COBB, John

COBB, LOCKE, SKINNER, LOPER, BANTZ, BISHEL

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/2/2014 at 13:17:42

HISTORY of CERRO GORDO COUNTY, IOWA
WHEELER, J.H. Vol. II. Pp. 654-55. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910

BIOGRAPHY ~ JOHN COBB

Among the respected citizens of Clear Lake, Iowa, living retired from active life, is John Cobb, a veteran of the Civil war. He came to Cerro Gordo county in 1870 and settled on land in Grant township, where by honest toil and good management he improved a fine farm. Here he carried on agricultural pursuits and made his home for a period of twenty-one years, until 1892, when he moved to Clear Lake, where he has since lived practically retired. In 1908 he sold his farm.

Mr. Cobb is a native of Iowa. He was born in Jackson county, near the town of Iron Hill, January 28, 1844, and is a brother of Edward Cobb, of whom and the family history mention is made elsewhere in this work. John was reared in Jackson county, and made that place his home until 1870, never being absent from home any length of time except during the Civil war. On the 6th of August, 1862, at Maquoketa, Iowa, he enlisted as a member of Company I, Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served as a private and non-commissioned officer until the close of the war. He lacked only four days of rounding out three years of army life. He was partly disabled while in the service, but was able to resume his farming operations on his return to Iowa.

On December 21, 1865, in Jackson county, Iowa, he married Miss Nancy Locke, a native of Edgar county, Illinois, born September 24, 1847, daughter of Abram and Sarah (Skinner) Locke. Her father and mother were natives respectively of Kentucky and Virginia and were members of old Southern families of English descent. Her maternal grandfather, Joseph Skinner, had to his record a service of seven years in the war of the American Revolution. In 1847 Mrs. Cobb, then a babe in arms, was brought to Iowa. The family settled on a farm in Monmouth township, Jackson county, where her parents passed the rest of their lives and died, her father dying in 1852, at the age of fifty-one years; her mother, in 1884, at the ripe age of seventy-three. Of their family of twelve children only four are now living, namely: John, of Mount Vernon, Iowa; Joseph, of Kansas; Mrs. Charlotte Loper, of Sumner county, Kansas; and Mrs. Cobb. A daughter. Mrs. John Bantz, now deceased, was formerly a resident of Cerro Gordo county. Mr. and Mrs. Cobb have never had any children of their own, but have reared three: Harry Cobb, a farmer of Lincoln township, Cerro Gordo county, who is married and has one child; Mrs. Jennie Bishel, who resides near Sheffield in Franklin county, Iowa; and Lyle, aged eighteen, at home.

Mr. Cobb has always maintained a deep interest in politics, as a loyal Republican, and has served efficiently in local office, such as clerk of Grant township and as a Clear Lake councilman, in the former office having served twelve years. He is a member of Tom Howard Post, No. 101, G. A. R., of Clear Lake, and Mrs. Cobb belongs to the W. R. C. Both attend worship at the Methodist Episcopal church.

NOTE: John Cobb died on September 11, 1929. According to her gravestone, Nancy (Locke) Cobb was born September 25, 1847. She died on May 9, 1929. They were interred at Clear Lake Cemetery, Clear Lake IA

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2014