PRYOR, Allen

PRYOR, JOHNSTON, NEWMAN, BOOTON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/19/2014 at 04:59:16

Biography ~ Allen Pryor

"Biographical and Historical Record of
Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa"
(Lewis Publishing Company (1887)), pp. 570-575:

ALLEN PRYOR, one of the most prominent and influential of Decatur County pioneers, resides on section 19, of Garden Grove Township. In contemplating on the past and reviewing what has been achieved by the citizens of the county, we find that no one has done more to make it what it is – one of the most prosperous counties in Iowa – than ALLEN PRYOR, and a history of the county and a record of its citizens would be incomplete did not contain some mention of him. Hence for the benefit of coming generations as well as for the pleasure of the present, we give a brief sketch of his life. He is the native of Mason County, Virginia, born August 24, 1823, a son of LUKE and FRANCES (JOHNSTON) PRYOR. When he was seven years of age his parents moved to Crawford County, Ohio, where the father died in 1831 and the mother in 1832. After the death of his parents he was bound out to a tanner, and served as an apprentice about five years, receiving for his services his board and clothes and the happy privilege of attending school about three months. When fifteen years of age he went to work for a farmer, and the first year received $6 a month, the second year having his wages increased to $7 a month. At the end of his second year he was employed by a man and driving then from Illinois across the Alleghanies, remaining with him a year he was employed by a man named COPE to assist him in buying cattle and driving then from Illinois across the Alleghanies, remaining with him and receiving $10 a month. He then returned to Crawford County, Ohio, and a month later went to Illinois, where he lived until twenty years of age, doing faithfully everything at which he was employed. he then returned to his old home in Ohio, and for a time was employed to split rails, splitting 30,000 at 30 cents a hundred. His first land purchase was eighty acres in Wyandot County, Ohio and Kanawha rivers, in partnership with WILLIAM ALFRED. This business he followed about five years with fair success. In the meantime, June 15, 1848, he married Miss AMELIA F. NEWMAN, a native of Mason County, Virginia, daughter of WALTER and ELENOR S. (BOOTON) NEWMAN. The fall after his marriage he, with his young wife, moved to Ohio, and at once set about erecting a cabin on the land he had previously bought. His land was heavily timbered, and much hard work was in store for him before it was ready to yield paying crops. However, he went bravely to work, and by faithful labor, so improved his place that in the spring of 1853 he sold it for $1,900. He had long had a desire to immigrate to what was then the Far West, and after selling his farm he loaded his household effects into a two-horse wagon, and bade farewell to his Ohio home, and twenty-one days from the date of his departure, halted and camped on the spot where he now resides. After prospecting to some extent he became convinced that he had found the place that would suit him for a home, and accordingly entered a tract of 400 acres and the second time played the part of a pioneer. He built a log cabin with clapboard roof, stick and clay chimney and puncheon floor, and was again ready to take up the cares of life, and again went to work to make a home. This time, however, there was no timber to fell and he soon had his land ready to sow, and bountiful crops were the reward of his labor. His success has exceeded his fondest expectations and in addition to good farms that he has given two of his sons, he now has a fine homestead of 500 acres, and 400 acres of good land in Missouri. He had given, for a number of years, almost his entire attention to stock-raising, and is not only the pioneer stock-man of the county, but is also one of the most extensive dealers in Southern Iowa. His favorite fancy is for the short-horn breed of cattle, having in the twenty-one years in which he has been thus engaged shown that breed of cattle, having in the twenty-one years in which he has been thus engaged shown that breed especial favor. He now has on his farm over sixty head of thorough-breds, and a visit to him will well repay any lover of fine stock. Mr. PRYOR is interested in all projects of public benefit and is always ready to aid liberally any enterprise that promises to promote the welfare of his county or township, but his time has been taken up with the affairs of his farm, that he has declined all official honors, the only way in which he has served being one term as justice of the peace. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having been connected with the lodge at Garden Grove twenty-five years. In politics he is an unswerving Democrat. To Mr. and Mrs. PRYOR, have been born nine children, six sons and three daughters - MARTHA J., WINFIELD S., AUGUSTUS M., WALTER LUKE, MARY ELLA, JOHN ALLEN, BART O., GUY T., and an infant daughter deceased.

Transcribed by Sara LeFleur, Decatur County Historial Society Musuem, January of 2014

Decatur Biographies maintained by Constance McDaniel Hall.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen