"The History of Decatur County, Iowa: 1839 - 1970"

by Himena V. Hoffman
Published by Decatur County Historical Society, Leon IA, 1970
 
Some Prominent Families, Part II, Pages 120 - 122
Transcription by Carmelita
 
Besides marriages such as these that doubly or triply united families, there were many marriages that united families long established. Henrietta Foland married Andrew Weldon, Anna Cash married George Meek, Sarah Crees married Joseph Beck, Lulu Young, daughter G. T. Young, married Frank, son of Samuel Thompson. William Blair married Martha Jordan; Mattie Garber married Ed Kemp; Katherine Flynn married Dan Griffith; Hannah Griffin married James Daughton; Michael Griffin married Jennie Grogan; Mary Martha Jan Mullin married Michael Grogan; and Mary Grogan married James McGraw. Sophronia, daughter of Jacob Warner, married a son of Robert Houston and her sister Ola married Charlie Akes. Samuel Gates married a daughter of Eli Alexander after his first wife died.

Clayton Keller, son of pioneer of importance W. R. Keller, married the granddaughter of Allan Pryor. William Young, grandson of John L. Young, married Nervesta Edwards who was born in this county in 1855.

In 1872 George Redman and his wife came to Decatur County. He had come to the United States some years earlier. After his first wife died, he returned to England to marry Louisa Fear of Somersetshire. In 1871 Robert Fear, brother of Louisa, and family had settled in Decatur County which led the Redmans to purchase land here also. In 1885 George Redman had six hundred acres of land and was making a specialty of shorthorn cattle. By the end of the century the land in the section where the Redmans settled was considered some of the best in Decatur County. The farms of the Redmans, the Binnings, and the Hembrys still have that rating.

Up at Garden Grove the Mallettes and the Manneys had settled, adding to the families of ability and high standards in that section.

In 1875 Ladislas Zinchy had come to Garden Grove. He was the son of County Zichy, Chamberlain to the Emperor, and of Countess Mary Zichy. He married Mary Knapp, daughter of the early settler. On his tombstone in the Garden Grove cemetery his coat-of-arms is carved above his name, probably the only coat-of-arms on a Decatur County monument.

Francis Bedier, born in France, came to Decatur County in 1870. In 1885 he owned a fine farm of seven hundred and forty acres in Grand River Township./p>

J. F. McMorris, who came to Decatur County in 1884, married Sutari Creveling of the well-established pioneer Creveling family. (Her father was proud that his grandfather was a big man who weighed three hundred and forty pounds and that his father weighed two hundred and forty.) Mr. McMorris raised Shropshire pigs and Hereford cattle.

Theophilus Brenizer came in 1874, and in spite of a disastrous fire on his farm in 1886, he continued to prosper.

Robert Turner, after the War was over, visited various counties in southern Iowa and northern Missouri, selecting Decatur County as the place he would live. He married a sister of Mrs. J. R. Smith and of Mrs. Tom Teale, and so was related by marriage to two influential families. In 1885 he had just built a new house.

Joshua West came to Decatur County in 1881 and by 1885 had already prospered. He later became the owner of seven hundred acres of land.

Asa Campbell, who came to Decatur County in 1869, married May Sowash of a Pennsylvania Dutch family that settled here before the civil War.

C. W. Barr, who was to become on the county's leading citizens, had bought land in Morgan Township. He came to the county in 1860.

As one reads the biographical sketches of the farmers of this period, quaint descriptive phrases and sentences give vivid pictures of men "whose praises may neer be sung."

Of Patrick O'Grady, "One whose charity never ceases, his hospitality ever open to the needy, though his acts seldom known."

C. L. Board had this tribute to his wife included in his biography: "A lady of good education and rare intelligence."

George Shaw had ten thousand fruit trees on his farm and was known as Iowa's "pear king."

Daniel Sears lived in a fine brick house and owned one thousand acres of land.

David and Asenath Shinn had been left a "competence" for their old age by a son, Otus, who died at the age of twenty-seven in Kansas after success as a lawyer, editor, and probate judge.

John Gammill not only owned a fine farm in Decatur County but two thousand acres in Nebraska. He was one of seven children of James Gammill, the early settler, who with their families, lived in Decatur County in 1885.

The family of William Hamilton was by 1885 represented by children and grandchildren.

Sam Metier now owned nine hundred acres of land.

The Baker brothers, J. F. and S. F., had prospered. J. F. continued to combine teaching, farming, and writing. In 1876 he had written a new version of "Yankee Doodle" as a centennial song. S. F., only four years younger than his brother, married fifteen years later, His son, Ralph was still at home in 1885. S. F. Baker was much interested in education and had built the first schoolhouse in the county.

Sylvanus Arnold was dead, but his widow carried on the interests he had supported so generously. Their son, Guy, who had been a Deputy U.S. Marshall during the War, carried on the family affairs and with Harriet Kellogg preserved much of the early history of Garden Grove.

Sam Hington had twenty fine dogs and hoped to kill more wolves in 1886 than any man in Decatur County.

Ignace Hainer, exile from Hungary and one-time faculty member at the University of Missouri had a good farm. While by oversight or intention no mention is made of his wife; it is recorded that his son, Dr. Julius Hainer, was a teacher at Iowa State college; another son, Eugene, was a banker, another son was a law student at the University of Chicago. One daughter was an assistant principal; one married a County superintendent.

Peter Brennaman, whose father had sold the town site of the town of Grand River to the men who established the town, had excellent farm land in Grand River township.

Other farm owners on land taken up in the years before the War, included Joseph Beavers, whose farm near High Point could stay in the family for over a hundred years, the Gammons, the Chastains, the Cashs, the Meeks, all early settlers in the same section east of Leon, good farmers whose descendants would remain in the county long after the close of the century.
 
 
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