Farnsworth, Hial A.

FARNSWORTH, FINNEY, CARPENTER, CLEVELAND, WOODRUFF

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/15/2003 at 08:59:43

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

HIAL A. FARNSWORTH.

Hial A. Farnsworth, one of the honored veterans of the Civil war, is now practically living a retired life in the village of Camanche. He was born on the 15th of March, 1837, in Wadham’s Mills, Essex county, New York, and is one of a family of six children, two now living, whose parents were Albert A. and Parmelia (Finney) Farnsworth, who were also natives of the Empire state. During his residence there the father followed the wheelwright’s trade. In 1852 he came to Iowa, and after spending three years in Le Claire, Scott county, he removed to Camanche, Clinton county, where he worked in a sawmill until the mill was burned, and then followed farming for a short time. He died in 1896, at the advanced age of eighty-one years.

The subject of this sketch was fifteen years of age when he came with his family to Iowa, and here he grew to manhood. When the country became involved in civil war he resolved to strike a blow for the Union, and enlisted in Camanche, October 3, 1861, in Company A, Sixteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, under Captain John H. Smith, who afterward became colonel of the regiment, and who is represented on another page of this volume. Our subject participated in all the engagements in which his regiment took part, including the Atlanta campaign, and was with Sherman on the memorable march to the sea. He re-enlisted and remained in the service until hostilities ceased, being honorably discharged at Davenport, July 19, 1865, after almost four years at the front.

After his return from the war, Mr. Farnsworth followed farming, and later bought forty acres of land, and also some lots for building purposes, in Camanche. He was engaged in various enterprises with good success, and is now quite well-to-do. November 3, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Carpenter, a daughter of Homer Carpenter, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work, and they became the parents of four children: Mattie, wife of W. Cleveland, a farmer of Scott county; Asa, deceased; Myra, wife of Elmer Woodruff, of Minnesota; and Minnie, at home.

Politically Mr. Farnsworth is identified with the Republican party, and his fellow citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, have called upon him to fill various township offices, including those of justice of the peace, school director and road supervisor, the duties of which offices he most capably performed. Religiously he is an earnest member of the Baptist church, and socially is a member of General N. B. Baker Post, No. 88, Grand Army of the Republic, of Clinton.