Rossiter, William

ROSSITER, BENTON, ROWLAND, BAXTER, WARDS, HITE, RISDON, DELARM, MEESE, SPURREL, PETERSON, STOCKMAN, BELL, SPURRELL, JERGSON, DE LORME

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/14/2003 at 20:12:11

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

WILLIAM ROSSITER.

The subject of this review is one of the old and honored citizens of Washington township, his home being on section three. He was born on the 15th of March, 1819, in Somerset, England, where his parents, John and Lydia (Benton) Rossiter, spent their entire lives. In the family were ten children, three of whom came to America, these being: James, John and William.

Our subject spent the first eighteen years of his life in his native land, and then came to the new world. He first located in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the coal and iron mines until 1855, which year witnessed his arrival in Clinton county, Iowa. He and his brother purchased forty acres of land in Washington township, but at that time had no horses with which to operate it. He bought a yoke of cattle and a cow, and at once set to work to break the raw prairie with his own yoke and another he had borrowed. To his original purchase he has added until he now has one hundred and eighty acres of land, where he now resides, and by his industry and frugality he has accumulated a comfortable competence which now enables him to lay aside all business cares and spend his declining years in ease and quiet.

At DeWitt, June 21, 1856, Mr. Rossiter married Miss Melissa J. Rowland, who was born near Madison, Indiana, November 18, 1838, and is a daughter of Jesse and Matilda (Baxter) Rossiter, both natives of Kentucky, though they were married in Indiana. In 1855 the Rowland family came to Iowa and located in Waterford township, Clinton county, where the father purchased land. Later he sold that place and lived for a time in Goose Lake, but his last days were spent in Missouri, where his death occurred. His wife died in Waterford township, this county. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom six are still living, namely: Eliza Anna, wife of William Wards, of Roggs Station; Catherine, wife of Louise Hite, of Wyoming, Iowa; Nancy, wife of Watson Risdon, of Cedar Rapids; Martha, wife of Charles Delarm, of Wheeler county, Nebraska; Isaac, who married Mahala Meese, and lives in Jackson county, Iowa; and Melissa J., wife of our subject.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Rossiter were born eleven children, as follows: Betsy, born October 10, 1857, married Arthur Spurrel, and died April 7, 1884; Henry W., born February 26, 1859, died January 22, 1867; Isaac, born December 21, 1860, married Amelia Peterson, and lives in Waterford township; Charles, born April 1 6, 1862, married Lena Stockman, and resides near Spencer, Clay county, Iowa; Jesse, born August 23, 1863, married Anna Bell, and makes his home in Clay county; John T., born July 10, 1865, died October 13, 1865; Henrietta, born March 17, 1867, died December 30, 1879; Matilda, born December 25, 1868, is the wife of Arthur Spurrell, of Waterford township; James F., born January 30, 1873, married Lena Jergson, and resides near Delmar; George A., born February 21, 1877, married Delia De Lorme, and makes his home in Clay county; and Lydia, born July 26, 1878, died December 17, 1878.

Mr. Rossiter was drafted during the Civil war, but was refused on account of physical disability. Politically he is identified with the Republican party, and religiously is a member of the Methodist church at Charlotte. When he first came to this county there was but one log cabin where Charlotte now stands, and it contained the postoffice. There were only a few houses in DeWitt, while Delmar had only three. At that time Mr. Rossiter did all his trading in Clinton, and had to pay fifty dollars per thousand for lumber, one dollar per yard for bed ticking, twelve cents per yard for calico, and six and a quarter cents per pound for sugar, but was able to sell his wheat for one dollar and half per bushel. He then butchered his own hogs, killing from sixteen to twenty at one time, and after hauling them to town received only seven cents per pound. In those early days wild ducks and geese were plentiful, and deer were often seen. There were also wolves in this locality, and the family dog used to play with the same, which were quite tame in the summer.