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A[lbert]. T. EDWARDS, now retired from active life and residing at Vinton, is a veteran of the Civil war. He was born in Brown county, Ohio, September 2, 1840, and is a son of James and Nancy (Richmond) Edwards. James Edwards was born January 6, 1800, near Maysville, Kentucky, and moved with his parents to Ohio when a boy. His father, George Edwards, had been a colonel of militia in Ohio, and owned some two thousand acres of land in Brown county. He was an extensive dealer in race horses. George Edwards was born in Virginia, and was a son of Jonathan Edwards, who was kidnapped and brought to this country from Scotland; he served twenty-one years, and on obtaining his freedom revisited his native country, but soon afterward returned to Virginia. George Edwards lived in Brown county, Ohio, until his death, at the age of a little over ninety-nine years and nine months. He served three terms in the Ohio legislature. James Edwards lived on his farm of two hundred and forty acres for some time, but later sold it and invested in a tanyard, which he conducted until his death, August 3, 1882. His wife was born, July 27, 1802, in Clermont county, Ohio, and her parents were farmers; she lived at the home farm until her death, February 24, 1848. James Edwards and his wife were both members of the Christian church.
James Edwards and his wife were parents of thirteen children, of whom three survive, namely: John D.; A. T., of Peoria, Illinois; and Maggie, a minister of the Christian church at Rockport, Missouri. The others resided in Ohio until their deaths, except one sister of A. T. Edwards, who recently passed away at his home.
A. T. Edwards was reared in Brown county, and there received his education. He enlisted, in 1862, in Company D, Seventh Ohio Cavalry, attached first to Stoneman's Corps and later to the Twenty-third Cavalry Corps. He participated in the engagements at Summerset, Kentucky; Cynthiana, Kentucky; in Burnside's expedition in east Tennessee; Carter's Raid in West Virginia; battle of Bald Hill; battles of Franklin; Burnside's Siege at Knoxville, and Nashville; Dalton, Georgia; and in many other important engagements and helped drive Hood back from Atlanta to Nashville. The last engagement was near Andersonville. He received no serious injury except to his eyes, and was mustered out July 3, 1865, at Nashville and discharged there.
Mr. Edwards resumed farming at the close of the war, and in the fall of 1865 located in Benton county, Iowa, three miles southeast of Vinton, in Taylor township. He carried on this farm until the fall of 1908. He has sold his farm and has erected a home on Elm street in Vinton, just south of the depot.
Politically Mr. Edwards has always been a staunch supporter of the Republican party. He served as township clerk and as a justice of the peace, and then served twenty-four continuous years as township clerk. He is a prominent member of P. M. Coder Post, No. 98, Grand Army of the Republic, and Mrs. Edwards was for years a member of the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his wife are members of the Christian church, in which he has been an elder the past five years.
Mr. Edwards married, in August, 1865, Martha J. Brewer, born in 1847, in Johnson county, Indiana; her parents were from Kentucky, and early residents of Indiana. Mrs. Edwards lived in her native county until her marriage. Mr. Edwards and his wife became parents of eleven children, of whom nine survive, namely: Annie C., wife of S. T. Whipple, of Taylor township; Cora Ellen, wife of O. C. Spaulding, of Taylor township; Katie, wife of C. A. Johnson, a mail carrier of Vinton; Scott, a farmer of Eden township, married Lola Bell; Ethel, wife of John Tumelty, of Canton township; Josephine, wife of George Reichard, in the dry goods business at Marion, Iowa; Maggie, Mrs. McName, living in Tama county, Iowa; Jennie M., wife of Earl Race, of Dixon, Illinois; and Walter A., employed in Vinton and living at home. James Ernest died in infancy, and Everett, the oldest child, died at the age of seven years.
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