Biographical and genealogical history of Appanoose and Monroe counties, Iowa
New York, Chicago: Lewis publishing Co., S. Thompson Lewis, editor. 1903
Transcribed by Renee Rimmert. A complete copy of this book is available on-line at archive.org.
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SAMUEL N. BELL - How varied and many are the uses of biography! After all, man is but a unit in the vast concourse of humanity moving on to a higher goal, whose ranks are being constantly depleted and as quickly filled again, and when viewed in the distance of time each individual is lost in the mass unless some distinguishing mark is found, and therefore most useful is biography to record the deeds of those who will soon step out of the ranks and give place to the onward coming youth, and in this record of the past will men of the future find encouragement and hope. In the life of Samuel N. Bell will be found much worthy of emulation, and he well deserves a page in this work which is given to the memory of the men and women of Appanoose county.
William and Minerva (Nichols) Bell were the father and mother of this gentleman and both claim Washington county, Pennsylvania, as the place of their nativity, and in that county they were united in marriage. William Bell was a wagon and cabinet maker by trade. In the spring of 1853 they moved to Wapello county, Iowa, where they resided until the outbreak of the Civil war; Mr. Bell then enlisted in a company of Iowa infantry, and in 1862, when fifty years old, he died in St. Louis of pneumonia contracted while in the service. Mrs. Bell survived many years, passing away in 1897, when at the advanced age of eighty-two years. Of the six children of these parents the subject of this sketch is the only one now living.
Samuel N. Bell came into the world in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 5th of February, 1844. He grew up to manhood much after the manner of other boys and was early introduced to the practical side of life, and owing to the early death of his father he launched out into an independent course in life when only a boy. In 1869 he married Miss Hannah Maria Rice, who was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania; she came west to Iowa several years before her parents made the journey and made her home with her brother in Cincinnati, Iowa. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bell settled down to married life on what is known as the old Bell farm and were there actively engaged in farming until 1893, when they removed to their present comfortable home west of Cincinnati, where they carry on general farming operations on one hundred acres of choice land.
Four children were born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bell, but only two of these are now living. Edwin R. Bell is a farmer and resides on the place just east of the home farm; Delia Bell lives at home with her parents. The family are members of the Baptist church of Livingston and are highly respected throughout the community where they have so long been useful citizens.
JOSEPH BLAND - Few of its present citizens can claim a longer residence in Iowa than the gentleman whose name is above transcribed. He came here in 1853, only seven years after its admission into the Union as a state, and when the population was but two hundred thousand, as compared to the millions now inhabiting this prosperous commonwealth. During all of the fifty succeeding years of rapid development and marvelous growth, Mr. Bland has counted one and borne his full share in making Iowa what it is now generally admitted to be, the greatest agricultural state in the Union. He is a native of Pennsylvania and son of Thomas and Elizabeth Bland. This worthy couple, though both born in old Virginia, went, after their marriage, to the neighboring Keystone state and were identified therewith during all of their subsequent lives. Thomas Bland was a carpenter by trade, and it required all his time and many a day's arduous toil to support his wife and thirteen children. He succeeded, however, in making a good living for all until called to his last rest in 1874, at the ripe old age of eighty-four years. His first wife died in 1854 after becoming the mother of the following named children: Mary, Susan, Delilah, Amelia, Martha, Joseph, John, Kate, Elizabeth, Thomas, Sarah, Cynthia and Ellen. By a second marriage with Sarah Sharpneck there were three children: Frank, William and one who died in infancy.
Joseph Bland, who was the sixth of his father's first set of children, was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1824, and remained at the place of his nativity until reaching his majority. In 1844 he came west, spent a year in Ohio, thence went to Missouri, where he remained over a year, and then returned to Pennsylvania and was married to Elsie, daughter of Henry and Nancy Church. In 1853, accompanied by his bride, Mr. Bland again started westward, but this time settled in Appanoose county, which was destined to be his permanent abiding place. It took hard work to succeed in Iowa, as elsewhere, but Mr. Bland was young and vigorous then and equal to all reasonable demands that might be made upon him. The long years of struggle have not been without their compensation, and besides a comfortable home he finds himself in possession of considerable land and other property. About 1883 Mr. Bland noticed that his health had begun to fail, and deeming it the part of prudence to cease from hard work, he retired with his family to Plano and in a cozy home at that place is spending the evening of his days.
The children resulting from Mr. Bland's early marriage are ten in number, and thus recorded in order of birth : Nancy, Mary, deceased; Henry, Benton, deceased; Sarah, Minerva, Amelia, deceased; John, Ada, and Charles, the latter dying in infancy. During the Civil war Mr. Bland served as a member of the Iowa State Home Guards. He and his wife have long been members of the United Brethren church and are highly esteemed in all relations of life.
JOSEPH D. BALL - When one reflects that the remarkable strides of modern civilization began with the birth of the printing press in the middle of the fifteenth century, and that in the present century the press is the greatest disseminator of knowledge, and, above all other influences, wields the greatest power in politics, business, public opinion, and, in fact, in all departments of life, then it is that we may rightly appreciate the modern newspaper and the place it occupies in every city and village and country place in the wide domain of the United States. And not only as the head of one of these important enterprises, but as a man of character and worth in himself, is it fitting that mention should be made in this volume of Joseph D. Ball, the editor of the Mystic Letter and the postmaster of the town of Mystic, Iowa.
Our subject is the son of Samuel K. and Sarah G. (Needham) Ball, the former born near Louisville, Kentucky, in 1830, and the latter born in Jennings county, Indiana, in 1834. The latter married John Buckles in Indiana and with her husband started with a mule team to drive to Iowa; while traveling through eastern Iowa her husband died, and with that indomitable will so characteristic of the early settlers she drove to this country with the corpse of her husband in the wagon and with her small child in her arms; she made her home with a brother in Johns township until her marriage to Mr. Ball. Samuel K. Ball left his native state of Kentucky when young and went to Bartholomew county, Indiana, and at the age of sixteen went to Mississippi, where, under the eye of his uncle, who owned a newspaper, he learned the printer's trade. He later returned to Indiana and learned the carpenter's trade. He came to Centerville, Iowa, in 1856, and worked in a printing establishment two years. He then moved to Johns township, following farming, blacksmithing and carpentering until 1879, when he bought a half interest in a printing establishment in Centerville and edited a paper in the interests of the Greenback party, known as the Centerville Blade. In April, 1881, he located at Seymour, Iowa, and established the Seymour Enterprise and was its editor until his death in August, 1881.
Joseph D. Ball was born in Johns township, Appanoose county, Iowa, October 20, 1865, and spent the earlier years of his life on the farm. In 1879 he first became acquainted with the printer's trade. After the death of his father he returned with his mother to Johns township, farming and working in the mines until 1892, when he moved to Mystic and for six months was employed as foreman of the Mystic Letter. In September, 1892, he purchased the Mystic Letter of Dr. W. C. Griffith and in February, 1893, disposed of it to W. S. Scott. In July, 1893, he again bought the plant, and has been conducting it very successfully ever since. He has always endeavored to make the paper an organ for the advancement of the public interests and he has shown much tact in the handling of the varied matters with which the editor has to deal.
Mr. Ball is a staunch Republican, and on September 16, 1901, he was appointed postmaster of Mystic, which office he now fills; since he has been its incumbent, the office has changed from one of the fourth class to a third class office, and its business is conducted in a manner pleasing to all patrons. In connection with A. J. Richardson he is manager of the Mystic Opera House. Fraternally he is a Knight of Pythias. In 1893 Mr. Ball was married to Miss Tillie Skillen, a native of Pennsylvania. Her father died in Pennsylvania, while her mother lives on a farm northwest of Mystic. One child was born of this marriage. May 1, 1897, whose name is Carlos Stanton Ball.
JOHN S. BOARDMAN - The subject of this sketch has had a career extending over a period of many years which may justly be described as arduous, adventurous and hazardous. The first portion covered the period of the Civil war, during which Mr. Boardman saw much hard service and fighting, and made a most creditable record. Leaving the army, he entered a service whose risks and dangers are second only to those of war, and as a "railroader" endured hardships in many different states and in the employment of many different corporations. Added together, his army and railroad service extended from the early sixties to 1898, nearly forty years, and none will envy him the repose he is now enjoying after a life of such strenuous labor and exciting experiences. His father, Levi Boardman, was a native of New York state, who followed milling in early life and devoted his last years to farming. He married Minerva Monroe, who came from Scotland with her parents in childhood and grew up in Genesee county. New York. This union, which continued in utmost conjugal harmony until severed by the death of Mr. Boardman in 1866, resulted in the birth of eight children, of whom only two are now living.
John S. Boardman, youngest of his father's surviving children, was born in Pennsylvania, January 17, 1843, and was prevented by poor health in childhood from obtaining more than the mere rudiments of an education. When fourteen years old he began driving a stage between Columbus, Pennsylvania, and Jamestown, New York, but soon abandoned this job for employment in the oil fields of Crawford county, Pennsylvania. Subsequently he was engaged for four years as a stage driver between Titusville and Union, Pennsylvania, and during this time also had charge of several teams. This monotonous and unexciting employment was terminated by that mighty event which changed the current of so many million lives, and altered the very course of history itself. The outbreak of the Civil war found young Boardman in his eighteenth year, and full of the fiery patriotism that inspired every spirit in those troublous times. His feelings found vent by enlistment in Company B, Twelfth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, with which he went promptly to the front and took part in the opening scenes of the great drama along the Virginia border. At the expiration of his term he re-enlisted, or "veteranized," as it was then termed, in the same command, and remained with it until the last gun was fired in the fratricidal strife. Mr. Boardman's services were not only of a varied and dangerous character, but they were marked throughout by a gallantry and devotion to duty which brought him constant commendation of his superior officers. He was with General McClellan all through the Peninsula campaign and during this exciting time was detailed to act as orderly for the commander-in-chief. Later, when General Pope took command in Piedmont, Virginia, the troops to which Mr. Boardman belonged were detached and sent to join his forces, it being the only part of the regiment that was employed in that service. By reason of this detached assignment the troops participated in the hard fought battles of second Bull Run, Antietam and South Mountain, with all the intermediate hard marching and privation which characterized the campaign preceding and following Lee's first invasion of Maryland. June 16, 1863, shortly before the battle of Gettysburg, whither the armies were then converging, Mr. Boardman met with the misfortune of being wounded and taken prisoner, which necessitated a countermarch under guard up the valley of Virginia to Richmond, where he was introduced to the delectable bill of fare of Libby prison.
After four weeks' detention in this dismal den he was transferred to Belle Isle, an equally undesirable boarding house, situated on James river, near the western end of Richmond. From this abode of misery he was sent in a month to another of the same kind at Florence, South Carolina, and finally obtained his parole at Charleston, in the same state. After his release Mr. Boardman served under General Phil Sheridan throughout his famous campaign in the Shenandoah valley, taking part in the innumerable raids and skirmishes which preceded Early's complete overthrow in the fall of 1864. During his services with Sheridan's dashing and incomparable cavalry, Mr. Boardman was commissioned second lieutenant for conspicuous bravery and held this rank until mustered out of the service on the 20th of July, 1865.
Immediately after obtaining his honorable discharge, Mr. Boardman went directly to his brother and engaged as a fireman on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. Thus began a career which was destined to last a long time in the same line of work, and during this period he worked as a locomotive engineer, ten years for the Chicago and Northwestern, five years for the Burlington and Southwestern, one year for the Union Pacific, five years for the Wisconsin Central, four years for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and seven years for the Illinois Central. The only interruption in this chain of employment was caused by failure of health, which compelled him to spend four years in Colorado for recuperation. Finally, in 1898, he concluded that he had done his share of hard work, and the veteran soldier and railroader sought a rest from the strain and perils to which he had so long been subjected. He first located in Appanoose county in 1879, and ever afterward made his headquarters here while engaged in various railroad occupations.
In 1864 Mr. Boardman was married to Mary Robinson, who died in 1876, leaving a son, W. R. Boardman, who is at present a resident of Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1883 a second marriage was contracted, with Miss Emma Ferris, a native of Ohio, who came to Iowa with her parents in early childhood. They are comfortably situated on a productive farm of eighty acres, five miles west of Moulton, where a generous hospitality is dispensed to visiting friends. For the last thirty years Mr. Boardman has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, still holds membership in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and is an honored comrade in the Grand Army of the Republic.
THOMAS S. BROCKUS , owns and operates two hundred and thirteen acres of rich and arable land in Washington township, Appanoose county, and is known as a successful farmer and stock-raiser. His birth occurred in Carroll county, Indiana, on the 18th of December, 1847, and his parents, Thomas C. and Jane M. (Scott) Brockus, were also natives of the same state, the subject of this review being their only child. The father died in November, 1847, before the birth of Thomas, and the mother afterward married again, becoming the wife of John Brinegar. With her second husband she came to Iowa in 1856, settling in Bremer county, where they resided for ten years, and in 1866 they came to Appanoose county, taking up their abode in Washington township, where they both spent their remaining days. Mr. Brinegar passing away in 1880. His widow survived him for many years and died in 1902 at the age of seventy-eight years. She bore her husband eight children.
During the period of his boyhood and youth Thomas S. Brockus remained with his mother, and was therefore reared on a farm and pursued his education in the common schools. The occupation with which he became familiar in youth has always been his life work. He left the parental roof when twenty-one years of age and about the time he was married settled upon his present farm. He was then a poor man with no capital, but he possessed energy and determination, and these are the best foundation upon which to rear the superstructure of success. He worked early and late, and his life has always been an industrious and honorable one. As time passed his methods were rewarded. The financial return that enabled him to extend the boundaries of his farm was judiciously invested, and he now has two hundred and thirteen acres of valuable land, which he has placed under a high state of cultivation.
In 1868 Mr. Brockus was united to Miss E. Jane Hays, who was born in Indiana, and their marriage has been blessed with the following children: Sallie, Thomas J., Lulu M., Mattie and Lavina L. Mattie died at the age of four years. Of the living all are now married with the exception of the youngest. The family have long resided in Washington township and Mr. Brockus has been called upon to serve in positions of public trust. He has filled the office of school director for fifteen years, was trustee for one term and then some time later was again elected to the same office, and is now serving as one of the trustees of his township. He is found to be a faithful officer, prompt and capable in the discharge of his duties and ever alive to the best interests of his community. In his political affiliations he is a staunch Republican and is a member of the Church of Christ. His life has been quietly passed and he has always been free from ostentation and display, but those who know him estimate his character as most commendable and that he is well worthy of the respect and confidence of those with whom he is associated.
CHANCELLOR J. BROWER - A very active life has been that of the subject of this sketch, embracing a range of varied employment from soldiering to teaching and from official positions in connection with education to tenure of place in the government civil service. But it is principally on his achievements as an educator that Mr. Brower rests his claims to recognition, and these alone would entitle him to honorable mention in any history devoted to representative men of Iowa. In fact all his life has been devoted to worthy causes, his work usually being along business which brought more benefit to others than himself, this remark being especially applicable to his long and efficient services in educating the rising generations.
The family is of mixed northern and southern origin, but moved west so long before the Civil war as to be thoroughly indoctrinated with the loyal view on all questions leading up to that memorable struggle. Jeremiah Brower, who was born and bred in New York, married a North Carolina lady who had spent the early years of life in her native state. Shortly after their marriage in North Carolina, Jeremiah and Nancy W. Brower removed to Marion county, Missouri, where they made their home about twenty years. In 1850 the family changed residence to Centerville, Iowa, where the father practiced medicine three years, and then moved to Wayne county, where he continued his professional work until compelled to retire by the infirmities of old age. His death occurred in 1876 and two years later his widow took up her residence in Oregon, where she spent the remainder of her days. Their children, nine in number, are thus recorded in order of birth in the family register: Julia Ann, Chancellor J., Elizabeth, Elias, William, Emily, Amelia, Albert G., and Buchanan.
Chancellor J. Brower, second of the family, in age, was born in Marion county, Missouri, March 30, 1835, and was consequently fifteen years old when taken by his parents to Iowa. After an attendance of some years in the common schools of Centerville he entered the Philadelphia University, where he was graduated in 1867, securing two degrees, A. B. and A. M. On April 2, 1862, he had enlisted in Company F, Seventeenth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served with this command nine months, at the end of which time he was honorably discharged for disability. His service was with the army of the west and among the more important engagements in which he took part was the battle of Iuka, Mississippi, on September 19, 1862, and the one at Corinth, October 4, of the same year. After obtaining his release from the army Mr. Brower returned to Iowa and taught school several years in Appanoose county, and gradualy established a reputation as an experienced educator.
In 1886 he received an appointment in the civil service department of the government at Washington and served two years in the field as a special examiner. In 1891 he was appointed professor of mathematics and natural sciences at Muskogee, Indian Territory, and discharged the duties of this position about three years. In the spring of 1894 he went to Jackson, Mississippi, and spent two years as a professor of mathematics and physics, but failing health caused him to relinquish this employment and return to Iowa. In 1897 he resumed teaching at Centerville and in 1900 was elected superintendent of the Tama City, Iowa, public schools, which position he held a year and then retired from active business life.
In 1858 Mr. Brower was united in marriage with Miss Tursey J., daughter of William and Ellen Hamilton, now deceased. The two children of this union were Hattie and Luella, the latter dying in infancy. During the greater part of his life Mr. Brower has been a believer in religion and for forty years has been a member of the Missionary Baptist church at Centerville. He is also prominent in fraternity circles, holding membership in several of the best known orders, including the various branches of Masonry, from the blue lodge to the Mystic Shrine; in the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Brower has performed his duty faithfully in all the relations of life, as soldier, teacher, religious worker, and in his retirement is justly entitled to that kindliest reward; "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."