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WILLIAM H. CONNELL, a representative farmer of
Delaware township, Delaware county, is a native of Leeds,
Yorkshire, England, and comes of old English stock, his
ancestors having resided in Yorkshire as far back as any
records or family tradition give an account of them. His
father was the Rev. John Connell, born March 25,1804, in
Yorkshire, being one of seven children of Benjamin and
Tamar (Burnley), Connell. John Connell married Elizabeth
Dixon, March 25, 1825; entered the ministry of the
Methodist church about the same date; immigrated to
America in 1832, and settled at Waterloo, Seneca county,
N. Y., where he resided for some years engaged in
ministerial labors; moving in 1844 to Walsingham, Norfolk
county, Canada, and thence, in 1857, to Parkersburg,
Butler county, Iowa, and ten years later to Lawrence
county, Mo.; returning in 1880 to Parkersburg, where he
spent the remainder of his life, dying near that place
while on a visit to relatives, March 16,1889. He spent
almost his entire life actively engaged in the ministry of
the church, and was a powerful means in the hands of his
Master in the spread of the truths of the gospel. He first
joined the primitive Methodist church, and was licensed to
preach by its authority; but after coming to America, in
1843, he was active in the secession movement, out of
which came the Weslyan Methodist Church of America, being
one of the delegates that attended the Utica convention
and took part in the organization of the present Weslyan
Methodist Church of America; and when the first conference
of that denomination was held at Syracuse, he was one of
the twenty-three ministers who were ordained by the Revs.
Orange Scott, Luther Lee and L. C. Matlock to preach under
the authority of the new organization. He was an itinerant
minister and carried the tidings |
of salvation to suffering men
and women in widely scattered regions, performing his labors
amid great hardships and privations, and often at the risk of
his own life and health. He was a pioneer preacher in all the
localities where he served, and the duties which were imposed
upon him by reason of his position and relation to his church
were throughout life of a most exacting nature. Among the people
of Parkersburg and vicinity, this state, he is most pleasantly
remembered, many of whom among the older citizens have sat under
the sound of his voice and listened to him expound the truths of
the scriptures, receiving enlightenment from his expositions and
spiritual strength from his counsel and encouraging words. He
organized the first Methodist Episcopal church in Beaver Valley
circuit, and labored zealously for many years for its success.
Parkersburg is now a part of it. He carried with him, to that
beautiful land toward which he had so long pointed the bright
and shining way, the genuine esteem, the sincere love and
affection of all who knew him, or knew of his valuable services
in behalf of his fellow men and the cause of Christianity.
Our subject's mother, Elizabeth (Dixon) Connell, was a daughter
of John and Susan (Dyson) Dixon, natives of Yorkshire, England,
where they always resided, and where, after long lives of
activity and usefulness they died. The father was a minister of
the Wesleyan Methodist church, a zealous worker in his church as
well as in the cause of Christianity. Our subject's mother
followed the fortunes of her husband to America, and bore him a
faithful and affectionate companionship through all his labors
and the changing scenes of his career up to the time of her
death, which occurred January 7, 1864. The Rev. John and
Elizabeth Connell were the parents of ten children, four of whom
are now living, and six deceased, four of the deceased ones
dying in infancy. The eldest child, a daughter, Susan, is now
the wife of William Wright, a farmer residing in Parkersburg,
Butler county, Iowa. William H., the subject of this notice, is
the next. Benjamin, a farmer residing near Seattle, in the newly
made State of Washington, is the third. The fourth is Elizabeth
B., wife of Stephen J. Oliver, a farmer residing near Attica,
Harper county, Kans. The two deceased ones who reached any age
were John, who died at the age of two years on the passage to
America in 1832, and James, who died at the age of twelve at
Walsingham, Ontario, Canada.
William H., with whose personal history the remainder of this
notice will be taken up with, was born November 29, 1832. He
was, therefore, only a child when his parents came to America.
He was reared partly in
Waterloo, Seneca county, N. Y., and partly in Walsingham,
Norfolk county, Province of Ontario, Canada. He grew up on the
farm and received a fair English education. He came to Iowa with
his parents in 1857 and located at Parkersburg, Butler county.
He was then a comparatively young man, and had saved some money
from his labor, having at that time about $160 in cash, which
he, immediately on locating, invested in public lands, buying
forty acres, on part of which the present town of Parkersburg
now stands. After a short residence there he went to Alden, in
Hardin county, this state, where he remained for about two
years. Returning then to Parkersburg, he settled on his farm and
resided there, engaged in agricultural pursuits till 1868, when
he traded his farm for one in Delaware county, being the
southeast, quarter of section 13, Delaware township, to which he
moved and where he has since resided. He has added to his
original holding by purchase until he now owns two hundred and
twenty-nine acres lying on the north line of Delaware and on the
south line of Clayton counties. He has been actively engaged
during all these years in farming and stock raising, and it is
but fair to say that he has attained to more than ordinary
success. Mr. Connell has been identified with the best interests
of the several localities where he has resided since coming to
Iowa, always taking an active part in everything looking to the
advancement of the material, social, educational and religious
welfare of his community. While residing in Butler county he
held the offices of assessor and trustee of his township, and
while a resident of Parkersburg, Butler county, was engaged
during the winters of several years in teaching in the local
schools of the place. Connecting himself with the Wesleyan
Methodist church at the age of eleven, and going from that to
the Methodist Episcopal church shortly afterwards, and from that
to the Second Adventist church, in 1858, of which he has since
remained a member, he may be said to have spent his entire life
from the age of discretion in the service of the church, taking
a leading part as a lay member, and giving to the doctrines and
principles of those organizations, to which he has belonged,
much earnest consideration as well as a practical support in
their broader views and more catholic purposes. There is
probably no man in the limits of Delaware county who has done as
much for the Sunday schools of that county, and indeed for the
Sunday-schools' interest of northeast Iowa, as Mr. Connell.
Regarding the Sunday school as the cradle of the church and the
church as the ark of safety for society, he has labored
zealously in founding new schools over the county, and in
maintaining an efficient organization where they have already
been started. He has held a number of official positions in
connection with the Sunday schools and churches, the duties of
which he has discharged with fidelity. He is the present
secretary of the North Iowa Second Adventist Conference. Mr.
Connell is an enthusiastic prohibitionist and has given a large
share of his labors to the suppression of the vice of
intemperance.
March 20, 1853, our subject married Miss Ruth Siprell, of
Walsingham, Ontario, Canada, this lady having been born in
Oxford, that province, October, 19, 1833, being a daughter of
William and Caroline (Gray) Siprell, natives of New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia, respectively. One child was born to this union,
a son: John S., who was born in Walsingham, March 8, 1854. Mr.
Connell had the misfortune to lose his wife in November, 1854.
He married again January 28, 1857, taking as his second wife
Miss Clarinda Alden, then of Alden, Hardin county, Iowa. This
lady was born in Conway, Mass., May 5, 1834, and was a daughter
of Henry and Hannah
(Richmond) Alden, both natives of Massachusetts, the father
being a descendant of John Alden, one of the pilgrims who came
over in the Mayflower. The parents came to Iowa in 1855 and
settled in Hardin county, the town and township of Alden in that
county being named for him. The father and mother both died
there in the home of their adoption. The fruit of Mr. Connell's
second marriage was four children: Henry A., Oscar E., Susan D.
and Clara, all of whom are now deceased. Henry A. and Clara died
in infancy. Oscar E. was born in Parkersburg, Iowa, in 1859,
became grown, married Mattie J. Miller, of Delaware county, and
died in the same county in 1889. Susan D. was born in
Parkersburg in 1861, became the wife of Dwight Bushnell, of
Delaware county, and died in 1885. Mr. Connell lost his second
wife March 7, 1866. He married again September 9, 1866, taking
to wife Miss Harriet E. Alden, a sister of his former companion;
the last wife being a native of Conway, Mass., born March 20,
1844. This union has resulted in the birth of six children:
Grace E., born October 28, 1868, and died January 22, 1889; Amy
B., born April 3, 1871; Bertha S., born July 15, 1873; Ray W.,
born January 24, 1876; Willie A., born August 30, 1878, and
Myrtle L., born January 4, 1885. |
