REV. ROBERT ALLEN BIXLER

BIXLER

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 13:45:30

REV. ROBERT ALLEN BIXLER is one of the intelligent and enterprising citizens of Adams county, and an able minister of the Gospel. His father, John Bixler, who resides on section 34, Douglas township, and who is a well-known pioneer of this county, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, March 4, 1823, son of Jacob Bixler, born in Pennsylvania, son of Joseph Bixler, a native of New Jersey and a descendant of German ancestors. Jacob Bixler married Elizabeth Murray, a native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Robert and Margaret (Jackson) Murray, the former a native of the Emerald Isle. They had a family of nine children, whose names are as follows: Mary Noris, of Owen county, Indiana; John and Charles, both of Douglas township, this county; Robert, of Coshocton county, Ohio; Joseph, of Montgomery county, Iowa; Margaret Aldridge, deceased; Jacob, Carl township, this county; William, Quincy township, this county, and Lydia Homan, who died in Greene county, Kansas. The grandparents of our subject resided for a number of years in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, near New Philadelphia, and from there, in 1857, they came to Iowa and settled in Douglas township, Adams county, where they passed the rest of their lives, grandmother Bixler dying at the age of sixty-one years and the grandfather at seventy-one.

John Bixler was nine years old when his parents moved to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and there he was reared on a farm and received a common-school education. In 1853 he moved to Owen county, Indiana. In 1854 he came to Adams county, Iowa, and settled in Quincy township; thence to Nodaway township, and next to Jasper township, where he was in the sawmill business at Brooks for a time. In 1874 he settled on the eighty-acre farm where he now lives.
He was married in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, November 26, 1846, to Savilla Ann Markley, who was born in Harrison county, Ohio, January 25, 1827, daughter of Jacob and Margaret (Wallace) Markley, natives of Washington county, Pennsylvania. Her parents came to Appanoose county, Iowa, in 1855, and died there, the father at the age of eighty years, and the mother seventy. Their family consisted of six children: Savilla Ann, John, Mary Ann, Harriette, Joseph and Margaret A. John and Savilla Bixler have ten children living, namely: Hon. Burr F. Bixler, who has served two terms in the State Legislature, South Dakota; Elizabeth J., wife of H. Coleman; Mary Louisa, wife of E. L. Hoyt, of Douglas township, this county; Robert Allen, whose name heads this sketch; Isabelle, wife of Jacob Markley, of Kansas; Jacob T., of Spink county, South
Dakota; Lydia F., who is the wife of W. H. Walton, of Beadle county, South Dakota; Lilly S., deceased, who was the wife of Charles C. Strait; John M., who is now elected Superintendent of Schools of Adams county; Charles K.; Efiie May Margaret, who died at the age of fifteen months, in Owen county, Indiana; and William, who died in infancy. John Bixler has served the
public as Township Trustee and also as Justice of the Peace. In politics he is a Republican; in religion a member of the Christian Advent Church, and an elder in the same. He has given his children the benefit of good educational advantages, and most of them have been teachers.

R. A. Bixler was born in Nodaway township, Adams county, Iowa, February 5, 1857, and was reared on a farm in his native county, receiving his education in the common schools. Not only at school, but also at home he closely applied himself to his studies, and at the age of eighteen he engaged in teaching. In 1881 he settled on his present farm in Douglas township. This was then wild land. By the aid of his well directed efforts it has been developed into a tine farm, with good buildings, fences, etc. March 27, 1878, in Mercer township, this county, at the home of Joseph Monosmith, Mr. Bixler wedded Miss Helen E. Strait, an efficient teacher and a lady of rare accomplishments. She was born, and reared to the age of sixteen, in Medina county, Ohio, when she moved and finished her schooling in Summit county, that State. Her parents, Joel V., who was the son of Rev. Asa Strait, a Baptist minister, and one of the early pioneers of Medina county, and preached the first sermon in that county, and Elizabeth (Swartz) Strait, were natives respectively of Washington county, New York, and Easton, Pennsylvania. Her mother died in Ohio, aged forty-two years, and her father subsequently came to Lincoln township, Adams county, Iowa, where he died at the age of sixty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Bixler have eight children, viz: Sydney A., Helen E., Olive Jane, Burr A. L., Ruth Alice, Ora Isabelle, Florence S. and Pearl May. They lost one by death, Edith, at the age of nine months and five days. Mr. Bixler is a Republican, and is actively identified with the best elements of his party. As a minister of the Gospel he is an earnest and enthusiastic worker for his Master. He has three charges in Montgomery county, namely, Arlington, Reed Schoolhouse and Robinson Schoolhouse. Such is an epitome of one of Adams counties worthy citizens.