A. J. Hyde

HYDE, STEVENS, RAYMOND, SEVERANCE, PITKIN, MUNN, WARDELL, SARGEANT, REA

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/15/2011 at 09:02:53

A. J. HYDE, who follows farming on section 13, Palermo Township, Grundy County, was born in Bradford County, Pa., June 10, 1829, and is a son of Jenkins Hyde, a native of Connecticut. The grandfather, Jabez Hyde, was a Judge and a man of prominence. The wife, however, survived him and reached the advanced age of more than ninety years. The father of our subject was reared in Bradford County, Pa., and there married Miss Eliza Ann, daughter of Samuel Stevens. He engaged in farming and stock-raising in that county, and there made his home until 1849, when he removed to Luzerne County, Pa. His death there occurred in 1865. The family numbered five sons and a daughter, but our subject is now the only survivor. In politics, the father was a Democrat, and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

A. J. Hyde spent the days of his boyhood and youth in Bradford County, Pa., was educated in its public schools and learned the trade of a blacksmith, at which he worked in the county of his nativity until he had arrived at man’s estate. He then went to Binghamton, N. Y., where he also learned the trade of a molder, which he followed in connection with blacksmithing. After a year he went to Waverly, N. Y., and about 1854 emigrated to Carroll County, Ill., where he followed his trade for thirteen years. He was one of the pioneers of that county. The year 1866 witnessed his arrival in Grundy County. He located in Grundy Centre, and at once began blacksmithing. The county was then but sparsely settled, for the work of progress and development had hardly been begun. Mr. Hyde built the second smithy in Grundy Centre, where he followed his trade for about eleven years.

During that time our subject wedded Miss Mary L. Raymond, sister of S. R. Raymond, the banker of Grundy Centre, and a native of Boone County, Ill., where she was born February 14, 1843. In 1865, Mr. Hyde purchased a tract of land in Palermo Township. During his residence in Grundy Centre, he engaged in buying and selling land and loaning money. In 1879 he removed to a farm on section 13, Palermo Township, upon which he made his home for about five years. He then removed to his present farm, on the southeast quarter of the same section. He owns altogether three hundred acres of well improved land, under a high state of cultivation. He carries on general farming and stock-raising, and in his business dealings has met with excellent success. Everything about the place is neat and thrifty in appearance, and all the accessories of a model farm are there found. The home is a comfortable residence, and the inmates of the household are Mr. and Mrs. Hyde and their son, William A., who was born July 4, 1878.

Our subject is numbered among the honored pioneers of the county. When he came here there was not a frame house between Grundy Centre and Steamboat Rock, on the Iowa River. When he located at the former place, its buildings were the Severance home, a little frame house owned by a Mr. Pitkin, the frame house of D. E. Munn, and the old hotel kept by John Wardell. They were about thirty miles from a railroad. Mr. Hyde has been prominently identified with the growth and development of the county, and in all possible ways has aided in its upbuilding and the promotion of its best interests. He well deserves mention among its founders, and it is with pleasure that we present to our readers this record of his life work. In politics, he is a Democrat. Socially, he is connected with the Masonic fraternity, and has served as Treasurer of his lodge. Mrs. Hyde’s parents were William and Sally (Sargeant) Raymond, natives of Pennsylvania. They came to Illinois in an early day, and were pioneers of Boone County, where the father followed farming. They were the parents of three children: C. S. Raymond; Mrs. Hyde; and Ann S., Mrs. J. M. Rea, of this city. The mother died when thirty-two years of age, and the father died in 1853.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894

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