A. D. Inman

INMAN, MILLER, WADSWORTH, MEAD, HALL, KESSEY, WHITEHEAD

Posted By: IAGenWeb Volunteer
Date: 11/13/2013 at 20:38:00

Pioneer A. D. Inman Called

He Saw Active Service Throughout the Civil War. At One Time Sheriff

[A. D.] Inman was born in Bradford county, Penn-sylvania, September 4, 1840 and died at the home of his brother-in-law Mr. Eli Miller of Milford, Tuesday morning, April 17. Mr. Inman visited his daughter and family in Canada about a year ago and returned to Milford suffering a general decline in health but was not confined to his bed until within the last few days.

In the Pennsylvania pioneer home, Mr. Inman grew to manhood. He attended the early schools which these sturdy home-makers provided for their youths. Early in his youth, he felt the necessity of leaving the little school house and giving his attention to the duties of pioneer days. No doubt it was this early training which instilled into the woof and making of the young lad the princi-ples which afterward came forward to give to the nation in its hour of need another soldier and to give to Milford and Dickinson county in its early history a staunch and able citizen.

With the blush of youth still upon his cheek he heard the call of President Lincoln for troops and enlisted as a member of Company F, Twenty third New York Infantry. He saw active service throughout the war, being largely under the command of Generals Wadsworth and Mead in the Army of the Potomac. He participated in many of the hotly contested engagements of the Virginia campaign, including Falls Church Ball’s Cross Roads, Manson’s Hill, Bowling Green, Rappahannock River, Sulphur Springs, Gainesville, Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was honorably discharged at Elmira N. Y. May 22, 1863, on the expiration of his first term of enlistment, but on the 7th of September, 1864 he reenlisted as a private of Company L of the First Regiment of New York Veteran Cavalry. He was attached to the Army of the Shenandoah from which he was honorably discharged June [unreadable].

He visited his home in Pennsylvania at the close of the war, but opportunity beckoned and he started for the Midwest. Coming to Mitford township in 1866, Mr. Inman became the first settler. Other claims were entered that year, but none of them were ever improved nor is it known who made the entries. He was well adapted to the rigors of pioneer life and spent the remaining years of his life upon the homestead taken at this time, dying in possession of twenty six acres of the original farm. Passing through the stages of the old sod house, the log cabin he became the host of the old Inman Inn, which is still standing, hauling the lumber for the latter building from Fort Dodge and erecting the building himself. In those days markets were far distant and the pioneer host provided not only accommodations for man and team but often for stock as it was being driven from the northern part of the county to Storm Lake, the nearest market.

Mr. Inman was prominent in matters of citizenship in the early history of the county. He served in various township offices and acted as sheriff of Dickinson country from 1888-1892. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was always a faithful and loyal citizen.

In 1867 Mr. Inman returned to his native state where he was united in marriage with Miss Melinda Miller, who was to return to Iowa with him and share the hardships incidental to making a home in a new country. To this union were born two daughters: Ella, now Mrs. E. E. Hall of Winnipeg, Can., and Ida, now Mrs. H. C. Kessey of Victor, Colo. The deceased is survived by his two daughters, five grandchildren, two great-grand-children, and one brother who still lives on the Pennsylvania homestead. Mrs. Inman having died September 28, 1917.

The funeral was held from the Milford Methodist church Tuesday afternoon at two o’clock in charge of the pastor, Rev. C. B. Whitehead, the American Legion forming an escort.

[Obituary published April 19, 1923. Source unknown.]