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ALLEN LOVE.
One of the few citizens of Delaware county remaining of the
original old settlers is Allen Love, who located on part of the
present town site of Manchester in the fall of 1852. Mr. Love is
a native of Scotland, having been born in the city of Glasgow on
the twenty-second of April, 1813. He came to America in 1852,
and shortly afterwards settled in this county, having therefore
resided here now nearly forty years. He has witnessed all the
changes which have marked the progress and development of his
adopted home since it has had a history, and as an humble and
unpretentious citizen he has contributed his share to the
patient labor that has brought about many of these changes. The
space his biography occupies in this volume is worthily filled.
Being a Scotchman by birth, Mr. Love also comes of Scotch
ancestry; a descendant he is of that hardy, tenacious, thrifty,
intelligent people who have poured a steady stream of warm, rich
blood into the great current of American life from the earliest
times. His ancestors lived for generations about Glasgow and
filled various industrial, official and other positions, such as
their talents and energies raised them to in that land where,
happily, talent and energy are as much appreciated as in this "
land of the free." His parents, Allen and Catherine Love,
always resided in Glasgow, which was also their birth place, and
there, too, they died. Not the least of their services to their
country was their giving to it five well born and well trained
children, most of whom now, however, after filling their
positions in life creditably to themselves, have died, only two
surviving, these being the two youngest, Alien and Agnes, the
three oldest, John and Graham dying in the place of their birth,
Robert dying in Minnesota, U. S.
Alien Love, the subject of this notice, was reared in the place
of his nativity and there married in 1836, taking to share his
life's fortunes one of his own fair country women, Miss
Elizabeth Oliver, who was born in the city of Edinburgh and is a
descendant of Scotch ancestry, being a daughter of Thomas and
Jane (Dictson) Oliver, natives of Scotland. Learning the
trade of a tailor in his youth, Mr. Love followed it for a
number of years in Glasgow, and was doing a large and prosperous
business when he decided to leave there and come to America. He
came, as we have noted, to Delaware county in 1852. At that time
this country was almost a prairie and forest wilderness, and so
uninviting was it to those who had been reared in a densely
populated city, where, on every hand were the many evidences of
advanced civilization that no one, certainly not the subject of
this sketch, foresaw the greatness of its future or indeed
strongly believed in it. Mr. Love's first step on locating in
the county was to purchase a tract of land consisting of three
hundred and twenty acres, on part of which the town of
Manchester now stands. This he purchased of a Norwegian named
Emerson, and locating on it he set about in an industrious way
to make for himself a home.
The place which he bought had a log cabin, twelve by sixteen, on
it, and this is still standing, being the oldest building in the
vicinity. In the spring of 1853 the town of Manchester was
projected and Mr. Love sold half of his homestead to James Dyer,
who laid out the new town and conducted it through the first
steps of its growth. What the town of Manchester now is, every
one at all familiar with the history of northeast Iowa, knows.
It is not the purpose of this article to speak further of it. It
will be quite proper, however, to say in this connection that
Mr. Love became early identified with its interests and bore an
active and conspicuous part in building it up, selling the town
site in the first instance for a small consideration and helping
by his own personal exertions to secure immigration and
different industries for its improvement. As his means would
allow he improved his own real estate in the new town, building
homes for those who sought homes here, and thus adding also to
the public convenience and public revenue. In the promotion of
the school and church interests and the founding of those social
organizations which contribute to the peace and welfare of
society, and to the building up of home life, he has also done
all that could be expected of a good citizen.
Although now well advanced in years, Mr. Love still retains a
lively interest in the affairs of the prosperous little city
which he has seen grow up around him, and although he has made
no noise about the part he has taken in its growth, there is
probably not another man in it who feels more warmly towards it
or wishes it greater good fortune in the future than he does. He
has been drawn towards it by long residence and participation in
its struggles. Here also reside many of the friends of his early
manhood; here were the scenes of his first activities in the new
world ; and more than all, here is where his children have grown
up and begun, under his supervision and with the aid of his
kindly counsel, the same life struggle, only on a modified
scale, through which he has passed. Mr. Love has been married
now for more than a half a century and the wife of his youth
still abides with him, having borne him a faithful and
affectionate companionship during all these years. This union
has been blessed with four children, only two of whom, however,
are now living, a daughter, Jane, now wife of William McIntosh,
of Manchester, a sketch of whom appears in this work, and a son,
Robert, now residing also in Manchester.
Mr.
and Mrs. Love are both members of the Presbyterian church,
having been brought up in the teachings of that faith and having
led lives consistent with their professions even down to serene
and happy old age, rendered doubly so possibly by reason of that
faith.
Mr.
and Mrs. Love have made two visits to their native country since
they came to the United States. |
