Martin L. Capper

CAPPER, HITE, PRATT

Posted By: Marthann Kohl-Fuhs (email)
Date: 3/24/2009 at 15:25:29

MARTIN L. CAPPER, who is one of the many successful farmers and stockgrowers of Melville Township, Audubon County, Iowa, is a native of West Virginia, born in Berkley County, September 26, 1842. He is the third son of Samuel and Margaret (Hite) Capper, natives of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. They were early settlers in that part of Virginia, and followed the most honorable calling known to mankind, farming. In the early autumn of 1855 Samuel Capper removed to Iowa with his family and settled in Henry County, near the town of Trenton. There the parents again took up farming and passed the remainder of their days. The mother died in the fall of 1879, and the father in the winter of the same year. They were the parents of nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity. Martin L. passed his youthful days in Henry County, Iowa, attending the common schools and doing the ordinary farm work usually falling to a farmer's son. Besides the work he did at home he hired to the neighbors, improving every opportunity offered him for earning an honest dollar. He was united in marriage October 22, 1868, to Miss Jane Pratt, of Henry County, Iowa, the youngest daughter of Lewis and Ellen Pratt, natives of New York and New Jersey respectively. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Capper lived on a farm, and in the spring of 1877 they came to Audubon County, settling on forty acres of land in Leroy Township. In 1879 Mr. Capper traded for the eighty acres on which he now lives, in section 6, Melville Township. Here he erected the necessary buildings, broke his land, and made many good improvements, including a five acre grove, which he planted. He has been a successful farmer in all the different departments. Mr. and Mrs. Capper are the parents of seven children Flora, Anna, Ralph, Charles, John, Samuel and Alice Mary. In political belief Mr. Capper is independent, but in national matters he votes the Democratic ticket, always reserving the right of voting for the best man, irrespective of party lines. Both Mr. and Mrs. Capper are acceptable members of the Methodist Episcopal church, worshiping at present at Bethel church. Being fully absorbed in farm life and its duties, Mr. Capper never sought public office, holding no such positions, except that of school director. As one views this worthy man's lifework he can but feel that his way is the true way to live independent, free and happy, surrounded as he is by all the ordinary comforts of life, possessing the knowledge that his duty has been well performed.

1889 BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
SHELBY AND AUDUBON COUNTIES, IOWA
W. S. DUNBAR & CO., PUBLISHERS
113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO

pages 751-752