HON. EDMUND HOMAN

HOMAN

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/21/2020 at 16:32:54

HON. EDMUND HOMAN, an early settler of Adams county, residing on section 25, Washington township (post office Mt. Etna), was born in Johnson county, Kentucky, March 6, 1827. His father, Mark Homan, was a native of Virginia, of Welsh extraction, a farmer, a soldier of the war of 1812, for a time a Justice of the Peace and for several years a member of the county Board. After his marriage he moved to Kentucky and some years afterward to Indiana, in 1827, settling in Putnam county, where he resided until his death, at the age of eighty-six years. He was clerk of the Baptist Church for many years, and was widely and favorably known. His wife, nee Nancy Burson, also a devout member of the Baptist Church, passed from this life in 1837. These parents had six sons and one daughter.

The gentleman whose name heads this sketch, the sixth in order of birth in the above family, set out in life for himself when of legal age, taught school several years, attended Wabash (Indiana) College several terms, and came to Iowa in 1855, settling on a farm of 120 acres, which had been entered from the Government the preceding year, since which time he iias added by further purchases 218 acres. He is nicely located ten miles from Corning, and has many of the surroundings which indicate thrift, comfort and a happy home. His residence, 26 x 28 feet in dimensions, is one and a half stories high. He has an orchard of 160 trees, which is one of the oldest orchards in this part of the township. His principal crops are corn, wheat, oats and hay, more than half the farm being now in meadow.

Mr. Homan was the first county Superintendent of Schools of this county. During the first year of his term of office there were but sixteen teachers in the county and two schoolhouses. For four years he was also a member of the county Board of Commissioners, and during his term in that office the county seat was moved from Quincy to Corning. In 1879 he was elected a Representative to the Eighteenth General Assembly of this State, where he served on several committees, and took such part as he was able in the debates and proceedings of the House.
He is now the clerk of the Baptist Church at Mt. Etna, of which religious denomination he has been a consistent member for twenty years. In politics he has been independent, generally voting for the best man.

He was married in 1856, in Indiana, to Miss Caroline E., daughter of Joseph M. and Jane Ramsey, of Parke county, Indiana, and they have had eleven children, namely: Laura J., wife of E. M. Chame, a farmer of Adams county, has two children,—Effie M. and Martha E.; Sarah E., now Mrs. S. W. Cooper of Carl township, having four children,—Weaver, Prentiss, Walker and
Anna; Horace G., who married Miss Jennie Hale, and resides in Carl township; James W., engaged with H. G. on the farm; Al¬ bert, following farming; Henry, employed at Des Moines; Oscar and Dora, at home. Three children died in early childhood.