Shade, Jeremiah

SHADE, MARTIN, MILLAR

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/25/2006 at 15:47:28

SHADE, JEREMIAH

Jeremiah Shade was born September 11, 1828, on a farm eighteen miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were George and Hannah Shade. Germans, who at the time of his birth each had children by a former marriage -- the father five, and the mother one. "Jerry" was the oldest of the thirteen, making a family of nineteen. Located three and one-half miles over the mountain from the district log school house with only a six months' school during the winter, his education was neglected.

When eight years of age he began to work out -- the first year for two suits of tow clothing, one pair of cowhide boots and four months' schooling. Following his father's trade, that of a cooper, when twenty years of age he had saved fifty dollars in gold. With this and a change of tow clothing, the product of his mother's industry and loom, and a pair of homemade shoes tied in a bundle attached to a hickory cane thrown over his shoulder, "Jerry" footed it over the hills to Pittsburg. From this point he worked his passage down the Ohio river to Cairo, thence up to Peoria, Illinois, where he found employment at his trade, soon earning and saving sufficient money to help his father and the family to move out to this new Eldorado.

November 8, 1849, in the town of Lancaster, Illinois (now Glassford,) he married Miss Mary Isabella M. Martin, then in her sixteenth year, a native of Perry County, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of Nathaniel and Rebecca Martin. Mr. Martin was an Irishman by birth, born in Cork, Ireland.

Mrs. Martin was Scotch and Welsh, a native of Pennsylvania. To this union were born ten children, to-wit: Hannah R., born at Lancaster, Illinois, April 30, 1851; Robert A., born at Lancaster, Illinois, February 17, 1853; Jeremiah E., born at Lancaster, Illinois, October 4, 1854; Harriet A., born at Towanda, Illinois, May 27;, 1857; Mary L., born at Towanda, Illinois, July 16, 1859; Seymour E., born at Hickory Grove, Iowa, December 10, 1861; Charles G., born at Hickory Grove, Iowa, March 29, 1865; Ostor B., born at Hickory Grove, Iowa, February 18, 1867; Harry F., born at Hickory Grove, Iowa, July 16, 1873.

Five of the above have passed on before, to-wit: Harriet A., died at Towanda, Illinois, March 1, 1858; Robert A., died at Hickory Grove, Iowa, April 8, 1873; Harry F., died at Hickory Grove, Iowa, August 22, 1873; Emma M., died at Rock Rapids, Iowa, May 8, 1883; Ostor B., died at Cherokee, Iowa April 13, 1900.

In 1853, he bought eighty acres of timbered land near Lancaster, (now Glassford), Illinois, clearing and tilling sixty acres of the same. From this time until the fall of 1860 he bought and sold land and moved from one farm to another, in Peoria and McLean counties, Illinois.

The financial crisis of 1857 found him over $10,000 in debt -- mostly upon unimproved land near Towanda, Illinois. This indebtedness he cancelled by surrendering the titles to the land purchased.

In the fall of 1860 he loaded his family, -- wife and four children, and household effects into a wagon and emigrated to Delaware county, Iowa, settling at Hickory Grove. Purchasing a fifty-acre home, he farmed in crop season, and coopered at odd times and during the winter months.

When the Civil war broke out he soon became an active member of the Republican party, continuing in the faith until death. On account of his large family he did not consider it his duty to enlist and go the front, but did assist the families of those who did, to over $1,000, of means he and his family acquired, mostly by hard labor.

In the spring of 1874 he again emigrated to this (Lyon) county, with his family, arriving in Rock Rapids May 23d. At this time he was the owner of 1.440 acres of Lyon County soil, and a few days after his arrival further added to his holdings by purchasing the southeast quarter of section 5, township 99. range 45. immediately adjoining Rock Rapids on the south-west.

In the fall of 1874, mainly through his efforts, the Rev. J.W. Rigby organized the First Methodist class in Lyon County. Mr. Shade had been converted to the German Evangelical faith in Delaware county, in 1861. The class were himself, wife, and daughter, Hannah. Mrs. M.S. Thompson being the first probationer and he was made leader, the first regular service being held by the Rev. Rigby Sunday, November 8, 1874, at 11 a.m. Rev. L. Hartsough, stationed at Sioux Falls, was the first presiding elder in charge.

October 12, 1875, he was elected county treasurer, taking the oath of office January 1, 1876, continuing in this position as the almost unanimous choice of the people, three terms, or until January 1, 1882. In 1879, Mr. Shade was made chairman of the building board of Rock Rapids Methodist Episcopal church, the first erected in the county.

On May 17, 1880, at the first meeting of the board of directors of the Bank of Rock Rapids he was elected its president, this institution being on the 17th day of April, 1884, merged into the First National Bank of which he was retained as president. This was the first national bank organized in the county. He was succeeded in this position by B.L. Richards, January 12, 1886.

The great sorrow of his life occurred April 25, 1886, when his wife of his youth and mother of his children was stricken with paralysis and passed away in a few hours. From this time on during the remainder of his life, his devotion to the religion of his choice, and desire to assist his fellows in every good word and work, increased as the years sped by.

After nearly thirty-seven years of wedded life, the loss of her whom the family, as well as many friends and neighbors affectionately called mother, and his love of a home life left him like a ship afloat without a rudder. Naturally of a self-reliant disposition this desire to have a home he could call his own, led him to wed Miss Levisa S. Millar, at Indianola, Iowa, August 27, 1889, who survives him. She proved a faithful consort and helper, assisting in many ways to lighten the burden of his declining years.

After giving his children during life goodly sums, assisting them to get a start in life, he left by will a comfortable fortune to his widow and children, equitably distributed. Many old settlers of Lyon County were objects of his neighborly benefactions and remember him as a man of integrity andmoral worth.

In early life he became a member of the Masonic fraternity.

Jeremiah Shade died at Larchwood, Iowa, Sunday, September 14, 1901, aged seventy-three years, three days. Short funeral services were held at the family residence and the following Tuesday the remains were conveyed to the Methodist Episcopal church at Rock Rapids, where Dr. Emory Millar, of Indianola, Iowa, (a brother-in-law by marriage), assisted by W.J. Carr, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, Rock Rapids, and Rev. G.H. Croker, pastor of the First Congregational church of Larchwood, conducted the services. Rev. Millar took as a basis for his remarks, the thought "Why does it pay a man to lead a good life?" At the close of the service at the church a large concourse of old neighbors, early settlers, friends and acquaintances of the deceased and family, followed the remains to the beautiful cemetery south of town, where after a few well chosen remarks by Rev. A.H. Bryan, pastor of his home church, his mortal remains were laid to rest in the family lot, beside those of his mother. Peace to his ashes, and may his life and example continue through all time to wield an influence to assist in the up-building of the human race.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson