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1907 Past and Present Biographies

Reese Townsend

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Reece Townsend, deceased, was born in Morgan county, Ohio, in 1832, and was the son of Ames and Mary (Smith) Townsend, his father being a large contractor and a well known carpenter. Mr. Townsend received his early education in the public schools of Ohio, devoting his vacation periods to play and work. He early apprenticed himself to a blacksmith so that when his school days were over he felt that he had a trade upon which he could rely. He later embarked in the insurance business and in the interests of the company which he represented he came to Jefferson, Iowa, about 1875, having removed in 1867 to Greene county. With the exception of four years he spent all his married life in Jefferson. During these four years he was interested in the improvement of one hundred and sixty acres of land near Churdan, Greene county, which his widow now owns.

In 1880 occurred the marriage of Reece Townsend and Theresa Jane Meredith, at Newton, Jasper county, Iowa. Mrs. Townsend was born in Maryland, near Baltimore, in 1849, and was the daughter of Thomas and Mary A. (Fullerton) Meredith, agriculturists who early lived in Ohio, later in Iowa, and subsequently removed to Sherman, Texas, where Mr. Meredith passed away in 1901 at the age of eighty-three years. His widow is still living with their daughter Anna in Sherman, Texas. To these worthy people were born eight children: John W., a resident of Portland, Oregon; Malinda, who married David Bennett, a resident of Sherman, Texas; Theresa Jane, the widow of the subject of this sketch; Anna, the widow of Ose Hutt and a resident of Sherman, Texas; Charles B., deceased, who was a railroad man living in Ottumwa, Iowa; James, who lives at Cline Falls, Portland, Oregon; Frank, a citizen of Fairbanks, Alaska; and Algum, who resides in Sherman, Texas.

Mrs. Townsend spent her childhood days in Maryland, leaving there with her parents shortly after the Civil war and locating in Ohio, where she married Joseph Stickles, who was born in 1843 and who was a soldier in Company A, Eighty-third Ohio for three years. It was after he returned from the war, in 1866,
that their marriage occurred, and they shortly after this removed to Iowa, locating in Jasper county in the town of Monroe. After a residence of five years in this place they removed to Des Moines for two years and later to Quincy, Illinois, where Mr. Stickles passed away in 1876. He was a valued bookkeeper for the
American Express Company and a gentleman highly respected and much loved by his many friends. After his death Mrs. Stickles lived with her parents until she was married to Mr. Townsend in 1880.

By her first marriage she became the mother of one child, Harry Elmer Stickles, born December 24, 1867, who lives about one hundred and twenty-seven miles from Denver, Colorado, where he is engaged in the restaurant business. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Reece Townsend were born three children: Frank Earl, who is a baker living in Denver, Colorado; Ross M., who is in the restaurant business with his half-brother Harry in Colorado; and Elda May, an accomplished young lady who lives with her mother in Jefferson. She received her educational advantages in the Jefferson high school and is a highly accomplished and lovable young lady.

Mr. Townsend gave his political support to the republican party. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was active always in the Methodist Episcopal church, which he joined when a young man. Always true to his duties of citizenship and devoted to the best interests and to the happiness of his family, he was not only energetic and enterprising but thoroughly reliable and through his own efforts steadily advanced to a position of independence. His death, which occurred July 1, 1906, was sincerely mourned by every member in the community in which he lived. His friends were numerous and his good deeds many and far-reaching, while as a husband and father he possessed the rarest virtues.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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