JAMES J. HAMILTON

HAMILTON

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 19:18:58

JAMES J. HAMILTON, one of the well known pioneer farmers of section 34, Nodaway township (postoffice Nodaway), was born in county Tyrone, Ireland, on March 23, 1823, the son of James and Jane (Fife) Hamilton, natives of the same county. Mr. Hamilton, our subject, was reared to
farm life in his native country. In 1841 he emigrated to the New World, sailing from Londonderry, Ireland, to St. John, New Brunswick, thence down the coast to Boston and to New York, where he obtained work on a farm. During the war he enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Sixty-eighth New York Infantry Volunteers, and served about a year, being in action in ten different States. His company went to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Yorktown and in the raid after General Lee made an attempt to enter Pennsylvania. He was honorably discharged,
and returned to his home in Orange county. New York. He lived there until 1867, and then came to Iowa and purchased eighty acres of land, where only a few acres had been broken and a log-cabin built. This constitutes a portion of his present fine farm of 160 acres, well improved and furnished with all the appurtenances, in good order, essential to a first-class, rural home. The residence is a modern frame house, 16 x 24, with L 14 x 20, and one and one-half stories
high; the barn is 16x40, and the granary 14 x 16. Native shade-trees and an orchard also grace the premises. With reference to national questions Mr. Hamilton takes Democratic views, but for local offices he votes for the “ best men.” He and his wife belong to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and are exemplary members of society, kind and hospitable to all.

Mr. Hamilton was married in Orange county, New York, at the age of thirty-five years, to Miss Sarah Jane Kelley, a worthy help-mate to her husband. She was born, reared and educated in Ireland, a daughter of James Kelley, who was killed by an accident when she was a child. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have an adopted son, named William Lawrence Hamilton.