UNGER, Daniel - 1914

UNGER, FOUST, SONES, BRIDGED, JOHNSON, KNIGHT, WITTE, WILLIAMS

Posted By: VOLUTEER
Date: 6/26/2009 at 15:45:28

HISTORY OF
Cherokee County
IOWA
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1914

DANIEL UNGER.

As a business man, as a public official and in the relations of private life Daniel Unger made an excellent record so that his death left a vacancy in the circles where he was best known and where his sterling worth had won him high regard. He was a native of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, born April 6, 1841, a son of John and Elizabeth (Foust) Unger, both natives of Pennsylvania. The father was a millwright and lived there until his death. The mother died when our subject was six years of age. Daniel Unger was indebted to the public school system of that state for his educational opportunities. In early manhood he drove a stage in Pennsylvania but business cares and interests were put aside at the time of the Civil war in order that he might enlist. He became a private of Company B, Eightyfourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three years, being promoted to the position of wagon master. Following the close of the war he spent three years in the lumber business at Muncie, Pennsylvania, and in 1869 removed westward, settling in Pilot township, Cherokee county, Iowa, where he secured a homestead claim of eighty acres. He spent two years in its development and then sold the property, after which he cultivated rented land in Silver township for three years. He next purchased a farm of two hundred acres in the township and added to this as his financial resources permitted. He followed general farming and stock-raising and when he turned from agricultural pursuits he engaged in the stone business for a year.

At the expiration of that period Mr. Unger was elected sheriff of the county. He was a republican in his political views and one of the recognized local leaders of the party. At an early day he filled the office of supervisor and later received his partys nomination for the position of sheriff, to which he was elected. The excellent record which he made in that office led to his repeated reelection, so that his incumbency covered eight years. He discharged his duties fearlessly and faithfully and retired from the office as he had entered it—with the confidence and goodwill of all concerned. He then returned to the farm, whereon he resided for two years, after which he spent a year in the grocery business at Carroll, Iowa. He next opened an agricultural implement store there but after a short time returned to Cherokee, where he continued in the same business for two years. He was then again called to public office, serving for several years as supervisor. He retired, however, in 1906 and his remaining days were spent in the enjoyment of a well earned rest.

On the 28th of December, 1865, Mr. Unger was united in marriage to Miss Rosetta E. Sones, a daughter of John and Julia (Bridged Sones of Sonestown, Sullivan county, Pennsylvania. Both parents were natives of the Keystone state and the father followed farming as a life work. He was a democrat in his political faith and both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Sones were born six children: Mary, Peter, Hannah and Harriett, all now deceased; Lucinda, who is the widow of Nelson Johnson and resides in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; and Mrs. Unger, who was born at Sonestown, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1847. By her marriage she became the mother of eight children: Cora E. and Stella, who have passed away; Mary Ardella, who was the first white child born in Silver township, this county, and is now the wife of Thomas Knight of Holstein, Iowa, by whom she has three children, Vera, the wife of William Witte of Holstein and the mother of a son, Kenneth Witte, and Edna and Leah; Monroe, of Cherokee, who is married and has two children, Rex and Galen; William, of Cherokee, who is married and has two children, Lela and Marvin; Olive, who is the wife of Ray Williams of Cherokee and has a daughter, Gladys; Burton, of Cherokee, who is married and has two daughters, Alice and Irma; and Nina, who is at home with her mother.

The family circle was broken by the hand of death when the father was called from this life August 16, 1913. He wore the little bronze button of the Grand Army of the Republic, his membership being in Custer Post, No. 25. He also belonged to the Masonic fraternity and to the Methodist Episcopal church— associations which indicate much of the nature of his interests and the principles that governed his life. He traveled lifes journey for seventytwo years and the course which he followed was ever straightforward and honorable, making his example one well worthy of emulation and his memory a sacred one to his family and those who knew him.