LOPER, Uriah 1826 - 1914

LOPER, DOMINA, TODD, WILLIAMS

Posted By: debbie (email)
Date: 6/8/2007 at 09:03:45

Biographical Review, Des Moines County, Iowa – 1888 edition – page 462-463

Uriah Loper, of Mediapolis, Des Moines County, Iowa, has been a resident of this county since 1842. He is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Lycoming County in 1826, and is a son of William and Frances(Domina)Loper, both of whom were natives of the same State. In 1832 his parents moved to Putnam County, Ind., where at the age of 14 Uriah apprenticed to the cabinet-maker’s trade, serving two years, from 1840 to 1842. His father having emigrated to this county in 1840, he also concluded to make it his home, and as soon as his two years of apprenticeship had expired, he started for the West, making his home in Yellow Spring township, where his father had purchased a farm.

Uriah Loper worked at the carpenter’s trade in different parts of the county until 1847; and on November 30, of that year, he was united in marriage with Miss Rhodie Todd, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Jonah and Amanda(Williams)Todd, the father a native of Pennsylvania, and the mother of New Jersey. After his marriage in 1849, Mr. Loper removed to Burlington, and engaged in the carpenter’s trade until the spring of 1873, when he purchased and lived upon a farm in Flint River township. Residing upon that purchase until 1881, he then removed to the village of Mediapolis, where he yet lives. He is the owner of considerable property, having forty acres of land within the city limits, besides a neat residence, built in 1886, and also two other houses.

Mr. and Mrs. Loper have reared a family of eight children: Ezra, a resident of Mediapolis; Simeon, residing in Putnam County, Mo.; Mary is still with her parents; George residing in Wabaunsee County, Kan.; William is still living at home; John, who lives in Greeley, Colo.; Charles and Emory, still inmates of the paternal home.

Mr. Loper has been a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since the age of fifteen, and at present is Steward and Class-Leader of the same in Mediapolis. His wife is a member of the Baptist Church, to which her parents had belonged. Politically, Mr. Loper is a Republican, and he was a strong advocate of Abolition principles before the organization if his party. He was elected a member of the City Council of Burlington while living in that city, serving two years, in 1859 and 1860, with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents. He is a man of strong convictions, outspoken in what he believes to be right, and is a radical prohibitionist, believing in the strict enforcement of the temperance laws. For almost half-century Mr. Loper has been a respected citizen of Des Moines County, and it is a pleasure we present his sketch in this record of her most worthy citizens.

William Loper, the father of Uriah, came to this county as stated in 1840, settling in Yellow Spring township, where he purchased a farm upon which he lived for many years, finally selling it, and buying one in Huron township, upon which he lived till his death, which occurred in 1873, at the age of seventy-three years. His wife preceded him to her final rest many years, departing this life in Indiana in 1838, at the age of thirty-three years.

The father of Mrs. Loper, Jonah Todd, was a native of Pennsylvania, and one of the pioneer settlers of Des Moines County of 1837, locating on a farm near Sperry, which he subsequently sold and removed to Monroe County, Iowa, where he lived for about four years, when he sold the property he had purchased there, and thereafter lived with his children, dying at the residence of his son, Alvin, in Jamestown, Benton township, Des Moines County, in 1865, aged seventy-five years. Mr. Todd was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in his younger days, but later became a member of the Baptist Church, preaching for that denomination many years, and in that faith was one of the pioneer ministers in this county. His wife, Amanda(Williams) Todd departed this life in 1876, at the age of eighty-four years. Of their twelve children, five are now living; Clarissa, wife of Benjamin Stahl, Justice of the Peace of Mediapolis; Miles, now a resident of La Harpe, Ill.; Robert, residing in Nebraska City, Neb.; Eli, who lives in Burlington; and Rhodie, wife of Uriah Loper. Mr. and Mrs. Jonah Todd were both well known and highly respected throughout the entire county.