SLOAN, William

SLOAN, AKEMAN, HADLEY, DAVIS

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/18/2003 at 23:11:21

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

WILLIAM SLOAN.

The subject of this sketch is one of the oldest settlers of Clinton county and an honored citizen of Delmar. He was born in Pennsylvania on the 22d of October, 1823, and a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Akeman) Sloan, natives of Ireland and Pennsylvania, respectively. The father died in the Keystone state when our subject was quite small and the mother removed to Canada with her family when he was three years old. There the following nine years were passed, during which time he began his education in the public schools of the Dominion. The family lived one winter in Michigan after leaving Canada, and then removed to Illinois, where they spent two years, at the end of which time they came to Iowa.

In September, 1838, when fifteen years of age, Mr. Sloan crossed the Mississippi river and located in Lyons, Iowa. He made the journey on foot and alone, attended only by his faithful dog. He was first employed as a teamster by Elijah Buell, and also took care of stock and did general farm work for three years. About this time his brother John came to Lyons from Wisconsin, and being a wagon maker our subject learned the trade with him.

Mr. Sloan was married on the 1st of January, 1850, to Miss Jerusha Hadley, who was born in Ohio. He then purchased a quarter section of land at Almont, which was wild and unimproved, but he soon placed it under cultivation. At the end of two years, he sold that place and bought another quarter section, four miles southwest of his first farm, but only resided thereon for one year, when he sold out and returned to Lyons, resuming work at his trade. In 1879 he removed to Boone, Iowa, where he followed farming five years, and at the end of that time we again find him in Lyons, where he was employed in the wagon works for a year. In 1885 he came to Delmar and opened a wagon shop, which he has since carried on with good success.

Mr. Sloan’s first wife died March 14, 1860, and was laid to rest in the Miller cemetery between Lyons and Almont. He was again married, October 17, 1862, his second union being with Miss Minerva Hadley, a sister of his former wife. She is a native of Ohio.

There were five children born of the first marriage, but George, who is married and lives in Helena, Montana, and William are the only ones now living. Those deceaased were Mary and two who died in infancy. The children by the second union were John, who married and is now a railroad conductor in Texas; two, who died when young; Essie, wife of Clark Davis, of Delmar; and Minnie Clara, a teacher of Delmar.

Politically Mr. Sloan is a supporter of the Republican party, and religiously is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Delmar. He is an Ancient Odd Fellow, and is one the representative citizens of his community. Through the sixty-three years of his residence here he has become widely know, and his many excellent traits of character have gained him the high regard of many friends. On the rolls of Clinton’s most honored pioneers his name should be found among the foremost.