USA > Iowa > Iowa County > The history of Iowa County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 72
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
regiment again, but was sent from place to place on guard duty and finally to the city of Chicago to do provost duty, where he was engaged at the time the attempt was made to release the rebel prisoners, 15,000 in number who were confined there Here he assisted in the capture of a large squad of men supposed to be detachments from the force of the rebel John Morgan, who came to release the prisoners, and he also assisted in recovering a large number of arms which were being secreted for the purpose of being used in the liberation of the prisoners. He was still on duty here at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln and stood guard over the body of the dead President while it lay at the Chicago court-house en route to Springfield for burial. And still at the Sanitary Fair, which met in June, when President Grant and General Sherman visited Chicago. From Chicago he was sent so Cairo and there mustered out in August, 1865. After his discharge he engaged a short time in telegraphy at Cairo and then went to Caseyville, Kentucky, where he engaged in a dry goods store for about two years and then came to North English, in this county, where he engaged in his present business for eleven years and then removed to this place in 1878, where he has been ever since. He was married July 25, 1867, to Miss L. A. Smith, of Kentucky, who is still living and by whom he has had four children: Nannie U., Harry V., Robert Loren and Cora Eugenie, besides twins, now deceased.
MILES, J. T .- Of the firm of Starrett & Miles, dry goods and general store. There are many men who are deserving of special mention in this work for various reasons, but none more than the subjectof this sketch; from the fact that he is a native of this county and must have been among the first children born in the county. His father immigrated to this county from Indiana in the year 1849, and hence, was among the very first settlers in the county; and on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1850, the subject of this sketch was born, three miles east of Marengo, where he was brought up on a farm and educated in the common schools of the county, receiving. a liberal English education. He remained at home until he was twenty- three years of age and then went to Kansas, where he engaged for one year in teaching school, and as he was returning home he stopped in the city of Leavenworth and attended the State Normal School for three months, and then returned home and engaged in farming, and teaching in winter. In 1876 he became engaged as a salesman in his brother's store at Agricola, Mahaska county, where he remained one and a half years, and then to Lis- comb in Marshall county, where he engaged in the same business for about eleven months, and then came to Ladora and started a small grocery store with his brother-in-law, Mr. Ross Elliott, and after about three months he purchased the interest of his partner and run the store alone until he purchased the one-half interest in the store which he now owns, and which is now under the firm name of Starrett & Miles. They have a large and select stock of goods and are fine business men. He was married on the first of July, 1875, to Miss Margaret Woodrow, who is a lady of fine merit and intelligence. By this union they have one child, Laura I.
TTIXON, C. F .- Was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, September 28, 1827. His parents moving to Ashland county, Ohio, when he was quite young, he lived with them there until he was nineteen when he went to Haysville, Ohio, and learned the blacksmith trade with one Isaac . Bechtel, staying with him three years. After serving his term of appren- ticeship he worked at his trade in several places by the month, until 1850,
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when, in company with H. Zigler, he opened a blacksmith shop at Perrys- ville, Ohio, quitting there in 1853, and was variously employed until 1856, when he came to Iowa and opened a shop at Dover, in Iowa county. . In 1865 he bought a farm in Hartford township, in the same county, and where he now resides. In 1851 he married Eliza Jane Bowman of Ashland county, Ohio, and by whom he has had tive children: Amanda and Amelia,. twins (the latter is the wife of Samuel Andrews of Iowa county), Charles H., Grant U. and Mary E. (who died May 5, 1879, at the age of twenty- one).
RIN, JOHN T .- Farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 26, is one of the sub- stantial farmers in Hartford township, where he owns 240 acres of fine agricultural land in sections 26 and 36, all of which is in a fine state of cul- tivation and under good fences. He has a good residence and outbuild- ings, besides a fine orchard, and has his place well stocked. Was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on the 26th day of August, 1823, where he was brought up on a farm, and educated in the common schools of that day and country. During his younger days he was engaged in farming and threshing, which business he followed for twenty-four seasons. He came
to Iowa in the year 1854, and settled on the same place which he now owns and occupies, and hence may be numbered among the early settlers of his township, for at that time there were but few settlers here. He opened his farm and continued to work it until the war broke out and he enlisted in company E, Twenty-fourth Iowa volunteer infantry. Immediately after being mustered into the service of the United States, they were sent south on the Mississippi River to Young's point, thence to Port Gibson, where they were engaged in storming and taking the Fort, after which they were sent to Jackson, Mississippi, a distance of some seventy miles, every foot of which distance had to be fought for. Before this time, however, he had been transferred to the artillery service in battery A, First Missouri, with which he continued during the following eighteen months. From Jackson they next went to Champion's Hill, and participated in the terrible engage- ment which followed. From thence they went to Black River and Vicks- burg and participated in the siege of that city, where they remained until the city capitulated on the 4th of July, 1863. They then went down the. Mississippi River and up the Red River on Banks' ever memorable cam- paign, and were at the terrible defeat at Sabine Cross-roads, after which they returned to the Mississippi River and down to New Orleans, and thence to the city of Washington. Mr. Orin received a sun-stroke which compelled him to be discharged from the service, and which rendered him almost helpless for several years. For five years he was unfit to go to town and return, alone. He has continued on his farm ever since. He was married, on the 15th day of September, 1845, to Miss Mary J. Mossoney, who was born in France, twenty-one miles from the city of Paris, where she resided until she was about ten years of age, when she moved with her parents to Ohio, where she was brought up and lived until her mar- riage. They have seven children living: Franklin N., Marilda L., William H., Catherine R., Donaldson T., Elnora S., Martha F. and John B.
ORRIS, W. W. -- Physician and surgeon, Victor. Was born in Perry county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th day of October, 1834, where he was brought up, and educated in the graded schools of his native village. At the age of eighteen years he removed to Iowa and settled in Louisa county, where he remained until he was twenty-one years of age, when he
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
entered the ministry in the M. E. Church, which he continued to follow for seven years, traveling different circuits in the Iowa Conference, at the end of which time he located and commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Dunlap, of Mount Pleasant, with whom he studied two years, and then went into the practice in the same place, where he practiced for two years, and removed to . Victor, where he has been in practice ever since. He was married, on the 3d of July, 1861, to Miss Virginia Dunlap, of West Liberty, Iowa, who is still living, and is a lady of refinement. The Doctor has been very successful in business, accumulating a large property. He has a splendid notion store and large hotel, besides a fine residence in Victor, and four improved farms in Nebraska.
P ETERS, GEORGE W .- Farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 29. Though yet a young man, he has had more experience and endured more hardships than most men of fifty years. Before the war there was no young man in the county who could endure more hardships or who would will- ingly do more hard work in a given time than he. The three years' service in the army injured his health to such an extent that he has never fully re- covered it, notwithstanding he has always labored hard ever since he came from the army .. He was born in Perry county, Ohio, on the 26th day of May, 1844, where he resided until he was about ten years of age, when, in company with his uncle and family, he started to Iowa; but while on the route an accident happened which came near ending the career of the entire family. They traveled by rail, and when their train reached a point fifteen miles west of Joliet, Illinois, on the C. R. I. & P. Railroad the train jumped the track, or was thrown from the track, and the entire car-load of passengers was badly scalded. This acci- dent caused the family with whom Mr. Peters traveled, to lay over until spring in order to recover from the injuries received. In the spring they continued their journey to Iowa and settled in Washington county. Here Mr. Peters remained for three years and came to Iowa county and labored for a short time in the neighborhood in which he now resides and then be- came engaged to Mr. William Taylor in the southern part of the county to labor on the farm. He labored for him until the breaking out of the war when he enlisted in company B, Eleventh Iowa infantry volunteers and was mustered into the United States service on the 23d day of September, 1861, with which regiment he participated in some of the hardest fought battles of the war, among which are, Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, the battle of Iuka, and the second battle of Corinth, Mississippi, on the third and fourth of October, 1862. They were with General Grant on his expe- dition in the rear of Vicksburg at the time Sherman made an unsuccessful attempt to take the city. They went thence to Memphis and Milliken's Bend, where they assisted in digging the great canal which was constructed at that place. They then went to Lake Providence and there assisted in the construction of the canal at that place. In the spring they went to Haines' Bluff and participated in the Siege of Vicksburg and were present at the surrender of the city on the 4th of July, 1863. After the surrender they went to Jackson, Mississippi, and were with Sherman on his Meridian expedition, and after their return the regiment veteranized and came home. On their return, joined General Sherman on his famous march to the sea, participating in all the battles about Atlanta, including Jones- borough, Peach Tree Creek and the noted battle on the 22d of July where McPherson was killed. After the surrender, and Hood started north, they
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HARTFORD TOWNSHIP.
were with the army which followed him and on their return went with Sherman around to Washington and were present at the surrender of Joe E. Johnson. Was mustered out of the service on the 15th of July, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky, returned home and engaged in farming. He was married on the 16th of January, 1866, to Mrs. Martha M. Wyatt, the widow of Charles Wyatt, deceased. Her maiden name was Negley. Her children by her first husband are: Sarah A., Mary E., Joseph D., and Charles W. The last union has been blest by three children: Lora A., John Sherman and George Washington. Though Mr. Peters was poor, by hard work and economy he had succeeded in getting a nice start in the world when the heavy hand of misfortune was laid upon him on the 8th of July, 1877. During a terrible thunder-storm his house was struck by lightning while the family were from home and entirely consumed, together with all their houshold goods, leaving them nothing with which to start again in the world. Yet they have toiled bravely and labored faithfully together and are once more in comfortable circumstances.
PHELPS, M. E .- Was born in Astabula county, Ohio, April 4, 1838, where he lived with his parents until his majority. In 1859 he became a sailor on the lakes between Chicago and Buffalo, following that avocation until 1861, when he came to Iowa and stopped in Hartford township, Iowa county, where he enlisted in the Union army in September of the same year, being a member of company G, Eighth Iowa infantry volunteers, and served until January, 1863, when he was discharged at St. Louis, and on the same day enlisted in company A, of the cavalry department of the Mississippi Marine Brigade. While in the infantry service he participated in the battle of Shiloh, June 6, 1862, where he was taken prisoner and taken to Tuscaloosa and confined one month in prison, and was afterward taken from place to place as a prisoner until he was paroled, and was not ex- changed until the spring of 1863. 1n 1864 the marine brigade was con- solidated into an infantry regiment, and the organization caused super- numerary non-commissioned officers that would either have to be dis- charged or reduced to the ranks, and he being a sergeant was discharged in September of that year. After his discharge he went to Ohio, where he soon after re-enlisted in company H, Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania infantry volunteers and served in it until the close of the war, being discharged at Wasington, D. C., July 17, 1865, when he returned to Ohio, making a visit with his parents until September, when he returned to Hartford township where he soon after bought 120 acres of land, of which he has made the farm on which he is now living, two and one-half miles northeast of Vic- tor, where he is enjoying the comforts of a good home and a productive farm. In 1869 he married Addie M. Long, of Hartford township. They have one child, Nellie (three years old).
PIKE, FRANCIS-Retired farmer and loan agent. Was born in Che- mung county, New York (as now organized, Schuyler county) where he was brought up on a farm and educated in the common schools of that coun- try. At an early age he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, and also became the owner of a farm which he conducted in connection with his trade for many years. At the age of twenty years he removed to near Cleveland, Ohio, where he bought a farm and followed his trade for twenty- six years, at the same time managing his farm. He came to Iowa in the year 1866, and settled on a farm two miles south of where Ladora now stands, where he continued to live and conduct his farm for ten years when
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. HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
in 1876 he came to Ladora and has been engaged in various kinds of busi- ness since. He has clerked part of the time for Mr. Starrett, and part of the time for Mr. Snavely, and has been engaged in loaning money. He is now living a retired life. He has been twice married. In the year 1838 he married Miss Ormilla Bennett, of Cleveland, who was born in the State of Vermont. She died on the 21st of October, 1873, leaving five children : Olive, Mary A., Elizabeth, Samuel A. and Robert B. He was married the second time to Mrs. Maria A. Parrott, who was born in Hartford, Connecti- cut, on the 7th of September, 1824. Her parents removed to Schuyler county, New York, when she was a child, and here she was brought up and educated in the Academy at Elmira, New York. She was married to Mr. Parrott, her first husband, in 1848, with whom she lived thirteen years, and by this union they had three children: Jerome B., Steven V. and Jared. She continued to live in New York, until her marriage in 1876. She is a lady of refinement and education and devotes her time and energies to the care of her house. Mr. Pike is the treasurer of the town of Ladora.
R ICHARDS, IRA S .- Real estate and loan broker, Victor. Was born in Hardy county, Virginia, on the 15th day of November, 1834, in which State he continued to live during his youth, being brought up on the farm and receiving such an education as the private schools of that time furnished. At the age of fourteen years he entered an academy, where he took a two years' course at Charleston, Virginia, a place rendered historic by the hanging of John Brown. In the year 1851 he left the academy and entered Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, where he re- mained two years, and just at the commencement of his junior year, by reason of ill health and short finances, he was obliged to quit, and returned to the mountains of Virginia, and commenced teaching private school and vocal music, which business he followed in that country for three years. On the 1st of July, 1856, he was married to Miss Jane Sechrist, whose father was a noted man in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mrs. R. is a lady of refinement and devotes her entire time to the care and education of her children, of whom she has seven, three of whom are not at home, hav- ing entered into the battle of life for themselves; the other four are at home. On the 7th of November, 1856, Mr. R. and his young wife left Virginia for the West, arriving in Chicago on the 9th in a fearful snow storm with but five dollars in the two pocketbooks. From here they went to Peoria, Illinois, arriving on the 10th of November, 1856, without a cent. Here they formed the acquaintance of the Rev. Mr. Crow, county superintendent of Bureau county, and after passing a satisfactory examina- tion, took charge of the Tiskilwa school, which he taught one year at eighty dollars per month. In the following spring he purchased a small farm and embarked in agricultural pursuits, which he followed one season and during the winter taught a district school. In the spring of 1861 he removed with his wife and their only child to Tama county, Iowa, and took charge of Union Grove school, which he conducted for one year; then removed to Oskaloosa, intending to teach in the college, but was taken sick and was unable to do anything during the entire winter. In the spring he went to Snook's Grove, Poweshiek county, and engaged in teaching and laboring in that neighborhood until 1865, when he came to Victor, which was then just started, and engaged in the real estate business, which he has since followed, receiving his first list of lands from Mr. Hugh Downey, of Iowa City. Since that time he has been the agent for the sale of lands
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HARTFORD TOWNSHIP.
for the Union Pacific Railroad and also for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific. He is still the agent for the latter company. Owing to a scath- ing article which he wrote for publication in the newspapers against the fraud of the Union Pacific, they asked himn to resign, which he did. His eldest son, Milton V., one of the finest business men in northern Iowa, re- ceived a thorough education in the schools of Victor, took a course in the commercial school at Burlington, besides having received thorough and practical business training in his father's office, and is now at Algona in the banking and real estate business and is making a special study of real estate law. His daughter, Nannie B., is now the wife of Mr. George C. Agnue, of Clarksville, Nebraska. Martha is now Mrs. John W. Coffin, now living at Winchester, Virginia. The names of the three remaining are: Mary, Emma and Nellie.
ROSENBERGER, N .- Farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 24. He is one of the settlers spoken of in another part of this work as coming out from Seneca county, Ohio, and forming what is and has always been known as the Ohio settlement. But while some from this settlement returned to Ohio on account of the depredations of the barn-burners, Mr. Rosenberger remained and defended his property and his home. He and his brother built the first and at that time the only cabin between Marengo and Mil- lersbug. The house was nothing but a shanty, and many times after re- tiring Mr. R. has heard the wolves about his house, attracted thither by fresh meat on the inside. He has endured all the hardships and inconven - iences of settling a new country, being obliged to go to Iowa City to do most of his trading and all his milling. While he is not a frontiersman, yet he had sufficient determination and courage to declare his rights and defend them; and he was one of the many law abiding early settlers who opposed the actions of the barn-burners and rendered the climate unhealthy. It was at his house where a number of the settlers met and determined to hold a public meeting in Marengo, at which time the settlers passed some very emphatic resolutions in regard to the barn-burners and threatening re- taliation on some of the principal ones who were present. They concluded discretion the better part of valor, and very naturally quit their infamous business, He was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, on the 12th day of August, 1821, but removed with his parents to Seneca county, Ohio, where he was brought up on a farm and educated in the common schools, and re- mained there until he came to Iowa in 1851. He was married in 1841 to Miss Hannah Keffle, of Seneca county, Ohio, who is still living, and by whom he has seven children: John A., Henry C., Rebecca E., Robert T., Sarah A., Mary C., Maryit J. John A. was a soldier in company E, Twen- ty-fourth lowa, and while being sent from Vicksburg to the St. Louis hos- pital died, and his parents never knew where he was buried.
ROSS, AYRES-Was born in Andersontown, York county, Pennsyl- vania, September 7, 1823. When fifteen years of age his parents moved to the oil regions in Venango county, in the same State, where he lived with them until he was twenty. The only opportunity he had to obtain an education was the little schooling he had before he was thirteen. At that age, his father being a blacksmith, he was put to work in the shop and worked at that trade until his twentieth year, and after that he followed the same trade in different places in western Pennsylvania until 1853, when he came to Iowa and settled six miles north of Wilton Junction, in Cedar county, where he purchased 160 acres of unimproved land, eighty acres of
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
which he improved, and also carried on blacksmithing. Selling out in 1853, he moved to Koszta, Iowa county, and soon after bought 160 acres of wild land, which is now part of the farm known as the Ingraham farm, in Honey Creek township, a few miles southeast of Koszta. He improved a part of his land, and at the same time carried on the blacksmithing busi- ness at Koszta. In 1866 he sold his farm to Mason Ingraham and closed up his business at Koszta and moved to Victor, in Hartford township, in the same county, and again carried on the blacksmithing business, and also built a hotel called the Iowa House, which he kept in connection with his other business until 1872, when he sold his property in Victor, and pur- chased a partly improved farm of 160 acres ten miles northeast of Victor, and where he now lives. He has a very desirable home, good barns, gran- ary, cribs and sheds; on the farm is an orchard of one thousand trees, two hundred bearing, also small fruit and grapes. In 1843 he married Catharine Steffy, of Venango county, Pennsylvania, by whom he has six children: Aseneth (wife of G. Rosman, of Koszta), Samuel (married and owns an interest in the farm), Catharine (wife of E. G. Marsh, of Chicago, Illinois), Adaline (wife of H. C. Hughs, of Red Bluff, California), and Emanuel and Lowly Myrtle, living at home. He has with him an orphan grandson, Nathan Greaser, whose father died when he was very young from the effect of exposure in the army. He has lost seven children, all dying in infancy, except one, Columbus, who at the age of eight fell from the railroad bridge into Bear Creek, near Victor, and was drowned. His son SAMUEL, who has been mentioned in this sketch, was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1847. After he attained his majority he was employed in various avocations until 1873, when he be- came interested with his father in the homestead, and since then has shared the work and profits with his father. He is quite a genius and has invented a simple piece of mechanism for measuring cloth that accurately measures cloth of any thickness, correctly indicating every yard and fraction of a . yard on a register. In 1872 he married Mary Kingon, of Chicago, Illi- nois, by whom he has two children: Gertrude C. and Park E.
ROSENBERGER, A .- Farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 13. Is among the early settlers of this township being one of the families which came to this township from Seneca county, Ohio, and forming what has always been known as the Ohio settlement. Was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, on the 20th of August, 1818, where he lived until about ten years of age, when his parents removed to Ohio and settled in Seneca county where he was brought up to labor on the farm and educated in the common schools of that country, in log school-houses, having large fire-places in one end, slabs with wooden pins for legs for seats, and greased paper for window lights. A large board around the outside wall for a writing place for all, forming quite a contrast with the beautiful houses and patent seats of the present day. In the year 1851 he removed to this township, but his fam- ily were greatly dissatisfied with the country owing to the fact that barn- burners were causing great trouble with the actual settlers, and he was induced by his family to return to Ohio, where they remained about two years, and then, in 1853, they returned to this county and settled on the farm where they now live. The country was still new and they had to en- dure all the inconveniences and hardships incident to the settlement of a new country. The first house which he ever built or owned was a hewed log house which is still standing in his back yard. He has a fine farm con-
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