Dannatt, Thomas B.

DANNATT, BOWER, BURKINSHAW

Posted By: Volunteer Subscribers
Date: 4/4/2003 at 16:30:06

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

THOMAS B. DANNATT.

One of the most thrifty and substantial citizens of Low Moor is Thomas B. Dannatt, who is now living a retired life, enjoying the fruits of former toil. His early home on the other side of the Atlantic, for he was born in Habrough, Lincolnshire, England, September 29, 1823, his parents being Robert and Maria (Bower) Dannatt, also natives of Lincolnshire. He was the youngest in their family of nine children, three sons and six daughters, all of whom reached years of maturity, with the exception of one daughter.

Mr. Dannatt grew to manhood in his native land, and there learned the butcher business. He was married in Lincolnshire in 1847 to Miss Harriet Burkinshaw, a native of the same shire. In 1856, accompanied by his father and family, he emigrated to the new world and came direct to Clinton county, Iowa, where they joined our subject’s brother, John, who had purchased land in Camanche township. The father located in Camanche, where he spent the remainder of his life. Our subject first purchased a tract of three hundred and twenty acres of wild land one mile north of Low Moor, on which a little house, sixteen by twenty-four feet had been erected, and in this he lived while opening up his farm. During the early years of his residence here he experienced many of the hardships and privations incident to frontier life, but he steadily prospered, and is to-day the owner of a valuable farm of nine hundred and sixty acres, besides other property. A man of keen discrimination and sound judgment, his success is due to his own well-directed and energetic efforts, and the prosperity that has come to him is certainly justly merited. Purchasing a residence in Low Moor in 1887, he has since lived a retired life at that place.

Mr. and Mrs. Dannatt are the parents of seven children, four of whom are still living, namely: Robert J., a farmer of Eden township; Fred B., who lives with his parents in Low Moor; Thomas William, a farmer of Eden township; and Walter M., who operates the old home farm. Those of the family now deceased were Emma, who died in Lincolnshire, England, at the age of four years; Ann E., who died in this country during infancy; and Joseph H., who died February 18, 1889, at the age of thirty-five years, leaving three children.

While residing on the farm Mr. Dannatt operated the nine hundred and sixty acres, raising stock and corn. On moving from the farm he divided it into three farms of one-half section each and placed the needed buildings on each and which he still owns. He has one of the finest residences at Low Moor.

Politically Mr. Dannatt is a stanch Republican, having supported that party ever since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, and he has efficiently filled the office of township trustee and school treasurer. His estimable wife is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and while he is not connected with any religious organization, he attends the Methodist and Baptist churches and gives liberally to their support. He is widely and favorably known throughout his adopted county, and well merits the high regard in which he is uniformly held.