ISAAC O. MEANS

MEANS

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 17:20:18

ISAAC O. MEANS.—This gentleman is one of the worthy citizens of Adams county and is justly deserving of biographical mention on these pages. Briefly, an outline of his life is as follows:

Isaac O. Means was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, August 6, 1821, son of William and Sarah (Evans) Means. William was a son of John Means, a soldier of the war of 1812. The father of Sarah Means, Samuel Evans, dropped dead at the breakfast table, of heart disease. His wife died in 1851. William Means and his wife had eleven children, namely: William C., Samuel B., who was instantly killed in a runaway, aged about fifty years; Robert G., who died at the age of sixty-five; John H.; Elizabeth, Mrs. C. Hall, who died at the age of forty; James J.; Isaac O., the subject of our sketch; Mary M., Mrs. James Steward, deceased at the age of thirty; Amanda M., Mrs. S. Long, deceased at thirty-two; Charles B., who died at the age of four years; and Sarah, at the age of two years. Charles and Sarah and their father all died the same week, in August, 1830.

Isaac O. left Kentucky with his parents in 1830 and went to Jefferson county, Indiana, where the parents and two children sleep side by side. In that county, February 17, 1845, Mr. Means wedded Susan Snider, and their union has been blessed with eleven children, as follows: William F., who died at the age of two years; James S., a sketch of whom follows this; Sarah C., who died in the bloom of young womanhood, aged sixteen years; Mary J., Mrs. Oliver Cooper; George R., Isaac B, Daniel P., Amanda M., who died at the age of four years; Thorison W., Zoa A., Mrs. Simpson Robison, and Melvin A.

In 1855 Mr. Means moved from Indiana to Missouri; thence a year later to Henry county, Iowa; seven years afterward to Warren county, Illinois; thence to Missouri again; two years later to Nebraska; in 1880 to Adams county, Iowa, where he has since resided.

Mr. Means is a member of the State Alliance, generally votes the Democrat ticket, and he and his wife are both worthy members of the Evangelical church. In the Means home is found that generous hospitality which characterized their Kentucky ancestors.