USA > Iowa > Boone County > The history of Boone County, Iowa, containing biographical sketches war records of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of the Northwest, history of Iowa, map of Boone county etc. > Part 85
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W ILSON, JAMES, of the firm of Wilson & Speer, miners; Sec. 22; P. O. Boone; is a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, and was born on the 25th day of December, 1842, and was raised there; he commenced mining when ten years of age and has followed it until the present time, and has a thoroughly practical knowledge in all of its details; when he emigrated to the United States he first settled in Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela river, and thence to Rock Island county, Illinois, and came to Boone county in 1868; after mining until 1879, he commenced prospecting along the Des Moines river and from past experience and careful examination he was led to select his present location, and in regard to the result of his observa- tions it is only necessary to state what he honestly believes, that he has the best, purest and most easily worked vein west of the Mississippi in Iowa, and he challenges the coun- ty for purity of the coal, coming nearer to Pennsylvania coal than any he has seen in the West and he thinks all that is required is a trial to con- vince others of its merits; the vein averages about four and one-half feet in thickness; Mr. Wilson was mar- ried on the 31st day of December, 1865, to Miss Agnes Read, who was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland; they have a family of six children: Chris- tine, Thomas, James, Mary and Ag- nes.
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HARRISON TOWNSHIP.
A HRENS, LOUIS, farmer; Sec. 18; P. O. Boone; was born in Halstein, Prussia, December 9,1826; in 1853 came to the United States, first settling in New York City, where he resided for three years; in 1856 he moved to Rock Island county, Illinois, and remained there until 1868, when he came to this county, since residing here; owns 240 acres of land, under cultiva- tion, and has one of the finest farms in that portion of the township; in 1854 he was married, in New York, to Catharine Vogts; she was born in Hanover, Prussia, January 17, 1836; they have nine children liv- ing: John G., Henry, Lettie A., G. Adolph, Herman A., Charles, Mar- tin, Benjamin and Emma; have lost six: George (age eleven years), and five infants; the German Lutheran Church, of which Mr. A. and wife are members, is built upon his farm; he takes active part in the affairs of his township, especially school af- fairs, and is giving his children, alike, a good English education.
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C HARLES, JOHN, farmer; Sec. 32; P. O. Boone; was born in Sweden, November 11, 1885, where ne resided until 1849; he then came to America and settled in Arizona, where he remained for five years; went to Santa Fe and made it his home until 1865, when he took a a trip to Europe, remaining for one year; he returned to the United States and located in this county, where he now resides, owning a fine farm of 160 acres; he is a black- smith by trade, having learned that business in the old country.
H AGERTY, T., farmer; Sec. 26; P. O. Boone; was born in Ireland in 1811, and resided there until twenty-one years of age; he then emigrated to Canada, and re-
sided there for three years, and then came to the United States, settling in Rockingham county, New York, where he remained for three years; in 1838 he took up his residence in Chicago, but only resided there one year; then going to Wisconsin he located in Milwaukee county and remained there for twenty-eight years; in the spring of 1868 he came to this county, and on the 18th of July, 1839, he was married to Mary Jordan; she died in her forty-sev- enth year, leaving three children living: T. E. (assessor of Harrison township), Henrietta and Ellen; have lost three: A. J., John and an intant; Mr. H. owns a fine farm of 280 acres.
HILL, THOMAS, farmer; Sec. 22; P. O. Mackey's Grove; was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, in 1817, and resided there until in his sixteenth year, then removed to Boone county, Indiana; he remained in that place until the fall of 1867, when he came to this State, locating in this county; December 19, 1839, he was married to Margaret P. Hall, a native of Nicholas county, Ken- tucky, and born in 1822; they have eight children living: John H., Harvey C., James H., William S., Dunlap B., Benjamin L., Sarah H. and Darinda M .; have lost two: Samuel H. and Thomas P .; two sons, John H. and James H., were in the war, both being in the Eleventh Indiana infantry, the former serving four years and the latter eighteen months, being dis- charged at the close of the war.
M ACKEY, S., farmer and stock
raiser; Sec. 22; P. O. Boone; was born November 19, 1827, in Pickaway county, Ohio, where he resided until eighteen years of age, then moving to Piatt
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county, Illinois; he remained there until he was in his twenty-eighth year, and in 1856 came to this county, where he has since resided; he owns a fine stock farm of 480 acres, which is well improved and in every way cultivated for farming and stock raising; he is one of the pioneers of his township, having re- moved on his present farm when there were less than a half dozen improved farms between his place and Boonesboro; during the time he has lived in this State he has been very, extensively engaged in buying and selling stock, and has probably handled more live stock than any other two men in the township; in 1854 he married Susan A. Carr, of Piatt county, Illinois; they have seven child: Marcellus, Lenora, Martha J., Sebastian, Edgar, John and George; Mr. Mackey's mother-in-law, Mrs. Mary Carr, re- sides with him; she was born in Virginia, in 1805, and for a lady of her age, is very active.
MADDEN, R. M., farmer; Sec. 27; P. O. Mackey's Grove; was born in Piatt county, Illinois, April 23, 1849, and when seven years of age his parents removed to Iowa, settling in this county, consequently he is almost of Boone county growth; his father, who is deceased, was one of the early settlers of Har- rison township; March 7, 1872, he was united in marriage to Sarah H. Hill, a native of Indiana; she was born October 7, 1855; they have three children: Francis W., John and James; Mr. Madden owns a fine farm of 160 acres, and is one of the promising farmers of his township.
MAHONEY; T., farmer; Sec. 31; P. O. Boone; was born in Ireland, July 12, 1830; he emigrated with his parents to the United States in May, 1835, and settled in New York on a farm; from this place he came to Cook county, Illinois, and in 1840 to Racine, now Kenosha
county, Wisconsin; in 1867 he came to this county and settled where. he now resides; his farm consists of 126 acres of improved land; he has been honored by his friends with various township offices, and at the present time is town clerk and jus- tice of the peace; he was married in 1854, to Miss Mary Hickey, a native of Ireland; their family consists of eight children: William, Francis, George, Edwin, Henry, Timothy, Dora and Mary; lost two: Daniel and John.
S TARR, EDGAR," farmer; Sec. 4; P. O. Mackey's Grove; was born in Morris county, New Jersey, January 29, 1831; his parents re- moved from that State to New York, where they remained for a short time and then returned to New Jersey; in 1846 they went to In- diana, and resided there until 1851, then removing to Piatt county, Illi- nois; in 1854 he came to this coun- ty, and on the 20th of August, 1861, he enlisted in company D, Tenth Iowa infantry; at the battle of Corinth he was wounded in the hip and was discharged, October 12, 1864; March 21, 1870, he mar- ried Martha A. Layton, who is a na- tive of Butler county, Ohio, born March 12, 1840; they have one child living: William F .; lost two: Amanda M. and an infant.
SULLIVAN, DANIEL, farmer; Sec. 28; P. O. Boone; was born in Ireland, and resided there until 1850, when he came to the United States, locating in Bloomfield, Illi- nois; he was there engaged for a short time in working on a railroad, and from there went to Chicago and worked for one firm twelve years; he then went to Missouri and resid- ed four years, and in 1867 came to this county; owns a farm of 120 acres, all under cultivation; in 1858 he was married to Mary Jordan; they have four children: Tim, Cor- nelius, John and Dennis; Mr. Sulli-
HARRISON TOWNSHIP.
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van's object in coming to this coun- try was to better his condition finan- cially, and after years of hard, but honest toil, he is able to look over
L AWRENCE, W. R., Danville, Illinois; was born at Bloom- ington, Indiana, in 1842; his father, John Lawrence, was a native of the city of New York; his mother, whose maiden name was Eliza Parks, was a native of Tennessee; his grand- father, John Lawrence, was an Eng- lishman, and a surgeon by profes- sion; his ancestors, on his mother's side, were pioneers of western North Carolina, before the revolution; his father removed to the village of Georgetown, Vermillion county, Ill- inois, in 1849, and was there engag- ed in farming and part of the time keeping a store; he remained with his parents till 1862, employed in the store and on the farm, and dur- ing the time attended the George- town Seminary, and the Seminary at Danville, Illinois; in the summer of 1862, while at school at Danville, he enlisted as a private in company C, Seventy-third regiment Illinois infantry; he rose to the rank of first lieutenant; was engaged with the company in the hottest of the battles of Perryville, Stone River and Chickamauga; was severely wound- ed at Chickamauga; was taken pris- oner at Stone River, and was kept for five months at Atlanta and Lib- by prison; resigned his commission in the winter of 1863-64, and went to Bloomington, Illinois, where he entered the law office of Tipton & Benjamin, then among the promi- nent lawyers of that city; was ad. mitted to practice, by the Supreme Court of Illinois, in April, 1865, and during the same month started for Iowa to begin his profession; on the evening of the 29th of this month he halted in front of Wood D. Parker's
his fine farm and realize that his fondest hopes in that direction are now fulfilled.
log tavern at Boonesboro in an old stage-coach filled, like a sardine-box, with jammed and tired travelers; he had ten dollars in money, a sickly- looking carpet-sack enclosing some well-worn clothing and a fine-print Bible, and his experience and "cheek" were in proportion; Boonesboro was then the booming town of north- western Iowa; this young aspirant for professional glory, without an acquaintance in the State, decided to stop here and "air his learning "; a few days afterward, through the kindness of Col. C. W. Lowrie, a prominent lawyer of the town, he found a place in his office, and soon became his partner; he continued with Col. Lowrie till the next spring, when he formed a partnership with John A. Hull, a noted lawyer of this part of the State; in the spring of 1867 he was married, at Danville, Illinois, to Miss Josephine Frazier, daughter of John Frazier, and niece of Samuel Frazier, and old and well- known family of that city; in May, 1868, he opened an office of his own and continued in the practice for himself till the summer of 1872, when he and W. B. Means, then a young lawyer just out from Paris, Illinois, formed a co-partnership; about the same time they bought of O. A. Cheney the " Boonesboro Advo- cate," and ran the same in conjunc- tion with their law-office during the Grant-Greeley campaign; Lawrence sold out his interest in the paper, in the spring of 1873, to A. J. Downing; Means clung to his new love (the newspaper), and Lawrence devoted himself solely to that jealous mis- tress, the law; the boom of Boones- boro had subsided; the new town of
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Boone "captured the convention," and Lawrence concluded to bolt; he wanted it all one thing, or all the other; in the fall of 1873 he loaded all his household goods, law books, office furniture, garden truck and stove-wood into a box-car and ship- ped it to Danville, Illinois; he and his family followed; there he has ever since lived, exclusively engag.
ed in the practice of his profession; is a stalwart Republican, believes in Christianity, and that Iowa is one of the most glorious States of the Un- ion; he retains a lively interest in her welfare, and for her people, and particularly those of Boone county keeps warm in his heart the tender- est recollections.
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