JOHN N. RAMSAY

RAMSAY

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/21/2020 at 16:15:26

JOHN N. RAMSAY.—This prominent and influential pioneer citizen has resided in Adams county since 1855. Coming here when the country was wild, he has been an important factor in developing its resources, and is justly entitled to the success which has crowned his efforts.

Mr. Ramsay was born in Putnam county, Indiana, in November, 1832. His parents, John and Catherine (Thompson) Ramsay, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky, were married in Montgomery county, Kentucky. When John N. was six weeks old his parents returned to Kentucky, and his mother died there when he was six years old. In 1848 his father went back to Indiana, and the following year made the overland trip with mule teams to California, returning the same year. His death occurred in 1851, at the age of fifty years. By trade he was a brick mason. Of their four children three are living, namely: Georgia Ann Hamilton, of Parke county, Indiana; John N., the subject of our sketch; Margaret Boggs, of Monroe county, Iowa. James S., the oldest, died at the age of fourteen years.

John N. grew up in the rural districts of Kentucky, obtaining his education in the common schools of that State. When he was seventeen he learned the trade of carriage-painting. At seventeen he went to Putnam county, Indiana, where he lived until 1851. That year he came to Monroe county, Iowa. In 1852 he drove an ox team across the plains to California, arriving there after a four months' journey. Two years and two months he mined in the various mining districts of the Golden State, and in the winter of 1854 returned, via the Nicaragua route, New York and Chicago, to Monroe county, Iowa. In the spring of 1855 he came to Adams county, and settled on his present farm, 240 acres, in Carl township, section 15. He at first built a log cabin, 14 x 16 feet, from the humble door of which the latch-string ever hung out, and where hospitality was dispensed to both stranger and friend.

In December, 1863, Mr. Ramsay enlisted in the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteers, and with his regiment went to the front. He participated in a number of important engagements in the South, and while in Texas, at the mouth of the Rio Grande river, was taken sick with fever, and later with chronic disease. He was for a time in the hospital at San Diego, afterward at New Orleans in the Sedgwick Hospital two or three weeks, from whence he was transferred to Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, where he was honorably discharged. He then returned to his home in Adams county, and here he has since lived. His fine farm of 240 acres, located in section 15, is one of the best in Carl township. His primitive log cabin has been moved to the rear and used for a tool house, and in its place stands a modern frame dwelling, erected in 1875 and surrounded with evergreens and ornamental shrubs and shade trees, with a beautiful grove and orchard near by. Other improvements on the farm indicate the prosperity which has attended Mr. Ramsay.

February 10, 1858, he married Miss Milly Jane Scott, of Carl township, daughter of Joseph Scott, an early settler of Adams county, and Sarah C. (Perkins) Scott. Her parents were married in Kentucky, and came here in 1856. Her father died in 1876, in Carl township, and her mother now resides with her and has reached her three score years and ten. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay have four children living, viz.: Mary C., wife of Frank Mathena, of Carl township; Oliver O. is married and lives in Larimer county, Colorado; and Joseph William and Lilly Margaret are at home. They lost six children, all dying young.

Mr. Ramsay is a Republican, and in Carl township is one of the wheel horses of his party. He has been assessor and clerk, and has held other offices. He is a member of the G. A. R., Wagner Post, No. 335, and both of his sons belong to the Sons of Veterans, Volunteer Camp, No. 125, of Prescott. He and his wife and oldest daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he being a trustee of the same.