. and Eliza Chadwick. She was born in Newfield. Tompkins County, N. Y., and came to Des Moines in 1864. A woman of many estimable qualities. she has proved a wise counselor and loving helpmate to her husband, and to her sound advice and practical encouragement he is indebted for much of the success that has crowned his efforts on the road to prosperity. Mr. Kenyon is a Republican in polities, but has never been netive in political affairs, his business matters requiring his full time. He is a member of Capi- tal Lodge, No. 110. A. F. & A. M., aud of Capital City Lodge, No. 29. K. P., and is popular in social and business circles.
HARLES HOLMDALE, Proprietor of the Sabin House, corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, Des Moines, and one of the most popular landlords in Town, is a native of Gotten- berg, Sweden, and was born November 15, 1835. His parents. Charles G. and Sarah (Johnson ) Hoim- dide, were also natives of Sweden.
Our subject was educated at Gottenberg College : and was graduate ] in the class of 1852, taking a
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scientific and literary course. lle began his busi- ness career as merchant's clerk, and learned the mercantile business. In 1857 he came to America and located at Chicago. where he engaged as mer- chant's clerk, and continued nutil 1859, when he removed to St. Louis. On arriving in that city he scoured the position of clerk of the well-known Planters' House of that city, which place he held for six years. Ile then received the appointment of Forage and Fuel Master at Benton Barracks, . under Quartermaster Gen. Meyers .. Six months later he was minde Quartermaster's Agent, under Col. Boernel. which position he held until the close of the war. While in Benton Barracks. June 1. 1865. he was commissioned First Lieutenant of Benton Barracks Battalion, which rank he held until November 1. 1865. He left St. Louis and went to Sterling, Ill., where he engaged in mercantile busi- ness, continuing there until 1875, when he removed to Marshalltown, Iowa. There he was engaged in the wholesale grocery busmess for ten years, and was very successful. In 1885 he came to Des Moines and leased the Aborn House, one of the leading hotels of the city, which he conducted for four years. In the summer of 1889 he kept the Hotel Colfax, at Colfax Springs. Iowa. the Saratoga of the West .. On the 25th of November following he returned to Des Moines and became the lessee of the Sabin House, which he is now operating with marked success.
While a resident of Illinois Mr. Holundale was commissioned by Gov. Palmer as First Lieutenant of the Sterling City Guards, hi- commission dating August 27, 1871. He was promoted to be Captain June 26, 1872. and continued his connection with the company until his removal from Sterling to Marshalltown, lowa.
Mr. Holindale was married at. St. Louis. March J. 1862. to Miss Ellen Foster, a daughter of William Foster. Mis. Hohndale was born in Cheshire. England, of English parents. Mr. and Mrs. Holm- dale have had nine children. of whom three sons and three daughters are living. one daughter and two sons are deceased. Christina Louise is the eldest. Mary died August 9, 1808; Elizabeth is the wife of F. W. Thompson of Des Moines; Carl 6. died November 11, 1889, agent twenty-three
years; Ellen Sarah is the wife of A. W. Wright, Manager of the Continental Clothing House of Des Moines; Otto William. Gustav Adolph; Chan Louise and Julius Foster. William died at the age of eleven years. Mr. and Mrs. Holmdale are mem- bers of the Episcopal Church. In politics Mr. Ilolindale is Republican. White a citizen of Marshalltown he served as a member of the City Council.
ANIEL O. FINCH is one of the most. prominent members of the bar of Polk County. and one of the oldest and host known attorneys of Des Moines. He was born in Unadilla, Otsego County . N. Y .. on the 6th of June, 1829, and his parents, David and Ruth Ann Finch were born in Connecticut. His maternal grandfather. Ransom Mallory. served as Captain in the War of the Revolution and soon after the close of that struggle married Ruth Ann Wooster.
At the age of eleven years Mr. Finch was deprived by death of his father. Previous to that time he had attended the public schools of his neighborhood, but shortly afterward was sent by his mother to the Delaware Institute. in Franklin, Delaware County. where he remained four years, when he became a student of the Oxford Academy of Chen- ango County, there pursuing a complete prepara- tory course. When he left that school he was litted to enter the Sophomore class in college, but abandoned his intention of pursuing a collegiate course and entered upon the study of law with Judge C. C. Noble. of U'nadil'a. in whose office he remained two years. In the fall of 1817. he entered the law school in Cherry Valley, and graduated from that institution in the fall of 1818. The same year he left for the West. believing that it fur- nished better opportunities for young men than the older and more thickly settled States of the East. Ile chose Monroe, Greene County, Wis., as the scene of his future labors, and was there ac- tively engaged in practice until the spring of 1851, when he came to lowa, locating in Cedar Rapid -. Since that time he has been prominently connected with some of the leading business interest- of the
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State. In Cedar Rapids he became a member of the banking firm of Wear. Finch & Co .. and at the same time was engaged in the practice of his profession. Judge George Green was a member of the banking firm above mentioned and a gentle- man of rare legal attainments and business ability. He was the author of "Green's Reports," the first law book published in lowa.
In the spring of 1853. Mr. Finch closed his bus- iness affairs in Cedar Rapids. and the following summer came to Des Moines, then a village of about four hundred and fifty inhabitants. He at once engaged in the practice of law. having been associated with AIndge Curtis Bates. He also be- came interested in a banking enterprise and for some time officiated as editor of the Lone Star. prosecuting all branches of his business with good success. In 1855. the firm of Bates & Finch was dissolved, the Judge withdrawing and was sie- eveded by Gen. M. M. Crocker, since which time Mr. Finch has been successively associated with Judge Mitchell, Hon. John A. Kasson, George Clark Esq., Byron Rice, John D. River and W. S. Sick- man. During the campaign of 1856, he was on the Buchanan cleetorial ticket and canvassed one-half of the counties in the State. In 1860. he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, held in Charleston. S. C., and took an active part in the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas, and in 1862 was a candidate for congress in the Fifth Dis- triet, but was defeated by a small majority. Two years later he was a member of the National Dem- ocratie convention held in Chicago and supported George B. MeClellan for the presidency. When the convention was held in New York in 1868, 3Ir. Finch was again a delegate and an earnest sup- porter of Horatio Seymour, and in Is76, was chair- man of the lowa delegation in the National Con- vention that met in St. Louis and was President of of the Democratic State Convention of 1877, and headed the electorial Democratie State ticket at the National election of 1881, which resulted in the election of Grover Cleveland for President. On the 26th of September. 1885. he was appointed at. torney for the Southern District of Jowa and held that office till November 27. 1859.
of September. 1881, with Miss Ellen Maria Calder. daughter of Joseph Calder. formerly of New York. The parents of Mrs. Finch were natives of Eng- land but were married after coming to America. The mother's maiden name was Keeling. Her father attained to the advanced age of ninety years and was then accidentally killed by the falling of a tree. He was a man of much influence and was the pos- sessor of one of the finest farms on the shores of Otsego Lake, in New York. Mr. and Mrs. Finch have long been faithful and consistent members of the Episcopal Church, and having carefully reared their children to habits of usefulness and uprightness. Their first-born. Willie, died at the age of four years. Joseph Calder, the second son. was born January 8, 1855, graduated from the law department of Simpson College in 1876, and is now practicing his profession in Chicago. He mar- ried Miss Julia Finch of Des Moines. Daniel Ma !- lory who was born May 17. 1858, married Miss Emma Thomas of this city, and is now engaged in the real-estate business. Edward Douglas, who studied law with his father and was graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University in July, 1878. is now located in Whatcome, Wash .; Charles Marcus, who was married in 1889, to Miss Luella MeClellan of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, is a whole- side and retail furniture dealer in Seattle, Wash. Mr. and Mrs. Finch have two bright and interest- ing grandchildren, sons of Daniel F., Pant and D. O., the latter being so called for his grandfather. The high rank which he holds among his profes- sional brethren. is well-merited by Mr. Finch. for he has worked his way upwards by studious habits, untiring zeal and strict attention to his business.
D R. NANCY A. FLEMING was born in Con- nersville. Ind., July 29. 1513, and is of En- glish. Scotch and Welsh descent. Her father, -- Sylvanus Scofield. was born in Connecticut. June 21. 1798, and in early life took a great deal of interest in the science of medicine becoming well informed on that subject. though he never engaged in mediend Mr. L'inch was united in marriage on the 16th , practice. At the age of twenty-two with his par-
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ents be removed to Central Indiana, where he be- companied his parents. Levi and Nancy (Kissler ) came acquainted with and married Mrs. Elizabeth Shane, daughter of John Miller. a southern planter. She was born in Frankfort Ky., June 11. 1817, and is of German and Irish descent. When she was seventeen years of age she was married to W. 11. . Shane, a southern gentleman who died a little less than a year later. They had one child, Heury W., born January 1. 1885. and who was wounded in the Civil War on December 1. and died on December 22. 1865.
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Mr. Scofield and Mrs. Shane were married in 1837; for a number of years Mr. Scofield engaged in mer- chandising in Connersville. In 1861, he removed to Davis County, Iowa, and nine years later located 1 in Des Moines, where he died in 1877. His wife still survives him making her home in Boston, Mass, with her youngest daughter. In polities, Mr. Sco- field was a Whig until the dissolution of that party, when he became a Democrat. For many years prior to his death he was a consistent member of the Christian Church, to which his wife also belongs. and by their upright lives that worthy couple won for themselves the high regard of all with whom they came in contact. Their family numbered three daughters. Sarah E. wife of Jonathan Hunter; Nancy A. and Ruth E., wife of Frank W. Reynolds, of Boston, Mass.
The literary education of Dr. Fleming was ae- quired in the public schools. When seventeen years of age she accompanied her parents to Davis County, Jowa, where on the 3rd of April, 1866, she became the wife of Barton Stone Fleming.
From the time she was seventeen years of age. Dr. Fleming has read medicine but not with the in- tention of practicing the profession. She first de- termined to engage in practice about ten years ago, when she began a systematie course of study and in 1883, graduated from the medical department of Drake I'niversity, since which time she has done a general practice. Having a special liking for sur- gery she spent the summer of 1888 in the State and eity hospitals of Boston, Mass. She is a mem- ber of the State and County Medical Societies and is a physician of acknowledged merit and ability.
Barton Stone Fleming was born in Shelby County, 111., July 6, 1843, and when four years of age ar-
Fleming. to Davis County. lowa. , At that time the county was but sparsely settled and many were the hardships of frontier life endured by the pioneers. Levi Fleming, or Unele Levi, as he was known to all the country round, was a man that exerted a wide Christian influence and was respected and loved by the entire community. For forty years or more be preached the gospel as taught by the Church of Christ, but depended upon his own res- ources for the support of himself and family. hi- ministerial labors being gratuitous. In earlier days he was a tanner, but later in life engaged in farming and stock raising. About 1855, his wife, who had labored with him in the home and church, ably se- conding his efforts, was called to her reward. " Ile spent his last days in Taylor County, lowa, reach- ing the ripe age of eighty-three years. Of their ten children only five are now living. Daniel II. served three years in Company G. of the Second lowa Reg- iment and arose to the rank of First Lieutenant, serving until the close of the war, after which he beenie a resident of Smith County, Kan., and for two terms served as County Superintendent of Schools; Eleaser is Ex-County Clerk of Taylor County, Iowa; Elijah P. is a resident of Des Moines, and Nannie the youngest and ouly surviving dau- gliter, is the wife of A. Venordstrand.
Barton S. Fleming, from boyhood, displayed considerable mechanical genius and his life work has been in that direction, being a first class mechanic and builder. As a loyal citizen, in 1862, be en- listed in the service of his country and was assigned to Company B, Thirtieth Jowa Infantry. in which he served until the close of the' war. During that time he participated in twenty-two battles, of which only the most important we mention. These in- cluded the engagements at Arkansas Post. Vjeks- burg, Jackson. Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Savannah and Column- bus, S.C. During the service he was made First Sergeant. Shortly after his return from the war he was joined in wedlock with Miss Scofield and in 1868, they removed to Des Moines, where they have since made their home. Both he and his wile have been members of the Church of Christ since their sixteenth year and are earnest workers for
16. It. Presley
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the interests of the congregation with which they holl membership. They have an interesting fam- ily of five children. as follows: Mary A., Elizabeth Lucile, Sylvanus B .. L.L. and Ruth E.
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OSES A. ILLSLEY, who was for many years one of the leading contractors and builders of Des Moines. but has now laid aside the greater part of his business cares, has been a resident of the city since 1862. With all its public enterprises he has been identified, and has ever borne a part in the work of advancement and progress. It is, therefore, meet that a sketch of his life should be recorded in this work, and we feel that it will be received with interest by many of our readers.
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