LEVI P. WILLITS

WILLITS

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 13:49:20

LEVI P. WILLITS, of section 33, Grant township, is the owner of Lawn Field, one of the most beautiful homes in Adams county, Iowa. He came here in October, 1871, where he has since resided and made his home, and is one of the most prominent citizens of the county. He was born in Wayne county, Indiana, November 12, 1841, a son of James Monroe Willits who was also born in Wayne county, and his parents in Rhode Island. The parents had seven sons and two daughters. The mother of our subject was Sarah (Myers) Willits, a native of Ohio. The parents were married in Wayne county, Indiana, and afterward, in 1844, moved to Mercer county, Illinois, where the mother died when Levi was six years old. The father afterward married again, and is still living at the age of seventy three years. He has been a farmer all his
life, mainly grazing of late. In his political views he is a Republican.

L. P. Willits, our subject, was reared on a Mercer county farm, and received his education in the public schools of that county. During the late war he enlisted, in December, 1863, in the Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel R. J. Oglesby, and took an active part in several raids and skirmishes in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Memphis, Fort Blakely; was on patrol duty at Mobile, and also at the magazine explosion at that city. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war, after which he returned to Mercer county, and remained until 1871, when he came to this county. He first bought 120 acres of wild land, to which he has since added until he now owns
240 acres of well improved land. He has a good frame house, built in 1890, which is 16 x 26 feet, two stories high, with an L 12 x 18 feet, one story, and is surrounded by shade and ornamental trees, shrubs, groves, vineyards and orchards, all of which are laid out with artistic skill and taste. He has about twenty acres in groves and orchards. The place is a favorite resort for picnics for miles around. Lawn Field is a model and beautiful home, where the genial proprietor and his wife are blest with the comforts of life, and where hospitality is dispensed to all.

Mr. Willits was married in Mercer county, Illinois, March 16, 1871, to Miss Maria Shields, who was born in that county, a daughter of William and Lucy (Wilson) Shields, the former a native of Wayne county, Indiana, and the latter of Quincy, Illinois. The father settled in Mercer county in 1839, where he was among the pioneer settlers, and both parents are now living near New Boston, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Willits have five children—Victor B., Britt L., Dottie, Glenn and Blaine. Politically Mr. Willits is a Republican, and socially a member of the G. A. R. Post, No. 816, of which he was a charter member. His bugle calls can generally be heard on quiet evenings, and he also has a martial band of four pieces in the family. He has served as Constable, and in other offices in the county.