JAMES A. DAVID

DAVID

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/23/2020 at 12:45:14

JAMES A. DAVID, a prominent and well to-do early settler of Adams county, Iowa,
resides in Lincoln township. Following is a brief review of his life:

James A. David was born in Richland county, Ohio, May 3. 1843. His father, Joseph David, a native of the East, died when James was five years old. His mother, nee Martha Barnett, sister of James Barnett of this county, was born in northern Ireland, and was reared and educated in Ohio. Her death occurred in Jackson county, Illinois. Mr. David was eleven years old when he went with his mother to Illinois, and in Jackson county, that State, he grew to manhood and
received his education. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company D, Eighty-first Illinois Infantry Volunteers, and bravely did he act his part in that sanguinary struggle. He received a shot through the right hand by a minie-ball, was taken prisoner and for some time suffered untold agonies. He was subsequently exchanged, served till the close of the war, and was honorably discharged at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was paid off at Chicago and from there returned to Jackson county, Illinois, where he continued to reside until 1871. That year he came to his present location and bought eighty acres of wild land. After living on it some time he sold out and returned to Illinois, from there went to Kansas, and then back to Illinois ao-ain in 1876.
Returning to Iowa, he took back the land he had sold and has lived here ever since. He now owns 280 acres of land, all in a high state of cultivation, and has a comfortable cottage home, beautifully situated amid evergreens and shrubs, with an orchard and grove near by. His barn, outbuildings, scales, fences, etc., are all kept in good repair. From a pond on the farm water is piped into tanks for stock purposes.

Mr. David was married in 1866 to Miss Frances Teal, a most estimable lady who died three years subsequent to her marriage. His present wife, formerly Miss Ellen Holt, he wedded in 1875. She was born in Greene county, Indiana, and reared in Jackson county, Illinois, daughter of William and Mary Ann (Spence) Holt, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Northern Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. David have one son, John A., born in April, 1879. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, He is a member of the G.A. R., Llewellyn Post, Corning, Iowa. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party.