McNITT, Henry

MCNITT, CHAMBERLAIN, HALLETT, DAVIES, DINGMEN

Posted By: Jennifer Gunderson (email)
Date: 3/14/2021 at 20:37:02

Henry McNitt is practically retired from active life but still lives on his farm of thirty-five acres in Falls township, Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, which has been his home since 1882, when he came here from Dodge county, Wisconsin. Its good buildings and general appearance of thrift are indicative of the success that has attended his efforts, and here, surrounded by the comforts of life and with the companionship of his family, he is spending his later years.

Mr. McNitt was born in Jefferson county, New York, September 26, 1834, a son of J. W. and Julia (Chamberlain) McNitt, the former a native of New York and the latter of Connecticut. In his veins is a strain of both Scotch and German blood, his great-grand-father having been a Scotchman and his great-grandmother a native of Germany. J. W. McNitt came to Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, in 1881, and died at what is now the home of his son Henry, in August 1885, at the age of seventy-nine years. In his family were six children, of whom only two, Henry and a brother who resides at Plymouth, Iowa, are now living.

In 1847, when Henry was thirteen years of age, the McNitts moved to Wisconsin and settled in Dodge county, where he was reared and attended public school and college, and where he made his home until 1882. On December 31, 1865, in Ohio, he and Miss Jane S. Hallett were united in marriage. She is a native of Ohio, born in Fulton county in 1837, a daughter of James and Betsey Hallett, both natives of New York state. James Hallett died at his home in Ohio in 1903, at the age of ninety-seven years. He was twice married and was the father of eight children, and of this number four are now living. Mrs. McNitt having two sisters and a brother in Ohio. Her mother died in 1848, when she was eleven years of age. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. McNitt, six in number, all natives of Wisconsin, we record that Howard A. died in 1884, at the age of seventeen years and five months; Cora Luella died in Wisconsin in 1874, at the age of three years; Elmer is engaged in farming in Benson county. North Dakota; John operates the home farm; Anna, wife of L. A. Davies, of Armour, South Dakota, has seven children living, Edith, Leo, Merlin, Dorothy. John, Lewis and Orville, and one, Anna May, deceased; Edwin, on the home farm, married Delia Dingmen, and they have three daughters, Dorothy, Ruby and Lucile.

Mr. McNitt has always cast his vote with the Republican party, and at times has filled local office. The only fraternal organization to which he ever belonged was the Good Templars. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Source: WHEELER, J. H. History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. Vol. II. Lewis Publ. Co. Chicago. 1910. Transcribed by Jennifer Gunderson (Mar 2021).