Adam Grubb TALLEY was born April 3, 1802 [New Castle Co., Delaware, the son of Adam and Rebecca (DAY) TALLEY]. He was married to Sarah ALDRED March 17, 1825. [Sarah (ALRED) TALLEY was born in Delaware on September 17, 1801, the daughter of William and Catherine (ROBINSON) ALDRED.] On the seventh day of May, 1842, they left the State of Dealware and settled in Perry County, Ohio. In the fall of 1850 our parents left Perry County, Ohio, and settled in Hamilton County, Indiana.

They traded their equity inforty acres of improved Ohio land for ninety-five acres of unimproved land in Indiana. This land was covered with a dense forest that required untold labor and energy to put it in cultivation. In less than six years we had it all in cultivation but fifteen acres.

The first of May our parents sold their farm in Indiana and took as part pay one hundred twenty acres of land in Ringgold County, Iowa. This land had been entered on the fifth day of January, 1856, by Albon G. DAVIS, who intended it for his future home, but when he had all of his plans made for moving to Iowa his wife informed he that she was not going to Iowa.

We not only took his land off his hands, but a horse, and one covered wagon he had prepared to use in moving.

From Jasper County, Iowa, where we had stopped to join Michael STAHL who had married my sister, and was visiting his brother in Jasper County, we came on by way of Des Moines, Winterset, and Afton.

Des Moines was a rather small city composed of small wooden buildings and all on the west side of the river. The east side was covered with jack oak brush and the river had a small pontoon bridge across it. A pontoon bridge was a bridge on top of a boat on which emigrants were brought across the river with their teams and wagons and stock.

The State capitol had recently been moved from Iowa City, Iowa to Des Moines, Iowa, and they were then digging for the foundation for the first state house.

The early settlers of Winterset had built their houses of stone rather than logs. Some of the buildings and even hotels built in 1856 still stand there [1937].

We entered Ringgold County from the north, our first stop being at the farm house of Michael BEAVER, in Section 12, Township 70, Range 30 on the fourth day of July, 1856. The most lasting impression made on my mind by the BEAVER home was that of plenty of water. After a boy had begged for water for more than a month, it was a great relief to find a home where all could be supplied, people, horses, and dogs.

Michael BEAVER was the man who never wore a hat, summer or winter. He could be seen about his farm bareheaded in hot weather and cold.

On the afternoon of July 4, we drove from Michael BEAVER'S to the farm of Isaac REYNOLDS, in Section 5, Township 69, Range 30, and camped for the night. That was a Fourth of July with no celebration, no crowd, no flags, just a common day. Indeed it was difficult then to properly reckon time. Even the days of the week were sometimes in dispute.

Isaac REYNOLDS was the first man who could locate our land for us. This he did by means of stakes, mounds and pits made by the government surveyors. In a few days we built a log cabin eighteen by twenty feet into which we moved without any floor, and lived on the ground until lumber was obtained at the first saw mill. Those were the primative days; they were severely so. Our grain was hauled from eastern Iowa or northern Missouri. On the prairies there could be seen wild Indians, deer and wolves. Oxen were largely used instead of horses. All went visiting to town or church in an ox cart. But the people were hospitable, honest and happy. These were the days of the scythe, sickle, and the single shovel plow.

Isaac and B. F. TALLEY, like Michael STAHL, owned their land as long as they lived. Isaac TALLEY married Nancy KELLER; Sarah E. TALLEY married Benjamin KELLER.

In 1856 Mount Ayr was a small town composed mostly of log cabins and all on the east side as the part of town lots east of the dividing line through the center of the square belonged to the town, while the lots on the west side of this line did not come into market for some years.

Benjamin KELLER and Isaac A. TALLEY did valiant services in the Civil War. Both were members of Company M, 3rd Iowa Cavalry.

In November, 1856, Rev. Jessie SHERWOOD preached the first sermon in the northern part of the county in Mother TALLEY'S home and organized the TALLEY class. This class became the Bethel class, then the Methodist Church at Goshen and now the Methodist Church at Diagonal, Iowa. This TALLY class had fifteen charter members. There was but one older organization in the county; that was the Methodist Church at Mount Ayr, organized by Rev. W. C. WILLIAMS in EDWARDS Hotel in Mount Ayr.

This Diagonal Church has sent out teachers, doctors, lawyers, and preachers and in their work for missions have almost encircled the globe. Josephine STAHL going east to India and Lydia WILKINSON going west to China, teaching others the way of salvation.

All of Adam G. TALLEY'S and Mother TALLEY'S children, grandchildren, and great-granchildren are members of the Methodist Church or some other branch of the Christian Church.

Adam G. TALLEY died May 14, 1868; Sarah TALLEY, his wife, died December 2, 1873. Eight children were born to them:

1) Thomas Aldred TALLEY was born May 18, 1828 [Delaware]; died August 3, 1842 [Perry Co. OH].

2) Catherine Robinson TALLEY was born November 13, 1829 [Delaware]; died August 24, 1899 [Indiana; married 14 Feb 1850 to Benjamin Franklin FORD (1819-1895)].

3) George "Albert" TALLEY was born December 31, 1832 [Delaware]; died July 9, 1840 [Delaware].

4) Mary B. TALLEY was born October 3, 1831 [Delaware]; died August 20, 1894 [Ringgold Co. IA; married 10 Nov 1853 Michael STAHL (1831-1921)].

5) Helen TALLEY was born October 23, 1836 [Delaware]; died November 22, 1836 [Delaware].

6) Isaac Arment TALLEY was born October 23, 1836 (sic, should be August 17, 1838); died January 26, 1929.

7) Benjamin Franklin TALLEY was born January 25, 1841 [Delaware]; died September 23, 1907. [married 25 Dec 1860 Sarah Catharine KELLER (1841-1929); both interred Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Ayr]

8) Sarah E. TALLEY was born July 28, 1843 [Perry Co. OH; d. 26 Oct 1921, Diagonal IA; married 09 Feb 1860, IA to Benjamin James KELLER (1833-1905)].

Benjamin F. TALLEY devoted himself to teaching and served as postmaster in Goshen for many years. He was county recorder from 1888 to 1894. He followed the real estate and loan business being at the time of his death a member of the firm of TALLEY and LEWIS.

Isaac A. TALLEY and his wife, Nancy, were the last of the charter members of the Bethel, Goshen, Diagonal M.E. church, organized in 1856. They died thirty-four hours apart, and were buried in a double grave. They were both over ninety years old.

NOTE: Nancy Ellen (KELLER) TALLEY, wife of Isaac A., was born March 30, 1838, and died January 24, 1929. Isaac and Nancy were interred at Bethel Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa.

SOURCE:
LESAN, Mrs. B. M. Early History of Ringgold County: 1844 - 1937 Pp. 184-84. Blair Pub. House. Lamoni IA. 1937.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2010